Christmas is almost here, and I think I’m finally finished making felt food.   Here is the current food collection:

I’ve already posted pictures and details about some of this stuff, but I’ve made quite a bit more since the last time I posted.

We now have a pizza that comes apart for lots of pizza-making fun.  The crust has a piece of cardboard sewn into it to make it rigid, and then the sauce, cheese, and toppings are all separate pieces so they can be taken apart and put back together any way he likes.  The pizza pan came from Goodwill.

There’s also a banana that comes out of its peel.  I love this!

For my first attempt at the banana, I used four elongated ovals, but it ended up looking more like a football than a banana (so I stitched some laces onto it and gave it to my boys).  For my second attempt (pictured – I’m very happy with how it turned out), I used just three pieces of white felt, and made them much longer and thinner than my original try.  It worked much better.  The peel is three pieces of yellow felt and three pieces of white felt (all the same size as the three pieces of white felt that make up the banana).  This probably took nearly two hours to make, including both attempts.  It’s one of the more complicated pieces I’ve made, but it turned out very cute.

In addition to the banana and the strawberries that I posted a while ago, I’ve made an assortment of other fruits and veggies.  A watermelon slice, celery sticks (two of them are stuffed with peanut butter), a cucumber slice, carrots and carrot slices, banana slices, several varieties of berries, spinach leaves, tomato slices, apple slices, a lemon slice, a broccoli floret, and some asparagus.  Some of these I came up with on my own, and a couple were inspired by other sites.  (asparagus, carrots).  I just found a tutorial for a broccoli floret that looks much easier than what I did, so I think I might have to add a few of those…

I was browsing around on etsy looking for inspiration, and I found these adorable ice cream cones with removable ice cream and multiple flavors.  I had to make some.  So now we have an ice cream cone with four flavors of ice cream:  blueberry, spinach-mint (try it – it’s yummy!), vanilla, and raspberry. 

I’ve made three eggs.  There are still a lot of spaces in that egg carton, but not a lot of days before Christmas.  So he’s probably going to get an egg carton with lots of empty spaces and three eggs in it.

I found this adorable little Melissa & Doug muffin pan and oven mitt at Goodwill last week ($1.49 for the set) and couldn’t resist.  I made a banana muffin and a blueberry muffin to go with the cupcake that I made a while ago.  I may or may not get another muffin made to go in the fourth hole.  Our son has been using my muffin pans and filling the holes with blocks for about the last year (and then he sticks them in his “oven” which is the space under the coffee table).  So I’m thinking he’ll figure something out for that fourth hole if I don’t get another muffin made.

A slice of bread and Swiss cheese were among the first things I made, but I’ve now finished the sandwich – it has a leaf (lettuce?  Too dark?  Let’s say it’s kale.  That would be perfectly normal in our house), a tomato slice, and cheese.

And to round everything out, we have more felt dessert than we’d have in a whole year if it were real.  But it’s felt, so we can have as much as we want In addition to the slices of pie I made when I first started this project, I’ve also made lots of cookies, a brownie, and a slice of mint chocolate cake.

Cookies are easy and fun to make, so I made a bunch of them as Christmas tree ornaments for our nieces and several of my friends’ kids.

I’m pretty excited for our son to see all of this on Sunday morning.  And I’m proud of the fact that everything we’re giving him is secondhand or homemade.  The kitchen was a Craigslist find, and all of the pots, pans, dishes and utensils came from thrift stores.  And of course, I’ve made all of the food (and rescued some food containers from the recycle bin, like my husband’s half-n-half carton). 

In addition to the kitchen, we’ve got two other presents for our son, both from Goodwill.  I scored a large box of Lincoln Logs a few weeks ago, for three bucks.  They were in a generic brown cardboard box, but I happened to look inside and was thrilled to find them.  I had hours of fun playing with Lincoln Logs with my brother, and I think they’ll be perfect for our boys.  I also found a large box of Flexiwheels building blocks for $2.50.  They’re like Lego, but they can hook together lengthwise on hinges or be clicked together like Lego.    

