Lego® Sacks -- a fun and practical gift for kids

I'm posting these here on my Christmas blog for a couple of reasons:
1) They are a great and very easy handmade gift for  kids;
2) I plan on making these for my Nevada grandkids for Christmas and they will be much less likely to see them here than on my regular blog, which they occasionally look at.

So -- I had seen this Lego Sack tutorial some time ago and put it on my list to make for the kids.  I have several Lego-loving grandchildren, and this would make a useful gift for them. 

Very simply, it's a large lined fabric circle which the kids can use as a playing surface for Legos or, actually, any toy with a multitude of small pieces.

Opened up as playing surface

Then, when they are done playing for the day, they simply gather up the drawstrings and voila! the pieces are all contained within one neat sack, which can then be hung from a peg or hook, a doorknob or even a bedpost.

Closed up for storage

I made this orange one for one of my grandsons, and his brother admired it so much that he wanted one for his birthday, too.  So I made his in the same print, only a teal color.  I failed to get pictures of that one.

I thought this sort of geometric print would look nice for Legos.  I found it at a Walmart that still carries fabric.  It was on clearance -- between $1 and $2 a yard, I forget which.  I bought it in orange, teal, and yellow.  I can't remember if there were other colors or not, but there may have been.  I will find out, though, as I need to go back and get more fabric for making more sacks for Christmas gifts.

For the lining, I lined the first one with part of an old sheet, and that worked fine.  For the second one, I lined it with a sturdier fabric -- think it may have been osnaburg -- which I had originally bought for lining tote bags.  I'll plan to use that for the remaining 3 or 4 Lego sacks, since I have plenty of it.

These go together almost unbelievably fast.  The hardest part, literally, is measuring and cutting the circle.  I used a 1-yard square to cut the circle from, and panicked at first because I thought it was going to be too small.  But it was just fine.  Actually, if you are using just regular fabric, you won't be able to cut anything larger than a 45-inch square anyway.  And you would have to purchase more than a yard to do that.  So for me, I think I'll continue using the 36-inch square.

For the drawstrings, I used wide ribbon.  Wide bias tape would work well too, and so would rope or a thick cord.  The instructions call for making one's own bias tape but I didn't have time or interest in doing that.

Hope this info is helpful to someone.  These certainly have been a hit with my grandkids so far!

A nice possibility for Christmas Eve supper

(Photo by Taste of Home)

I realize that many families already have their own traditions for Christmas Eve supper.  Some like to have a meatless meal; others favor seafood, and so on.  At our house, it's Christmas Eve Soup, served very simply with corn muffins, biscuits or rolls (or sometimes with cheese pizza), with either ambrosia or ice cream and Christmas cookies for dessert.  This year, it was so special when my 11-year-old granddaughter arrived for the Christmas Eve meal bearing a foil-covered plate of holiday rice crispy treats she had made herself, to share for dessert.  I love seeing traditions carried on!

When I was a child, our family's traditional meal for Christmas Eve was macaroni and cheese.  My mother made hers with a rich cheese sauce, loaded with sharp or maybe extra-sharp cheddar.  She always topped her macaroni and cheese with crushed saltines sauteed briefly in butter (a much-coveted treat for us children) and then topped the whole with paprika before heating it through in the oven.  It was delicious.  We often had grilled hot dogs alongside the macaroni and cheese and usually a green salad of some sort. 

My mother always made an extra casserole dish full of macaroni and cheese, and took it to a neighbor couple we dearly loved, for their Christmas Eve supper.  On New Year's Day, Mrs. F always made a gelatin dessert called pumpkin snow, and sent it back to us in the clean casserole dish, along with a jar of custard sauce to serve with the dessert.  It was a sweet tradition between neighbors.

Recently, I tried this recipe for Saturday night supper with baked beans and salad: Ham and Broccoli Mac'n'Cheese.  It was very good; the only thing I changed (other than to use, in my case, gluten-free pasta and flour) was to add a little salt.  There were some lively flavors in the sauce, but the flavor seemed to fall a little flat so I added a bit of salt and that solved the problem. 

