The best laid plans of mice and Alley

Didn't I have this plan?

To blog all the amazenuts things I was going to make for Giftmas?

Yeah...

about that.


I got a job.

Which is AWESOME.

I'm working about 45 hours a week.

Second shift mostly.

The toddler started daycare.

We only have one car.

Peeps, I have NO WORDS for how crazy these past two weeks have been.

Oh, and have I mentioned it's fucking CHRISTMAS??

So I'm sorry I fell off the blog horse.

But I have ACTUALLY been working on them in the off moments I swear :)

Though sadly I DID have to decide against baking bread for Christmas.

I made a choice this morning.

I had every intention of working my fingers to the bone in the kitchen and baking bread all day. Three or four mini loaves for each family. You should SEE all the flour I bought.

And then I popped down on the couch to watch a little bit of the Care Bear movie with my youngin. She turned around and looked up at me and said clear as day "I love you, Momma!" and snuggled into me.

I burst into tears and quickly decided that bread was not worth giving that up.

So you are going to be short a homedid.

I hope you understand :)

To compensate, I offer you pictures of my adorable toddler in her Christmas outfit.

Enjoy!






(OH THE HUGE MANATEE!!)

Love and face punches,
Alley

A Whole Family Homedid

I know, I've mentioned before how much I like homedids. I'm starting to sound a bit broken record-ish.

But THIS is the first homedid that our little Pickle participated in.

Again disclaimer...if you don't want to know what you are getting...


Supplies: Ornaments (purchased), paint, brush, glitter and ribbon (all had on hand).

So remember when I found the idea for the homedid crayons and I blew a gasket over the blogger? Well you can find my next homedid there as well.

But here's something I didn't think of ahead of time. Notice, the these she made CLEARLY look like snowmen.

Add in a toddler...



And things rarely go as planned :)

The THEORY was we paint her hand,


(I really am just a CRAP photographer. I swear she was WAY more into it than this.)

she grabs the ornament. And it looks like snowmen.



I don't know what you see. But I see a turkey. A snow turkey.

Beauty.

Undaunted I continued!

So from there, while wet I sprinkled on a generous helping of glitter. Waited for that mess to dry and then added sharpie written name and year.



Notice the DISTINCT LACK of snowmen shape.

In fact..the handprint faces the floor.

So I admit, not my finest showing.

I added ribbon to hang it on the tree...

and boom!

A snow turkey you can only see if you look at it from the bottom!



Eh, shit happens.

Cost breakdown:
Ornaments - $3.50 8 ornaments x's 2 boxes. 16 Total.
Ribbon, glitter and sharpie - free, on hand.
Per present - 32 cents.

...God I'm so good sometimes I even amaze myself...

Todd Makes a Homedid!

Again, disclaimer: If you don't know what you are getting for Christmas, don't read any further!

Know what I love about homedid gifts?

I mean aside from the obvious reasons like A) saving money or B) making the gifts that more personal. I like homedids because if you have a family with more people than yourself you have instant slave labor...er, I mean 'help' :)

So when the husband told me he would take over making the BBQ rubs, I damn near did a jig on my front lawn (and even if I may have, you don't have proof and I'll never admit to anything).

We waited until the kid's first day of Daycare (oh boy howdy more on that emotional dump truck later...) when we knew we would have a hassle free kitchen. The husband set to mixing while I attacked the tree. It actually wasn't until he was half-way finished that I even thought to take pictures. But I snagged a few for you so BAM!

So...take it away Todd!


(Bonus points if you can read this serial killer scrawl.)

Ingredients: assorted spices, old baby food jars.





Go Todd Go!

He made two different kind of rubs, one for beef and one for pork. But I will say this, we've put them on chicken and fish and potatoes and everything in between. And it never ceases to satisfy.



BAM! Another one *almost* in the books. I still have to write up ingredient tags and label them properly. But I'm not too fussed about it. :)

Cost breakdown:
Baby food jars - had on hand. Free.
Spices - had most on hand, bought a few from store. Under $10.
For 24 jars of rub, for (for the sack of argument)$10, that's 42 CENTS per jar. JUST SAYIN' :)

Homedid Giftmas Tags Galore!

Yet another installment coming at you face first to keep you in the Holiday spirit!

I don't know about you but the pre-holiday/zomfgwtfbbqCHRISTMAS is already starting to sink in. Cookie bakes. Gifts to buy. Cards to write and send. Pictures with Santa to be taken. All that snow to shovel away--oh wait not this year...YET.

But you know what I mean. So it felt good tonight to just sit down and do a really quick and simple project that I banged out in about an hour.

I made these tags last year and they were so simple and CHEAP that they are making a joyous comeback this year.


You're going to need: last year's cards, stencils, a pen, a hoel punch, scissors and ribbon.

Rip the back off all your cards, you won't need them. And then start, card by card and find the best stencil for each card and trace it on the card with the pen. If you don't have any stencils, you can just use a water glass of a good size.



Sometimes if you are extra special creative you can get more than one tag out of a card.



So cut all your shapes out and punch a hole into them. Cut a few inches of ribbon and thread it through the hole, tying it into a loop. If you like, on the back, add the 'To/From' for gift giving.



Cost break down: Um...FREE.
Yeah. I don't really think you can beat that.

How you doing out there folks? T minus 20 days!