What this elf's been up to.

In a few recent posts I've mentioned how busy I've been this month.  There was no rest period at the end of NaNo.  In fact, I put the Christmas tree up a few days after Thanksgiving and I've been crafting and decorating my cold little heart out ever since.

One of things that kept me busy this month was a series of wreaths.  13 in all.  1 front door wreath and 3 sets of chair wreaths.

Here's one from a set that I made for my mother:

Hey look, clay garland.  Are you surprised by this?  It says merry & bright. 

Here's the door wreath, also for my mother.  Sadly, no clay was involved in the making of it. But lots and lots of holly garland and a raffia bow.  That makes up for it a bit, no?

A group shot of 9 wreaths that I made for my mother.  The door wreath and 2 sets of the chair wreaths.  The merry & bright wreaths were tied onto the backs of her dining room chairs with pretty red and white ribbon and the mini wreaths were tied onto the kitchen chairs with white burlap ribbon that I made.  By made I mean I cut burlap fabric into strips and deconstructed the edges.  (See my chair wreaths below for reference.)

My wreaths.  Slightly larger versions of Mom's mini kitchen chair wreaths.  I also made the burlap table runner.  And, again, by made I mean I cut and deconstructed the fabric.  I've decided that next year I'll paint red stripes on it.

They're simple wreaths and though I generally like simple they're not what I originally had in mind when I set out to make them.  However, this is what happens when you decide during the month of December to make anything Christmasy and then attempt to shop at an arts and crafts store.  Ha!  The holiday accoutrements are picked over by that point. You can blame the clay garland on this.  Apparently you have to shop in September if you want in on the good stuff.  Who thinks about Christmas in September?  Everyone but me it seems.

It wouldn't quite feel like Christmas if there were no nuts to crack.  Yep, I said that.

I originally made this little guy as a tree topper, but it ended up not being quite big enough so it found a home elsewhere.  It was too darn cute to trash.

Tomorrow:  pics of the tree!