30 Days of Christmas – Day 9

(My laptop charger AND battery died.  I’ll be playing a little catch up over the next few days now I’m back up and running.)

I’ve been saving all sorts of inspiration for an advent calendar but still couldn’t decide what I wanted to make for the kids.  I started looking through the craft stash and STILL couldn’t decide what I wanted to do.

One afternoon, we pulled out our Christmas wrapping supplies to wrap our community service Secret Santa gifts.  I found a slew of glitter gift tags I’d picked up on clearance last year and my light bulb went off. 

Here’s what we came up with:

I got the numbers printable here.

I got the activities printable here – though they ended up being too big for my tags so I had to cut them down.  A lot.  I used blank ones as well to fill in some of our own activities.

The tags are just pinned to the backing with push pins we hot glued some little jewels to. 

The beauty of this calendar is I’ll be able to take the tags and pins off after Christmas and reuse the frame for something else.

Activity du jour?  Make a Christmas craft.  Should be fun!

30 Days of Christmas – Day 8

(My laptop charger AND battery died.  I’ll be playing a little catch up over the next few days now I’m back up and running.)

Remember our Jack O’Lantern fridge?

Today, we turned our fridge into a snowman.

Monkey loves practicing her scissor work, so I drew the pieces out on the back sides of the papers and let her have at it.  Little Man helped me place the pieces on the fridge with some plain scotch tape on the back to hold in place.

Easy.

Cute.

His mouth has since been straightened out.  ;-)

30 Days of Christmas – Day 7

(My laptop charger AND battery died.  I’ll be playing a little catch up over the next few days now I’m back up and running.)

It’s just not Christmas in this house if there’s no baking involved.

My Country Living magazine finally arrived in the mail this week.  The Christmas edition is always much anticipated by me!

I found a recipe for Chocolate Whoopie Pies in one of the articles.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies?  What’s so Christmas special about those? 

The peppermint filling, my friends.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies w/Peppermint Filling

Of course, the whole point of Christmas baking is doing it with little helpers.  This little helper was quite pleased with his taste testing.

 

Oooh..  Nom.

 

I did deviate from the original recipe a teeny tiny bit.  I rolled the edges in crushed candy canes for a little extra added love.

NOM.

Have I sad that yet?

30 Days of Christmas – Day 6

(My laptop charger AND battery died.  I’ll be playing a little catch up over the next few days now I’m back up and running.)

I was playing outside with the family in the dusting of snow we had on the ground.  I walked by my front porch and decided I really needed to add another pop of color.

 

I then realized I’ve had this pile of red twigs on my deck for a few weeks, trying to figure out what I was going to do with them.  I needed to deal with them before T decided to get rid of them.

A stroll through the garage and I found a big clay pot filled with dirt.  I just started shoving twigs in, still not sure what I was going to do with it even after it was finished.

A second stroll through the garage found me pulling out things I’d put away for winter months ago!  I also found an old rusted star we’d taken off the house left by the previous owners.  I told T not to throw it away at the time and now I’m glad I held onto it!  A hit of red spray paint and it was good as new.

You don’t need to look far to find inspiration.  Sometimes all it takes is a stroll through the garage.

30 Days of Christmas – Day 5

(My laptop charger AND battery died.  I’ll be playing a little catch up over the next few days now I’m back up and running.)

Remember Monkey’s fabulous curtain hangers at the old house?

The old barn boards with glass knobs were a favorite, however the layout of windows in her new bedroom does not offer the opportunity to re-use them.  The two boards have been sitting on the breezeway for nearly a year, waiting for a new use.

I found the perfect use for one of them this weekend.

I painted “THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG…” on,  hot glued a twiggy star ornament to it and I was done.

I love it.  The kids love it.  The husband tolerates it (as is true with most of my projects. ;) )

WIN!