What a long, strange, trip this year has been. My husband and I kicked off 2020 at a Roaring 20's party and shortly afterwards everything roared to a full stop. While it is all too easy to focus on the boatload of the bad things that happened this year, for my sanity and mental health, I'm trying to focus on the few positives I experienced:
- I did a lot of projects on my Do It Yourself Honey! list. DIY, craft, and otherwise. As a result, I got new and repaired clothes, household items, home improvements, and cleaned out a bunch of my fabric stash and scraps. Yay!
- A Christmas gift from my mother in law inspired me to relearn how to crochet. Something I haven't done since my grandmother taught me as a kid.
- Zooming all over the country to see friends, family, and performances regularly instead of the once or twice a year we normally do in real life.
- Having the free time to shop at farmer's markets and can a boatload of end of season sale tomatoes.
- Lacey is absolutely thriving with both of her people being at home 24/7 (although her people have gone a little stir crazy at times being home 24/7.)
Time to show off your creative recipes, projects, and ideas for the last time this year!
Time to show off your creative recipes, projects, and ideas!
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Last Christmas I found the head of one of our Christmas stocking holders snapped off. I tried to repair it but it didn’t hold. The reindeer’s head careened to the side and stayed that way all season long.
Because there is nothing that says love and joy that a severed head on your Christmas mantle.
I poked around for a replacement. Most were already picked over and what I saw didn’t really appeal.
The only choice is to DIY a Christmas Stocking holder myself.
I like the concept of wine and beer Advent calendars for adults but the contents inside is often lower shelf booze - meh. Not to mention, the good wine and novelty Advent calendars sell out almost immediately when they are put on the store shelf.
What to do? What to do?
Make a quick and easy gnome Advent calendar using a Christmas tree!
Save this Advent calendar idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
Time to link up your best projects, home improvements, recipes, and creative ideas!
I bought a couple of color your own Christmas stocking kits (similar to these color your own Christmas Stocking kits) thinking it might be a cute reusable gift wrap idea. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for you convenience.) I wasn’t too jazzed with the colors or quality of the three markers that came in the kit which I expected since it came from a dollar store. No big deal. I planned on coloring it with craft paint and adding a few easy embroidered accents and outlines for fun.
Many folks in the Scandinavian countries like to decorate their homes with gnomes for Christmas. There is a tradition where they enjoy an appetizer of rice porridge for Christmas Eve dinner and put a small bowl of it outside for the gnomes to thank them for protecting the family and helping them prosper during the year.
The gnomes get very upset and will play tricks on you if they are not rewarded with their Christmas porridge!
So personally, I think it is best to decorate with the not so fickle recycled variety and make quick and easy bottle Christmas gnome decorations. Although, just like the Irish leprechaun, gnomes don’t go away after the holiday and you can decorate with gnomes all year round if you like.
This is a very forgiving Christmas craft project because the way you make your gnome is only limited to your imagination and what craft supplies you have on hand or want to use for this project.
While everyone else was baking sourdough bread during quarantine, I was making hot process soap. I took notes on what I did right and wrong and while I can't quite get it as thick as commercial liquid soap like I want, it cleans and lathers beautifully especially when I use a plastic bath puff. While a loofah is zero waste because I can compost it, it doesn't perform as well as a mesh bath poof that has to be tossed after awhile due to bacteria buildup. I tried washing one once and it fell apart.
I hadn't crocheted since I was a kid and recently picked up a hook to make a dishcloth. I looked for more quick beginner crocket projects on Pinterest (follow me @condoblues on Pinterest pretty please?) and found the answer to my zero waste bath puff problem - crochet a bath puff from cotton yarn!
I followed this crochet shower puff pattern from Hooked on Patterns and it was pretty easy once I got the hang of it. My shower puff isn't perfect but still not too shabby for the third thing I crocheted as an adult. Best of all, I can wash it in a mesh lingerie bag in the washing machine when I need to - no more bath puffs in my trash can ever again!
Time to link up your best projects, home improvements, recipes, and creative ideas!
Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:
Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Amy at A Day of Small Things - Pin
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Jennifer at Busy Being Jennifer - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst
If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!
You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!
And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's linky party!
I have a love hate relationship with foam crafting pumpkins. I love that they are reusable. I hate that most of them look horrifically fake.
Yes, I know I could use real pumpkins. I do for indoor decorating and puree them later for Thanksgiving desserts.
Outside it’s fake pumpkins all the way where real pumpkins are most likely squirrel food and when performing at Fall festivals where real fruit is likely to get smashed.
This sweet little girl was fascinated by the pumpkin clip I made over. I am forever grateful to the photographer that captured this moment!
I have several empty glass beverage bottles in my recycled craft supply stash and think they will make cute indoor Halloween decorations. As what? As Halloween recycled bottle witches!
Share this recycled Halloween craft tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!
I didn’t want to make the stereotypical ugly green faced witch dressed in black. Instead I took my design inspiration from three of my fellow renaissance festival actresses who portray The Fiendish Sisters. They are more of the Shakespearean type witches but instead of predicting the rise and fall of Danish kings, they host whiskey tastings. Which (witch?) is a great gig if you can get it.
