Hand Made Holiday

So, I have this friend on facebook; I went to art school with her and her husband way back when. Today she posted on her status about how her holiday shopping this year is mostly made up of handmade treasures making this year's trip to the mall less stressful and as a result more enjoyable. In the comments she went on to say that if everyone in the small town where she now lives in made the choice to give one gift that was locally hand made the change that would cause would be astronomical.

Think of it, one gift hand crafted by an artist or artisan who lives in your own back yard; a kind of 100 mile challenge of the holiday variety. In large city centers this is so easy to put into practice, even in smaller communities getting a lovingly handcrafted gift can be as simple as keeping an eye open for craft fairs and gift galleries that specialize in local artists. A quick visit to Etsy can locate local artists and their wares within specific search parameters, so if you're looking for an iPhone case that isn't the same as every other hipster's; a t-shirt for your in house baby paleontologist, an earth friendly coffee mug for the caffeine deprived loved one or a special bauble to adorn the throat of your significant other, you can find one in your country, state, province, city or town.

If everyone made the choice to purchase one gift from a local artist/artisan think of the change that could create!

For the artists in our communities making a living from designing and creating.

For the people who receive the gifts that had a little extra thought put into them.

For those doing the gifting dealing with a less stressful shopping experience...

the list could go on and on because like the long long list of handmade gifts that can be gifted the ripple effect from buying one single handmade gift locally would just spread out and out.


This is a movement I can really get behind because it's one small purchase, it's a baby step towards bigger change; not a call for a belly flop into the deep end. Would making the choice to make one of your gifts handmade be something that you could add to your holiday gift giving traditions? I'm not suggesting you drop the most wanted toy (in our house that would be an easy bake oven) from your kids list in favour of a hand made toy but I am suggesting that instead of buying an impersonal gift basket of pre-packaged teas and cookies you think about visiting a holiday craft fair and picking up some hand-made soaps or artisan toffees.

I couldn't write a post like this without (as I've been known to explain to the Peanut) putting actions to my words. Our gifts to grandparents, cousins and even a few gifts to the Peanut and the Bean have been (or are currently being) lovingly handcrafted. I'd love for this to become a wave of small change for the rest of the season and next year and the year after that too. Spread the word, it's going to be a thing.

This year is a little different

Not least because the Bean's trying to pull down the tree at every opportunity. It may be because it's been less than a month since my Gran passed (on the 24th anniversary of my Dad's passing no less) and I'm just not feeling organized or like I have any grip on the holidays this year.

Don't get me wrong, we've had the tree trimmed and the lights out for a few weeks now. But the gifting, the baking, the planning to get out and do fun holiday themed things just seems beyond my reach. I need a kick in the butt.

Anyone else feel the same? how do you get the holiday fuse lit?

My best gift and an exchange

I may have mentioned a few times that my family draws names for gift giving during the holidays. This year I got my sister, and as it happened my sister got me. My sister is not much of a shopper and I'll be the first to admit I'm not the easiest person in the world to shop for. Rather than leaving her with my standard "I'll be happy with whatever you get me " line, I had a specific request this year.

I wanted something that I knew I wouldn't get for myself. Also, I wanted to get something that was handmade. So I requested a french butter crock and included the email address of a friend of mine who lives near my parents who is a ceramicist who could probably whip one up with enough notice (keep in mind I made my request a week after Canadian Thanksgiving which is in October). Unfortunately for my friend she didn't get around to contacting her, but a handmade crock from another local potter was located.

It's lovely, the glaze is beautiful, the size is perfect and I put it into service before noon on the 25th.

Giving gifts to those not close by is a tricky concept. With the distance, it's sometimes hard to tell if your gift was appreciated or not. I just wanted to let my dear sister know that I loved it, that it was perfect and I don't know how I lived without it.


In other news Jen over at Chasing Domestic Bliss is holding an Art Card Swap to celebrate Imbolc. What is Imbolc you ask? To quote a quote from Jen's blog:

Imbolc celebrates the first stirring of the seeds, deep within the womb of earth. Just as nature is beginning to waken under its covering of snow, the birds sing again, the seeds to put forth the first tiny shoots, so we can feel ourselves beginning to look ahead, after long months of forced inactivity, to the plans and projects we will work on bringing to fruition in the greening season that is nearly here." -Celebrating the Great Mother by Cait Johnson and Maura D. Shaw

and to further quote Jen:

If you sign up you will receive a mailing address to send an Imbolc Greeting card to some one and you will receive one as well, this is not about being a great artist but about making something small and fun in as little as an hour or you can work on it for weeks. You can paint, collage, draw, take a photograph, use embroidery or even crayons. You can use Brigid as your inspiration or seeds stirring, you can make it very personal or keep it to a theme around an element or symbol that reminds you of this season. The sky is the limit and this is all about sharing and having fun so please join in.

