Sometimes Martha’s crafts are not for the faint of heart.

Over a decade ago, shortly after one of my sisters got married, I saw Martha’s feature on beaded ornaments and decided to make a set of six for my sister and her husband to celebrate their first married Christmas together. The ornaments looked so pretty and sparkly in the feature, and I had tons of beads and supplies. All I needed was some Styrofoam balls and a couple of hours, no?

No. Obviously, part of the problem was that my beads were not pre-strung so the stringing process added several hours to the project, but the other major setback was the glue and wrap. I had the right materials and followed the instructions, but the bead strings kept slipping and twisting and popping off; I spent more time cleaning glue off the bead strings and my hands than doing anything else.

Countless hours later, and too late for Christmas, all I had to show for my efforts was one ornament (shown) and a tattered Martha Stewart magazine in the corner. I kept the ornament since it didn’t seem right to give a gift that had so much cranky construction mojo behind it. And while we always have a good laugh at my expense when we unveil the ornament, from now on Laurel likely will be the artistic muscle behind future decorations; we’ve already got the makings for a fleet of fabulous (and easily storable!) glitter stars.