Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Today I am going to show you how to make Christmas ornaments for practically nothing. These make great gifts or decoration for yourself. My mom made these for our tree when I was a child and me and Pat made these last year for our tree... we made a few more this year because some got water damaged and to give as gifts.

All you need is:
-water
-flour
-salt
-vegetable or olive oil (optional - makes dough more workable)

Pat and I used this recipe as a base which makes them sugar cookie-like but you can experiment with the consistency (like to make it more sandy looking with more salt). You can bake them if you like but I prefer to let them air dry... just make sure you flip them over to dry. If you don't have cookie cutters you can likely find them second hand at a thrift store, borrow from a friend, or cut them to make your own shapes. I did this with the cat shaped ones.  Also, make sure you make a little hole with a pen to hang them later.

Then you can decorate them with acrylic paints or puffy paint  and glitter like we did. You cold also hot glue funky decorations on them like buttons and other odds and ends if you like! If you don't have puffy paint and like the raised frosting look you can also hot glue your designs then paint them after the glue drys. Try just using what you have rather than buying extra supplies.

These can also be used to decorate gift packages or are nice as a simple gift by themselves. You can personalize a set for your family, recreating each member as an ornament. This year I am giving two out individually and have a little set of cats made up for my boyfriend's stepmum.

A Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz... another happy little gift. Other popular films/fandoms could make a nice set! ^_^

Our tree also has hand made bows, candy canes from last year, extra lights from relatives, and some glass balls that I found secondhand for $0.50 for each set of three last year.  We also have two strings of tinsel, one bought this year and one last year at target (so if you need some extra decoration you can think of something to buold on to next year rather than buying tons of stuff all at once).

~Lydia

Darn it!

Winter is drawing nearer and colder weather is approaching. One of my favorite ways of keeping warm as the temperature becomes chilly is layering up with warm socks. I typically like to wear one longer layer up past my knees and another thick pair on top. However, I have found that many of my longer pairs of socks have some holes in the toes; when they are perfectly fine otherwise. So instead of making waste and adding my holey socks to the landfill as well as consuming more from the stores I mended my socks the old fashion way by darning them.

I am going to show you how you can do the same so you can  make your socks last longer. You can do this for already existing holes or areas that are just becoming threadbare.
 

Area needing fixed. Place a small container in sock for ease in sewing. I used a small vitamin container.

Take embroidery floss (which cost very little) and sew long stitches in one direction. The embroidery floss threads cab be divided in two so it is not as thick. Above I did this half in two different types of long stitches.

Then sew in the other direction, weaving through the previous stitches and remaining fabric.

All sewn up, the second half with the container inside which yielded neater stitches. You can also go back and reinforce areas as needed.

Finished!

You can also turn your sock inside out before you sew which makes it look very nice but is not as comfortable (which is very important since it could be more annoying as you walk). Keep this in mind as you make your beginning and ending knots as well.

Example sewn on wrong side and turn to the right side.

Sewn on the right side.

 There you are! You can match the threads with your socks or use what ever you have on hand like I did. It does not need to be pretty because it wont often be seen, making this a great starter project for learning to sew. I really enjoy doing this as I watch TV because its very easy and repetitive. I'm also glad that I don't need to buy more long socks!