the 12 days of mitten: day 1

For my first day of mitten,

I want to start with a great project:

the advent calendar.

It is a little work intensive

but I have a lot of mittens!

After making the required 24 mittens,
the directions for making the mittens will be given tomorrow,
here and here,
I made a rustic tree.
I started with a 3 feet tall 1x1 inch piece of wood
and a 4 feet long 5/8 dowel,
they are located together at Home depot, near the molding.

I drilled 4 holes in my 1x1 at: 8, 16, 24 and 32, with 5/8 bit.

I cut the dowel in 4 pieces:
6, 10, 14, 18. (no left over here!)
I inserted the dowels in the holes (with the help of a rubber mallet!)
the longest one at the 8inch hole,
the shortest one at the 32 inch hole,
and the rest in between!

For the base, I used some scrap wood,
some 1 x 4 and some 2 x 6.
I cut the 1 x 4 to 3.5 inches to have a square base,
then I cut the 2 x 6 to 12 inches,
it made the base wide enough.

The tree is attached together by a long screw at the base,
through both 1 x 4 and 2 x 6, and through the dowel.
To the top of dowel I attached a finial.
And finally I painted the tree with some white trim paint,
so it is a little shiny!

I added some treats to each mitten,
and every day, we can remove a mitten, eat the snack (!)
and count how many days are left!

Happy crafting!