This is the first Christmas that we’ve given our son presents, as it’s the first year that he’s really old enough to understand what’s going on.  We’re not giving our 8 month-old anything, although there are presents for him from Grandma and Grandpa.  He will be more than thrilled with the boxes and wrapping paper from his brother’s presents, and will likely spend Christmas morning snuggled up with us, clapping his hands and watching his brother.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend.  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice!  Remember to enjoy the simple things.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been tinkering with felt food for at least a few minutes every day.  I’ve had a few projects (like a banana with a removable peel – picture coming soon) that took over an hour to make, but most of the items have come together much faster than that.  Our son’s play kitchen is going to be fully stocked by Christmas morning, and I’m having so much fun making the food for him.  I even made a felt pizza for one of his friends, and a bunch of felt cookie tree ornaments for friends and family.  My felt pizza inspiration came from this site, although I made all of the toppings double layer to make them a bit more durable and easier to handle.  For green pepper rings, I tried several methods and ended up liking this one the best.  They come together in about five minutes and look really cute.  Our son was watching me make the pizza for his friend (he has no idea that I’m making another one for him) and he liked to line up the pepper rings as if they’re a pepper and then “slice” them apart using a butter knife.  The 3-D structure of this pepper ring style makes it more realistic for that sort of play.

So now for some pictures of what I’ve been up to. 

An ice cream cone, inspired by this site:

A plate of pancakes that I thought of after finding a huge chunk of tan felt at a thrift store for a dollar.  I only had a few minutes to sew that day, and wanted something that would come together fast.  I stuffed them with some leftover felt scraps to give them a bit of dimension, although I’ve found that understuffing is much better than overstuffing with felt food.

The plate was 50 cents at a thrift store.  The strawberries were inspired by this tutorial and are actually pretty quick and easy to make.  They’re just a half circle of red felt sewn into a cone shape, stuffed, and gathered at the top using a running stitch.  Then you add little yellow stitches for seeds and sew a leaf-shaped piece of green felt on top. 

A few days ago I found this site and loved all the pictures of food she’s made.  The tea bags were so cute I had to whip some up – they literally take about three minutes, although I spent about another three minutes embroidering the word “Tea” on the first one I made:

I also really liked her “infinity bread.”  I had been thinking of making tortillas, but I loved the idea of wraps that would hold their shape when you roll or fold them.  She said she was keeping her trick a secret, but just seeing the finished product got me thinking about how I could make a tortilla that would hold it’s shape when you bend it.  I looked in my craft supplies and found a wad of craft wire that had come in a box of thrift store embroidery floss.  It was pretty thin, so I twisted two lengths of it together to make a thicker strand.  I cut two circles out of felt using a medium size plate as a template.  Then I sewed them together with a seam that was about an inch in from the edge.  Next, I bent the ends of the craft wire (don’t want it poking through the fabric) and then tucked it in next to the seam I had made, so that it was hidden inside the one-inch flap at the edge of the tortilla.  Then, holding the craft wire in place as I sewed, I made another seam around the edge of the tortilla, just on the outside of the craft wire.  When I was finished, the craft wire was encased in the felt, with a seam on each side.  All that was left to do was trim off the excess felt to even up the edges, and viola!  A tortilla that holds its shape!

You can roll it up with a bunch of veggies inside (still have to make those…) and it will stay rolled.  Very cool.

I think the picture makes it pretty easy to understand how I did it.  You can see the two seams – the craft wire is in between them.  This project took about 15 minutes.  You probably have some flexible wire lying around somewhere (that junk bucket in the garage, maybe?).  You want it to be pretty flexible – I think a coat hanger would be too stiff, for example – so that little hands can bend and roll it. 

I have lots more food and ideas that I’ll share with you over the next few days.  And as always, I’d love to hear about your creative Christmas gift ideas – things you’re making or doing or re-purposing for other people, instead of wading through crowds at the mall. 

I think I might be on my way to needing a 12 step program for felt food addiction.  I can’t stop making food!  It’s so much fun, and the internet is overflowing with awesome ideas.  Here’s the stuff I’ve made over the last few days.

Bread.

With a piece of Swiss cheese.

