Finally - the gifts are wrapped, the Some Assembly Required Toy (which took about three hours longer to assemble than I was expecting - I love Playmobil, but I hate the hundreds of miniscule parts) has been assembled, everyone is tucked into their beds (excepting Yours Truly, of course) and, as usual, I'm enjoying the quiet before the storm. We managed to get through the whole day without the Short One realizing that it was Christmas Eve - quite surprising, since he's been counting the days until Christmas this year. I feel slightly guilty for not telling him, but I'll be quite happy to be able to sleep in to a regular hour tomorrow morning. I'm positive this will be the last year for such a luxury.
The SO had a small gingerbread house decorating party earlier this week, so I thought I'd do a last minute show and share. The SO's masterpiece is above. The SO, in his time-honored way, did a good bit of the decorating himself. Not that it stayed that understated, of course. An hour later, it looked like this:
As you can probably tell, he's a big fan of pretzels. We appear to have suffered a bit of a missile attack here, though. His friends (and their Moms) made these two cute houses:
Don't you love the square pretzels for windows? Thanks, M., for bringing those, along with the gumdrops. Here's the second one, with a cute chimney:
I had a leftover house form (I made an extra house, to ward against accidents - in case you can't tell, these were all made around the tops of juice cartons), and the SO was quite happy to decorate that one earlier today with his grandparents:
Clearly, restraint is not in my son's vocabulary.
Incidentally, going into the project, I thought it would be difficult to find Necco wafers outside of a novelty candy store. In fact, I ultimately bought the rolls we used here at a local CVS. Who knew they were still so readily available?
I'm taking the weekend off, so here are your links, in case you go into bead withdrawal while celebrating the holiday (for those of you who celebrate Christmas, of course):
A Bead A Day There is still plenty of time to make some New Year's Eve jewelry! Lisa shares an eye catching bracelet using velvety hearts and chandelier-like egyptian crystals. Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi makes huge resin baubles from an ice tray. About.com Jewelry Making Yellow facted CZ fan pendants become gorgeous earrings with just a little chain. Beading Arts Sweet, simple, and silly! Make a barrette that will delight a young girl in your life. Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva Cindy shares her favorite things this week. You might be surprised to find out what they are! Art Bead Scene It's the ABS annual 12 days of Christmas free projects. Twelve days of last minute holiday gifts! Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean offers a project called Supercool which features a great focal by Dustin Tabor! Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts Eco Friendly Gift Wrap Jean Campbell Jean shares a free sparkly necklace project, just in time to whip up for your New Year's Evening wear Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio Lorelei goes back in time to remind fellow Etsy sellers about Heart-o-Matic! Earthenwood Studio Chronicles Melanie makes a chunky, funky necklace with some unusual wooden chain and findings Strands of Beads Melissa shares some whimsical lampwork artistry by Debi Cogwell.Merry Christmas.