Christmas Break Crafting

BYU schools offer short Christmas breaks, which I thought were fine as a student. However, for teaching faculty, it is even less time. By the time I graded all the final exams/assignments and submitted final grades, I had about 12 hours of "Christmas break" before my class next semester opened. Even though classes don't start until tomorrow, I still need to get all the documents, lectures, etc ready to go by the first weekend of January. And with the pending arrival of our little boy, there's even more work that I need to get done.

Despite the craziness, I also needed to get some projects done over Christmas break. I was fairly successful. I think the only loser is my sleep. I haven't slept great as I'm staying up late and skipping naps to get everything done. Add in the fact that I'm pregnant, going to bathroom twice a night and our toddler deciding to wake up more lately. Oh well, I'll sleep again in 30 years.
 
Before Christmas break, I made a few Christmas presents this year. I hope they are enjoying them. For a few of my nephews/nieces, I made Fort Kits. The idea came from Pinterest. All I did was sew the bags holding all the supplies to build a fort but that still was a small challenge as I made the first set of bags too small.

Then, I made two car mats for my youngest nephews.

Here are the projects I finished around the house:

Reading nook for Ashton's big girl room. I used modge podge for the letters and bought Dr. Seuss books from Goodwill. I felt a little weird cutting up books. We wanted a bean bag and couldn't find one that matched her room for a reasonable price. So I made it instead. The beans haven't arrived yet but here is what it will look like, except purple and gray.

Bow holder. I recently bought a bunch of bows for Ashton for super cheap. But I needed a place to store them all. I had this old board thing from college so I resurfaced it.

Bathroom artwork. This wasn't so much a craft as it was just time I had to make. I wanted some artwork for the bathrooms for a while and got one set for Christmas. Then I ordered the other set and we hung them up. I like them a lot.

Kid's bathroom

Master bathroom

Baby boy ties/onesie. This is probably the most exciting part of dressing a boy. You can't do many fun accessories so I made some bow ties and onesies that have snaps to use the ties on. The normal ties are tied around elastic so I can interchange those as well when he gets a little older. I hope to make matching hair bows for Ashton so the two can match some Sundays.

Ready to support BYU this fall

I also filled our new deep freezer in our garage with freezer meals. We should be good to go for the first month after baby boy arrives. Hooray! Joseph also finished a few of his projects including adding shelves to our entry way closet and installing a watering system for our garden (almost done). Everything done just in time for my semester to start tomorrow!