Apple pie (inspired by this post but made without a pattern)

Cherry cheesecake.

Cherry pie (my favorite!)

Mushrooms (more veggies coming soon for a salad bowl… I didn’t have any veggie-colored felt until today).  My mushroom inspiration came from here.

And a cupcake.

I picked up a bunch of felt this evening so I have lots of color options now.  If you look at the stuff I’ve made so far, it’s mostly pink, brown, tan, and white.  That’s pretty much what I had in my felt stash.  But now I have lots of greens, reds, oranges and plenty of other shades for whatever foods come to mind. 

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend.  We avoided the shopping shenanigans that goes on after Thanksgiving and spent the weekend hanging out with family, working on our basement, and – of course! – making felt food.  I haven’t been very crafty for the past few years, so I think I’m making up for lost time.  But I promise to write about something other than felt food soon!

It’s that time of year again.  You know, still a few weeks away from Halloween, and yet Christmas trees and decorations are available in retail stores, and holiday gift giving guides are popping up all over the internet.  Invariably, they are lists of the hot toys and gadgets of 2010 – the things that your loved ones will supposedly want and appreciate the most this holiday season.

But are any of you tired of the commercial feeding frenzy that seems to take over the last couple months of the year?  Do you ever complain about the crowds, the lists, the effort required to find just the right gift, the stress, and all the hoopla?  Do you struggle to rid your house of clutter only to find that it comes crowding back in – nicely wrapped with bows on top – during the holidays?  Do you ever spend more than you can really afford on gifts, and then find yourself stressed about money in January?  Do you get so excited about the holiday season that you build it up in your mind to be far bigger than it is, and then find yourself a bit let down after it’s all over?

It doesn’t have to be this way.  My own family (my husband, son, myself, my siblings, and parents) celebrates Christmas by getting together for a big family dinner, but nobody brings presents of any sort, other than a side dish.  We always have a great day together, but there’s no shopping (other than for groceries) involved, no money spent, no worrying about trying to find just the right gizmo for each other, no wasted wrapping paper, no gifts to return the next day… it’s about as stress-free and happy as a holiday can be.  We used to exchange presents when we were young, but my parents stopped getting Christmas presents for us when I was about 17, and started taking a family vacation at Christmas time instead.  That’s not really practical anymore now that all the children are grown, but we still get together most years to eat and hang out together, and gifts never cross our minds.  My husband and I did exchange gifts the first couple years we were together, but we quickly decided that we didn’t need a special holiday in order to give each other things, and abandoned the practice.  We have not given our son gifts for Christmas yet either, although he’s only two (we may change that once he’s in school in a few years – we’ll see).

My mother in law loves to give gifts.  Most of the time, the boxes she sends are filled with books and clothes, with a few toys.  We’re grateful for the things she sends, and I do enjoy making her a gift each year, usually something along the lines of a scrapbook filled with pictures of her grandkids.  It’s something I like doing, and it’s not stressful at all – especially since I really only have one gift to make.

In previous years, I’ve made ornaments for our five nieces.  I started doing it in 2001, when there were two nieces.  I enjoy doing it, but I’ve decided that the girls probably have plenty of ornaments now, and we’re starting a new tradition this year.  We’re going to donate money to a charity in each niece’s name, opting for charities that will mean something to each of them (for example, one is really into horses, so for her, I’ll be looking for a charity that protects wild horses).  Charity Navigator is a great resource for finding reputable organizations.  We also donate to charities in the names of a few of our friends each year, and for my husband’s father.  We’ve found this to be a great option for giving something to people who already have everything they need.  No clutter, and the money that we would have otherwise spent on random trinkets gets used for something much more worthwhile (and meaningful for the recipient, since we choose charities that are close to their hearts).  For most of our friends, we simply get together for a meal, or talk on the phone, or something simple like that.  We’ve simplified our holidays to the point where the Christmas season around here is pretty much the same as any other time of the year, but with a bit more socializing.  No money stress, no frantic online shopping, no fighting the crowds at the mall… it’s pretty awesome.  And there’s no letdown after the holidays are over either.

