:: a happy nest ::

gingerbread houses.

This week, we hosted a small party for the kids in our little neighborhood. It was such fun!

The night before the party, I made the houses from graham crackers. Each child was given a bag of royal icing to do their decorating. Thea helped me fill muffin pans witha variety of yummies to pretty up the houses.

It was my first time making them, and the houses were actually much harder to make than I anticipated! I made quite a mess! The houses are all "unique" but I like to think that adds to their charm. I don't think anyone minded crooked houses or a little extra messy icing.

I'm thinking this might have to be an annual tradition!

Hoping your season is merry and bright. And sending love and peace if your spirit needs a little extra loving care. xo

merry making.

We've been busy little elves preparing our home for the holidays. I always forget how much I love crafting decorations for the season. It really seems to get me in the holiday spirit.

My most favorite creation so far is our winter snowflake wreath, which hangs on the front door. Ours was inspired by Annalea's - once I saw hers, I had to make one of my own.

I love the combination of colorful yarn, vintage lace, happy jingle bells, and my mother's doileys. I didn't have one quite large enough to span the entire center of the wreath, so, to fill the space, I ended up knotting it together with another piece of vintage lace.

I also made one to hang on my studio wall.

Thea and John collected some greenery from the yard to decorate our window boxes. I made these bows from red and white ribbon, and I love the cheer they bring to the front of the house.

And the snowglobes! I've seen these mason jar snow globes lots of places around the web, and, since Thea has been begging for a snowglobe of her own, I knew we had to make a few. They're so simple! And lovely too.

We also made several of these felt snowmen (made from felt beads and felt scraps), and we thought a few would be fun in the snowglobes.

This mama and baby deer is Thea's favorite one.

We have all of the snowglobes clustered on our mantle.

And speaking of the mantle, I strung a colorful garland of felt balls to brighten things up. I'm really loving decorating with lots of bright colors this year.

And tonight, I finished new stockings for me and my mister. Photos of those to come soon!

And now I'm off for a bit of rest so that I can {try to} keep up with my girl tomorrow.

teacher love.

Over the past month, I've twice put together gifts for Thea's teachers. Pictured above are our holiday gifts. I made ornaments from polymer clay, stamping words onto each one and adding texture with fabric and notions.

I'm still not sure how I feel about polymer clay, as I'm not convinced of it's safety, but I do love the result.

(Silly me, in my rush of holiday crafting, I didn't thoroughly research this product and any potential risks or side effects before hand. That's the last time I'll just assume that a craft supply that is "safe for kids" is non-toxic without doing my own research first!)

In the photo above, I stamped the clay with ink and used a corner of one of my mother's vintage doileys to create texture. I first saw this idea on pinterest, and I just love it so much!

For several of the ornaments, I used a vintage button to imprint a pretty design into the clay.

I also created texture with fabric (burlap looks fantastic!). On the ornament above, I pressed a scrap of lace fabric into the clay.

The ornaments hung outside to embellish the bags, which we filled with homemade vanilla cookies. I love that with the recipe we used, the dough did not need to be refrigerated before rolling.

For her two regular teachers, I also made a grouping of paper stars.

I used this tutorial, which I originally saw on Maya's blog.

In November, I made the teachers appreciation gifts for all of the hard work they do taking care of and teaching all of the littles. I made rolled felt flower pins, which hung on the outside of a bag filled with local chocolates.

The flowers are so easy and fun to make! To create the pins, I grouped three different sized flowers together.

What are your favorite teacher gifts?

grateful monday.

feeling grateful...

for a smooth transition from crib to big-girl bed.

for happy school days.

for magical afternoons with my two loves and a one horse open (street) sleigh.

for holiday creating.

for the joy of making loveliness with what we have.

for my handsome mister.

for holiday carols, especially the ones my wee girl creates all on her own.

for the sparkle of glitter.

what are you feeling grateful for today?

chevron felt wreath tutorial.

We started decorating for the holidays today, and after seeing Rebekah's sweet wreath, I was inspired to make a little something of my own. I've been very into chevron lately, and I thought it would be fun to try this on a wreath.

Here's how I made it:

supplies:

straw or styrofoam wreath (mine is covered in burlap, left over from an unfinished project)

felt (I used wool-blend scraps left over from another project a total of about 78" x 9" for this 12 inch wreath)

scissors

ruler

pencil

cardstock for making template

fabric or ribbon for hanging your wreath

 

First measure around your wreath so you know the width of your felt strips. My wreath measured 8 inches around, so I made my strips 9 inches wide to allow for some overlap.

Next, make your template.

 I cut a piece of cardstock to 9 inches in width.

Use your ruler to make 2 parallel lines. Mine were 3/4 inch apart.

Make marks to create the diagonal lines for the chevron pattern. Mine are 3/4 inch apart from each other (so the dots on each line are 1 1/2 inches apart - does that make sense?)

Use your ruler to connect the dots to make the zig zag/chevron pattern.

Use your template to create your pattern on your felt.

Measure all the way around your wreath to make sure that you have enough strips of felt to cover the whole wreath.

I laid out all of my strips to confirm I had cut enough strips and to make sure that I liked the color pattern. I lined up the points in the diagonal to creat the chevron pattern.

And then I started glueing:

You could also glue down the points in the chevron, though I got lazy and didn't do this all the way around.

Glue all the way around your wreath, making sure the diagonal points in the chevron pattern line up.

My strips were out of alignment on the back side, but I just kept going.

It may look a bit messy and out of alignment when you get back around to the top of the wreath, but don't worry, as this will be covered up by your hanging ribbon.

I took a 3 inch piece of fabric, torn selvedge to selvedge and wrapped it around my wreath to cover the place where I started and stopped gluing the strips, tied a knot and hung it on the wall.

I'm now wishing the strips were a bit closer together, but oh well. I think it just needs a little embellishment - maybe some jingle bells - and then it will be holly jolly.

Happy creating!