Tuesday Tutorial -- Scandinavian Reindeer

 This is a wonderful Christmas Craft that you could begin making now to help get you in the Christmas spirit.  This is a textile craft and I think every child on your list would love to have their very own reindeer to cuddle while they wait for Santa to arrive, don't you?  Who knows, you could make a few just for yourself to cuddle too.

This craft can be found here along with many, many other wonderful crafts.  Please visit the site and try some of them out.  Let me know what you make and how it turns out, won't you?

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Adults and children alike will be unable to resist the charm of this soft toy—you just want to pick it up and squeeze it! The embroidered decoration is a simple back stitch. You can change the size of the toy by enlarging or reducing the size of the templates, but do not make it too small as the antlers will be difficult to turn out.

 

Taken from Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs, photography by Carolyn Barber and illustration by Kate Simunek, published by CICO Books. Text copyright Clare Youngs. Images copyright CICO Books.

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  Enlarge the reindeer templates by 200 percent, transfer onto the boiled wool fabric, and cut out.
  
  

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  Using dressmaker’s carbon paper, transfer the embroidery pattern onto the white felt semicircles. Embroider the motif in back stitch and French knots, alternating between pink and orange as shown in the photo, below, and using three strands of floss (cotton). For the reindeer’s eyes, work three orange French knots close together, using all six strands of floss (cotton).
  
  

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  With right sides together, pin one felt semicircle to each body piece, easing the fabric around the curve. Baste (tack) and machine stitch.
  
  

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    With right sides together, pin and machine stitch one hoof section to the bottom of each inner leg piece.
    
    

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    With right sides together, pin and machine stitch one hoof section to the bottom of each leg on the two body pieces.
    
    

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    With right sides together, pin and machine stitch the inner legs to the two body pieces along the side and bottom edges.
    
    

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      With right sides together, pin the underbelly to the two body pieces, taking care at each end to finish the stitching in a point. Baste (tack) and machine stitch, leaving a gap in the seam at the top of one of the front legs to turn the reindeer right side out.
      
      

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      Starting where the inner legs join the body, pin and machine stitch the front and back together. Match up the line of stitching and carry on around, taking particular care on the curves of the antlers.
      
      

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      Starting with the antlers, turn the reindeer right side out. Use the handle of a long, thin paintbrush to help ease the tips of the antlers out. Stuff the toy, using the paintbrush handle to get the stuffing right up to the ends of the antlers and taking care to keep the stuffing firm at the top of the legs.
      
      

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    Turn under the raw edges at the gap in the front leg seam and slipstitch the gap closed.

If you are buying for a pet lover this year, you should check out the bargains to be found at The Animal Rescue Site.  There are gifts for just about anyone on your list.  You can check out Global Girlfriend and purchase items on your list that will help support women artisans in struggling nations.  Your purchase will help shelters and animal rescue groups throughout the nation.  Check it out!  You have everything to gain and so do the animals and people being helped by this wonderful organization.

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• Shelters for Foreclosure Pets to Benefit From Rally to Rescue (nowpublic.com)

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Here's a video I found that helps you understand how to plan for the holidays in advance.  This is just the first video in the series, so I suggest you visit the site and watch the rest.  They are pretty good, but not all inclusive of the planning that you need to do.  Overall, these videos are a good beginning spot.  Enjoy!
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 Christmas is a time for family and rejoicing, for celebrating the good things we have in life. Christmas is also the time during which retailers and advertisers bombard the senses, desperate to get those dollars you've worked so hard for. But unless you're okay with losing a few friends, and possibly being ignored by a few family members, you are hopelessly obligated to get something for everyone you expect to speak to for the next year or so. Shopping for Christmas gifts can be source of extreme stress, trying to stretch your limited budget and still pay the bills. But Expert Village offers these free videos to help you create and execute a holiday spending plan that won't leave you eating nothing but black eyed peas for the entire month of January. Expert Melissa Schenk will teach you how to budget your holiday spending, first by making a Christmas shopping list, setting a limit on Christmas spending, and how to fine-tune your budget by brainstorming for gift ideas and separating your gift spending from your other holiday expenses. You'll also learn how to resist the temptation of buying for yourself when shopping for gifts. Skipping the expensive Christmas cards and fancy gift wrap are also great ways to save money this holiday season.

