Advent Day 7

A whole week has gone by! How are your preparations going? Click the image to open the little box and collect your gift!

Advent Day 6

We had to really stuff to get this gift into the little box! We know you'll love it though, so just click on the image to get your next gift! (And pssst! Just nineteen days until Christmas... have you  finished your shopping?)

Advent Day 5

By now you may have figured out that my favorite song is O Holy Night. I always want to "fall on my knees" when instructed to do so. Again, click on the image to hear the next one.

Advent Day 4

Who have you favored so far? Our owl has his own idea, but he's not telling whooooo it is! Click on the image to get your gift!

Advent Day 3

Have you noticed the theme? In each of our 24 advent gifts is a child singing O Holy Night. This is KIDS in Kahoots, after all, right? If you want to collect pieces of a digital scrapbooking kit, head on over to Joyfully Yours, Susannah.

ADVENT DAY 2

Here we are again, peeking into the little drawer for day 2 to see what delightful gift we have for you! Click on the image and be blessed!

ADVENT DAY 1

We've opened our little Christmas tree ornament and found the most delightful little gift inside... and it's for you! (Click on the image to get the gift.)

Why girls like to make their own handbags

What's in your handbag? If you're like me, a whole lot of stuff is in there. Stuff you need, stuff you picked up, stuff you've forgotten. I sometimes jokingly call my handbag "the black hole," because short of emptying it all out, I rarely can find the very thing I'm looking for.

So one day I just got sick of it. I like to sew, and there are free handbag patterns all over the web. I collected quite a few to compare, and decided that no one had made the purse I wanted. Thus, I just had to make my own.

I wasn't particular about color (which is really odd for me!), so I decided to find a couple of pieces that would complement each other. Rummaging through my stash, I found some bright yellow and a more subtle print in tan and blue. Blue and yellow being two of the three primary colors made it a no-brainer that the combination would work.

But thinking through what features I wanted to see in my purse was not as easy as choosing the colors. I knew I wanted it large (because I often stick a craft-in-progress in there to work on during odd minutes). But I didn't want another black hole, even if it was yellow! So to prevent that, I chose to make a bunch of organizers and gadgets to keep things organized. Here's what I ended up with:

I like pleats, so I added them to the outside of the bag, made my straps wide for comfort, and I have enough pockets on the outside to hold my sunglasses, my readers, keys, pencils and pens, lipstick, and some business cards. I'm sure you would use those pockets for whatever you normally want at hand. There are no pockets inside, but with all the organizers you see here, who on earth would need them?

In a later post, I will walk you through making this bag step-by-step, and I can already think of changes I want to make!

Welcome to Kids in Kahoots!

Just a little about who Kids in Kahoots is. A craft cooperative, we are four daughters and a mom who enjoy crafting and wanted to see if we could turn a profit from our hobby. Lauren (Albuquerque, NM) makes soaps and sews. (Her daughter Monica does paper arts and daughter Erin designs clothing.) Annie (Wylie, TX) makes jewelry primarily but each year makes the most imaginative Christmas gifts! Claire (Haslet, TX) hand carves monster dolls and crochets all kinds of things. She also sews, paints, and refinishes furniture. Briana (Lewisville, TX) is technically a daughter-in-law, and is an art director for TracyLocke Advertising in Dallas. She is so crafty I don't know where to start, but her greatest forte is photography, which in my opinion is only matched by that of my son-in-law, Nathan (Claire's husband). I'm Suzi, a stay-at-home-Memaw to ten grandkids! I take care of Bri's baby, Remy, Mon-Fri so mommy can work, and in between bottles, diapers, and snuggles, I craft. My spare room has been turned into a studio, which I fondly call "The Guess Room" (having once been known as a guest room and now can be anything from a nursery to a place to entertain crafty friends, to a room for the grands to experiment with my craft supplies.) I grew up crafty, my kids grew up crafty, and now my grandkids are growing up crafty. We are, after all is said and done, a family that loves to create!

My other blog is Joyfully Yours, Susannah and is all about scrapbooking.

I'm glad to meet you here, my peeps! Check back often, because what ever is new or exciting at Kids in Kahoots will first be announced here!