Handmade Gifts

I made a whole batch of these cute little bags for Christmas gifts this year -- then filled them with yummy dark chocolate bars.  I taught myself how to embroider using the embroidery tutorial on purlbee.com (love their blog!), and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be.  It's actually addictive -- I want to do more.  I had picked up a bunch of different sized embroidery hoops at thrift stores over the past year -- it seems like all antique and thrift stores have these in excess!

I did most of the embroidery while playing "school" with the girls.  They have been lining up the stuffed animals (and their mommy) on the couch and taking turns being the kindergarten teacher.  We moved their easel from the basement to the living room and it has provided hours of fun for the "teachers" and their students!

 I got the idea for these zippered bags from this Etsy shop.  Lots of other bloggers have been making cute pennant quilts/bags, too -- I love this one here, too!  I wanted to make one like this for our front door, but ran out of time this Christmas.