Happy Holidays!

Tis the season to be crafty.  With the hustle and bustle of my normal schedule, the holidays are my FAVORITE time of year.  My family has always impressed the value of a home made gift... but I chalk up my craftiness to my Aunt Bettie and my Troop leader Nuglet (Nancy Huntington).  Last week my Aunt Bettie passed away, but some of my best memories was learning to do crafty things.. singing fun songs.. and just being with the greatest family.  I know that I have had said this before, but I am super lucky to have a ton of amazing people in my life that continually shape me into the woman that I am.

So, this blog will be overloaded with craftiness.. and done with loving memory of Nuglet and Aunt Bettie. (now, with all that being said.. my crafts are never perfect.. and they are full of cheese.. but I sure do enjoy making them!)

First.. the annual Christmas ornament.  We also created something for family members growing up, but my first year teaching I wanted to make sure that every teacher got something in their box for the holidays.  So.. I make sure to make almost 100 ornaments every year (you can't leave out the awesome cafeteria ladies and custodians!)  This year I got my inspiration from By Stephanie Lynn (you can find the original post here) not going to lie.. this is probably the easiest ornament that I have made in a while.

Materials needed: yarn (and.. the little bit more expensive yarn does work better!) ornament balls (the blog recommends Styrofoam balls but I found these ornaments on sale and when you are making 100 you get creative!) thin black ribbon and silver glitter puffy paint.

Have I mentioned I am a little partial to Santa Claus :) Now, the one tough part of this whole ornament was actually wrapping the ornaments with the yarn was a little hard when you first started because the ornament was so smooth and not an actual ball because of the top part.

 This last week was also Secret Santa.. which means another time for me to have a chance to do some crafts!  I did the regular things like leaving sodas and little trinkets in her box, but I was pretty pleased with  my larger items.

Did I mention that my Secret Santa took great care of me too? I was SO spoiled this week!

What is your favorite thing to do during the holidays? Do you have any traditions?