Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Christmas Countdown!

My Advent calendar for sale here.

Don't panic but there are only six more Fridays before Christmas!

Wasn't it just the Fourth of July? The beginning of Fall? (Or here in Australia, Spring?) Wasn't it just Halloween? (Here in Australia, they don't celebrate Halloween much). And now, Thanksgiving is almost upon us (here in Australia, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving. But I don't care...my husband and I do).

There are tons of Advent calendars around: most of them are filled with chocolate, which is always fun. There is a preponderance of handcrafted ones also, available in chain stores, department stores and little homewares shops that I like to visit in our local mall. Painted wooden constructions with little tiny doors with even tinier handles, and each door has a carefully painted number on it.

There was a chocolate Where's Waldo calendar which may have driven me mad if I had bought it. I think I would have just cut into it rather than deal with the frustration!

Making the calendar.

I had been wanting to create my own Advent calendar for my shop since last year; I had a customer who asked for one in the middle of preparation for Advent, but being in the thick of things last year, I simply didn't have time.

Fast forward twelve months, and I finally got one done.

It was a ton of work but I think it came out quite well!

Each ornament has its own numbered pocket, and each ornament has velcro sewn on to the back, to attach to the felt Jesse Tree, which is surrounded by a red border.

Each day you take an ornament and stick it on to your tree, and watch as it grows more colorful and full, until Christmas day!

The calendar itself is mostly machine-sewn, whereas the ornaments are hand-sewn and are the same as in my regular set.

I made the calendar itself with cotton (front and back), with batting between for texture. It has cotton for the pockets with felt numbers.

Stitching velcro on the ornaments.

I've posted already about how I believe that Jesse Tree ornaments are the perfect way to place Christ in Christmas celebrations, which for many have become commercialised and generally busy and stressful.

You can definitely place your Jesse Tree ornaments on your Christmas Tree or your own Jesse Tree - we just have a bundle of skinny tree branches waiting to be adorned December 1st! - but a calendar adds a kind of permanence, a consistency that you can come back to year after year.

Anyway, the calendar came out really well - it looks very homey and traditional...and will be a perfect accessory to someone's Christmas countdown!

The calendar sells for USD$130 (including shipping) and can be purchased here.

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