Christmas in July

All of our budgeting has me thinking about Christmas and what we're going to get for the girls. I'd like to keep it to spending as little cash as possible. Last year we went a little overboard. I started making a list of what we're going to get each girl. First, I'm on a roll and planning on finishing Mercy's birth announcement which I'll giver her for Christmas. It looks like this:

I've had it for years (like around 10 or so...) and I've been intimidated by it because it's not typical Aida cloth. But so far so good.

Grace is going to get this one:

She loves cats so I figure it's a good choice. Hopefully they won't take me long to do. But I do need to work on Grace's when she's asleep so she doesn't see it.

I also would like to make an Advent calendar if I have time. I saw this last year and I feel in LOVE with it. And looking for the link to the post I found this cute crayon holder and now I'm going to make one for Grace. Probably Mercy too for later on down the road. So many crafting projects and so little time!! I also saw a post for these cute as a button dolls. Perfect for Murp-a-durp! (our current nick-name for Mercy). All of these are linked from Homemade by Jill. I stumbled upon it a while ago and love her crafts! I wish there were more hours in the day :)

Ok next is monograms for the girl's rooms. That idea came from Craftastical and here's a link.

And here's a picture of what I'm going to attempt:

Obviously I'll do the girl's initials. And I may just do one for our living room or bedroom. We don't really have much in our bedroom so I'd be neat to do one with and M & B for our bedroom. Maybe right over our bed since we're missing a headboard. And I get to play with Mod Podge. I LOVE Mod Podge ever since I did the coasters last year for the fam.

Grace is going to get some hair clips as well. There's so many different ways to make these using fake flowers, ribbons, buttons and gems. I just saw a post from The Frugal Girls about "korker" hair clips that look so cute. So Grace is going to get a bunch of different kinds. I'm going to get a long, thick ribbon and attack all the different clips to the ribbon so we can hang it in her room and she can pick and choose each day. Now that her hair is longer and she's letting me style it for her, I think she'll really like it. I'll probably make a few smaller ones for Murps, but we'll see. It depends on how much hair she has come December.

I do have $100 credits with Eversave that I won from Hip 2 Save so I've been waiting patiently for a good deal to come up that I can get some toys or clothes for the kids. I also save Pampers Gifts to Grow points from diaper packages and random bonus points online. You can turn them in for rewards and stuff. I have a lot and I'm saving up for something big. Huggies has the same type of rewards program. And so does Disney Movie Rewards.

And my fave... SWAGBUCKS! I'm saving for amazon.com giftcards. I have enough for almost $25 in giftcards that I'm going to use to get Grace some Tag books or Leapster games.

And Grace really wants a spinning toothbrush. There's often coupons for them so I'll just wait for a sale. It'll make a nice stocking stuffer.

But that's the plan for now. A lot of homemade things which means I need to get cracking. Bring on the coffee and X-Files. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of late nights!