’tis the season

to make up ridiculous rhymes like: matching dresses and kitchen messes. homemade gift tags and barf bags.

i had a few others in my head. earlier. when i sat down to write a blog post. and then realized that just because it is Christmas vacation, i am still required to cook my family dinner. so i had to get off this thing.

and then i had a sick little boy to tend to. he started throwing up after we got home from mass yesterday and continued to do so every time he ate a cracker. or drank a sip of water. which happened to be about every hour. hence my thoughts on barf bags.

the best laid plans always come to a halt when someone gets sick. and i. ever the pessimist. am waiting to see who the next victim of this messy stomach virus is going to be. is it terrible to hope it skips me? because i’ll happily hole myself up here at home. and sew. read. bake and snuggle for as many days as it takes for us to get over this. i just don’t want to be the one barfing. i prefer the handmade gift tags part….

the tree pattern taken roughly from here.

and last, but not least: to all a good nite.

🙂

leaving

blogland for a while.

we will be journey-ing north next week and i have so much to do to get ready. i wish i could say i was looking forward to it, but 500 or so miles in a car is an awful long way for someone who’d rather be home. in her jammies with a warm cup of tea.

funny thing is it is my family we’ll be spending the holiday with, but my husband is more gung-ho about leaving than i am. even though the poor man is sick with a terrible cold right now. i do hope that by the time we are ready to leave he is all better and that no one else gets “re” infected. i really thought we were thru with this flu.

anyhow, i’ll be leaving you with a few links and some things i have planned to do with the kids i don’t know that i’ll get to post pictures until after, but we are working on a small. simple indian village. with more indians like the one above from last year, but with improvements.they are the clothespin sort from michael’s. little felted teepees and food. and some trees. (ht/ jenn and christine)

colonial quilt patterns with my girl. but with the real thing. we’ve plenty of scraps to practice with. this link has some ways to “tie” it into “learning”. i don’t know that i’ll do it, but it sounds “good”. and educational.

we’ll be making our own butter for our thanksgiving bread. and our new favoritest recipe is here. the kids gave it a 20 on the 1 to 10 scale. that’s pretty high, wouldn’t ya say? and the only changes i made were-1 cup whole wheat flour. 1 cup organic pastry flour. and 1 cup of bread flour. 1 extra tbsp. of butter for a total of 3. and 1 more tablespoon of sugar-organic cane instead of brown.

we will be writing our thanksgiving place cards with homemade quill/feather pens with feathers i found scattered all around our yard this afternoon (which i soaked in anti-bacterial soap). and using black acrylic paint for “ink”.  you can do it “virtually” here. and here. and a little history about the writing style of the 1600’s is here.

we are reading:

the pilgrims of plymouth

the landing of the pilgrims

stories of the pilgrims

anyhow, i wish you all the happiest of thanksgivings. hope you are well. and safe. and if you think about it say a little prayer for me…that we’ll be safe and well too….i’ll be doing a little give-away when i get back to celebrate my 1 year blogoversary. it passed before i knew it and i forgot to “acknowledge” it.

well, thank you sweet friends. hope to be “seeing” you soon. good-bye.

oh the things you can do with wool

here is the first creation with my winning wool. a FAT little lamb. he has a pipe cleaner body/frame. his snout and feet are wrapped in black wool yarn. i needle felted his coat on top of it all. it appears to be an easy craft to do with kids. as long as you monitor needle use.

we are also working on a purple bird in a nest and a turtle.

i really liked how easy yet satisfying this was. and can see myself filling that “field” of green felt with a bunch of grazing sheep. and some shepherds. and hanging stars. for a Christmas themed nature table.

oh. the things. you can do with wool. *sigh*.