Handmade Ornaments

I love Christmas, and I love putting up our tree and hanging the ornaments.  I don't like "theme" trees--all my ornaments have significance to us. 

• a glass frog that my mom gave me a few years ago--to teasingly remind me of the hideous things that used to gather over the door to my apartment; I was TERRIFIED one was going to jump onto my head!!
• a pewter Headless Horseman from when I was traveling and got to visit Sleepy Hollow in New York.
• a pumpkin egg from when I used all my SkyMiles and flew with my mother 1st class for a mother-daughter vacation in Bostonit was around Halloween, and no place celebrates Halloween like Salem, Mass--it was an amazing trip, probably the best of my life  :)
• an engraved one from my husband's father, one for the first Christmas as husband and wife, and another for my son the year of his birth.

So that's the story of a few of my favorite ornaments.  For 2 years I joined an ornament swap, and I really enjoyed it.  You make 12 ornaments, send them to 12 different people, and 12 other people each send one to you.  I don't think I ever got all 12, but it was always so fun to do--they were presents, really, a few were real works of art.
Here's what I made:
In 2007, I made fuzzy yarn balls with Styrofoam balls and red, white, green and blue "fuzzy" yarn and white wire ribbons :

Of course, the cat is the biggest fan of these :)

In 2008, I made little rag wreaths using embroidery hoops and these fabrics:

 to make:

Very poor quality, sorry!

I've got tons of ornaments planned for this year, mostly to occupy my son during the school breaks.  I'm excited to see what we come up with!
Here's a link to my Pinterest Board for Christmas and Winter, and another to my School Break Boredom Busters, which is mostly "re-pins" so I can delete the entire board in January.

Enjoy your holiday preparations!