Success... and a little bit of cheating....
After two years of fighting with that dang stone, I finally got it wrapped and turned into a pendant for a necklace. I'll post pictures of it after Christmas, just to be safe. In any case, I am really happy with the way that particular necklace turned out, and I hope my sister loves it because it's always been meant for her. I have another necklace done that I've made for her as well. It's turned out pretty cool too.
The soaps are turning out pretty well. It's all melt and pour, so not really a huge deal, but it is fun and will make good presents.
Tomorrow I'll cut out pajama pants from some of my stash of flannel. Some for my sister and some for my nephew. I'm hoping also to get a stocking made for my nephew.
We got a few small toys for Dylan.
My family decided to draw names for Christmas gift giving. We each drew one, and we have a limit for how much we can spend on each other. And we're allowed one small (no more than $5) item for everyone else, otherwise Kelly would break the rules and get everyone an ornament anyway, and Karie would still buy the obligatory summer sausage so Kelly can whack her knee with it and test her reflexes (it's one of her drunk stories that will probably never die). All of us get to buy for Dylan, other wise all hell would break loose and we'd have a major feud going on in my family.
We got a few store-bought items to give to my family for Christmas, but not a lot. I got lucky and drew Kelly's name. He got "lucky" and drew Karie's name. Karie is the hardest person to buy for.
You kinda have to hope you get lucky and find something cool and then hope she doesn't already have it. I think we did it this year. And I have a bottle of something that will go nicely with it.
We have everything but the citron for the Lebkuchen I'm going to make for Mom. We'll buy another bottle of honey just to be on the safe side, but I won't break the allowable spending rule.
This year it looks like Dad might be the hardest one to buy for.
So here's my question for the day.... Is it cheating the idea of a gift budget if the extra gifts are things you made from things you already had? What I'm using has been in my hoard-like collection for a minimum of two years. It's not really cheating, is it?
I'm off to do more planning and plotting.
The soaps are turning out pretty well. It's all melt and pour, so not really a huge deal, but it is fun and will make good presents.
Tomorrow I'll cut out pajama pants from some of my stash of flannel. Some for my sister and some for my nephew. I'm hoping also to get a stocking made for my nephew.
We got a few small toys for Dylan.
My family decided to draw names for Christmas gift giving. We each drew one, and we have a limit for how much we can spend on each other. And we're allowed one small (no more than $5) item for everyone else, otherwise Kelly would break the rules and get everyone an ornament anyway, and Karie would still buy the obligatory summer sausage so Kelly can whack her knee with it and test her reflexes (it's one of her drunk stories that will probably never die). All of us get to buy for Dylan, other wise all hell would break loose and we'd have a major feud going on in my family.
We got a few store-bought items to give to my family for Christmas, but not a lot. I got lucky and drew Kelly's name. He got "lucky" and drew Karie's name. Karie is the hardest person to buy for.
You kinda have to hope you get lucky and find something cool and then hope she doesn't already have it. I think we did it this year. And I have a bottle of something that will go nicely with it.
We have everything but the citron for the Lebkuchen I'm going to make for Mom. We'll buy another bottle of honey just to be on the safe side, but I won't break the allowable spending rule.
This year it looks like Dad might be the hardest one to buy for.
So here's my question for the day.... Is it cheating the idea of a gift budget if the extra gifts are things you made from things you already had? What I'm using has been in my hoard-like collection for a minimum of two years. It's not really cheating, is it?
I'm off to do more planning and plotting.