53 days??!!

Did I read that right? 53 days until Christmas??!! Yikes! I'd better get cracking. (I put a countdown banner on the bottom of the blog to remind me...) Last year I took the handmade pledge but took it a bit further, I made most of what I gave as gifts and purchased the "ingredients" from local small businesses. I don't have a huge budget for Christmas but it was paid for with cash and I figured that that mal-wart would survive whether or not I spent money there or not. The difference was when I shopped at the smaller stores I was genuinely greeted and thanked for shopping there and they meant it! I worked really hard last year trying to come up with things people would use and enjoy and most of the recipients got hand knit socks, some were made from locally raised alpaca fiber and some were wool, all were a labor of love. This year I'm planning another handmade Christmas; I've written all the things I need to do before Christmas and if I don't sleep a wink between now and Christmas I'll be done by Valentines day! We'll see how it goes and I'll try to post some of the things I make here. One of which is goat's milk soap, seeing as it takes 4 weeks to cure I'm off to do that now. I think I'll start with either peppermint or balsam....

one pair of last years socks... warm and snugly alpaca!