Image by chatirygirl

Five weeks until Christmas!! I am actually getting quite excited about it too. We will be spending Christmas in the country with my family and all my 3 sisters will be there with their families as well this year. We haven’t had that happen in a few years, so it will be something special.

This week’s activity as part of the Christmas Preparation Plan is Christmas Present List and Shopping. As seen previously in the Christmas Planning Spreadsheet 2008, each year I keep a list of presents that I buy. I find this helpful for two reason, firstly it helps me keep track of what I buy throughout the year, so I don’t buy more than one present for each person. Secondly, it makes sure that I give a variety of gifts to people over the years, not by accident the same present in consecutive years!!!

Although the attached spreadsheet looks like I have not completed any Christmas Shopping, I have actually cleared all my inputs for this year’s Christmas Present List because many of my family and friends read this blog (even if only occasionally!) and I do not want to spoil the surprise for them.

I have completed approximately 80% of my Christmas shopping and am quite proud to say that almost everything I have bought so far has been on sale. I do love a bargain.

Below I have listed what I think are some great sources of gifts if you still have a bit of shopping to do:

ickle kids - If you are traveling over the Christmas period definitely check out the activity packs and travel toys that they have. One of the things I bought last year from here was the Hide and Seek Pirate Game and it was a hit. This year I have purchased the Hide and Seek Safari Game - it is slightly harder than the pirate version, so should keep them very quite in the car.

Mum’s Grapevine - is a new service that I have signed up to and you might like to as well. It is a weekly newsletter letting you know where the sales are for maternity, baby and children’s clothing, toys, accessories, nursery items and more (Australian).

Chadstone VIP Shopping Day - This is only relevant to those of you who will be in Melbourne on Wed 26th Nov. I usually prefer to buy from smaller retail outlets, but I have been to this shopping event for the last couple of years and have found it great to grab some bargains for stocking fillers and for those more hard to buy for family and friends. They have huge discounts at almost all stores through out the day from 9am until midnight.

Me2Me2 - They have gorgeous kits for children like builders, hairdressers and cooks kits. Items in the kits are sourced from genuine adult products and downsized for children.

Missy Confidential - Another newsletter that I subscribe to (Australian only again sorry!) which comes daily and lets you know about fashion sales and designer bargains.

And of course there is always Handmade Christmas Presents as well. Now I just need to start wrapping them!

Technorati Tags: christmas planning, christmas presents

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The countdown continues - 9 weeks until Christmas. My countdown is naturally of a planning nature and I am working through a Christmas Preparation Plan to allow a smooth and paced lead up to Christmas this year.

Week Nine’s activity was to complete making handmade gifts. Today with the two youngest children, I made the last of our handmade Christmas gifts, homemade bath salts. They were incredibly easy to make and it was really a fun activity to make with the children.

At their request tonight, we tested the bath salts (including me) in the bath and the children and myself were delighted with the results.

Here is a very simple tutorial that you can follow to make your own bath salts:

The Ingredients

• 1 cup of Epsom Salts
• 1 cup of Sea Salt
• 3 tablespoons of dehydrated milk
• Food Colouring
• 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil

A note about the sea salt. I bought sea salt that was “double washed and naturally evapourated”. It has slightly larger crystals than traditional table salt and looks better presentation wise.

The Instructions

(1.) Mix the salts in a large bowl.

(2). Add approximately 8 - 10 drops of food colouring to the salts. If you want a darker colour, obviously just add more dye. Mix dye in with a whisk.

(3). Add the powdered milk and use the whisk again to mix thoroughly.

(4). Add the essential oil to the mix. The smell is the strongest notable characteristic of the bath salts, so it is worth while using a quality oil. I used an essential oil blend called harmony, which smells divine!

(5). Spoon mixture into a dry jar.

(6). Place lid on and close tightly.

(7). I used a CD to cut out a circle piece of fabric to decorate the bath salts. The fabric is held in place by a length of thin ribbon.

I still have one more batch of bath salts to make (Possum thinks the next batch should be green) and I will have finished the handmade gifts for Christmas. As you can see from the photo above, I have been using the same materials across the three projects, so that I can team up multiple items, like gift sets.

Instructions for the other items can be found here:
- Handmade Fabric Covered Notebooks
- Handmade Fabric Necklaces

Technorati Tags: bath salts, christmas presents, handmade

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Image by tanakawho

As I mentioned in my last monthly review in order to achieve everything I want to before Christmas, I needed to create a short term plan.

