Home(made) for the Holidays

I decided to be extra crafty this year, inspired by JJ's craftiness last year, and I made almost all of my gifts.  Here are the hand-made, and at times silly, gifts.

Last year my mom got this book for Christmas...kinda hilarious.  I'm sure she didn't really expect me to use it but I couldn't resist.  One year later...a puppet version of my famous cat, Nikolas James Pumpkinhead, was born.

However, I felt bad giving her only a cat since she is allergic.  I found a recipe for homemade Tootsie Rolls (her favorite candy) and whipped up a batch.

It looked like Mud Pie at first...

Then they got rolled and wrapped and placed in a Mason Jar!

My sister, and fellow blogger, is about as crafty as they come.  Some months before Christmas I was telling a friend about some ridiculous story from our childhood and he said something along the lines of, "You should make her a badge for that."  Thus the idea for creating her own personalized Girl Scout sash and badges was born.  Sorry, I can't tell you all the stories as they aren't all totally appropriate for the interwebs, but here they are!

Badges: U.S.S., Cuddle Buddy Badge, Survival with a Bear Badge,
I Got Peed on Badge...

Badges: UFO Badge, Secret Agent Badge, Lollipop Badge,
You-Would-Have-Made-Better-Badges Badge
P.S.  For those of you who don't know...my sister looks
IDENTICAL to my mom in this picture.

My older brother is a huge fan of Star Trek.  For him, I whipped up a couple of Tribbles.  Sadly, I forgot to snap some pictures.  They were fuzzy.  And I made them blue.

Kirk and the Tribbles

His son, my nephew Nate, is in 3rd grade and still thinks I am cool.  He got a homemade pencil bookmark and a couple of pencils.

Dad (founder of Jim Howe Concerts) received mixed CDs with songs from some of my favorite artists of 2012, namely Aoife O' Donovan, a good friend's daughter.  She is on the up and up so look for her to soar in 2013!

My little brother Zach was supposed to get a toy version of his dog Buddy, as I blogged about earlier this summer.  Sadly, the pattern we chose disappeared.  Instead I decided to make a gift for him AND Buddy. Zach got a "Buddy" hat and Buddy got a "Zach" hat.  It worked out perfectly since Zach took off on Christmas morning for Maui and we had been dog sitting Buddy.  The poor dog missed his BFF so much...I think the hat helped just a smidge.

Buddy in a "Zach" hat

The "Buddy" hat, complete with Buddy's spot