I asked a few of my favorite minimalist bloggers for their thoughts on holiday gift giving, and I want to share their wisdom with you.  Everyone has different ideas about what they want their ideal holiday season to look like.  Just make sure you’re being true to what you and your family really want, rather than what advertisers have tried to convince us that we want.

Joshua Becker, who blogs at Becoming Minimalist, is married with two children.  Here’s what he had to say:

As we enter the holiday season (and my birthday which is in December) here is our philosophy on gift-giving and its intersection with minimalism. It is likely to vary from others, but that’s fine and healthy because it works for us – and that’s what matters most. Our approach to gift-giving and gift-receiving is based on a couple of assumptions. Assumption #1: Giving gifts is an act of love and appreciation. And I think I could argue that it is more than a cultural phenomena. Assumption #2: For many, receiving gifts is a primary mode of being affirmed in love. Some would even define it as their primary “love language.” Because of those two assumptions, we have not stopped giving gifts nor have we asked relatives to stop giving us or our kids gifts during the holidays.

Instead, we have asked for more thoughtful gifts. Many people believe the lie that giving more gifts equals showing more love, but that is not the case. In reality, 1 thoughtful gift communicates far more love and appreciation than a whole sock-ful of trendy trinkets. For our family, this means we purchase 1-2 nice gifts for our children and each other rather than 7-8 made from plastic. And for our relatives, we try to purchase things that we know they need rather than things on sale at the department store… and sometimes what they need most is a nice dinner at a fine restaurant with a complimentary babysitter to watch their kids.

This holiday season, don’t buy more. Buy thoughtful.

Everett Bogue, who lives wherever he wants and blogs at Far Beyond The Stars, shares his thoughts on holiday gift-giving:

When was the last time you got a Christmas gift that you actually
needed? … You probably can’t remember, right? Well a few years ago I
realized this and told everyone I know to not give me gifts.

Why? Because people were wasting their money on stuff I didn’t need.

Here’s the truth about Christmas or just about any gift giving
holiday: you’re being manipulated by corporations into buying crap for
people that they don’t need. It’s a world-wide scam to maximize
someone else’s profits. All of your friends and family have been
duped.

The best alternative to wasting tons of money buying stuff for people
who already have everything they already wanted is to focus on
spending on experiences. No one will forget if you make the best dish
on the dinner table. No one will forget if you remember to hug every
single person in your family. No one will forget if you go on an
adventure together.

Don’t buy me another damn flashlight, instead let’s climb to the top
of a mountain or learn how to cook a duck.

Miss Minimalist, an American living in the UK with lots of experiences and very few possessions, shares her ideas for “invisible gifts”:

I love the idea of “invisible gifts.” For example, instead of buying your best friend a new scarf, offer to babysit her kids for a night. Instead of giving your mom a department store knickknack, cook her a fabulous meal. Alternatively, share your skills and expertise: do someone’s taxes, fix their computer, give them a massage, or teach them how to sew. These gifts keep the spirit of the holiday alive, while eliminating the stress, clutter, and debt!

I also like making charitable donations in lieu of exchanging gifts. The money we spend buying each other gadgets and tchotchkes can do a world of good for those less fortunate. The key is to make it fun: spend an afternoon with loved ones choosing favorite charities /together/. Selecting a sheep, goat, or water buffalo to donate through Heifer International, for example, can be a lot more fun than fighting crowds at the mall! Such an experience will make your holiday richer and more meaningful, and you won’t have anything to return or declutter later on.

Tammy Strobel, the blogger behind Rowdy Kittens, sums up a perfect minimalist, stress-free holiday season:

We don’t give traditional Christmas gifts anymore. Instead, we give our time and money to charity or contribute to our nieces and nephews college fund. If you absolutely have to give someone a gift, do it yourself. For example, make a scarf, baked goods or brew up some homemade beer.

Remember, the holidays shouldn’t be about sutff, but devoting time to relationships.

I hope you find some inspiration from these ideas, and figure out your own way to create holiday traditions with your family and friends that are sustainable (both for yourself and for the environment – throwing away a garbage bag filled with wrapping paper each year is not sustainable!) and fit easily into your budget.  The holidays shouldn’t be about shopping and stress, but somewhere along the line, that’s what they’ve become for a lot of people.  Why not make this the year that you start simplifying, relaxing, and enjoying the season instead?

