Another Piggy Back

Here is a little jewel I picked up yesterday at the after Christmas sales, Its about the size of a lunch box.
Inside it holds a loaf pan, how cute will this be to sew up for next Christmas?

I'm gonna send you over to Carla at http://halfdozendaily.blog.com/ today to check out her "Ti's The Season" post from December 26th, this is a GREAT post to help you get on track for Christmas 2012. After 8 hours of free motion quilting yesterday afternoon I sat down and did some planning of our own for next Christmas. Here is what I came up with

We went over budget this year but manly due to some large charitable donations, we were pretty much on track for gift giving (other than hubby who never stays on budget) Here are a few of the keys for us staying on track.

I shopped sales during the year for practical useful things for our big kids, even found a few fun things along the way. I made all of our gifts for friends as well as a few for our own family that were all a hit. We shopped early then stayed out of the stores, good thing since Masons arrival and jury duty came into play!! I squirreled away $$ during the year to have cash available at Christmas time. On to what we will be changing.

We are headed to the bank this AM to open an additional checking account that will be devoted to Christmas, gift giving and vacations. I am driving myself crazy playing with numbers for various things we save for during the year, we can have up to 5 free accounts at our bank so there will be no cost involved. At some point I will figure out how much we need to add to the account each pay period so we are set for Christmas and the trips we have planed, all in good time! We or our girls always need some last minute inexpensive gifts during the holidays, the bag pictured above might just be the thing for next year. I wish I was a better photo taker, the picture doesn't do the bag justice, sewn up in some bright cute fabric it could be a super cute Birthday gift or pick me up gift for a friend in need. At Christmas a nice loaf of bread or bag of cookies would be simple, affordable, yet appreciated by anyone. Cost of the bag, $3.00!! I can't buy a pattern for that price, I have a few GC from Christmas that I can use to hit the after Christmas fabric sales, gonna hold off and hit the sewing center after New Years to see if I can get an even better deal. I also picked up a few other clearance things yesterday as I was returning a gift from hubby (what was he thinking) that will be Christmas gifts for 2012 once I work them over a bit.

Off to shower, breakfast with some buddies, the bank then home for lots more free motion quilting, I have 2 gifts that need to get in the mail ASAP!!