Christmas Craftiness

When Sean and I were sophomores in college we purchased an inexpensive Christmas tree, but could only afford two boxes of ornaments and maybe three 'specialty' ornaments. Well, we've had fun adding to those 'specialty' ornaments every year since then and now have a pretty good looking tree {despite the bare bones tree underneath!} Here's some before and afters:

Have any of you ever notices how ridiculously expensive Christmas tree skirts are?? Well, I did today whilst shopping and decided that I could pretty easily make my own. With about $15 in supplies and 30 minutes, I made this: (and saw one similar to it for $60 at Hobby Lobby!)I can finally make Sean's Aunt Teresa's annual Christmas ornament exchange this year and have scoured the internet for homemade ornament ideas. I did a trial one today and I think it turned out really cute! I will make half of them in more whimsical colors/patterns like the one pictured here and will make the other half in more traditional tones. They are pretty easy to make and come out to just about $1/ornament in the end!
The homemade Christmas gifts are underway, though still very much under construction! I'm looking forward to pushing through these next two weeks of class with much perseverance then having some time to devote fully to those projects. Tomorrow we're headed to Kansas City to watch the MU/KU game at Arrowhead stadium {the weather is supposed to be an amazing 62 and sunny!}. I'll post pics of that later this weekend...