Mini Rosemary Wreaths

Making people feel special when they come over for dinner at my house is always my goal.

I show people I love them through crafting, I can't help it.

So when my small group at church decided to do a Friendsgiving Dinner together, I was

delighted. This was the very reason I asked Josh to build us a 12-person farmhouse table, so

I could fill it up with people. 

I had seen a few ideas of mini wreaths floating around on pinterest and

was excited to try my hand at some. 

And lucky day for me when I had a friend who let me snip some of his overgrown rosemary!

So the wreath part is pretty self-explanatory:

Get a sprig of rosemary and bend it into a circle.

I tied a knot with a piece of twine and then topped it with a pre-made bow.

The banner part looks a little trickier, but it's really not.

Check it:

Cut a strip of paper

Make two folds the same size as the width of your wreath

Fold the side flaps in half again

Press it down and snip the ends to make them prettier

Write your guest's name

Then tuck it around the wreath.

Done and done.

 And here they are in action,

These would be so cute with a little red bow for Christmas!

Upgraded Advent Calendar

I upgraded our Advent calendar for the long haul this year.

I still love the boxes we did the last couple years, but they aren't big enough to

hold some of the ornaments/gifts I wanted to include this year now

that Grady can participate.

So I decided to make some simple fabric bags out of scrap fabric

I already had on hand. I didn't take any pictures of the process, but 

it is seriously this easy:

1. Fold a piece of fabric and cut a rectangle in the desired size of 

your bags. Because you folded your fabric, you will have two

rectangles (and straight edges don't matter because you'll be 

sewing them).

2. Take your two rectangles and face the right sides towards each

other.

3. Sew a straight line down 3 of the sides.

4. Turn your bag inside out.

5. (Optional) Snip the un-sewn side with pinking shears.

It took me less than an hour to make 25 little bags. 

For the tags, I just typed numbers 1-25 in a document and printed

them out on cardstock. I used a 1.5" circle punch to cut them out and

then tied them up with string.

Each bag has something different in it.

Some bags hold special ornaments to add to the tree throughout the 

month. 

Some bags hold Advent activities for us to do. Like, read Luke 2, or drive around and look at Christmas lights, or fill a Salvation Army stocking. Even the simplest of things like "kiss under the mistletoe".

And as a tribute to the those classic Advent calendars that are filled with chocolates everyday, 

I threw in some bags that would just have a treat in them.

As we count down to Christmas, I hope these will help us focus on our Savior, on being generous and loving, on making memories as a family, and on all we have to be grateful for this year.

 Does your family do an Advent calendar? What do you do?