Christmas in July sale at Fabric.com!

Image is from Fabric.com.  This design, called Holiday Traditions Scenic Red and Gray, is currently unavailable.

If you're in the market for some new Christmas fabric (or if you just want to browse for some Christmas sewing inspiration) you will want to check out the Christmas in July sale going on right now at Fabric.com.

I am just going to show you a couple more of my favorites.

This one is Christmas Journey.

This is Holly Jolly Christmas Words.

And this one is Old World Christmas Wintervale, by Susan Winget.

Aren't they gorgeous and inspiring?  If these particular designs aren't to your taste, you are sure to find some fabric that is!  There's quite a variety.

The Christmas in July sale ends July 18, so I encourage you to head on over and shop at Fabric.com today while these pretty fabrics are still in stock.

Christmas Club meeting!

My Christmas notebook

This past Friday, we had a meeting of our Christmas Club at a local library.  One thing we did was to bring along our Christmas notebooks and share some of our planning with one another.  I shared how I plan out my crafting according to category and make timelines for when each item needs to be finished.  You can read more about my planning here: planning for handmade gifts.

An example of patterns and lists tucked into a folder pocket

I made up some planning pages to share if anyone was interested.  I usually just make my timelines on notebook paper, but this is a little more neat and organized.  If you like, just copy the red and green text below and paste into a word processing document to use this list in your own Christmas notebook.

GIFTS TO MAKE

CATEGORY:

Name of project:

How many:

Materials needed


Finish by:


Name of project:

How many:

Materials needed

Finish by:


Name of project:

How many:

Materials needed

 Finish by:  

We also talked about how we make a Christmas list and how soon we start, etc.  I tend to start fairly soon after Christmas -- just make a list of everyone I need a gift for, including any potential gift exchanges, Yankee swaps, and so on.  Then as I think of ideas, I fill in the blanks on the list.  This is just done on a sheet of looseleaf lined paper so I feel free to scribble, cross out, erase, etc.

Then after Christmas, I copy the list (listing the gifts I actually gave, which may differ from the ideas I started out with) onto a nicer piece of holiday paper and tuck it in the back of the notebook.  This way I can't possibly forgot what I gave to whom.

 

One of my copied over lists -- sorry about the quality of this Kindle photo

We also brainstormed about making photo cards and photo calendars, when to start, how to find the best deals and so on.  And we nibbled on a few of the chocolate-dipped orange slices I'd brought to share.

One neat thing we did was to gather some Christmas items to give away.  We arranged these items (most were brand new, and some were vintage but new) attractively in a little nook in the library with a sign encouraging folks to help themselves.  The sign also noted the time and date of our August meeting.  We hope this will stir up a little interest in our Christmas club and bring out a few more folks for the next meeting. 

All in all, we felt July's Christmas club meeting was productive and encouraging!

A few Christmas cards with a patriotic feel

vintage card from my personal collection

 I may have shared some of these in the past, but will do so again today.  Patriotic-looking cards just seem perfect for the Fourth of July!

The verse below is from the card that's pictured at the top of the post.  I apologize for the crooked scan!

This sweet little red and blue holly is from the ski jumping card pictured below.

Love this card!

This card surely has an American look, but it was in a bundle of vintage cards gifted me by my friend Ann from New Zealand. 

Hope you've enjoyed these vintage cards!  Happy Independence Day!

A sweet vintage card

I've been cleaning out boxes in a closet and was stunned to find that two of them contained old correspondence, including unopened junk mail from 1987!  I'm sure the person who placed them there in a "stash & dash" moment never expected to leave them there that long.  One of the boxes contained mostly Christmas cards, including this sweet one.

The cardinals and chickadees at a snowy window feeder are so pretty.  I love this card.  It is small and simple but so New England-y.  It tells a story.  Hope you have enjoyed seeing it, too.

Win an adorable doll for Christmas gifting!

Photo from Pixie Faire

Again this week Liberty Jane is sponsoring another giveaway of one of the Wellie Wishers dolls from American Girl®.  Today it is Kendall.  You can enter the Kendall Doll Giveaway here.

