2 Quick Things to Share

Literacy and Laughter is giving away an autographed copy of Square Cat by Elizabeth Schoonmaker and a $15 gift certificate to Lettering Delights. Go over and check it out.

Also wanted to share this fun picture that I took today. I would say this visitor is about a month too early. This was in our next door neighbor's yard.

We weren't sure how he got into the fenced in yard with all the gates closed and he didn't seem to know how to get out. My husband opened the gate for him and hopefully he was able to get out and go home. Hazel loved seeing him though!

Decorations, Giveaways and other things to check out!

Picture of Shadow--Taken from Little Elf Toy Shop

Natural Kids is giving away a needle felted black cat (see above) from Little Elf Toy Shop.

Tatertots and Jello summarizes 17 Halloween Countdown Calendars and Decorations.

Ghostie--Picture taken from We Bloom Here

We Bloom Here is giving away a Ghostie doll (see above) on Wednesday.

Autumn Cards--Taken from Creating a Family Home

Pouch Pattern & Yarn--Taken from Creating a Family Home

Yarn--Taken from Creating a Family Home

Fall Needle Felted Decorations--Taken from Creating a Family Home

      Creating a Family Home had a week's worth of giveaways. All are recapped on this post. See all four prizes (well actually five since the pouch is two different colors being given away) above.

R. Morales Mug--Taken from Earth Mama

Earth Mama is sponsoring a R. Morales Pottery Giveaway. See to the left.

Women Living Well

Check out Women Living Well's 31 Day Fall Challenge. Week 2's challenge just came out. What a nice way to refocus ourselves to what is important! Week 1's Challenge can be found here.


A craft we are definitely going to try soon from Living, Loving, Learning Naturally.

Toilet Paper Bat--Taken from Living, Loving, Learning Naturally

Toilet Paper Bats (with hand print wings)! 

Reading Confetti celebrates National Pizza Month--October--with a book and a craft.

Monster Pillows--Taken from One Artsy Mama

One Artsy Mama has a tutorial to make these adorable Monster Pillows.


The Idea Room has many, MANY neat oreo pop ideas for anyone having a fall party. (Bats, Frankenstein, turkeys, apples, eyeballs, Mickey Mouse and more!) Also a recipe for Homemade Slime! And a recipe and decoration ideas for Homemade Halloween Playdough--great for party favors!--By the way, Crissy's Crafts sent me to The Idea Room because she made some Mickey Ghost Oreo Pops for her Not So Scary Mickey Halloween Party.

I Heart Crafty Things has some great Halloween decoration ideas for kids to make--Haunted house displays, eyeball frames and more as well as a book to go along with the crafts.


Lil' Luna has a guest blogger with some great ideas for pumpkin decorating (the craft pumpkins)

Thanksgiving Wreath--Taken from Beneath the Rowan Tree

Beneath the Rowan Tree has a great tutorial for a Thanksgiving Wreath made up of scrap fabric. (Maybe I should send the link to my Mom since she is trying to figure out what to do with hers!)

Ok, I think I have caught up with all my blogging. Well now I have to go check all the linky parties I missed this weekend. Some of my favorite ones for kids' activities happen over the weekend.

Fall Decorations and the Pumpkin Fairy

This morning we woke up to quite a thunder storm. It was loud and I think that is what really woke Hazel up this morning. Now the storm seems to have passed, but the forecast doesn't look great for today. Hazel wanted to start some crafts this morning, so we made some fall crafts. We started with some Indian corn. The button Indian corn came from All Kids Network. They have the template there so all you have to do is cut out the shapes. Hazel enjoyed this one.  The fingerprint Indian corn also came from All Kids Network. Again they provide a template. And again Hazel enjoyed this. We have a nice fingerprint ink set that I got her at Lakeshore Learning Store.

Week Summary

Today I have to take Hazel to the doctor's. She has been complaining her teeth/gums hurt and all of her teeth have been there since February. Now she is experiencing cold symptoms, so we are going to get it checked out. I also have a few errands to run, and I bribed Hazel into going to the doctor's and behaving by saying I would take her to my mother-in-law's if she does. We'll see. She has been very needy this week and has not been napping except an hour yesterday, so I could use the break.

As a  result, today I'm going to play catch-up in my life, but I thought I would share what some of my favorite bloggers are posting and crafts I hope to do soon. (Today I'm hoping to work on Hazel's quilt and sew her Michaelmas dragon.)

First for more information about how Waldorf families celebrate Michaelmas visit The Magic Onion's Discovering Waldorf post yesterday. I love her blog and it is always so informative and inspiring. Also check out Celebrate the Rhythm of Life!'s post today. Lots of information on Michaelmas including Steiner's view.

Second, another favorite blog, April's Homemaking has pictures of her adorable dragon bread, recipe for potato soup and a contest! She is giving away The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie dePaula. A great book with a somewhat Michealmas theme.

Silly Eagle Books has a list of "scary" books for young children. Ok, not really scary, but good for the month of October.

One Artsy Mama is having a Fall Crafting Contest. Her third theme is Pumpkins. Which is my theme for next week, so I can't wait to see what people do.

Classified Mom has two crafts I want to try. Spider and Web and Painting Palm Pumpkins.

Boredom Busing Mommy has a recipe for Pumpkin Playdough. I can't wait to make some for next week.

Tippytoe Crafts has a neat way to paint with acorns. We are definitely going to try this next time we are painting.

Adventures of Alex O & Co has a great way of making a little person using wooden blocks and pipe cleaners and wool. It gives the bendy dolls a little more substance.

