penny carnival

12 Days of Crafting, Days 7 and 8: candle crown and countdown blocks

I just posted Day 8's craft for my 12 Days of Crafting project over at Dwell Well.

Today, we made a Santa Lucia crown from felt:

 

 You can see the tutorial, more photos and an explanation of what in the world a Santa Lucia crown is right here.

Day 7 was a project from my sister-in-law, Kim: countdown to Christmas blocks.

Cute, huh?

Four more crafts to go.

We are knee deep in Christmas here. Party for J's side of the family was last night. Great fun. His family is very musical, so at one point we were all sitting around the piano singing Christmas songs (and then Beatles songs and then Elton John songs). It was beautiful.

 

Today we went to Spokane's annual Gingerbread House Build-Off, one of my favorite events of the year. Money raised goes to a program that helps women in need get on their feet, get some job skills, etc. Local pastry chefs and architects team up to design a gingerbread house to fit the year's theme. Here were a couple of the works in progress:

Meanwhile, kids can buy a gingerbread (graham cracker, actually) kit made by the women in the program, have a seat at a table and decorate their own little houses.

I hope you're enjoying the holidays, too.

12 Days of Crafting, Day 5: Repurposing vintage Christmas cards

OK, so I'm 23 hours, 45 minutes into day 5, but it's still day 5 so take it or leave it.

Today's tutorial for my 12 Days of Crafting series over at Dwell Well is not so much a tutorial but a list of ways you can give new life to vintage Christmas cards.

You can find the cards in an antique store or just search through Flickr. 

I have more details over at Dwell Well, but here are some pictures of the things I made ...

Cupcake toppers (or cookie toppers if you didn't have time to make a batch of cupcakes):

 

Might be cute to cut these with a scalloped-edge scissor or pinking shears.

Garland:

 Place cards for the dinner table:

 

Napkin rings:

 

And gift tags:

Any other ideas? 

 

 

 
 

12 Days of Crafting, Day 4: Make a draft snake

It's close to zero degrees here in Spokane with a windchill that's making things worse. Perfect timing, then, to make a draft snake.

 Put this bad boy on the crack at the bottom of your door and the cold air doesn't stand a chance of getting inside. Well, maybe a little chance, but I swear it does help considerably.

Draft snake tutorial here.

12 Days of Crafting, Day 3: Freezer Paper Dreidel Shirts

Another day, another craft tutorial. 

Today's project: freezer paper dreidel shirts, just in time for Hanukkah.

 

When Bo saw this after I made it, she squealed and insisted on wearing it to school the next day. No, we're not Jewish, which might have confused her teachers a bit. 

I think these would make fun favors for kids at a Hanukkah party. The kids could even make them themselves as a party activity. And how cute would this be on a baby's onesie? 

Instead of a dreidel you could do a menorah, a Christmas tree, a sleigh, a reindeer ...

 Whatever!

More projects coming soon.

12 Days of Crafting, Day 2: Glitter Garland

I just posted the next Christmas craft tutorial over on Dwell Well. Day 2 is all about sparkle, baby.

Hop on over there to learn how to make this vintage-inspired glitter garland.

It was a messy job, but someone had to do it.


  

Christmas craft tutorial No. 1 of 12, and surviving the grocery store

My house looks like a Christmas explosion right now. There are baking ingredients dusted all over the kitchen floor, "cherry wink" cookies covering every inch of countertop, glitter-covered crafts on one end of the dining room table and handmade greeting cards on the other. Oh, and millions of little bitty pieces of red yarn under the table because when a 2 year old decides she can entertain herself for 30 minutes by cutting cheap yarn, you don't complain.

Thank you, thank you for all the great feedback on the Santa dilemma. After giving it a lot of thought and talking with Bo's teacher, we decided we're just not going to emphasize the big guy this year. We're not going to sit her down and tell her the truth; we're just going to focus on other holiday traditions more, like the Nutcracker and singing Christmas carols and building gingerbread houses and making cookies and crafts (hence, the mess). I'll put more of my thoughts on that issue in the comments section of my previous post when I get a minute.