Below is the top 10 things that I want to achieve before Christmas. There is actually a secondary list with things like taking the family raspberry picking, jam making, reorganising the children’s artwork, cleaning the venetian blinds and so on.

I made the decision to limit myself to 10 key tasks because I think any more and I will never achieve my goal of getting to bed by 10.30pm. I prioritised the tasks based on their necessity (and my desire to do them!), so in a rough order this what I hope to complete in the next few months.

(1). Wardrobe Reshuffles
That is out with the winter clothes (most of them) and any clothes too small and in with any of the clothes from last year’s summer that still fit.

(2). Clothing Purchases
Thinker will definitely need new clothes for the warmer weather. I have bought some clothes at sales earlier this year for Possum, so I think she will be okay. I will go through the clothes in storage to see if there are any gaps in summer wear for Babaganouski and Little Rascal.

(3). Toy Reshuffle
I rotate the children’s toys that we have on display every few months and it is time that this was done again. It will be helpful also to have a clean up and donate session before the new birthday/Christmas presents are upon us.

(4). Children’s Bed Reorganisation
Babaganouski is way overdue for moving out of his cot and into a bed. With the baby coming along we will need to assess how we will set up the rooms and what extra requirements we have.

(5). Christmas Cards
I like to make my own Christmas Cards using a photo of the children as the main artwork. My aim is to have these made by early November this year, as opposed to mid December which has been the case for the last couple of years.

(6). Plan Thinker’s Birthday Celebration
The children only have a “party” every second year and it is a non party year for the Thinker. (For more info on how we decided to celebrate birthdays check out my post on Birthday Party Strategy.) He is still allowed a small celebration with two friends, so he will need to start thinking about how he would like to do this, so I will know how to cater for it.

(7). Plan Possum’s Birthday Party
Possum will have a birthday party this year and as it is so close to Christmas, we need to make sure we organise it well in advance so at least some of her friends will be able to make it during this busy time.

(8). Finalise Christmas Presents
I have been making some hand made gifts and have also purchased a few gifts already for Christmas Presents. My goal is to have my Christmas Shopping completed by the end of November.

(9). Baby Preparation
All the baby clothes, blankets and accessories are in storage in the attic. I will need to collate all the required items and wash up the clothes and blankets, ready for our lovely arrival.

(10). Plan My Contribution To Christmas Day
Christmas this year will be spent with my family in Mildura and for the first time in five years, everyone will be together and which I am really excited about. I want to make sure that I contribute to the day to help make it a special and memorable Christmas for everyone.

Change of seasons is a great time to take stock and establish a plan for the new season. What are you going to be up to?

Technorati Tags: christmas planning, christmas presents, Planning

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SPOILER ALERT - To my family and friends, please do not read on as you may see your Christmas Gift for this year!

In my attempt this year to be well and truly organised for Christmas and the busy period leading up to it, I have been making some handmade gifts to give to people at Christmas. So far with my partner in craft, we have made:

Fabric Covered Notebooks
Homemade Works Of Art

This week I am very excited to show you the handmade fabric necklaces that we have made. We have made them using the same fabrics as we did with the fabric covered notebooks. The aim here was to be able to match them together to make a beautiful little gift set for someone special.

Now I must give full credit to my partner in craft who was the brains behind this project. Without her guidance I would not have been able to make these gorgeous little necklaces. I will take you through the steps that she patiently took me through. If I could make these, then I think anyone can.

(1). Cut fabric into strips approx 3cm x 60cm.

(2). Fold the fabric in half with the pattern on the inside. Sew the fabric together and sew one end about 0.5cm in from the edge.

(3). This was the hardest step for me. Starting at the sewn end, use a knitting needle (or like object), to push the fabric through onto itself, so that pattern of the fabric can now be seen. It is very easy to push the needle through the sewn end, so you need to be careful.

(4). Iron the fabric flat with the seam to one side.

(5). Using a small piece of masking tape, we folded and taped the end to allow for easier threading of the beads.

(6). After threading the beads, place them on the fabric, making sure that the middle bead will fall evenly in the middle. (Fold the fabric into the necklace shape to check.)

(7). We tied knots in the fabric to keep the beads in place and to create a pattern. You simply move other beads furhter up the fabric and tie a knot, sliding it down so it sits close to the bead. For the first knots, you need to make sure that there is room for the beads to move so the bottom of the necklace will be rounded and not straight.

(8). The hooks and rings we used can be bought from craft or fabric stores. They come opened and we used some small pliers to bend them close, to secure the end of the necklace.

