inhale...exhale...relax your shoulders...repeat as often as needed

Saturday, November 21, 2009

switching gears

Over the last few years, our family has done "handmade holidays". Here are the guidelines:
  • make the gift yourself (could be a cd of your singing voice, a photograph you took, something you knit, sewed, baked etc).
  • buy the gift from a local artisan...perhaps a friend, or at a street fair, (having a conversation with the artisan is part of the deal) or maybe at a farmer's market.
  • give a book or supplies that the recipient could use in crafty endeavors.
We also try to do minimal or clever gift wrapping that doesn't waste paper. Holiday movies that we watch year after year? Beware, it's a smaltzy bunch...
  • Robin Hood, the animated version.
  • The Holiday
  • Love Actually
  • Little Women, this version It's where I got my "Marmie" name from. :-)
And in a few weeks, I'll pull out Rosamund Pilcher's Winter Solstice.

We have yet to celebrate Thanksgiving, the very best holiday of all...but I've been busy in my sewing room/studio and it's FUN! And Sarah, over at greenclogs had a very nice post this morning that got me thinking...

Today, I'm making a big batch of granola and bread with pumpkins from the gardens at "a bit of earth". Hannah is still sound asleep in her cozy bed, after arriving safely home late last night. 

What are you up to on this Saturday morning?

P.S. Due to a change of heart, I am finishing up my AEDM project about a week early.  I appreciate Leah's hard work with this project, and want to thank her for her efforts.


7 comments:

  1. I am grateful to have come to know you here. I was thinking today is a good day to see what networks have started their Christmas marathons of holiday movies. You know, Hallmark, Lifetime... we love fa la la la lifetime and call Hallmark Ha ha ha ha hallmark. My daughters and I love to cuddle, watch, and laugh.. and recollect what will happen next. LOL.

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  2. I have just been posting about what sort of presents to give - my sentiments are very much along your lines, although those of my wider family are not. Work pressures this year mean that I won't be able to do much handmade myself, but I will be buying handmade instead.

    Pomona x

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  3. Sweet post.
    Just got back from a walk where I brought back a big fallen branch, to do something with???
    Out to the store in a moment to get the fixings for Chicken Picata dinner.
    Later I hope some art fun.
    Thanks for asking. Happy Homemade Holidays!

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  4. Stew and I just picked up some awesome hand crafted gifts from Saturday Market today!!!

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  5. I will be bringing A Christmas Story to watch as well.

    Dawn

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  6. Great movie choices, though we prefer the Errol Flynn version of Robin Hood.

    Glad your girls are safely back home. Enjoy!

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  7. I love the handmade holidays idea...and nice that there's the option of having it be handmade by someone else.

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