Advent Calendars

How can you not love advent calendars? They're everywhere these days, but I think I have some of the cutest ones around.

This Happy Halloween countdown is a new addition for us this year - a great find from one of my local craft fairs. My boys have really enjoyed finding fun little Halloween treats in the pockets every day this month. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've moved things around and added fun new finds into this as the month has progressed. Christmas is, of course, the traditional advent calendar time of year. Nancy Halvorsen at ArttoHeart.com has designed patterns and fabrics for a couple of my most favorite Christmas Advents. As you might guess, I've made more than one or two of these over the years. This is her "Here Comes Santa" advent. It is surprisingly large and we L O V E it! The ornaments are adorable - obviously one ornament gets hung on the advent per day. She includes a matching pattern for a bag to hold the ornaments as well. This one hangs on my wall in December, but my sister and a few friends have been lucky enough (if I do say so myself) to be gifted with the same one through the years.

This advent is another one of Nancy's that I made for my mother and father. This is her "Glad Tidings" advent. If I could force myself to not obsess about a collection, I would definitely be a Nativity collector - I can't even start though because there just isn't enough room in my garage to store another collection. Nancy has also designed some pre-printed panels with pre-printed ornaments that you can buy and put together. These make for really quick gifts with very little sewing. The first one of hers that I found a few years ago is from her Santa Claus is Coming fabric line - my neighbor was gifted with this particular advent calendar a few years back.

I just noticed on the ArttoHeart.com website that Nancy has a new line out this year with another pre-printed advent panel with ornaments. It is called "Good Tidings of Great Joy" and the instructions are available for free on her website. Since I am a fabric "collector" I better run right out and grab a few of these panels to have on hand for future gifts.

Wait until you see all the matching Christmas Stockings Nancy has for all of these advents . . . . and yes, I've made a million of them. That's for a future post.