Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new experience from the week.

You may be thinking, “What?! Another craft post?!” I know, I know. We have very limited content on our blog this week. What can I say? That’s what we’ve been up to and we’re having a blast.

Today we tackled some beaded ornaments inspired by a recent Kids Craft Weekly, an email newsletter that features simple, creative and fun projects for kids. (If you’re interested in crafts, you should subscribe. I always smile when I see a Kids Craft Weekly sitting in my email inbox.)

For over a year now my daughter has loved to string things, but until this week we mostly focused on building her hand dexterity and self-confidence by stringing larger objects, such as these fantastic Plan Toy Geo-Beads and the MoMA Modern Shapes Lacing Cards.

At our local craft resale shop I recently found a giant bag of brightly colored (mostly) wooden beads in large and small sizes and had a “we must buy this!” moment (not hard when it was a steal at $3 and supports our town’s senior center).

We started stringing the beads on pipe-cleaners, an easy first step for toddlers. We made simple wreath ornaments and jingly bracelets (with bells!).

(Yes, we’ve been cooking up potato pancakes! We’ve been crafting, cooking and celebrating nonstop. You should see the pile of dishes in the sink.)

My daughter loved beading. She found delight in trying something one way and then taking the beads off to do something else. With the alphabet beads, she liked trying to spell words (such as her name) and giggled as she laced individual letters saying, “S, for [her friend] Sadie! D, for Daddy!”

I enjoyed watching her work and seeing the evolution of her color, shape and size combinations. I found her work always interesting, quite creative and certainly full of beauty. A very special day.

You guessed it.

We’re still working on holiday projects.

Every surface is covered.

Every surface is a mess.

Above: Miss Leyba learning to sew! She always wants to do what Mommy’s working on. So far, so good! Somehow I’m teaching her and supervising her while working on a million other things. Mom’s are so good at multitasking. Or at least pretending that we’re good at it. ;)

We’re having a blast!

Now please excuse me as I have half a dozen birds to embroider, stars to finish, stockings to stitch, pine cones to paint, craft stick stars to mod podge, presents to wrap, presents to order… and we’re busy celebrating Hanukkah too. That’s right, I have some potato pancakes to fry and candles to light too.

December is super-wonderful-exhausting-crazy-fun-busy and we love it.

This time of year the internet is bursting with inexpensive, creative holiday decorating and craft ideas. Here are some projects that I find especially fun and inspiring and am looking forward to trying (if not this year than next!):

Felted Poinsettia Wreath (pattern available here): knit poinsettia flowers, felt them, then piece them together. Alternatively you could cut out felt poinsettia leaves and glue them to make a more simplistic, no sew wreath (more my style!).

Peppermint Package: stuff packages and cushion your presents with individually wrapped mints or candies (from The Farm Chicks Christmas) – so much better than the boring and environmentally-destructive Styrofoam peanuts. You can even buy more-natural candies at the Natural Candy Store (no high fructose corn syrup for sale there!).

Family Photographs Wreath: hot glue photographs to a wreath form for a simple reinvention of the family tree.

Holiday Card Wreath: decorate clothespins, then glue them to a wooden embroidery hoop (I picked one up at a local craft resale shop for $0.35 to make this project!) to display holiday cards or ornaments. (I am SO excited about this project!) It reminds me of this similar and much more expensive hooped card holder from Vivaterra (that doesn’t appear to be available online) that I clipped from their catalog:

What holiday decorating projects are you doing this year?