Christmas Ornaments

After Pinteresting for an unreasonable amount of time some time ago, I decided that it would be important that I follow through with some of my pins.  I was on a Holiday Festivity Pinterest "rant" this time and I felt like it would be a great idea if I threw a party for a bunch of girlfriends and decorated ornaments like I had seen on Pinterest.  I organized a Facebook event and invited a bunch of girlfriends from the area that I thought might be interested.  However, this party ended up being a bit of a failure in that no one, save one good friend of mine (Carla!) showed.  More ornaments for us!  Anyways, we gathered all the supplies, air-popped some popcorn, boiled some water for tea and hot chocolate, turned on a Christmas music playlist, and dug in to our ideas and inspiration.  Our inspiration came from here, here, here, and here.  We didn't follow directions though.  I guess you could say we are rebellious, or that we lacked certain ingredients, either way, you would be right.

The Slushed Ornament

You will need: plastic or glass ornaments, craft glue (with a brush is preferable), and white glitter and sugar or instant snow.

Step one:  Paint the top of the ornament with the glue in such a way that it looks like the "snow" is resting on top and slipping down the sides.
Step two:  Pour the glitter on top of the sugar (do not mix).  (Skip this step if you have instant snow).
Step three: Dip the glued ornament in the glitter/sugar or instant snow and allow to dry.
Step four: Use an ornament hook or ribbon for hanging purposes.
Step five: Admire.

The Gold Pinecone

You will need: pinecones, spray paint, ribbon or velvet bows, and a hot glue gun and hot glue stick.

Step one:  Buy or find pinecones (I got a bag of about 14 for $1 at a flash sale at Michael's).
Step two:  Spray it with gold (or whatever color you desire) spray paint and let it dry.
Step three:  Tie a ribbon in a bow and attach a ribbon loop to it. (Or cheat like I did and use one of those little velvet ribbons with a ribbon loop attached to it).
Step four: Hot glue it to the top of the pinecone.
Step five: Admire.

The Snow Pinecone

You will need: pinecones, craft glue (with a brush is preferable), sugar, snow, and a hot glue gun and hot glue stick.

Step one: Paint the glue on top of the pinecone and on the top layers of cone scales/arms/whatever you want to call them.
Step two: Dip the glued on pinecones in sugar until they are coated and allow them to dry.
Step three: Tie a ribbon in a bow and attach a ribbon loop to it.
Step four: Hot glue it to the top of the pinecone.
Step five: Admire.

The Yarn Ball

You will need: Styrofoam balls, craft glue or a hot glue gun and hot glue stick, pretty yarn, ribbon, and a thumb tack or push pin.

Step one:  If you are using craft glue, paint the ball in one diametrical stripe on the ball and another in the other direction.  If you are using hot glue, glue short stripes across where you will wrap the yarn around the ball immediately following.
Step two: Wrap the yarn around the ball either (on top of the craft glue or preceding it with hot glue).
Step three: After you have covered the ball with the yarn, allow some extra yarn for the loop.
Step four: Place a dollop of hot glue or craft glue on the pointy end of the thumbtack or push pin and use it to secure the yarn loop.
Step five:  Tie a ribbon around the base of the yarn loop into a bow.
(Steps four and five can be replaced if you want to skip the bow and yarn loop with this: fold a length of ribbon in half and stab the loose ends with a thumbtack, place glue on the sharp end of the thumbtack and push it into the exposed end of the yarn that you just finished wrapping and hold until dry.)
Step six: Admire.

The Sand Ball

You will need: styrofoam balls, craft glue (with a brush), course sand (or epsom salt) in whatever color you please, mesh ribbon with wire edging, ribbon, a wooden skewer or stick, and a hot glue gun or hot glue stick.

Step one:  Place the styrofoam ball on a skewer of some sort so that you won't have to handle the glue.  The hole will be filled in later.
Step two:  Paint the ball entirely with the glue.
Step three: Pour the sand over the ball and roll the ball around in the sand as it falls. Allow it to dry.
Step four:  Cut about two to two and a half inches of the ribbon, fold it neatly and tie the ribbon that will form the loop around the center and tie the ends together tightly.  Bend the metal edging of the ribbon so that the ends open up into a nice bow shape.
Step five:  Fill the hole that the skewer made with hot glue and cover the hole with a small dollop of glue.  Immediately place bow/loop on top of the glue and hold it there until the glue dries.
Step six: Admire.

The Snowman

You will need: two different size styrofoam balls, craft glue (with, you guessed it, a brush), sugar, thumbtacks or push pins, yarn or ribbon, wooden skewer or stick that can be cut, orange paint or permanent marker, and a hot glue gun or hot glue stick.

Step one: Skewer the styrofoam balls and paint them in glue.
Step two: Pour the sugar on a plate or in a bowl and dip and roll the ball in sugar until it is coated.  Remove the skewer and roll again.  Allow to dry.  Repeat with the other ball.
Step three: Cut the skewer so that it is shorter than the combination of the two styrofoam balls stacked on top of each other.
Step four: Place glue on one end of the cut skewer and push it back into the hole of the ball until there is just enough to attach the other styrofoam ball to.  You will want enough that it will be able to go about halfway into the remaining ball.
Step five: Place glue on the exposed end of the skewer and attach the other ball.  Let the glue dry.
Step six:  Use a length of ribbon or yarn to tie around the neck of the snowman as a scarf.  If you want, glue a cute little hat on.
Step seven:  Place glue on the sharp end of a thumbtack and place it in the head of the ball as an eye.  Repeat this step with the other eye and buttons of the snowman.
Step eight (optional):  Use a ribbon to make a loop and a thumbtack (with hot glue on the sharp end) to attach the loop if you want to hang it.  I chose to leave mine loop (and hat) free.
Step nine: Admire.

