My Advent Calendar

I grew up in a smallish town. JC Penney and Herberger's were the extent of our shopping choices. 

Oh, wait. There was also a Maurice's. I miss Maurice's. I bought a sweater there 12 years ago that I still regularly wear.

It's comfortable. Don't judge :-).

We always referred to Minneapolis/St. Paul as The Cities. Capitalized, obviously.  As in, "We're going down to The Cities for the weekend." Every other town had a name, The Cities needed no name.

When Mike and I  moved to a suburb of The Cities, he was just starting his career and we were saving up for a house. We budgeted down to the dollar. That's why I made my own advent calendar. Every day I see so many great advent calendar ideas on Pinterest but I'm awfully attached to this one.



For the tree, I used an old piece of plywood, painted the background, then the trunk  and the tree (freehand, that's why it looks so sloppy!). I hammered 24 nails into that sucker and managed not to accidentally hit myself with the hammer. That was a Christmas Miracle in itself.

I used a clay extruder and multiple colors of polymer clay to create the ornaments. 


With a Michael's 40% off coupon (love those!), I bought an unfinished candy-holder advent calendar to hold the clay ornaments.


I painted the sides and numbered doors in a variety of shades, then accented with gold paint.


Hopefully it will last for many years to come!

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