Advent Calendar

I swore I wouldn't be one of these people who starts a second blog, does well for a short time, and then drops the ball. Well, I guess life happens. I'm pregnant and in the midst of the second move in just a few months, not to mention the holidays, but I thought I'd give this little blog a second chance anyway. Hopefully it will pick up steam in the days ahead. A girl has to have a little creative work to relieve stress.

Elizabeth and I made this advent countdown calendar in about 3 hours, including the time it took to figure it out. Did I have the 3 hours? Not really. But E. wanted us to make it SO MUCH, and I knew those stolen hours would be the last ones available for a few weeks--certainly before December 1. Actually Elizabeth (who's 6) designed it, and I was tickled pink that she didn't get upset when it wasn't exactly (exactly, exactly, exactly!!!) what she envisioned. She was very happy with it overall, but not so happy that the numbers count down backward (24 down) rather than forward (1 up). I tried to explain that it was counting DOWN, but she insisted that the prototype she saw had the numbers counting forward. Ah, well. We used what we had in our hands, hence the non-traditional tree color. It's still quite Christmasy though.

The background, tree, trunk, snow, and pockets are all made of felt I had on hand. I glued most of it together which has worked fine for now. The dowel to which the ribbon is tied (can't see it, it's in the back) was one of the kids' broken arrows. The ribbon came on a package from someone else. I had the buttons. And the number squares are scrapbook paper which also came from my stash. The Santa counter (which will move each day, counting down till Christmas) was cut from an old Christmas card. I did buy some glitter to add a bit of sparkle to the snow, but you can't even see that in the picture.

This was a fun and easy project. Like cutting and pasting.