DIY Boho Santas That Run Rings Around Stick-On Bows - Literally!

Before we start, I must tell you I did not come up with this idea on my own. I found it on a Google search for gift embellishments and put my own stamp on it.

I originally intended to make up a bunch of these and use in this very way, but by the time I got around to making them, I’d already wrapped and decorated most of my gifts. Mostly I love my gift-wrapping efficiency, but sometimes I can be in too much of a hurry. I should have waited because these were so fun to make and are really, REALLY cute.

So packages aside, I decided to use them as Christmas Day dinner table favors instead to lend a bit of panache to my non-traditional color scheme. They'd also be cute as tree ornaments or hanging in windows or on doorknobs! And they're a great way to use up leftover yarn.

Here’s what I started with…

This is the idea photo I found on Google search. I can’t credit who came up with it because the photo didn’t take me back to a tutorial. (But I'd be happy to ADD a credit if that person contacts me.)

It looked straightforward to me: Knot yarn on rings, half white for the beard, half red for the hat, then knot the red to make a hat and add a hanging loop.

I decided to change mine up by increasing the size of the ring and playing around with yarn colors used for the hat. I’m guessing this is about a 1.5-inch ring. I wanted mine a tad bigger and ordered rings along with some other craft items from an online site in 3-inch diameter. The larger size worked, but I would eventually like to try 2-inch and 1.5-inch sizes as well.

ANYONE can make these, they don’t get your hands dirty, and they go together quickly even in 3-inch size.

Here’s everything you need…

• White yarn for the beard and whatever colors you want for the hat
• Craft ring(s) in desired size (3 inches is shown)
• Scissors

You also might want to grab a book or piece of cardboard for cutting your yarn more quickly. I wound mine around the narrow end of a clipboard, then cut the loops at both ends.

I did this for both the white (beard) and colored yarns (hat).

Planning your Santa’s ‘wardrobe’

For most of my Santas, I used the variegated yarn shown here.

In some, I rotated the lighter pink and peach strands with the darker, rosy-colored strands (left). In others I used only the pink/peach strands (middle). And I did one with a solid dark rose yarn (right). You could also use bright red or any alternative color scheme you prefer—for the hat, that is. Santa’s beard needs to be white regardless of hat color, don’t you agree?

Making ‘knotty’ nicely

You only need to know how to do one basic knot to make this Santa. In macramé circles, it’s called a reverse lark’s head knot, which makes it sound a lot more complicated than it is. All you have to do to make it is:

• Fold your cut strand in half and tuck the loop under the craft ring (left). 
• Then bring the two end strands over the top of the ring and through the loop (middle). 
• Finally, pull the ends tight (right). 

If you look at the other side of your ring, you’ll see what a lark’s head knot without the reverse looks like. Both are made the same way; you just decide which side you want as the front.

• Keep adding knots in your hat color (photos 1 and 2) until you fill up half the ring. 
• Then switch to white knots for beard (photos 3 and 4) and keep knotting until you fill the rest of the ring.

The number of strands you need and the number of knots you make will vary based on the thickness and loft of your yarn, as well as your own personal preference. I prefer to err on the side of fullness. And since my beard yarn was thinner and less fluffy than my hat yarn, I needed more beard knots. My 3-inch rings required around 35 to 40 knots for beard and for hat.

You should end up with something that looks like this.

‘Tying one on’ for Santa

The variegated yarn I used had a blue-violet strand to it. I didn’t want that in the hat itself, but thought it would work to tie the hat and make a hanging loop. Plus, since I’d already cut it out of the portions I used, I didn’t want to waste it.

I cut a nice long strand of it and placed it underneath the hat portion of my Santa ring (right photo). Then I simply worked the hat strands into a clump I was satisfied with, pulling the blue tie strand tighter and tighter.

Pardon me for not picturing this part, but I couldn’t do it AND photograph it.

I ended up with something like this. When I was satisfied with my “clump:”

• I tightened the tie strand and knotted it (left). 
• Then I flipped Santa over, pulled my tie strands around, tied and knotted tightly again (middle—note the visual difference of the lark’s head knots on the back). 
• Finally, I made another simple knot in the tie strand to create a hanging loop and cut off the excess (right).

