And a whole lot of nuts.

I have a huge walnut tree in my front yard. It's a very loved tree since it's big enough to have three swings on it. Mia has spent many happy days swinging herself or with her little friends. Jacob and the boys climbed and crazily swung as well. Even Sam was happy to swing for a long time watching the kids play.

Then came Fall and all of the leaves and walnuts came falling down. Piles and piles and piles of leaves and walnuts that did not all get picked up. Not for us trying though. The kids and I squirrelled away as many walnuts as we could find. Three and a half big heavy bags of walnuts. What next? There are only so many walnuts that one could eat. Good thing that I have a very clever sister who actually gets to watch Martha Stewart's show and she remembered when she made this ornament. Perfect solution for Christmas and my excess of walnuts!

I set to making it as gifts for my sisters which in turn, just one sister got it, but there were my reasons for that. What I didn't realize is how huge this thing is! It calls for an 8 inch Styrofoam ball which used almost one whole bag of walnuts and something around 30 glue sticks to attach them to the ball. It weighed almost 10 pounds when I finished. I used some lovely red double sided satin ribbon that I got from Gap's Christmas displays that I put up in the store a few years back and some fake eucalyptus and gold paint. Did I mention lots and lots of hot glue? All I could think about while I was making it was how expensive it would be to make if I had to buy the walnuts. The form was surprisingly expensive at $13 (I got it half off due to my mad shopping skills) then the nice ribbon and gold paint. I think that is what frustrates me about Martha's crafts. They are all so beautiful, but so expensive. I was lucky enough to have what I had to make it.

I think that it turned out wonderful. There are so many mixed reactions to this ornament. My Papa said that it was the perfect balance of food storage and decoration. Even after I finished it, I was in awe of how cool it was and stumped of where I could actually use it. Still, I gave it to my sister Teryn and she was so impressed, she had me sign it. She has plans to put it out in her yard for the Holidays. She's good at finding a use for a rather large and heavy ball of walnuts.