(Apologies to Mel for stealing her humor of a title!)

Crafty I am not. I try. I want to be. I have these great ideas, but alas, they never turn out. This year I toyed with the idea of making the no-sew fleece blankets for the kiddos on my list. I started by buying a small amount of fleece to make a blanket for my own 5 month old guy. I actually took the time to complete this idea! But the end project: a round blanket rather than a square blanket. Go figure…. I have since abandoned my idea. So, gifts will be lacking any crafty-ness and contain much more store bought-ness. The only “Cyn-ful” part of the gifts will be the thought I put into them.

Yeah, I’ve had crafty holiday aspirations pretty much as far back as I can remember. And, no - it’s very rare that I come even close to finishing all my planned projects.

Last year, for instance… I’d hoped to knit lots and lots of rich chenille scarves as gifts. Total finished and gifted: one. And that was cranked out on the Knit Magic in less than an hour! Of course, my excuse was pretty good; Daniel was still in his “must be carried and rapidly moving at all times” phase. Makes for uneven stitches.

Things I’ve made over the years: ornaments, a customized collage frame, vintage jars of homemade gift mixes, my own machine-sewn felt cards, cinnamon roasted nuts, a metric ton of cookies… I know there are more, but Daniel is dancing to the Little House theme song and effectively turning the remainder of the working part of my brain Awwwmush.

I’m trying something different this year, but with the risk of recipients reading this, I can’t tell you what it is!

Put me into the category of “masochist/procrastinating crafty-wannabe who is also tired of the materialistic aspects of Christmas and has decided to make her gifts this year.” I’m also in the category that Suze described wherein you buy a gift for someone then rethink it, and do a gift shuffle at the last minute that inevitably leaves you short a few gifts and scrambling to cover your butt. But let’s focus on the “homemade et al” category for now.

Last year, we did homemade wine (that had labels w/pics of Kal that said “Kal 2004″) and little snowman ornaments w/Kal’s pics in them that also said “2004.” I feel like I did something else too, but it must’ve been traumatic enough to block out. Or else that’s leftover trauma from Christmas ‘03 - that was my first year of “homemade” gifts and it was a DISASTER.

Kal is old news this year, so there will be less focus on him (though we still plan to give away our homemade wine w/Kal labels).

I’m also doing lip balm (shea butter, bees wax, and olive oil with either peppermint, orange, or vanilla flavoring). I bought the little plastic lip balm jars and that part of it is pretty easy. The time consuming part will be making personalized labels.

I’m using fleece for scarves and sewing on seed beads. This is my least realistic idea, but I really like it and I have buttloads (gross, I know) of fleece that is looking so menacing right now.

I’m doing a few bars of homemade soap - nothing fancy, just “melt and pour: glycerin soap with some odd things suspended inside for fun.

I’m doing those glass marble magnet thingies. They’re pretty easy, and I love each one I’ve made so far as if it’s my own child.

I’m making some birdseed ornament thingies that are meant to be put outside for the birdies.

I have a secret plan this year, though, that maybe I’ll explain in another post. It’s a gift-giving pyramid scheme, if you will - and I don’t have to sell it, it sells itself. Shhhhhhhhhh. Just kidding, it’s not that sinister.

We went to Yankee Candle on Tuesday and they have a clock in Santa’s workshop that counts down the days until Christmas (45 now, I think?). Maybe we could have a ticker on this site that does that for us.

But if the next 45 days are anything like today, I don’t know how I’ll get anything done. Is there such a thing as an 18 month growth spurt? Kal was on my boob all day and screaming when he wasn’t.

On that note, thanks for inviting me to post. I’ve already checked out the personalized stamps link, and look forward to more ideas and support - and I’ll post links that I have in terms of aforementioned projects if anyone is interested.

-Mel

I don’t. Finish them, that is. But I always have grand plans to make them. My jewelry-beading collection is in good supply and this book has some great ideas that seem fairly straightforward. I’ll make bracelets and earrings for everyone! I don’t know about you, but I always seem to turn straightforward into overly-complicated because I can never just follow the pattern as it is.

I want to make photo-crafts for family with pics of the kiddos — like collage bookmarks or something.

I was thinking of putting together some gift jars/baskets for people like D’s preschool teachers.

And what about fleece throws for people? They’d be easy enough to put together. Who doesn’t need another fleece throw.

So, for those of you who have great aspirations every year to handmake a bunch of stuff, but never seem to be able to finish all that you plan, the following is a great reminder, and for me, couldn’t have comea t a better time. OrganizedChristmas.Com: Christmas Countdown, Holiday Grand Plan, gifts & crafts! - Countdown Day 19: Crafting Rule of Four!

I still gotta figure out what I do wanna make.

Here’s the unpruned list:

bracelets: mom-friend Sherry, cousin’s wife Lisa, possibly other mom-friends

something for D’s preschool teachers

Tell us what you have made in the past and/or are planning to make this year. When will you start? When do you hope to finish?

Mel & Jennie & Cyn have all joined me. Yippee!