Paper Flowers Chinese Style a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Tonight I am sharing with you a fun book to make beautiful paper flowers. It is Paper Flowers Chinese Style by Liu Fang and Yue Yunyun. Now Hazel loves making flowers but has not explored this book with me. 

10 Fun Facts About Jack-O'-Lanterns

Have you checked out our first Fun Facts post yet? There will be a total of three fun facts related to Halloween and then I will do more for Thanksgiving. I hope you will check them all out. I know I am having fun doing them and learning about so many different things. Today we are talking about jack-o'-lanterns. Have you carved yours yet?

Oriental Trading's Fun365 --a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these items in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Have you discovered Oriental Trading's Fun365?  It is a site that has different craft projects and articles. There are choices of Party Ideas, Craft Ideas, Wedding Ideas, and Classroom Ideas. I was inspired by ideas from the Craft Ideas and Party Ideas. I had so much fun exploring the many ideas there. I let Hazel look and help me pick what we would try. In the Party Ideas section there is a Rainbow Party and one of the crafts is a DIY Rainbow Coin Purse. Instead of doing the coin purse we used DIY Totes. (See current available totes here.)I asked Hazel to paint a rainbow on one for me. She wanted to use the Pearlized Acrylic Paint (available paint). Then she wanted to do a heart rainbow, but hers turned out more like a circle. She also did a square but wanted to use the pink on it.  I did a heart one for her as well as a star and an H. 

Autumn Pumpkin Crafts & More -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Can you believe August is almost over and schools are starting up? Where did the summer go? To kick into the fall season, we are sharing some pumpkin themed crafts and products. And just in case you want to really skip ahead be sure to check out our Christmas card post yesterday! I know crafters will understand the need to start those crafts early!! We decided to focus our posts around pumpkins since they work for fall as well as Halloween and Thanksgiving. We have had a lot of fun with pumpkin crafts and with pumpkins. Last year I shared a tutorial to make a fabric pumpkin. I used this pumpkin in several of my pictures. We will start with our DIY Door Pumpkin. 

Crafty Weekends: Paper Pom-Poms & Other Party Decorations Book Review & Link Party

I am hosting a giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

Disclosure:  Ryland Peters & Small sent me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing the perfect book for the DIY party decoration maker. This book has amazing ideas and instructions for making some common party decorations as well as creative new ones. I brought it into work (at the Paper Source) and my manager loved the book and wanted a copy for herself. The book is Paper Pom-Poms ad Other Party Decorations by Juliet Carr.

 I started with some basic party decorations. The rosette and the paper pom-pom. For the rosette I used a hummingbird paper from the Paper Source. I am planning on making some more for Hazel's Wild Kratts themed birthday party this year. I got a small rip in it unfortunately.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere -- Book Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

We get to share with you Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere by Smiriti Prasadam-Halls and illustrated by Lorena Alvarez. This is a simple book with fun and non-scary pictures about kids going to a pumpkin parade in their costumes. Hazel LOVES this book. I think she is a bit old for it, but she really loves it. The words are simple and she can read it to herself easily. The pictures are fun and colorful and friendly. 

Christian Halloween Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

 Now I have not been shy about my feelings about Halloween. I really hate the gore and how far people take it. Hazel is easily frightened and I can no longer take her into some stores because of the Halloween products. I have tried and regret it due to the bad dreams she has. When I was offered to do a post using Halloween products from Oriental Trading, I hesitated, but then remembered all their great Sunday School supplies. Hazel and I planned a Christian Halloween Party. Many of the parents at her school do not celebrate the holiday or take their kids to a church event on Halloween. Needless to say many feel like I do about the holiday. We started by sending out an Evite. We asked the guests to dress as their favorite Biblical character. Hazel wanted to be Queen Esther. I let her pick out the color of the Nativity Child Costume she wanted and she picked the Pink Nativity Child Costume. We made a handknit belt to wear with it and added beads to the ends. (Hazel ended up being the only one to wear a costume, but she did not care. She was really excited to be Queen Esther.)

Halloween Round Up

It is hard to believe tomorrow is Halloween. This year is the first year except for Hazel's first Halloween that she will be wearing a costume that I did not sew. She is going to be a kangaroo and where the Kigs Kigurumis Kangaroo Outfit that I reviewed last December. I am not sure if the joey is going to come trick-or-treating or if it will be just Ducky.

