Make An Advent Calendar, step by step

We are still working away on the kitchen, so we will have update post #561 for you soon (kidding, it is likely more like #19 or something – but still). This week we are hoping to share plenty of major progress (new counters and a working sink again – at last!). In the meantime, it is about time we got into the holiday spirit. There is simply something special about spending our first real Christmas in our new house that makes us want to go all out. We moved on the 13th of December last year, so we were technically here for last year’s holiday season, but we were living out of boxes and Clara was too young to truly get excited about all of the magic that makes the season so special. But this year it is on! So I kicked things off by making a little advent calendar to enjoy with Clara:

Oh but here is how it looks from her point of view (gotta soak up the days that she’s shorter than me, because I am sure they are numbered):

This little holiday project was only $7.99 because I used things that we already had and only purchased one thing: this scarf hanger from Ikea:

Allow me to paint you a picture of me at Ikea when the idea slowly hit:

• I walked by said scarf hanger.
• I thought to myself “self, there has got to be some other lively use for that.”
• I stood there with my mouth half open staring at it for a good three minutes.
• Then realized that it had 28 openings, which is fairly close to 25…
• … which brought me to the idea of an advent calendar, which I had been meaning to make for the bean.

I chose the three extra circles could be “free spaces” and the rest of them could sport numbered tags and ornaments. Bam: instant advent calendar. It’ll be a lively daily activity to do with Clara (we will hang an ornament a day on the tree together as we work our way through the calendar).

I in fact whipped it up on December 2nd (procrastinate much?) but alas, we have yet to set up our tree (another sure sign of procrastination). So we have been admiring the ornaments as each day ticks by… hoping to get the tree up within the next few days so we can “catch up” and hang five or six ornaments on the tree all at once. Then we can go day by day from then out…

As for how I made it, I simply took metal ornament hooks that we already had on hand and stuck various ornaments through them (if they did not have hooks already). Then I looped each hook over the circle or bar above each circle (all of them had circles above them except for the top row which had that bar). That way each ornament hung into the circle under that and was sort of framed that way. And of course we worked in some quirky ornaments in honor of our other child (Burger). There is the hamburger ornament that we found on clearance after Christmas last year at Michael’s for 50 cents:

And the snowflake frame with his cute mug in it from a few years back:

And of course there is a disco ball since we enjoy to dance (that one does not have anything to do with Burger, except he might get picked up and swirled around the room in celebration after we hang it).

As for the tags, I simply cut a tag-ish shapes out of cardstock 25 times (using the first one as a guide and cutting around it like a template to make the other 24). Then I used a hole puncher to allow them to slip over the ornament hooks. But before adding one to each ornament’s hook I googled around for a pleasant font online (and found this one). So I glanced at it while sketching each number onto my cardstock tag with a pencil (it is pleasant to have type inspiration nearby when you are free-handing something – simply for reference):

Then I simply traced over each sketched out number with a pen once I liked the shape.

They are certainly not ideal, but they are fairly cute:

Oh and I hung it with a removable 3M hook thing, so I would not have to make a nail hole in the front of our coat closet door:

So we hope to have a bunch of lively holiday stuff going on for the next few weeks among kitchen updates and other projects. Count on posts about tree decorating (we are doing a tabletop one and a full sized one) and even some outdoor stuff (we are bound and determined to hang lights and truly get festive). Oh and not to mention that Mrs. Limestone sweetly invited me to partake in her lively little Secret Santa thing with some excellent fellow bloggers…

… which means I have to make a few gifty goodies and secretly mail them to someone (cannot tell you who) and see what turns up from another mystery blogger. Here is everyone that is in on it:

• Mrs. Limestone at Brooklyn Limestone (the mastermind)
• Michelle at 4 Men 1 Lady
• Bryn at Bryn Alexandra
• Emily at Emily A. Clark
• Shelley at House of Smiths
• Melissa at The Inspired Room
• Janell at Isabella and Max Rooms
• Paloma at La Dolce Vita
• Jacin at Lovely Little Details
• Nicole at Making it Lovely
• Marian at Mustard Seed Interiors
• Lauren at Pure Style Home 
• Tanya at Save the Date for Cupcakes
• Michelle at TenJune
• Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick
• Laura at You Stir Me

Should be lively, except that I have total stage fright and cannot think of anything creative to send. Here is hoping a few days of advent-calendar-ing get my juices flowing. I wonder who has me. Any guesses? We will have to try to figure it out together when something shows up!

Oh and speaking of holiday stuff, West Elm asked us to round up a few of our go-to items over on their site (we were not paid or perked, it was simply for lively). So you can check out our picks here and then click the arrow to scroll through all of our dorky quotes.

But sufficient about us. Have you began decorating for the holidays? Are you totally done already? Are you advent-calendar-ing? Have you ever used something from Ikea in an unusual way? How about Secret Santa experiences? Did you manage to give the ideal thing? I am simply hoping I do not totally choke.

Update: You can check out all of our go-to holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15!