Handmade Christmas Gift Ideas

   Our family has been having fun making things lately. We have been making gift items but not for us but rather to sell on our newly opened Etsy shops. This week both Mara and I opened a "shop". This is something we had been talking about doing for sometime and so this past weekend when we had a little time we finally started working on it and did it. We are excited to see how it works. Mara had a sale within the first day and so that was exciting. I think it would be very cool if this ends up being a viable job for Mara to have in her highschool years. We shall see. The younger kids have also been making things to sell on our sites.

  I thought I would show you some of the things that we have been making. They are handmade so if we could make them you could to but if you don't want to we would be more than happy to have you visit our Etsy shop and buy them if you would like them. :-)


Mittens. They are so fun to make. I love using re-purposed wool fabric. Adding extra details to them (wool applique) makes them even cute in my opinion. Here is a blog post with more information on making mittens. If you would care to buy a pair I currently have four pairs for sale in my Etsy shop.

 Fabric Flower Clips These are so feminine and fun. I think they can add a lot to an outfit. They are also very fun and fairly easy to make. You can re-purpose lining material to make these flowers. I went to look for a post where I explained how to make these but I guess I never did. A lot of others on the internet have however but in brief - you cut circles or flower shapes out of silky polyester fabric in layers. Then you hold the edges near a candle flame until in melts and curls (be careful!). Do that around all the edges. Then you stack them together and put something pretty in the middle and possibly add something pretty behind as well. Then attach a clip/barrette on the back. I currently have 8 flower clips in various colors listed in my Etsy shop. I have more made and ready to put up when I have a chance.

An Acorn Necklace Mara has fun making these by collecting acorns and taking their inside out and then inserting a secret message inside, putting the cap on and then putting wire around it and hanging it on a braided cord. Mara has quite a few of these for sale in her Etsy shop.

Rustic Wood Slice Coasters Aaron made really neat sets of coasters by taking a white oak log and slicing it up with the miter saw. Then he varnished one side and put felt circles on the other side.  I think they turned out really neat and the project wasn't that complicated. There are some for sale in Mara's Etsy shop - Acorns and More


Rice Heat Packs  These are so nice to have on hand as you can heat them up quickly in the microwave and then have them to warm up an aching body part for the next hour or so. They are also just cozy to take to help heat up a cold bed on a winter night. They are super simple to make. Just sew a bag out of a rectangular piece of fabric, fill it with some rice and then sew up the end. Double stitch all your seams and use sturdy fabric so you don't end up with a bunch of rice in your bed. If you would rather buy one I have some for sale in my Etsy shop.

Doll Clothes make a very nice gift for little girls that enjoy dolls. There are many free printable patterns available online or you can do like I like to do and create your own patterns. They don't take much fabric or very much time (though sometimes they take way more time then you think they should for their size!). I currently have barbie clothes for sale on Etsy and we have some 18 inch doll clothing ready to be listed.

 Besides making handmade gifts it is also fun to add some class to the wrapping of gifts. Aaron and Megan made some very cute gift tags to sell on Mara's Etsy site.

Aaron made these cute red oak wood slices into tags. His process included cutting down a tree that was tilted and didn't look like it would survive, then he cut them in slices on the miter saw. The next step was drilling a hole in them. After that he put some twine through the hole. Besides gift tags you could also use them to label things that you use. If you have rustic decor these would be perfect.


Megan made birch bark gift tags. We love to use birch bark around here to whenever we see a piece laying on the ground or barely hanging on to the tree we collect it to use for future projects. To make these tags she simply cut them to shape, punched a hole in them and then put some string through the holes.

 Have you been making any handmade gifts lately? I would love to hear your ideas!

Also... If you have thought it would be fun to open an Etsy shop but never actually done it, I recommend it. It isn't hard (though rather time consuming) and is rather fun. Also if you let me know you are interested I can send you an invitation which will give you 40 free listings to start off with (it would also give me 40 free listings) that means you would not need to put any money into the starting up of your shop.

  If you have any suggestions of things that you think we could make to sell on Etsy - I would love to hear your ideas.

