Peppermint Bark

So good, nearly didn't make it out the door for gifts.

Keeping Mum & Dad's Hands Warm.

Gifts for my parents.
Patterns from Last minute knitted gifts.

Gentle, easy knits before holiday fun began.

Hoping the holidays have been restorative for you and your families and wishing a happy, healthy 2011 to you all.

Hand Warmers for Woodland Friends

These hand warmers are great and knit up so quickly, wonderful for beginners with no increase or decrease, just cast on, knit, purl and cast off, sewing up the side and leaving a gap for a little thumb to poke through.

Have a guess where the pattern came from ! http://www.ravelry.com/projects/nocton4/easy-kids-hand-warmers

The first finished pair are for keeping a friends hands warm now, her Mama blogs here

http://blackhobbescat.blogspot.com/

Then I have plans for around 15 more pairs, enough to warm every little hand at O's woodland group, yule gifts for play friends.

4 down, many more to go !

Come and be part of the blogging community, sharing ideas and projects, to make this Holiday a Handmade one, easing the strain on the purse and honouring Mother Earth.

http://plainandjoyfulliving.blogspot.com/

Grand Designs of The Tree House Variety

Today, was wood work day.

Lots of branch chopping, sanding and measuring, then some hard decisions to be made.

Where to position platforms ? which interesting, twisty piece of wood to use ? everything looked so good.

Finally, decisions made, everything was put away in bags for dealing with later, without the little people being around, we don't want any spoilt surprises.

We are using the wonderful instructions, found here
http://transitantennahome.blogspot.com/2010/05/toy-making-treehouse.html

Lots of other wonderful ideas for making this year's holiday a handmade one here

http://plainandjoyfulliving.blogspot.com/

Slippers go to, number 2, which is Erin over at http://wildasweeds.blogspot.com/ congratulations, please let me have your address.

The Start ...

The lovely blogger Tonya over at http://plainandjoyfulliving.blogspot.com/ is hosting Handmade Holiday 2010, sharing posts from readers and their own wonderful family creations, to encourage and inspire us all to use our skills to make gifts this year, rather than our bank balance.
I was completley taken with the idea of creating a toy tree house for O, after seeing this http://transitantenna.com/?p=1906 amazing post but having very little woodwork knowledge, thought it really wasn't an option, then a chat with a friend changed all that.
So sharing childcare and learning from his skills, we are creating not 1 but 2 surprise tree houses for O and M's daughter R.

Making full use of wood we already have, has seen 2 shelves and a bedhead cut to shape.

Sanding down is a job for this weekend.

Have you started making plans ?