Homemade Christmas: Update

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While everyone else is combing the stores for the perfect (expensive) Christmas presents, I'm at home, slowly making my way through my list of presents to create for my family. I thought I'd give you an update on how that's going! There's a month left till Christmas (well, almost), so I had better be making progress!

Here are the projects I'm working on:

Vanilla Extract -- It's actually starting to smell a little like vanilla, instead of just alcohol! I made mine with "bourbon vanilla beans" and bourbon (most vanilla is made with vodka), so it has kind of a unique scent and should have a unique flavor. I haven't found bottles appropriate to send it in, yet, so I'll have to hunt some up soon.

Doll diapers -- I have most of the pieces cut out for these, but haven't done any sewing yet. Unfortunately, when I bought some of the fabric, I underestimated how much I'd need. I'm waiting on the sales (hopefully NOT just today because I do not want to brave Black Friday crowds if I don't have to!) to pick up the rest. These really shouldn't take long, though.

Rice-filled heating pads -- I have most of these cut out, too. I'm doing a set that consists of 1 long, 1 - 2 short (depending on how much fabric I have), and 1 U-shaped one for around the shoulders. I'd love to have enough so there would be one for the shoulders, one for the low back, and two small ones for arms/legs or whatever else is sore. I'm also using these to safely heat Daniel's bed sometimes these days so they really do have endless uses!

Bath and Body products -- I finally have my shea butter, cocoa butter, and several essential oils on order. I haven't come up with my exact recipe, but I'll write a blog about what I did when I get my stuff!

Candles -- I've thought about it. A lot. But I haven't tried anything. That's pretty sad, seeing as I've had all the necessary stuff for over a month now, maybe even longer than that.

Blankets/sheets -- I meant to cut these last weekend. They WILL be cut, and some sewn, before the end of this weekend!

So, clearly I have a lot more work to do! But I have picked out what I'm getting for everyone and I have gotten a start. Hopefully I will have it all done by Dec. 19 and wrapped up and pretty. We're putting our tree up today, so it'll be nice to have some presents to put underneath! Bekah's pretty excited about the tree this year, she is starting to sort of understand what is going on.

How is your Christmas planning going? Did you get a lot of great deals today?