ornaments and other stuff

"I want to do 'crafting time'. " That's what Diego says most mornings.  (Yay, I still have one that likes that stuff!)  Well, he either says that or "I want to watch TV."  But I prefer the first.

Lately, we've been busy making ornaments.  The first were filled with natural items and a little fake snow.



We did this with the Garden Club at school, and I mistakenly bought glass ornaments.  One year, I wanted glass and the stores only had plastic, and this year, I wanted plastic and they only had glass.



Either way, these are my favorite ornaments...you can do ANYTHING with them.  I had Diego make a handprint on one...I haven't tried it with Carmen yet, but it's definitely on the 'to do' list.  Others were filled with paint, pompoms, feathers, or beads.  Anything you can find that fits in that little hole makes a beautiful ornament!



There's nothing simpler than beads on a pipe cleaner.  Diego stayed well-occupied making these.  I tied them with some embroidery thread...



...but this one is even easier and was his favorite.



This is our advent calendar.  Twenty-four is an awesome number if you have 2,3,4,6,8, or 12 kids.  They've been taking turns well, and it's all we can do not to open number 24.  I know I pinned a lot of homemade advent calendars, but I always wait until November to do that, and then there's never enough time to actually make them.



Our elf has made an appearance.  The kids have questioned him this year because he is different from those scary looking elves at other people's houses.  But ours is from Bolivia, so that makes sense.



Here's most of our tree.  The theme?  Smother it with every ornament you own without rhyme or reason.  Diego discovered a starfish ornament this year...he's fascinated with ocean animals right now...and he turned it over, saw the little hole for its mouth and said, "So that's how the starfish gets the food in his belly."



"Yes, Virginia, Coke really does own the world."  These Coke ornaments are one of our favorites.  I've heard they have these bottles again at Walmart but have yet to see them.



And here's our NEW tree!!  I fell in love with this on Pinterest.  It's fabric from IKEA and we're using it to hang our painted advent ornaments from several years ago.   You can tell I was so excited I didn't even iron the material.



I'm amazed we still have these ornaments, but they are perfect for this new tree!



And our new COMPLETED project (unlike the fireplace demolition)...a chalkboard wall!!  Well used and lots of fun.  Thanks, Kate, for the inspiration and motivation!



I guess I could have cleaned it up for the blog...but it usually looks just like this.  Still love it.