Welcome to our home! In the urns by the front door, I added some free Christmas tree trimmings and free pinecones. Many places that sell Christmas trees will give free Christmas tree trimmings if you ask. I hung some wreaths I bought several years ago. This year, I added the two lanterns by the door….
This post contains affiliate links. My per person budget for members of my immediate family is usually between $10 to $20 per person, including gifts that go in their stockings. While I make many gifts for pennies, I also purchase items from garage sales, and I look for low-cost items that my family members will love…
This post contains affiliate links. Spritz Cookies made with my grandmother’s vintage cookie press. These are the fastest and simplest Christmas cookies I’ve ever made. Can you imagine a December without shopping? No food to buy. No gifts to purchase. The chance to stay home: making cookies and treats from items in…
A few years back, we were in need of new Christmas stockings. Our family had grown, and we didn’t have enough matching stockings for the family. At the same time, I had been seeing beautiful miniature stockings online made from vintage grain sacks. I loved the simple red stripes at the top and I especially…
Gifts for stockings can easily add up to be quite a bit, even if you take a trip to the dollar store. Here are some items to give using items you already have in your pantry, cupboards, along with a few items to make using what you already have on hand: From the kitchen…
Here are a few quick, easy, and free or close to free gifts that you can download or print in 5 minutes or less: Download Free Music: Classical Music Amazon Amazon has several free songs and albums that you can download. Your local library may have free music that you can download from…
This post contains affiliate links. Last year, I made an advent calendar to help us have more fun together as a family in December. I included crafts, special treats, and activities we would be attending. I found that writing out a list made it easier to make sure we did the special things I wanted to…
We spent Christmas at home. The children really liked their presents. I loved the oohs and ahhs and sighs of delight. The boys were quite delighted with their bookmarks. Winter loved the jewelry that I made for her–as well as the 10 cent bracelet and 50 cent vintage necklace that I found for her at…
Do you ever have the urge to ditch all of your plans for the day and just make something new? I did that this week. I put away thoughts of sewing any presents, served leftovers for breakfast one morning, and worked on a project instead. We took out the Christmas decorations and set up the tree…
One of our family traditions is that starting on the first day of December, we sing Christmas songs together before bed. Everyone gets to pick a song and we all sing. I want to add a new tradition in our house this year that our children will look forward to each year. For that reason, I’ve made…
For the twentieth day of A Gift a Day, I made diamond bobby pins. Diamond Bobby Pins Using wire cutters, I cut apart a broken cubic zirconia necklace. I used bobby pins that I already had on hand. Supplies: broken necklacebobby pinsE6000 Glue or super glue Tools: wire cutterstoothpick for applying glue Ahh! A paper…
Felt Paper Dolls For the nineteenth day in the Gift a Day series, I made felt “paper” dolls. I had not been planning to make any toys at all this year, as we have plenty of toys, but when I saw these I was smitten! This did require a cost for supplies, as I did…