Some handmade holidays...

I didn't do a perfect job with handmade holidays this year, but I did try to make the large majority of the gifts handmade. I've found with the kids that I have a very hard time especially since they make it known what they want and I'm not sure how they would take to more handmade. The rocket that I made E-Man last year got very little attention except here and there as a house-friendly football. The ones that appreciate the handmade got mostly that this year and again seemed to like their gifts a lot.

The one thing that I got my parents, The Husband's parents, and my brother were gift buckets of Method cleaning supplies and crocheted-by-me dishrags. Everyone seemed to really like this idea, especially the fact that it was a functional gift. I had my father-in-law at the bucket. He couldn't stop commenting how nice of a bucket it was. Gotta love an easy to please one. haha I wanted to do this last year, but for some reason we changed our mind. I rave about Method products a lot, but I know that not all my family would opt for Method (or another environmentally friendly cleaner) for their first choice at the store. I thought this way they could give them a try and see how fantastic they are and hopefully continue to use products that are better for the environment. Each bucket was slightly different with its contents based on who was receiving the gift - dishwasher tabs vs. liquid dish soap etc. Here's one of the buckets...

I included the dishrags in a little bundle of 3. Each person had a different set. This is one of each of the four...

Love how this rainbow yarn worked up!

A set of navy blue ones.

A nice deep red.

And I just loved all the blues in this one!

In addition to the cleaning goodies I made each of the moms a scarf. Somehow I missed getting a picture of the one I made for my mother-in-law, but I made her a short scarf (54") as that is the size that she already used. That one was a cream/off white color. I made my mom a long scarf (84") which is the length that I would use myself. Her scarf was a pretty green color that will match her winter jacket. And I also made my step-mother a really pretty plum color since she remarked how much she liked purple. I only got an action picture of my mom but I snapped a close up to show the purple color.

They were all worked up using Lion Suede Yarn which is such a wonderful yarn for anything warm and snuggly. It's bulky and works up very soft and squishy. Love this stuff and I think it's safe to say they all did too.

Then I saw this camouflage yarn while I was browsing at AC Moore and I just knew that I had to make my dad and brother something out of it. I ended up deciding that beanies would suit them both the best.

and my brother in his...

I unfortunately forgot my camera at home (along with my crochet hook and stuffing that I needed for my current project and the over the seat DVD players for the kids) for the trip north so I wasn't able to get any pictures of our visit there. :(

So there's a look at our handmade holidays for this year. I hope to start earlier (ha ha, procrastinator here) next year and be able to accomplish a little more, but I'd say that I'm happy. The thing about a handmade holiday that appeals to me - how much more you enjoy giving the gifts and how much each gift means to the person that gets it. It's just so much more personal. I just hope that sometime the kids get more into the whole handmade thing and want to participate more.