color crayon holder

My next crafty project was a few crayon holders made out of the black walnut trees we took down.

This project needed power tools, so I headed Santa's Workshop. Which was actually my brother-in-law Jedd's Workshop. He taught me how to use his drill press and then helped me sort through all sorts of terrible flashbacks from middle school industrial technology. I think a few more session in Jedd's garage, using his power sander, circular saw and jig saw, and he might just reverse my feelings associated with the smell of new saw dust.

And then I got to meet these awesome girls as they got of the bus after their last day of school before TWO WEEKS of Christmas vacation! I was so excited for them!

wrapping in kraft paper

It seemed like such a good idea...another one I got on Pinterest. Wrap all your presents in Kraft Paper. And then when your kids are looking for something to do during the days leading up to Christmas, have them color on the packages.

I love this. Except I don't have kids who can color unsupervised. And I don't wrap presents ahead of time. When Rory saw the presents he made a comment about a bunch of amazon packages having been delivered under the tree. And it did look like that. More like a post office, less like presents. This week I'll buy some colorful christmas wrapping paper on sale for next year. And wait until I have kids old enough to help with the kraft paper vision.

My other reason for the kraft paper was because of a pinterest idea of putting painters tape down to make a Christmas tree, painting over it and then taking the tape off. My neighbor girls helped with this project, and we loved how it turned out. This was the high chair we brought to church for the crisis pregnancy center. The perfect huge box to get artsy on.

All in all, the kraft paper was fun in theory, but my kids aren't old enough to pull this one off yet. Check back in another 5-7 years and we'll try it again.

family guess who

I've been crafty this Christmas and it feels good. Last year I was pregnant and not feeling well but this Christmas (with the inspirational help from Pinterest...I've been on a lot this month) my creative juices are flowing again.

This first project was a personal version Guess Who for my mom. It's a family favorite game anyway, so when I saw this idea on pinterest I thought it was pretty perfect. Now we ask questions like, "Does your person live in Seattle?" "Is your person in elementary school?" "Is your person one of Grandma Margaret's brothers or sisters?" "Does your person winter in Mesa?"

Mom and I played for a while together on Christmas Eve and mostly it is just fun to think about our awesome family and look at adorable pictures. So fun.