Friday, December 16, 2011

Holiday Wishes


Merry Christmas from my family to yours!  I'm taking a brief winter vacation from the blog to relax and enjoy the holiday season with my family, but Two Tiny Birds will be back in 2012 with plenty of new recipes, quilts, and crafts.  Happy Holidays!


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Tis the Season!

It's December...let the holiday crafting begin!  Hooray!


What better way to kick of the Christmas season than with a homemade Advent calendar?  I finished this baby about 30 minutes ago, giving me an hour to spare before I need to leave to pick Bailey up from preschool.  Yep, that's right.  I'm proud to say that I have perfected the fine art of procrastination.  I do some of my best work under pressure.  :)


 At first I had planned to only have the countdown cards as part of the calendar, but then I came across this foam countdown tree at Target for only $5.  I attached the tree to a piece of foam board (also from Target - $3) with hot glue.  Even though the foam ornaments were sticky-backed, they got a shot of hot glue too. 


The tree has a cute little peg that you move along the string of lights as you count down the days until Christmas.  Bailey will get a kick out of it.


Each colorful card is simply a piece of sturdy cardstock from my stash with scrapbook sticker numbers on the front and a cute sticker on the back.  As we count down a day, we'll turn the card around to display the sticker.  I hot glued four strands of Christmas ribbon from my hairbow-making supplies across the bottom of the board and used tiny binder clips to attach the cards. 


Each card contains a slip of paper with a fun holiday activity written on it.  I wanted the flexibility of being able to switch around the activities as needed and to use the calendar again in the future.

Our list of activities includes...
writing a letter to Santa
choosing a new ornament for the tree
going to a performance of the Nutcracker ballet 
making a gingerbread house
buying gifts for the Angel Tree and DFW Pug Rescue
reading a Christmas book
drinking hot chocolate while watching a Christmas movie
learning a new Christmas song
baking a treat for your teacher
having a picnic in front of the Christmas tree
making reindeer food
baking cookies for Santa
making a snowman pizza
visiting Santa's Village

When Bailey gets home from school today, she'll open the first card and discover that tonight after dinner, we get to go shopping for new ornaments.  I can't wait to see what she chooses for herself, and she'll most likely have a hand in choosing Jake's too!

Happy holidays!