Trimester Two and the Gender Reveal

Tomorrow I will be 22 weeks preggars.  The second trimester, as promised, is infinitely better than the first.  Some improvements: I can drink water and eat most foods except for too much acidic food - which gives me heartburn and makes me sad as a result, increased energy, I now look pregnant instead of fat, my baby is pushing and kicking and punching and dancing and the hubs can feel it, and I have a fabulous excuse to buy new clothes.  Some downsides: my clothes officially don't fit - forcing me to stare at the clothing in my closet in frustration and wish I had more money for maternity clothes, I have really begun to dwell on the whole labor/birthing aspect of this pregnancy, constipation has become a thing, and my extra pillow has now become a belly cushion.

Update:  The whole constipation issue tends to alternate with diarrhea, which is good because I don't go longer than two or three days of being constipated before the diarrhea begins.  Woot… The main problem I have had during the second trimester is acid reflux.  I couldn't even drink a sip of water without acid rising up and burning my throat.  This proved to be a problem because I couldn't drink water which is somewhat vital and I couldn't eat without repercussions.  After attempting to use fresh ginger (yuck!), ginger ale (burn), and ginger tea (worse burn), as well as other acid reflux reducing methods, I asked my midwife for advice.  She suggested Zantac, and let me tell you, it is a life saver.

Gender Reveal Anticipation

My favorite part of the second trimester so far has been finding out the gender of the baby.  We set up the ultrasound appointment for a Saturday morning (typically a no-no for Seventh Day Adventists but a bit of a necessity because of how far I drive for work and my schedule).  We knew about the appointment two weeks ahead of time.  This is too much time.  I am not a patient woman, never have been.  So, in an effort to make others as impatient as I was, I decided to utilize Facebook to build anticipation.  I started on a Monday a few days before the ultrasound, posting three to four old wives tales a day with my answer and which gender that pointed to.  People would comment on what they thought I was having based on my answers or their experience with their pregnancies and/or laugh at the answers.  The old wives tales distracted me enough and passed time a bit quicker.

The old wives tales I posted were:

Did my skin break out or clear up? Sadly I broke out - girl.
Is my skin dry or normal? Sadly my skin is dry - boy.
Is my baby bump high or low? Low - boy.
Did the ring on the string circle or swing? It swung - girl.
What does the Chinese calendar say? Boy.
Am I gaining weight in my stomach or my bottom? I'm all belly apparently - boy.
Do I have more or normal leg hair? Less, actually… - girl.
Have I been sleeping on my left or right side? Left - boy.
Is the baby's heart rate above or below 140? Above - girl.
Am I craving fruit or dairy/protein? Dairy - always, boy.
Are my feet feeling cold or normal? Normal, girl.
Have I been mostly happy or mostly moody? Mostly happy, boy.
Is the hubs gaining or maintaining weight? Gaining! Boy.
Is my nose bigger or the same? Same - girl.
What does the Mayan predictor say? Boy.

My favorite response was to the hubs gaining or maintaing/losing weight.  My friend pointed out that my hubs is always gaining more muscle mass because of how much he works out.  I had to specify that he had plateaued before I became pregnant.  He has really enjoyed the gains he has seen lately as a result, silly guy.

One that I didn't post was that instinct is usually right - about 70% of the time.  Instinct is different from what you want though, so be careful not to be trying to "will" your baby to be something because of what you want.  I knew I was having a boy, I was positive.  I didn't mention this because I didn't want to sway people's guesses, which was the next phase of the torture Facebook friends operation.  Saturday morning, I posted a status saying I would be posting the gender later that evening (to give me time to do a gender reveal to our immediate family and closest friends) and that we were taking guesses.    I took WAY too much pleasure out of people being wrong.  It's a problem.

The Reveal

After the ultrasound and church, we had my family over for lunch and got Sam's family on Facetime for the reveal.  We had set up our Christmas tree and put our gender-revealing ornaments in a box.  We had my mom open the box.  When she opened it, everyone could see the blue ornaments inside.  My four year old nephew, who wanted a girl, responded with an, "awww...." which prompted some laughter.  Turns out, no one was surprised.  I know my husband and I weren't.  Neither were his cousins, or my mom.  The hubs was too excited, which gave it away to anyone that was holding out thinking it was a girl.  After the reveal and making our phone calls to our close friends, we posted the photo on Facebook and basked in the likes.

We had a hard time getting a good picture.  I don't like my face in this one, but it was the best overall.  Also, the baby bump isn't so visible.  Oh well.

Some random pieces of information: the tree skirt is a curtain bunched up and wrapped around the bottom of our lovely plastic tree because tree skirts are unreasonably expensive in stores, the garland is ribbon, and the "S" was our first ornament as a married couple.

When we posted this picture on Facebook, we named the picture Santiago.  We agreed on this name fairly early on, but we are still working out the middle name between our two front runners.  We still have 18 weeks to figure it out.

Teaser

Next week, I will be posting some fun Christmas ornament ideas with how to along with a recipe trial and critique.  Hint: Nutella will be involved.  Yummmm.  I am getting excited already.