Last but not least, I trimmed up Santa’s beard and tapered it along the sides. Leaving him a little scraggly is okay, too. The hats may have needed a stray yarn strand trimmed, but mostly I thought they looked best a little irregular. There are no hard and fast rules, so do it to please your own eye.

And do it in the color combo you prefer. My all rosy-red one got attached to a basket of cookies I gave my cleaning lady before I finished these and took this photo.

Next year, I’d like to try some in more alternative color schemes—teals, purples and lime greens maybe—and use on gifts instead of ribbon and bows, like I originally planned. Given this year's track record, I guess I better get started!

For now…

I will have a few this year to use on some last-minute wraps (this one’s a sweater for my grand-puppy, Millie), including that last item for daughter Erin that Urban Outfitters may not get here on time (grrrr). Instead of ribbon to surround the package, I used extra yarn and tied the Santa ring onto it with a simple bow.

But gifts aside, I LOVE how they look as part of my table setting.

When we down-sized five years ago, we got rid of a lot of stuff, including the Christmas china. No room in a 1,400-square-foot condo for a service for eight that gets used only once a year. I even gave away the Christmas napkins and tablecloth! Now I use basic white dishes and table linens that work with my decor.

That has meant I must find easier-to-store methods for making the table merry and bright for the holidays. This year, these sweet little Santas do that very trick for me.

If you give this project a try, I’d love to see how you make it your own. Feel free to post your photos in the comments section. And don’t forget to have a very Merry Christmas!

XOXO,

Susan

If you want more...

• Shop (and follow!) both my Etsy and ebay stores for vintage finds, a few of my boho DIYs, and next-to-new surplus home decor. New merchandise gets added regularly, so check both places often.
• Sign up to have BoHo Home posts sent to your inbox using the subscription link in the sidebar (top right). Or follow with Bloglovin, a social-media platform that allows you to set up an account and access all the blogs you want to read in one place.
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No-Bake Holiday Cookies Your Boho Clan Will Do Battle Over

My mother was a boho baking queen and every year made dozens and dozens of cookies of infinite variety to give away at Christmas. Her freezer was always full, and everyone she knew got a plate of goodies for the holidays. One of her most popular cookies was this simple, no-bake treat she called Chinese Noodle Cookies.

All three of her grandchildren loved these cookies so much they would count how many the others had already eaten and insist they had dibs on what was left in the fridge. It didn’t take Grammy long to see she needed to give each grandchild his or her own “bucket” of cookies, making sure she divided the Chinese Noodle Cookies equally. 

Because, you know, they were going to count and compare. These cookies were THAT good.

My own daughter, Erin, loved my mom’s Chinese Noodle Cookies so much that she made a batch and took them to the hospice center where my mom spent her last days. There she shared them with family and friends who gathered round to say their good-byes.

I myself don’t bake much. Not because I don’t like to or can’t—I did, after all, learn from the best—but I don’t need the calories! Anyway, I usually make an exception at Christmas and stir together a batch of Chinese Noodle Cookies, making sure to send the bulk of them home with Erin because they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too addictive. The recipe is so simple, which makes them a breeze to do even at the last minute, that I thought it only fair to share it with all of you.

Hope these little bites of heaven spawn some big memories in your clan, too.

Here’s everything you need…

• 11-ounce package of butterscotch baking chips 
• 1 cup peanut butter 
• 4 cups miniature marshmallows (the tinted kind makes prettier cookies!) 
• 2 cups Chinese chow mein noodles 
• 1 ½ cups shredded coconut 
• ½ cup chopped pecans (optional & not pictured) 

As easy as dump & stir!

Melt the butterscotch chips in the microwave. The bag says 45 seconds on high, but that may vary according to your microwave. Mine took two blasts, but be cautious. The chips will still look formed though melted. Poke them with a spatula to see if they’re softened enough, then stir until smooth.

Transfer the melted chips to a large mixing bowl and stir in the peanut butter until combined.

Then simply dump in the rest of the ingredients…

…and stir until coated.

You should end up with something like this.

Now here’s where it gets a little messy…

I use a tablespoon and my (clean) fingers to form the cookies,

which I then arrange on cooling racks covered with sheets of waxed paper.

