Short is Long...
I know that I've been away from the blog for a good bit, but I have to say for a short work week this has lasted for-ev-er! I've not been super busy at work, but after work there have been so many things going on that I haven't had time to sit down and do any crafting (and sometimes I didn't even have enough time to think about crafting!). Hopefully that will all change this weekend, if I have anything to do about it.
Although I haven't done any crafting, I have been trying to get a head start on Christmas gift planning since I make all the gifts I give. The past few years I've always tried to plan my gifts out early and start crafting so that in case life throws some craziness my way I can still get the gifts done on time. Of course the past few years have also had me staying up until 3am or 4 am Christmas morning trying to get the finishing touches done on some gifts. I keep moving my start date for the Christmas gift creation up each year with hopes of finally getting things done without getting stressed that someone might not have something open Christmas day, and I hope I finally have it all right.
So, how do you do your gift planning? Do you organize your lists? Do you plan ahead or just wait until the last minute?
Since I'm going on my 3rd year of crafting all the gifts I give, I'm starting to see what works for me and what doesn't. I've been making a few changes here and there to how I plan things out, and each year I actually make a little more progress (I was able to make more gifts last year, even though I stayed up pretty late putting finishing touches on them).
Here are some of my planning tips for anyone else that has a difficult time organizing their gift crafting:
1. Keep a spreadsheet to organize what you are making.
It can be as detailed or as simple as you want, but it definitely helps keep things organized for anyone that might have even the slightest of tendencies to forget something. I try and put as much information on my gifting list as possible, that way I can keep track of my progress and see how I'm doing on my deadlines. Here are some of the things I put on my gift list spreadsheet:
- Who is on my gift list
- What I'm making them
- What supplies are needed for this project
- Do I have to buy any of the supplies or is it something in my stash?
- If it's a pattern that is online, I try and add the link to the pattern somewhere on my spreadsheet.
- When is the deadline?
- Is it completed?
- Any special notes
The past few years of gift crafting have definitely thrown some obstacles in the way. If I hadn't planned months in advance, I probably would only have gotten about 3 or 4 people's gifts completed. Plan ahead and give yourself enough time to leisurely work on the projects, this way you won't be quite as stressed at the end.
3. Don't wait until your gift list is complete to start crafting.
Some people are hard to gift for, and even harder to craft for, so don't wait until you have everything figured out to get started crafting. Last year it wasn't until November that I had my gift list complete, and I started my gift list in July.
4. Don't wait until you have ALL your supplies to get started.
Like I said before, you never know what life events will cause you to take some crafting breaks and take away from your gift crafting. If you can at least work on part of the gift with supplies you already have, get started. Taking advantage of every little minute of crafting time you can get can be very important, especially if you have a big gift list or plan on making quite a few difficult projects.
5. Be prepared for changes to your list.
Things are constantly changing, so be prepared to make changes to both who you gift for and what you gift. My first year I planned all these great gifts, and then some ended up being a lot more difficult to get done in the time frame. I was stressed out trying to find another gift idea and get it completed in time. The same thing happened last year, but I was prepared to deal with unexpected changes to the plan.
Hopefully I'll start getting some spare time to work on my gift crafting this weekend, if not for Christmas at least for Father's Day. If I come up with any other tips that help me this year, I'll be sure to let you know. Well, back to work so I can get the weekend started...
