Category: Do It Yourself

Ornament Roundup

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new activity from the week season.

We’re not quite finished decorating the tree, but will we every be? I am starting to think the answer is no. We could always sew more, dehydrate more, craft more.







I look forward to many more years of ornament making. We’ve had such a wonderful time decorating our first full-sized holiday tree. This experience has bought us such joy and peace.

More pictures, instructions and inspiration for our ornaments:
+ Bird ornaments (from Skip to my Lou)
+ Beaded wreath ornaments
+ Felted stars, wooden stars, and felt hearts
+ Dehydrated orange slices (try dehydrating ruby red grapefruit for a beautiful pink color!)

Holiday Card Wreath Update

Remember that beautiful holiday wreath made out of an embroidery hoop and clothespins? I finally made it.

Simple, easy, fun! I used pictures of our Amy Butler designed, non-toxic laminated cotton tablecloth to glue on the clothespins (so we could use the wreath year round to hold pictures and cards).

The toddler helped with the gluing of the paper to the clothespins. I hot glued them on to the hoop. We hung it with a push pin.

The whole thing cost about $3.50 since most of the supplies came from our local craft resale shop (in brand new condition). I’d like to think that you’d never guess that by looking at it. It certainly doesn’t look expensive, but I hope it doesn’t look that cheap either. Besides, it was made with love!

The project couldn’t have been easier and I love the look of it. Thanks to Kathleen for the inspiration and tutorial. Now it’s your turn to try it!

Applesauce Friday

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new activity from the week season.

Suddenly winter has come to wine country: cool weather and lots of rain. We’re finally packing away the summer clothes and cooking warming foods on the stove.

We’ve been making lots of applesauce, a new something for the whole family. It turns out that applesauce making is incredibly easy and delicious. So easy and delicious that I can’t believe I waited until I was thirty years old to try it. And so easy and delicious that I will never buy jarred applesauce again.

Here’s what you do:

Peel, core and dice up a couple apples. Throw them in a sauce pan with a little apple juice or water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 15-25 minutes until the apples begin to fall apart. Mash the apple mixture up with a fork. Taste. Nearly die from the deliciousness. Run out to buy more apples to make more applesauce. (Just kidding. About the last part anyhow.)

You have got to give applesauce making a try!

As my friend Sarah Gilbert says, “It’s such a feeling of power and revelation, isn’t it?” She nailed it. Oh, yes, it is! That’s exactly what it’s all about. Not only does cooking from scratch taste better, but it feels so satisfying.

I have apples in the fridge. I think I’ll go make some applesauce to eat with breakfast. Excuse me.

The Craft House

You guessed it.

We’re still working on holiday projects.

Every surface is covered.

Every surface is a mess.

Above: Miss Leyba learning to sew! She always wants to do what Mommy’s working on. So far, so good! Somehow I’m teaching her and supervising her while working on a million other things. Mom’s are so good at multitasking. Or at least pretending that we’re good at it. ;)

We’re having a blast!

Now please excuse me as I have half a dozen birds to embroider, stars to finish, stockings to stitch, pine cones to paint, craft stick stars to mod podge, presents to wrap, presents to order… and we’re busy celebrating Hanukkah too. That’s right, I have some potato pancakes to fry and candles to light too.

December is super-wonderful-exhausting-crazy-fun-busy and we love it.

Holiday Crafts and Decorating Inspiration

This time of year the internet is bursting with inexpensive, creative holiday decorating and craft ideas. Here are some projects that I find especially fun and inspiring and am looking forward to trying (if not this year than next!):


Felted Poinsettia Wreath (pattern available here): knit poinsettia flowers, felt them, then piece them together. Alternatively you could cut out felt poinsettia leaves and glue them to make a more simplistic, no sew wreath (more my style!).

Peppermint Package: stuff packages and cushion your presents with individually wrapped mints or candies (from The Farm Chicks Christmas) – so much better than the boring and environmentally-destructive Styrofoam peanuts. You can even buy more-natural candies at the Natural Candy Store (no high fructose corn syrup for sale there!).


Family Photographs Wreath: hot glue photographs to a wreath form for a simple reinvention of the family tree.

Holiday Card Wreath: decorate clothespins, then glue them to a wooden embroidery hoop (I picked one up at a local craft resale shop for $0.35 to make this project!) to display holiday cards or ornaments. (I am SO excited about this project!) It reminds me of this similar and much more expensive hooped card holder from Vivaterra (that doesn’t appear to be available online) that I clipped from their catalog:

What holiday decorating projects are you doing this year?