Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Homemade Christmas part 2- Gifts!


Ok hubby has promised me he won't visit the blog before Christmas (and if he does he only ruins his own surprise!) so I'll tell you a bit about the homemade gift projects I have on the go.

I'll start with the easy part, the baby. It's his first Christmas, he's only 9 months old, he doesn't really know what's going on, but he might just find it fun to tear the paper! For him, I'm making a fleece sleep sac, since he's suddenly so long his feet touch the bottom of the ones he has now. I might make two if I have enough fabric. I'm also going to make him some little mittens, since the stores don't seem to sell anything besides thin scratch mittens for babies under two. I might also knit a muffler for his face. This way he'll be warm and toasty on our sleigh rides with kaylee. I also bought him 4 little books because reading is so important! It was $10 for all four of them, how could I refuse?

For Andrew, I'm making him a cozy warm flannel shirt that he can wear when we're reenacting in cool weather. It is appropriate for the time period, but it isn't part of his uniform, so it will be something he wears when we're hanging out in camp. Because I can and because it's more authentic looking, I am hand stitching the whole thing. I kinda let the cat out of the bag on this one by asking him what he thought of the fabric too close to when I took his measurements, but at least it means I can still be working on Xmas gifts when he's home and awake.

I made AMAZING (if I do say so myself, and I clearly do,) venison jerky a few weeks back out of a venison roast my dad gave to us. I cleverly pulled out a tidy bundle of strips and wrapped them up and hid them in the deep recesses of the freezer, so those will make an appearance in his stocking. I am also knitting him a pair of fingerless mittens for the stocking.

One of the smallest gifts, though also proving to be the most work, is a small wooden bear I am whittling for him (pictured above). I've never done any whittling in my life, but I was given a whittling knife, and one day in the fall I grabbed a cut off scrap of a 2x4 that was lying in the driveway and thought "lets see what it can become". He needs a little bit more work, and then I think I'll take some sand paper over a few spots and maybe finish it with some melted beeswax and a little oil? I'm not too sure what I'm doing, I'm kinda out of my depth when it comes to woodwork, but I'm having fun.

There might be a few other things, but I'm trying not to get carried away with great ideas until I see how much I can actually get done! I'll post more pictures as things progress to photogenic stages.

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