holiday handmade and the stress of christmas

I can't even begin to describe the amount of stress that the holiday brings each year. I keep having to remind myself that my Christmas is super easy...I don't have family coming in town which means that my house really doesn't have to be as clean as it should be. I don't have that many people to get gifts for, just the fam. But all of that doesn't really matter because there still seems like there are a billion and ten things to do!

Some of which are (and need to be done this week if not within the next couple of days!)

• Finish making all of my gifts...only 4 or 5 more to go!
• Wrap all of the gifts and put them under the tree so that I can share a beautiful photo of my very first Christmas tree!
• Finish up a custom doll (okay, that needs to be done ASAP!)
• Finalize the design for my best friend's save the date/holiday card
• Re-design my holiday card and print it on my very new Gocco printer! (More to come about that...)
• Address and send out my cards.
• Stay sane.

Christmas is in 11 days from today. ELEVEN DAYS! I am spending Christmas this year in Houston with la familia and actually need to get all of this done in only 9 days. Whooped-de-do!

This year I decided to take the handmade pledge. What this means is that I have pledged to only buy handmade gifts or make my own gifts this year and have also asked for my friends and family to do the same. There are many reasons that I took the handmade pledge and here are a few:

• ONE: I'm broke. And making gifts is (sometimes) way less expensive.
• TWO: I hate the idea of junk. Just look around your house. How many things do you actually need? Very little. And how many gifts have you received in the past just because you want them? Probably a lot. Please don't get me wrong here, because there are tons of presents that I receive that I absolutely love and may not have any specific need for them, but I love them anyways. But buying handmade or creating gifts makes to really think about what you are giving.
• THREE: Handmade comes from the heart. Pure and simple. Handmade gifts take time, energy, and love to make.
• FOUR: They are unique and can be one-of-a-kind.
• FIVE: Handmade just rocks!

With all of that said, I have been oohing and awing over gorgeous embroidered hoops by designers all over etsy. I particularly like the designs by Chez-Sucre-Chez and September House. And so I made my own little embroidered hoops for my co-workers. I also thought that just a hoop wasn't really enough, so they each got their own matching embroidered tea towel! Each gift was made with lots of love and lots of thought!