A Peacock Family Christmas: "Maybe Next Year" Edition

Maybe next year. . .

I'll make these really cute Christmas lights. Kristen (my best friend who is getting married) shared this idea with me after seeing in here. I absolutely adore them! I've recently started appreciating felt and all the wonderful things that can be done using it. So seeing felt used yet again is super fun! There is a full tutorial in the link of how to make these sweet light garlands.

I'll make my own new tree skirt! After seeing a guest post on one of my favorite blogs, Smile and Wave, about how to make a tree skirt I have felt inspired to try my own! I don't have time to make one this year but I'd love to give it a whirl next year. This is the one that is made during the tutorial.

Design Sponge, which is a super excellent blog, also posted a tutorial on making tree skirts that is really great! Here is what their finished product looks like:

I'll make pretty teacup candles to give as gifts. Emily posted a how-to over at her Anderson Family Crew 

blog. I have seen this idea before and really wanted to try it last year but once again ran out of time. I am making a personal vow to myself to make this before next Christmas rolls around!

I will use fabric to wrap gifts! It can be done in so many cute ways. I especially like the way a guest poster over at Design Sponge demonstrated. They used fabric to create ribbons and bags for wrapping. 

and maybe next year I'll do another hundred other things on my list! 

xoK

A Peacock Family Christmas: Garland Edition

D.I.Y. Dot Garland

I'm not sure where I originally saw this idea because apparently it's everywhere. Nonetheless, I jumped on the bandwagon of the ever adorable dot garland. Here is the basic idea. . .

The dots can be the same size in various colors with space between them. . .

or with lots of pretty colors and closer together. . .

or just alternate colors overlapping each other. . .

or multicolored but stitched from the top rather than the middle. . .

or in all sizes and colors but all in line! 

 one. two. three. four. five. 

There is obviously 100 ways to ice a cake ("skin a cat" just sounds so terrible. . .) So I decided to stick with the basics for my first go 'round. 

I bought pre-cut 8.5 x 11 sheets of stiff felt in the basic Christmas colors. Sadly, I didn't take nearly enough pictures along the way but all I did was trace the lid of a mason jar to create same size circles.

I quickly realized this left me with random extra felt so I traced a candle to make mini-circles. This took me quite some time so I put on a movie while I cut. The cutting was the only time consuming part. 

This is where I stopped taking pictures and just focused on cutting. But once all the circles were cut I had a decision to make! Do I do garlands with mixed sizes or same size only? Do I leave space between the dots or put them right beside each other? Do I let the dots overlap? Do I put the small dots on top of the big dots? Ahhh! I eventually decided on same size dots with no space between the dots but not overlapping. From there, the process was quick and easy! All I did was begin with one dot and start sewing down the center so I was left with a circle with a line straight across. Then I would put a different color dot right next to it and keep on going. I didn't worry too much about keeping the stitch centered on the dots because you can't really notice in the end. 

I really liked the finished product! I ended up with two "big dot garlands" and one "mini-dot garland" although I am not using the mini-dot garland as garland any longer. It's already been repurposed in a way I will share with you later. =) 

xoK