Tracy just uploaded pics of her newly completed Home Mgt Journal.  check it out – its beautiful!

Dawn posted this week’s Loveliness Fair, Homemade gifts. I didn’t get a post up in time – there’s something new, not. ; )  But thought about it enough recently that I figured late was better than never.

We just finished the Christmas chapter in Little House in the Big Woods. First, it was striking to us that they each recieved one thing. Parents and children alike. But they so loved what they got. Ma got a shelf hand-carved by Pa, which took a place of honor in a sparcely furnished cabin. The girls got mittens and candy, save for Laura who also got a ragdoll. This means Ma didn’t kill herself over Christmas.  It also means that everyone had a proper respect for a gift. If you make one you know the time and effort they take. If you don’t have Walmart and the mall nearby and gifts aren’t an everyday occasion then they are appreciated even more. With all that in mind we are giving less and thinking more. We are also taking care not to toss things into the carts throughout the year but to save those items for special occasions.

The baby’s quilt is the number one handmade project we have going right now.  There are only so many gifts of that intensity that a person can churn out in Nov. But there are lots of smaller, less complicated options that still mean a lot. Here are a few ideas:

Albums from Shutterfly. They start cheap, they aren’t technically handmade but they are personal. And hey, you took those pics yourself right?

Pomanders. My family loves the smell of cinnamon and cloves. Even a smallish child can press cloves into an orange. Use a thimble or else start the holes with a thumbtack or you will hate me later. ; ) .

ornaments.  The net is teeming with ornament directions. I LOVE ornaments so am guessing many others would appreciate one as well. It takes as much time to make a classy one as a tacky one. Choose wisely.

Stationary.  If you have stamp sets or clip art online you can make a nice set for someone. An altered composition book is inexpensive and begs to be used. Dawn has some on her blog. Altered cds are great coasters too. Way nicer than the average coaster <g> If you scrapbook and have bits of patterned paper laying around let the kids make a collage on scratched cds.

Tiny framed pics or verses. You can often pick up small frames at the dollar store or Walmart for a small expense. You can handwrite or type a poem, prayer, or Scripture verse that hold special meaning to you or your recipient. Double frames can hold a verse on side and a child’s pic on the other. Or frame a small person’s handprint for a grandparent.

I have seen a lovely gift of a personalized votive candle. Take a small glass votive holder and monogram it with a classy sticker letter. A Times type sticker font works well. A text box printed from the cpu works as well. Wrap in tissue or tuille and tie with a ribbon.

Bookmarks.  They can be made with verses, stitched with a backstitch (less time than a cross-stitch pattern) over a freehand pattern, made from holy cards, old greeting cards.  You can also have a child blanket stitch around the bookmark. I still have a lovely bookmark made by Jen years ago from pressed flowers. To stitch on paper place the cardstock over a thick towel, take a sharp point like a needle or tack and make your holes along the design. Then its as simple as a child’s lacing card. Or skip it entirely and use scrapbooking stickers. : ) 

In a fast food world I still think a homemade loaf of bread or batch of fudge cannot be beat. We can’t possibly make all the different types of Christmas goodies every year. It is a treat to receive another family’s specialty to add variety to our cookie tray. 

Another food gift is chocolate spoons. Simply pick up the cheap packs of spoons at Walmart (6 for a dollar!) and dip them into melted chocolate. You may wish to add a few drops of peppermint tot he melted chocolate or dip the wet spoons in sprinkles.  They are very nice presented in a holiday mug. (dollar store!)

There you go. Lots of options that neither tax the bankbook nor your time. Send me pics if you try these!

  "Seeing a woman wear an apron lets you know she loves to create. Her creations may be pies or paintings or pottery, but she also produces an aura of comfort, ease and curiousity. You just naturally think, "What is she making?"

I picked up a copy of Mary Jane’s Farm catalog/magazine at the store this week. The current issue, Artists in Aprons, is devoted to readers’ stories about aprons including several patterns (free and for purchase). The article by Jeannie Pierce exerpted above spoke to me for some reason. It articulated what being at home means to me. Being at home isn’t a frivolous luxury, nor is it degrading or limiting as some would like us to believe. It is a rare opportunity, in our age, to fully explore the creative, nurturing, lifegiving aspects of womanhood. Her thoughts led to more of my own. What are we making?  A life.  A good life.

I love that the whole issue embraced what aprons represent in the most positive light. Truth is the apron, once a staple in a respectable woman’s wardrobe, is nowadays just as likely to provoke scowls, scoffs and scorn by our sisters along the way. To them it represents oppression and shallow pursuits. What a shame. There is such liberty available to a keeper of the home. Your day is your own as are the choices you make about how to fill it. You can indeed fritter it away if you so choose, which is also a shame. But you have the ability to soar to great heights artistically and intellectually. You answer only to your own agenda rather than that of an employer. You can make something. Something good. Something irreplaceable. Something only you can. To me this is what those aprons represent.

