Liv Inspires

This year we have a new spin on our (more or less) traditional Advent Calendar. :-)

I really thought, I would write this year sooner about our new Advent Calendar, since I had it planed out and prepared sooner than usual. But alas, here I am, probably even later than on other years, as Life and Death have their way of bringing unexpected events between us and my plans.

Speaking of plans, I had a different vision for this year’s Advent Calendar for my kids. BUT then I remembered I had those old wheels, which I once rescued from the trash containers, sitting around for this past year in the basement. I rather thought they looked pretty, and might even more so, if they got a new coat of paint of some sorts. And I admit, I got really excited as I was spray painting them and as they suddenly got all shiny looking with the new colour (and I do not mean that only since they literally got shiny as I painted them gold, haha). :-)

Until now, I never wanted to sew pouches for our advent calendars, as I thought it would be terribly boring to sew 24 pockets. But then this year a friend asked me to sew some for her, and I found out, it’s done much faster than I thought, and it’s not boring at all. However, I didn’t get to buy some nice fabric for the pockets. Just couldn’t get myself to go to the city to buy something, that would match my Christmas and colour mood, and the old paper bags I used for the last few years, were already rather in a bad state. I was getting anxious if there would be time to go fabric shopping, when suddenly an idea came to me. In the summer, I got from someone at the school where my husband is working some pretty high end fabric samples for home decoration, since they knew I sew and might use it for something. And boy, did it come handy! :-)

Those fabrics are really beautiful, and it was even hard to choose fabric for only 24 pockets. I might have done at least once as many (and my kids would be absolutely thrilled if only the advent would stretch and last longer and they would get more stuff! And we would go absolutely broke with it, heh!)

I do really like how each pocket is different. And I also love the beautiful textures of each pocket, though you may not see it as well on those photos, but close up you can tell they are really actually high quality (interior decor) fabrics, as I rather rarely get to work with, hah.

I do not have the perfect most photogenic place for our Advend calendar.. It was really hard to get some nice photos of it. Funny thing happened, when we were about to drill holes where I wanted to hang them. Liv suddenly got really upset for some unknown reason about the place and way of hanging the wheels (though she didn’t know I meant to use them as their advent calendar). Since it was meant to be there for them, I didn’t want her to be upset for the whole month about it (though she probably would have gotten over it soon enough), so I let her help decide where to hang them. It may not be quite what I envisioned, but I loved the way she handled the whole situation and how she helped decide. It was so sweet in a way! Liv really tried to think of what I originally wanted and at the same time what she wanted, AND also thinking of the limitations of the space in our apartment! Now every time I look at it, I think of her how she tried to solve the puzzle of all given limits. And I can’t help but smile about each time.

Liv also really wanted to have numbers on the calendar, but I rather wanted them to choose which pocket to open (since I didn’t give it a specific order). So I just added little books with numbers from (one of?) our first calendars, where I bought Liv one with tiny booklets instead of sweets. Sebi doesn’t remember them at all anyway, so it was sweet to take them out again and use..

Oh, here- not to forget, an obligatory what did we put in this year…?
Few, it looks like a lot, now that there’s two of everything there.. I have to admit, I did not put all in there in the end, though. Especially, those that are a few in a package, like the glitter and stamps, I put just some inside the calendar, and put some away for later. Or for next year.

Also we did a tiny improvised wreath. Two, actually. One with candles, one to hang on our door. As the Czech saying goes “With what the house gave”… Because we had no time preparing it beforehand due to A Series of Unexpected Events :-) No, I do not mean the books or the series, just making fun (pun). Hehe. (That’s probably me the only one laughing about my own joke. Yep.)

Did you make a DIY Advent Calendar or decoration? I would love to hear about them! (Or see them!)

Have a beautiful time (of the year)!