And with that last step, you have your finished necklace! We made these necklaces from a number of different fabrics and once we have finished all of them, we should have eight each. We are starting to have quite a Christmas present stash already which is very exciting.

Have you been making anything?

Technorati Tags: christmas planning, christmas presents, fabric necklaces, handmade

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Earlier this month I got together with a talented and craft friend to make the first batch of hand made Christmas Presents for the year.

Our first get together in July was a planning meeting. For my crafty friend, this was very kind of her to indulge by planning nerdiness as she is a far more a go with the flow type of gal - so thanks for your patience! We decided to make a couple of items that would use similar materials and would not only make a nice gift set, but would also reduce waste and cost.

The first item for us to make was fabric covered notebooks. Now a big nod needs to go to Rachel from Booked Into Art who taught us how to make these books at the launch of Mixtape Zine Issue 3 at Sticky Institute.

If you would like to make a fabric covered notebook, you will need the following items:

- fabric of your choice

- a thick cardboard for the outer cover

- thin white cardboard for the inner cover

- recycled paper for the pages

- thin ribbon to bind the book

- a small bead for the ribbon

- craft glue

- hammer and nail (for making holes in spine)

- thick needle for threading ribbon

(1). The first step was to cut the thick cardboard to half the size of an A4 piece of paper. Using a scrap of cardboard, cover the cardboard with glue and then place on fabric.

It is a good idea to put old magazine paper or catalogue pages underneath the area that you are working. You just remove these if glue gets on them, so the fabric does not get glue on the outside.

(2). Cut the corners at an angle, so when the edges are folded, there are neatly covered corners.

(3). Glue the edges down to the thick cardboard. Glue the white cardboard on top of the thick cardboard, so as to make a nice inner cover. Store under a heavy book between magazine sheets, while you get paper ready.

(4). The recycled paper which will make the pages needs to be approx 0.5cm smaller in all dimensions, so that it will fit nicely into the book.

(5). Fit the cover and the pages together and mark halfway. Fold at the halfway mark.

(6). Using a nail and hammer (wooden block underneath) make two small holes on the fold mark of the book.

(7). With the thick needle, thread the ribbon through the holes, so the additional lengths of ribbon is on the outside. Close book and tie a not on the outside of the spine to keep the tightly in place. Thread a small bead on the end of the ribbon and tie a not to secure it.

(8). Wrap ribbon around book and weave ribbon on itself so it keeps the notebook closed tightly. And that’s it. It is a good idea to keep the book flat under a heavy item until it is dry.

Using a production line approach, we managed to come out of the evening (a long evening) with 10 fabric covered notebooks each. I do love to give a handmade gift at Christmas to teachers etc, so it will be great to have them ready when the festive season comes along.

I will show you our second creation which we made to match up with the notebooks in a separate post. Are you making anything already for Christmas? If so leave a link so I can come and take a peak!

Technorati Tags: christmas presents, gift ideas, handmade, Planning

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I have traditionally not been one of those organised people who buy up presents at the sales in June or July, but have tended to leave my shopping until November or December. Although I haven’t bought anything at this year’s sales either, I am going to try something a bit different this year and buy more in the lead up than I have done in the past.

I am also working with a very dear friend (and very crafty, check out her site mobble gobble) and we have started making some of our homemade Christmas Gifts. This also is a big change from the usual state of affairs, which sees me working into the wee hours of the morning for a few nights running to get them made before the school term ends in December.

One thing that I have done for a number of years that I have found incredibly helpful in my Christmas Present buying, has been to track all my purchases in an excel spreadsheet. The benefits of this are as follows:

- I can see how I am tracking to budget.

- Eliminates me forgetting anyone.

- Reminds me of what I bought in recent years, so that I don’t purchase a too similar gift.

- Is a central place where I can note gift ideas for particular people before I forget them.

- Contains ideas for presents for the children. Relatives often ask me what they would like, and on the spot, I can often not think of things that would interest them most.

Here is a modified version of my spreadsheet: Christmas Presents Excel Tracking Spreadsheet.

I modified the names, some of the actual gifts and the amounts, so as not to give away too much to family and friends! I also realised when I was doing these modifications, that there was a few omissions from the sheet. I have added new names for 2008, people that I have previously given gifts, but somehow have not recorded them. (Means that I was even more over budget!)

Do you buy your Christmas Presents early or are you a last minute shopper?

Technorati Tags: budget, christmas presents, gift ideas, Planning

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