Friday Fruit Explorations: Pumpkins

Today we are sharing our pumpkin exploration! Now Hazel loves pumpkins. She loves pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, and so much more! She insisted on growing pumpkins in our garden. We planted sugar pumpkins only this year. Last year the white pumpkins took over the garden and since we had used seeds from a white pumpkin the previous year they were orange on our vines. (Many of the new fruits and vegetables only grow that way for the first year.) We picked our first pumpkin and wanted to make pumpkin bread with it.

Autumn Lights for Darker Days

Autumn has definitely begun even if the temperatures in New England have been in the 70s this week. How do I know autumn is here even with unusually warm weather--the shorter number of daylight hours. It is getting dark much earlier. This time of year always makes me think winter is coming too fast. It is also reminds me of our days at the Waldorf school and the holiday Martinmas. Martinmas is not until November, but I feel like I could use it now. In past years we were part of the lantern march at the Waldorf school. It is where the children carry lanterns they make at school with a lite candle and march around together singing.

Halloween

Congratulations to Andrea F. for winning the ebook of Christmas Crafts for Kids and a belated congratulations to Brenda W. for winning The ABC's of Australian Animals yoga book!

I have never really liked the scary parts of Halloween. I don't like where Halloween has gone and how over the top it is. I do remember loving dressing up and trick-or-treating as a child, so I wanted Hazel to have that experience without all the drama and commercialism. For her first Halloween I was excited to dress her up and take her to some family and friends' houses. Now of course she is excited to dress up and go trick-or-treating. I have made her costumes except for the first year where I found an adorable one at a consignment shop.

I chose the duck and lion costumes. She wanted to be the dish and spoon with me since she use to take my hand and tell me to run so we could be the dish and spoon from Hey Diddle, Diddle. Last year she wanted to be Rapunzel and this year she wants to be Cinderella. I finally finished her dress. I still need to put the elastics in her lower sleeves/gloves, but I need her here to measure her arms to do that. Here is the dress.

I bought her a Cinderella wig to go with the costume. I will add a picture to this post once she is dressed up for trick-or-treating. 

She picked the darker blue for her gown instead of the Disney light blue. I should add she has two light blue dress up dresses to be Cinderella, but will not leave either one for any length of time since the cheap fabrics bother her skin. This is why I make so many of her costumes. 

Now Hazel is easily scared so Halloween is not a time we pull out the scary and gory decorations. We tend to focus on pumpkins, though we do have a large spider and web on our staircase this year and some friendly ghosts in our front entrance. I have struggled with explaining Halloween to Hazel and why so many people like to dress up scary. Last year I used the Mexican Day of the Dead to help explain it. Today I found a wonderful way to do it and to bring the religious meaning back to the holiday. Over at Catholic Icing there is a wonderful post on Explaining Halloween to Catholic Kids. I would say not being Catholic, that it could be used for any Christian children.

Then there is the issue of the candy. We try to limit Hazel's sugar input (and should really limit ours more). We have used the story of the Pumpkin Fairy to help with this. I shared our version of the story here.

This year we spent some time making the egg carton pumpkins that you have seen around on-line including some at Sharing Saturday. We took our candy corn rice krispie treats a step further and made them apple and pumpkin shape (we used cookie cutters). We decorated them this time with M&M's and Steve helped Hazel with the decorating.

The final thing I would like to share with you is a wonderful book. Now the note to parents says it is not a Halloween book, but it is about a jack-o'-lantern. The book is The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. I bought a copy of this book for my church and then found a used copy at the used book store and picked one up for ourselves. The church used it for Hazel's class earlier this month and one of the crafts they made was a simple one. They took orange jack-o'-lantern goody bags and stuffed them and then added a special leaf on the tie.

The book goes through a farmer planting a pumpkin patch and then when harvest time comes choosing one special large pumpkin to carve a smiling face and leaving it on his porch for all to see. Throughout the book, there are Bible quotes to go with the story. It is really a nice book to take some of the scary away from Halloween and make you like jack-o'-lanterns more.

So that is a bit about our Halloween. How do you celebrate? We are really excited that this year it appears there will not be a Halloween storm so Steve will be home with us!

Halloween Sharing Saturday Features!

Sharing Saturday will begin a couple of hours, but I wanted to share with you some of the amazing Halloween ideas that have been shared the last couple of weeks. I meant to do this Wednesday but somehow on Wednesday my only focus was on Hazel, pumpkins and trick-or-treating. So here it is.

Happy Halloween!

Source

Just thought I would share some pictures of Hazel in her costume. I made it from Simplicity pattern 2065. She will also wear the dress for her princess themed birthday party this year!

Needless to say, she loves it!

We also went to a small Halloween party at church the other day and she decorated some pumpkins with stickers.

