Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas from our home to yours

Handmade Holidays

We're sprucing up the place with some handmade holiday decorations!

Advent Calendar

I used stash scrap entirely for this project, which feels good! The owls are held on by snaps and there is a little pocket in back for the activity card. It is still not entirely done - it needs eyebolts for hanging and many owls still need button eyes. Oliver loves picking the activity but still doesn't quite get the ticking off of days until Christmas. All in due time.

Soft Tree

The intention was to distract from pulling ornaments off the real tree, and being able to decorate and undecorate this one as much as they wanted. But it really only held their attention until the real tree was up. I swear I had some decorated photos, but can't find them now. This, too, was made totally from stash scrap. The tree is corduroy and the ornaments are calico on the front and felt on the back. They stick fairly well, although I'm sure a felt tree would have been better.

A Wreath!

My first ever wreath! I made a swag too, thanks to a friend hosting a wreath-making party. Fun!

Bird Ornaments

The pattern is from Last Minute Patchwork Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.



Coloring Tree

The tree is from Mr. Printables and if you haven't checked them out yet, you should. We printed off a few more Christmas pages and they're perfect for quick, creative time.

We also printed off Becca Kallen's Winter Birds, which we hung on the tree. And some Seasonal Secret Spy Disguises (photos coming). Etta started calling me Santamama. I kinda like the ring of that!

Want to see the handmade gifts? Hah! I bet you do, but you'll just have to wait until you open them on Christmas!

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I would swear that pinterest would be my undoing, except that I really like making this stuff! Below are the pins that inspired us. (Still haven't gotten to the tree skirt...)

Tree Skirt

Source: sixoneseven.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest



Kid-friendly Tree

Source: johnnyinadress.com via Amy on Pinterest



Advent Calendar

Source: fivegreenacres.wordpress.com via Amy on Pinterest

Advent Activities

Source: kimmccrary.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

Decking the Halls

We took our traditional tree gathering walk right after Thanksgiving, when we still had snow.

I'm typically behind the camera (and absent from the photos), but I asked Oliver to take a few shots (and a pic of my new hat. Someone always has a new handknit hat on these trips). Here's what he came up with:

Back at the homestead, we set to trimming.

I have visions of making some ornaments like some of these... we'll just see how that pans out during this crazy (fun) time of year!

Birthday Doings

We celebrated a bit early, when Pap-pap and Gramma were still in town. 

I got lazy on the birthday treat and we all had 1/2 an eclair. It was perfect for post-Thanksgiving fullness.

Etta played Doctor non-stop for a while. We all took our shots like champs, to a chorus of "Open mouth, please!"

The wooden mushroom house (that you may remember from an old thrifting post) made its debut, along with some store bought furniture and some pegs dolls. I made the dolls after perusing Pinterest and stumbling upon them. They're wooden game pieces that you can paint. I used Sharpies instead, which is a better match for my, a-hem, artistic talent (or lack thereof).

Good times and a great weekend for our now 2-year-old. Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

{oh yes, everyone's gifts arrived and were ALL well-received. These are just the ones that made the photo shoot and download}

The Dining Room

After living in a place for over 1 1/2 years, I should probably give up on the "finished room" posts. But, well, we are still finishing and unpacking and hanging simple things like, oh say, closet bars and picture frames. It's true. SO. Welcome to the completed dining room! Just finished - down to the last frame hung, and a new welcome with Thanksgiving dinner. Here we go:

Source: etsy.com via Amy on Pinterest

We originally wanted the large Hanka for the wall, but it was actually too large. So I started looking for options, leaning towards something with a little color since our floors, furniture and walls are all rather neutral. I found these painted tree cookies on Etsy (see above) and fell in love, but at $1400 they were out of our decor budget. However, we did have many many tree cookies in the woodshed and even a herd of appropriately colored paint cans in the basement. Perhaps we could reacquaint ourselves with our former DIYer? 

Well, in the good ole days pre-kid days, we would have whipped this puppy up in an evening. Now? This little art project took us 12 months (1 evening of varnishing, 2 hours of painting, 1 hour of topcoat, 30 minutes of hanging and 12 months of thinking about finding the time). But that's the pace of our life currently. The colors splendidly match the colors in our new circles rug for the living room. 

Our pass through got a fresh coat of paint as well. Ideally we would have stained the whole built in a darker white-wash (more grey than white), but that size project was out of the question. So the wall took the hit instead. We had the paint chips up for close to 2 months and surprised ourselves by choosing one so dark, but it's the dark that we liked.

Then, hours before the Thanksgiving guests arrived, Pap-pap and I recovered the dining room chairs. Little things like shades, window stain... finally done. All this, and a perfectly grilled turkey to boot.

Was it well received? I think so