a crafty christmas

Every year I get some fabulously great idea about some craft I am going to complete...and usually the only "crafty" thing I accomplish are my Christmas cards, which do take about one bazillion hours, so I guess that counts.

But this year, I actually gave away as a gift something that I completely made with my hands.  And I think that's pretty cool.

I'll let the pictures tell the story..

First, you're definitely going to need a crafting partner.  Because crafts are messy and irritating at times, and sometimes, quite frankly, you just don't have enough fingers to hold the ribbon down while the glue dries and put the ribbon on at the same time.  She should also always be prepared with a rolling pin and meat mallet.

 I wish I was some cool blog author and could give you the actual recipie for what we did this day, but I can't. We're kinda "fly by the seat of our crafty little butts" kind of girls. 
So here's what we used:
refined white sugar
florida raw crystallized sugar
brown sugar
olive oil
(did I mention olive oil?)
calendula and shea butter baby lotion
essential oils
the meat of the inside of a vanilla bean (I cannot lie....we are SO cool)

And we put all kinds of various proportions of the above stuff into my kickin new Kitchen-Aid and Sugar Srub we made.  We took turns coming up with scents, while I wrestled with the containers trying to glue to stupid freaking ribbon on (it was really a tiresome process...better planning next time).

The scrub came out really neat...it made our hands feel like silk, but was also kinda the color of baby poo.  Also something to think about next year.  However, I gave mine to my friends at our annual Christmas tradition lunch, and one friend already told me how much she loved it, however she is also a really nice person, so we'll see...

We (really Britty) made mugs with cocoa and "smarshmellows" (as Carter would call them) and peppermint tea and lemon poppyseed bread for Britty to give to friends/family, whatnot...

I'd say this year far rocked out the year I tried to make sleeping pants for everyone.  I am laughing out loud on my couch thinking about those ridiculous things.  This is why I buy clothes.  But this day, we didn't buy, we made.  And not because we are extraordinarily poor, but because we wanted to give something that showed we cared.  A labor of love, if you will.

And...if nothing else.  It was a really freaking fun day.

 and dum...dum...dum...da..dum...my favorite picture of the day...