merry and happy banner.

ever since i shipped off the advent calendar, my mantel has been looking rather lonely. and since i cannot seem to settle on stockings to hang up by the chimney with care, i needed something quick, cheap and cheerful to fill the void.

so i made a banner, with bright colors and a fun sentiment. who doesn't need the occasional holiday reminder to be merry and happy?

the design was done in inkscape and i printed the letters two to a page on some heavier card stock. after a couple of sitcoms spent carefully cutting and hole punching, volia, no more naked mantel!

i've been really digging a colorful christmas this year. if you are too, you can grab the free printables and make your very own merry and happy banner (be sure to print the file landscape style). hang it above your fireplace or over a doorway or along the wall. anywhere that you need a little more holiday cheer.

cardboard christmas tree house.

last year i made margot a felt christmas tree, and it was a big hit. this year, since she currently loves playing with tiny toys, i made her a cardboard christmas tree house. complete with tiny kitties, peg people, and it's very own christmas tree.

it's a super cool project with templates from mr. printables (check out the whole site. there are lots of neat things there). and the best part is, it's essentially free, because who doesn't have a spare cardboard box (or fifty) sitting around the house right about now.

it's also fairly quick, depending on how much customization you want to do. i chose to paint the various panels with some acrylic craft paint that i had on hand. this was accomplished during a margot and mom painting session, which actually was super fun and minimally messy (she's quite the painter).

i also used some gold foil tape to stripe the floors, and maybe ran out on the bottom floor...if only i could remember where i bought it... i'm also considering using a sharpie (white mayhaps) to add some fun designs to the walls. hmmmm

*i really love this picture, because it makes margot look like a giant...

margot seems to think it's pretty cool. she mostly likes putting the kitties through the doors.

so, you should make one too! i'm pretty sure ours will stick around long after christmastime. as long as the masking tape holds and margot doesn't decide that it's climbable...as it most definitely is not.

diy advent calendar.

happy day after thanksgiving! the official start (in my house at least) of the christmas season. and what's a better way to recover from that breakfast pumpkin pie than an afternoon of crafting on the couch. and so, to encourage just that, here's a snazzy advent calendar diy, complete with printables, for all of your couch crafting fun.

i love christmastime. i love having a living tree in the house (and fending off cats and toddlers). i love sipping hot chocolate with peppermint. i love roaring fires and cheesy music and endless cookies and cakes shaped like logs. as much as i love christmastime though, i'm not such a huge fan of christmas. i think it overwhelms me. with all the stress of giving presents and getting presents, all of the goodnesses of the season gets briefly lost in the frenzied day. last year, though, i think i struck on a happy balance. a way to embrace all of the awesomeness that is christmastime and minimize the stress of presenting while still having fun things to open.

advent. a full month of intentional christmastiming. last year i sent my sister lilly a random assortment of advent gifts (only a few of which got blogged) and had a total blast collecting them all, wrapping them up, and shipping them out. so this year, my sisters and sisters-in-laws decided (i.e. agreed to go along with my crazy plan) to do an advent calendar swap--each person would make their own advent calendar, and then we'd exchanged them randomly. this is my contribution to the mix.

i was totally inspired by this one that i saw on pour mes jolis mômes. i loved its modern look with the black and white, its use of washi tape (seriously, can there be too much?) and most importantly, its ability to hold candy (and maybe also the way they look like those ice pops from the elementary school cafeteria...). i've been making some simple hand drawn patterns for a while now, and i figured this was the perfect opportunity to finally make vector graphics from them. so i took the same premise and made twenty four of my own black and white designs. and i'm completely in love.

and a little sad that it's already left my house. but stoked that it's being hung up in an awesome house in south carolina. and since i made printables, i can make them over and over again. and so can you! just click here.

in addition to the twenty four pouches, i also made small cards with scriptures on them and cards with suggested festive activities, one each for each of the twenty four days. rather than reinvent the wheel, you can find awesome assembly instructions over at pour mes jolis mômes.

i chose to make mine into a garland, so i wasn't able to hang them by the string in the corner (they don't all face outwards that way...which i found out the hard way...). tiny clothespins worked perfectly, though, even with the weight of a couple of pieces of candy.

so you should make some! and keep them for yourself or give them to a friend or to a neighbor or to someone completely random. and then hang them up over the fireplace, with a yak. or throw them in a basket. or hide them all over the house, easter egg style.

and since the pouches aren't too christmas specific, they can be used for other occasions--like twenty four days of birthdaying or twenty four days of summer or twenty four days of just because! 

on a somewhat related note, if you do choose to fill them with chocolate, hanging them above an often used fireplace is probably not ideal. just saying.

happy christmastime!