Yes, September is nearly upon us, and the stores have begun the transformation...time to start thinking about Christmas.  Before I was a crafty person, I rejected the notion that we had to think about Christmas before fall even arrived.  I groaned as the stores moved in Christmas decorations earlier and earlier each year. I was appalled at the idea of Christmas music in November (yes, even November was too early for me).

But now, I get it.  This is a crazy holiday, friends.  Last year, I waited until December to start working on my handmade holiday gifts. Frankly, I just wasn't in the Christmas mood during November. I hosted Thanksgiving, and I was busy!  By the time I was in the Christmas mood, I didn't want to engaged in a frantic sewing marathon.  I wanted to enjoy the softer, traditional Christmas activities.

I wanted to see the Way of Lights, ride the camels, drink hot cocoa and eat kettle corn. 

I wanted to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree,  

 

Haul out the decorations (you thought I was going to say holly), light up the house.

 

I wanted to stroll around the mall and window shop. I wanted to watch Christmas movies. I wanted to bake cookies and decorate gingerbread houses.

 

I wanted to sew, too, but in a leisurely way. I didn't enjoy the stress to "just get it done."  I wanted to mosey, while watching Christmas memories unfold outside my window.

 

In order to make time for such things, I am beginning the Christmas crafting early this year. Do it with me!

I won't pretend I've thought of this on my own.  A few days ago, I stumbled upon Organized Christmas.  It's an amazing site, with all sorts of tips to walk you through getting ready for the holidays.  You can find some great tools--I've only just started exploring the site, but have already downloaded the "Gifts to Make" planning sheet and the "What's in the Gift Closet" list. 

Over the next few weeks, I'll share my Christmas ideas and reveal the things on my list.  I'm hoping there will even be some sneak peeks as things get finished (fingers crossed that things get finished).  I might have to be a bit secretive, because some of the recipients might occassionally read my blog (*cough* mom, dad *cough*).  

Of course, I won't be handcrafting it all myself.  The wonderful world of Etsy will most certainly supply a gift or two.  

As I mentioned, the Kindergartener started a new school this year.  It's a good school, where she has many friends and wonderful teachers.  However, we hesitated for a very, very long time before deciding to enroll her, and the number one reason for our hesitation was the "uniform dress" policy.

 

For the past three years (since she was about two), we've allowed our daughter to express her own creativity through her clothing.  She takes great pride in choosing her clothes (right down to the socks) and dressing herself.  She's worn Halloween socks at Easter, Christmas socks in the middle of summer, and dress shoes with shorts.

 

I know there are moms who would rather gnaw off their own fingers than have their children seen like this in public. I am clearly not one of those moms. 

Nonetheless, we're now attending the uniform dress school.  Granted, it's a little more flexible than a true uniform, because the kids can choose any solid-colored collared shirt, and they can choose from three colors of pants/shorts/skirts/dresses.  But I've spent the last couple of weeks explaining what a "solid color" is.   ("Yes, honey, pink is a solid color.")  To a girl who regularly mixes stripes and plaids with polka dots, it's a tricky concept. 

 

But the point of this whole post is this: I can no longer get excited about sewing. I'm having a horrible time looking at fabric and appreciating it. I can't even invision the wonderful things that could be made from it. Because right now, I can only think about solid colors. It's killing me. The navy, khaki and black are literally sucking me dry.

Even when I think about sewing, all I can think about it how to make a fun dress that won't get my daughter kicked out of Kindergarten.

Sorry for the sudden abandonment!  We took a short family vacation to Branson last weekend, and my own web paranoia prevented me from telling you about it in advance.  Didn't want some crazy stalker to find my blog and discover my house was unattended, what with all my pretty new fabric sitting on the kitchen counter.

Two of my recent projects went along on vacation with us.  One was the purse-sized first aid kit, which came in handy when a certain five year old managed to scuff both knees at Celebration City.  Alcohol wipes and bandages to the rescue. And I made everyone declare that I was an awesome mom. Seriously, made them say it out loud. Which they did. 

The other, was the reusable grocery bag (in pink butterfly print).  We grabbed it at the last minute to throw the phone chargers and make up bags in.  This bag became the most useful item on the trip.

 
Day one, I tried to bring the large, non-flexible diaper bag along to Silver Dollar City. It was too large and too non-flexible. It wouldn't fit in the awful rental stroller and it was an overall nuisance.  Day 2, the reusable bag came with us. It's straps were the perfect length (and flexibility) to tie in a loose knot (nothing fell out) and then hang over each stroller handle. 

You can see that I took along the cheesy umbrella stroller to save space in the car...I thought we'd rent a larger stroller at the amusement parks. Turns out their strollers were pretty useless, and for $10, a waste of money. So umbrella stroller made a go of it and did a fantastic job.  My reusable grocery bag was awesome.  Just like me.