Happy Friday!!

Leaves, acorns, pine cones and crafts!

Hazel's handprint

Today I adapted a recipe for No-Bake Craft Clay from The Arts and Crafts Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. When it was ready, we made nature impressions from the things we gathered on our nature walk on Sunday. We also did one of Hazel's hand. Hazel really enjoyed this craft and my hands smelled of cinnamon for quite awhile afterwards even with washing. We are going to try new scents next. I'm thinking I will add some vanilla extract the next time and may play with other extracts and essential oils. It adds a whole new sense to play dough.

Oak leaf and acorns

Oak Leaf

My oak leaf and acorn

No Bake Craft Clay Revised:
Food coloring (I used red and yellow to make orange and the dots are the cinnamon)
1 1/4 cups cold water
1 cup cornstarch
2 cups baking soda
Cinnamon (or other scent of your choice)
Saucepan
Plate
Damp cloth (that you don't care if it gets messy)

Add the food coloring to the water and then put in pan. Then combine the water with the cornstarch, baking soda and cinnamon (I probably used about 2 teaspoons, but didn't measure it). Mix over medium heat until it becomes the consistency of mushy mashed potatoes. The original recipe said about 4 minutes but I found it took much longer like 15 minutes. Then scoop onto the plate and cover with the damp cloth until cooled. (It does solidify while cooling.) When cool knead the dough and shape. To do the nature impressions take a small ball and make it into a disc big enough to take your piece of nature. Press the leaf or whatever you are using down into the clay and then lift up. You may want to let the disc set a little before pressing to make sure you get more details.

The other craft we did today was leaf rubbings. I found this idea on Michaels website...well actually an email they sent me. I printed out a few copies of their leaf shaped book and gave some to Hazel and kept some. I showed her how to do leaf rubbings. My original hope for this project was to keep her busy while her toe nails dried, but she decided she did not want to try the Piggy Paints with me today after I touched her toe to apply the base coat. So my toes are pink and hers are not. However she did have fun doing some rubbings and coloring in general. You can definitely tell which ones I did and which ones she did. We did not cut them out and I probably won't since several of them went outside of the outline. Hazel has not learned to color in the lines yet.

Crafts, Quilts, and more

Ok, I don't have any finished projects for you. I have been preparing to make some quilts but am waiting on the last few fabrics I ordered. I was hoping they would come today, but they did not. I'm also working on fabric pumpkins, but I haven't sewn the stem on yet. This blog takes you step by step and is perfect even for the people who really do not know how to sew, but want to try.

Today in the mail I did get my order of Piggy Paint. If you haven't heard of Piggy Paint yet it is a natural non-toxic nail polish. Hazel has been admiring my pink toes all summer and mentioned that she wanted hers to be pink as well. Now I have some polish (including base and topcoat) that I feel will be safe to use on her. They also have an adult line called Refined.

I also found out I won another blog contest today. A huge thank you to April at April's Homemaking for the contest and prize of the book Back to the Basics. I will let you know how I like it after I receive it and read it.

Yesterday we took a family walk at Breakheart Reservation State Park and gathered leaves, sticks, acorns and acorn tops, and pinecones. This week we will use some of them for Cinnamon Leave Prints. You can download a free ebook there with all sorts of play dough autumn ideas.

Quilt Top

So I posted a few days ago a preview of the quilt top that I won the pattern and fabric for from Sew Happy Geek for her blogiversary and Fat Quarter Shop. I have finished piecing the quilt as it is written. I've ordered more fabric to enlarge it to fit our bed so now I wait. But I wanted to share the "finished" top with you thus far.

Steve and I need a winter quilt. We currently have a quilt I made very lightweight for the summer, so this will be our winter quilt. I think the bright, cheerful colors are perfect for the long New England winter, don't you?

In the meantime I'm going to make a similar quilt for Hazel's bed using a Hey Diddle Diddle panel for the middle square and some new and mostly old nursery/children/novelty fabric I have (and some my mom wants to get rid of). In this one I'm going to use the other option of the pattern where the last four corners are from one fabric (usually the middle fabric, but I'm using a book panel of nursery rhyme pictures I found). Plus I want to sew a new fall outfit for Hazel--possibly for her first day of school which is Thursday!! I better getting sewing!

Center Panel

For corner blocks

Hazel's Fairy Garden

The arbor entrance to the large garden

Large garden overall view

Fairy Gardens

So the past few weeks I have been enjoying posts on The Magic Onions of pictures of people entering the Fairy Garden Contest. Now this seems like it should be right up my alley with my love of dollhouses and miniatures. But of course I haven't really done anything with them in over 2 years due to Hazel. Well, I pulled out some stuff and made a few up. I think I may work some more on them and have Hazel help tomorrow or over the weekend. But here are some of the ones I came up with.

First some outdoors using real flowers and a few dollhouse extras.

 In this one, I imagined the fairy living outside with her canopy being made of spider webs. She even has a fire to cook her tea over.

In this one she uses the plants to make different rooms in her home. In front you have her kitchen/main room. Then hidden behind the flowers is her bed.

This one I did inside. Her carpet is flowers with tree and dirt underneath. Her garden is surrounded with beautiful trees and flowers and she has a bed/couch made of a shell and pine needles for cushioning and ivy leaf blankets. She also has some visitors from the forest: a red fox and some bunnies. They came at the right time for tea.

The table is set for tea for two.

views of the flower border

Her bed/couch

I'm sure I will do another post with more pictures and ideas. Enjoy!