a few of my favorite -christmas- things

i wanted to be productive yesterday but then i decided to be completely lazy instead and it was a beautiful thing! it felt so good to just have a day of no responsibilities and to wrap presents and soak in the magic of the first snow of the year. crazy that it took this long to get any here but we now have a good inch on the ground which definitely qualifies as real snowfall in my book. today though, i want to dive right in and share with you some of my favorite christmas decorations and traditions:



we tend to get a little competitive in our house with the decorating of sugar cookies. i don't have  any fancy tools..we really just decide what frosting colors we want and do what we can with a butter knife and everyone sits around the table to decorate them together. i use my nana's recipe that her nana used before her every year...it just wouldn't be christmas without them!



this knit advent calendar of little hats and mittens has to be one of my favorite decorations. if i was a more accomplished knitter, i would have made it myself but i'm still learning so when i saw it in a catalog (i think it was garnet hill a few years ago) i snatched it right up. after gaining a few pounds the first year we filled it up, i decided to start using the same (perpetually unwrapped) mini candy canes each year...shh, don't tell!




the two photos on top are some of my favorite vintage christmas decorations. some of them are so fragile like the little stocking that i still have not quite figured out the best way to display them. i am definitely a classic-retro christmas kind of girl though when it comes to decorating: big bright lights, celluloid, brenda lee, sparkly old icicle ornaments, you name it.

many of our family's decorations that haven't been passed down come from a place called bronner's in michigan, like the advent wreath there in the bottom right. it is in a town called frankenmuth, not far from where i grew up, and is where many german-lutheran farmers settled back in the day (i.e. my family ancestry). if you haven't been there or heard of it i should warn you that it is kind of crazy and the whole town has gotten really built-up and commercial over the years, unfortunately. it's still amazing though and i cherish it..it's basically a winter wonderland, a christmas city. the first time i took my husband there a few years ago he got a little freaked out by how over-the-top it is and i, having grew up with it as a normal thing, just didn't understand why it was weird. i can kind of see it now, haha, but i still love the place as the old lutheran church, the biergartens, and zehnder's restaurant have a lot of family history attached to them. goodness, i am getting hungry now just thinking about it!

i hope you've enjoyed this little peek into our home, it's fun to share all the little things that make the holidays merry and bright.

p.s. i almost forgot...saw this index of free gift tags on odeedoh the other day. there are some new ones and others have been floating around the internets for a while, but they are all pretty sa-weet!

Hey I Can Do That (OR Celebrating National Craft Month)

(p.s. these lace crochet napkins are available in my shop here!)

I've seen these felted acorns all over the internet lately and realized I already had all the materials to make them. The ones in the photo above are the ones I made with just a few tools and about a half hour! They'll make a nice little springtime decoration I think (I do love folklore and woodsy-inspired whimsical little things) OR try making them in warm fall hues for a very cool addition to your family's thanksgiving table!

And since March is National Craft Month, I thought what better way to celebrate than to get out these supplies and attempt something new...because if you're anything like me, than you've tried your hand at about a baker's dozen worth of different arts and crafts and probably have some supplies sitting away that never quite got enough attention ;)

Here is what I used to make these:
acorn tops (found on a recent walk in the woods)
roving in various colors for felting (if it's color you want try the rainbow room on etsy)
felting needles (there are ones with handles like in the photo or you can use a single one without the handle, just be careful!)
felting needle mat (you can use a regular clean sponge for this)
all-purpose super glue (you can buy specialty felt glues if you prefer)

I'm not an expert, I just like to play, but feel free to ask questions if anything isn't clear enough and i will certainly try to help!

1. Wash acorn tops gently in the palm of your hand or shallow dish with a little soap and water. Let dry on counter.

2. Rip off a little blob of roving in proportion to your acorn cap. You can achieve a basic round ball shape by bunching it up and constantly turning it 'round on your mat or sponge as you poke it repeatedly with the felting needle. BE VERY CAREFUL though! Felting needles have little barbs on them which is what allows them to take particles of the roving and smoosh them together to make sheets of felted fabric or shapes like this. Rhe barbs can hurt like the dickens though and special care and focus is needed to avoid this...yeah, I say this from experience.

3. To help shape your circle, you can roll it in your palms and then go back and forth to the mat to continue shaping with the needle. As the circle forms, add on small pieces of roving at the top so that it begins to look like a small thimble—the larger end will fit into the acorn cap and the rounded top will be the part that sticks out.

4. Once I had achieved this thimble-like shape that fit nicely into my acorn cap, I plopped a bit of glue into the cap and smooshed my felt acorn in. You can push your felt in with your thumb on the base of it so that it sits in there quite snugly and then you can always refine the shape a bit more at this point to achieve just the right look.

And there you have it, an eco-friendly and very cute addition to your decor!