I Love You, Wednesdays

Being the homemade Etsy advocate that I am, it only seemed fitting to buy the bulk of my Christmas gifts for others from my favorite website this year :) I started a few months ago when I sat down with my husband to discuss who was getting what: gift cards for the hard-to-please, jewelry for those who would appreciate it, and Etsy gifts for the rest! For the Hub's grandparents who love to cook, we figured personalized aprons would be the best bet. For his grandma, I found a plain customizable teal-colored apron on which we could embroider "Caroline's Kitchen" (cause, let's face it, woman rule the kitchen, and not in a pregnant and barefoot kind of way!). The seller, Significant Stitch, was super great with correspondence and making sure I got exactly what I wanted. In the end, and only $22 later, we got this looker! We ordered a similar one for the Hub's grandpa Norbert, embroidering the words "Norbert Sherbet" (spelled funny, though sound the same!) in red on a plain black adult male apron (which wasn't too easy to find at first, but I finally got a deal from She's In Stitches for only $30 total, which included a great gift bag, too!). Sadly, though, I forget to take a picture before I wrapped it! Check out the original listing here and use your imagination! Next on my list was a computer sleeve for my Hubs. Though the Mac store had lots from which to choose, I was pretty persistent in insisting we support homemade as planned and find one on Etsy! Though we found lots of options, the Hubs finally chose a green and blue brachiosaurus (vegetarian, yeah!) sleeve from Lollington. Though the Hubs knew I was going to order the sleeve for him, what he didn't know was that I asked the creator of the item to also, if possible, put his initials somewhere on the sleeve, to make this expected gift a little unexpected! Turns out she was more than happy to oblige for no extra cost, and for only $44 later, we have this!:

Lastly, I was in the market for my own home -- we were in desperate need of Stockings! Though this is our second Christmas together as a married unit, we have never really had stockings since my parents always had them waiting for us at their house. Our fireplace was getting lonely! I searched and searched all over Etsy looking for the perfect stocking to go with my black, white, and red polka-dot Living Room with no avail. I even listed an Alchemy order request on Etsy asking for something traditional but funky with boas and polka-dots. Though I got lots of bids on my order, my husband wasn't too thrilled with the idea of boas on our stockings (why not?!), and politely asked I search for a more "traditional" design (have you met me? I am far from traditional!). We also wanted whatever design we purchased to be easily re-producable for when we have kids so we can match their stockings to our own. I finally found a great listing from With Love From Alabama, only to find out that the shop owner recently moved to Verona, Italy and warned it would take a while to process my order. Since it was then early November, I obliged (especially since the items were so flippin' cute)! Here is what they look like - I LOVE EM!

Polka dots - check; black, white, and red - check; advent calendar (paper rings) - check; red rose - check; crosses - check; a happy woman of the house - CHECK!

The material used on these is SUPER GREAT - nice velvet-like lined green and a soft and velvety red with felt-like polkadots and a thick canvas backing - which means extra sturdiness for all the stocking stuffers in this sock's future! I also hung super-cute Sandra Magsamen ceramic Christmas-themed crosses to cover up the tacky 3M plastic hook I used to hold the stockings up (I asked the Hubs to make stocking holders to match our stockings but gosh darnet finals and exams got in the way - next year they will be done!). I HEART Sandra Magsamen's designs and definitely credit her as a source of inspiration in my jewelry creation!

My little Christmas home :)

Thanks again to all the vendors who helped make this possible!