Handmade forever!

 I've been making holiday gifts by hand for a few years now, but this is the first year that I took the plunge and vowed to give only handmade gifts for the holidays.  With Christmas so close, and the whole country, it seems, plunged into the final, wild throes of gift-procuring I've had several people ask me lately how it's going with my gift-making.  They ask me this with a strange look on their faces--I'd say equal parts sympathy and pity with perhaps a touch of surety that I've either given it up or am going completely insane with the effort.  My answer?  It's going great!

I can't tell y'all how liberating it is to walk into--or past!--any store lately and know that I don't need to worry about one single thing inside.  Nothing!  But perhaps you already knew that.  And then there's the fact that I actually enjoy making things, so having an excuse to be at the sewing table as often as I've been lately is really nice. 

I do have a wee bit of anxiety that the relatively humble gifts I've planned and made will disappoint those that I've made them for, especially the kids on my list.  My oldest daughter, sophisticated 10-year old that she is, will be able to remember Christmases past to compare this one to, and I didn't go out of my way to whip up over-the-top gifts to "make up" for them not being store-bought.  But hopefully, the uniqueness factor will appeal to the older kids and, of course, the littler ones won't be able to remember anything different if I start them young.

Other than that, it's been about as low-stress as a Christmas can be.  And on top of that tremendous benefit, all this creativity is just making me more inspired!  I've got a number of projects in mind already to make for myself after I'm done making things for everyone else.  Money-saving?  Reduced stress?  Creative inspiration?  Why would I ever go back?  I hope all your making is going just as well!

(The owl pillows in the photo above are from Amy Schimler's free pattern here on the Robert Kaufman website.  Amy's blog is Red Fish Circle, and you can see some of the fabrics we printed for her recently here.  Her Etsy shop, where you can buy some of her colorful fabrics for yourself, is here.)