What I did on Black Friday

Black Friday seems to be the official start of shopping for the holiday season. I never went out shopping before last year on Black Friday because I thought it was too filled with commercialism. Well last year I woke up at a unheard of hour and trundled myself to the mall during a snowstorm and hate to admit it but I became rather wrapped up in the fun of it all and had quite a good time actually. I even saved a ton of money on the deals I ran into. Admittedly I spent more than I probably should have but I probably was not the only person in the mall that did that. I thought about going to the mall on Black Friday this year but just well wasn't as enthused as I was last year. So, I decided to try to make our holiday a little more homespun this year and have started making gifts for family and friends. These are some placemats that I have been working on to give as gifts. I hope the recipients will enjoy them!
For more ideas on home-made holiday gift making look at Colleen Babcock's website where she posted several links to different gift making tutorials http://www.themagicbean.typepad.com/
You can also find a nice tutorial on how to make a felt ornament along with several other homemade ornament ideas on A Creative Dreamer's Blog by clicking here http://www.acreativedreamer.blogspot.com/ Happy crafting!