Advent Calendar: A New Take on an Old Tradition

Advent Calendars have such a history and are a tradition in so many homes. For a while I've been looking for Advent Calendars that can hold items, that don't have a cheesy design, that can be reused, and the spot that can hold items isn't super small where only a piece of nickel candy can fit inside. 

Decided to go with the Grundtal "spice jars" from IKEA. I picked up enough to for 25 days, but a couple extra in case one goes missing or breaks. I think I picked up about nine or ten packages, so the initial cost was between $70-$80, more than I was planning on, but I am hoping to use this system for many many years!

When opened, I pulled out the paper that was inside the lid (that has the lovely food pictures on them) and I used it as my template and traced 25 circles onto cranberry cardstock and paper (of course left over from our wedding. Will we ever use up all the wedding paper goods?!).

Coming up with what picture or design went on the cardstock was a little challenging. I didn't want something that was "too adult" or was pretty just for me, but something that my son would like or would be interested in. At Fred Meyer, I found a bunch of gift tag stickers in a variety of pictures and styles that I thought would be perfect. Since he knows a lot of his animals, I picked up kitties and puppies. He also knows what snowmen/snow/snowflakes are, so picked up ones that had a lot of images of snow "things" too.

Then, I got to assembling each date, writing the numbers really large and tried to find a good place for all the stickers. Some stickers had to be cut, or used in a funny spot, but I tried to used most of the images so I didn't have a lot of repeaters.

I had enough canisters to make a complete tree and hang low on our fridge, so it is right at eye level for him. He LOVES opening and closing the canisters. Really he could care less about the prize inside at this point, but everyday I find him playing with them. I am pretty happy with the entire project and I love that it is something I don't have to find a spot for on a self or table.

My thought is, I can change the images as he gets older and even start to print some of my favorite Christmas pictures from over the years to put inside too. I also like that the space is large enough for other treats other than candy. Since my son is just about 17 months, this year's goodies were those sticky window decals, really tiny jars of Play-Do, and little monsters that squish when you squeeze them.

She's Ready to POP Baby Shower

Held a baby shower for my sister-in-law recently. As most of the parties I help plan these days, everything is planned over email, text messages, Facebook messages, and phone calls since no one seems to live in the same town!

Luckily, I got my house decorated for Christmas before the shower and I love my Christmas tree this year, such a beaut if I do say so myself! Here is the breakdown of our POP shower....

A table of goodies welcomed everyone. The table had a jar to collect predictions of when the baby would arrive and its measurements, and a cute graphic of a tree (similar to the one from their wedding invitations and print materials) for everyone's to put their thumb or fingerprint on later was framed for the baby room.

 

Also on the table was a lolliPOP bouquet that I put together.

Judy made this cute little onesie advice book that she called, "POP Culture" for Ashley and baby.

Also when people walked in they saw newborn pictures and black, white, and craft paper circles. I hung little bubbles with pictures of when Ashley and Erich were babies, an ultrasound picture of baby boy Simpson and little notes about when Ashley and Erich "popped" out.

Should have used the computer for these signs, I can't stand my handwriting!

I had some popcorn boxes left from either a project or a purchase from long ago in my craft items that I pulled out. I put small vases inside and filled with water. Then I purchased white carnations to look like popcorn! I placed them on the end tables and in the guest bathroom with a soda POP bottle!

I think we had quite the delicious and creative spread for everyone to enjoy, the leftovers for the next couple of days weren't too shabby either.

More cute signs that Judy made.

Of course for dessert it only makes sense to have cake POPs!

Yes, you read that right, a Corn POP quiche!

I was researching different things we could do with Corn Pops and found a quiche Corn Pop recipe, it was actually quite good.

Another fun dessert was a cake made out of POP tarts!

I found some Avery labels that were already this shape and color, so it was easy to make things for the party.

Judy's famous salad that we all love.

Hung poofs and honeycomb balls over the decorations. 

As people left, they left with some homemade caramel corn (that had some of the leftover Corn Pops in it) that is one of my favorite recipes. It was so so yummy and I used the same labels for these bags that I did on the table-cards.