Wishing For Pine Needles

Mason Jar Snow Globes.... a How-To

Every year I vow to start our Christmas gift-making in midsummer when the days are long and open.  And every year I fail to do so, this one being no exception.  But, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle of December we managed to come up with a few handmades for some special folks.  Without these little gifts from the heart, Christmas would hardly be the same!

This year we tried mason jar snow globes that I saw on Pinterest.  They turned out just as darling as I had hoped and were super easy to make.....even three-year-old Hans joined in the fun!

A How-To For You

Supplies needed: mason jars (we used 8 oz. jelly jars), plastic animal and trees (we found them at Michael's in a tube), glycerin, fake snow, glitter, water, waterproof glue (we used E-6000 and it worked great!)

Step 1:  Glue the animal and tree to the lid of the mason jar and let dry OVERNIGHT!

Step 2:  Put a couple pinches of fake snow and glitter into the jar.   You can put in as much as desired, but we found that too much snow makes the finished globe look a bit cloudy.

Step 3:  Fill jar with water, about 3/4 of the way full.

Step 4:  Squirt in a couple squirts of glycerin.  We didn't measure, but my guess is that we used about 1 TBSP per jar.  Maybe a touch more.  The glycerin helps the snow and glitter spread out nicely when the snow globe is shaken.

Step 5:  Top off the jar with water, and then put on the lid which should have your glued-down figures.  Turn and adjust the lid until you get the best view of the animals through the jar.

Step 6:  Put some glue on inside of the screw cap and screw tightly onto the mason jar.

You're all done!  Turn over and shake up your newly created winter wonderland!

Summer Crafting: Paper Maché

This week was a window-open, oven-off week for us.  So I have nothing terribly exciting to contribute to Hurrayic's Summer Cooking series that she hosts on Thursdays.  But..............

we did do an awful lot of crafting! 

We used SouleMama's paper maché instructions from her book, Handmade Home.  The girls are always delighted by a mama-organized craft, especially when there is an extra playmate over to join in the crafting fun!

This is an easy and no-cost project as long as you have old newspaper and aluminum foil, and salt and flour for the paste.  The girls added some tissue paper from the wrapping box to the outside of their bowls for asthetic value, while Hans was content with the comic strip look.

The summer is winding down for us here, and I get a twinge of sadness when I think about how quickly our wide-open days are passing us by.  Next week, my girls will be back in school.   How is it that I miss them already?

(It makes this last week of summer the sweetest yet, doesn't it?)

For those of you sending your own back to school, let's use the rest of this week to spend extra-special, fully-engaged time with our precious ones.  We all know how much they love it!

Summer Crafting: Mason Jar Sewing Kits

On a recent, very hot day we stayed inside to make a birthday present for a special friend of Rylen's.  This little friend is apparently quite crafty herself, so Rylen thought a new sewing kit would make the perfect gift.

Then Marianne decided she wanted to make one for herself, so a-crafting we went!

Pretty cute, huh?

We put some notions inside the jar and off it went to the birthday girl!

**You can find a tutorial for this fun and easy project here.  We added buttons to the sides of the jars for added cute-ness.  (I would recommend using Tacky Glue for this because it dries clear.)**

Oh, and we have another up and coming young crafter in our midst who wasn't quite up for making a sewing kit, but who sure is good at watercolors!

.

Our Handmades

It would hardly be Christmas around here without making. 

Something! 

Anything! 

And though this December whizzed by us in record speed, we managed to find a few snippets of time to make some homemade goodies for special teachers, neighbors and friends.

 

These wreaths are fun, fast and easy to make.  In fact, they were so fast that I didn't think to take any pictures of the process for a tutorial!  But...in a nutshell...wrap fabric stips (with edges pinked) around a 12" styrofoam floral wreath.  I used 5 different fabrics, each 45"  long and about 2 1/2 " wide.  Glue the beginning and end of each fabric down before starting a new strip.  (Any craft glue will work!)  Then wrap matching ribbons, rick-rack, or whatever you choose around the covered wreath, also gluing at the beginning and end.  I used felted wool for the holly leaves and 2 buttons for the berries.  That's it! 

  

We also gifted our very favorite Christmas treat....by making panfuls and panfuls, I might add!  I have made Peppermint Bark for several years using a few different recipes.  But my very favorite as of late is delightfully easy, allowing even the youngest of my candy-makers to participate.  Enjoy!  (well, next Christmas, I suppose...:)

Peppermint Bark

1 bag milk or semisweet chocolate chips

1 bag white chocolate chips

4-5 large candy canes, crushed finely by hand

Melt chocolate chips in microwave for 3-4 minutes or until smooth.  Spread evenly over parchment paper in a 9 x 13 pan.  Freeze for 30 minutes.  Melt white chips in the microwave.  Stir in half of the crushed candy canes, and as much of the powder dust as possible. Spread evenly over frozen chocolate layer.  Sprinkly remaining crushed candy canes on top.  Freeze for 30 minutes or until solid.

an Easy Fall Craft

Recently we had a long, Saturday afternoon with not much planned.  Hans was napping and Dan was out.  Sensing the "openess" of this particular day, my girls quickly shifted into full-on craft mode.  (And who am I to blame them?!)

