Christmas in July Day 5

This was my craft for today - you can find it here although it's only the photo as it was originally intended to be a potholder. I modified it slightly by getting rid of the crocheted loop at the top and replacing it with a longer piece of ribbon so you can hang it on your tree. I couldn't quite decide whether to run a line thin of glue where the stitching ends so the stuffing would not work its way out. In the end, I decided not to do so, but regret it now.

Here's my finished product:

I think if I had run the line of glue, I might not have ended up with the uneven join at the top, just to the right of the loop hanger. Live and learn! These are all trial-run ornaments for the next ornament swap so I will know what to change for mass production.

I'm working my way through The Snowglobe very slowly - one chapter every other day to make it last through the entire month (or until the CIJ Book Chat Room is posted in which case I will speed read to finish it!). To supplement my reading (because it is so hot here, sitting in an air-conditioned room with a book is about all I can handle), I have When Christmas Comes by Debbie Macomber which is hilarious in parts. You must read it!

The 12 Dogs of Christmas was cute. It's a kid's movie but I enjoyed it all the same. Today was supposed to be a Netflix selection but with the holiday, my Netflix schedule is off by a day so I moved Christmas with the Kranks up the schedule for today. Today is also a decorating tip day and I decided to share with you some of the amazing Advent Calendar ideas I have found lately. I am completely addicted to Pinterest and "Advent Calendar" in the search box yielded dozens of ideas. These were my favorites. A couple of the ideas have been shared on the Magical Holiday Home Forums, but since some of my readers are not celebrating Christmas in July, I'm posting them again for their reference. Links for each are listed below the photos.


Pottery Barn Inspired Advent Calendar


Muffin Tin Advent Calendar AKA Lazy Moms Advent Calendar Countdown


Matchbox Advent Calendar


Activities Advent Calendar (can be also used to hold gift cards)


12 Days of Christmas Earrings (can be modified to 24 pairs of earrings for Earrings Advent Calendar) - I found the picture here but I think it might be an Avon item


Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar (for some reason, I can't click directly on the blog post featuring this item, the link takes me to all the December posts - scroll down to December 5, 2007)


Clothes Pin Advent Calendar - not quite sure how to credit this one - the Pinterest link is here but if you click on the picture when you get to tumblr.com, you end up on this Norwegian blog.

Aren't they amazing? Was blogging around when Sophia was little? I wasn't very crafty at that stage of my life, so we had chocolate Advent Calendars or a cloth snowman with 24 little pockets that usually held Hershey's Kisses. What type of Advent Calendar do you use?

BTW, yesterday I was looking for any unmoderated comments that I had missed and accidentally deleted the last 75 comments posted on my blog. I know many of you left comments on some of my posts and I am so sorry to lose them. I'll hope you'll keep stopping by and commenting!