The mixture will be somewhat soft and malleable. You may need to press each cookie together some with your fingers. (For me that’s not a problem because when I’m finished I lick my fingers!)

The waxed paper over the cooling racks makes for easy transfer to the refrigerator.

My fridge has a bottom freezer drawer, and I usually clear out the top tier of it ahead of time so I can set each rack in level. I put the first rackful in and blast it with a power freeze for 5 to 10 minutes while I’m making up my next rackful.

Seems like I always end up with a few that won’t fit on my two racks, so I put waxed paper over a dinner plate or platter to finish up. My mom didn't have cooling racks OR a freezer drawer and used to use up all her plates firming these babies up!

You want them chilled just enough for the butterscotch to re-solidify and hold the cookie together before you transfer to sealed storage containers.

Place waxed paper between each layer, seal and refrigerate until ready to use. You can reuse the waxed paper the cookies set up on for this...

...then toss what’s left over. If you were careful, you won’t even need to wash those racks or platters! As you can see, I'm a sucker for an easy cleanup, proving there truly IS a thing or two mom could have learned from ME.

The recipe makes about 5 dozen cookies. Keep the cookies in sealed containers in the refrigerator (not the freezer) until ready to serve. They will soften up if they sit out too long.

But if your house is like ours, you won’t need to worry much about that

They will very quickly disappear! 

One, you see, tastes like one more.

Here’s wishing you and yours a merry (and stress-free!) holiday season and an abundance of yummy memories!

If you want more...

• Shop (and follow!) both my Etsy and ebay stores for vintage finds, a few of my boho DIYs, and next-to-new surplus home decor. New merchandise gets added regularly, so check both places often.
• Sign up to have BoHo Home posts sent to your inbox using the subscription link in the sidebar (top right). Or follow with Bloglovin, a social-media platform that allows you to set up an account and access all the blogs you want to read in one place.
• Find additional content from BoHo Home on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and Houzz, and give me a follow EVERYWHERE!! The more the merrier at this very merry time of year!

What my mother & my daughter taught me about home décor

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and though I am a mom and will celebrate with my daughter, my own mom passed away almost seven years ago. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the influence she had on my life (mostly good, some annoying, wink-wink), and I’d give anything for one more long talk over Friday night dinner (dad’s bowling night), followed by our weekly shopping escapade. 

Mom and Erin in the early 2000s.

My mom was an stellar homemaker and caretaker, even though we didn’t always see eye-to-eye. And lately I’ve been mulling over how she actually did influence my interest in interior decorating and design. 

One of her favorite expressions when we disagreed was, “Someday, you’ll have a daughter of your own, and you’ll find out!” Ha-ha!! She was right about that one, which also got me thinking about how my daughter has influenced my ideas about decorating.

So I thought it was time to take a look at both sides of the mother-daughter coin and see how having a mom and being a mom impacted the dilettante decorator me.

5 décor principles I learned from my mom:

1.

Green is a neutral. Use it with abandon.

She never said this, mind you. But she ADORED green, and it was EVERYWHERE in our lives. We had mostly green cars, green carpet, green walls, green upholstery, green draperies, and on and on. So much so that I hit a brief period as an adult when I didn’t want any green anywhere in sight. 

My loss, of course, because green is everywhere in nature, and wherever it appears INSIDE it brings with it nature’s liveliness and depth.

Our green living room fireplace / Mike Watkins Realtors

The home Chris and I owned prior to our current condo was colonial revival in architecture, and that’s how we decorated inside as well. I got the idea to paint all the woodwork a color (very early American) and settled on a lovely, warm sage. Everyone—even my mom—thought I was nuts when I talked about it. After all, woodwork is supposed to be stained or painted white, right? 

Well, I forged ahead anyway, and later my mom told me that was the single best change I made to that house. It looked particularly beautiful on the fireplace, contrasting with the brick, and on the stairs, contrasting with the mahogany stained treads and rails.

Our green stairway and dining room. / Mike Watkins Realtors

Years later a friend bought a home with pink carpeting in one of the bedrooms and asked my advice on what to do with the room until she got around to changing it. “Add green,” I advised, “a print with green AND pink for the window treatment, shams and bedskirt, then stick with your white duvet.” It looked amazing, all thanks to green.

2.

