'Twas the Night Before Christmas Game

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the apartment,

The kids were so anxious to open a present.

Luckily Mom had an early gift up her sleeve.

One I worked hard on to be done by Christmas Eve!

I created this game from my heart with my hands,

In hopes one day this will be passed on to my Great-Great Grandkids.

Introducing Mom's handmade 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Game!

I found this great box at Michaels to place all the pieces in.

Looks like fun, I can't wait to dig in!

Here is a look at all the finished pieces laid out on the game board.

Rules of the game, printed on Christmas paper and laminated for long term survival.

Handmade spinner, also laminated.

The table cloth.  This is basically the game board and you start with just this and the spinner.

The plates.

Spinner (again).

Letter for Santa.

Gingerbread girls and boys.

Glasses of milk.

Cookies.

Candy canes.

 First time playing the game on Christmas Eve!!!

Aubrey reading us the rules.

Bayne taking his spin.

Our very first winner of the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Game!!

YAY AUBREY!!!!

You finished your plate for Santa first!!!  

Our finished first game of play.

Aubrey "drinking" Santa's milk.

I can't take all the credit for this idea.  

I was inspired by this adorable game that we have and Aubrey loves.

And also this book, which has the patterns for all the pieces I used to make the game.

I merged the two and added a splash of my own creativity and viola!

The 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Game was born.

Every year I try to come up with a fun, new tradition for our Christmas celebration, as well as, sentimental things I can pass on to my children when they have children of their own.  Here are some of the other fun things I have made in Christmas past.

I can't wait to share more of the fun handmade gifts I made this year.  

Stay tuned!

Skirt Refashions, Just a Few Hems

A neighbor recently moved out and left a bunch of clothes on my doorstep for me to go through.  This is why I make it a point to mention to anyone and everyone that I love to refashion clothing.  What might be trash to some, is treasure to me.  Most of the stuff I liked as is.  A few of the skirts were cute, but needed a little updating (i.e. hemming).

There was this little number.  I have been needing a new jean skirt.  This one is way too long and way too little house on the prairie for my liking.

I have been dying to make myself a corduroy skirt, like the one I owned and loved from college.  This one might just do, with a little hemming, of course.

I forgot to take a picture of the ugly buckles and straps that went across the back of this cute jean skirt for no apparent reason at all, but to make your butt look bigger.  Unfortunately, it left a few holes across the back when I seam ripped them off.

Both of the first two skirts had some pretty big vents to deal with.  I had to cut them all the way up to the top of the split and pray I had enough fabric left to both cover my booty and still create a hem.

I barely had enough left to make this skirt still decent, so I serged across the bottom and did a tiny 1/4" hem.  

The jean skirt was a little more tricky.  The vent was too high to still add a hem, so I decided to just cut it and let it fray across the bottom like cut off jean shorts.

It is going to need a few more washings and dryings before it really gets a good fray.

But it fits!

Here is the cord skirt with a small hem, finished.

It also fits!  Gonna totally get some wears out of this skirt.  I love corduroy. 

I probably could have come up with a better solution for the holes on the back of this skirt, but I figured no one will really see the patch since my shirt will cover it.  It might have been a better idea to sew it on the inside.  I can always switch it around if it bugs me too much.

Just as a random extra refashion, I turned my kids old bed sheets into a laundry bag.  I don't know how many of you have to use the laundry mat, but I have yet to find a hamper that has held up to the massive piles of clothes and constant trips back and forth from home to laundry mat.  I know this thing is not going to break or fall apart like every other stupid one (I swear I have tried it all!) and I can throw it in the washer and dryer to clean it along with their dirty clothes.  I have another set of sheets I think I may turn into pjs next.  I keep hoping I will have time to do that for Christmas, but I am still rushing to finish up several gifts.

These weren't huge refashions, but sometimes just a hem makes a huge difference.