Read more: How to Crate a Holiday Spending Budget: How to Cut Down on Holiday Spending | eHow.co.uk http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_2371317_crate-holiday-spending-budget.html#ixzz0tba4Qg1e

How to Crate a Holiday Spending Budget -- powered by eHow.com

Strategies For Planning For Early Christmas Shopping

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Here is an article I found on Barbieinablender, which is a site that posts information about women's fashion and issues affecting women.  The actual article can be found here.  I think there are several really good tips for those who want to be organized and who want to shop early.  What do you think?  Will this work for you?

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Shopping early for the Christmas is always a good idea because you will find yourself ahead of vast majority of the crowds that only start their shopping when Christmas is just days or weeks away. Shoppers and other people generally will be green in envy this holiday season knowing that you are way ahead of them in your shopping for the Christmas and in fact, already finished your shopping by then. Having said that, you do not need to worry about getting stuck in the traffic jam on the way to the shopping centers and malls that are crowded with mostly last minute shoppers days before the Christmas day.

For those of you who appreciate the advantages of getting ready for your early Christmas shopping, I am certain that you have developed your own means of planning and accomplishing for your Christmas celebration. Meanwhile, for the rest of you who belong to the last minute shoppers group in organizing the Christmas shopping, you will be provided with some tips on early Christmas shopping for this year.

Planning for the Christmas shopping for the following year right after the Christmas this year is an excellent strategy that you can attempt to allow you to start and finish your Christmas shopping early. These methods have been adopted by many with extra disposable income. The pros about shopping few days just after the Christmas are twofold: Firstly, shopping right after Christmas can be enjoyable in the Christmas atmosphere. While the shops and shopping malls and centers may still be very crowded on these days, nevertheless, you can slow down your pace to enjoy the shopping in a more relaxed manner. Secondly, with grand sales still going on, you are in it for shopping big times and very likely, a great saving for your shopping.

The next big thing about getting your Christmas shopping done earlier is through purchasing online at the comfort of your home. Imagine that you can make purchases for the variety of goods and gifts online ranging from toys, fruits, wine, gift baskets, flowers and so forth at a click of your finger and the gifts will be wrapped brilliantly and delivered according to your instruction. The convenience of shopping online removes you of the need to worry over the wrapping process or long queue wait at post offices at some reasonable charges for the service. Therefore, if you like the idea of online Christmas shopping, remember to commit yourself to perform your purchases early in order to avoid disappointment due to short of stock or late shipment.

The other way to approach planning and shopping for your early Christmas this year would be purchasing at least two gifts for each of the person on your name list for their coming birthdays. The idea behind this is that while one gift serves as a birthday gift for the intended recipient, the second gift would be set aside as his or her Christmas gift. Not only would this allows you to break away from the crowd that swamps the shopping malls and stores near the Christmas seasons, sometimes, early shopping allows you to grab better and ideal gift which is difficult to come across at certain times of the year. I come across people who get agitated and stressful when it comes so close to Christmas that they have troubles finding the perfect gift for everyone in their name lists after hitting the shopping malls times after times. There is really no need to be in such a rush for the Christmas shopping should you have prepared earlier for your Christmas shopping and would have finished your purchases when the Christmas season arrives. Despite this, if you happen to encounter people on your name list with birthdays in December, that may mean some last minute shopping but what you can do is to mark down these people and plan the purchases of their birthday and Christmas gifts a month or few months earlier.

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Black Friday Deals online?

