It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Here's our sweet Christmas tree this year! It's a 6-foot artificial tree from Ikea, with red garland, red globe ornaments, and lots of old Christmas cards made into ornaments. I've yet to craft a tree topper, but it's on the list. We opted to put the tree on a table to make it seem less scrawny. My Mom sent the Christmas cards, which I trimmed and glittered, then hung with red yard. I think the next 3 "ornaments" are quite fitting for our overseas adventure.

I bought 3 cheap wreaths at Geant, pulled them apart, and added some garland on one to make a centerpiece for the table. I'd like to do the same for the other 2 and hang them above the stockings.

Our Lillian Vernon WELCOME sign lacks anything Christmasy, so I hung a stocking instead.

Since we don't have a fireplace, I decided to hang the stockings up over the opening to the kitchen. The gold bows came from the Geant wreaths. The stockings were only 11 dirhams each at Ikea. If I can find some embroidery thread in this country, I will embroider our names (or at least first initial!) on them.

I'm currently on the lookout for a Santa Claus photo-op for Colin. Fingers crossed....

ugly

Crafty Fun

On Black Friday, I found some super awesome printable cash envelopes at The Digichick...for free! Then, I picked out some pretty (free) digital scrapbook paper at Shabby Princess. After a few hours of Photoshopping the paper into the envelopes, decorating, printing, cutting, and gluing, my masterpiece is complete!!

This "Christmas Cash" envelope is what caught my attention, so I printed out one of these, too!

Here are my beautiful envelopes!

They fit perfectly into my wallet, and I labeled them so retreiving cash is not only easy, it's also stylish :)

Today, I saw this "Countdown to Santa" post at one of my favorite blogs I Can Teach My Child! We need some holiday cheer around here, so Colin and I made our own.

I used two paper plates - one for the face and one for the hat. I let Colin paint the hat red, then tried to get him to put the cotton balls on the hat and Santa's beard, but he wasn't so cooperative.

Then, I used the one piece of green and red paper we had in the apartment (complete with evidence of previous coloring sessions), cut them to 1" wide, and made the chain.

Here's the final product:

I looped the chain so I could hang Santa a little lower. I have a feeling Colin will rip him down before Christmas, but have no fear...I have a whole roll of masking tape left.

We will tear one loop every night before bed so we can count down to Christmas!

I really wanted to make an advent calendar, but haven't found a craft store yet. Next week: a paper nativity scene!