I have decided that anything can be an ornament this holiday season. This new mindset started with some old, very old, jar lids.

I bought a tub of rusty, retro jar lids from an artist several years ago for $3. I love them. I used a few for this "wall art" piece I made right after I acquired the lids. However, since then the rest have been sitting in a tub in my laundry room.

They came to mind when I was a trying to come up with some ideas for new ornaments. I picked out the ones that were mostly red or green, punched holes in the edge, and added a hook for hanging.
Here are a few of my favorites





My next unique ornament idea came from my collection of travel spoons. Yes, spoons. I'm not sure why, but someone convinced me as a child that spoons would be a good collectible item to bring home from the places we traveled on summer vacations.

This must have started around the time we took the "Green Machine" (aka 1970's Dodge Van in two-shades of green) on a road trip down the West Coast to Tijuana, Mexico. I have many spoons to commemorate locations in California from Knot's Berry Farm and Disneyland to the Aeriel Tramway in Palm Springs.

I've had this small collection of spoons for years and I just can't get rid of them. They are one small piece of my childhood that I have grown attached to, but I've never known what to do with them. For years I've been trying to think of a clever, subtle way to display them.

Well, my new "put anything on the tree" attitude gave me a way to display those spoons. All I had to do was use a little silver polish to clean them up and add the hooks for hanging, which was easy since most had gaps/holes at the top. And, the hooks aren't permanent, so if I come up with a better display idea for the spoons some day, they'll be ready.

Here are a few of the spoons on my tree today...


Anyone else have any random ornaments to share from their tree? Merry Christmas!

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Way back in June, I took a Gelli Plate Printmaking class from Celeste Douville at the Schack Art Center. It was a great afternoon of playing with paper, paint, stencils, and textures to create monoprints using a "gelli plate", which was new to me. I left motivated and imagining all the gelli printing I would be doing....

And, then I remembered I have a 3-year old, work part-time, and usually a million other things around the house that need to be done, so the my gelli plate went untouched for quite a while.

But, I was determined to get it out and try creating some prints for Christmas. My love of Christmas projects helped me carve out a few hours here and there to play. (I mean really, this is about the only time of year I get super motivated and have consistent blog entries.

I have decided that anything can be an ornament this holiday season. This new mindset started with some old, very old, jar lids.

I bought a tub of rusty, retro jar lids from an artist several years ago for $3. I love them. I used a few for this "wall art" piece I made right after I acquired the lids. However, since then the rest have been sitting in a tub in my laundry room.

They came to mind when I was a trying to come up with some ideas for new ornaments.
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I'd like to start by saying that from now on I will be sticking to sewing costumes, not making them out of cardboard, glue, and duct tape. 

But, when Henry suggested Thomas the Train as a Halloween costume back in August, I was instantly intrigued and excited by the possibilities.

It was definitely an interesting challenge and took more time than I anticipated. I didn't do a good job of documenting the process while I was working on it, so I only have the final pictures.
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My son LOVES The Berenstain Bears. My mom saved all the books that belonged to my brother and I, then my cousin added some when her twins were young, so we have nearly ALL of them. (SIDE NOTE: We do not have many of the recent additions done my Mike Berenstain, which in my opinion are not as good as those by the creators Stan and Jan.)

When it came time to think about a birthday gift and party for my now three-year old son, I started to wonder if Berenstain Bears toys existed.
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All I wanted were some fresh, local strawberries, so we went to the Marysville Strawberry Festival on Saturday. Turns out there really aren't strawberries at the festival, which was surprising, but on the way out of town I spotted the Biringer Farm stand. Yay!

I was just going to buy a pint, but then I compared the cost and decided it may much more sense to purchase an entire flat. Hmm...

I almost forgot to post this fun fabric bottle/vase project I made for my mom as a Mother's Day gift.  I used the directions provided by Lucie Summer in the book "Modern Sewing Projects". 

Underneath the patchwork fabric bottle is an actual small glass jar with water for the flowers. My mom has a love/hate relationship with crows, so the little blackbird applique was design element I added just for her.

My husband LOVES Scrabble. He refers to it as "The Game".  We own several versions, although he mostly plays the online version now. And, no "Words with Friends" is not allowed.

Knowing his love for "The Game", several years ago I bought 4-5 old Scrabble boards at the Artists' Garage Sale at the Schack Art Center in Everett, WA from artist Amy Duncan. She always has lots of interesting supplies and ephemera at her booth.
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Last Saturday my mom, her friend Sydney, and I had a little Christmas craft party to create gift tags and experiment with wood burning, which was new to me.

My mom has been playing with wood burning for a little while. I can now see how it could become addictive. It took a some time to understand the right amount of pressure, but then I was hooked. And, it was interesting to see which woods were easy/difficult to burn.

This project has become an annual tradition. I mean who can resist this face, really?

I love compact, desktop calendars that fit into a CD jewel. I realize this is becoming an obsolete item and I may have to change my format eventually, but for now I cling to my CD jewel-sized calendar.

I found the initial template on the blog Adobe Photoshop Elements Techniques a few years back, but have since created my own, because I wanted to make some minor changes.

Like so many projects, this garland wrapped around my Christmas tree started out as one idea and grew, and grew....

Originally, I planned to use a few pieces of green felt and a modern-looking fat quarter I found at Pacific Fabrics for a handful of small, quilted Christmas tree ornaments.
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About Me
About Me
I'm Maren and I inherited the "project" gene. While this probably isn't a scientific term, I believe it is why I am constantly starting (and usually finishing) new projects. I focus most of my efforts on various crafts, sewing, art, home decor, recycled materials and anything else that peaks my curiosity.
Email me
Email me
madebymeo (at) gmail (dot) com
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