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Here's a snippet from a new site I just found called Black-Friday.net. 
This is really exciting to know that you can get the super sales offered on that specific day online--no fighting crowds, no waiting outside stores early in the morning.  That is really a great thing for those of us who plan ahead.  Check out the site and as it gets closer to the holiday, check out their Facebook page to keep up with specials.

Black Friday 2010

January 1st, 2010

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when major retailers around the country discount products to help kick off the Christmas shopping season. This Black Friday ads are usually kept secret until you receive the circulars in your Thanksgiving Day newspaper. However at Black-Friday.net, we give you the advantage by showing you all of the Black Friday 2010 ads before anyone else. We also offer direct links to each product so you can purchase the items online on Black Friday without having to stand in line at the store!

Here's a Carol Duval video showing a holiday craft--a reindeer sock doll

I love the Carol Duval show and I found this video showing how to make a reindeer sock doll for Christmas.  Here is the link to the video.  Let me know if you try this and show me a picture of the finished doll.  I may try this myself before it gets too crazy for the holidays.

Here's the link

The price wars between Kindle and Nook mean savings for you!

If you have a reader to buy for this year, you might want to take a look at a Kindle reader from Amazon.  Right now, there is a price war going on and you can purchase one of these readers for under $200.  Who knows how long this will last, so now is the time to buy.  Christmas will be here before you know it and by then the price may return to almost $300.

The Kindle comes with free wi-fi connection and the ability to access so many different types of reading material that it makes your head spin.  This device will allow you to read books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, etc. with ease.  This is a slim, lightweight device that is much easier to carry around in your bag.  No more wasting time waiting at the doctor's office or in line at the store.  Now you can be connected and be reading no matter where you go.

Here are just a few articles in the news about this topic:



E-reader Price War --Wednesday, June 23, 2010
On the Business Beat, our focus is on the electronic reader and a new layaway plan.
The electronic reader war continues heating up today.
Bottom line, the prices are coming down.
Target is now selling the Amazon Kindle, with the price down to $189. The price drop follows Barnes & Noble cutting the price on its "Nook" to $149, and its 3G model to $199.
Also out there, the Borders version, called the KOBO, selling for $149 [...read more...] 


Amazon Kindle sees price drop -- June 21st, 2010
Amazon just announced that their Kindle e-reader will receive a price drop to $189, falling all the way from $259. It would be interesting to see just how this rather steep price drop will help boost the Kindle’s sales in wake of the iPad’s phenomenal release and sales performance figures thus far. For those who have been living under a rock for the past few years, the Amazon Kindle is the 3G wireless portable reader which allows you to think of a book and be reading in 60 seconds, regardless of where you are – subject to availability of a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, of course. Best of all is, there are no monthly fees or annual contracts to worry about, and you can choose from more than 600,000 books. Woe to those who purchased the Kindle just a day earlier at the full $259 price, eh? Press Release


Bought a Kindle Too Soon? Ask For a Refund -- June 22, 2010, 4:43 PM ET
Some people who were on the fence about buying a dedicated e-reader may be celebrating Monday’s price war between Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle. For the first time, both devices now cost less than $200.

Associated Press

Amazon’s Kindle

But there was one group who wasn’t celebrating: People who recently bought the devices at their former price of $259. Both Amazon and Barnes & Noble were promoting the devices as Father’s Day gifts at the higher price (although Barnes & Noble was including a $50 gift card with purchases).
Now some good news: Both companies say they’re willing to refund customers who bought their e-reading devices recently. You just have to ask for it.
Amazon says it will give the $70 price difference between an old and new Kindle as a credit to customers whose devices were shipped in the last 30 days.
Barnes & Noble says it will give customers a $10 refund and $50 gift card to Nook customers who are still within their 14-day return policy period. You can contact customer service, or just find the store manager at your local Barnes & Noble branch.
Follow Geoffrey Fowler on Twitter.

For information on Kindle visit The Kindle Reader.