Slowly But Surely . . .

"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley" - ha ha (my favorite Leslie Nielsen line).

My list of craft projects to work on this month are slowly getting accomplished. Unavoidable distractions (good and sad) have added to the slowness but it's all good.

Let's check two items off my list:

1. Christmas Countdown Blocks - my one and only sister came up and spent a week with us while husband was out of town and we enjoyed putting these blocks together from Makia Creations. I love the fact that they put instructional videos on YouTube for you to follow to make their crafts. We had a great time and they turned out really cute. Now that my big quilted handmade advent calendar has been taken over by my boys, this is one that I get to do all by myself.

2. Jewelry - sister and I were trying to whittle down our Christmas shopping list while she was in town and we decided to make a bracelet for someone. I used my imagination and put this beauty together. Sister decided that she liked it so much, we made a very similar one for her.

Of course I had to make myself something new while I had all the jewelry making stuff out. I picked up these pretty blue stone beads a few months ago and finally got them put together in a nice simple but chunky bracelet - love it!

I have a few time sensitive things to get out of the way this week and then I hope to get back to my craft list. I'm itching to get things done!!!!

Gratitude Tree Advent Calendar

I love finding good ideas from people that don't mind sharing those ideas. Alison over at Oopsey Daisy created this wonderful Gratitude Tree Advent Calendar for November and she even included a download of the leaves for the magnets. Of course, since it was so cute, I had to jump right on it and make one just for my little family. Here is my version:

I hadn't used bottle caps before, nor a magnet board for that matter. A fun (but always overwhelming . . . I am a digital scrapbooker) trip to a local scrapbooking store got me all stocked up. I couldn't find the little resin bubble drops anywhere and used Alison's hint about ordering them on Etsy from Sun and Moon Crafts. They arrived in the mail this afternoon and the rest is history.

We're catching up on 4 days worth of things that we are thankful for and my boys are very excited to put the rest of the leaves on the tree throughout the month.

And for the record, I am grateful for my family, my friends, and the freedoms I enjoy. Now bring on the turkey!

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.