New Knitter in the house and Tips on Tuesday!

And oh does that make me happy. Jasmine has taken to knitting like a fish to water, she loves it and is doing very well already. Ok...yes, she does have her occasional meltdowns over dropped stitches or a thread that is too loose, but for the most part she's doing very well.

And while Jasmine is into knitting, Nicholas is into drawing, he's been going crazy with crayons and paper. I think the Crayon Roll is going to be a huge hit with the kids :)

As for me, well the Christmas season has kicked into high gear, for the next few days I'm going to be completely immersed in sewing and embroidering, I have to finish the Advent Calendar, no matter what.

So if you need me for anything, I'll be near the white felt, somewhere underneath red buttons and green floss. You'll find me, I'll be the frazzled looking one.

I have to thank you all so much for the great ideas you continue to bring in for the homemade gifts, you don't know how much I appreciate it. I'm so excited to be doing this and it makes me feel good knowing that whatever I give my family will be made with love BY me.

I'm still looking for more and I will share what I find as I go, this way if anyone is looking to make gifts too, you may just find what you're looking for. One great link that was left for me in the comments section was this one.....gifts for men. THANK YOU Anonymous, wish I knew your name :)

A couple of things jumped out at me, this first one would be great for an avid TV watcher, which is not my husband. He loves movies but he doesn't really have time to sit down and watch anything with his work schedule, but I still think this is just awesome.

A Remote Pillow...and look at that, you can even use their favorite sports team for the fabric. If you want the pattern, you can download it here, thanks to Julie-Bird.

If you're looking for cute and fun holiday tags and stickers for your gifts, then look no further than A Print a Day...they're free to download thanks to Yasmine.

One of my favorite craft blogs is Bella Dia and last year she came up with an Activity a Day for the kids using the Advent Calendar. She had the coolest, neatest ideas on there so I'm giving you the link because I for one am planning to use most of them myself and maybe change some up to things that work for us.

I'm also planning to make some of these for the kids, aren't they just the cutest?

Here's the pattern for you if you want to give it a go too. They're pretty quick to knit and simple, I'm sure I can handle it *snicker*

If you want ideas for wee little ones in the family, take a look at this list.

So there you go, there's some stuff for you to look through, I will have to go through all those links again and browse for more gift ideas for myself. For now though, I have advent pockets needing my attention and lots of knitting in between.

I hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday, and no I didn't forget the Tips on Tuesday....I'll just add it to this post so I don't have to make a separate one.

Do you have a tip on cooking, cleaning, homemaking, kids, marriage, travel or anything that you would love to share? Feel free to join in!

Here's some tips for gift giving on Christmas, if you're buying that is:

• Keep a small notebook with details about friends and family so you can pick out gifts for them whenever you pass a clearance aisle or a sale rack.
• Stores are packed this time of year with buy-one-get-one-free offers and seasonal sales. Take advantage of them to stock up on gifts. Then create a gift closet filled with your loot.
• If your credit card has a rewards-points program, check how many you've earned. Sometimes you can redeem them for gift certificates or magazine subscriptions that you can give as gifts. If you have your own gift cards, try giftcardbuyback.com to exchange them for cash to buy presents.
• Give gifts as a group, or for a group. Pitch in on a season pass to an amusement park to be split among all your friends, or join your siblings in sending your parents to a nice restaurant.
• Make a personal coupon book with certificates that can be redeemed for free baby-sitting, car washes, a home-cooked meal or yard work.
• A secondhand, “gently used” gift can be just as valuable as a new present. Give antiques or family heirlooms to younger generations, or visit garage sales for steep discounts on everything from books and DVDs to clothes.
• At consignment stores or thrift shops, or even businesses like Play It Again Sports, you can trade in items you no longer need for cash or store credit while picking up good deals.
• If you’re really up against the wall, trawl sites like Freecycle or Craiglist for items that people are giving away. Something might be a good fit for a buddy or relative.
• Looking for good deals online? Try sites like Slickdeals.net, MyBargainBuddy.com and FatWallet.com, which compile coupons, discounts and other bargains around the Internet.

Homemade for the Holidays!

You heard right, I said HOMEMADE for the holidays. Because the economy downright sucks right now, and things are bad for everyone and I just can't see myself spending a crazy amount of money for a few hours of opening tons of presents that get forgotten within a few days and some never even opened.

So I am pledging to buy two gifts and make the rest. Now you may be wondering if I'm off my rocker or just exactly how I plan on achieving that, it's simple, I'm going for things that I know my family loves, things that I know they'll use or need, things that they can't just use one time and be done with.

Here's my plan, to begin with I'm going by the 4 rules of gift giving for Christmas:

Something to Read
Something they Need
Something they Want
Something to Wear

Then I'm going to use what I like the most, turn my hobbies into gift making machines. Let me show you what I made for Jasmine yesterday, in 3 hours, I knitted the scarf and it's finished and hidden for Christmas.

Each of the kids is getting a scarf, Jasmine is done and I've already started Nicholas. I also am making each of them a crayon roll, they both love coloring and drawing so this is perfect.

I've spent some time looking through Sew, Mama, Sew's list and she has some amazing ideas, so I'm sure I'll find plenty of stuff there. From the kitchen, they're also getting the Homemade Caramels that I make every year, these will also be used as part of the gifts for the teachers, along with some other cute stuff.

I'm also making cookies for Curt and the kids, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Shortbread etc.

Jasmine is getting a Tote Bag and Apron too, she's been begging for these for so long, so now is the time.

That's just an idea of some of the homemade gifts. For Curt it's harder because he's a man and I doubt he'll want to walk around with a tote bag, or a pretty dish cloth LOL
One of the things that I'm making which I did last year and was a huge hit, was a gift basket for him. I got a small basket at the dollar store and threw in two movies that he likes, some beef jerky and other snacks and movie tickets. He loved it.

But I still need ideas for him....help me out, those of you going Homemade this year, what do you give your husbands?

Then of course, I have the Advent Calendar to finish and I want to make some Elf Clogs as ornaments, they're so easy and so quick to make and how adorable?

So who else is going to take the pledge with me? Are you ready to step up and try your best to go homemade instead of bought? As the weeks go by, I'll be posting more and more about the gifts I'm making as well as links that can give you some great ideas to use yourself.

I'm off to get into the knitting and sewing....hope you have a wonderful Sunday.