Christmas has come and gone.  It's become one of the most mass consumer driven holidays of the year seemingly driven more by money and gifts than love and peace.

As a mom of two kids (a toddler and a teen), I'm still trying to find places to put away all of the new toys that the Christmas season has left us with.  Even though it's been less than two weeks, some of our brand spanking new toys have already bit the big one.  It's almost as though you have to mechanical breakdown insurance when you buy toys these days!

When you're buying toys for kids, the quality of the toy itself is worth paying for.  Simple, long lasting toys will last through generations of kids. While the foreign made, shipped around the world, chemical laden plastic toy may indeed be "cheaper", the cost that it is exacting on our planet is definitely not worth it in the long run!  One of the most played with toys at our house is a set of wooden blocks that was handed down to my daughter from her grandfather.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to only ask for environmentally friendly things this year for Christmas.  That should make shopping a learning experience for my family.  My mom bragged to me the other day that she was going "green" because she recycles her empty cigarette packages....doh!

Onto something funner...check out these gorgeous purses made by Etsy crafter interrobang.  Based out of Australia, interrobang literally means question mark, exclamation point (?!).  I just thought that was an interesting/weird little tidbit!  She lists recycled seatbelts as one of her favorite materials to work with and recommends that you order with plenty of time left for shipping if you're in the U.S./Canada.

Both the purse and matching wallet are, obviously, made from recycled seatbelts.  Tons of cars are sent to the wreckers every year with the metal being recycled.  The seat belts were previously just garbage but have been ingeniously repurposed into these amazing purses and wallets.  The nature of the seatbelt itself is meant to be extremely strong and durable.  This leads to extremely strong and durable products made out of the junked belts!

I absolutely love the look of the belts sewn together and then having melted seams to make it even stronger.  The shiny stripes make a beautiful and completely unexpected striped appearance to the bag.  I'm certain that many people wouldn't even recognize the material as being a seatbelt but I'd love to fill them in on the huge range of benefits of upcycling!

There are a few different styles of purses and wallets available as well as laptop sleeves and messenger bags.  She even has an interesting bag made from upcycled billboards!  Definitely worth checking out this seller as you try to get your Christmas shopping done!!

You'll notice that here on my blog, I feature many products from Etsy.  Etsy is a great resource for finding green products that are handmade.  When you buy handmade, you're supporting small companies instead of huge conglomerates that manufacture overseas.  Etsy even has a feature so that it can search for products locally for you!  This way you can shop locally and remove the need for items to travel so far before they reach you.

There's a huge range of products that are available.  Many are handcrafted, some are not.  They have a bit of everything -- clothing, art and housewares are all available there.  There are hundreds and hundreds of completely unique, one of a kind items.  It's super easy to shop there too because once you've found the item that you want to buy, you just fill out an online form and pay with paypal or a credit card.  You've got to make sure that you order items for Christmas with lots of time for the crafters to be able to complete the order fulfillment as well as allow time for shipping if necessary.

I've found it very easy (and fun!) to communicate with the crafters.  Many are very open to creating custom products specifically to suit your needs.  What I'm really saying is that it's seriously time for me start my online Christmas shopping!  I'd better get to it...there's only 71 more shopping days until Christmas!!!  Yikes.

Now you can make sure every holiday is "green" with these eco-friendly designs from dreaminggiggles on Etsy.  This designer calls these creations "wreath cycles" as opposed to re-cycling.  Clever and super funky at the same time!  She has a Masters in Art Education and absolutely loves to create.  More of her creations can be seen at her blog site dreaminggigglesdesign.com.  She does a ton of custom painting and hand lettering of signs and plaques that are absolutely gorgeous!

These eco-friendly wreaths are made from old sweaters cut up into squares and strung together.  The Halloween wreath is made out of black and gray sweater squares and then draped in gruesome spider webs.  Grosgrain ribbon is added to as a hanger and as an accent bow on the bottom.  The Christmas wreath is made out of red and green sweaters and accented in the same manner with grosgrain ribbon.

These wreaths feel totally retro and hip at the same time.  Very folksy, funky and fashionable!  She makes them in full wreath size (approx 11 inches) as well as in smaller diameter sizes (approx 4.5 inches) for ornaments that would look outstanding on any tree.  I think these would be fantastic as an ornament exchange or a teacher's gift as well.  Check out her Etsy site for info on what's available before she's all out!

Another Christmas has gone by.  The holiday season is now completely over -- thank goodness!  Now's the time to figure out all those weird and wonderful Christmas gifts and gadgets.  It seems that every year there are even more and more electronic gifts brought into our house.  Even our two year old got a digital camera this year!  Funny that she got it right at the same time that my Mom got her first digital camera too!!  I can't wait to see what kinds of pictures that she takes -- both the toddler and the middle aged mom.  Oh boy, I hope she doesn't read this...

