{Advent - My Countdown to New Years}

'Tis the season people! Happy December! Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, the holiday season is in full effect. I have my warm cozy slippers on and am ready to snuggle up ;)

I surprised myself this year because I actually got a pseudo-headstart on decorating the house. Decorating can be a bit of a challenge for me because my family is a multi-holiday celebrating group. My husband's family as well as my dad's side of the family celebrates Chanukah and my mom's side of the family celebrates Christmas. Growing up I was lucky enough to get the best of both worlds, and I plan to continue that tradition with my kiddos, however, in decorating, that could lead to a Clark W. Griswold style, with all of the different themes and colors, so my general theme has been festive and wintery without being specific to one holiday/religion.

That being said, one things that we never really had growing up were Advent calendars. All of my friends would get to do their daily countdown to Christmas by getting a treat or a piece of candy after "opening" each day, but we never got to do that, so now that we have little Oliver in our lives I really wanted to start the tradition of doing an Advent-style calendar, but wanted to put my non-specific twist on it. Sooooooo.........we decided to do a "Countdown to New Years" Calendar.

After being inspired by my friend beautiful  Kristin who bought some adorable little numbered treat bags on Etsy, I got it in my head that I wanted to make one using similar little bags. Then, my sister sent me this picture that she saw in Better Homes & Gardens....

 

(sorry for the photo - she actually took a picture of the page in her magazine)

....and I was inspired! I knew that was how I wanted ours to look. I loved the rustic quality. It is so simple yet it still makes a big statement.

I was super excited to get started. I went to Michael's in search of most of my supplies and luckily they had everything I needed. I purchased these bags...

 and I decided on this "puffy paint" in a bronzey-gold color....

First I laid out all of the bags and hand wrote #'s from the 1st of Dec. to the 1st of Jan. (32 #'s total)....

My numbering skills aren't the best, but my plan was to wing it without using a stencil, and I think they turned out ok.

The muslin is a bit porous, so before painting the numbers, I inserted some card stock into each one to avoid the paint from making the sides of the bag stick together....

 

and then I started painting....

I let the little bags dry for a few hours (the paint says 4 hours minimum) and then I removed the card stock and set them aside for a little while (well...more like a couple of days because lets be honest....Oliver's nap time is precious so I have to try to fit crafting in around all of the other crap stuff I have to get done during the day).

The next challenge was to find the perfect sized branches. I toyed with the idea of using artificial branches so there would be no issue with saving them for future use, but the kind of branches that I was looking for I simply couldn't find. And, I also felt like the rustic quality would be lost if the branches were fake, so I continued hunting for the real thing. After going on several neighborhood walks, and being unable to find what I wanted, my B.I.L offered to cut some branches off of a tree that they have in their yard (he always saves the day) and they were PERFECT. Not only did he bring them over to me but he cut them to size for me with his very own saw :) love that guy!

I strung the little bags onto the branches....

...and then it was time to attach the branches together and hang it up. I chose a thick gray wooly yarn with a natural fleck in it to go with my non-holiday-specific rustic look. I hung it above my buffet in the dining room, and I am super happy with how it looks. Here she is in all her glory......

 I am in L-O-V-E!!!! & I hope you like it too. I have a tendency to get frustrated and to disappoint myself in the "craft" department (my sister is a craft genius so I have a lot to live up to), but this craft did NOT disappoint. I am super happy with how it turned out and I look forward to using it for many years to come. Oliver will have so much fun getting his "prize" everyday and we will happily anticipate the New Year and all of the new exciting things on the horizon :)

In other holiday news, there are a few other things to round out our festive decor....

A chalkboard change-up (as you saw at the top of this post)....

From this:

to this:

An Anthropologie-inspired "Snow Globe" table-scape (as you saw in the pictures of the dining room up above)....

...and a faux white tree with all of it's trimmings....

I hope you like our holiday style as much as we do! Happy December and let the countdown to the New Year begin!!

:)
-L

Oh...and here is my little Michael's shopping buddy, being so well behaved while I gathered up all of my supplies...

It's no wonder that people always call him "her" LOL!!! Isn't he pretty! I think so :)