Our Advent Calendar and other Fun Things ...

I get an irresistible urge to make my own Advent calendar every year, no matter the time crunch or energy level. This year I was inspired by a pack of tags made by Martha Stewart Crafts ...

 

 I have a weakness for plain craft paper and bakery string. :)

I used our bulletin board as my base and some pretty Christmas ribbon for a splash of color.

 

Oops, that last strip needs too be trimmed!

 

There's a tag for each day of December. On the backside of each tag is a note revealing something fun we'll do that day. (My next post will focus on some of those ideas ...)

 

This is Earlybird's little nature shelf - right now it holds a few small board books (he's really into mouse books these days) and three little angels - who are not yet wearing the golden pipe cleaner halos I've crafted for them. (I need to re-stock my glue gun lol.)

 

Our December nature shelf ... holly is the theme at the moment.

(ETA: the books shown here are, from left to right, The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice, The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady, Night Tree and Flower Fairies of the Winter)

 

I had so much ribbon leftover from the Advent tag craft, I decided to put it to good use on the rest of the learning room windows. Using clear pushpins I lined the mid-sills with the ribbon - over the holidays I'll hang our Christmas cards here, securing them to the ribbon with tiny craft clothespins.

 

I also placed 24 tea lights along the sill - one to light each night of Advent.

 

We have our tree in the learning room this year, but as you can see, it's somewhat light-deficient right now. Bill's working on it, though - and we're waiting to hang ornaments until every light is sparkling as it should.

 

A small grapevine tree I found at Target this year. Looks so pretty at night in our front window.

 

Couldn't resist showing you my "new" Christmas mug (a stowaway from my mother's collection). It features the lovely and seasonal artwork of Marjolein Bastin.

 So there's a little peek at some of the Christmas decorating we've got underway around here! As I mentioned above, in my next post I will share some of the Advent activities I have planned for my family this year.

Hope you all have a good night! :)