christmas ideas.

I tried working on a rather ambitious project yesterday. It's a Christmas present, so I won't go into details. I didn't get very far with it. In fact, I got just far enough to realize it's going to be harder to do than I thought. I'm going to figure it out, but I wasn't up to the task yesterday.

My goal is for all of the gifts John and I give this year to be handmade. A couple of them might be made using John's fancy-pants computer, rather than something more traditional like a sewing machine or Elmer's glue, but this is my plan and I make the rules. I've almost finished my sister's present. I know what I want to do for my mom, but I'm not sure when I'll ever be able to actually go get the stuff to make it. My dad's gift is a little up in the air still. I have no ideas yet for my brother-in-law or my father-in-law, but I've got ideas like crazy for my nephews. Some of my ideas for the boys include:
Soap with little toys suspended in it
Dress-up hats (this might be too hard for me, we'll see)
Felt puppets
Crayon rolls, like this
And I've also thought of some stuff that might be fun to do with printable magnet paper, if I can find it.

It's the beginning of October, so I'm giving myself until mid-November to start working on these things in earnest. If I'm still nowhere with the gift-making process by then, I'll break down and start shopping. We shall see...