I don't know what to say.... but thanks Craftster!

I'm a Craftster Best of 2011 Winner! 

I was a little shocked! But there it is boys and girls! I won for the freezer paper stencil dress I made for baby sis' birthday this past year.
Here's the link to the actual topic:
The MADNESS 

So.... yeah! Awesome! I'm pretty psyched!

Tea.

Homemade Anxiety

It's 13 days until Christmas. (well, the 14th day from now will BE Christmas, so you know what I mean). We're actually making progress on our homemade Christmas gifts, and I'm starting to feel like we might actually get everything done in time. But here's the thing. What comes with homemade gifts? Anxiety.

I'm starting to worry. What if they don't like it? What if it doesn't fit? What if they won't use it? Think it's stupid? Wish we'd made something else instead? And so on and so forth. That's the thing with homemade gifts, they come with anxiety on the side.

And be honest - have you ever received a homemade gift from someone and thought (Ugh....) and then had to plaster that seriously fake smile on your face and graciously accept it? I dread that smile. I'm so worried that we're going to see a lot of it this Christmas.

Homemade Christmas-o-rama!

WHOA! Christmas is coming up super fast!

Don't you hate it when people say that? Me too. And even though Christmas comes at the same time every year, I am TOTALLY guilty of saying that... daily... this year.

I've talked a few times about us committing to a year of homemade gifts from Sept 2011-2012. And even though all the canning is done (many many pickles and soooo much jam and other goodies), and quite a few gifts are complete (though it's tough to decide whether or not to post what they are here in case my family decides to sneak a peek before Christmas) there's still SO SO SO SO much to do!

Tonight/this weekend, we'll be upcycling a sweat-shirt into something fabulous, doing some freezer-paper stenciling, sewing, and probably more knitting (though I think I'm going to wear my fingers right down to the bone with all the knitting I"m doing). That will knock approximately 4 gifts off the to-do list.

I still haven't decided what to make my husband. : /