I wrapped the baby shower gift this afternoon, and just had to post a picture of how cool it turned out with the little booties:

The brown paper is from a couple old grocery bags that must have been in my wrapping box for years.  I’ve been using cloth grocery bags for ages now, so these must have been there for a while.  Glad I finally put them to good use!

The bow is from a present someone gave me – I never buy things like bows and gift bags, I just save the ones I get and reuse them. 

The pink ribbon is from my scrapbook supply corner.

And the booties are a fantastic little thrift store find.

I’m going to a baby shower this weekend for the wife of one of my husband’s cousins.  I’ve known her for years and we get along well, but we only see each other a few times a year and aren’t super close.  In situations like that, I tend to stick to buying things off the registry (if it’s a very close friend or family member I’ll usually go all out with some sort of handmade item that I know the recipient will love, but if I don’t know the person as well, I figure the registry is a better bet). 

So I braved Babies R Us a few days ago in search of a gift.  The only time I ever go there is if I’m looking for baby shower presents.  So I have no idea where anything is, and I find the whole place a bit overwhelming.  I’m firmly in the "less is more"  camp when it comes to baby gear (and most everything else these days) and that is definitely not the idea they are trying to convey.  But I digress.

As I was flipping through the registry, I saw one of those things you attach to a car seat or stroller to keep the baby warm, and it seemed like a good practical gift.  When I got to that section of the store, I noticed that they only had one left, and it was a bit bedraggled looking.  It was still in it’s package, but it had been taken out and stuffed back in without being folded.  I knew that could be easily fixed (the package had a zipper on it, so it could be opened, folded, and put back in without damaging anything), and as an added bonus, that one last cover had been marked down to half price.  Score!  Since it was so inexpensive, I was able to pick out another item from the registry and get them both for the same price that the cover was supposed to be.  (later that evening I rearranged the stroller cover in its packaging, and you’d never be able to tell that it was messed with at all – good as new.)

I then browsed through the shoes and socks section, looking for something cute to tie onto the outside of the package.  But everything I liked was $10 to $20, and I had already spent as much as I had budgeted for the shower.  So I decided to just get the gifts I had already purchased and call it good.

My next stop was Goodwill, as I’m still on a mission to find a hat for our scarecrow.  No luck with the hat, but I decided to take a peek at the baby shoes, just in case.  And I stumbled upon the cutest little pair of baby boots:

They’re soft and fuzzy on the inside, easy to put on and off, and will keep tiny toes warm in the winter.  They’re brand new, with their original hanger still attached, and I got them for two bucks.  I actually like them more than the $15 shoes I saw at babies R Us. 

That was all I bought at Goodwill.  It’s been over three months now since I vowed to de-clutter, stop buying clothes, and start donating more (a lot more) and shopping less (a lot less).  I never would have thought that my formerly thrift store addicted self would be content to not even glance at the clothing or housewares section in the thrift store, but that’s how it is.  A year ago, I would have left the store with at least a few new treasures, but all I bought was a small gift. 

I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Last month, I decided to see how long I could go without grocery shopping, just by using up the stuff I already had on hand in our cupboards and freezer.  I hadn’t been stockpiling anything and we didn’t have a huge amount of food stored, but it was 15 days between shopping trips, as opposed to my normal 7.  And when I did go back to the grocery store, our bill was only about $40 higher than it usually is, so it was definitely worth some kitchen creativity to use up some of what we had on hand before buying more groceries.

