99 Days of Holidays – Day 4

Just a couple of things to address today.  First, this weekend is a great weekend to take stock of what you have / will need for the next several months, and second, this weekend would be a wonderful time to go do something outdoorsy, like apple-picking, camping, or hiking through the just-starting-to-turn fall foliage.  It is getting seriously gorgeous out there!

But first things first: just like Santa’s list (that we’ll start working on next week) I have compiled a list of all the basic supplies you’ll need to make all of the non-food crafts, gifts, and decorations for the season.  If you want to buy any or all of them, feel free.  If you want to buy some now, and others later, they’re organized in the order in which you’ll want to have them handy.

• Afghan yarn
• Afghan needles
• Dried herbs
• Dried pinecones
• Twine / jute
• Newspaper
• Branches with leaves
• Styrofoam balls and orange yarn
• Orange fabric
• Green pipe cleaner
• Wreath form
• Wool (an old coat or sweater from Goodwill would work)
• Coordinating wool (old mittens from Goodwill would work)
• Black construction paper
• Black ribbon
• 3 colors coordinating Halloween colored / themed cardstock, maybe 3 or 4 pages each
• Black tape
• Dry, straight twigs
• Snippers
• Hot glue gun
• Little glass tealight vases or glasses with straight sides (probably 7)
• Logs of varying dimensions
• Hand saw
• Sander
• Polyurethane
• Thick ribbon (in your favorite fall color)
• Old light bulbs or faux fruit from the dollar store 
• Faux fruit from dollar store
• Glitter
• Glue
• Stocking yarn
• Stocking needles
• Advent calendar felt
• Advent calendar flannel
• Dowel rod
• Cardboard 
• Exacto knife
• Glittery paint or more glitter
• Greenery boughs
• Fabric for Christmas pillows
• Premade letter forms (or wood scraps, nails, wood glue, sander)
• Letter yarn
• White wool roving
• Felting needle
• Mitten yarn
• Mitten needles
• Hat yarn
• Hat knitting needles (I prefer working in the round, you may prefer double pointed)
• Flannel (for hand warmers)
• Flannel (for blankets)
• Dry rice / beans (for warmers)
• Yarn for flannel blanket edging
• Plain slippers
• Yarn / embroidery floss for slippers
• Cardstock (any Christmas color you’d like)
• Plain dog bowls
• Porcelain paint

You’ll notice that a lot of this stuff won’t be wanted until much later, so don’t worry about getting things like the rice right now.  You’ll also notice that there are a lot of yarn projects.   No reason, I just really like yarn  Also, many of the projects are optional to give as gifts, so if you don’t knit, it’s not a big deal and you don’t have to learn.  Remember, these are all just ideas, and this is what I plan on doing; I don’t expect everybody to follow along to the letter.  In fact, that’d be kind of boring.  I’m hoping that as this project progresses there might be even more and better ideas.