As I mentioned last week, the Wellie Wishers dolls are 14.5 inches tall, rather than 18" like the American Girls®.  The Wellie Wishers all wear "wellies" -- rubber boots -- and each doll has her own distinct personality.  There are five different ones -- Willa, Ashlyn, Camille, Emerson, and Kendall.  You can read about them here: Wellie Wishers.  They are completely adorable, and Liberty Jane is adapting patterns to fit them.  Some of the patterns offered by Pixie Faire for 14" dolls like the Hearts for Hearts dolls will also fit these Wellie Wisher girls.

In addition, Liberty Jane is making one of its patterns permanently free! It's the Trendy T-Shirt for Wellie Wishers dolls.  Just follow the link to download your copy!


Wouldn't you like to win one of these adorable dolls?  I know I would!  Kendall will make a fantastic Christmas gift for a very special little girl!

Chocolate Orange Cookies

Photo from Ice Cream Inspiration

It's a cool July morning -- about 57º when I got up just after five.  A perfect morning to try out a Christmas cookie recipe to kick off Christmas in July!  I found this recipe for Chocolate Orange Cookies on Pinterest recently, and immediately pinned it to my Christmas Cookie Exchange! board.

The flavors of chocolate and orange together are so festive!  They bring to mind those nifty chocolate oranges that are to be unwrapped and eaten a wedge at a time.  And these yummy chocolate dipped orange smiles that I make each Christmas and that are so delightful on cookie trays.

So if it's cool where you are this morning, why not step into the kitchen and try out a new recipe?  It's warming up fast here, so I probably won't bake, but I just might dip some candy orange slices in chocolate to take to Christmas Club at the library!

Thinking ahead to Christmas in July ...

What am I thinking?  Am I even thinking?  Well, yes, I am.  Once again, I am hoping to celebrate Christmas in July here in my Christmas kitchen.  Life is pretty busy for me right now, but Christmas in July feels as if it could be a nice mental health break.  I may not get here every single day (though I certainly hope to) but I will plan to be here as often as I can with ideas, links, recipes, cards, and so on.  Stay tuned!

A new-to-me mailbox card!

If you've read my Christmas blog for long, you know how very much I enjoy Christmas card scenes depicting mailboxes.  Today I was emptying out a cardboard box I found in a closet and came upon this beauty from the mid-1980s.  It's funny ... sometimes cards don't look like much when you first look at them, but once you scan them and get them on the computer you see all sorts of details.

I think the artist used some real artistic license with this scene, because, while the lights are on in the house and the shadows on the snow have the blue look they get at twilight, the flag is up on the mailbox, indicating the mail in the box is outgoing mail.  No true country person would ever put the outgoing mail in the box at night and leave the mailbox door open.  What if it snowed overnight?

So the picture isn't very accurate, but it is surely a pretty scene.  I love the log post the mailbox sits on, the cardinal perched on a snowy branch, and the smoke wafting up from the chimney.  There's even a lighted lamppost at the end of the driveway.  Charming!  This is a lovely addition to my collection of mailbox cards.

Win an adorable doll for Christmas gifting!

Photo from Pixie Faire.

If you have young daughters or granddaughters on your Christmas gift list, you will want to check out this fabulous giveaway I just entered.  It's a giveaway for a sweet new doll from the American Girl® line.  The Wellie Wishers dolls are 14.5 inches tall, rather than 18" like the American Girls®.  The Wellie Wishers all wear "wellies" -- rubber boots.  Several of my grandkids practically live in their rubber boots, so I know my granddaughter would enjoy these dolls.  There are five different ones -- Willa, Ashlyn, Camille, Emerson, and Kendall.  You can read about them here: Wellie Wishers.  They are completely adorable, and Liberty Jane is adapting patterns to fit them.  Some of the patterns offered by Pixie Faire for 14" dolls like the Hearts for Hearts dolls will also fit these Wellie Wisher girls.