It occurred to me as I prepared the dish that it might be a very nice one for Christmas Eve, as it includes the lively colors of red (sweet peppers) and green (broccoli florets).  If your family prefers a meatless meal, the ham could easily be omitted. What are your family's Christmas Eve food traditions?

Inspiration for your handmade gifts

Graphic by Little Birdie Blessings

I don't know about you, but I simply love giving (as well as receiving) handmade gifts.  Two bloggers have inspired me even further to make handcrafted gifts for this coming Christmas -- and for as many birthdays as possible between now and then.

When I read Myra's post, The Legacy of Handmade, my heart was touched, because her words about handmade gifts she had received just summed up how I feel about handmade gifts for family, especially grandchildren.  Sure, not everything I make for them is heirloom quality -- felt food is a case in point -- but some of the things I've made, like the birthday banners, are already heirlooms. 
 
And sometimes I want to make things, like the felt food and superhero capes, that they can just plain have fun with!  I just want them all to know they have a Grammy who loves them enough to make them special things with her own hands.  (And I do recognize that not all grandmothers can do that.  There are many other special ways to show love to grandchildren -- probably as many ways as there are grandmothers.  This just happens to be something I can do and that I love doing.)

Abby's post, A Handmade Christmas, was even more of a blessing because Abby shares a list of wonderful, "think-outside-the box" ideas for handmade gifts. 

Abby's post reminded me of a neighbor lady when I was growing up.  She made many small, handmade gifts with an old treadle sewing machine -- little felt stockings with a child's name on them, into which she tucked a dollar bill; little sachets made from interesting fabric scraps and filled with balsam needles to give off a lovely fragrance of the forest; and many more things.  I had a great-aunt who pieced pot holders from scraps of flannel in crazy-quilt fashion.  Sets of her flannel pot holders were a hoped-for gift on many occasions.  My grandmother made many doll blankets and baby blankets for gifts.  Making handmade gifts is a dear old tradition I will continue for as long as I possibly can!

Rudolph Day for February just did not happen!

This is a photo of the village of Whitefield, NH in 1948 (or I suppose realistically the photo was taken in 1947). but the snowy scene is what it looks like here in New Hampshire today, after all of the snow we had yesterday.

Well, of course February 25 was in its usual spot on the calendar, but the observation of Rudolph Day just did not take place.  I had a dental appointment early that morning, so the rest of the day was pretty much spent on catching up with the laundry and other household tasks I usually do on Mondays. 

Oh, I had plans -- albeit very simple ones -- to do some Christmasy things; sip Candy Cane Lane tea (which I have seriously stocked up on, recently searching an entire holiday tea display at Wal*Mart to be sure I got every last box they had!); listen to Christmas music; make a few gift card holders and go over my Christmas list.  None of that happened.

Since then, I have taken a look at my Christmas list.  I have ideas for our elderly parents -- my mother-in-law loves what we do for her each year which is a bucket of bran muffin batter (the type that keeps for weeks in the fridge), a jar of homemade hot cocoa mix and a bag of clementines.  I give my dad just the baked muffins and the cocoa mix and a few clementines.  He tends to forget about them so I don't waste an entire bag on him.  We also give him a subscription to Readers' Digest.  If you keep an eye on their sales you can get a subscription for $5 or so.

And I have a few ideas for grandkids, mostly felt food so far.  But that is about it, so I need to do some serious brainstorming for Christmas gift ideas.  Maybe next Rudolph Day?

Making a Christmas shadow box

 
For the longest time now, I've been wanting to make a Christmas shadow box using vintage odds and ends.  I had seen the idea in Gooseberry Patch Christmas book 7, and loved the one they showed.  The directions were by necessity not super specific, because of course everyone's shadow box frame and bits of memorabilia will be different.