Why I Believe We Should Read Revelation

After reading the title for this post you reaction may be, "Of course!" Many of us feel strongly that reading the Bible is important and Revelation is part of the Bible so naturally we will read it too. But I do also realize that it (and the prophets in the Old Testament) are challenging to understand so some might be tempted to skip it or at least not read it often or read it to your children or whatever. I don't have a problem with reading some books (that really seem to speak to you) more often than others but I do think we need to be careful not to truly skip reading Revelation and miss out on the blessing that comes with it.

  Revelation 1:3 says: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near." 

  So the Bible point blank says why we should read Revelation ; So we can be blessed and so we can heed what is written. That reason is good enough for me.

  But beyond that I love read Revelation because it helps me realize how Awesome our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is! "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 1:8. "I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead,  and behold, I am alive forevermore,  and I have the keys of death and Hades." Rev. 1:17 & 18. The descriptions of Jesus in Revelation are amazing too. If you truly want to see the complete picture (as much as we can handle right now anyway) of Jesus Christ - You will read Revelation.

   Revelation also encourages us to stay strong through the trials we are going to face. I am challenged to be ever clinging to our Savior when I read things like "Be faithful until death,  and I will give you the crown of life." Rev. 2:10

   Revelation makes me get excited about Heaven. We learn a lot more about it when we read Revelation. I am looking forward to going there some day and I hope to see you there too!

  I don't understand all the prophecy in Revelation but I do hope to keep learning and understanding and even then I never think I will understand it all and can understand more and more as I study. Prophecy will help us to prepare for what is coming in the future.

  I could share much more but my time is limited. I would love for you to check out another post I wrote on it back in 2010. You might enjoy a picture from our kid's class on Revelation several years ago which is in this post.

 I would love to hear your thoughts on reading Revelation!

A Bathroom Tour

 Okay, so I am chuckling a little bit as I look at my title for this post. This post is indeed full of pictures of one of our bathrooms but still the title "A Bathroom Tour" just sounds rather funny to me. Oh well, on to the tour....

 Months ago I had started working through the rooms in our house giving tours after we got them finished. Then I just didn't manage to get pictures taken and our tours kind of stopped. I am trying to get that going again.

  This week I thought I would share with you the room in our house that probably is (I do really find it hard to choose favorites) that one that has my favorite paint color, my favorite tile and my favorite cabinets. I also really rather like the old canning jars that we are using to decorate this room with too. So all in all, not only is this a very handy room to have (our only bathroom on the main floor) but I really think it is pretty cute. It is also nearly the smallest room in the house.

 When we were tiling this floor (the tile also goes from here out into our back entrance from the garage and then into the mudroom/laundry room) my older brother stopped by and he told me that laying tile at an angle isn't very hard and doesn't take any more cuts than the other way. He explained the process for doing it. Well, I was delighted with the idea of going at an angle because I think it looks rather cool.

   That tile laying day did end up being one very long day of hard work! We didn't have any tools that were cutting tile very well at the time and Peter wasn't correct about the fact that you didn't have to make any more cuts to do it this way. You do and they are harder cuts as well. But I am still glad we went at an angle. That day Mara and Jonathan were helping me with the cutting and I was doing the laying and measuring. Our tiles kept cracking in the wrong spot and we would have to carefully use the nippers to get it close to what we wanted. Ken came home that evening and we were about ready to give up. He tried helping us with the cutting and immediately gave up and said that simply wouldn't work and he and Jonathan headed off to town to either rent or buy a wet saw. It ended up that buying was about the same price as renting and so they bought one. Cutting went so much easier after that! We still had a late night of laying tile.

 The cabinets in this room are a natural knotty alder which is the same wood we have for all of our interior doors and trim and switch covers.

  For light fixtures in this room I had really wanted to get something that looked like old fashioned lanterns that a pioneer might have taken to go care for the animals in the barn. I looked and looked for what I wanted. I finally found some on Etsy that I liked pretty well but they were $100 each and though I was very tempted it just didn't seem needed to spend that much when I could get the ones that I did get for around $20 each. We ended up using exterior light fixtures in 2 of our bathrooms and our kitchen because I liked the style better and they tended to be cheaper.

