Nutcracker Centerpiece and Resolutions

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This last year had quite a few changes that many of us do not have a handle on. The biggest thing was COVID-19. Many of which have profoundly changed our lives. If you are anything like me, we have gone through a roller coaster of emotions, fear, worry, panic, anger, etc. And now regrets and sorry. We have had restrictions requested of us to wear masks when we could shop, get food, and more. I think most of us had become content in everyday life. We were comfortable. Most of us discovered many did not like any restrictions put upon them. 

As the year progressed, many people lost jobs, lost their homes, and worse. Not to mention that we cannot be with family. We are isolated, and many have had to deal with death. 

We have also had to deal with a difficult four years of the current government. Without taking sides, the political year has been tumultuous. Having said all this, I hope some of my articles have been helpful. 

Now, this may seem crazy to some but, I decorated my house for Christmas in November. Right after Thanksgiving. Which many of you thought was a good idea also. I still have up my Christmas decorations because I love Christmas. I decorate more for winter than for Christmas. This way, I can leave up my decorations for two months. I love that it makes me happy, and I think we need all the happiness we can find, anywhere we can find it. 

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This year I have decided to continue making Christmas decorations, foods, and presents. 

Making the nutcracker centerpiece was fun. I found the nutcrackers at the Dollar Store. I chose four of the same style and I chose not to paint them to match a color theme. I have so many nutcrackers and my colors are dominate red, black, white. The base and the top of the centerpiece is actually covers for your stove. We had bought new ones and had these on hand for several years. I sanded them and spray painted them white and did not worry if it covered it solidly. I wanted a slightly farmhouse feel for it. I did buy flower picks two of them.

Materials

4 nutcrackers

2 sizes of stove top covers

plants of your choice for the center

1 set of tiny LED lights

E6000 glue

Hot Glue Gun and Glue

Start with the stove top covers. If they are new or used you will need to rough sand them so the paint will stick. I used a white color spray paint. Once they are dry you can start to assemble this. Figure our your placement of the four nutcrackers.

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Once the stove covers are dry, begin placing the nutcrackers where you want them and glue them down with E6000 and hot glue gun. The reason for both glues is E6000 is strong but dries slowly. The hot glue dries quickly and will help hold it in place until the E6000 dries.

When you are done gluing the nutcrackers in place you can glue the greenery of your choice in the center of the cover.

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The top is a stove cover flipped upside down. This way it can hold things in the cover. I chose not to glue anything on the top because I wanted to be able to put a plate of cookies on the top, or a what every you can think up. I chose to use a battery operated candle with some decorations around the candle. None of which is glued down. Gives me some options. Once I was done then I added LED tiny lights in the center bottom. I hid the battery box under the greenery.

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Do you have a New Years Resolution? Did you make one this year? 

What would you like to do? I attempted one. I can share with you my resolution list. Just maybe inspiration will hit you. (These ideas are because we are pretty much staying at home.)

1. Lose weight (of course, this is on the top of almost everyone’s list)
2. Better health (this I already started by cooking most of my meals from scratch and healthier choices.)
3. Exercise more 
4. Do more video calls with family and friends.
5. Downsize and organize one room at a time (that includes closets and dresser drawers)
6. Go through all my spices and check the dates and if they have gluten in them.
7. I will organize all my photos and share them with the family the pictures they might like.
8. I will organize my files on my computer and in my file cabinet.
9. I will read more books.
10. I will learn five new things this year.
11. I will work on self-improvement.
12. Be kind
13. Learn how to build a solar panel
14. Learn more ways to be sustainable.

I have a bunch for business that I want to do also. I thought I would share my personal ones for now.