Again posting a week after I wrote this one! Gah!
Another 2 weeks flew by again! We went to the nutcracker, went to some drive thru Christmas lights, saw Santa, went to the Hudson Holiday Stroll and rode a horse drawn carriage, hosted 3 sets of people, went to 3 parties, mailed out Chrismas cards and barely had time to sleep! It has been complete holiday madness! This weekend is solstice so we’ve got even more holiday plans coming up.
I haven’t had a ton of time to craft again this holiday season but I did manage to make a cute craft for my book clubs. And we did a cute little craft at ladies night that I wasn’t sure how it was going to go over, but seemed like it was a hit! I had a completely different plan in mind but when I got around to testing it it was a total fail. I will need to find another use for the clear plastic Christmas ornaments I bought. Luckily I had a backup in mind, so the night before ladies’ night I was able to test out and order black headed pins off Amazon with 1 day shipping (I know, sorry).
For ladies’ night this time I made a raddichio, pomegranate, red bean salad from Rancho Gordo, my mom’s pumpkin soup (made with part of the 5 pumpkins I roasted and froze a couple weeks ago) with fresh sourdough and again my lentil shepherd’s pie. I think the raddichio salad could have used a bit more of a pop of sweetness or else the raddichio should have been cut into smaller pieces to guarantee you’re getting all pieces in a bite. It was my bad for not testing the recipe first! (Yes I did forget to get a picture with all the food… Again).
We also did a cookie swap! People brought some amazing cookies! Spumoni, hot cocoa, shortbread, pistachio chocolate chip, buckeyes and gingerbread bars. They were all amazing (and devoured quickly). The kids and I need to make some more for Santa.
The silly craft we did was making cork dog ornaments. Most folks in the group have (or had) dogs so I thought this would go over fairly well. Everyone went all out making customized dogs and other animals! I was so proud! Amy even made a capybara which cracked me up.
Cork Dogs
What you’ll need:
- small eye hooks (.062 x 1/2”)
- small black screws for the nose (#6 x 1/2″)
- pins with black heads
- various lengths of finish nails (I used #18 x 3/4″ wire nails but also provided 1.5″ finish nails)
- corks
- felt
- ribbon
To make the corgi
Cut a cork for the head down to 2/3 original size (at the party I provided a little flush cut saw).
Hammer in nails for the legs and tail (or just push them in)
Hot glue the head onto the body, keeping it a bit further back than you’d expect so it’s center of balance is better.
Add pins for the eyes
Add a screw for the nose
Cut out triangles for ears and hot glue them to the back of the head.
Cut a 4″ piece of ribbon for the scarf and hot glue around the neck (to cover the hot glue from putting the head on).
Add an eye hook for hanging (may need to be on the head to hang properly).
Display proudly.
The craft was so much fun and all the cork ornaments came out really cute!!