Christmas Traditions

This tradition has been in my family since I got married.  Most people are familiar with the chains that are created when you loop strips of paper together and many may have used that as an advent countdown to Christmas, but I took that idea and added my own flair.  During Thanksgiving weekend, my family writes what they are thankful for on 24 strips of paper (red and green, usually), and then we create the chain and finish with a 25th strip that says "Jesus" on it.  (By the way, this was actually harder when it was just my husband and I - 12 things each to be thankful for was actually kind of difficult!!!  :-}  However, this year we have my sister living with us so each of us only had to think of 5 things (the baby only did 4 and the Jesus one was her 5th!))

 
We hang the garland and each day in December we tear off a chain and reflect on what that person said they were thankful for.  We try to keep the words secret so that it's a surprise (and sometimes we get duplicates!), and we always finish with the Jesus chain as our 25th one to tear off, since that is the real reason for Christmas!!!

This is such a great way to start each day and not get carried away in the "bustle" of the season!  What are your traditions and why do you do them?

Thread Letters

So I got this idea from another blog and couldn't wait to try it in my bonus room upstairs (which is an eclectic combination of themes and colors - it's just FUN!).  The hardest part was figuring out the font I wanted!  I wanted to use something fun, but it still needed to be blocky...I chose Showcard Gothic.  

This is my wall BEFORE:

Next, I printed out my word in the size I wanted it.  Each letter is about 8 inches tall...smaller than my example from the other blog, but I wanted it smaller so that I wouldn't crowd the space I wanted it in!

After measuring each nail and marking it 1" below the head, I nailed the corners of each letter in and created a curve around the U and G (I used 50 nails).  Then, I carefully removed the paper without popping out the nails.

Finally, I took some embroidery thread I had on hand and tied a knot on one nail before wrapping the thread making each letter.  I went around 7 times before knotting the end again and cutting off the excess string.

 

My finished design!

Kitchen Decorations

So, I found this idea about covering your lightswitch covers with scrapbook paper and I took it one step further in my kitchen!  I had stickers to go on the wall (coffee cups as my kitchen is coffee-themed) so I took a few extra stickers and put them on the lightswitch plate and then cut a hole in where the switch would go before screwing the plate back on.  Very simple and very classy!  It really popped!  I plan on putting scrapbook paper on some of the other plates in the other rooms too...

Here are the plates covered in the coffee cup stickers.

 The stickers up and around the kitchen.