a handmade Christmas

Here are some projects that kept me pretty busy over the last few weeks. I always imagine having a purely handmade Christmas for my kids, but usually cave at some point and start buying things. I hope to start earlier this year, so I don't have to stay up so late in December.

The big gift was this playhouse. I pretty much copied HomemadebyJill's with a few changes. Her table is bigger than mine, and more importantly, her sewing is much better. But this is the biggest project I've ever taken on, and I'm quite proud of it.

The mailbox opens on the front, and there's a jingle bell doorbell. The door, of course, lifts up to go inside.


This side has a flower garden that you can plant, and apples on the tree that can be taken off and on. I put cloves in the flowers so they smell good.


There's also a peek-a-boo owl on the tree.


And this is the vegetable garden. The corn ears come out, the carrots can be planted in the dirt pockets, and the lettuce velcros on.


The last side is the dog house. The bone has a magnet in it that will stick to the dog's mouth, or the bowl. The flap opens to pass through animals, or crawl in as well. And clothes can be hung out to dry on the line above the house. (Those are build a bear clothes.)


I started to make a bunch of felt food (found at Skip to My Lou)...I got as far as some chips, a lunch bag, and some eggs...

...but then I found all this great cheap food at IKEA, so I saved myself some time.


I saw a taggie football on some toy site and thought I could make that...knowing how much Diego already loves his taggie blanket. There's always someone who's already done it...so I found this example at Grace Violet and tried to copy it...somewhat. I put a jingle bell in it, too.


For Isabela, I made a camera case for her digital camera Santa brought her. I saw these on etsy. Now, the one on etsy is MUCH BETTER, but Isabela loved hers and that made me happy. Next time, I'd use good felt for the whole thing to make it a little sturdier...the black was fleece and that's too flimsy.




And Joaquin's homemade project was a pile of sticks **. Actually the idea is using fallen branches, and cutting them into different size pieces to make building blocks...like these here.


I pulled an awesome old cedar branch out of the woods and Juan Pablo began cutting it. There was this perfectly shaped circle hole bored into it. Hhhmmm?? What could have made it?

A bunch of carpenter bees, of course. I think we poured about 12 out of the branch. I'm glad it was a frigidly cold morning.


**a note on these...Joaquin's afraid to play with them. I never got around to sanding them, so he thinks bugs might be in them, although there's none. Plus, Diego picked one up and bopped Joaquin on his head with it. And that hurts! So I'm not sure these were the best idea.

So that was it. Lots of late nights. I learned two new hand stitches...the chain stitch and the blanket stitch...and best of all, Juan Pablo got me a new sewing machine for Christmas.

(That's a funny little story, too....he made the mistake of taking Joaquin with him to get it. As soon as they got home, Joaquin told me, "Daddy bought you a sewing machine for Christmas!" Juan Pablo said he took it back since Joaquin had told me. But then one day, the kids wanted to watch a movie. Joaquin went to get the movie from the cabinet and said, "Mom! I can't get the movie because your sewing machine is hiding in here!"---So later, I had bought Juan Pablo a present and refused to tell Joaquin what it was. A few minutes later, he was talking to Daddy on the phone and I hear: "I don't know what it is. Mom won't tell me." I'm a quick learner.)