Lunch Bag

I made this lunch bag for my mother for Christmas. Yes, it’s nearly June, and I still haven’t blogged all my Christmas projects. This project was even late for Christmas. My mother, bless her heart, knew that I was scrambling to finish all the projects I took on for my own family for Christmas, and she told me not to worry about it if I had to give her a rain check. I finished this and gave it to her mid-January, and I think she found it worth the wait. My mother works as a secretary at an elementary school, and I wanted her to have something nice to hold her lunch each day.

I found this wonderful tutorial for the lunch bag, and it was really helpful and easy to follow. I love the drawstring top on the bag to keep everything covered.

I only made a few minor changes from the directions on the tutorial.

I couldn’t find vinyl-coated fabric for the lining, so I bought some clear vinyl and sewed it in when I sewed the lining. (This is a view of the bag inside-out so you can see the vinyl lining.) Also, even though it was on the inside of the bag where no one would really see, I didn’t really like leaving the exposed seam between the drawstring portion and the lining; I’m just picky. So, to remedy that, I tucked the drawstring portion down into the bag while I sewed a couple rows of topstitching just below the orange band on the bag. You can see the stitching if you look closely at the picture below. It encased the exposed seam on the inside of the bag, added a little character on the outside, and pulled the starting point of the drawstring portion down just a bit. Works for me!

My mother has loved taking it to work. She says she always gets compliments on it, and she loves being able to tell them her daughter made it for her. One of her co-workers even asked for the directions so she could make one (and of course I shared the link). I just love giving handmade gifts!

I’m sharing this post with the following link parties:

It’s That Time of Year

“. . . when the world falls in love, every song you hear seems to say . . . Merry Christmas. May your New Year’s dreams come true . . .”

Oh. Sorry. You caught me singing Christmas songs by The Carpenters.

What I meant to say was it’s that time of year when, if we haven’t already, we have to start thinking about Christmas cards.

I love being able to send out Christmas cards. Gathering all the addresses can be a bit of a chore, but since I can’t give gifts to everyone I know, a Christmas card is a fun way to say Merry Christmas. I even end up wishing I could send more Christmas cards than I actually do. This year, I have a head start on my Christmas cards because of Daylight Designs.

Have you heard of Daylight Designs?

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from Blessed Little Nest featuring Daylight Designs, and I’m so happy with what I got! First off, Melissa (Mel), the shop owner was so easy to work with. When I won the giveaway, we had just had our photos taken, so I didn’t have them yet. (I know. I said I’d show them off, but I haven’t gotten around to it. That will be my next post. Promise.) I asked if I needed to use an older photo or if she would be okay with waiting until I got our photos back, and she was totally fine with waiting. Almost a month later, I sent her a photo with my request. She sent me a proof the very next day, and I had my cards the next week. I am so happy with how they turned out!

Since my cards were part of a giveaway, she printed and mailed them to me with envelopes. Her listings in her shop are for the card design. You send her a picture, she puts it in the design and sends you a file that you can print as many as you want using your favorite photo developer. But if you prefer to have the cards printed out, she also has that option available.

Daylight Designs has plenty of options to choose from. I love how simple and fresh the designs are. These are my three favorite Christmas card designs:

But Mel doesn’t only do Christmas cards. Visit her shop for baby shower invitations, birth announcements, wedding invites, and more.

Thanks, Daylight Designs, for my beautiful Christmas cards!

Psst! I just read on Mel’s blog that she’s hosting another giveaway over at Mama Manifesto! Hurry over there and win some for yourself!

Free Music from Amazon!

I have to share this! I found this promo code through Frugal Living NW to download $3 worth of free music on Amazon—today only. Currently (possibly today only), Amazon has quite a few good albums marked down to $1.99 for the whole album, so you can get an entire album with a dollar left over. How cool is that?! I love free stuff!

I tend to get music-deprived because I stopped listening to the radio when I had kids. I never know what words my kids might learn or what songs will be played, so I stick to my iPod. Really the only way I find new music is by listening when I watch TV or movies, and if I hear anything I like, I look up what song it was and hunt it down. I’m rather out of touch with the music world. So a deal like this is just heaven sent. Here are some possibilities (note: all images found on Amazon.com):

You could get this Christmas album for $1.99. I’m a little bummed I didn’t get it now because I saw that it has “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which is one of my absolute favorite Christmas songs.You could get In Between Dreams by Jack Johnson for $1.99. I already have this one, and I love it. Jack Johnson is one of my favorite artists.

I opted to get something besides Christmas music. I’ve been listening to this Christmas album for the past week (which is only $5 right now). I know, I started before Thanksgiving (gasp!). But when I was growing up, my mother always listened to Christmas music while we made the Thanksgiving pies, so it’s sort of tradition. Anyway, I’ve been enjoying “Winter Song” by Sara Bareilles so much, that I decided to give some of her other music a try.

I got this album for $1.99 on my $3 credit.