Now, I truly love making crafts with my girls, but crafting just for the sake of making a craft is something we had not done in a while.   So on this particular day, for lack of having any better ideas, I turned to contact paper.  Contact paper is one of those wonderful little things in life that can turn something rather ordinary into something useful and cute.  (I mean, what else can make a decorated piece of construction paper into a placemat just like that?)

Or, in our case, a picture frame?

 

And it's so beautifully simple.

1. First, cut a 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" rectangle out of the center of a piece of white drawing paper or construction paper.
2. Give you child some silk, fall leaves to glue on.  (You can get like 700 of them at Michael's for just a few dollars.)  Or you could even go out and collect real leaves, if they're not too crumbly.
3. After the leaves are glued on, cover the masterpiece in contact paper.  The hardest part is getting all of the air bubbles out.
4. Once it's covered, use grown-up scissors to cut out contact paper out of the rectangle so you have a hole for your picture.
5. Find a picture and tape it to the back of your new frame.
6. We added magnet strips to the back of ours so we could put them on the fridge.

 

 

 

Happy Fall Crafting to you! 

Nothing chases away the Winter Blues like.....

...Playdough! 

Invite a friend, roll up your sleeves, and make a big pot of it for an afternoon of guaranteed fun!

I would expect no less than an entire cat family from this feline-loving, playdough making crew!

Playdough

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 3 dessert spoons of vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• Food coloring

Mix all ingredients together.  Add a few drops of food coloring.  Keep mixing until all lumps have been blended.  Put the mix in a saucepan and cook it very slowly over medium heat.  Keep stirring.  When dough starts to come away from the sides of the pan, remove it from the heat.

Recycled Crayons on a Cozy Morning

Marianne's cousin recently spent the night with us.  She is our niece and Rylen and Hans's cousin as well, but this particular cousin is Marianne's age, so she insists that she is her cousin.  So be it.

We woke up to a doozie of a thunderstorm and a day of steady rain, so we resorted to some indoor activities, one of which included making recycled crayons out of old crayon bits.  My dear friend from Iowa (you know who you are ;) gave me this idea years ago. Since then we have used up a great many of our own crayon bits this way.

We recently inherited an enormous bin of crayons from our church closet clean-out, and let me tell you, there are bits galore.  (I wish crayons had dates on them like money, because I'm sure we have some genuine vintage ones in this mix!)

It is always fun to watch the colors mix and blend together, and the girls were very pleased with their results.

A perfectly colorful way to spend a rainy morning...

Enjoy this simple tutorial on how to make recycled crayons - it's fun!

Recycled Crayons

Pre-4th Celebration

Last weekend we participated in our neighborhood 4th of July celebration.  It was a beautiful day - just perfect for a parade, picnic, and lots of fun games and activities! 

Rylen and her neighbor buddies decided to go with a cowgirl theme and decorate their floats accordingly.

I made this skirt for her using this trusty pattern.  (I have done a lot of these lately, I know, but they are just so fast and easy and a quick crafting fix!)  The bandana-esque fabric I got from a friend during this fun afternoon.  And the courdoroy horse fabric pockets were made from leftover fabric from a dress-purse combo that I made for my niece's birthday.  So, this skirt was extra fun because it was all from my stash and being used!

Rylen was very excited that her float won 1st place for which she received a prize of a real $2 bill. Marianne got to pose in the victory picture which was good enough for her...

...and Hansey got to ride in his very first parade!

One of my favorite parts of the afternoon was watching this talented wood carver make toy tops and cups for the kids.  He set up his lathe under a tent and went to work all afternoon. It is mesmerizing to watch, let me tell you!

The kids love their homemade toys!  Even Hans is delighted with his top/cup set.  

We all really enjoyed an afternoon of good, old-fashioned fun, friends, and lots of red, white and blue.

Happy 4th of July, everyone!  

"Give me liberty or give me death!"  (Patrick Henry)

A messy start to the Summer

We had the idea to paint the pots that our strawberry plants reside in....

...but somehow also got the idea to paint our arms!

Painting the pots was fun, but I believe the arm paint coordinating with the swimsuit was the real hit....

Our matching colors didn't stay for long...

...because it's even more fun to mix them together!

Although poor Hans only watched from the sidelines, he sure made the best of it with his new-found toy...

(Should I even mention that this unexpectedly messy day ended with us unexpectedly being locked out of the house???) 

Painting Eggs

A lot has been happening around here - a lot of really good, 'bloggable' things!  But it seems that on these weeks, with so many things to write about, are the weeks that I have the absolute least amount of time to write them!  Ah well, I guess we have to pick and choose sometimes, eh?

I have found that, in this short journey thus far, blogging for me is analogous to exercising.  Unless there is some sort of routine, it is very easy to get out of the habit.  A week goes by and I realize that I have not gone to the gym, taken a walk, or even purposely parked in the back of the parking lot so I have a farther walk to get inside the grocery store.  Yikes!!!

All this being said, blogging is much more fun than exercising.  In my opinion.  Or maybe I should say the anticipation of blogging is much more fun than the anticipation of exercising.

(And all of this being said, I should do both more often!)

Yesterday, Good Friday, was Rylen's first day of Spring Break.  Someone had given us some ceramic Easter eggs a while ago, so we thought it would be a good idea to do some egg-painting.

It was a great time getting the paint out, not caring that the girls had paint everywhere, and not having anywhere to go.

Stayed tuned for some more frequent posts.  I am excited to share some fun things with you!

And most importantly, Have A Blessed Easter!  He has risen indeed!!!