merry (almost) christmas...

i'm taking a blogging break over the next couple of days to relax and enjoy the holiday. after finishing up on all of my handmade gifts, supplementing with a few very consciously-store-bought gifts i am finally done with christmas preparations. i can't wait to post pictures of some of the things i've made--there are a few that i am especially excited about. but more than that i'm excited to experience the final bit of "handmade holiday": the giving! this past month has been an entirely new experience for me. i didn't hit up a major mall, i stood in very few lines, and i didn't even partake in the black friday craziness, except to hit up joann's for supplies.

making so much of my gifts proved to be difficult. miscut patterns, missing supplies, huge messes in my crafting studio, 831,000 broken needles on the machine. for the most part though, all of my frustration stemmed from my own procrastination. i really did wait too long to get started. thankfully jeremy stepped in and took lucy out for a couple of afternoons so i could buckle down and get some real work done. 

aside from handcrafting, i bought a few things (books, mostly) gently used. lucy is getting a couple of vintage gifts that i am totally excited about. i won't divulge what they are just yet--she totally reads the blog when i'm not looking--but both items are great finds that i picked up in a local antique shop. i'm also finishing up a quilt for her, but i haven't committed to getting it done by the 25th. i mean, i have to have something to work on after all this christmas madness is over, right?

handmade or store-bought, i hope that everyone enjoys their holiday to the fullest! we are so lucky to be blessed with wonderful family & friends to surround ourselves with in the coming days. check back in after the holiday--i have new diapers to show off, plus i'm working on some sort of eco-friendly giveaway for the month of january. yay!

here are a few lucy christmas pictures--since we didn't hit up the mall we never did get to see santa, but i think we did okay on our own. there's a family picture too. just 'cause i like it. merry merry christmas!