Sew mama Sew has Ideas for your Holly daze

~It is time to start making our gifts( or past time). I was happy and surprised (a little) to notice that the local news station had a segment this morning on making your own gifts. I guess it takes most of the country being broke for the mainstream media to embrace the idea of doing something sweet and thoughtful for the gift giving season. Well of course the craft community thrives from the holidays. The tutorials just start bursting out. Luckily we have Sew Mama Sew to help us, with their 3rd annual Handmade Holidays

Sew Mama Sew is helping us all out with kaboodles of holiday gift ideas and the links to go with'em!
And it is full of beautiful crafty inspiration....Today they even included a belle and burger tutorial! So get busy, busy, busy... and have fun fun fun

A polite request

Speaking Of the Holidays

Speaking Of the Holidays I wanted to mention The Handmade Pledge. It seems like I have always tried to make most of my gifts for the Holidays (I have always been the "artist/poor" family member). I suppose it started when I was a kid. Most kids are encouraged to make things for gifts. Then along comes the teen years and all artistic expression takes a back seat to academic achievement; and we begin to buy everything. Since 'Art' was Academic for me, I was allowed to keep on making things for gifts, and gracious family members "smiled and said thanks Chas". Well times have changed I now have family members requesting handmade gifts and people I don't even know asking me to make gifts for their loved ones.
Usually, for me it is those closest to me that reap from my laborious paws (and those who are willing to pay for my services). I do,however, still buy some gifts (I could not possibly make all our gifts) but I try to buy handmade or at least local. There is this great online Pledge site called I took the Handmade pledge.

They list 3 great reasons to Buy handmade
* Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.
* Buying handmade is better for people.
* Buying handmade is better for the environment.
So for Those of you wanting to try to bake and make your way thru the holidays there is all sorts of help out there on-line. There are plenty of great sites to buy Handmade like etsy, dwanda, I shop indie, and meet me at mike's
where your can pick up one of thes Super cute pendants for a song
From recipes to, decorating tips to sites that teach you how to make easy fun gifts.
A great site dedicated to giving you the hows and tos to make your own holiday gifts is
Handmade and Homebaked.
Amy cluck of Pepto girl Industries has been working incredibly hard to bring Holiday gift tutorials to the crafty masses This Holiday Season


I mean I have a sort of holiday decoration aversion (due to over exposure as a child; sorry mama but it is true) however homemade decorations like this nifty little candle could make a born again holiday decorator out of me yet.


* (my added personal reason ) The fourth reason to buy handmade~ gives holidays meaning again!

Well I have found that making gifts and buying from other makers actually gave me back (some) of my lost Christmas (that is my holiday) spirit. It is so easy in these times to get lost in all the stuff; and depressed from lack of funds to buy all the stuff; and super irritated that something that should be a cherished time for family and friendships (especially in a young family 's, such as mine) turns in to the "dreaded Holidays". Sew I am taking back my holiday spirit (one year at a time, mind you) and I am going to try and help my little monster enjoy the Holidays with me not because of all the things we bought for him (or could not buy him)
But because we always make and do fun stuff for the Holidays and have fun giving those things to our closest loved ones...end of rantiness (I know when he is 13 I will look back and laugh a little bitterly at my naive young mama self, but until then I am innocent and I will try)