I meant to post pictures of projects as they were completed, but a quick sojourn to Eagle for an early birthday party, more cookie baking and decorating and then play-acting as one of Santa’s elves got in the way.  Of course.

So without further ado, let me show you what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks!

Holiday felt banner, courtesy of A Beautiful Mess website (http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/12/my-entry.html):  we changed it up a tad bit to reflect our Solstice wishes here.

Appliqued pillow covers (moose template found at The Pleated Poppy, http://thepleatedpoppy.com/2013/12/diy-moose-silhouette-pillow).   I added the tree template, found a long, flannel, patchwork skirt at the consignment store and voila!  Festive pillow covers and a holiday skirt for the darling daughter!!  Bonus.

Ornaments for our tree!  Made out of white air-dry clay (so incredibly easy) and copper wire.  Sorry, no pictures of the making of them, just the results.  Quite pretty I think.  Idea found at http://www.taradennis.com/celebrate/christmas-craft-decorating-style-ideas/beaded-star-ornaments.html.  The clay and the copper wire I found at  Michael’s.

 If I think of it, I’ll try to get a few pictures of the tree with the stars and discs hanging.  Gracelyn used a toothpick and other little items to make designs and write messages on the discs.  Then she signed them on the back!  They were dry overnight.  SO EASY!  And actually quite pretty left white.  We talked about painting them, but we like them as they are.

HOMEMADE GARLANDS

These were so fun!  And I think they look really lovely hanging in our windows.  Remember that whole thing about the REALLY big trees we cut down???  Well, the trunks left over were then graciously cut into about 1/4″ thick pieces and holes drilled top and bottom by the dear husband.  Gracelyn and I had fun decorating them with markers, crayons, pretty scrapbook paper and other baubles and such we found in the house.  Some kitchen twine, pretty ribbons, jingle bells and our garlands were complete!!

I tried pictures with various lighting and will just include them all because I think they’re all so pretty. 

Cool outside lights courtesy of Greg.   And garland idea from http://www.songbirdblog.com/rustic-christmas-garland/.

CLOVES and ORANGES

How can you go wrong with these?  Whole cloves decorating oranges–smells so lovely!

(No website link for these.  I actually thought of this myself.  I know, I know.  What can I say?)

COOKIE DECORATING EXTRAVAGANZA

  (Don’t these look delish?)

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT WREATHS

Whew.  These were fun!  A bit time-consuming, and not the “under $10” the website promised, but I LOVE the end results!  I didn’t get the best pictures, cause I kept catching myself in the mirror.  Not cool.  But I think you’ll see they really turned out nicely.

 Glue gun, Christmas ornaments of various sizes, foam wreath base in this case (second “wreath” base was made out of cardboard and duct tape!!).  And some patience and a good DVD.  “The Italian Job” in this case.

  Much prettier in person I think!

For the Queen Elsa fan!

Found at http://www.livelovediy.com/2012/12/christmas-ornament-wreath.html.

And finally: Santa’s toy shop in the kitchen!

These are top-secret as Santa will be bringing a miniature dragon to hatch out of an egg on Christmas morn.  How do I know this?  Me and him are simpatico, capsice?

So I was tasked with creating the egg.  Of course.  He gets the easy part.  All he has to do is bring the dragon.  I, on the other hand, have to create an egg.  And, with all due respect, I had help from another elf.  I neglected to take pictures of his creation before I covered it with the felt.  But the elf named Daddy Greg, made the wire frame for the very large egg.  I then covered it with felt and last night, made this goopy, sticky, homemade paper maiche glop!  And a few hours later—-an egg!!  Now I need to paint it to make it look just like the picture in the book of the Standard Western Dragon egg.  When one lives with a child that is detailed and particular and specific to the nth degree, one learns quickly that things better be just so.  Ya know what I mean gene?

For your viewing pleasure (and keep your mouths sealed tight should you bump into my precious daughter):

Trust me, it’s an egg.

And now it’s behind closed doors.

(She actually tried to open the door, can you believe it?  The threat of feeding her to the dragons, the bad ones, just didn’t deter her.  Her response?  “Mom.  Did you forget I’m a dragon trainer????”  Ahhh.  I guess I’ll have to come up with a different threat, eh?)

Blessings be on you and yours during this holiday season.

AND HAPPY SOLSTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!