HORRAY! Another day of Christmas blogging! 

As being a very poor college student when I saw todays topic of DIY Christmas Gift, I got really excited and went straight to Pinterest for some inspiration. Now, disclaimer, I haven't actually done any of these DIY gifts myself because this week is finals week so, I've been lucky enough to get sleep, food and of course a blog post up : ) 

Anywho, I wanted to share with you some ideas I found that I'm going to start creating for all my friends and family - mom don't read any more! Now that the semester is over I have some time to breathe and be crafty! 

 

These mugs are something I'd love to drink my Chai Latte's out of on the daily. I've made my own Sharpie mug before for Jonny when we moved but this is just something that would be perfect for a few girlfriends of mine. AND it's cheap! I found a plain white mug at TJ Maxx for $2 and having plenty of Sharpies already, it's an affordable and adorable gift. 

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You can never go wrong with food in my opinion. These Pancake Mix in a Jar look SO GOOD and you could totally customize it to be cookies in a jar, etc. These are a perfect gift for the food lover in your life or drop it off on your neighbor's door step. 

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Something that is near and dear to my heart are orphans, and more specifically Filipino orphans. If you're new around here let me fill you in, quickly. 

At the beginning of this year our family did the Daniel fast with our church, you can read more about it here. At the end of the month we really felt the Lord calling us to adopt. As we continued to pray about how many, where, special needs, older or younger, the Lord continued to place in our lap that we needed to be adopting from the Philippines. As we began the long, tedious process of paper work and waiting (which we still are waiting) my heart for the Philippines began to grow. Jonny is half Filipino so I had already had a slight love for Filipino babies because well, my man is a hunk! :) Thats besides the point. 

When I think of DIY gifts, I also think that it means so much more than just presents for loved ones but also giving back. So you may be thinking, thats great but I don't know where to start, nor I don't have hundreds of dollars to send to a third world country. Well, there may be something that you CAN do. The Children's Shelter of Cebu in the Philippines is a Christian orphanage that truly loves each of their sweet little ones. On their website they have a pages and pages of ways to help tangibly. For example, they need money for birthday presents for the orphans for only $20. $20 and you've given a child a gift that honestly means the world to them, because I was once a child and I LOVED birthday gifts. 

So what am I trying to get at? Gifts don't necessarily have to be for someone you know, there is a world full, 147 million to be exact for precious little ones who long for a Christmas gift. I would encourage y'all to think and pray about ways to help those who have no voice and bless an orphan this year. 

You can read more about the Children's Home of Cebu here --->  http://www.cscshelter.org/

Read and subscribe to their blog here ---> http://www.cscshelter.org/blog

If you'd like to donate towards the Children's Home ---> http://www.cscshelter.org/involved