Christmas Wreath

Little Girl:  "Maybe Nanny will open the owl propellet with me. Since you  never want to."

(She means pellet.  I think she is confused with propeller, which she may have heard her Papaw say since he has airplanes.)

That's right.  This is the girl who would rather dissect the bones from owl regurgitation than play with Barbies.  Kinda makes it hard on Santa.

Now that I look at the picture of the wreath I made, it looks a little wonky.  May  need some adjustment.  I actually made the wreath last year, but it just got an update and I must say I like it MUCH better.  No before pic, sorry.  Instead of a colorful ornament in the center, it had a white snowflake.  Sorta blah.  And not as coordinated with my Christmas color scheme.  Now it is perfect.  And the best part about the upgrade?  The enormous ornament (which is covered in a metallic foil stuff which did not photograph well) was only $1!!!  It was half off and I had a coupon.  Awe-some!

These are suprisingly easy to make.  Go to Dollar Tree and get the wire wreath for $1.  Get some of that mesh stuff.  I think they sell it at Hobby Lobby now.  I got mine and the purple tubular stuff at a local store called Ellis Pottery, but you could use ribbon or something similar.  Attach it to the wreath using wire.  Attach the ornament in the middle.  Done.  And I have seen people charge up to $70 for these! I would love to see yours!

Santa Photo

I really cannot believe my child made this far in life without ever having taken a picture with Good Ole Saint Nick.  I know, I know.  Bad Mom.  I really am not much into waiting in long lines with cranky children.  



To give the long awaited Santa photo the respect it deserves, I used the frame from Goodwill that I had spraypainted for my sister's baby shower.  I even left the same chartreuse fabric covered cardboard on it.  (You can see that here.)  It just happened to work out perfectly for a Christmas color scheme as well as it did for the Circus themed shower.

I love how it makes this picture important, rather than blending in on the fridge with the Christmas cards.  

Elf Update

Sparky decided he needed a midnight snack.

We found him in the dollhouse drinking the milk that was in the Advent calendar yesterday with cookies.

 

 

What was your Elf on the Shelf up to last night?

Elf in a Bird Cage

Sparky was a bad boy last night.  Look where we found him.

He climbed on top of the armoire, into the birdcage and was trying to catch the bird.  Or strangle the bird ornament. 

What was your Elf on the Shelf up to last night?

Twelve Days of Christmas Tags

Christmas.  The season of giving.  I saw an advent calendar at www.janethopkins.com that inspired me to make tags for the twelve days of Christmas to attach to gifts for my little girl's teacher.

Every day until we get off of school for the holidays, she will receive a small gift and a handmade tag.  I found gifts for under $5 each like a can of Altoids or poinsettia mini kleenex.

I love how they look all together on my crib spring.  (Should've made myself a set.  But that is a lot of glittering, folks. I highly recommend doing all of the glittering at one time.  But I never think of these things ahead of time.  No, I cut out all but two of the figures with my Slice machine.  Then, glittered those.  Then, made those tags.  THEN decided to cut the rest and glitter and now my studio is officially full of bling.)

I think the number 11 tag is my favorite. I used old dictionary paper glued to the tag and ripped off the edges after it dried.  I like how it worked out that the church is in the background.  The edges of most tags were distressed with Tim Holtz green or tea inks. This one was spritzed with olive glimmer mist. For those of you that can't read blurry stamping, the red says "Pipers Piping".  I think I am definitely going to invest in a better red stamp pad.  This one was not dark enough and blurred on the paper.  Not cool.

paperissues.com

Elf On the Shelf

If your kid is like mine, she LOVES pillow pets.  Can't get enough.  Personally, I don't see the fascination.  Last year, the gift that she was most excited about was a lady bug pillow pet.  In fact, she was more excited about that than any gift she has ever gotten.  So at Target last night, she coerced me into buying this miniature keychain pillow pet to match the bigger one. 

 

Now, normally I am not persuaded to buy toys right before Christmas.  But she was very persuasive.  So it came home with us.  And look where we found it this morning.  Our mischievous little elf likes pillow pets, too.  And this one is the perfect size for him.  Little Girl was tickled to find Sparky resting on her lady bug under the tree. 

What was your Elf on the Shelf up to last night?