It’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas!
The weather here in Oregon has changed to the bone-chilling, static hair-inducing, frozen ground cold. I don’t hate this weather–I hate the rain more–but I will say standing at the bus stop when it’s in the low 30’s is not fun. Despite that, I am happy that winter is here and I am loving the hot cocoa Michael and I are having for dessert.
I recently ordered an ornament on Etsy and it arrived. Here it is:
I love how it turned out. On the flip side of the ornament is our name. It’s our first ornament as a married couple. I used one of the professional pictures we got and I’m really happy with it. I also made my own ornaments recently. I did this fun little project in an afternoon and it turned out pretty great so I wanted to share it with you.
This is a Christmas ornament I bought on our honeymoon in Maui:
It’s a little owl! It was super cheap (like less than $5) and I found it at an open air craft market in downtown Kihei not far from where we stayed. I found a lot of cheap and cute souvenirs there. Then, out of the blue, a friend of mine sent me a gift that turned out to be an ornament, too!
Too cute! Next up: homemade ornaments!
I saw this on Pinterest and it was a cute idea so one day I made up the dough to do dog print ornaments! I have to say, it was quite amusing trying to coerce Bella into letting me take her paw print. I cornered her in the kitchen and tried to coax her into doing it but she wasn’t having any of it. I tricked her back into the kitchen with some treats and I had to actually grab her paw and then press it into the dough. The first time I tried it it was kind of mess so I kneaded the dough again, rolled it out, and tried a second time.
She was much more cooperative and didn’t seem as freaked out!
Here is the recipe:
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup salt
- ½ cup water
- A straw
- A glass or circle cookie cutter
- Rolling pin
- Baking sheet
- Ribbon, for hanging
- Optional: paint, glitter, ink, markers
- Preheat oven to 200°.
- Combine flour, salt, and water in a large bowl. Flip out onto a well floured surface, knead with your hands for a few minutes until dough is smooth.
- Roll dough out with rolling pin 1/4” to 1/2” thick.
- Use a cup/jar to cut a circle out of dough (make sure it is large enough that your dogs paw will fit in the circle with room to spare).
- Press your pets paw into the center of the dough circle firmly.
- You want to handle the dough as little as possible to keep it from becoming stretched out, the best way to do this is to move it to a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper and then make the paw impression.
- At the top of the circle use a straw to cut a hole for hanging ribbon.
- Bake for 2 hours.
- Remove from oven, cool and decorate as you like.
- Leave it plain, paint it, add glitter, sequins, use markers or a paint pen to fill in your pets name and the year. Tie on a ribbon in your pre-cut hole to hang from the tree.
After the ornaments baked for two hours I let them cool on the rack over night and then went about with the painting. I got a Christmas Red and Christmas Green, basically colored glitter. The first one was kind of a mess and it was my practice one. I realized that the paw print didn’t really show up so I decided to paint the rest of them black first, then go back after it dried to paint the Christmas colors. This was a much better approach.
Using the black made the paw print stand out much better. I did a few coats of the paint and then let it dry overnight. I just used some regular ribbon for hanging the ornaments. I made four ornaments and two are gifts for some special people in Bella’s life. 🙂
Bella! It’s our second Christmas having the munchkin. 🙂 Bella was super excited about her ornament. Haha!
Anyways, if you have kids this would be a great art project for them. It was really easy and fun and you can do so many different types of ornaments with this recipe. I’m happy with how they turned out. Now if only I could somehow get the cats to cooperate for something like this……!
Deb
Your ornaments are so cute! Love the photo one, but the paw prints are adorable! I can’t believe you’ve already had Bella so long. <3 You guys are so lucky to have her, and her you.
We don't decorate for the holidays, but sometimes I'm a little jealous of those that do!
Lisa Eirene
Thanks Deb! I’m really glad they turned out. We’ve had Bella for a year and 2 months now! It’s hard to believe it’s been so long but I can’t imagine our life without her in it. She’s such a special puppy!
We decorate a bit on the inside of the house but don’t go overboard. I’d like to someday decorate the outside. Our neighbors all go crazy and put up tons of lights and decorations. It looks nice. But damn, a lot of work!
Biz
Eek – I love that picture ornament! So awesome – my husband and I had our honeymoon in Key West and I have an ornament with the date 2000 on it.
I am torn about whether to decorate for Christmas or not – I don’t think I did last year because Tony wasn’t feeling well, and I ended up celebrating Christmas with my family in January because of everyone’s schedules.
But then I think – snowmen make me happy – I have about 400 of them, so I may just bring some of them out.
Just trying to put one foot in front of the other and trying to remember to . . . breathe. Hugs!
Lisa Eirene
Thanks for your comment. Glad you are considering decorating. It might be a special way to honor Tony. Put your honeymoon ornament on the tree. Big hug!
Lori
Well, for the kitties, you can collect all the hair and then felt it into an ornament LOL! I think there actually is a book on Amazon about felting with cat hair (seriously).
Lisa Eirene
Hahaha I will pass. Although it wouldn’t take long to collect enough hair. Damn. Cats are short haired and yet there are cat tumbleweeds all over the house….
Deb
I did a craft fair once and a woman there selling hats and the like as well as handspun yarns… made from her dogs’ and cats’ hair.
Lisa Eirene
OMG. No thank you!!