Christmas — Domestic Imperfection

Ruffly Bubbly DIY Tree Skirt

For years now my Christmas tree and been naked underneath…we have just had the highly sophisticated fake tree stand out there in the open. This year I decided to class it up and add a tree skirt, but of course buying premade things is just not how we roll in this house. So here is how I easily made one out a tablecloth and some burlap ribbon.

Start with a plain (or not plain, whatever tickles your fancy) round tablecloth. Since I avoid shopping with my toddlers I bought this one off of Amazon.

So to start, fold your tablecloth in fourths and use something circular to mark off a quarter of a circle. I used cup because I wanted a tiny circle, but that was a bad idea and you should probably use a small plate.

Then just cut out your circle and a slit leading up to it.

Next hem your raw edges. Here is where you will find out that using a small circle is a bad idea. It is impossible to hem in a tiny circle. You might be a better seamstress than I am and you will be fine, but I had to cut the circle bigger three times. I tried to hem with my machine and then thought needle and tread might be easier… but it wasn’t. Behold…

It’s also sad that I took about 10 pictures of that disaster and that is the best one of the bunch.

If you want a big plain tree skirt you can stop here…if you want something a little more “Disney princess” then you will have to keep going. So next I gathered sections of the tablecloth by laying it out upside down and using a yardstick to draw four lines (like I was cutting a pizza). Then I gathered it in eight sections (on the lines) by folding it up about halfway and running a needle through it. This is what it should look like…

(For the section around the slit I just gathered each side individually near the hem.)

You can also stop after this point if you like what you have going on… I wanted to add some rustic touches so I kept going. I also completely failed to take a picture of what it looked like after this step…I was mindlessly crafting away and just didn’t think about it. I’m sure you can imagine…just think about Belle’s dress laid flat.

You can use whatever floats your boat for this part, my boat is floated by burlap. I just used a hot glue gun and attached my ribbon to the underside of my tablecloth, like so…

Then just flip it over and admire your handiwork!

If you’re most people than it will look just like that placed around your tree. We however are not most people. Our tree is a tiny little four foot tree placed on a tiny little table. We have good reason for this…last year we had a full-sized tree and it my kids made it their mission in life to confiscate any ornament within reach. Therefore we ended up with a giant tree that was completely naked until about four feet up. It looked ridiculous, not to mention the fact that I felt like the giant tree was taking over my living room. I much prefer the tiny (yet fully decorated) tree. Anyway, here is what my tree skirt looks like in action…

Although this year my kids favorite pastime is to try and whack the ornaments off using their toy hammer/baseball bat. Never a dull moment around here.

So there you have it…this and my advent calendar are all the Christmas crafts I have planned for this year. I have a ton on my idea list, but they will have to wait to next year when I will hopefully learn my lesson and start in November. Or maybe I will just do them now and not write about them until next year…that would ensure they get done early. Also, not to get completely off topic, but today is my birthday. I can’t very well write a post on my birthday and not mention the fact, so there you have it…today I turn 28. I’m sure my one and two-year old will realize that today is a special day and be extra well-behaved, clean up after themselves, and not fight. I’m just sure of it…haha.

Muffin Tin Advent Calendar (My Original Idea That Wasn’t)

Don’t you hate it when you come up with an idea completely organically then later find out it’s been done a thousand times? I came up with the idea for an advent calendar made out of a muffin tin and was really excited about it. I thought “Sweet, finally something where I wasn’t inspired by anything I saw online! I’m so original…I’m going to be a Pinterest sensation!” Then I went onto Pinterest to double-check my originality and saw that muffin tin advent calendars are pretty popular. Dang. But I decided to make one anyway, because 1) I wanted one and 2) if I had never seen one then chances are many of y’all haven’t either.

So the idea of a muffin tin advent calendar came to me one day last week when I was attempting to entertain Elijah with a jar of buttons and all our muffin tins (this works great by the way, as long as your kid is old enough not to put them in his mouth).

I was playing with him and putting one button in each hole and counting as I went. It turns out that mini muffin tins have 24 holes, and I thought “A-HA! That’s how many I need for an advent calendar!” Then I realized it was already December 4th and I had missed the advent boat. Then I looked over at the regular muffin tin and saw that that one has 12 holes…perfect for a twelve day procrastinators advent.

I made this just out of random paper and scraps I had lying around. I had some silver paper, red cardstock and some (way too thin) green wrapping paper. Oh, and a piece of paper that looked like wood and printer paper.

I can work with that.

So I did some measuring and made the whole thing with my Silhouette CAMEO, magnets, and Mod Podge.

There’s really not much to explain here, you just cut out squares (or circles) that are slightly larger than the muffin opening and Modge Podge whatever you want to the front. Just double-check your measurements before you get too far…I started to cut out my shapes assuming that I correctly remembered the measurements of my squares. Turns out I assumed wrong….you know what they say about assumptions, right?

To hold the cover over the tin I just used small adhesive magnets on each corner (I cut each pre-cut square into fourths).

You can fill the tins with whatever you want, I filled mine with scripture. I printed out the Christmas story from Luke, cut it down so that there were a few verses for each tin, and then rolled them up and dropped them in.

I think I’m going to add a piece of candy or something fun to each day as well. My kids are toddlers and aren’t all that interested in listening to bible verses…unless of course they are munching on a delicious Reeses peanut butter cup.

And here we have it. I wasn’t really sure I was going to like it while I was making it, but I think it turned out pretty well considering it’s made from scraps.

I kinda wish I would have thought ahead so that I didn’t end up with all the snowflakes on the left side, but it is what it is. You probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I didn’t just point it out.

The countdown is supposed to start on the 14th, so you only have a few days to make one of your own. Sorry about that, I’m really just not organized enough to get holiday stuff out crazy early (we just put up our tree a couple of days ago). You could always pin it for next year though :) No really, you should.