   I really like our bathroom sinks which are all one solid piece. I choose to have a mat finish on this one which I like.

   I ended up putting strips of tile all around the tub/shower inset. I found out later that helped to up the value of our house. I just thought it might look neat. We have some of Mara's cross-stitch pictures on display in this room. I was able to find a good deal on Amazon for the ring-less shower curtains and I really like them. I am hoping to have one of the boys carve me a new curtain rod soon as I think one made from a tree would look neat.

  I purposely chose the color of the room to look complimentary with the blue canning jars. I am enjoying using them for decoration in this room.

  This summer we found a robins egg on the ground and it matched the room so perfectly that I combined it with a nest that we already had and put it in the jar for a fun decoration.

   What is your favorite of the paint colors you have in your house? I would love to hear your thoughts on decorating or organizing bathrooms or any tips for them magically staying clean. :-)

Sewing Creations by Megan

 This Fall I have really enjoyed watching Megan enjoy creating through sewing. I really enjoy sewing and so it is very fun for me to have her enjoy it too. I thought it would be fun to show you some photos of her creations.

  Megan has decided she wants to be a doll collector - especially collecting porcelain dolls. So her first project that I am going to show you was for her porcelain dolls. One doll (the one on the right) that we had given her last year for Christmas had a big lovely hat. Megan decided that she wanted one of that style for one of her other dolls to so she just looked at the hat really good and then she made one similar to it.

I thought it turned out really cute. So the doll on the left is wearing a Megan creation.

And then Megan made another doll for her collection.

Complete with a a bed and bedding.

 She was inspired by a crafting book that our neighbor had given us. I thought it was really fun because thought it isn't perfect (notice the fraying material) but it looks really artsy and creative.

  I really enjoy watching my kids create!

A Walk in the Woods

  We have been having some pretty lovely weather lately. So warm in fact that our snow has been melting. We will enjoy a good layer of snow when it comes but meanwhile the warmish weather is fun too.

   On Sunday afternoon when the weather was quite nice we decided to go for a walk in the woods to gather pine boughs for decorating. The whole family plus our puppy, Kitchi, went. It was so fun to be out enjoying God's creation together.

The girls and I did most of the gathering of boughs and other natural things to decorate with and the guys were in charge of the carrying.

Megan wished she would have had paper and paints along to capture the sun setting through the trees.

I thought this old pine tree was rather picturesque.

 We have been having lots of fun decorating. Hopefully I can get pictures taken soon and share our Christmas house tour with you!

Life Around Here

 It kind of feels like I hardly ever get around to blogging anymore. I finally uploaded pictures (I haven't been taking so many pictures either) from the last few weeks tonight. So here are some of the pictures I had taken which show a little bit of what has been going on around here lately.

We framed up a bedroom in the basement and then Ken and Jonathan hung sheetrock in it. It is not truly finished but it did work for Ken's parents to stay in when they came for Thanksgiving. Megan has been enjoying the room lately too.

  We had fun making stuff for and packing up shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

 Megan made a soft doll and then wanted a dress for both the girl and the doll that matched so I made those. I also made a tote bag and she crocheted a wash cloth. She also painted a little box that we sent some candy in.

 For this box Aaron and I made a jumprope. Megan made a marker roll. I crocheted a washcloth and one of the kids made a notebook cover. I made a totebag.

 Mara made her girl an outfit and a doll as well. I made a tote bag, Megan made a crayon roll and Mara made a crown.

  We did do one other box too but it didn't have much homemade stuff in it.

 Ken's parents came to visit for over a week and one morning we had a very fun time exploring some state land near our place.

 Our Kitchi dog is growing up so fast!

 On Thanksgiving day and truly all week games were played.

 The table at Thanksgiving. My parents were sick and didn't end up getting to come. We missed them.

 Trying to figure out how to make a "printing press" for homeschool co-op.

 The "printing press" in action.

 Juanita and I were in charge of the print shop were many wanted posters were made!

This evening we had supper over at my parents after coming back from a convention in the cities. After supper my Mom had my little sister Keren try on a maternity outfit that a friend had made for Mom when she was pregnant with Keren. We think she looks pretty cute!