Fish Bowl Snowman - First Craft of the New Year

 Have you seen the latest craft craze on Pinterest? It's snowmen made from fish bowls! I spotted photos of them a few weeks back, but since I didn't need any more Christmas decorations, I decided to wait and make one for my sunporch in the new year.  It's a pretty simple craft but fun! In retrospect, I should have gone looking for design elements in early December as the crafts stores had packed away most of the holiday items before Christmas; Valentine's Day items were already on the shelves. Still, I was able to pick up a garland of clear crystals which I put in the bottom of each bowl. I didn't hot glue in any of the items as next year I might find things that I like better. Case in point, the second bowl has a gingerbread house which would be fine in a Christmas snowman but not so great in this winter themed snowman.

I also picked up a fairly realistic looking pine branch with snow which I cut apart. I anchored small pieces by simply sticking them in the garland. All of the design elements were raised up. I used coffee jar lids which I keep on hand to raise up my African violets in their pots. Next I added the snow which was a pain in the neck. I couldn't find the glistening flake type snow, just a bag of these teenie, tiny beads of snow which went everywhere and stuck to everything. :-)
 

Now I can hear you saying, "Wow! What a swell snowman's hat!!! I wonder where she bought that???" Okay, you might not be saying that, but I'll tell you anyway.  I made it! I had a lid which fit the top of the bowl perfectly. I took two pieces of heavy stock black paper and cut two large circles which I glued together. Then I tackled the top of the hat. I happened to open the refrigerator and spotted a container of Legal Seafood Chowder. Eureka!!! I had the chowder for supper then washed, dried, and painted the container black. I glued container on the top and another lid painter black to fit on the bottom. :-)

Two cute gifts to show you. First, among other things, my "Ladies Lunch" cousins gave me this cute,  (2.5" by 4")  seaglass piece which I have hanging in my kitchen window. If you follow my blog, you may remember that after our lunches, we often go to the beach in search of sea glass. . . Here are my two little cousins, their mom, and me!

The other day a friend stopped by to bring me this adorable schnauzer Christmas pillow. When you press the corner of the pillow, the strand of lights blink on. How cute is that!

New Year's Resolution: Do more crafts, read more books, take lots of trips, and spend more time photographing, and start/make/finish quilt projects, so that I will have lots to blog about this year. :-) [Note: a friend gave me a notebook and I have begun listing my UFOs and project that I want to make. I stopped after I had filled up a page and a half. At this rate, I'll have to stay hale and hearty until I am 105 to finish them all.]