Christmas in July

Here are the other little cross-stitching projects that I promised to post for Chloe. The first one still needs to be framed and the second one is actually a gift tag I attached to my mother-in-law's Christmas gift since I know she really appreciates crafty things, cross-stitching in particular. The little light bulb design is so quick & easy. I made a bunch of them as gift tags. If you have never cross-stitched before, a pattern like that could be cranked out in about an hour or two:


Oh, I can't forget the paper bag album I made for my dear sweet cousin, Ky-Ky {as I used to call her when I was a kid}:

Now for my Christmas in July idea. It seems like I *never* have enough time around the holidays to do all the crafty holiday things I want to do, including making great homemade gifts which are thoughtful and won't break the bank, so here is what I am planning to do. I am setting aside one smallish rubbermaid container which will be my Christmas in July box. Any craft items I collect or items needed for making gifts will be going in this box. That way when I am looking at garage sales for mason jars or small trinkets for my pirate jars, I will have a place to store them. I bought a cool wooden Christmas tree shadow box at Hobby Lobby which is going in the box to be decorated in July. I also have a computer document started titled "Christmas in July" with all the ideas for homemade gifts & decorations, which I can add to when I find a cool idea. I also hope to make my own Christmas cards, which is another thing that gets filed in the always-want-to-do-but-run-out-of-time holiday box. As I collect the cards or paper or envelopes for those, I can put them in my Christmas in July box. I've come across instructions for making chocolate lip gloss {for my girlfriends} and some scented rice heating packs for those gift recipients with aching muscles. I think I will just pick one weekend & make that my Christmas in July weekend where I work on all these projects & maybe send hubby and the kids away to his parents or something. Maybe some of my other real life friends will join me to make their own Christmas goodies. Maybe I can have a Christmas in July party. What fun! Oh yeah, another thing I've always wanted to make is my own Christmas advent calendar. I'm still looking for ideas for that! This will be my last Christmas post until July.....