Handmade Holidays

Handmade ornaments -- a close up of the photo ornament so you can see the lovely paper on the reverse side.

We also received dough ornaments from my sister's family. Nothing says "I'm a kid!" better than these. I always smile at ornaments that were obviously handmade by a child.

Lastly, I have a bird. Usually I choose a feathered bird ornament for myself during the after-Christmas sales. I started this to replace the feathered bird ornaments of my youth since they had begun to show their age. I read some blogs and found Mister Bluebird. He seemed really cute in the photos, so I hand stitched one while watching TV one night. I haven't decided if Mr. Bluebird is right for me. Perhaps with different fabric. What do you think? I still have time to shop for one with feathers, don't I?

Handmade Holidays

I got ornaments this year. My SIL did a fantastic job with photos -- the back of a relevant photo has a pattern printed on it. The one in the photograph is a picture of my kids at the cabin on the lake. The ornament uses two brads and ribbon. I love it. The light shining through the hollow space is very pretty to see at night. I think I ended up with five of these ornaments, all with a different pattern on the back -- one for each child plus one for Mr. GAIN and me.

My business partner, in her effort to join our family smelting, made a cross stitch ornament. She was pretty excited to see the different gifts that we all opted to make. I think the time spent in thought and effort is similar to buying gifts, but there is something about smelting that says "You are extra-special."

Handmade Holidays

Two of the handmade holiday gifts that I received.

First a note about these pics. I can intuitively figure out the functions on my camera, but it is so different from my old camera that I get stuck comparing the two during use. So bear with me not making the best use of it with the different lighting situations. I need to practice using it. Which would mean homework. I really don't like homework. I may use the old camera for still photos like these. I think I just miss the extra toggle switch.

On to the gifts. My BIL made a tray for me. It is an old satellite dish decoupaged with oak leaves. If you have seen my front porch, you'll understand how much I will use this. The edging of the dish is a black rubber seal of some sort.

I also received a struesel coffee cake in a jar from my sis. It looked really cute in its package. Alas, it was emptied before photos were taken. The little spatula in the pan is also new from her, but not handmade by her. It was a great cake. My younger son asked if coffee was an ingredient. 4/6 of the family is sick right now, so I think only two or three of us ate any. I probably ate half of it over the course of the day.

I got more handmade gifts, but I'm not happy with the pictures (see above). I'll try to figure out the manual settings on this camera. But maybe not.