Head on over to Chasing Domestic Bliss to read more about her exchange you can find out more here.

Christmas Tag

I found this over on the Pagan Mom Blog and again at Hello Better Than Ever!

~Copy and paste the questions to your blog

~Then Tag 5 or more of your favorite blogs and leave them a comment telling them they have been tagged. (this I will not do, I do invite you to cut and paste and post if you want to. Like Pagan Mom Blog, I find these are good filler and they do give a little of my personality too.)
~When you post your blog, please spread some Holiday Cheer, and leave a link back to Heather’s Blog as well as the one to the blog of the person who tagged you.
The Questions:

1.) Have you started your Christmas shopping? In process. I should be done this weekend but I always find little things to add on as the weeks go along especially for filling socks


2.) Tell me one of your special traditions. Xmas eve we open a special gift that contains a new set of PJ's and a new ornament for the tree.

3.) Are you a “Black Friday” shopper? ummm not if I can help it and I can help it:) , in Canada it hasn't been the same type of hoopla as in the US so other than mercenary shopaholics heading over the border to take part there isn't a huge rush to go shopping or to offer big sales to bring in the crowds.

4.) When do you put up your tree? We try to get it up a month before the big day and take it down in the first week of the new year. This year we were all a little sick so the tree went up a few days before the beginning of the month

5.) Do you travel for Christmas or just stay home? Up until last year we traveled to Alberta for the holidays, flying back and forth and renting cars and all the running around to make sure everyone gets a good visit is too expensive and too exhausting. This will be our second holiday season at our own home.


6.) What is your funniest Christmas memory? Up until last year it was the of one of my nephews about 4 years old opening present after present and getting more and more excited over each gift as he opened them. He's open a gift, gush excitedly and toss it to the nearest adult which happened to be grandpa, as he asked "can you open this?" and then turn to the next gift and do the same thing only with more excitement. Buy the end of the frenzy Grandpa was surrounded by a small mountain of toys and was still wrestling with the packaging of the first gift.

Last year it was the Peanut opening gifts at our friends house before dinner. She had brought with her a stuffy, one of her presents she'd opened in the morning and as she opened her first gift from her Caitlan, she held on pretty tightly to it. The first present was opened to reveal A treasure box decorated with a Chinese dragon that Caitlan had made for her, down went the stuffy and the box was examined minutely. This was the best present ever! Next came present number 2. Peanut was not interested in opening another gift, she had a treasure box what more could she want? So Auntie helped (while Peanut watched still holding her box)open the next present, a pair of Ladybug boots, the treasure box was thrown to the floor and the boots were in it's place being crushed to the Peanut's chest while she bounced up and down singing "ladybug, ladybug, ladybug!" The bug boots were the best present ever! Peanut was not interested in opening another gift, she had a treasure box and bug boots, what more could she want? Present number 3 was brought out, again Auntie helped while peanut tried on her new boots and rescued her treasure box from the couch. Gift number three opened to reveal a giant barn with farm animals... can you guess what happened? The box again was tossed aside as the barn became the focus of the peanut's attention, this was the best present ever!

This year looks to be even more fun now that the Peanut is a little older and a even more excited about the holidays.


7.) What is my most favorite Christmas show of all time?
I have two favourite shows that are must sees each year. It's a Wonderful Life and of course the Chuck Jones, Dr Seuss collaboration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.


8.) Do you do your own baking? Absolutely with the help of the Peanut. If we are heading to Alberta the baking is still done by my Grandma, she used to do tons of baking, five kinds of cookies, tarts and squares. She's in her 90's now and has cut down on the baking, and now makes shortbread and tarts only.

9.) Fake or real tree? Because we used live in an apartment we have an artificial tree because real trees are a fire hazard.

10. What day (as a mom) does the actual panic set in to get it all done?
Anything that is really really important we get done first so I don't really panic. If some thing's not done by the big day why worry? I was the same with planning our handfasting, nothing will ever be as perfect as you imagine it will be, so it's best to be flexible and go with the flow.

11.) Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas eve? Sometimes yes sometimes no. See above.


12.) What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas? We try to get to the Stanley Park Bright Nights Train. It's put on by the fire department and they collect money for the burn fund. This year we plan on donating a little more than we usually do to offer our gratitude to the fire fighters who put out the fire in our building last February. We can't say thank you to these brave men enough.

13.) What is my favorite Christmas craft? All the crafts I do for the holidays are my favourite, we try to do something new each year. This year I made an Advent Calendar for the Peanut to open each day leading up to the 25th.

I make my own holiday cards, which I also sell online (although at this time there I have nothing in stock at the shop) and I've been collaborating with the husband to make tree ornaments.

