Simple Saturday - Holiday Edition: Make It Ourselves

One of the things I deeply enjoy about the holidays is Creation. Baking cookies, making gifts, crafting decorations... Always the gifts we give involve some homemade elements. We buy a few things new (or "newly used" at the thrift), but I love the feeling of ingenuity I get when I create something special out of something we already have.

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This year I knitted these darling cherries as a Tree Ornament. One tradition is that the Little Bugs always find a new ornament in their Christmas stocking. Often I find nice ones at the thrift store. This year I saw this pattern online and knitted up two little cherry bunches for their Ornaments. They were fun and easy to knit, very quick, and I made them out of yarn ends that were just gathering dust at my mom's house.

Tasty tree trims - made of old scraps.

I would post some of our other creations, but I don't know who reads this and don't want to spoil any surprises. After the Holidays, when the gifts are all given, I will post more extensive pictures and descriptions of some of our creating. I've been having fun, in a financially tight year, finding what I can make with what we have or can find. I often do this, but this year I am focusing on it more than usual and having great success!

The other thing I delight in creating each year is our holiday card. Some years I draw a picture, we color copy it, and make that design into a card. The year I was 6 months pregnant with Sister-Bug we sent a standard photo card. But since then I have been getting into minimizing our card footprint. What can I use to make a fun card?

We are blessed to have the Materials Exchange Center for Community Art (MECCA) here, which is an art supply thrift store. Bins of old fabric, stacks of paper, odd bottle caps, you name it. And more than fairly priced. MECCA is a blessing when it comes to making holiday cards. Last year I scored a stack of odd shaped white card stock, 55 envelopes, and a pile of used holiday cards for $4.00. A little work with paper cutter and glue stick and I had glued the old cards to the card stock, creating new cards!

Kid writing, fabric scraps, reused card stock. Voila!

This year I made these cards - again a stack of old card stock and assorted envelopes from MECCA. I added fabric scraps from my scrap bin, and had Brother-Bug write assorted festive words on a paper, which I color copied and cut out to finish the front. I used some other old card to print out our own greeting which I glued to the inside. I like writing this - what I want and not settling for an approximation of what I want in someone elses' words. Very home made. Very us.

Making my own cards is not simple. It is, in fact, far more complicated than buying cards at the dollar store, or getting a photo card printed. But there is a blessing here. The card says "I took time to make this for you. I thought about you." At least, that's what is says to me. It also champions recycling and reusing (the genesis of the card is printed on the inside, letting recipients know it is a reused item) which is so important to think about in this season of trash.

But though it is not a simple thing, it makes me plan ahead a bit. It makes me slow down and think about people outside my immediate family and those I make or buy gifts for. It makes me stretch my creativity each year as I find something new, something fun, something that will be special when opened.

Re-Covering A Chair

We had this chair. It had been a fairly comfortable chair with a washable cover, until I washed the cover and it shrank so much it was unusable. We couldn't even fit the cushion in, let alone properly fix it to the chair frame.

Take one not-so-special chair...

But recently we upgraded our bed, and had an extra queen size memory foam mattress topper. I contemplated for a while, made my design, and construction began.

First we measured and cut the foam to fit the chair.

Papa-Bug and Brother-Bug work on the cutting.

Next, I covered the foam cushion with an old sheet, to protect the foam itself. I sewed this on to the cushion and it can't be removed.

Already looking better - certainly feeling more comfortable!

Finally, I found some fun fabric and made a washable (non-shrinking) cover for the whole thing. I used zippers to fasten the arm pieces under the chair. I think the zippers will pull more evenly. We will see about that - so far it's working well.

Now THAT'S a chair I want to sit in!

I also added a small pouch off the right arm, to hold books, knitting, or other useful items. So far everyone is a huge fan.

See the pouch off the side? They filled it with board books and read together for a while.

And thanks to Sister-Bug's recent gastronomic adventures, I already got to road test the washable feature! The arm covers make it really comfortable for nursing.

Daisy thinks we did this just for her. Actually, I used the leftover foam, another old sheet, and an old fleece throw to make her a special dog bed.

Papa-Bug says we should call it the Twitter Chair. Sister-Bug calls it the Bird Chair and doesn't like to share it with Daisy. I like that it adds some charm and whimsy to our living room, and is no longer a piece of half-finished furniture looking awkward and less than comfortable.