Snowman Wreath

Isn't he the cutest? I love my new snowman wreath. It was incredibly easy and economical to make, too. I already had the center wreath in the basement.

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Advent Activities Rundown

I cannot believe it is only three days until I begin our annual advent activity tradition. I posted last year about the things we included in 2009, the first year we switched from candy to fun, you can find that post here. Last year I had planned to post our activities six days at a time as they happened but the month was just far too busy for blogging and I only posted the first six. Instead of blogging them in January I saved it for a more timely post...now! I've had several requests for our list of activities. I'm still working on this year's list. Many of these will remain the same since in just two years they've become things the kids really look forward to.

But without further ado here's what happened in 2010:

December 1st
Decorate Your Own Christmas Tree in Your Bedroom

December 2nd
Ice Cream Sundae Bar After Dinner

The slip of paper had to specify after dinner or the kids would've been asking for these as soon as breakfast was over.

December 3rd
Write and Mail Letters to Santa

After they created their letters to Santa we drove to the mall to drop them in the large red mailbox Macy's has set up specifically to collect letters for Santa. The kids enjoy the large Santa mailbox and I like the fact Macy's donates a dollar for every letter to the Make a Wish Foundation.

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Snake Wreath

This is another creation credited to Pinterest. I'd seen a snake wreath pop up there a month ago, a snake wreath created by none other than Martha Stewart. I had to make the wreath with my family's snake history including the copperhead that bit our dog last year and the rat snake somehow discovered in my son's room; we needed a snake wreath for Halloween.

I found a plethora of rubber snakes at the Dollar Tree and dollar spot section at Target.

I also needed a wreath. I wanted a large grapevine wreath and I found this one on half price day at my favorite thrift store.

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Peep Wreath

My friend next door made a cute and simple Peep chick wreath the other weekend. I had to follow suit and make one too. I chose the Peep bunnies just to be less of a copy cat. This wreath cost less than $7 to make. Shazzam!

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Ice Wreaths

I did not create this crafty bit of winter fun. I can't even remember where I first saw it months ago. A quick google search returns far too many variations to know where to credit. What I do know is when I saw it I thought it would never be cold enough, long enough in the south to make an ice wreath. And then my town became Hothlanta.

I used one of my old bundt pans for my biggest child to create. The younger two just got glass bowls with a juice glass in the middle to create the hole.

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Handprint Wreath

This simple handprint wreath was part of our Advent activities this past Christmas. We're lucky enough to have my parents living just two doors down. And recently my dad's mom has come to live with them, now my kids have their grandparents and their great grandmother living close by. Great Grandma Gene's preferred holiday decor is white and blue; my mom's Christmas style is all Santas all the time. To help her feel more at home my mom found a small white tree and outfitted it with blue and white lights for Great Grandma Gene's bedroom and I thought the kids could make her something to help make the room festive as well.

To make this wreath I traced and cutout three of each of my three kiddos' hands on white and cream paper; total of 18 handprints. I used a dinner plate to trace a circle on a scrap piece of cardboard and a smaller bowl to trace and cut out the middle circle for my wreath form.

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Halloween Eyeball Wreath

I couldn't sleep last night so I got busy making the Halloween eyeball wreath I've been imagining.

I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to do it so I gathered a bunch of supplies from my craft stash. The wreath form and black ribbon were a dollar each from the Dollar Tree, the black glitter leaves and flowers are from Michael's and cost a dollar too, the black tulle is leftover from another project and the eyeballs are bouncy balls and a big bag cost only $4 at Target. I wanted to wrap the wreath in black grosgrain ribbon but it turns out I needed two spools to cover the form. So I changed course and wrapped it in the black tulle.

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