Ornament Round-Up

Welcome to my Countdown to Christmas Series. To start at the beginning, click here.  I sent my deployed fiance a box with a paper, pin-up Christmas tree and 24 small packages, one for each day until Christmas. Daily (or nearly daily) I will be blogging about the day's surprise!

Merry Christmas Eve! Today is also Day #200 of John's deployment, which is fantastic! To celebrate (and because I've run out of days of Advent), I present to you the rest of the ornaments that John opened and hung on his Christmas tree this year. 

For the felt ornaments, I haven't published templates, because I wouldn't recommend making them. (They're either ugly or more trouble than they're worth.) If you really want the pattern, let me know, and I will get it to you. 

 You might know that one of my goals for my 100 in 365 list is to make a cross stitch ornament or everyone one of John's and my family members. I love cross stitching-- especially Mill Hill kits that have bead and charm embellishments. It's not your grandma's craft, that's for sure! This ornament is perfect for John because it's a cancelled stamp (and if you're wondering why a cancelled stamp is perfect for him, read here).

I designed this ornament, but with five separate parts, it was a pain to sew together. It ended up being very fragile. I don't think it'll take more than two Christmases for it to fall apart on our tree. Maybe next year I'll try designing a simpler, sturdier holly ornament.

 Then, there's this guy. Close to my folks' house, there's a discount outlet that sells everything under the sun. I picked this ornament up because I thought it was so weird, so comical, that it would make John laugh. I mean, come on. A clear, plastic lion perched on top of a purple jingle bell? That just screams Christmas, doesn't it? No? I didn't think so either.

Finally, this is the last Pinterest-inspired ornament I tried. It wasn't a complete fail like this ornament, but it did turn out to look pretty elementary-school, and very lopsided. I don't imagine this ornament will spend much time on our tree (if any) when we're married.

Thanks for coming along with  me on this Advent adventure! Have a very blessed, merry Christmas and holiday season. Enjoy every moment of it!