An Ornamental, Sentimental Journey (+ 2 Christmas Crafts)

 While I was setting up and decorating the tree with the kids the day after Thanksgiving I decided to snap some pics of some of my favorite ornaments.

Through the years my mom would give each of us children a new ornament every Christmas...{when we got older we got to pick out our own} and by the time we moved away from home we had a box full of ornaments to use in our new home.  It's a lovely idea and I'm sure many other families do the same.  I now carry on that tradition with my own children.

The child on the red horse was my very first ornament when I was a baby.

The baby in the walnut shell was something I "made" in nursery (I think) and I've always thought it was special.

The santa book was such a fun ornament because it was really truly a book but so tiny.

The kittens in the basket were hand painted by my mother.

 I remember my Grandma "O." making the center ornaments with us out of tin cans...fun little Christmas scenes.

I loved my "Mary and Jesus" ornament and each year I tried to make sure that it was hung right in front of a light so it would shine through.

The little cross stitch ornaments again, were done by my talented mother.  She had several and just a few years ago passed them on to those of us who wanted them.

The sweet bluebird was made out of felt by my sister.  It's adorable!

And the white santa opens up like a matroyshka doll.  Each of the kids had their own and every year there was some little treasure tucked inside on Christmas morning...either money or something else very small so of course that was a favorite!

My brother helped me find an app that could do these collages so I don't feel like I'm having everyone scroll through a ton of pictures in each post.  Sooooo easy and fun!

 The following pictures are of ornaments that I have made (or helped make).  

The first is an assortment (although you can really only see a couple) of ones that I made as a child.

The next ones I made with the kids a few years ago out of jar lids and old Christmas cards...kind of fun.

The wooden ornament I made the year my Grandpa "O." died.    The wood was from a limb off a tree he had planted decades earlier.  I had Andy cut it for me and then added the vinyl lettering and gave them to family members.

Kind of by accident it has become a tradition for me to make an ornament for my gifts to neighbors and friends each year.

The wire stars with beads were the first I made. 

Two years ago I ordered a ton of bottle caps and also some digital images off of Etsy and had fun putting the bottle caps together.  I gave them in sets of three.  I had one cute friend decide to wear them as earrings :)

Then last year I spent a lot of time punching out paper, folding and gluing to come up with these fun geometric figures.

I'm kind of frustrated with my idea for this year.  It's not quite turning out like I had hoped.  When I come up with a final product I will post it.

So this is kind of silly but every year since we have been married I've been using a plaid, square table cloth for a tree skirt.  Of course, it didn't fit very well and looked kind of awkward in the back.  I don't know why I never bought one or made one before now.  Well, a year ago when I joined the dark side of Pinterest I started seeing super cute tree skirts that didn't look to hard to create.  This was the year!...and this was the pin I referred to for pinsperation.  Isn't it adorable?  She did an amazing job and I love her colors.

So...I grabbed some fabric and a big hunk of felt.

I folded the felt in fourths and then cut a small, quarter circle out of the center.  Then I made a larger, similar cut to round off the corners.  I know my mom will laugh at this but didn't measure like I knew I should have and so it didn't turn out that evenly the first time...or the second or third.  Finally, I pulled out a thumb tack, a piece of ribbon and a pen.  I made a make shift compass and finally arrived at a good looking circle.

I cut a slit down the back and then started adding the fabric.  I cut about three inch strips and hot glued it down starting from the outside.  I made ruffles as I went and did six different layers.  The original plan was to do the whole skirt but after several layers I thought it looked kind of cute like that.  

I had accidentally made the hole in the middle too big so I added some ruffles to the center to fill it in.

 Do you think I should finish filling it in or is it fine the way it is?

I made a photo booth for our Christmas card pictures and my mom was sweet and came over to take them for us.  Ben was a little tricky to work with...we had to promise him a snack of popcorn afterward...but we got a few good ones :)  I will post the cards as soon as they're finished.

Happy December!

(I told Andy today that I wish it could just stay Dec. 1st for a couple of weeks.  That way I could get even more on top of everything and not miss out on enjoying the month and all of it's festivities.)