Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Creating for others is such fun at Christmas!

I caught Andrew looking for presents under the tree.  But there were none there yet. We super-enjoyed this Christmas season.  From being with the family to making Christmas things.  My house almost looked like Ani's house - my older sister who has a Nativity in every room of the house.
I see my new pillows, the new tree skirt, and on the tree, some of the special ornaments from years past.  The starfish we made for Julie's wedding.  I see one made of an oyster shell and cedar from St. Simons Island, and some made of fabric by my mother many years ago.   I wanted this year to do some things to remember my first year retired and having more time with the grandkids.



Once I brought down the decorations from the attic, I decided that I wanted to make some new things.  First was the wreaths with some sparkle inspired from Better Homes and Gardens.

The most favorite thing that I made in December is this Christmas tree:



Inspired from this pinterest pin I enjoyed going through Don's wood scrap pile and deciding what to use and then how to decorate it.  I even used several pieces of pallet wood and shells.  The snowflakes I had made a few years ago but never got them stiff enough to hang them on the tree. This is the only thing I don't want to put up in the attic until next year...

My next favorite thing is the snowman.  Andrew is such a wonderful artist that I knew he could make a snowman face better than I.  Instead of the stair rail snowman from pinterest, I used a table leg that Don bought at a yard sale with other scrap wood.  I painted it white and glued two pieces of wood for the hat.

Andy painted a great snowman face!

I tried the beachy ornament from pinterest but it did not come out right.  Maybe if I had used a blue one.



For years I have been wanting to do something with the beautiful Christmas cards that I have saved through the years.  I googled for ideas and came up with several  I tried to make a wreath from them but did not like how it looked.  In years past I have used them as tags.  (My sister Cristi makes some beautiful tags from them.)  My mom used to make the ornaments , but they take too much time.  She also used to make accordion fans from them and glued magnets to the back for the refrigerator.  I forgot to take a picture of those.

I made a memory type game to play with Lauren and we made some into decorations for a tree.  Also, I picked up sticks from the yard and set them up.  I glued and cut cards back to back that fit together.  The the kids had the fun of putting them on the tree.
Lauren punched the holes on the cards.
Andrew putting the cards on the sticks.

For a Christmas gift Don made Julie and Angie the shelves for books like the shelves from pinterest  Here they are:




Caroline got her book

Lauren needed a headband holder so I made this one from an oatmeal can for each girl.




Don has been working so hard making cutting boards.  Brian suggested that he try the endgrain style and he was so excited about it that he made a bunch.  Some he finished with tung oil.  Some had a food safe varnish and finishing wax.  He experimented with them and them gave them away.



Now we're on the countdown to El Día de Reyes - Three Kings Day
My baby Jesus from Spain.

2 comments:

  1. These are all great! I got your present in the mail today and I'm going to wait to open it till the 3 kings day:) Thank you!

    Love,
    Faith

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for writing, Faith. Glad that you got the gift. Did you read the Beach poem in the previous post. I think you'll like it. Bea

    ReplyDelete

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