Advent Calendar Day 1

We started using our Advent Calendar today and the girls just loved it.  S5 read a little poem I wrote, and O3 placed the star on today’s pocket.  Here’s what she read:

It’s the first of December!

Time to count down

to the day when old Santa

rolls into town.

Each number you see

represents one more day

closer to Christmas

and the big holiday!

So place the gold star

on pocket Number One.

Look inside for a treat,

then the countdown’s begun!

There were two little chocolates in the pocket, which the girls devoured.  They are really excited about tomorrow already.  I may have created a monster here!  How will I come up with 23 more bits of verse?  Better get working…

 

Advent

One of my favorite Christmas memories (and we’ll just ignore the fact that the last blog post was October 1 at the end of CSA season, right?) growing up was doing an Advent calendar with my siblings.  I remember we had a paper calendar, with little doors that you popped open to reveal a cute little holiday-themed picture.  There were, of course, 24 doors, one for each day of December until Christmas.  The last one had a picture of Santa in it.  I can’t remember now if my mom bought a new one every year, if she got them from church or something, or if we reused the same one.  But it sure did heighten the anticipation for Christmas all December long.

I’ve been wanting to make an advent calendar for my girls ever since my artist auntie showed me the one she made for her boys when they were young.  While the paper doors were fun, my aunt’s version was handmade, reusable and incredibly personal.  Into the pockets for each date in December she put little notes and poems, left clues for prizes, stuck in candy or sweets, and generally had a lot of fun helping her sons look forward to the big day.

Well, this year I’ve finally gone and done it.  I feel a tiny bit embarrassed about this project, because I practically copied it verbatum from The Purl Bee’s version.  But my plate is so full with things to do/places to be/ stuff to bake and make for the holidays already that I figured it was better to make someone else’s design and use it than spend all my time daydreaming about what I’d like to make (and never finishing it).

Anyway, here it is hanging up next to where the tree will (soon) (hopefully) be:

And here is some slightly better lighting:

The pockets consist of a 2 1/2″ square, embroidered with a number and stitched to a 3″ square of a different color felt.  The larger square is then sewn as a patch pocket onto the felt background.  Fairly straightforward, really.  Actually, my pockets aren’t exactly “straight”.  I wanted it to feel homemade and not in the least bit commercial, so I did all of the placements by eye.  I am noticing that everything sort of slants to the right as a result.   Honestly, it looks much better in person.

Let the anticipation begin!

(By the way: thank you, Purl Bee, for such a cute idea. I didn’t mean to suggest your project was an embarrassment, only that I’m not the type to just blatantly copy someone else’s stuff… even if it is a free pattern!)

Okay, So It Wasn’t ALL Bad

This weekend involved lots of self-pity and wallowing-y moments, but it did have some bright spots. It wasn’t all gloom and horrors, no; not really.

Since Independence Day is our country’s birthday (in a fashion) we celebrated the way we celebrate all birthdays in this house: we had a cake decorating party. And how can one be gloomy when there is cake? It’s hardly possible.

There was frosting:

There were toppings, in an appropriate color palette:

There was, of course, a cake to be decorated:

S4 commenced the requisite Taste-Testing of the Frosting (all-important, after my last fiasco with buttercream):

…and the verdict is….

…we’re good to go!

There aren’t many opportunities to photograph when you’re swishing frosting on a cake AND trying to keep your busy little helpers from swishing frosting on each other, the table, the chairs, the windows, etc. Thus, you must trust me when I tell you that we frosted the cake.

Then came the fun part. Toppings!

Of course, no amount of admonishing my offspring about saving the toppings for the cake could keep them from sampling the goodies.

At least they got some on the cake, right?

Speaking of cake, they did a really nice job.

And how could one have a birthday cake without candles on it?

Yes, those are sparklers on the cake. It’s the Fourth Of July, which might as well be “Fireworks Day” in our neck of the woods. Gotta have the sparklers.

And in case you think we aren’t cool or something, let me just say this:

and this:

Yeah, Duff Goldman. Take THAT.

In other happy-picture news, I peeked out at the garden yesterday, and guess what I saw? A baby tomato!! It’s so teeny tiny, but it’s there! And my other tomato plants have flowers! Wooot!

And there’s more. Oh, yeah, baby, there’s more. Like, my first nasturtium bloom:

Nevermind that little bit of red lettuce poking up on the right. It was in my salad today.

Meanwhile, we have a wicked cucumber plant doing all sorts of acrobatics on the trellis:

Do you see the little flower near the ground? How exciting is that?!

Sigh.  Doesn’t that just make you smile?  It does me.  I can’t wait for all the plant sex to start.  It’s very exciting.

It appears that the secret to happiness- in my case, at least – is to set cakes on fire and film plant pornography.

I must be really, really tired.