And I got “I Go to the Barn Because I Like the” by Band of Horses. I’ve loved that song since I heard it on a season finale of Psych, and now I will finally own it.

And finally, I got a few songs from Little & Ashley because they were free even without the credit. I’ve never heard of them, but the music clips sounded fun.

So hurry and go get some free music today! (I was not paid to post this, I just got the deal and wanted to share.)

What’s your favorite song or artist right now? Is there a certain album you’re listening to over and over? What’s your favorite Christmas CD?

Shutterfly’s Gift to Bloggers

Have you heard?

Shutterfly is helping us out this Christmas season by offering 50 free Holiday cards just for blogging about their 2010 Holiday Cards. You scratch their back; they scratch yours. Want to learn more about this great deal? Follow THIS link.

I have never ordered anything from Shutterfly, but my friends have had good experiences with the company. I’m excited to give them a try. I think my only problem will be choosing from their HUGE selection of Christmas cards. There are so many that I like!

This one is one of my favorites. I tend to prefer Christmas cards that remind us why we’re celebrating.

I also prefer cards that let the photo be the main focus. This one is a folded 5X7 card, so you have plenty of room to write inside.

I just think the design on this one is fun.

Tired of the same old green and red? Try yellow instead. Order this card, and 10% of your purchase will go to LIVESTRONG.

Besides Christmas cards, you can also find great photo gift ideas, such as ornaments, mugs, and even playing cards. Or maybe you’d like to dress up your packages with some of their personalized gift tags.

I know I’ve got to get started gathering addresses. I put them all on our computer last year, but we switched computers along the way, losing all the addresses. Do you have your holiday cards yet? Are you getting ready for the Christmas season or waiting until after Thanksgiving? Will you write a Christmas letter to go with your cards this year? I’ve written one the last couple years, but since I’m taking on so many projects for gifts, I told my husband he could write the letter this year. We’ll see how that goes.

Whatever you do, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season this year!

Look What I’ve Gotten Myself Into

I’ve been having way too much fun on the internet. I’ve been finding so many great tutorials and ideas, and with Christmas right around the bend, I’ve been thinking about gifts. And the more I think about gifts, the more I’ve been thinking it would be really fun to do a homemade Christmas this year. I always tell myself I’ll work on Christmas all year long, but then I don’t do anything. As soon as Halloween is over, I go into a Christmas panic, knowing all too well how quickly that last time flies.

I sat down with my husband the other evening to talk to him about some of the ideas I had, things I could make for different people. I love bouncing ideas off my husband. He has great taste, and he’s way better than me at making decisions. After I showed him several options I had in mind for many of the people on our Christmas list, we narrowed things down to actual decisions of who would receive what. With the decisions out of the way, I could get started making.

I thought I was doing pretty well. I bought fabric and got one project out of the way. When my husband asked me what I was making next, I told him I would have to go pick up supplies for the next project. See, I thought I would take a safe approach, buying things I needed for one project, finishing that project, and then purchasing for the next one. That way, if we’re getting too close to Christmas and I just don’t have time, I can go buy something instead of making the gift I had planned.

My ever-supportive husband had a different idea. He thought my “safe approach” would make it too easy for me to back out. He wanted to help motivate me. So he said I needed to make a supply list. For how many of the projects? All of them. I made the list, the very, very long list. We left in the late afternoon to hit the stores. Considering the time, I figured we could make a good start on the list, and I’d at least have supplies for a few of the projects. We started at the fabric store.

And we stayed at the fabric store.

I made decision after decision after decision.

My daughters ran amok.

I think we gave everyone a headache, including ourselves.

It became quite clear that we weren’t leaving that store until I had fabric and most of the notions for all the projects on my list.

My daughters bickered.

I made some more decisions.

I got nervous every time we picked up fabric that cost more than $6 a yard.

My daughters got fussy.

I broke out the snacks.

We soldiered on. We kept that cutting counter quite busy.

After three grueling hours in a fabric store, we came away with these fabrics and some other supplies for me to make gifts. Then we went to Costco for dinner.

I had used a coupon which helped quite a bit with the supplies, but I still had sticker shock from the whole bill. What had we done? I had never spent that much in one trip to the fabric store. I thought my husband surely was feeling the same way, but it turns out, he was thinking more rationally. He told me to take the total price and divide it by the number of projects for which I had all the supplies. I did, and it turned out to be less than $10. He told me to take the total price and divide it by the number of people to whom we will be giving the projects. It still turned out less than $10 per person. Maybe we will save money this Christmas after all.

Now I just have to deal with the matter of getting it all done in time and trying not to become a basket case in the process. I guess you could say I’ve got my work cut out for me (pun intended). I’m nervous and excited. This will be some really good sewing practice for me since most of the projects are sewn. What a great opportunity to get plenty of practice! Still, I think I might be in over my head. Wish me luck! I might have to wait until after Christmas to blog about it all, since they are gifts.

Are you working on anything for Christmas? Is this a big Christmas or a small Christmas for you this year? What do you do to make gifts feel more personal, more special?