Marry someone with home improvement skills to execute your décor plans.

Mom never said this either, but she did hint at it a great deal, largely because my father (who had many other fine qualities) was utterly useless around the house. Mom did the interior painting and took the lead on just about every other home repair and/or improvement. 

Dad was an accountant, and when called upon to hang a picture got out his T-square. An hour later, the picture still would not be hung. My oldest brother is just as useless around the house, and my middle brother can do a few things though not as well as he thinks.

Chris and Erin, mid-1990s. Chris designed and built the redwood garden bench they're sitting on.

My husband Chris, on the other hand, can fix just about anything and through the years has built several pieces of furniture for our home. In the photo of our old living room, the end table, the coffee table, and the hanging wall cupboard were all projects of his.

Chris designed and built these bookshelves into our previous house. It was his first woodworking project.

Chris endeared himself to my mom when the stripped-out screws in her 40-year-old dining room table gave way during Thanksgiving dinner one year, and he was the one who fixed it like new. My brother who thinks he’s handy wanted to put three-inch screws into it and bolt them, but, of course, the tabletop was nowhere near three inches thick, so you see the problem. 

Whether it’s installing shelves, repairing the drawer in a vintage vanity, or replacing the garbage disposal, Chris is the guy to get it done right. Sometimes he hesitates a bit with my ideas and I must talk him into and through a project, and often revise my initial plan, but we make a great team.

3.

Danish modern is a style that deserves greater consideration.

Danish modern is probably the first décor style I learned to identify. When I was 10 we moved into our first house with a formal dining room, and the furniture my parents bought was Danish modern—all the rage in 1966. The set was solid walnut and included a table, six side chairs, two armchairs, and a glass-doored china cabinet. 

I never really had an opinion about Danish modern, one way or the other. My mother HATED antiques—said she grew up with old stuff and didn’t want any of it in her house. So I naturally gravitated toward what was unusual to me—all that old stuff she despised. 

But after 20 years of emulating a Williamsburg look in our previous house, I was ready for a change with our condo. It took me reaching AARP application age to finally be ready for the clean lines of Danish modern. But by then it was too late to inherit that dining room set. Mom replaced the chairs and table soon after it broke (see #2) and sold the china cabinet when she and dad moved into assisted living in 2007. 

Oh well! As I further embellish my current midcentury modern dwelling, I do it with pleasant reminders of mom, what she liked, and how she decorated the homes I grew up in.

4. 

Sewing is invaluable in creating a unique home on a budget. 

Mom was quite a seamstress, and I wanted to learn how to sew like her long before my foot reached the pedal. She made my clothes, her clothes, my doll clothes, curtains, pillows, slipcovers, bedding—you name it—and she taught me most of what she knew, though I was impatient and often didn’t do it her way.

Long after I gave up sewing my own clothes (time was a factor when working), I still sewed for my home—window treatments, pillows, sometimes bedding, and always shower curtains. 

I owe my fabric fetish to my mom, who kept a storage bench full of scraps. Rooting through the remnant pile at Newberry’s was a mother-daughter activity I relished, and sewing is the single most valuable skill mom taught me.

Today I have less space to store my fabric finds than I did at the house, but I’m working on that. My own daughter was never interested in sewing—too easy for her to get me to fix it or make it—but she has a healthy respect for what I can do with thread, needle and my machine. Almost too healthy, if you know what I mean (more on that later).

5. 

 Shop clearance first. 

I do love to shop, and I come by that love naturally via my mom, who was a first-class bargain-hunter. I sometimes doubt she EVER bought anything for full price, especially when it came to home décor stuff. 

When I furnished some of my first apartments, mom helped me scour clearance tables to find matching valances for a kitchen, powder room and mudroom, as well as find fabric I could afford to make a daybed cover for my living room. She scored some free chairs from the dress shop where she worked and showed me how to recover them with fabric we found on clearance.

We shopped the after-Christmas sales for decorations, and the off-price outlets for sheets and towels. And I always had the hands-down prettiest Christmas tree of anyone I knew—everyone always said so!

5 décor principles I learned from my daughter:

1. 

If you love someone, cultivate consideration for their tastes. 