This giveaway is sponsored by Pixie Faire and
Liberty Jane -- and it seems as if this is only the first of five giveaways for these adorable dolls.

You can enter this week's giveaway here: Willa Doll Giveaway.  I hope that one of my readers wins!

And, if you enjoy sewing for dolls, take notice -- Pixie Faire has Freebie Friday every week in which they offer one pattern for a free download.  A fantastic way to build your pattern library!  Their site also offers wonderful free tutorials for doll accessories and sewing techniques.  Have fun!

Snowflakes on a warm day

snowflake-frame scene with church

In hopes of making myself feel a little bit cooler on a ridiculously hot day, I am going to post scans of some gorgeous vintage snowflake cards.  It's hot enough so that the weather service has posted a "special weather statement" concerning the dangerous heat.  It's about 90º but feels much, much warmer to me.  Very humid too. 

So I found these beautiful cards tucked into a box of assorted leftover Christmas cards at my parents' home.  I'm going to simply share the remaining four scenes and call it good.  It's very hot in this computer room.  So here goes:

A little girl with forest creatures -- fawn, bunny, squirrel

Shepherds and Bethlehem.  This one is my least favorite because snowflakes just don't seem to fit with palm trees.

Forest scene with deer

And a festive front door!

Hope you've enjoyed these lovely cards as much as I did!

At long last! Just in time for Rudolph Day ...

Don't faint, anyone!  Yes, I am here. Better late than never, right?  I thought May's Rudolph Day might be a nice time to share a quick post. 

Isn't the above Christmas card gorgeous?  It's a find from my mother's stationery cupboard.  She apparently sent these to friends one year, for there are five of these alike, with accompanying envelopes.  Inside the card is the following quote from Peter Marshall:

"I thank God for Christmas.  Would that it lasted all year.  For on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, all the world is a better place, and men and women are more lovable.  Love itself seeps into every heart, and miracles happen ...".

The back of the card says that this is quoted from Catherine Marshall's book Let's Keep Christmas. 

This is such a pretty scene.  I love the leafless birch tree ... something one doesn't often see on a Christmas card, but very true to life for December here in New England.  The color of the card, focusing on the evening sky, is also unusual and striking.  Notice the people walking to the lighted church.  This card was such a nice find.

Today on Rudy Day, this post is probably the one Christmasy thing I'll do.  I've barely thought ahead to any handmade Christmas gifts, much less found time to work on any. 

My life has become intensely busy with eldercare responsibilities, but I do hope to get here to post more often in my Christmas kitchen.  I have many more vintage cards to share, and some gift ideas for kids, and oh ... so many other things.  I'm even hoping to be able to do Christmas in July here again.  We will see!

Two tiny vintage treasures

Recently I was cleaning some old papers out of a cabinet at my parents' home.   For years, my mother saved each year's Christmas cards (the ones they received) in stuffed-full ziplock bags marked with that year's date.  But in this cupboard there was a stuffed-full paper bag labeled "old Christmas cards."  This one, apparently from Christmas 1976, obviously predated ziplock bags!

I will be sharing more finds from this bag in the days ahead, but meanwhile I just want to share two tiny treasures.  The first one is this little enclosure card, seen at the top of the post.  It's from Marian Heath, and the artist is Molly Brett.  How beautifully she has captured the squirrel!

And here is the second one:

This tiny card was a thank-you from the wife of our family doctor "for remembering the doctor's birthday".  I imagine his birthday was remembered with some of my mother's Maple Fudge!

As you might guess, this exquisite little card is also from Marian Heath.  The red and white design is striking, and the quote is from Charles Dickens.  Lovely, isn't it?

More treasures to follow on another day ...

A few more after-Christmas buys

Isn't this tin adorable?

Just a few more things to show you today.  I will simply add captions to the photos as I have a busy day ahead.  The tin at top was actually purchased after Christmas 2014.  We had stashed it away with other Christmas packaging items and forgot about it until we brought those things out this year.  I am not sure I could package fudge or whatever in this tin.  It is just too pretty!  As you can probably tell, the snowflakes are on the clear part of the tin's lid, while the scene is inside.  I keep thinking I would like to make a little scene inside, but probably it is pretty enough just as it is.  The photo below shows what the sides of the tin look like.

