Craftin My Fingers to the Nubbins

There are crafty-esque people and not so crafty. Research shows I fall into the definately NOT so crafty category.

However, I stand in admiration of these crafty people (not crafty like Brer Rabbit – but crafty like “I just whipped up amazing winter decorations for every room in our house, while I was knitting matching mitten/scarf sets for orphans and making home-made Christmas cards for all 200 people on our mailing list”).

THOSE crafty people. They are amazing.

I always walk away a little resentful I could not think of any of their amazing craft ideas in a lifetime or find the energy to craft up a single Christmas card. Oh sure, in college I made a few Christmas presents for friends.

I seem to recall an angel ornament made from a variety of noodles – this was the height of my Craft Career and my skills have since been in serious decline.

All told, scrap booking has left me with a few feeble attempts and one half finished book.

Knitting sounds like something I would like to do – but the skill set is beyond my capacity.

Even baking is something I leave to the professionals.

However, I will say here in Africa I am surrounded by some amazing Craftation Women. I even attended a craft night and attempted to make some “Joy to the World” birds. Yes, it’s true.

This is my green "Joy" bird - as in "Joy to the World" - to be hung from a pinecone branch I found outside

For those that know me well, rest assured that I was surprised as anyone to find myself later stringing pop-corn for our tree and hanging an Advent Bunting Calendar. I had not even heard of bunting till last week. Who knew this was the latest fashion? Triangle banner flags hung by string? Do you see how out of touch I have been with the Crafting World?

I even found myself buying some old buttons from an antique store – thinking, "WHITE BUTTONS! These must be useful to someone! Maybe they could be useful to ME!"

So here is the new me – attempting a few Christmas crafts – next thing you know, I’ll be making my own clothes, kneading bread from scratch, and canning tomatoes.

Alright - this idea is swiped from the VERY CRAFTY KATE (Christmas Advent Bunting Calendar) and the paper was donated by my friend Sarah - but I did print the numbers, cut and glue them (my 4 year old should be proud)

Advent Bunting Calendar (mark the day with a paper clipped black arrow)

We put our mini-tree on a table - in hopes of making it feel a little more tall-ish

Little did I know it takes about 2 hours to string pop-corn for a mini sized tree

OK - so I confess I did NOT make these (but I DID hang them with "sticky tack" - THAT is a skill).

OK, OK, I didn't make these either - but I hung them up in an attempted crafty-looking stagger


The white buttons inspired me! I think I'll put this star at the top of our tree (Jensen has been VERY disturbed we have a starless tree).

A few weeks ago Jensen said, "Mom, Santa is NOT going to like this house -there are not very many Christmas decorations."

I hope he appreciates the fact that I have been craftin my fingers to the nubbins!

Besides crafting...see the other cool things we are doing in Africa! See December journal

If you have a favorite Christmas craft, recipe or idea - please comment below!