Thursday, December 20, 2012

Merry Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away!  We are getting ready to head to Indiana to see my family for a week or so.  I'm not a fan of road trips but it's nice to go home for Christmas.  I hope we get some snow for Hayden to play in (after we get there, of course!)

Yesterday Hayden had a little playdate/Christmas party with his friend.  Another one of his friends was unable to come because she is sick and we missed her and her little sister.  So, it was just the two of them but I think they had a great time judging by the constant giggles and smiling faces!

I'd been seeing those adorable snowmen milk bottles all over pinterest and decided to make them.  So cute!  There were lots of sugary treats and even Hayden's elf, "Big H" was there. 









For the past several days I have been holding my kids a little tighter, hugging them a little longer, kissing them a little more and just being completely thankful for every moment I have with them. My heart has been so broken for those families that lost their children in that horrible tragedy and I am consumed with grief for them. I'm praying that God gives them a peace that passes understanding as they walk through this dark valley.


So lucky to be mommy to these precious kiddos!



Merry Christmas from our family to yours!






All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Yarn Ball Christmas Wreath

Wow, it's been a while since I posted.  I've been slacking lately!  I have seriously been the worst blogger this year :-/

Well, I have a Christmasy post today :)  I made a wreath for the front door again this year and have had a few people ask how I made it so I wanted to share it with you! 

I've seen my picture frame wreath from a couple years ago a lot on pinterest and it makes me happy to see that people liked it so much!! :)  This year I did something a little more whimsy.  It all started when I was black friday shopping with my sisters in law and saw a yarn ball wreath at Target.  It was adorable and $20.  I didn't want to spend $20 so I decided to make one.  I got my yarn at Joanns and used coupons.  Would you believe I got all this yarn for $7???
 I got the wreath form (18 inch but you can do any size) at the dollar tree (love that store.) So I had just over $8 in the supplies (less than half of the Target wreath!)

I considered getting styrofoam balls (they even had them in packs of 4 or 5 at the dollar tree) but I would have needed TONS and this would have made my cost in supplies way too much.  So, I decided to crumple up old magazine pages and wrap those with yarn to start my balls :)

I took these pictures when it was dark, excuse the terrible coloring...  Anyway, I added pages to make some bigger forms, tried to make a few different sizes. 
To start covering in yarn I just added a dab of hot glue to the paper and attached the yarn, started wrapping.  I tried to turn the ball continuously to get a more random/messy look so that the yarn wasn't all going in the same direction.  I just wrapped and wrapped.  Didn't add glue as I went along, just glued the end when I was finished with the ball.  They hold together fine. 
 

This was a bit time consuming!  I made LOTS of yarn balls....  LOTS.


I chose to do four colors and tried to keep the same number of balls in each color.  Then, I just started attaching.



I would suggest maybe deciding how you want to place the balls before you start gluing.  I didn't do this and kept having to even it up.  That was frustrating. 
I made tiny balls to fill in the gaps, add filler in spots that needed it. 
Just keep adding till it looks the way you want it.  I didn't take a lot of pictures of this process but didn't think it was necessary. 
Once it was done I added some plastic glittery snowflake ornaments (also from the dollar tree) and I think it really finished it off.


I love how it looks on my red front door :)



Merry Christmas and here's to hoping that I get better with this blogging thing :p
All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!