This year for Yule the Peanut and I will be decorating the tree in the backyard with some edibles for the birds and squirrels in our neighborhood.

14.) Christmas music? Yes or No? If so, whats your favorite song? I could say NO NO NO but I have some favourites that I can listen to all year long:
The Raveonettes Christmas Song, and Aimee Mann's Your a Mean One Mr Grinch are at the top of the all year long list. Also on the Yes list is the Pouges Fairytale of New York and I've been listening to Leon RedBone and Zooey Deschanel's Baby Its Cold Outside. I try not to go into the malls or shops too much during the holiday season so that I can enjoy the holiday music better and not be super annoyed by it.

15.) When do you hope to finish all your Christmas shopping? As in the first question, I hope to be done this weekend. Hope is the key word, but no pressure :)

Not Gonna Happen

The best laid plans often fail after the first engagement, or in my case after I write about it in So anyway. Holiday letter? not gonna happen. I've written it and I'm not happy with it. too wordy, too boring, too full of blah blah blah. But there's always next year right? As it happens I'll be sending holiday cards out just in time to arrive in the new year.

Am I feeling any guilt over this? Simply put, nope. None at all. I'm doing the best I can and that's all I'm willing to contribute at this point in time. I think I've gone over the top just by getting the video plug-in feature in g-mail figured out for me and my technologically unsavy Mom. That in itself was a 2 month job. My Mom lives one province over and walking her through any computer process is taxing on the patience. This G-mail coup would be pop the cork worthy if I was a drinker. Now Miranda can sit in front of the computer and see her Grandma make goofy he he he he noises. Now to set up other Grandma and possibly the Aunties and Uncles too.

In other news, we built a gingenbread (Miranda's word for it, heads right up on the list with Skelet for skeletons at halloween) house Sunday night and we hit the Stanley Park Bright Lights Train ride last week. We bundled Miranda up in her white snow suit and headed out into the chilly night to ride on the train and look at all the pretty lights. I declined to bring the camera this time around (that's last years picture at the top in case you're wondering). If I'm carrying the camera then I'm shooting and when I'm shooting I'm not doing and I wanted to completely enjoy this family experience. Of course I wished I had the camera once I was there but then again it was nice to just do it and not shoot it. We did have our photo taken with Santa, and Miranda had her first hot chocolate, which she promptly (in her own words) spit out all over the car on the way home.

One of those people.

So I've become one of these people that writes and sends out a yearly holiday letter to friends and loved ones. How did this happen? I mean I always read them when they are sent to me but I have to admit that I also tend to pshaw them too. I mean a persons whole year wrapped up in no more than two pages with the focus on all the wonder-filled fabulous things everyone accomplished each year is usually enough for me to pretend to gag for a few seconds.

I suppose that it doesn't help that there are a few people in my life that tend to only tell you how fabulous everything is in their lives and then avidly hang on every word, pumping for gossip about how things are not so rosy for so and so and whosits. Out of all the letters I read last year only one was enjoyable and that was done by my Cousin Paul's wife Elizabeth. It was so well written with a sense of humour and play that it reminded me of how great that family is and how much I wish I was able to see them more often.

So if anything, my foray into the holiday letter club is most definitely Elizabeth's fault and if mine is as boring and gag inflicting, I'll be putting the blame on her. At the very least I'll be feeling a little green with envy. This letter writing thing isn't so easy. I know the idea is to pick a few memories to commemorate and add coorosponding photographs but what to choose? With a toddler underfoot there are too many adorable, amazing and hilarious things to sort through.

Decking our halls

As the 25th of November falls in the middle of the week this year, we are decorating our tree today. This is the first year Miranda will help with the decorating. I'm excited about sharing the experience with her and a little nervous about the aftermath.... What if helping to decorate the tree gives her the idea that she can pull on, yank, or knock over the tree at will? It's a very distinct possibility.

I've already started with the pro-active "tell the toddler what's expected" mantra and I'm hoping for the best. I'll keep you posted on how well that's working out. Or if it's a spectacular failure I'll post full descriptions and pictures.

One of our family traditions is to add a new ornament to the tree each year. Because we've decided to do our holidays handmade this year, the new ornament this year is one made by Funktionslust We ordered it last week and it arrived safely in the mail yesterday even prettier in person than it was in the shop. Funktionslust is a fairly new Etsy shop opened in May 2008 and is chock full of lovely glass pieces from abstract sun catchers to gorgeous pendants and earrings.

My personal favourites are Abstract Distraction no.3, Abstract Distraction no.1 and Mossy Pendant and her tree ornaments are little works of whimsy to add to your holiday decor. We'll be treasuring our blue tree ornament for years to come.