There’s a great Goodwill just around the corner from the grocery store, so I decided to treat myself to a little thrifting that afternoon.  I spend a total of $42 at Goodwill…

We are going to a wedding in June, and I went looking for a new dress to wear.  I found this, plus shoes that are a perfect match and were still tied together with the little string that retailers use to keep pairs together:

I got a great stainless steel bowl that I’m planning to use as a planter, and a black pan that I can use to sun dry tomatoes this summer.  I also got a cute little wooden step stool for our son to use in the bathroom – and it folds into a chair too!  In the pan you can also see some Melissa & Doug wooden stensils:

A friend of mine is expecting a baby girl this spring, and I got this adorable little dress/bloomers set, along with about four yards of super cute fabric that I will use to make something for the baby.  I haven’t decided what I’m making yet, but I’m sure inspiration will strike:

I also got a complete croquet set for out backyard:

And even though I know that I don’t need any more clothes, I did buy two tops for myself.  The brown one is LOLE, and I could tell it was a well made shirt as soon as I saw it.  After I got home, I looked up their website, and all of their basic long sleeved shirts sell for about $45 – $60:

All of that for $42.

Thanks Goodwill, for making it possible for us to have nice stuff and still fund our retirement accounts!

Last week, I decided to make a Christmas gift for a friend’s daughter.  The little girl is about the same age as our son, and we get the two of them together every month or so.  They’ve evolved from looking at each other, to poking each other in the eye, to running around the playground and taking turns on the slides. 

I wanted to make her some wooden blocks, and a bag to put them in.  The project ideas came to me while I was out on a walk with the dog, and the whole thing was very simple.  For the bag, I used fabric from a huge mu-mu that I wore to a costume party (and got at a thrift store).  As an outfit, it was pretty horrible, but as fabric for a little girl’s bag, it’s fabulous.  I lined it with flannel from those sheets that I bought last year to make diapers (those sheets just keep on going – I’ve used them for a whole bunch of projects, and they aren’t even close to gone yet).  For the handle and the velcro tabs on the bag, I used a waistband from a pair of jeans that my husband didn’t wear anymore.  Here’s the finished bag, filled with blocks:

For the blocks, I bought two sizes of wooden dowel, and the rest are just made from scraps of wood (mostly 2x4s) that we had in the garage.  My cuts aren’t the straightest, but it gives stuff you build with the blocks a bit of a Dr. Seuss feel, which I think is pretty cool.  I didn’t measure anything, I just cut the wood randomly, so the blocks are all different sizes.  The most time-consuming part of the whole project was sanding the blocks, but even that was fun.  I sat on the back patio sanding blocks while my husband worked in the yard and our son played in the grass with the dog.  Here are pictures of the blocks:

I finished the blocks on Black Friday, which I thought was appropriate.  Sitting outside sanding blocks of wood was a lot more fun than standing in line at a store somewhere.  I spent $8 on the dowels, but everything else for this project was from scraps of wood and fabric that we already had. 

Every year, I make Christmas ornaments for our five nieces.  I love making them, and the girls tell me they love putting their own ornaments on the tree.  Some years I’m stumped for ideas, but last week I came up with an idea that I really like, and I’ve made three ornaments so far.  Here’s a picture of the first two:

In my craft stash, I had kept a pile of old Christmas cards (this goes against my new clutter-free lifestyle, but my craft corner is exempt).  To make these ornaments, I cut squares and rectangles out of the cards, used a needle to punch small holes all around the edges, and then stitched them together with embroidery floss.  Each one took me about an hour to make, and they are a thoroughly enjoyable project. 

Overall, we’re planning to skip Christmas this year.  Our son is only 18 months old, and gets just as much pleasure out of a drawer full of wooden spoons as he would from a tree piled with presents.  So we plan to skip the tree and all the craziness this year.  But the ornaments for my nieces is a tradition that I enjoy, it’s stress-free, fun, and in this case, turns old Christmas cards into something new and pretty. 

Andy at Tight Fisted Miser is hosting a book giveaway that ought to be a good read for anyone who enjoys my blog.  It’s called 10,001 Ways To Live Large On A Small Budget, and was compiled by the editors of Wisebread.   All you have to do if you want to enter to win a copy is head over to Andy’s blog and leave a comment on his book giveaway post.  And while you’re there, check out his current plans to hike the Appalachian Trail for a month, starting next week.  He’s only going to be spending $200 for the month, and will be posting updates to Twitter anywhere he has cell phone coverage.  We can all live vicariously through him as he heads out on a fantastic frugal adventure.