Walnut christmas ornaments

We decorated our tree, and it made me think....It's no wonder I'm so crafty! My mom used to make Christmas ornaments with us when we were little; in part because it was a fun activity and also because we couldn't afford fancy decorations.

Most of these were made by my mom, though I made the one with the little clowns and red jester a little under 20 years ago!

Our favorites to make were these ornaments made of walnut shells. All you have to do is clean the walnut shells out using a little knife (get rid of all the brown papery stuff) and use a little awl , reamer or hand drill to carefully pierce a hole in the top of the walnut (sometimes they will break, so make sure you have extra shells). String a loop through the shell for hanging, and add little toys or decorations like mini deer, wreaths or even tiny wooden Christmas ornaments using hot glue. We loved using glitter and metallic pipe cleaners! Many of the ornaments on our tree are mismatched and handmade; no uniform department store tree/decorations for us! In fact, even though we have a cramped/ tiny apartment, we always get a tree that is at least 6 feet tall so we can fit all our ornaments on it! Today, the handmade ornaments are some of the ones my mom and dad cherish the most :)

My mom made the blown egg ornament 30 years ago with tissue paper and glitter; she and my dad love/ have three of these little pinecone girls (one for me and each of my sisters). This mushroom ornament is my favorite ever!