Goose and I were happy to have spent some time out of the house yesterday, after three full days of being cooped up.
I have a question today - has anybody seen a Nativity set pattern or how-to for making a fabric or felt set? I've done some clicking around and searching but have yet to find anything that I think will work without major modification or significant going out on a limb. Thanks!
Anyway, if YOU happen to be snowed in, here's some pretty things to keep you busy - (not the least of which is Skip to My Lou's suggestions for Snow Day activities)
MAKE
Remember the wreath made from book pages a while back? The Shabby Nest has a well-read Christmas wreath that is a Pottery Barn knock-off that will knock your socks off.
Laura at Heavenly Homemakers posted a simple, cute (and cheap!) Angel Ornament.
Another ornament - a crystallized snowflake one this time, at Chasing Cheerios.
And yet another - Skip to My Lou has a guest post on Alpha Mom on how to make surprise ball ornaments. These look like a lot of fun!
Aaaand A Slob Comes Clean (hee - I'm gonna hafta click around over there some!) has instructions on how to make personalized ornaments for the ones you love. GREAT idea!
Goose isn't into fairies yet, but the day is coming, and I will be prepared with this Felt Fairy House at Frugal Family Fun Blog.
I pink puffy heart my Ergo baby carrier but if I didn't have it, I'd be tempted to try this mei tai at Blissfully Domestic.
DO
Mrs. 2nd Lieutenant has an awesome post on Liturgical Gift Giving, and make sure you click over to her St. Nicholas day post to see her CUTE and appropriate for toddlers Advent wreath and calendar.
Cakes are not my strong point, so these tips on frosting cakes from Tipnut will come in handy for Goose's next birthday. (Yup, that's how often I make cakes.)
Trent at The Simple Dollar has some *excellent* - and easy! - tips on Finding the perfect gift without spending too much. Though I'd add that once you do find the perfect gift, run a search for it using http://www.froogle.google.com and then sort by price low to high. The downside is that you have to click through to the site and hunt to find the shipping fees, which can be pretty high in some places, but I've had reasonably good luck with Froogle.
Jessica at Shower of Roses has a link to a printable manger for baby Jesus.
Tipnut has an enormous roundup of wrapping, embellishing, and tagging ideas, my favorite of which is this fun with fonts idea from Bugs and Fishes by Lupin.
Happy surfing!
Okay, I think I clicked around to just about everything you had this week. FUN!
ReplyDeleteLoved the “mom I’m bored” activities!
Wow at those bookish wreaths. Such a simple idea, but how NEATO!
My daughter would love the simple ball ornaments. I suppose I’d have to do the ribbon, though, which would bother her (because, you know, she has to do it all!).
What a CUTE little felt fairy house! I wish I had limitless time!
I love my ergo (I have a waaay old one that’s been used by a handful of other moms before me), but it would sure be fun to make the Mei tai just so I could pick out a couple different types of fabric.
Yeah, I don’t make cakes very often, either. And when I frost them…I just kinda make it up as I go along. I made some cute crayon cakes when BJ was a baby. I’ll have to pull out those old photos and see if my memory of them being cute is too far off. LOL
I loved this quote from The Simple Dollar: “great gifts come from caring about people as individuals and thinking deeply about that person, not from just trying to find something so you can knock another person off of your Christmas list.” Wow…that’s so very true. And yet when we wait until the last minute, it doesn’t show much respect. I’ve learned that the hard way,unfortunately. :(
What a cute and easy-to-make (print n' cut) baby manger!
Man, that’s a HUGE list of tag options. In my family we often use old Christmas cards. They’re usually thick enough to be a sturdy tag and yet also very pretty.
I really like the fun with fonts. Most people don’t realize that they probably have free access to their local college or library’s die-cut area. I’ve also enjoyed using fabric for making neat bulletin board fonts. But you have to laminate the fabric, first. Then when you die cut, it’ll last for years and years for re-using if you take special care of it.
On the felt/fabric question, do you mean to use on a felt board or for hand puppets or something else? My friend made these last Christmas. I’ll see if I can find her post on it, but you can probably see exactly what she did just by the picture: CLICK HERE (let me know if you can't see it and I'll email it to you)
:WARM HUGS:
Hmmm, that was a rather large comment I just left. Now I'm just a tad bit embarrassed. LOL
ReplyDeleteHaha - no worries, Shaye . . . it's nice to have you back. :>) Those puppets are kinda close to what I want, I'd like to make an Advent calendar where each day is a piece of the Nativity. But what it actually looks like outside of my head, I don't know. Hee. I'm thinking smallish, but that'll be tricky to stitch. Which is where felt makes sense because you don't have to worry about fraying... and about then, my head usually explodes!
ReplyDeleteOh, that article from The Simple Dollar was so perfect! I'll be trying that for a few people on my list.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link! I plan to make a few more felt fairy houses in the future.... They are so much fun to make!
oh yay, i'm so flattered!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for including me in the links! I love all of these ideas!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all your kind comments as well as the link! I've enjoyed checking out some of the other links and glad to hear that you love your Ergo -- I am really hoping to try one out with this new baby! Hopefully!!
ReplyDeleteJust catching up on my reading and looking forward to checking out some of those links!
ReplyDeleteI have an idea for your nativity set but will e-mail or facebook you as it involves several links . . . :) It might even be something I make! :)
Oh, and re: tags . . . we normally just use a square of the same paper that we used to wrap the gift, but we (almost) always write a clue for the gift. And it normally rhymes. It is so much fun reading the clues out loud before opening the gift and trying to guess . . . :)
Best,
Sarah