Saturday, December 17, 2011

Time for a break...

Slowly, but surely, the decorating is getting done.  If it wasn't for the kids, I'd be all over going away for the holidays and leaving all the decorations, baking and panic to 'get it right' behind.  Oh well...time for some chai tea from my pretty Christmas tea cups.  Maybe that'll revive me enough to get this done and then we can get that tree in the house to dry overnight and decorate tomorrow.  I seem to have lost my sense of ho ho ho.  Anyone seen it?

Found Our Tree!

Alley, Zac and I headed out this afternoon to find our tree.  In this day and age of artificial and groomed trees, it can be hard to find one that measures up!  But, after going through several possibilities, we finally made our choice and each took a turn sawing her down.  She may not be as full or shapely as your store bought variety, but she is pure and natural!  Every year we go out and find a tree growing wild and bring it home...usually in the truck, but I still had a load of hay on so my wee car had to do!  This year just as we were heading out, it started to rain!  That's almost unheard of at this time of year here!  So, we did get rather wet on our adventure, but came home to a warm house and hot chocolate!  Now to get the house ready to bring her in!

On My Mind....

As part of the On My Mind post at Down to Earth...On my mind today is my beautiful, brave granddaughter, Taylor.  Taylor was diagnosed with leukemia in August of 2010, just before she turned 2 years old.  It has been a long, hard, scary road for her and our family but she has been doing extremely well.  She is now in the maintenance stage of her treatment. Her hair has grown back, and she is able to lead a fairly normal life now.  At her last chemo treatment they found that her ANC count was very low again, which means she can't fight off infections.  They think this is probably because her body is fighting off something as simple as a cold right now.  We are all praying her counts will improve and she and her mom and dad will be able to attend the Christmas Eve service and also come to our home for New Years.
She has been a real trooper through all the pokes and prods, hospital stays, clinic visits and having to be away from home so much.  Nana Sue is so very proud of her!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Snowman From a Can

Today I thought I'd share a project my oldest son (now 20) made when he was about 8.  He made these for family and friends and filled them with candy.  They are very simple and 're-use' items, which is always a good thing! I was going to post this in NewlyWoodwards Dare to...post, but it is now closed, but here it goes anyways!
If I had more time today, I would do a step by step tutorial, but as you will see from my last picture in this post, I am dealing with pre-Christmas decorating disaster and know if I don't get it done today it will haunt me tomorrow!
So, here are the directions in written form ...for now!
You need:
An old coffee can, juice crystal can or any other kind of resealable container, plastic or cardboard.
Enough white felt to wrap around the can.
A bit of black felt for the mouth.
Orange felt for the nose.
2 buttons.
Red (or your preference) stretchy fabric (we re-used a red t-shirt!)
Some floss or wool.

First, measure the length around your chosen container and add another 1-2 inches for a seam allowance.  Then measure the height.  Cut a piece of white felt in a rectangle with those dimensions.
Wrap it around the container to double check your measurements.  Now you are going to sew it into a tube to slip over the can.  
Now you can cut out 4 black 'coal' circles (no need to be perfect!) from the black felt, and a triangle for the nose.  Make the orange triangle as long and fat as you would like.  Fold it in half so it makes a thinner triangle.  Stitch along the long side to form the 'carrot' nose.  Now you can play around with the face.  Experiment with placement until you like what you see.  Hot glue the black circles on for the mouth and the buttons on for the eyes.  Then hand stitch the nose in place.
The hat and scarf  can be any colour you like (or have on hand!)  Take the measurement from around the can, add a tad more for ease, plus a seam allowance and stitch into another tube.  Fit it over the top of the can to cover the lid.  Roll up the bottom edge and tie the top with some wool or floss.  Next, again using the measurement around the can as a guide,  cut a long strip of the fabric for the scarf.  Cut the ends to form tassels and tie it around the bottom of the can. There you go! 


Sorry about the lack of tutorial pictures.  As you can see from the below picture, I have my work cut out for me today as it is!  Plus, the kids and I are baking cookies today for friends and their karate Sensei.  I think I had better get a move on!!!

Out with the everyday...in with the holiday!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Rustic Twig Star-How to!






 This is a super easy craft.  I just love the country rustic-ness of them!
Years ago, while we lived in Smithers, BC, and my 3 older children were the only children!!, we joined with another homeschooling family and made crafts to sell at a local Christmas craft fair.  This was one of them.  We made them using red wool to join the points, but I thought of using raffia when I was cleaning out a cupboard last night and found a big bag of it!
First, you need to get your snipper from the garden shed and go out and snip off a bunch of willow type branches.
Now, snip off 5 pieces of the same length...5, 6, 7 inches...however big you'd like to make it.  I start using the thickest ends and work my way up the branch with later ones.
Then, cut yourself some pieces of raffia or wool or embroidery floss...whatever take your fancy!  They need to be long enough to tie around 2 of the twigs twice. (Try saying that 3 times fast!)
Now, you begin tying ends together!  You need to tie them as tight as you can, without breaking the raffia, wool or floss.  I wrapped the raffia around once, tied in a single knot and then wrapped it again and tied in a double knot.


Sweet Pea thinks she can help!


Keep tying ends in zig zag pattern.

Remember to tie them tightly!
Now you've got all 5 tied together! Yay!

Now it's time to form the star shape!  Carefully move the twigs into place.  The 2 ends that are not tied will go together as one point. You will need to lift one of the twigs from the end around the back, which will tighten everything up!
Non-tied ends together in front.
The one end is now around the back.
Now tie those last 2 ends together!  You can now adjust the twigs to form the shape.  If you like, you can hot glue the joints in place with a small dab between the twigs.
Trim the ends of raffia, wool or floss to whatever length pleases you and add a hanger. Ta da!!