Christmas Crafts REVEALED...

This year was a big year for homemade gifts. I ruffled scarves, sewed and tied blankets, stitched ornaments, knotted a tutu and dried spices!

Isn't this sweet? It was a free pattern from Happy Together!

And finally, the girls designed and made these ornaments for Doug with my help:

Ohio Christmas 2012

Our fourth and final "Christmas" was spent with Doug's immediate family. The kids had so much fun playing all weekend, and we adults had a blast watching them! We also got in a lot of card-playing, which is always something I look forward to.

Four cousins lined up in order of age:

Pillow pets are still popular:

E was thrilled to receive more "Cheetah Style" clothing:

Great Grandpa watching to see how long it takes E to notice he's got her newest monkey:

G and B try out their football blankets:

Hello, grown-up girl. What have you done with my 1st grader???

 Just when I thought we were rid of cutie face...

The headphones and MP3 players were a HUGE hit:

It's not New Year's Eve without fondue!

What an awesome 2011! Can't wait for 2012. :)

Christmas Crafting

The girls and I have been busy making many different ornament crafts this month. Observe:

Felt ornaments



Foam ornaments:

Wood ornaments (with friends):


Not an ornament, but a work of art nonetheless:

and tree ornaments:

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. :-)