Getting Ready for Christmas!

The gifts are piling up! I am trying as hard as I can to have local, handmade, chemical -free Christmas gifts for all this year. I just picked up these lovely facial and body creams called A Midsummer Night's Cream and Whipped Shea butter, respectively, from a local company called Earth Elementals Soaps. I absolutely LOVE them (and their lip balm too!!)...I had to try them before giving them away ; ) The whipped shea butter comes in a GLASS container! YAY! Because of the light sensitivity of the essential oils in the facial cream they normally come in a wide-mouth amber plastice container. However, I made a special order and got mine in a clear glass container and whipped up these little pouches from some fabric I had laying around to keep them in the dark.

These pouches were my very first non-fixing sewing project! I made the pattern myself...sure the stiching is a little crooked but practice makes perfect and I had such a great time making them!!

I also picked up some soap from my fav soap maker in Yarmouth, NS Birch Bark Soap. She made a special order for me that is the best ever! I sent her my wish list and she wrapped each gift in beautiful muslin bags with her logo on it and made little gift cards with everyones name on it! The soaps are amazing!! Here they are in a box (with the cream and lip balm from the above local maker) packed and ready to go! There are some great photos of my special order on the soap makers website...check it out!

Also, I finished the baby blanket I was knitting for my nephew, Santiago. It will make a perfect blanket to throw down anywhere and wrap him when he is small. It is a narrow longish blanket, I could have used 1 more skein but ran out...I hope it ends up being his blanky...Holes and all, I am sure they will love it...it was my second knitting project ever! Ambitious I know, but I am happy with it...like I said imperfections and all. Diego keeps insisting I should tell them the holes were strategically placed for ventialtion since they live in Cancun. ; )

Lastly, here are the fresh pumpkin pies I made the other day for American Thanksgiving and our lab Christmas Party...I know this is only 2 events and there are 3...you can't blame us for keeping one to ourselves...at least we kept the one with the burnt edges...I technically could have made four but I overfilled them and they overflowed while putting them in the oven and the edges burnt...what a mess...regardless, they were soooo tasty!


Have a good week!