handmade Christmas

Here's something anyone with a glue gun and a few buttons can make.  This is a cork board I got a yard sale for 10 cents.  I painted the frame and cut a piece of brown craft paper to fit over the cork.  Ribbon, sticks, and buttons do the rest of the work.  

Cousins!

Titus and Ezra live too far away from us!  My sweet nephews need to know their cousins and so for Christmas I decided to send them some cousins to play with!  I copied some pictures of each of my kids onto regular paper and then cut around them.

I love this stuff!  It is a big magnet with a sticky backing.  I put the picture on the magnet and then cut around it again.  

Here's what they look like now:

To make them extra durable I laminated them and sent them off and there you go- cousins to play with!

diaper bag

This little diaper bag/pouch has a snap closure and works great for dropping Kate off at the nursery.  It's all I need!  

This GREAT fabric that I just love can be found here.

Advent Calendar

I finally made the advent calendar I've been planning for 3 years!  Please don't get too excited.  This certainly does NOT look like it's been worked on for 3 years, it's just that I finally made the time to do it.  I had several ideas in mind, but here's what I finally chose to do:

I painted a canvas dark brown and then cut out 25 tags (these are actually the tags I use for the Calico Barn so I already had them made).  Then I put brads through each hole to hold the tags onto the canvas (pins stuck into a framed cork board would be nice too).  I bought these brads at the $1 spot at Target.

Some of the numbers are hand written, but most are just stickers from my scrap-booking stuff.  On some of the brads I hung little things.  On the backs of each tag I'll write something special for our family to do together each night this month.  

Now, practically speaking we're not going to be able to have a perfect little family warm and fuzzy holiday- spirited, cookie- baking, craft- making, cocoa- sipping, carol- singing, story- reading, movie- watching, popcorn- stringing night every one of these 25 days, but we'll have fun trying!  This was fun and EASY to make.  If you don't have an advent calendar I recommend making one and by all means don't wait 3 years to do it!  :)

Calico Barn

On Saturday I worked my 3 hour volunteer shift at the Calico Barn.  Each season that I have stuff there (there are 2 seasons each year) I have to sign up to work one 3 hour shift.  It was kind of fun!  I've already done this several times before and usually am spending the whole time looking at the clock, but Saturday they were busy and it was fun to talk to lots of people.  I also got some new ideas for next year.  It's tricky finding the right things that will sell at this location and it's helpful for me to see the clientele there.  For instance, the aprons are not selling! However, several people were looking for tree toppers and small tree skirts and none of the crafters at the CB make those things.  Someone was looking for napkin rings also.  So, I'm adding some more projects to my to do list for next fall.