Time to bring out the Advent Calendar

This year is the first in 28 years that a child has not shared the excitement of Advent with my husband and me. So, instead of our traditional and colourful Advent calendar, I decided it was time for a new, grownup girl's way to count down the days until Christmas.

I saw one on Martha's blog that immediately appealed to me, and I decided to make one of my own. An old picture frame from the thrift store, a piece of thin plywood covered with a suede-like fabric, tags from the office supply store, numbered with a stencil, and upholstery tacks from the hardware store were all it took. And some measuring. Serious measuring. I don't like measuring seriously. I prefer to "eyeball." But I'm pretty proud of myself for doing the hard math for this project.

Then the fun part - finding bits and bobs to hang from the tacks for each day. I have them in a pile on my work desk upstairs just now, but one by one, they will find their way to the calendar. This first one is a rhinestone clip-on earring that my sister-in-law found in Alberta. Its sparkle reflects the anticipation of this wonderful season of the year.