Craft Night: Ornaments

A couple years ago while I was working at the planetarium, one afternoon in December, Rubina and I took a moment to make some ornaments.  Our cube was quite decorated so we added the ornaments to the draped lights.

This year, I decided to have a craft night last Friday to make ornaments.

I supplied the ornaments and some ideas through the invite.  

Ideally, I wanted to invite each person by handing them or mailing them the above photo with the details handwritten on the back.  But life sometimes gets in the way of ideas.  So I emailed everyone the photo and a bunch of details.

I let everyone know I would have glass round ornaments to be decorated in any way.  I sent along several ideas for people to think about, but highlighted the idea to put pictures in the ornament.  I think the group split in half with putting photos in or going with the painting route.

cinthya sent me a pic of her ornament on her tree
so pretty

I love that all my ornaments have meaning to me.  My tree is no where near full, but every single one has meaning and a story.  Not one was purchased just for decoration and I made the majority of them.  A couple are from friends.  A few homemade.  A couple German ones.  Of course a Cardinal.  It’s actually tricky enough that it could pass for a cute winter ornament, but clearly I bought it because it’s an adorable Cardinal.  That’s the way I like to represent!

Rubina was the pro at getting the photos out of the ornaments when we didn't size them appropriately.
yes, she got her finger stuck in the process.

Jason & Justin were heading to an ugly sweater party afterwards and when they pulled out their sweaters to show us, we all agreed they weren't ugly.  What better place to make some sweater decorations?  A craft party!  :)  Cinthya got really into it and did most of the work.

this was stitched on the back of a sweater

I had a couple snacks, but nothing crazy.  As I noted in my email invite:  I never claimed to be a martha stewart and the goal of this is a relief from holiday stress.  I made my grandma's pinwheel cookies & the Sweet & Spicy Honey Nut Chex Mix.

I definitely ran into some issues with the cookies.  I've watched and enjoyed my grandma make them for many, many years... seems I still have some things to work on.  Over Thanksgiving when Dad & I went over to visit, Grandma was in the midst of cookies.  (We were more than happy to have some straight out of the oven cookies.)  Before I went over I thought I wanted to get her pinwheel recipe, but then the fact that she was making them when we got there.  I knew I had to.  She has pretty high standards for her baking and I'm pretty sure my first cookie sheet would have gone into the trash, but I think the second sheet would have passed.

Does anyone else stress about hosting before events and then as it gets closer pretty much completely let go and take a ‘whatever’ perspective.  This is me.  It’s not that I get frustrated.  It’s that I figure people will mingle and do their own things, some may not come, some extras may show.  I just let it be/happen.

I did enjoy myself, but I do think there were a few too many people.  I think in the future, I'll have small craft nights...
(Always good to reflect on events ;)

p.s. Craft Night:  Photo Transfer