Thinking About Christmas?

First off, I have to tell you, yes, in my opinion, it is still way too early for Christmas decorations and music. But, now is the perfect time to plan!

It's mid-November, craft shows are in high gear and we're starting to get into make-ahead season. Now is the time to set aside some extra time and some extra money (if you haven't already) to make sure that Christmas doesn't surprise you.

I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what you are going to do this year. Just ask yourself some questions and write down the answers:

• Who is on your gift list?
• How much money do you plan on spending on gifts?
• What might you get for each person?
• Are there any crafts you need to get going on?
• How many get-togethers do you want to go to?
• Are you hosting any of these get-togethers?
• What goodies are you going to bake?
• What baking can be made ahead?
• And don't forget your family traditions!

November is a great time to get started on crafts and baking. A friend of mine has a craft show every year with her mother and one or two other vendors. I always go and usually get all my stocking-stuffers there.

My sister and I bake together, and we had our first session on Saturday. It was extra fun this year because now my seven-year-old niece is old enough to help (not just busy-work 'help' but actually help). We make our list, pick our dates and split the groceries. It's always a lot of fun.

If you start planning now, you can beat the rush and avoid the malls on crazy December Saturdays. If you can swing it, try going on a weekday-day during November to get a head start on your gift buying.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! Chow Down

Christmas is coming, Christmas is coming!

We all have extra shopping to do in December, let's help ease the burden and chow down! I challenge you to do less (regular) grocery shopping in December. Eat what you have, go 'freezer diving', get creative, and save some money!

I have the habit of putting  leftover sauce into the freezer. Plus I usually stock up on the meat that's on sale for half price at my store. I know I have another half a bag of black beans, plus a few 'cans' in the freezer. And I REALLY need to finish that box of rice I bought... too long ago.

Is your food storage in a similar state? Will you accept the Challenge?

Chow Down Challenge:

1. Wait as long as possible to go grocery shopping this month and buy as little as possible. (I'm talking about regular grocery shopping, not Christmas Dinner.)
2. Use up what you already have. Get creative. Dig to the bottom of the freezer and the back of the pantry.
3. Save some money.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! - How's it Coming?

Less than a month before Christmas. Really?!?! How's it coming?

I have my Advent calendar ready to go. It's a fabric one with pockets that you re-fill each year. I added candies and little notes in each pocket and it is waiting patiently on my crafting table for December first.

Baking is done. Well, part of it anyways. I probably will end up doing some more baking on my own, but all the baking I 'have to' do for my traditional Christmas is ready and waiting. I hauled baking stuff over to my sister's on three of the last 6 Thursdays and we baked... well two of those days I mostly just entertained my nephew (who was being clingy but oh-so-cute) which allowed her to bake. We have gotten together for the past few years to do our Christmas baking to have the 'goodies' we grew up with.

Shopping is started. My friend, her mother, and her niece had a craft show at the beginning of the month. I brought my husband along and we made a good start to our Christmas shopping. Stockings are done except for one more thing, his parents and two friends are done except for some baking I'll add later. That just leaves the 'kidlets' (our nieces and nephews) who get Veggie Tales movies, his brother and sister-in-law who needs more brainstorming, and each other.

Crafting is not really started yet... I know, I know! But I still have time. I have the fabric for the stockings, one is washed but the other isn't. And DH still doesn't know what he wants on his, but I can do mine first, that's OK. I need to just 'suck it up' and wash the fabric in the evening instead of waiting for the weekend (our electricity rates are hiked up the rest of the time). Adding that to my list now :)

Thankfully the only thing I put on my crafting list are the stockings, advent calendar (done! - I made the little notes cute with scrapbooking punches), and these mirror ornaments I saw on Pinterest. I figure I can do them for $2-$3. (Scroll down about halfway on the link.) Mini mirrors from the dollar store glued to Christmas tree ornament hooks and placed on the INSIDE of your tree. It's supposed to make it more sparkly. I already have glue, so this should be an easy mini-project once I pick up the stuff.

How's your Christmas progress coming? Is there something you need to take of your list to be realistic?

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! Feeling Crafty!

Happy Halloween everyone!

First off, I need to share my favorite Halloween tip with you before I forget:

COUNT the kiddies! Do it however you want - make a tally chart, count how many bags of chips are left and compare to how many you bought (don't forget to account for the ones you ate). Do whatever works for you, but count them. Write the number down and somewhere logical (I have a page in my holiday binder that I made up with cute, free Halloween graphics). Then next year you have a good idea of how many kids will be coming and how much candy to buy (plus extra for you). No need to steal from your kids' haul or get egged for being stingy :)

I hope you're all ready for the festivities tonight. My candy has been sitting by the door since we bought it, waiting patiently for tonight. I'll pull out my HUGE mixing bowl and pour the candy in and I'm all set!

I know it's still early, but now is the time to think about Christmas crafting, if you do any, or want to start. PLEASE don't over-burden yourself. Don't plan to make everyone on your list a cool afghan and then beat yourself up because you couldn't finish. Sit down and think about how much time you realistically have. Not how much time you'd have if no one ever got sick, had an appointment, or a flat tire that took up some of your time. Realistic time. Then cut it in half. Really. You don't want to over-burden yourself. Decide what you can do in THAT amount of time (half of your realistic time). Maybe make something small for several people or something big for one person. Start thinking about what you will make and pick up any materials you need so you can get started by next week to keep the pressure off.