We also got my mom a digital frame this year.  It's kind of cool because it has an sd flash memory card in it that can go straight from her camera into the frame.  Hopefully this makes it really easy for her to use both the frame and the camera.  I really don't want to teach her how to do it a million times!  At least with the toddler's camera we don't expect her to know how to download the pictures.  Unfortunately, her camera doesn't have an sd flash memory card in it.

As for other electronic gifts that we got this year, I think it was just mainly computer, Wii and Xbox games for the teenager.  I guess that's why we really haven't seen much of him since Christmas.  It seems like kids are so much work when they're little and you just want a break from them and then they get bigger and disappear and you just want to spend time with them.  *Sigh*

Christmas has become so commercialized as stores try to get us to buy more and more gifts.  This drive has lead to people, especially kids, becoming more and more materialistic.  In these failing and uncertain economic times, stores are trying even harder to get us to buy.  This can sometimes lead to a huge excess of gifts for both kids and adults alike.  Christmas this year should be cut back to be a reflection of our changing world.  We can teach our children what Christmas is really about, depending on what your particular family values are.

There are some things that no family can have too much of for Christmas.  Of course, there can never be too much family time.  Sometimes it may feel like there is when your crazy Aunt Sally keeps kissing you and patting you on the head when you're 50 years old.  But in reality, family time is the time that is a treasure.  These are the times that will become cherished memories even if they feel pretty painful at the moment.  Many people don't have families at all or the families they do have are not full of love and joy.  If you've got a good family, let them know how much you love them.

Another thing you can never have too much of is friends.  To me, that's what Christmas is really about.  Spending time with family and friends.  Not spending money on them!

You can never have too much giving at Christmas.  Whether it's volunteering your time at the local soup kitchen or giving gifts to needy kids or whatever it is that you have to give.  Maybe all you have is $1 and no time at all.  Consider giving it to the Salvation Army guys that are always standing around ringing their bells in malls.  If everyone gave just one dollar, think how far it could go!

It's getting to be that time of December where if you want to send a gift to someone, you've got to get it done.  I've got a ton of packages to be sent out -- to New York, California and Halifax.  I haven't even finished my shopping for these gifts to be sent yet!  Maybe I should get off the computer and get to it.  I've got to get together all the stuff I need to send them -- shipping boxes, gifts, addresses, wrapping paper, and Christmas cards.  I haven't even finished making all the Christmas cards yet.  This year I discovered scrapbooking and card making.  I thought it'd be a great idea to hand make all the cards that we send out.  I'm sure they'll be lovely if they are ever completed.  It really doesn't take that long once you've gathered all the materials that you need to make the cards and come up with designs for them.  Then of course, you've got to get all the kids photos together, etc. etc. etc.  It seems like Christmas has a never ending list of "to do's".  I remember when I was a kid and I just loved Christmas.  I never realized how much work it was for all the grown-ups, I guess.  It's tough because you want to make everything perfect for the kids.  The hard thing to realize is that nothing is ever perfect and that they're kids and wouldn't notice even if it was!  Christmas isn't about gifts or decorations or cards or shopping.  It's simply a time for family, friends and joy.  I guess that's why I like to hand make things so that they are more meaningful.  Merry Christmas everyone -- and try to relax a bit!

I'm still frantically running around trying to get all of our Christmas shopping done.  The crowds are already insane at the malls, even during the weekdays!  Every year I tell myself that I'll get the shopping done early and every year, I don't.  Frustrating really.  Although on the other hand, there are better and better sales and deals the later it gets in December.  I've found that you can get even better deals by having the membership cards of stores.  It can be a pain to dig through your wallet to find the right card for each store but I've found that it is definitely worth it.  With the global recession that has seem to hit recently, saving money is a priority for everyone.  Money can definitely be saved without necessarily cutting back alot by really watching for sales, price comparasion shopping and having membership cards.  Maybe I should just get a bigger wallet...

Not Your Traditional Christmas Ornaments: 15 Ornaments for Those Non-Traditional Trees Not everyone wants to have photos of their kids hanging from every branch and home-made ornaments that kids have made at school. Not everyone likes candy canes (I guess). It's good everyone likes different things. The world would be so boring if everyone was all the same. I think we all have one or two wacky ornaments on our trees. We have a Christmas pickle for some reason. Here are some other people's special ornaments.

Not Your Traditional Christmas Trees: 15 Trees That Will Make You Scratch Your Head Not everyone has or wants the traditional tree that the term Christmas tree brings to mind. Check out some of these alternatives to the regular standard trees. They don't all scream Christmas to me but they're definitely different!