Behind the Scenes: A Peak at My Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Messes

It is fun blogging about my Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing!  I get to bring you lovely images of finished items and neat shoebox stockpile organization.  All beautiful and organized.  It's like I enter a shoebox dreamland whenever I am blogging.  But then I always return to reality.

I walked into my Operation Christmas Child shoe box stockpile hallway the other day and thought, "if they could see me now!"  I could hardly walk thru it at all!  I have been ordering a lot of items thru Kohl's and Toys R Us because of large gift cards I won on blog giveaways.  My daughter has carried them all downstairs for me -- after I dug thru them all to look them over.  So those and a few other local purchases fill the aisle!

Then I entered my laundry/sewing room...well, let me take you on a tour.


This is my shoe box stockpile hallway.  On the left are my boxes and tubs to hold my goodies, on the right you can see my fabric waiting to be made into shoe box gifts.  In the middle you should see floor!  In my defense, I want to wait until I spend my whole Kohl's and Toys R Us gift cards I won and take a picture to share with you all--so they can't be filed away yet.  I did spend this afternoon straightening it up (after snapping this picture), so now it is boxes stacked out of the way (sort of).

This my pile of crafting inspiration next to my sewing machine.  When inspiration strikes I grab the supplies for my imagined creation and put them in a bag, box or basket and add them to the pile.  Or when I come upon something that I think I could turn into a shoe box gift (like the bandannas in the front--left overs from a church banquet) I add it to the pile.

On the other side of my machine is this basket holding the dozen knit shirts my husband got for $1 each and the fabrics I have pulled from my stash to make skirts to match them.

Do you remember the sweet Avon Beanie stuffies we received as a donation?  I couldn't resist matching some up with fabrics donated by Red Thread Stitches.  And the little fish will be perfect for the leftover fabric from my Sea Themed box.

I hope you have enjoyed your tour of my "shoe box factory."  Looks like I have my work cut out for me.  Before you go I'd like to introduce you to my friend who keeps me company while I sew.

If you have been around here much you know I love dolls and I love sewing dresses for little girls in need.  A couple of years ago I was sewing hundreds of dresses for Dress A Girl Around the World.  I had a bad spell with my health and my daughter took over making my dresses for me.  The fabric in this doll's dress was left from one she made that went to an Indian Reservation here in North America.  She made it for me and gave me this doll for Christmas.  She is my little mascot--representing all the little girls around the world wearing a dress handmade with love by Cheryl.