Now, just a few more:

I think I paid $2 or $2.50 for this pretty poinsettia mug in Marshalls.  Not sure yet if I will keep it or gift it, but thought it was so pretty!

This slightly blurry pic shows a lovely box also purchased at Marshalls.  This was $2 but will make a very special gift container.  I included this pic to show the glittery sides of the box lid.

A better photo of the same box

This gift bag was 90¢ at Marshalls.  I love that they have one-of-a-kind items, but sometimes I wish they had more than one of an item!  Like this bag.

This is a very blurry photo indeed but I had to include it since it was the only picture I got of these gift bags.  I actually got several different designs, and the picture doesn't do it justice.  The backgrounds are sort of woodgrain in different colors, and I forget now the other designs, but they are very pretty.  Look very expensive, but in fact they were around 30¢, I believe, at Ocean State Job Lot.  I got at least a half dozen of these.

Hope you have enjoyed this look at a few of our after-Christmas deals!

After-Christmas buys (and more!) for the Christmas kitchen

During the time while I'm making Christmas kitchen gifts, I will often take inventory as to what I might need for packaging such gifts in the coming year.  Then I can look for them at the after-Christmas sales and stash them away for next Christmas.

This year I realized I didn't have any of these cookie tray bags on hand, so Mr. T went out to Dollar Tree and purchased some.  For most of my cookie trays to neighbors or friends, I will put the cookies on a foam plate and tuck it into a gallon size plastic bag.  The assortment of cookies is so pretty that no embellishment (other than possibly a ribbon and/or a sprig of evergreen) is needed.

But I also give out two special cookie plates each year to folks who enjoy a particular cookie.  For them, I like to find a special plate to include with the cookies as part of the gift.  These cookies -- Eggnog Log Cookies for one person, and Sacher Torte Cookies for the other -- are still pretty, but not colorful, one being cream-colored and the other chocolate.

Eggnog log photo from Taste of Home

So for those, I look for special Christmasy plates that the recipients can use again.

This Gooseberry Patch plate is an example

 And I like to wrap these special cookie plates, laden with cookies, in a special way too.   The cookie bags from Dollar Tree are perfect for this.  They come with coordinating, pre-cut ribbon for closing the bags, and even matching tags.  There are three bags in each package.  Quite a deal!

This year we also found some great after-Christmas deals on packaging for kitchen gifts.  I'll just put in some photos and captions.

These treat bags are very useful for packaging snack mixes and other treats.

These treat boxes will be useful for packaging cookies or candies.

Square boxes like this work great for leaving a gift for the mail or newspaper carrier!

These colorful paper sacks, about the size of a lunch bag, will be so useful for packaging treats within a gift basket.

Tins like these with the see-through lid are a very nice way to package candy or cookies for a special gift.  Nice in a gift basket, too.

What about you?  Do you give kitchen gifts?  What sort of packaging works best for you -- and did you find any great deals on packaging this year?

Questions and answers for Christmas crafting

From a craft calendar my girls loved as children

One of my friends on the Christmas craft forum posed a few crafting questions to begin the new year.  I thought I would answer them here to have a place to record my thoughts.  (They're currently on a piece of paper -- not the best idea if I want to find them again!)

So Rose asked us seven questions.  I will paraphrase them to simplify and then add my answers.

1.  Let's decide if we want to finish any projects started for last Christmas and not completed.  Will we : a)finish them right away and put them in our gift closet;
       b) put them away for a bit; or
       c) get rid of them altogether?

I had one project not completed for a November birthday (though I did make plenty for the birthday baby girl to open!) -- fabric alphabet letters.  So I need to finish those.

And I had one Christmas gift not completed -- another felt campfire and accessories.  My plan is to finish that and send it off to the recipients.

