advent calendar. [tutorial]

I swear I don't try to avoid my blog. It just happens. One day I don't post, even though I mean to, and then the next four (five, six...) days are busy, and not before too long I have lost all will to post because I am that far behind. That's how I feel now. Actually, within the last 15 days [that's how long it has been since I've posted...ugh] I considered that maybe I shouldn't blog anymore, maybe it wasn't for me after all.

But I've come around, and I will continue to pursue blogging for the time being. I have too much to share in this post though to catch up on all that's been happening.

Remember how I wanted to make it through November before celebrating Christmas, giving November all its necessary honor and respect? Well, that didn't quite happen. I thoroughly enjoyed November and the Thanksgiving season, and it really was a perspective-changing time for me. But once we got back from visiting our families in Michigan over Thanksgiving weekend, we immediately got out our tree and those Christmas boxes that have been calling my name for weeks now, and we decked the halls, turning this place into a Christmas wonderland. Oh, it makes me so happy! ... every decoration, every Christmas light, every present wrapped beneath our tree waiting for its recipient to open it. Oh, Christmas, I love you.

I talked previously about a Christmasy project I had been planning and working on as a surprise for Mr. Allen's family. I had meant to share it with you all way before December 4, but alas - I think I should follow through with it eventually. Better late than never, right?!

So here it is, my new advent calendar:

It sort of has bunting-mixed-garland style look. I designed the whole concept from scratch, so there's no inspiration that I will forget to link to, just my own mind. I am really proud of the whole creative process, since it was finally my own.

Here's a quick tutorial of how it all happened.

Step one: Gather materials. I found this awesome, green and white striped fabric at Goodwill. It used to be a curtain, and then it sat in my fabric stack for a while, waiting for good use. How perfect was it for this project? (And it was, by far, the cheapest fabric ever. I think the whole sheet/curtain [3-4 yards] was $2.) I used twine (via Joann's), hot glue (I finally have a glue gun of my own), and a red ball trimming (via Joann's). 

Step two: Pick your size, shape, and overall design. Here are the plans I drew up when I was thinking of this project and deciding on the measurements.

 

[The big-picture design for my calendar.]

 

[What became my template for cutting all the squares. I left 1/4 inch seam allowance.]

[The pile of squares... so many. Keep in mind though, I made 2 advent calendars - one for our home and one for our family. So I needed 96 sqaures in all.]

Step three: After cutting all the squares, I pinned them in pairs front-to-front for what would become little pockets when sewn. I forgot to take a picture of this step.]

Step four: [Apply these next few steps multiple times, one per pocket ... 48 to be exact if you're making two.] I sewed back the top of each side to create a finished edge.

Step five: Then I repeated with the other side, folding away from the front of the fabric. [You can see the finished edge of the first side where the red stitching is.]

Step six: Cut trimming amount to fit the pocket. Then line it up with the bottom side of the pocket (toward the front of the fabric.)

Step seven: Stack the other piece (front-to-front) keeping the trimming in line with the bottom. You may want to pin this to keep it in its place.

Step eight: Stitch the bottom, securing the trimming between the two pieces.

Step nine: Sew the sides of the pocket. [The top should still be open.]

Step ten: Turn your pocket right-side-out and enjoy. [Ugh, this is not my prettiest pocket.]

Once all the pockets are sewn, simply hot glue a looooong piece of twine to all 24 pockets. I spaced my pockets about 2 inches apart.

Then comes the fun part. This advent calendar is full of festive activities. Each day there is a little something-to-do to get more and more in the holiday spirit. I cut little cards from cardstock (read: old thank you cards from the wedding) and wrote the activity inside and the day-number outside. Each pocket holds one card, and once the card is read on that day, it hangs out of the pocket, adding a visual of how long until Christmas is finally here!

Here is our advent calendar, hung by the window (which should really have some lights up... I'll get to that soon... I think.) We're 4 days in and loving it. Mr. Allen has opened each day's card and most of them will be surprises for him. Today's was to hang up and enjoy the mistletoe. :] ...it's an all-day type of an activity.

Here is a picture of Mr. Allen's family's advent calendar, hung on the mantle. I think they are really enjoying it too! [I sure hope so at least.]

For ideas of how to fill your advent activity calendar, visit here and here and here.

Some other advent calendar ideas that I've liked: wrapping Christmas books up then reading one each day or wrapping up board and card games and playing one each day. I'm sure some day down the road, when the little one(s) are a little older, these will come into play in our family.

linking up with these parties:






joining this hop party:

a dust of decoration.

Our home needed more festive flavor to really get the most out of November, a light pixy-november-y dust of fall decoration.

Well, I would have loved to tell you where I got my inspiration for this project, but it seems that when I re-organized my pinterest boards, I lost all my good holiday pins. (That will take a few, necessary hours of repinning this weekend.) I had seen a project like the one I created made from wooden letters (or something similar) painted in fall colors. Even though I can't find that original post, here is another tutorial that I used as inspiration for the how-to/design element.

I am obviously all about making free crafts rather than buying any new supplies at the store. (Although, Jenny did get her wooden letter for a good price.) So I gathered up materials from what we already have: Aldi cardboard boxes (we grab a few every time we forget our reusable bags), paint (from past projects), scissors, tape (I can't believe I don't have any glue), and old magazines (it doesn't hurt that I've subscribed to Self magazine for the past two years.)

To start, I needed to free-hand draw my letters. I started with the G, and once I was happy with that, used its height and thickness as a base for the other letters. The drawing/cutting out process took me 20-30 minutes. Put on some background TV and get started. (I really should have been catching up on TV shows I've been missing lately: 3 or 4 episodes of Gossip Girl, an episode of The Mentalist, and one of Whitney.)

