In Search of Christmas Spirit – Day 9

by admin on December 10, 2014

Day 9: Ornaments

Here’s a conversation I overheard last night between my daughter, Grayson, and my oldest son, Ethan.

Ethan: “Why don’t you want a snow day tomorrow?”
Grayson: “Because I have a play to get ready for.”
Ethan: “That’s just un-American.”

So they may not want to bake cookies or make ornaments with me anymore, but the upside to having teenagers in the house is that they are laugh-out-loud funny!

Poor Ethan, he didn’t get his wish and the kids went back to school today. And I channeled my inner every-woman, climbed on my husband’s tractor, and dealt with the 4 inches of slush in the driveway. My sister-in-law and great friend Leisa asked to see a picture of the tractor and here it is…

Feeling pretty high on girl-power, I spent the couple of hours I had before hockey practice on today’s Christmassy activity: working on Christmas ornament ideas for my upcoming submission deadline.

And speaking of Christmas ornaments, here are some of my past designs, all of which have been featured in Quilters Newsletter’s Best Christmas Quilts special issues:

First there were my Calling Birds:

Then came my Gift-Wrapped ornaments:

And finally, my Tiny Trees;

All this talk of ornaments has me thinking of a couple of fun ideas for ornaments that I made with my kids — obviously before they were teenagers.

First of all, the kids and I used salt dough and half walnut shells to make babies under blankets. Just remember to slide a hanging hook into the salt dough before baking and to spray the ornament with polyurethane after painting.

To the left is my daughter, Grayson.

Next is my son, Ethan.

And finally, my son, Brian.

The kids made their own versions of these ornaments.

Here’s Grayson’s bunny:

And Ethan’s teddy bear:

And finally, Brian’s teddy bear:

And while we’re on the subject of walnut ornaments, check out our walnut strawberries!

If memory serves, we got this idea from a book called “A Yankee Christmas.” Paint whole walnuts red or burgundy and dot with gold or black paint to mimic seeds. Then spray with polyurethane to preserve the walnuts and use hot glue to attach a hanging string and green felt or wool leaves.

Can’t you just feel your Christmas spirit growing?!

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