We had an…interesting anniversary. Jim was going to try to get home at 5 and we were going to go eat at Steak and Ale, which is one of those places we usually only go for anniversaries. But he didn’t get home til after 7. When we got to Steak and Ale, they couldn’t get us in til 8:15. We drove to Outback — and the parking lot was overflowing so we didn’t even go in. We tried a new nice restaurant — and they couldn’t get us in for 45 minutes to an hour. Being both a Friday night and close to Christmas, a lot of people were eating out! At one point Jim jokingly said, “We could go to Wendy’s,” but I was seriously thinking of suggesting it! I hadn’t eaten much during the day and was starting to get a headache: my desire to eat something soon won out over my desire to eat at a nicer restaurant. So we ended up at Ryan’s, a buffet place that serves steak. Not that Ryan’s isn’t a good restaurant — it’s just not where people would normally got to celebrate anniversaries, I don’t think. 🙂 But I had been wanting to try this one out as it was new, and the food was good, and we had time to spend with each other, which was the main point.

I have been bookmarking some really neat crafty posts from various blogs. I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually have time during December to do anything crafty. A couple of my favorite ornaments and decorations were made last year after Christmas. So I am going to do the same this year: it might just become a tradition. 🙂 The week or two after Christmas everyone’s usually off and our regular schedule (school, homework, etc.) is still pared down, and I am still feeling Christmasy, and many of the supplies are still available (and even marked down!)

These are some things that caught my eye. I hope to do some of them in the weeks ahead.

Sew, Mama, Sew! has been hosting a Handmade Holiday series for many weeks with tutorials from different bloggers featured every day. You can peruse the various craft items by topic.

Melissa Goodsell at One Crafty Mumma or Day to Day (not sure which is the actual blog name. I think I discovered it from Sew, Mama, Sew! but I can’t remember)  posted some tutorials for cute denim Christmas tree ornaments, table setting mini bags, and Christmas mittens (tutorial for the last at disdressed.)

Through Kisses of Sunshine’s Homemade With Love event I saw these cute gingerbread man ornaments at  I Have to Say.

One of the things I made after Christmas last year was the button wreath shaped like a heart and a button ornament that I’ve shown many times: shimandsons posted a tutorial of how to make button wreaths here. Hers is in a square shape, but you can make it any shape you want. I found a heart shaped template last year just by searching for “heart shape” in Google images.

While we’re talking about buttons, there are some adorable button trees here at inspire.com and Gingham World showed another tree covered in felt and buttons.

There is another set of adorable mitten oranments at A Feathered Nest.

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home showed ways to make beautiful tags out of old Christmas cards.

Artsy-crafty babe showed how to make a neat potholder from a dishtowel — nice for gifts — or for yourself. 🙂

And, these are more for fall, but whip up has some cute multimedia leaves.

Such inspiration — I love to see what people come up with! This ought to feed that creative urge for a little while.