Just Spoolin’ Around…

So, I’ve had these little spools forever! They originally belonged to my Dad’s…Uncle’s…Wife. I’ve kept them in my box, in my bead cabinet for years knowing that SOMEDAY I would find a use for the stinkin’ cute little things!

The other day, while trolling around on the internet (I’m very good at wasting my day trolling on the internet), I came across this:

Eureka! A spool advent calendar! I now have a good use for my spools! I am always looking for a simple project to do on Thanksgiving Day with my Mom and Daughter. This fits the bill perfectly!

Of course I had to try one out to see how it would fit. I printed the free “labels” at half size to accommodate the smaller spools, trimmed the length of the paper about 1/2” and it worked like a charm!

Now I just have to find the perfect beads and some cording to finish them off. I might use a little gold paint on the edges too…that would finish them off nicely!

If you too want to see all the great spool advent calendar ideas over at “Just Something I Made” and make your own click “HERE!”

***update***

Cathe has updated her project from last year and suggests that you can make them into kits to give away! Check out her new post with new downloadable graphics HERE!

22...Advent Tree

Days to go...

I was inspired by the darling wall quilt advent calendar I saw over at Pink Chalk recently. I drafted up my own pattern using Kathy's directions. I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. I'm not so crazy about my ornaments (which I am still finishing up on as you can see they aren't all on yet), but I can always change them... some other year or other...

One thing I really like are the buttons I sewed on to hold the ornaments. Some are new, the striped, spotted and snowflake ones. The solid green and solid red ones came from my Grandmother's button jar. I wish she had collected enough to use just her buttons, but since most of her buttons came from clothes she wore over the course of her life, and apparently red and green wasn't something she wore very often, I had to add to them.

So have any of you made your own advent calendars?