If you find yourself in Branson (and I'm not necessarily recommending that you do...), head downtown and check out Pinkiedink's Cupcakes.  They have a ton of different cupcakes, all pretty and all tasty! At $2.50 a piece, my husband declared them the best deal in Branson.  Seriously, these people are a few doors down from a place that wanted to sell me a $4 hotdog. It's not even real meat, people!!

Where did the sun go?! We're back to the rainy, rainy days around here, and the lack of sun is beginning to drive me nuts! And the humidity. Killing. Me.

And so I reflect on those sunny days we had this winter, where we broke out the sidewalk chalk...and made a city...

 

with streets...

 

and neighborhoods...

 

and public services... 

 

I think boredom is an opportunity.  Without fail, at every restaurant, I see children playing handheld video games instead of talking to their families.  In this overscheduled world where children move from one structured activity to the next, watching a quick movie in the car on the way, it is seemingly impossible for them to get bored.

As a parent, I feel the pressure to find something for my children to do. Something to stop the boredom. I admit, it's mostly laziness on my part. With the first ten minutes of boredom comes whining. Lots of whining. To make it stop, I'm tempted to turn on a movie or let them play on the computer.  But lately, I've tried to encourage boredom, so my kids can learn to entertain themselves. To make up games, to play with dolls, to use their imaginations.

The Creative Family has an entire section on play, and it's all creative. Some of the ideas are wonderful, like family drawing time, and some are classic, like dress up play. 

A great dress-up box can have just about anything in it, but I think a beautiful tutu is a necessity. This one is from Kennedy and Friends' Etsy shop. There's a huge variety of colors and even some special birthday tutus with confetti and pompoms mixed in.

 

Butterfly wings are also a fun addition to the dress-up box.  I had a friend whose youngest daughter ran errands one day in a pink leotard with construction paper wings pinned to the back. She was an extremely happy little butterfly with her impromptu wings.

Tiaras are also pretty standard princess garb, as are crowns, but I'm a big fan of flowers. It's something a little different and more natural than the plastic faux jeweled tiara.  

There are a million other things that are great in the dress up box. I was reminded recently that, when I was young, some of my favorite dress-up items were my grandma's shoes and old handbags.  I raided my own closet, and my "to donate" box, and came up with great scarves, glittery belts and old purses for my daughters to play with.  I've also set aside some old shoes that will be princess-worthy once they have a fresh coat of shimmery spray paint. 

As soon as it was released, I rushed out to buy a copy of The Creative Family by Amanda Soule.  I'd been reading Amanda's blog for awhile and was anxious to find ways to incorporate some of the great stuff she was doing into my family's life.  Enter project number one:



I had admired Amanda's crowns on her blog, so it was one of the projects I was most looking forward to.  The book arrived at almost exactly the right time, just before the big birthday party. Unfortunately, the crown didn't even get started until a few days ago, as I was too consumed planning the party to work on it.  Nonetheless, the crown's arrival was still quite timely, as this week is the school's big Shakespeare festival, for which the children will arrive in costume.  Rumor is that crowns were very popular during Shakespeare's time, so says the pre-kindergarteners.



The purple fabric covering the elastic in the back actually matches the cape she will wear during her performance (capes were also popular during Shakespeare's time, as were princess dresses).

I have plenty more to say about this book, including a review of other projects and ideas for incorporating creativity into family time.  Stay tuned.

This weekend is the third party to celebrate our oldest daughter's fifth birthday. Yes, this will be the third time we party. The first two celebrations included various family members, with plenty of food, cake and gifts. But this weekend will be her party with friends from school.

After much deliberation, I finally decided we should have the party at the Little Gym.  This is where both girls go for gymnastics, so it practically feels like a home away from home. The beauty of these commercial party places is that they handle all of the entertainment, serving, clean up, etc. The stuff that no one really wants to do. We'll bring the cake and the goody bags. Ah, yes. Goody bags.



It's amazing how much angst the goody bags have caused me. I've struggled with finding a "theme" that was fun and crafty, rather than overdone and commercial.  Wandering around Deals yesterday, I finally hit on it. (Yes, Deals, it's commercial. The irony is not lost on me).  We're going with an outdoorsy theme. Perfect for her little Montessori class of nature lovers, especially now that Spring has arrived.



We started with plain white kraft bags (with handles) and stamped each child's name on the bag. Then we decorated with stickers and markers.  In the bags, we included bubbles, plastic bugs (for the boys) and butterflies (for the girls), flower seeds, candy (because "it's the best part of the goody bag!"), stickers, mini pinwheels and sidewalk chalk.


We found these sidewalk chalk friends at Deals.



We packaged each one individually, labeled them, and included them in the goody bags.



After the final RSVP's are in (that's right, we had one come in less than 24 hours before the party), we'll finish the goody bags with pretty ribbon and pack them for the party. 



UPDATE: Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to photograph the bags before we left for the party. Once there, I didn't have a chance to get a picture before the kids snatched them all up.  Given the frenzy, I'd say the goody bags were a success.  The mini-pinwheels were a big hit!