Speaking of the Nutcracker, Seattle magazine had a darling idea in its December issue: Throw a Nutcracker-themed party for kids before or after attending the show. Pink tulle tablecloth. Cupcakes that look like toy soldiers. Invitations that look like theater tickets. Squeal! More details on my Kids' Parties site.

And if you're heading over to the Kids' Parties site anyway, here are a few other things I've been working on over there:

-Food to serve at a kids' Christmas party (that one is a work in progress--I plan to add many more pictures and recipes in the coming weeks)

-Theme ideas for a kids' Christmas party

-And this one wasn't my idea, but I love it so: an Advent calendar of books. Every day, a new Christmas themed book to open and read together. Brilliant idea courtesy of Babyccino.

On my other blog (seriously. how did I end up with so many blogs? my computer is like a rabbit), today marks the start of my 12 Days of Crafting. Between now and Dec. 17, you'll see a new tutorial every day for something holiday related. I started with these twig stars today--easy, cheap, earthy:

You can use them as tree ornaments or string them together like garland or make a super big one to hang on your door.

Much more on the 12-Days-of-Crafting front coming soon.

Let's see ... what else? Our first three holiday cards have arrived from the Kids' Craft Weekly card swap. Bo looooves opening these.

Yesterday, we had breakfast at Chaps, one of our favorite Spokane breakfast joints. Hee haw! The Christmas decorations were darling:



(Yes, I took a picture of the bathroom.)
 



Best children's play area ever. Vintage toy kitchen appliances. Pink cowboy hats. Tin tea set. Love it. Love it. Love it. Thanks, Celeste (owner). You're brilliant.

Lastly, a quick tip courtesy of a friend of mine from high school (thank you, Facebook). After swearing that I would never again take my wild-animal children to the grocery store, Rachel suggested I have the kids make their own grocery lists before we go and use them once we get there. The girls cut pictures from the Wednesday newspaper ads (all based on what I actually needed), and glued them to paper. I made dotted letters spelling out the products for Bo to trace.

And, yes, that's turkey food. We didn't host Thanksgiving this year and we're missing the leftovers.

We headed to the grocery store this morning and the lists worked like a charm, as long as you don't mind your kids lying on the floor in the middle of the aisles so they can cross off what they've just put in the cart. 

 Sorry for the crappy cell phone photo blur. 

Thank you, Rachel!  

I better clean up this mess before this guy comes home. Hope all is well, bloggy friends.

The Santa situation, Thanksgiving costumes and more daily life

Oh, you guys who keep coming back to read Penny Carnival after these long breaks between posts are too good to me. Even J has been scolding me. 

I'm sorry for my absence. It's been, well, nuts.

Thanksgiving was lovely, though. How about you? 

We visited my family across the state and had a fun dinner at my sister's. The kids put on a "First Thanksgiving" play, dressed in costumes we made at the 11th hour (me, anyway).

Despite some historical inaccuracies (we're going to let that slide for a few years), it was downright adorable.

The play ended with the kids sharing a Thanksgiving feast of rice crispy treats shaped like corn on the cob and a blessing that led us to the dinner table.

 
You can read more about it on my Kids' Parties site.  

I did find time to make myself a pilgrim apron following Heather Bailey's fantastic Daily Spice pattern. I say pilgrim because it had a black bodice and skirt and a white waistband and ties. No pictures yet. I always seem to be behind the camera instead of in front of it.

The plan was to make four identical aprons--one for me, my mom, my sister and her friend who had dinner with us. But I only had time for one and it turned out a bit wonky (you know how it goes when you're using a pattern for the first time) so it's all mine. Maybe I'll try for a Santa style one for Christmas (red, black, red?) ... or maybe not.

