Christmas Craftin'

It wouldn't be a holiday if I didn't sneak in some crafting of some sort.  The idea of bringing the outdoors in is always appealing to me and when I saw this idea for table centerpiece I had to do it.
I basicially just took a cut log from outside.  We've been clearing some land so there were plenty to choose from.  Once I found the perfect log I had my handy hubby drill a few holes the size of a tealight.  I stuck in a few tealights, cut some greenery from outside and then I had myself a wonderfully rustic centerpiece!

I also decide this year that I wanted some Christmasy coasters.  Before I had a chance to look for any in the stores I found a neat idea online.  The coasters are just small terracotta saucers.  I painted them and added some holiday scrapbook paper to the bottom.  Then I sealed them with some clear varnish. They were so easy and quick to make that I may just have to make some for every holiday!

Advent Calendars

Every year since Becca was little we have done an advent calendar in one form or another. Our first advent calendar had pockets just big enough for a little piece of candy. When Kenzie came along I was able to squeeze two pieces of the Celebrations candies into the pockets. Then I was unable to find the Celebrations candies anymore. We have done some different variations including Lego and littlest pet shop calendars. Then one year I found a cute wooden calendar with little doors just perfect for little treats. When we got it home we realized that it had a 21 where 12 was supposed to be, but it gave it character and no one really cared.

Unfortunately we only had that calendar for a couple of years before Boomer chewed it up do to the fact that it smelled like candy. So that left us with no calendar. In the course of a year I forgot we didn't have a calendar and had to come up with something quick this year. Thanks to the wonder of the internet I came across a cute idea using paper rolled into cones, tied with twine to hang up and numbered. It was perfect because I had everything I needed on hand and it was quick to put together.

My only dilemma was how and where to hang the cones. The ones online had them hanging from sticks or tree branches from outside but that wasn't really going to work for me. The final solution was staring me in the face. The girls have their own small artificial tree in the play area that they decorate and that is where I hung all the cones!

The cones were made with a 12 x 12 piece of scrapbook paper cut in half. Then I rolled each half into a cone and used a hot glue gun to glue it in place. I punched out some circles with a circle punched and stamped numbers onto them. I hot glued the circles to the cone. I punched a hole at the top of each cone. I tied twine around the cone and then stucked it through the hole at the top of the cone. Next I tied the twine in a loop so it could be hung up. That's it!