Easy Peasy Starflake Garland Tutorial and Pomegranate Snowball Holiday Drink

Since I am currently unemployed this holiday season, In the moments where I can't sit still, I start wanting to create things. I created a holiday drink, I like to call the Pomegranate Snowball Cutie (I'll give you the recipe later..) I can have it virgin or non virgin..I plan to enjoy it non-virgin this Thanksgiving Thursday. I started making stockings, and I've been working on my cooking skills. I've also gotten in the mood to make this apartment real festive for the holidays. We don't have much art on our walls at the time, so i'm trying to be creative to make it feel homey and festive.

In order to save some money, I made myself make an easy garland today with things I have in the house. I looked around on Pinterest to get ideas, tried making a few snowflakes..but it was just too much for the moment, and I had no glue..or popsicle sticks. I didn't want to spend hours making yarn pom poms, only making 1 foot after 8 hours. 

So I started looking around. I save pretty tissue paper from presents and shopping bags, so I pulled that out and found a very pretty pale pink color that was calling me to use it. I also had some paper lunch bags. Something was sticking out in my mind I had seen on Pinterest occasionally. A simple garland with paper gold stars. I decided to make my own version of this. I folded up the paper bag and cut out stars, I folded up the tissue paper and cut out circles. If you think you may enjoy sewing and have not used a sewing machine to sew paper, I suggest trying it one day..theres something about it that feels very nice. The only thing I had to do was sew my star, then sew my circles, and keep repeating. When I sewed the circles, I realized I could make them three dimensional, it made the garland even more interesting. And there you go..Starflake Garland. You can use whatever your heart desires for this garland. You can make it blue and white for Hanukkah, you could make the circles out of craft paper or patterned tissue paper, and the stars out of fabric, you can change the shapes and color to make it all you. Your star shape doesn't have to be perfect, and your circles don't have to be perfect, love the imperfectness. What I love most about this garland is how delicate but solid it is.

M a t e r i a l s ..

-Craft Paper, Paper Grocery Bags, or Paper Lunch Bags

-Any color/patterned tissue paper or paper

-Paper Cutting Scissors

-Sewing Machine

-Thread

-Pen

1. Cut out your stars. I folded up my paper lunch bags, free hand drew a star on top, and was able to cut out a number of stars at once.

2. Cut out your circles. I also folded up my tissue paper, free hand drew a circle on the top of the folded paper, and was able to cut out numerous circles at once. 

3. Grab yourself 1 star. or 2 stars. or 3 stars. However many you would like. Sew a straight line right through the star (stars) and when the feed dogs release the star, let the machine keep sewing and doing its thing for just a second to create about 1/2-1 inch of twisted thread, have your circles ready to go (I used 3, you can use as many as you would like) and sew a straight line right through them too. Note: When I was preparing the three circles to be sewn, I did not line them up perfectly, you can if you want to, I like that it looks imperfect. 

4. Keep sewing, for as long as you want..end when you want to end. When you decide you are finished, leave some extra thread at the end, In order to tie it onto something if you desire. 

5. Go back over your circles and fluff them out to make the circles three dimensional. You can leave some flat if you would like, you could leave them all flat if you would like to.

6. Decorate! Drape it on a lamp, drape it on a bathroom mirror, drape it around your Christmas Tree, drape it on your dogs cage, drape it on your chandelier, drape it on your greenery...find a spot where you'd like to create a holiday "moment".

If you make the garland, post some photos, I would love to see! 

NOW...for the Pomegranate Mandarin Snowball!...

This drink may be out there already..but I like to think I created a version of it a few years ago and it has now turned into the Pomegranate Snowball. It is very simple to make. All you need is...

I n g r e d i e n t s

-Diet or regular Ginger Ale (If you can find Green Tea Ginger Ale, then you are very lucky, and it will be very delicious.)

-Pomegranate Italian Soda

-Cutie Mandarins

-Gin (this drink is just as delicious virgin.)

-Ice

Pour a splash of your gin, fill most of your glass with Ginger Ale, just a splash of Pomegranate Italian Soda, and squeeze half of a cutie mandarin in, drop it in and stir it all up. When I say it's Christmas Eve every time..it's really Christmas Eve every time. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! May you have a very happy, peaceful holiday, wherever you are, and whatever you are doing. If you are having a hard holiday, or just need some inspiration, I hope you find hope in these words from Lady Gaga.

-Lexi