crafturday.

This weekend is the LDS General Conference.  You can learn more, watch it, or read any of the talks here.  As members of the Church, John and I always look forward to the semi-annual event.  Sometimes it seems like a big sacrifice to spend the better part of Saturday and Sunday watching and listening to the disciples of Christ, but it is always ALWAYS worth it in the end. 

All that being said, I'm kind of bad at just sitting and just watching Conference.  So this year I decided that I would work on a craft.  [The 40% off coupon to the craft store might have attributed a little bit to that decision.]

I found this adorable tree-shaped advent calendar just begging to come home with me.  My mom always has several advent calendars out during the holidays and they are so much fun!  I really want to continue that tradition in my own home, so this was the perfect "Conference craft" for me  :)

First, I painted the whole thing green, like a tree.  And then I painted all the little drawers different shades of red and green, and all the knobs a metallic gold to look like ornaments.  I ran into a little bit of a problem after painting them.  Not all the drawers fit easily into all of the spaces.  First I was SO frustrated, because I had a specific pattern that I wanted the colors to go in.  But now I am so happy it didn't work out, because the random mix-and-match look that I ended up with is so much better!

I finished all the painting and sanding on Saturday and saved the last step for the Sunday sessions of Conference.  We had planned to go out to dinner with some friends after the boys got home from the Priesthood session last night, and then come back to our apartment to play games so I needed to clean.  [Needed is kind of an understatement.]  Just for the sake of documenting my effort, here's a picture of my freshly cleaned kitchen.

I also found John's wedding ring while I cleaned!  It had been missing for about a month.  Which tells you how often we completely clear off the counters.  Just being honest over here.

OK, back to crafting.  This morning I pulled out the drawers [one by one so I'd know exactly where they would fit] and added numbers from scrapbooking paper and stickers to complete the advent calendar look.  I LOVE the way it turned out.  It is so funky and mix-and-matchy.  I'm beyond impressed with myself.  Normally when I do crafts like this I try to control too many aspects of them and they just and up looking like I'm trying too hard.  Which I am, but that's beside the point.

Here it is!  It looks better in person.  And without a video game in the background.  I'm so excited to fill each little drawer with candy and messages for John each day leading up to Christmas.  I'm thinking some will be just little love notes, and some will be holiday-related activities, and just some scriptures and uplifting messages to remind us what the season is really all about.  Except for the 22nd.  That day is all about me :)  [And John's brother Dan and his fiancée who are getting married that day!]