Anna's Ear Warmer

Recently, my sister (hi, Suzanne!) showed me a picture of an ear warmer that she and my niece (hi, Anna!) saw in a boutique. Suzanne wondered how easy it would be to make something akin to what they saw in the boutique. I identified it as a crochet project (aka faster than a knit project) and popped onto the Internet to hunt for a similar project. I don't know if "hunt" is really a good verb, considering I found one almost immediately.

That said....

I found a pattern (actually, a tutorial), pulled out some yarn from my stash, a crochet hook, and got to work. This project flew together.... crochet + bulky yarn = easy to stick with my "finish what you start" theme for the year. BOOM! I added an Irish knot button as the finishing touch. Voila!

The beauty of this project is not only did I finish a project, but said project also helped me reduce my craft/sewing supplies stash. I had the yarn, crochet hook, and button all on hand. Decluttering + Finished Project = WIN across the board!

Doesn't it look cozy??

Me modeling Anna's ear warmer

"Ooh... what's this??? It's sooo warm!" 

Painting Christmas Tree Ornaments

A few weeks ago, I saw a catalog that advertised glass tree ornaments and glass paints; it took me all of about 2 seconds to decide that would be a fun project for our little crew. Yesterday seemed like the perfect day to embark on our art project, so I covered the kitchen table with newspaper and we got right to work.

The kids had a BLAST painting their ornaments. I figured they'd do one ornament each.... nope! Each wanted to do as many as possible, which wound up being 3 each because we got a package of 6 ornaments.  They learned how to mix paint colors and employ a variety of techniques as they painted their masterpieces.

Conor exploring his medium

Eric and Annika working on her ornament

Eric teaching Annika how to spin the ornament to make lines of paint

Conor

Conor decided to make himself a piece of living art

"Yoot Mama!"

Silly!

One of Conor's ornaments

One of Annika's ornaments