I think back about the highly personal home-décor gifts I bought my mother—a bedding set and a set of dishes come to mind—and I never asked her beforehand what she would have liked. I wouldn’t want someone picking out those same items for me, and I’ve learned from my daughter Erin not to do it that way with her. 

As I’ve learned her tastes—which are quite different from mine—I’ve also learned to find surprises for her that she usually likes. But it’s always a crapshoot, so I make sure she knows she can return anything I get her and pick out what she likes.

Truth is, I’ve helped her move so many times that I’ve found a lot of stuff I bought her long ago, unused, still in the packaging. She didn’t like it but didn’t want to hurt my feelings by saying so. What bothered me more was the money wasted on such presents! So now we have an agreement to come clean when we don’t like something the other buys us and NOT be offended when the tables are turned.

2. 

 Decorating with white, beige and gray is just as valid as decorating with lots of color. 

I’m an introvert—just slightly—and I get my energy from being alone. That said, I like my home environment filled with stimulation in the form of color. After all, I work from home, and all the color and pattern is what fuels my creative process. 

Erin is an extrovert and leads a hectic life. Home is her refuge from the world at the end of a busy workday. She likes it calm and serene. That’s what works for her. She always appreciates my input—she says I have good taste and good ideas—but we’ve followed different paths when it comes to palette.

I’ve always said I wouldn’t make a good interior decorator because I’d just want to design everything to look the way I liked. But in helping Erin, particularly with her first house, I’ve learned to stop suggesting color and come up with ideas that incorporate her preferences for neutrals and lighter hues, which brings me to #3…

3. 

How something looks on an inspiration board and in a room doesn’t always align. 

When Erin was considering what color area rug to buy for her living room, I mocked-up room after room with brightly patterned choices. She finally said, “I think I want white.” I mocked that up, too, and it looked bland, bland, bland, as I expected it would. 

But after her new furniture came and the drapes were hung and she started accessorizing the room with other white accessories, I realized the mock-up lied. A white rug would look BEAUTIFUL. She knew what she was doing—a chip off the old block, if I do say so myself!

4.

There’s a time to DIY and a time to buy new. 

Maisie-Cat tries out Erin's new chair cushion while I work on the matching ottoman cushion.

When we bought our first house, Erin was 6. I’ll never forget her “helping” me as I finished some barstools I’d bought unfinished. As she handed me what I requested—steel wool, rag, brush, etc.—she looked baffled. “I’ll be glad when we’re not poor anymore and can buy our furniture finished,” she said.

“But we’re not poor,” I replied. “We’re not rich either. We do save money doing it ourselves, but we also have the joy of living with something in our new house that we helped make ourselves. And we have the memory of doing it all together.” She wasn't buying it.

Just a few years ago she wanted me to make all her draperies, duvet cover and shams for a rented apartment. I declined. “Let’s see if you can find what you want already made up first,” I said. “That’s a lot of fabric yardage for me to cut and sew in our now-smaller home.” We compromised: She selected over-the-counter draperies and bedding, and I recovered a small chair she uses in her bedroom to match the ready-made items. 

5. 

There’s a time to match and a time to mix. 

Matching up furniture, colors, textures, metals, and profiles is one way to provide continuity in a room or home. And it’s a valid way, particularly when you’re just learning how to decorate. After 40 years of putting together a home, I’m a mix-master. I love ALL the colors, all the woods, all the metals, many styles, and I have a pretty good eye for getting it all to work together. 

But I haven’t had as much luck convincing Erin to do this. She wants things to match—living room tables, picture frame molding and finishes, all the metals in one room the same, etc.

I finally realized I was the same way during that period in my life. It comes from having a lot of crappy stuff combined with hand-me-downs as you start your independent life. When you finally can afford to buy new, having things that FINALLY match spells success. 

Granted, some people never progress from that point, but at least they can be counseled toward cool matching stuff versus tacky. And Erin’s got it down pat in that department already.

In wrapping up...

Over the years, we either learn to be harder on ourselves and more set in our ways OR we learn to be easier on ourselves (and others) and experiment with new things. I’m rooting for the latter.

Erin and I, summer of 1989. She was 3.

Have a happy Mother’s Day, and enjoy the time you have with those you love. 

Believe me, it passes all too quickly.

xoxo,
Susan

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