Table Talk

In December, we rearranged our living room to accommodate our Christmas tree. The little craft table that the girls have used and abused, was moved to the other side of Sadie's kennel.  After Christmas, we realized that the girls had really outgrown the little craft table and decided to let them use Doug's old kitchen table for crafts.

My dad donated his old laptop for the girls to use for their computer time and the little table made a perfect computer desk:

This arrangement was working out quite well, but we began to fear for Doug's table. It is a very nice solid oak table (from Amish) and was a graduation gift from his parents. While we liked that it was being used, we didn't want it to be abused and suffer the same fate as the previous craft table:

I did some thinking and researching and came up with a solution to protect the table and our budget.  I cleaned off the glue and marker coloring that had already accumulated on the table top (love Magic Erasers!)

and bought a 4x8 piece of wall paneling from Menards.  The wall paneling has a smooth top, which is great for coloring, and is thick enough to protect the table top from scratches and stains. It also comes in a variety of colors and patterns. The one we chose has a "leather" look.

We inverted the table onto the wall paneling, traced the outline, and cut it out. One thing we didn't anticipate was that the cut paneling did not sit flat on our table top. :(  But a couple days with some weights and quick-grip clamps had it lying flat.

The girls can now craft away to their heart's content!

Craft-Fail?

I have a lot of crafty ideas and grandiose plans, but they don't always turn out as planned. I found a link to this beautiful wreath made from a coat hanger and round ornaments.

I attempted to make my own with some black-Friday bargains. Not quite what I had envisioned, but it will have to do for now:

Advent Calendar

I'd seen this idea floating around the Interent and thought it would be fun to try out this year. I already had the mini-muffin pan, scrapbook paper and stickers. All I bought was some magnetic paper from Hobby Lobby. I borrowed Dionne's Cricut to cut out all the circles, ran them through my Xyron sticker-machine and attached them to the magnetic paper. Then all I needed to do was cut them out, put on the stickers and put it together.


To fill it up, I wrote out some fun activities on paper slips (i.e. bake Christmas cookies, drive around to see Christmas lights, etc.) and also included some mini-ornaments for the girls.



Ideally this would be hanging from the wall, but the magnets are not strong enough to hold the little ornaments inside, when vertical. So far, it's a hit! And the best part is, I can reuse it for next year and still have the use of my muffin pan. :-)