Look Ma! I'm in Woman's Day!

Earlier this summer I was asked by Woman's Day to design a little something for a special holiday issue and I am so excited to now see it in their Best Ideas for Christmas issue (on news stands now!). This was particularly cool for me because when I was kid, my mum always bought Woman's Day and I grew up looking at this magazine, perusing the craft pages even back then, and sometimes even making something with my mum from the magazine.  So, it is all full-circle-feeling to be in the magazine today.

And the issue is a good one--chock full of lots of crafty ideas for gift wrapping, a retrospective of the best cookie recipes from the past 9 decades (who knew they have been around 73 years now?), and loads of other holiday decorating ideas.

And this is what I contributed--a  set of variously sized pine trees made from recycled Pendleton plaid wool shirts and felted sweaters--each one tagged with a piece of twill tape stamped with numbers 1-24 to represent the days of advent.  What I love about this project is that it is entirely hand sewn (my favorite kind of sewing), and it is really quite pretty to look at when you line all the trees up on a mantel or sideboard or something like that--having both form and function.

And because the trees are all hollow, they are perfect for stashing a sweet note from a family member, a lovely nature find, a truffle, a funny little limerick, or even one of Emily's Lucky Teeth.  

So, go check it out at your neighborhood book/grocery store, or you can also see a posting about the article I was in on Woman's Day's website.  It has photos of my project and other simple holiday projects designed by a handful of other bloggers (like Maya's own fantastic advent calendar made unbelievably from TP rolls), plus downloadable instructions--find all the goodness right here.