Speaking of Santa, we're in the midst of our annual dilemma. J and I feel so strongly about being truthful with our kids. It's utterly painful for us to carry on with the Santa story. We do it, cheerfully, but this year is more challenging than ever because both girls have developed a phobia of the big guy. 

It seriously goes beyond a normal fear, especially for Bo, who is 4 now. I think Magpie (who is 2) gets scared because she sees her big sister crying. We tried to go to our city's annual tree lighting, but she wouldn't step foot in the building because she knew Santa would be there. The poor kid was hysterical.

We stayed in a hotel near Seattle last night in a city that throws a holiday parade--totally fun. Fake snow falling from the sky. Toy soldiers on stilts giving out candy canes. People dressed up like reindeer and snowmen and penguins. I don't even know if Santa was there because the girls didn't want to have anything to do with it. 

I take that back. Bo was happy to meet the Snow Princess. 

My mom was with us and she tried dancing the jitterbug with Rudolph to help the girls get comfortable with the costumes, but it didn't work (and then Rudolph's helper said to my mom, "OK, lady. Let's not get Rudolph too hot in there." If you know my mom, it was a classic Nancy moment.)

I kind of wonder if Bo is so scared because we're so honest with her about everything else. She's in the heart of those years when she's trying to figure out how the world works, and here are her parents telling her that some old guy is going to park his reindeer on her roof and shimmy down her chimney one night. I think I'd be freaked out, too.

I'm seriously considering telling her the truth and focusing on the historical story of Saint Nick, not to mention all the other wonderful Christmas traditions. But here is how the conversation usually goes when I suggest this:

Megan: I don't like being dishonest with my kids.
Friends and Family: When you were little, didn't you believe in Santa?
Megan: Yes.
Friends and Family: And it was fun, wasn't it?
Megan: Yes.
Friends and Family: Then why rob your children of some of the magic of Christmas?
Megan: Umm ... I don't know.

Plus, what if she told all the kids in preschool the truth about Santa. Would we get expelled??!

Advice please. There are four weeks until Christmas and at some point I'm going to need to go into a mall.

In other news, we made our first snowmen of the year:

But it's these snowmen I'm really craving:

(Photo taken at Madeleine's in Spokane) 

And if you're going to make a snowman, you might as well do it in style, right Magpie?

 

We enjoyed a recent playdate with a friend:

 

which resulted in these cookies:

and this sweet moment in Bo's bedroom:

Bo won her first coloring contest, which bought dinner for four so we're happy to report that she's now earning her keep:

And check out this adorable Princess and the Pea toy my nieces' grandmother made for them after seeing the idea here:


 Squeal! Don't you love the little pocket for the pea?

I'm sure she would want me to tell everyone that she didn't make the doll, but she's an accomplished seamstress so I know she could make any doll she wanted to.   

Now that your computer has crashed from opening all those photos ... come back soon because I'm working behind the scenes on lots of good stuff. Twelve--count 'em! twelve!--tutorials for Christmas crafts. That starts Dec. 6, but hopefully I'll have something worthwhile to say before then (but don't hold your breath). 

   

  

Kids Craft Weekly giveaway!

Good news, guys! Amber from Kids Craft Weekly saw my blog post yesterday about her Christmas card swap and Christmas craft PDFs and wants to give away one of her PDFs to a Penny Carnival reader. 

Leave a comment below that's somehow related to Christmas crafts. You could briefly describe one of your favorite Christmas crafts, tell me about an ornament you made as a kid, link to a project you've done as an adult or link to a project you'd like to make one day (or have someone else make for you). Whatever.

Leave your comment by this Friday at noon, Pacific time, and a randomly selected commentator (commenter? person? bumble bee?) will win the 20-page Kids Craft Weekly Christmas Cards PDF.

Thanks, Amber!

Update: I didn't mean to exclude folks who celebrate other holidays. By all means, leave comments about Hanukkah crafts, winter solstice ... everything. Even though Amber's e-booklet is about making Christmas cards, there are ideas in there that you could apply to any holiday.