Countdown to Christmas

Only 13 days and counting until Santa brings a sleigh full of goodies!  Every year I have great intentions of having all of my holiday shopping finished by the first of December, but I usually have 1 or 2 that I'm scrambling to finish the week before Christmas.  I've seen tons of organizing ideas on Pinterest and in blog land that I WILL do next year.

Anyway, on to the real purpose of my post today.  I am so excited about it!  I have been searching for a nice advent or Christmas countdown for awhile.  We are so busy this time of year travelling since our family lives so far away, the reality of getting to do a daily activity are grand, but not practical.  We do the Christmas tradition (2 years now) of reading a Christmas book every night beginning December 1. 

With my kids being 1 and 4, I get the constant question of "When does Santa come?".  So using the powers of Pinterest, I found this really cool countdown and decided to put my own spin on it.

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Unfortunately, I didn't get any in process pictures.  I was just trying to get it done and see if it would turn out anywhere close to what I had in my head. :)
I am very lucky to have a stockpile of old barn wood from my great grandmother's.  So I began with a small piece.  Then I cut the words in vinyl with my Silhoutte and put them directly on the wood.  I was going for an old, worn look.  Then just painted over the words.

Once dry, I removed the words and rubbed Valspar Antiquing Glaze over the entire piece and sanded to further enhance the old, worn look.

For the numbers, I looked everywhere for inexpensive metal numbers like my inspiration piece, but didn't have any luck, so I found a package of numbers used for mailboxes at Wal-Mart for $7.  Of course, the stark white numbers didn't work for me, so I rubbed the Antiquing Glaze over them and added some glitter.
To make the countdown easy for daily updates, I just attached some eye hooks to the back and tied jute to the numbers.  I did add some small washers I had laying around to keep the strings from being pulled through the eye hook.

All done and I absolutely LOVE it!  A holiday countdown for years to come.