Christmas Crafting

Please pardon my absence; we've been experiencing some technical difficulties here in the land of Smitten Mamas. No internet OR phone! How very un-2010! I'm borrowing a random wireless signal at the moment (and it is soooo slow!), but hoping that we will finally be back to our regular life of modern technologies sometime tomorrow after the phone company workers pay us a visit.

It seems like it's been ages, but really it was just a couple of weeks ago that our little home was transformed into a bit of a craft-crazy workshop. On Christmas morning, we travel a short distance to Lena's parents' house, where we gather with Lena's parents and siblings (and their families), and exchange gifts with each other via a fabulous collection of mostly-handmade stockings. Our goal is to give only handmade gifts on Christmas, and we try to make as many of the gifts ourselves as we can. This year I found it especially difficult to find the time to make everything that I wanted to make, and I ended up not making anything for Luke, Jaz, Zeb or Leo (though I'm guessing the ideas I came up with will indeed come to fruition at some point this winter). And I forgot to photograph some of the things that I did manage to create. It was craziness around here, I'm telling you. We are still in recovery.

But here are some pictures of the things that did get made, with love and joy:

Blocks for Tucker

I made these wooden blocks for our 1-year-old nephew, Tucker. Yes, I made them. Somehow it seems that all of my wooden-toy-maker dreams are starting to come true, if only on a very small scale.


A couple of months ago, My Love and I met a local carpenter at one of our favorite festivals. He was selling some gorgeous cutting boards that he had made, and we happily bought a couple of them to try and liven up our new kitchen. After we got home, we realized that what we really wanted was to replace the formica counters in our kitchen with handmade wooden counters. So we called up the carpenter, and he happily agreed to the job. When he came to take measurements of our existing counters, he noticed our wood stove and mentioned that he had many, many boxes of scrap wood that he'd be happy to give us if we wanted to burn it. My mind immediately jumped to completely different conclusions, and we graciously accepted his offer. The first installment of (free!) scrap wood arrived a few weeks ago, and I was positively giddy as I stacked the boxes in the basement (in the room that will become my workshop . . . one of these days). Soon after, I bought a sander and got to work giving the scraps a new purpose.

Since our carpenter friend makes mostly cutting boards, the scraps consist of a beautiful selection of hardwoods, many of them already glued together into fun stripey patterns. After sanding them into the shapes I wanted, and making sure all of the corners and edges were smooth, I polished the blocks with a wonderful beeswax wood polish that made them 10 times more beautiful than they already were. I really love the way they turned out, and I cannot wait to make more.

Book Ends for Donald

After making the blocks, I just couldn't tear myself away from my scraps of wood. I decided to make some book ends for Donald, my father-in-law, not because he has any need for them whatsoever, but because it was the only thing I could think of to make for him out of scrap wood.

Aren't they pretty?
And, despite my wife's doubt, they even actually work.

A Pen-holder for Ethan

This gift idea originated in the same place as the idea for the book ends. Did Ethan (my brother-in-law) need a pen-holder? Probably not. But the wood was calling, and I figure that any handmade gift at least contains within it the gift-maker's love and energy, even if it ends up being entirely useless otherwise. I certainly had fun making it. Ethan is quite the city person--despite having grown up in the woods with My Love (who, herself, cannot stand cities)--and so I made him a city-scape pen-holder.

It's the thought that counts, right?

Brownie Mix for Max and Melissa

Last year for Solstice, some friends of ours gave us some homemade pancake mix (regular and gluten-free!) in beautiful glass jars, and I decided to borrow that brilliant concept and make gifts of homemade brownie mix this year. I spent years perfecting my brownie recipe, and I'm quite pleased with it at this point. And the ingredients for brownies, like pancakes (and many other things, the more I think about it), can easily be combined ahead of time save a couple of wet additions. These two batches went to Max (Lena's sister's husband) and Melissa (Lena's brother's girlfriend).


I put the Brownie Mix into cute glass jars (which themselves will have plenty of additional uses once the brownies have been baked and consumed), and stuck some cooking instructions on the back. This isn't exactly the way that I make brownies (I first combine the chocolate and the butter, then add eggs, then sugar, then flour), but I'm guessing that they will still turn out OK when the ingredients are combined this way. It's pretty hard to mess up brownies.

The Un-Photographed Gifts

Lest you get the wrong idea from what I have shared thus far, I assure you that there was plenty of sewing going on in our crafting madhouse this year as well. I can't believe I forgot to photograph all of the fabric creations. But I think my mishap will only serve to inspire me to add a couple more tutorials to this blog. I made two each of casserole-pan carriers (one for Merka, Lena's mom, and one for our friends Avi and Marc), and pouch slings (one for Addie, my sister-in-law, and one for My Love). I was really happy with all of them, and would love to share the know-how with you all (since, really, anybody could make these things and have fun doing it!).

I hope that all of your Christmases, for those who celebrate, were just as crafty and sweet as ours was. I really feel like we've found the perfect balance for our kids (finally! It took us long enough!) with these winter holidays and the potential for so much stress and excess. For the first time this year, the kids did not complain or wish for additional presents, and Luke and Jaz even remarked that it was the "best Solstice and Christmas Ever!" Less is, apparently, more.