I originally had wanted to paint my letters with fall colors like the original inspiration/tutorial, but decided to go with a collage look instead. (Collages are way more my style. I used to do so many magazine-cut-out projects in college for design in our dorm rooms, notes, etc.)

I cut out sections of pages with the different colors I was looking for (brown, red, yellow, and orange) and separated them into piles. Then I asked Mr. Allen to pick a color for the first letter and I got started. (I always end up wrangling him into helping with whatever project I am working on. :] ) Cutting little pieces of tape took much longer that I wanted it to, but when you don't have glue (and you don't have money), you do what you need to do. The collage cutting/wrapping/taping took me the better part of an hour or so, and I actually had to finish the E today (you can notice that it isn't finished in one picture) because we really needed to head to bed.

Here's the final look:

The letters found a home in our window sills.

[And, if you've visited our house, there's a little different room set-up. We like it. No, we love it. It's Christmas-tree and baby-swing friendly.]

And there you have it. Sorry there was no full tutorial, but I think you get the idea. Very simple, homemade, cute way to Thanksgiving-ize your home. Let me know if you try it out. And no, I didn't pick out the word "Gobble"; the original inspiration post had used it. I liked it because it was out of the ordinary, and my next project will use the word "Thanks"... there's no need to over do it.


with faithfulness. (as I decorate our home/building its character and as I blog regularly)


Also, PRAISE report - today I accepted another full-time nanny job that starts the day after I am done with Henry. This is a huge answer to prayer. The family is wonderful, it is a job that I actually want (there were some not-so-wonderful ones out there), and they are on-board with the whole bringing-my-baby-to-work-with-me idea. I had no doubt that God had/HAS a plan. He is good. He is faithful.

linking up with these parties:

Creative Me Monday (via The Southern Institute)
Ta-Da Tuesday (via Mommy by day... Crafter by night)
Made by You Monday (via Skip to my Lou)

time to show off.

Last weekend my best friend, Danielle, came for a short, wonderful visit. On Saturday we went to a vintage bazaar that, thankfully, was only minutes away. This bazaar is supposed to be one of the biggest in Chicago all year, and it was wonderful. There were over 70 vendors, which is amazing because I only really know of a few vintage stores in the city... although I'm sure there are more.

The weekend before I had gotten a strong hankerin' for perusing through a vintage shop and scoring some great finds. I went to the store closest to our apartment and it was my first time there. Although reviewed highly online, it was a big disappointment. I found a few little decor items that I would have liked to take home, but they were all over-priced, so I went home empty handed. Mr. Allen and I, when shopping for a dining room table a few months ago, headed to the Pilsen neighborhood (a little bit on the south side of the city and where I student taught/where we used to go to church) which is said to be the area for the best vintage markets. The store that Chicagoans love the most is called Knee Deep Vintage, although those Chicagoans are much mistaken when they claim that Pilsen Vintage (a shop literally across the street) carries the leftovers of the first store. We found our table at Pilsen Vintage at a great price and there was so much more I could have taken with me but didn't. Moral of this paragraph: don't believe the reviews - when vintage-ing in Chicago, go to Pilsen (definitely) and try out all the stores they have to offer.

Anyway, back to last weekend's bazaar... we had so much luck at the flea market. I went with only $20 (a wise choice because so much more could have been spent.) Here were my wonderful finds that I came home with proudly:

[two sheets of 2-pack buttons, $1 each. I plan to use these for a sweater project. And if that doesn't work out, because it seems to be leaning on the edge of failure, I will use the pink for a baby-girl project/gift and the black ones will wait for another home.]

[vintage cookbook, $3. If I didn't just adore the cover of this book, what's on the inside is the kicker. The old woman (judging by the little, cursive handwriting) who once owned this book has re-written and edited so many of the recipes. It adds so much more value, you know? Also, Mr. Allen says it's like the Harry Potter's ownership of his Potions book, edited by the Half-Blood Prince.]

[wooden press stamps, $1 each. As soon as I saw these little guys I was inspired for a project. Can you guess what I would make?]

Here it is! I'm so excited to show it off: some artwork for the nursery. Danielle had suggested to start making them in mass and to maybe open an Etsy shop for a place to sell them. I'm not sure about the Etsy shop at this point, although I may try it out in a few months. But I know that I will be testing out some more designs with the blocks, and I'm sure I'll be giving a few away as presents for some little ones to come.

In other creative news, this weekend we celebrated my nephew's birthday. Mr. Allen and I went to my sister and brother-in-law's overnight Friday to get to spend some extra time with their family. Last week I had posted a facebook status requesting a pin cushion. I was tired of constantly spilling my pins or poking myself because I had to grab them out of the dish. I was ready for them to be at-the-ready for me. My sister, Ashley, responded with a link to this tutorial, which we used and yesterday created this wonderful pincushion together.

Oh, I'm in love. My sister-in-law, Kelsey, had picked up a fabric scrap-pack for me (just because she's sweet) a few months ago, so I had these fabrics lying around waiting for a purpose. This was the perfect opportunity. I love my little pincushion/caddy for all those tools I need right there at a moment's notice. If I convinced you enough to venture out and try it yourself, please let me know and we could try a link-up to show off our creations. I'm sure the original tutorial writer would love to know as well.

Hopefully this creativity-bug will stick around, especially since I need to get some (24+) cloth diapers done quickly. And hopefully this blog theme will be just as well-received as those with baby news. :) Thank you so much for reading and enjoying.

with goodness.

[Edit: For a tutorial about how to get better blog photos, see this post. With her help, I was able to improve my picture quality and up my over-all blog appearance... because, let's be honest, pictures speak hugely, probably more than the words I write.]