D A Y 2 Countdown to Christmas

Today I wanted to share some of my Christmas decorations inside the house. I have two crafty things to share that I have done with my decorating. First, was to come up with a way to hang the stockings without using my stocking hangers. I have a one year old son that is quick as lighting to pull things down. This year he is tall enough to reach the end of the stockings, so the stocking hangers were out.

I found a great spool of ribbong I bought after Christmas last year and I got inspired to use it to hang the stockings. Our little guy isn't allowed to go up the stairs, so hanging them on the banister going up the stairs was the perfect spot to keep them away from sticky fingers.

Close up of my bow. Don't you love this ribbon?

The second crafty decorations I wanted to show you are the wreaths I have hanging on the windows in my kitchen nook. I made these about 5 years ago and they have lasted that long and look just as great as when they were first made. I bought these little wreaths at Dollar Tree. I also used cinnamon sticks and then there are dried apple pieces and oranges on it too.

To dry the apples, oranges and limes, I picked a Saturday when I knew I was going to be home all day. You set your oven to 200 degrees. Thinly slice your fruit and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You need to find a way to keep your oven door ajar while it is open. Can you see why it is great that I didn't do fruit drying while having a little one? You could try to do this in a toaster oven, but you'd have to do small batches. You let your fruit hang out in the oven and turn it over every 30-45 minutes. That way it has a change to dry well.

Once you have your fruit dried, you just attach them and your cinnamon sticks with a hot glue gun. Take some wired ribbon and there you have it. Your own handy, dandy wreath. I really love how these wreaths warm up my windows for the holiday.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll have more exciting things tomorrow for our countdown to Christmas. And just a note, gentle readers, I probably will post either in the afternoon/evening time due to the craziness of the holidays and keeping up with my little guy. Be sure to tell your friends about our countdown.