I wanted to use an old red wooden silverware tray as a shadow box frame.  This was my mother's and was used by me as a teenager when I had a little home baking business.  In recent years, nearly every time I opened the silverware drawer in my kitchen, I would be reminded of this project and how much I wanted to create one of these shadow boxes.  So recently, I got my materials together and set out to make one.  It took me a week or more, working on it in available snippets of time here and there.  I began by thoroughly cleaning and washing the tray.

Then I lined the compartments with scrapbook paper.  I had some I had bought years ago specifically for this project.  I thought the red plaid had a vintage look -- but oh, aren't those red and green prints amazing?  They look like scans of actual vintage fabric.  There are stains, worn places, etc.  Just the look I was going for!

Another look with the tray flat, just as I glued the paper in.  I used a glue gun for the entire project.

After lining the bottom of each compartment, I remembered something important.  One side of each compartment was going to become the shelf for the memorabilia.  So I needed to line those as well.

I started with the vertical side compartment.

The top shelf holds lots of memories.  When I was a child my grandmother had Santa mugs that the grandchildren were allowed to use at Christmas dinner.  The one here is a cheap plastic imitation, but looks much the same.  The folded cupcake paper (which I may or may not leave there) is from a stash of my grandmother's Christmas things.  The tag is from my daughter as a teen, and the ribbon roses are a reminder of her as well since she often called herself the "little rose girl".  (She loves roses!)  The red ribbon, plastic greenery, the bell, and the little red bird are vintage.  The cookie cutter shapes are new but I thought they went well with the other things.

The second shelf holds a box of vintage light bulbs, a vintage sticker tag and a vintage plastic Santa and sleigh. I stuck a little metal embellishment that says "Cherish" on the tag.  The little metal pieces don't show up well in the photo, but they look cute in the shadow box in person.

I was a bit at a loss trying to decide how to fill the longer vertical space at the side.  Finally decided to make a tag and hang it from a red thumbtack.  Picture is of me and my brother and a cousin in the snow.  The flocked Santa sticker, the plastic holly and the striped bias tape are all vintage.

The letter stickers and the word on the tag are newer items.  You can't really see the word but it says "family" and is a shiny silver color.  In retrospect I should have put the "memories" letters lower on the back wall.  It will be fine when the shadow box is hung on a wall, but is a bit hard to see in the photo.

Vintage plastic deer, light bulb and tinsel from one of our early Christmases together.

A closer look at the tag; Santa sticker, holly, berries and bias tape are vintage.

The lower end of the tall side compartment.  Vintage plastic greens, holly, and berries.  This was old stuff from my great aunt.  Tiny vintage glass Christmas balls, too.

Finished shadow box!

Hope you have enjoyed this look at the making of a Christmas shadow box!  Maybe you've been inspired to make one of your own!

A side dish recipe to try for Christmas dinner 2013

(Photo by Taste of Home)

Browsing old December issues of Country Woman magazine, I came upon this recipe:  Green Beans with Roasted Grape Tomatoes.  With its festive red and green colors, this would be a natural for Christmas dinner.  I often have trouble figuring out a green vegetable to serve for that meal, other than the ubiquitous green peas or green bean casserole (which, when all is said and done, isn't really green).  Brussels sprouts can be made festive and I love them, but not everyone does. 

So this green bean and grape tomato dish is definitely worth a try.  And I plan to try it in the summer when both items are fresh and inexpensive.  For Christmas, I probably wouldn't use fresh green beans, as our local supermarket sells frozen whole green beans that are nearly as good.  This recipe looks healthy and delicious, don't you think?

A salad recipe to try for Christmas dinner 2013

(Photo by Taste of Home)

 In my browsing through past December issues of Country Woman magazine, I found a salad recipe it would be nice to try for Christmas dinner:  Lynn's Spinach and Apple Salad.  I will try it sometime this winter and see how we like it.


For years, the following has been my go-to salad for Christmas dinner:  Merry Berry Salad

(Photo by Taste of Home)

and we especially enjoy the homemade cranberry vinaigrette. 


But it's always fun to try something new, so I am definitely going to give the spinach and apple salad a try!  May the best salad recipe win!