And then I have 3 long-standing UFOs (un-finished objects) -- a crocheted throw, a crocheted scrap afghan, and a "Snow Angels" cross-stitch.  I also have two completed stitchery projects that just need to be finished off in some way -- framed, made into wall hangings or pillows, or whatever.

2.  Decide if we want to go through any boxes/containers holding craft supplies; decide if we want to get rid of any of these supplies.

I'd love to sort out/give away craft supplies, but not just yet.  I plan to finish the alphabet letters and the campfire first, as all of the ziplock bags in which I have fabric scraps sorted by color are a huge mess.

3. Write down any ideas people have given you for the coming year, crafted items or other ideas.

I've done some of this but have more to add.

4.  Does your crafting area need a little tidying -- or a lot?

It needs a lot of tidying.  See question #2.

5.  Think about what went right or wrong in making crafts for gifts -- is there anything you would change for this crafting year?  

My biggest problems were starting too late and underestimating how long certain projects would take.

6.  Set a date for when you want to have all Christmas crafting completed.

My hubby set this date for me -- December 1.  One friend asked if it would work to have Mr. T setting my crafting deadlines for me.  Well, I don't really know yet.  But, as I told her, since he is the one who takes up the slack in eldercare, meal prep, housework and cookie baking if I really get stuck, I am going to try it his way!

7.  Start making notes of what you would like to make craftwise this year.

I've jotted down a few ideas in my Christmas notebook.  I think I'm going to try and aim for making more handmade items for birthdays and fewer for Christmas.

So there is my preliminary planning session.  Now to tackle one of those UFOs!

The actual Christmas baking list from 2015

The original list

Every year I make a Christmas baking list, and every year what I actually make differs from my original plan.  So I always like to do a quick post on what the actual list turned out to include, just so I won't forget.  Here's what actually made the list:

Cookies
Eggnog Logs
Sacher Torte Cookies
Chocolate Spritz
Whipped Shortbread (both regular and gluten-free)
Chocolate Mint Crisps
Macaroon Kisses
Hot Chocolate Caramel Cookies
Double-Drizzle Pecan Cookies
Date Casserole Cookies
Christmas Tree Spritz*
Pepparkakor Spritz*
Lemon Spritz*

Candy
Heavenly Delight (a chocolate peanut butter fudge)
Arlene's Easy Fudge
Chocolate-Dipped Orange Slices
Chocolate-Dipped Marshmallows

Snacks
Cinnamon-Sugar Pretzels

The last three on the cookie list were completely unplanned.  You can read about it here: A Christmas mini-miracle.  I had not planned to make any pressed cookies because my cookie press is pretty unsatisfactory.  But my sister-in-law found a vintage one which worked great, so my hubby took the press and ran with it, making three kinds of pressed cookies. 

These are the sort of surprises that often pop up with my Christmas baking plans!

A gift with possibilities

... many possibilities!

Yes, it's fabric.

My daughter Joanna, out in faraway northeastern Nevada, knows me well.  She told me a few days before Christmas to expect a parcel from an eBay seller.  I saved it to open on Christmas day while we were Skyping with her and her family.  Yes, fabric.  Not just any fabric -- it's Christmas fabric.  Holly Pond Hill Christmas fabric!

Joanna and I share a love for Susan Wheeler's adorable Holly Pond Hill characters and scenes.  I own two Christmas books -- The Happiest Season of All

and Holly Pond Hill Christmas Treasury.

The illustrations by Susan Wheeler and the text by Paul Kortepeter are simply wonderful.  I get these out every year to read before Christmas or sometime during the season.  The Christmas treasury is one that I found at a discount bookstore one year.  I got several copies to give as gifts.

So you can understand my delight at opening up a simple parcel and finding this:

which includes Christmasy scenes from these books!

My daughter had asked the seller to include a note worded like this:

And, as you see, she did.  The note was written inside a pretty card.  Yes, Joanna knows me well.  Now my task is to consider the many possible uses for this fabric and to make the best use possible of it.  Such a thoughtful gift!