I loved the stories and the pictures like I said. Very inspiring. But on a practical level I have not found the specific apron pattern ‘I’ would like. Seems most aprons on the market today are neither unique nor particularly useful. The barbeque style apron prevails and frankly it doesn’t do the trick for catching my messes. Pleasant View Schoolhouse featured a perfect style a while back. It went all the way around the skirt which is especially helpful if one was tempted to run to the barn or garden in a good dress.  Or if one might possibly be ambushed for a hug from behind by a sticky faced child who just couldn’t wait. : )

I surfed for such an apron with no luck. Then the Vintage Homemakers list was discussing a company called the Paisley Pincushion. Their site wouldnt pull up for me but many vendors seem to carry their patterns. Granted I am a sucker for a watercolor illustration and could be tempted to buy just about anything so displayed <g>.  Truly though these look GREAT! As though you could not help but be inspired to ‘make something’.

Some more apron articles to peruse:

Vintage aprons at about.com

hillbilly housewife apron evangelism

appeal of aprons (has patterns)

Now to finish stacking the book boxes so I can reach the sewing machine……  On that note we DID unpack, sort, and repack THIRTY boxes from our storage area this week.  Woo hoo!!

We are almost finished with our first redwork project – a quilt for the new baby. The girls and I have been working on these squares in recent weeks.  The two of them also started taking a sewing class locally. They are doing all handwork right now. The puppy is one of their first projects. The instructor transferred a vintage pattern and had them color it with crayon. Then she ironed it to fix the colors. The girls learned to stem stitch (and then kindly taught their mother ; )) around the lines.

After that project they got a small fleece blanket. They learned to blanket stitch around the edges and to make a chain stitch design. The redwork squares required stem stitch, lazy daisy, and french knots mostly. Now we have just to finish the last squares and assemble. Trying to get to that in November!

Oops, forgot one section didn’t I?  The Education section will look different in homes that homeschool vs those that don’t obviously. If you don’t educate at home you would want to put any information from your child’s school here – important dates, phone numbers, fliers, permission slips,forms.

Here is what we have:

The paperwork from our private school umbrella program including our attendance sheet. Many states require some kind of record of days of instruction. Donna Young has an attendance form with a font very similar in style to the rest of the binder so  if you need one this is a great place to get it. A Course of Study is also extremely wise to include. Again Donna’s form is perfect.

Our weekly school goal chart Download school_weekly_goal_checklist.doc   I mentioned in a back post that this includes daily work (at the top) and then the other squares are things for them to choose from the rest of the day. My high school student has this chart Download asher_weekly_goal_sheet.doc to track his work. Right now this is it for planner type forms. Donna Young has some excellent unit study and blank weekly planners if those are more your style.

Then I have some philosophy pages that briefly outline the method behind our madness. ; )  There are two Charlotte Mason files that I adapted from Simplycharlottemason.com and Ambleside Academy Online:

Download charlotte_mason_summary.doc    and Download charlotte_mason_synopsis.doc

I have my Montessori Scope and Sequences from monteaco.com. 

I also have the masters for our notebooking pages. You can print these onto cardstock and use them to make notebook pages for history, science, art, narrations etc. You can also leave them as desktop forms and type and cut and paste net images directly into the sections. There are a lot of them:

Download portfolio_text_box_1.doc       Download portfolio_text_box_2.doc    

Download portfolio_text_box_3.doc      Download portfolio_text_box_4.doc

Download portfolio_text_box_5.doc      Download portfolio_text_box_6.doc

Download portfolio_text_box_7.doc      Download portfolio_text_box_8.doc

Download portfolio_text_box_9.doc

these next couple are lined for nature notebooks and biographies: 

Download nature_journal_entry.doc   lined

Download nature_study_half_page_2.doc   lined half page only

Download portfolio_narration_page_lined.doc

There are some nice downloads of book reports, artist and composer evaluations etc at Love 2 Learn Place. Whatever you find online that you love do print and keep a master. Too many times over the years I have just bookmarked things thinking I could get them later only to find them removed. Here is a link to Historical Movies in Chronological Order. A reading list is very nice to have. Reading Your Way through History is a great resource. The Caldecott and Newberry lists are also good guides.

Ok now I am done. : )

I promised to post links to everyone’s binders and here is the first one!  Rebecca made a gorgeous journal with our divider downloads and beautiful background papers in plums, greens, and browns. Do check it out!