Life Away From The Office Chair

Swowman: My made up word for a snowman made from a sweater. This is exactly what I just made. I'm loving the way he turned out. I'm loving my personalized buttons too. They can be purchase from wearhouseindustries. I use them on my crochet coffee cozies.

I was cleaning out a closet and came across a little knitted shawl that belonged to my daughter years ago. My favorite knitted colors are beige or tans so I wanted to transform it into something.

I thought first that I could use this shawl to cover a pillow but I couldn't find a pillow anywhere to use. Then another thought came into my mind. I have been looking for a simple decoration to use in my daughters room for Christmas. This worked perfect!

What happened is, I cut the fringe off the piece of knit and cut out enough to sew down one side and across the bottom. Once that was done, I stuffed him with some stuffing I had on hand. Next, I sewed the end shut (like making a pillow) then I took some yarn and stitched and gathered the middles. Nothing fancy or neat. I am definitely not a seamstress. Then for the fun part, I used some scrap yarn and crocheted him a hat and scarf.

Waaa laaa, meet woolly the swowman.

Ive shared this at:
before-after-wednesday at thededicatedhouse
thursday-favorite-things-blog-hop at katherinescorner
worthwhile-wednesdays at craftyallieblog
weekend-bloggy-reading-link at serenitynowblog
snickerdoodle-sunday at 2crochethooks FEATURED
nifty-thrifty-sunday at niftythriftythings
amaze-me-monday at dwellings-theheartofyourhome
cityofcreativedreams.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend because my recently moved away daughter came to stay with us for four days! I miss her so much even though she's only 45 minutes away.

Its our tradition to put up the tree on Thanksgiving night after we are all stuffed and tired from all day visiting and eating. We turn on the Christmas music and get to work on decorations while drinking hot chocolate. Just puts you in the mood.

My daughter and I wanted to do something crafty during the weekend so I found this cute template on Pinterest to make paper houses. Simply cut them out and add a battery operated tea light inside to make them glow.

I used to have a Christmas village I would sit out and add a little to it each year. That ended a few years ago when my Christmas stash was accidentally sold in our garage sale. Imagine the feeling I had. A lot of memories went down in history now adorning someone else's tree. That's over now so there is no use crying over spilled milk. We just started a new collection and let it be a lesson learned.

Making the paper houses or paper villages would be a great craft to do with children. I left the paper white and plain but they can also be colored or painted and decorated. This will keep them busy for a while. An adult will need to cut out the houses as you will need a razor blade to do so.

first you will need:
Template

Card stock paper
scissors
razor
wax paper
glue or tape
battery operated tea lights.

I found my tea lights at the dollar store. They were two for a dollar and seem to burn a long time. They will get you through Christmas and then some.

On a cutting board, cut out the template. Using your razor blade, cut out the windows. Now cut some wax paper and glue to the inside so the windows will have a frosty glow. This is not necessary but makes it look better.

Then you fold the houses and tape or glue into place, add your tea light under them. I swapped the paper trees out for dollar store trees. They stood in place better.