DIY Christmas Stocking

 I have been wanting to make new stockings for awhile now. The ones we have are from when I was growing up. They are denim and flannel and are HUGE! I am trying to convert over to a timeless Christmas theme in our home consisting of silver, whites and gold. I saw this picture on Pinterest and that is exactly what I wanted for stockings. Simple, clean, and fun texture.

So one morning Mom and I hit up Savers and I got a few sweaters. 

I made up a pattern.

Turned the sweater wrong side out and positioned it as desired. I wanted them to be different lengths, adding a touch of variation so I positioned the pattern down a bit on a few socks. 

Cut around the sock.

The first sock we tried to just surge around the edge without pinning and it turned out horribly. It was all stretched out and a total flop. So we switched the surger so that it gathered slightly, keeping things nice and tight, pinned like crazy and added some thin strips of cotton cut along the grain line to help keep it from stretching.

We then surged around the edges. 

 So Beautiful!!! Then we turned them right side out and added loops to hang them up on. (Which I should have taken a picture of because Mom made some beautiful loops.)

Repeat for additional socks.

Hang them up and admire!

I am so in love with this room! So festive, so cozy! The stocking really pull it all together!! 

Okay Santa, we are almost ready for you!

Christmas Crafts

When we were still in Nashville we started to plan out all of the things we would do in Vegas. The nativity, play in the snow, look at lights, make crafts every day. We were rather successful with most everything but when it came to a craft a day... FAIL! I was horrible. We still get our creative juices flowing but not like I had planned. 

 First item of business was to make play doh! (Go figure, E {loves} play doh!) She was really excited to help Grammy make up a batch.

She then got to pick her colors! And off she went to play.

A few minutes later we had to do some surgery. Grammy is awesome and got all of the dough out without having to wash her hair. 

We decorated the door.

We made a few Christmas ornament. E loved picking out the buttons to decorate her tree!

Correction... Trees.

 

We went on a play date to Aunt Shellie's and made ornaments, some of which included a gingerbread man, ghost, and owl. E and I made thumbprint hearts. 

We made a marshmallow Santa. The difficult part was gluing faster than E could eat them. If there was any delay she would gobble them up.

Manfred was all about reaching up on his tippy toes and sneaking the bottoms ones. And that's a wrap! Like I said, I failed but I loved the crafts we did do. Such a busy time of year!

Nativity Pegs

Wow! It has been forever since I posted! Time to play catch up! This year I have really enjoyed painting these little peg people. I decided that I wanted to make a little Nativity for the kids and I am very proud of how far my painting skills have come. These guys took about an hour and a half a piece. It was a fun project!

Mary Joseph and Baby Jesus. Mary is hands down my favorite piece which is strange because I made her first. I usually look back at my first piece and wish I had done things differently but I love her. Jakob says that Joseph looks like a Jedi and I love it.

The three wise men. It took awhile and some last minute tweaking but I think I finally am satisfied with how they look. 

The angel and shepherd. I should have twisted her the other way, she has a long braid down the side. 

The sheep totally makes the shepherd.

The stable took me days. I'm not sure why I was so determined to make it look so detailed when the kids are going to play with it anyways but I tried to go all out.

Jakob taught me how to paint rocks, it was time consuming but I love how realistic they look. I love the wood roof, the pots and the textured walls. I'm pretty proud of this bad boy. 

Eventually I would like Jakob to make me a little manger for baby Jesus, but that will be down the road when the kids aren't into sticking everything in their mouths.

There you have it! My very first Nativity! Like I said before, I {loved} making this project and I hope that the kids will love playing with it this holiday season!

Kids Activites

As most of you know, I like to craft. Lucky for me, so do Charlie and Greta. As with any holiday I was pretty excited to get our craft on, so me made a few crafts while I was there. First up, Turkey name place cards. 

E wasn't into making any more turkey crafts so she colored with us. She was so cute just doing her own thing. 

Charlie and Greta were superstars. They were awesome listeners and they did a really good job making the turkeys. We had to make 14 of them. 

They also pose for pictures really well. Kids after my own heart. 

Aren't those just darling?!

 Thanksgiving morning we made a thankful tree. Charlie Greta and I filled it up.

 I'm grateful for moments and smiles like these.

I was rather excited to be done with turkeys. Not that they aren't super cute but I am stoked to begin Christmas crafts. First up, paper snowflakes!!!!

Once again E didn't want to make a snowflake so she sat with us, ate an orange and ooo'd and ahhhh'd over  our creations. 

Everyone got pretty into it. Pa, Grammy, and Jakob all made a few too!

The best part is seeing what it will end up looking like. 

Our final products. Do you see the Batman and Spiderman snowflakes?

For our final day we mad hand print snowmen and finger print Christmas trees. 

Others colored. E was so excited to have all these different craft supplies to play with. 

Our Snowmen. Mine (top), Greta (bottom left), and Charlie's (bottom right). Greta and Charlie made theirs look like Margot, Georgie, Greta and Charlie. Mine is our little family. These were a lot of fun, complete with sparkles.

Then Greta and I rocked out some Christmas trees. 

Oh, let's not forget the Play Doh. E was in heaven. We had a blast making all of our crafts!! :)