candycane wreath

 

Wreath 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

As part of my student teaching, I taught in Germany on an American military base. I was in Europe from August to December of 2007. I had a great time and was so glad I got to experience all of the beer fests in the summer and fall (including Oktoberfest).

But one of my favorite experiences while living over there were the Christkindlmarkets, or Christmas markets, in every town. Little booths are set up all along the main streets. People browse for gifts while drinking gluhwein, a hot spiced wine, in little decorative mugs that commemorate the city and year.
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My sister came to visit me at the end of my stay and fell in love with these markets too. My both kept our mugs from my German hometown, Heidelberg, as part of our souvenirs and future Christmas decorations.

The next year, Emily and I were both living in Chicago, and she told me she had a surprise for me. We headed downtown, to Daley Plaza and were instantly transported back to Germany. 

Turns out, Chicago is home to the largest Christkindlmarket in the United States. It's been a lovely yearly tradition for my sister and I ever since.
This year marks our six annual Christkindlmart. After some trial and error, we finally figured out how to do it right. First, get your drinks at the warming tentand and stand over near there; it's much less crowded and the wait time on drinks is a lot shorter. Second, go early in the season to avoid the Christkindlmarket Fiasco of 2010, when we had to buy the commemorative mugs off of strangers because the market ran out of stock. (We NEEDED them for our collections.)

 This year, our friends Lindsay and Rico wanted to get in on the fun. So Jeremy and I got to go twice. Once with them, and once for my sister and my yearly pilgrimage.  

Sofia's 1st OFFICIAL visit. Last year, she was along for the ride in mama's belly.

And now onto my Christmas inspired craft. It's an easy one this time.

First, I bought a 10 inch wreath from Joann's. I wanted the 12 inch, but they were out. Any size will do.

Then, I wrapped it in white yarn. I used hot glue on the back to adhere it to the wreath.

 
 After this, I used red ribbon to make a candycane sort of look. I was thinking of making thin and thick stripes, but after some experimenting, I liked this look better. I just wrapped the red ribbon around and used more hot glue to make sure it stayed in place.

Next, I attached a green ribbon to hang the wreath with. I use straight pins to hold it in place.

I also wrapped a green ribbon around the bottom right side of the wreath and used pins to attach that.

I made a little green bow and pinned it onto my ribbon. I found this was easier than trying to tie a bow around the wreath.

And the finished product.

If I was to do it again (and I might), I would make the wreath red with white stripes. I think it would make more of a statement.

Off to do some more holiday crafting and "elfing".

Until next time, keep crafting.

SB

 

Snowflakes

Paper Snowflakes

I've always been attached to physical objects as memories. When I was little, I'd store rocks and birthday cards and random little items all over my room. It made "moving furniture around in your room" days quite a nightmare for everyone involved. In high school, I kept dried flowers and cheerleading memorabilia and photos everywhere in my room. Dusting got a bit complicated. 

Luckily, my parents gently guided me away from being a hoarder and our apartment is (relatively) free of clutter. One obvious exception is our refrigerator door. It always has (and always will) be cluttered with postcards, photographs, and clippings from newspapers and magazines. I add and remove items as new things come our way. It's a pretty good measure of what's going on in our lives and the lives of the ones we love.

Which brings me to what I've been thinking about lately.

Jeremy and I are old.

Not in the "27/28 are so old, what are we doing with our lives?" sort of way, but in the "we are married and our friends are actually TRYING to have babies" sort of way.

A few years ago, my fridge was adored with postcards from my sister from Thailand, concert tickets, and photobooth strips from the bar with my friends from last weekend. Even last year, there were wedding save the dates and thank yous and pictures of Jeremy's nieces and nephews. NOW, there all of those things are slowly being replaced by birth announcements and preschool pictures of friend's children. 

And then, on Friday night, I realized Jeremy and I are right there with them. We had some new friends over. The guy works with Jeremy and they are new to Chicago. They were nice and fun to talk with and 24 years old. Now, I didn't think anything of a 3 or 4 year age difference until they pulled out a handle of vodka and told us they like to do shots.

Then, I felt old. 

Jeremy has a difficult time with shots. By a difficult time, I mean that he takes one and can't remember the rest of the night. I'm not exaggerating. So, even though I have swore off shots, I took one. You know, to be a good host. 

From there, I realized that I was MARRIED. I talked about hosting Thanksgiving, my niece, our wedding and our dog. And I realized that 3 or 4 years ago, I was taking shots, exploring a new city, making new friends, and in a new relationship with Jeremy, and that all of things that make up my life today would have sounded so far off in the distant future. 

I'm so happy with where we are today. I love the consistency of being married. I love our little apartment and dog. And I love those little babies that keep popping up on our refrigerator door.

And, I also love the latest addition to the door.

A new photo booth strip from last weekend at the bar with my friend. Because, we are still kind of young, right?

Onto a quick craft I found on Pinterest. I've been busy "elf-ing" for Christmas and at work. BUT I wanted to start decorating for the holidays.

My craft is from a cute little website called vintagejunky.com. The website shows you how to make a cute little snowflakes. I cut out a bunch of snowflakes and made a little mobile. 

Since this wasn't my idea, I didn't show my steps. (take a look at the link for how to do this)

But, here's a couple looks at my finished project!

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB