•it's beginning to look a lot like giftwrap•

Winter is coming, the goose is getting fat. Rather than put my penny in the man's hat, let me introduce you to No New Christmas. Particularly, the rules.

No New Christmas was an effort by my family, put forth a few years back, to gift things of a recycled, made, or otherwise stridently not-purchased variety. When I say family, I mean Troy and myself. It was easy when we began, to include Penn in the fold. At two, he didn't have much of an opinion about NITB vs. No New. That's all different this year, as Lego has tightened its grip. Troy and I have been avoiding the topic. To No New, or not to No New? That is a different blog post.

I've never actually set about creating guidelines for NNX (sounds like a boy band), but I'm inspired by the recent ferver (my own) for advent calendars. You've seen these things–they number one through twenty-five, they help you while away the days until Christmas, they usually involve the popping out of wax figurines that taste sort of like chocolate. I started making a tiny-art shadow-box version last year, then abandoned it for baby socks. Until I get pictures, don't ask. (Ask Pinterest.) Lego has an advent calendar. There is now a Whisky advent calendar, recently admired by Huffington Post. Which brings me back to NNX (No New Christmas): could you D-I-Y a booze advent calendar? Could you keep it NNX? Perhaps. It all depends on the rules I am about. to. set. forth. Right here:

How To Achieve No New Christmas 

(or #howialienatedeveryone)

1) Use these guidelines to help shape your gift-giving season, not everyone else's. Be a good sport, and always be gracious when receiving any gift. From anyone. See Rules #7-8.

2) Gifts must be recycled, reused, repurposed or hand-made.

3) Consumerism is not the enemy–waste is. Feel free to buy something recycled, reused, or repurposed. Feel free to buy something hand-made by someone else. But before you wander into the gray with a plastic-wrapped bar of soap from some small company in Vermont, ask yourself. Is it really No New? (See Rule #8 for wiggle room.) A human hand may have, at some point, touched a set of Legos. Doesn't count. (She said to no one's husband in particular.)

4) Hand-made gifts can incorporate new purchases of ingredients. We need food to live. Seems like it should get a pass. Also, I don't want to be the one to begrudge you your peppermint bark. (She said, hoping her friend would read this post and made that flipping peppermint bark again.) Finally, it's unwise to recycle chocolate.

5) Gift Wrap must conform to Rule #2. But see Secret Rule #10.

6) Stockings must conform to Rule #2.

7) Service Gifts must... these are tricky. Are massages new or made? How about that wine-and-cheese-of-the-month-club? This is a wild card rule. Totally your call, whether or not that heifer is new. (Spoiler alert: you actually get to decide on all of these. It's Choose-Your-Own-Advent, and you're winning!)

8) Bonus Rule: when one of your gifts is made entirely of repurposed/recycled/reimagined items that you did not have to go out and purchase, you gain a little wiggle room. For other items, like the Death Star 10188.

9) Since there is no zero-waste alternative, I hereby sanction use of the USPS.

Secret Rule #10) Gift wrap you purchased at 90% off last year totally counts as NNX. xox

November 19, 2012 update! I finished my sock advent calendar. It was actually as much fun, start to finish, and it looked and sounded. I did manage to get some no-new Legos in there, as well. (Thank goodness for teen-aged neighbors!)

I've always loved Boxing Day. And the absence of the need to do anything on the day after Giftmas. The day deserves its own compartment and surprise.

One Snowy Day gave its life for this advent calendar. All beat-up, beyond-repair books should go to such fine resting places! xox

Spiced Pumpkin Sweater

Reconstructed sweater I made this week:

And the back:

I've been obsessed with felting/fulling old woolen things and remaking them into other things (hats, mittens, blankets, stuffed toys) for a long, long time now (13 years?). But these days, both felting old wool and reconstructing clothing are all the rage--to see what I mean, just go and Google "reconstructed sweater" or "refashioned sweater," or for some real fun, go browse the archives at Wardrobe Refashion.

The sweater above and others I've made over the last year have been particularly inspired by this etsy seller and this one here--though I'm considerably lazier about my construction than they are. Katwise and Movie Boy Productions? That's some high sweater reconstruction art right there.

Still, my sweater is super warm and cozy, and I can't get the idea of spiced pumpkin out of my head when I look at it. It's like all the fall color I could ever need, in one sweater.


EDITED:
I'm adding pictures here of the sweater actually being worn.

Further Adventures of a Thrift-Shopping Auntie

The pair on the right is for Lovely Girl Toddler (different from Lovely Boy Toddler who lives here at this blog), and the pair on the left is for Lovely School-Age Girl Child--both children of close friends. Lovely School-Age Girl Child has been hankering for some boots. Last year, I made her this refashioned sweater dress...

...which means I've been hankering for boots for her as well. I'm pretty excited they come with flowers on them, and I'm pretty sure she'll approve.

The other pair is for Lovely Girl Toddler, who, conveniently, has something of a Thing for Shoes. Sadly, they won't fit her yet, but on the bright side, they're too big, and she's growing right into them by the hour. I made her a dress last year as well, and the pictures of it are just as lousy as the pictures of the sweater dress above:

Now that I've thought about it, I'm kind of flipping out at the idea of her wearing that little sundress with these boots. To give you a sense of the ridiculously adorable size of these things, here's one of them on my hand:

They need a good cleaning/polishing, but they're pretty much my ideal boots. Which is to say that if they were anywhere near my own size, Lovely Girl Toddler and I would have to duke it out for them.