I'm still learning to sew, so for me, this year all I'm committing to is stockings. I'm going to make us our own stockings. We've been using ones we just 'happened to have', but I want us to have OURS. I'm still having trouble deciding if I want to go 'classic' or 'fun' with them. But I have decided I want to do 2 or 3 coordinating fabrics mixing and matching for both stockings. So his will be made from fabric A and decorated with fabrics B and C and mine will be made from fabric B and decorated with fabrics A and C... make sense? Fat quarters should be the perfect size. I laid my stocking over a folded fat quarter, and there's lots of space for a seam allowance and extra decorating fabric. Now we just need to get to the fabric store :)

My sister and started our Christmas baking last week. We're doing 3 days over 6 weeks spreading it out and sharing ingredients. We made the freezable stuff first and will save the icing for the last day. We'll be finishing up on November 22nd, if plans don't change. Now THAT'S a stress-free holiday. I'll probably do more baking on my own, just because I can, but I'll have my Christmas 'necessities' done and no pressure on anything else.


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me on the Homemaking Diva Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/HomemakingDiva or by email at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Countdown to the Holidays! The Turkey Hunt

 It's October! Can you believe it? Neither can I! But it is, nonetheless.

October is time to officially kick off your holiday planning. And I'm not just talking about Christmas. There's Thanksgiving (and even Halloween) thrown into the mix, too. (Plus Hanukkah, or whatever else you celebrate at the end of the year.)

Head's up, Canadians! You have just one week until Thanksgiving! Turkeys are on sale, pick one up ASAP. Ninety-nine cents a pound for a frozen turkey is a good price. If you can afford it, pick up two and you have Christmas dinner handled also! That's my plan. I'm heading to town tonight. There are two stores that have turkeys on for ninety-seven cents a pound, so I'm picking up two turkeys. One for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas.

Later this week, I'll do the rest of the groceries. But I don't want to be going to 7 grocery stores the last weekday before Christmas hunting for turkeys EVER again! (That's what happened last year - boo!)

I like to keep my holiday meals simple and make up a 5-day plan (or so) I just recycle and tweak the last one, most of the time. I spread the meal prep and house cleaning over 5 days and then I only have a little bit to do each day. That'll be the job for tomorrow.

Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

 Please comment here or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Almost Christmas!

OK people, it's the day before Christmas Eve!

Challenge #1: This is the LAST day that you WANT to do any shopping, so triple-check your fridge against your list (if you don't have a list, you want a basic plan/idea of what you will eat from now until at least breakfast on the 27th). And check your presents if they're not done and get going! You want to enjoy Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day with family. Besides, many places will be closed, have weird hours, or be packed because they're the only ones open.

Challenge #2: Take something OFF your list! Make one less side for Christmas dinner, do one less activity, clean one less area (just close that door). YOU need enjoy Christmas also :)

Challenge #3: Pre-prep! What can you do today so you don't have to do tomorrow? What can you do tomorrow that you don't have to do Christmas Day? What can you do in the morning so you don't have to do right as Christmas Dinner is being served?

I have most of my wrapping done, just the gifts for my nieces and nephews left, but they're for the 2nd, and I HAVE the gifts. I'm hosting Christmas Dinner with my in-laws Christmas Eve. I'm making Saving Dinner's white bean dip today and one of my sides today. I'm going to make the mashed potatoes in the MORNING and put them in the crock cooker with a little butter over the top on 'keep warm' (this is a FABULOUS tip, but you really should TEST your crock before you try this for a meal, different crocks have different temperatures and as Leanne Ely says: 'Your mileage may vary' you don't want them to scorch). I'm also going to arrange my 'goodie tray' while the potatoes are boiling (and stick it covered in the garage).

So that means I'll only have one SIMPLE side to make while the turkey is 'resting' and I'm making the gravy :)

Saving Dinner's Christmas Morning Strata has become a tradition for us. (I usually half the recipe because we're only 2 people and then we eat it for a few days - love the toaster oven for re-heats!) It's super-good, decadent but easy AND you prep it the night before, and just pull it out of the fridge and bake in the morning! LOVE that!

Here's to a less stressful time! Merry Christmas!

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D

A Simple Christmas - December First

Christmas can get so busy... I love FLYlady's babysteps... Holiday Cruising is what she calls it. I'm aiming for a simple Christmas this year.

December 1st!! We're embracing DH's Scottish heritage this Christmas :) Today we did 3 small Christmas things:

1. Added plaid bows to the wreath and put it on the front door
2. Put up the tree (pre-lit, simple) with just the lights and our new angel for now
3. I brought up the Christmas dishes (OK, mugs and 1 glass, plus some hot pads and tea towels) and put the dishes in the dishwasher, put 'regular' mugs right back into the same box and put the box back downstairs :)

I started the Christmas Baking with my sister at the end of October. We spread it out over 3 different days, making 2 or 3 things a day, doubling some recipes and splitting everything. We finished November 25th!

So anyway, thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com

Have great day!

Valerie :D