I was wandering around the craft store the other day and spotted a bag of sequins next to a display of Styrofoam balls. And all of a sudden it was 1982 and I was 7 years old and sitting at a card table at my grandmother’s house.

I was lucky enough to live about a 45 minute drive away from me grandmother when I was growing up and so I spent lots of time at her house. Even better, my grandmother loved to make stuff…..let’s just say that if Pinterest had been around in the early 1980′s, she would have been all over it.

Anyway, every November, my grandmother would bring out Styrofoam balls, sequins and pins, break down a card table and tell me to get busy. I loved it. Looking back, I know it was just a way to keep a little girl busy (and it worked!) but those memories are precious.

So, anyway, when I spotted the sequins and balls, I knew what I had to do! I scooped them up, hunted down some pins, and swiped my credit card.

The pins I found were “bridal and lace” pins. I got them because they were the cheapest.

I bought the smaller balls, (2 inch balls, to be exact) but any size would do, of course.

When we got home, my son and I spent a very quiet hour decorating those balls. And when he got home from school, my older son sat down and worked for awhile, too. (I think it goes without saying, but I will say that I supervised my kids doing this, I would not leave my kids alone with pins. But they worked for a long time and never poked themselves, that they told me about anyway. I honestly did this more for me than them!)

This isn’t a complex craft and not nearly as fancy or cute as those you see on Pinterest, but sometimes simple is really good. And this is one of those times, I think. There’s no plan, no rhyme or reason to where you put your sequins, nothing is color-coordinated, no one would buy them on Etsy…..it’s just the simple act of picking and pinning sequins. It’s simple and mindless and fun.

You could get some hot glue and ribbon and make a loop so that you could hang them. I’m hoping my boys and I make several and I’m going to put them in a clear glass bowl instead.

Here’s to a very Merry Christmas!