For breakfast this morning we had pumpkin pancakes. We made them yesterday, but had plenty left over, so I arranged them on Hazel's plate and she recognized it right away as a jack 'o lantern.

Then she wanted to get started with her pumpkins. We had two relatively small ones to paint and a medium one to carve. I let her start painting while I finished up doing somethings around the house.

 For some reason I did not take pictures of the finished pumpkins. She also added stickers to them. Then we started carving the medium pumpkin. She helped scoop out all the gook. Then I found a Snow White pattern that I saved a few years ago from Disney Family and carved it. I have to admit this is the best carving job I have ever done. She loved it and that is all that mattered.

Then we had a quick lunch and got her costume on. We had a few errands to run and three of them were places where we know people so she wanted to show off her costume.

My mother-in-law bought her the ballerina basket that came with the pink crown. Then after our errands we did some trick-or-treating and friends houses that were too far to walk. Then we went to a few neighbors houses. We always go very early. The last two years Steve has been working crazy hours due to storms, so we have to get home to hand out the candy. Hazel loves handing out the candy. She was so over excited today. And for some reason this year we had probably a quarter of what we usually get. I guess it is because I went with cheap candy so less kids were out or perhaps it was because of the storm though last year we had an ice storm right before Halloween and the numbers were still high.

One small craft for you that I started in the dark the other night. I got the pattern for this felt bat from Super-Cute Felt by Laura Howard. I still have a bit of sewing to do on it, but it is almost done.

Before Hazel (and Steve) went to bed, Hazel sorted through her candy to leave some for the Pumpkin Fairy. This year the Pumpkin Fairy is bringing her a Rapunzel Barbie doll--not Waldorf, but she will love it and I bought it on clearance since I haven't had time to make much for her. 

What are you doing to celebrate Halloween?

Getting Ready for the Holiday Fair at Hazel's School

Sharing Saturday is still open for you to share your child-oriented crafts and activities or to be inspired by the amazing ones already shared!

As we approach the holiday season, I found out that we need to supply some things for the amazing holiday fair at Hazel's school, Cape Ann Waldorf School. At the fair they have a Wee Folk Shop where the young children (through second grade) can "shop" for a certain number of tickets they get to go into a room that is set up with silks hanging from the ceiling making it more their size and wonderful gifts to "buy" and then have an elf wrap for them. The idea is for them to get a gift for a family member, but in reality they get themselves a gift. Last year Hazel got a barrette (don't know why since she won't wear one) and a needle felted sheep. She went into it twice. Every family in the Early Childhood Program at the school is asked to donate at least 20 items to the Wee Folk Shop. 

There is also a Pocket Lady. Basically it is a person who wears a dress with pockets everywhere and a child can use one ticket to pick a gift from any pocket. These gifts are meant to be small and can be something like a marble or stone or shell or something small that is homemade. All are suppose to be Waldorf type of gifts and we were asked to wrap these in tissue paper. Every family in the school is asked to donate at least 20 Pocket Lady gifts as well.

With Hazel sick the last few days, I needed something to work on where I could sit next to her, so I made some of these gifts. I needle felted some acorns and used the acorn tops we have been finding. I also needle felted some lady bugs. Oh, and I needle felted a jack o' lantern for Hazel (see above). And of course I made extra acorns and an extra lady bug so Hazel could have some as well. I used the double and triple caps for Hazel.

We also used some stones, pine cones, and shells that Hazel has and Hazel helped me wrap them all.

In the end, we ended up with 40 Pocket Lady gifts and bagged them in groups of 20 (which we were asked to do).

For the Wee Folk Shop I needle felted some snowmen. I saw a cute one at Better Homes and Gardens. I made mine a bit more plain in that Waldorf way of using your imagination.

At the Pumpkin Patch Holiday Fair, I saw some of the cutest ribbon barrettes. Some were Disney princesses (I may try these for Hazel's birthday) and some were snails and animals. I googled, and checked Pinterest and found some tutorials and some ideas. I made a couple of simple bows. Then I tried some flowers. And I attempted the snails (which I fell in love with at the fair). I have more to make, but wanted to share these. They are so easy to do with glue, ribbon and barrettes.  I also had two unused headbands sitting around from our teddy bear picnic and I had some wool felt flowers I bought awhile ago on clearance and just sewed them onto the headbands. They are cute as well.

So here are the first 10 of my Wee Folk Shop contributions. I will be making some more, but thought I would share what I have been up to. Enjoy!!

Sharing Saturday #42

Ok, I am apologizing for not visiting everyone who shared last week. I have been a bit crazy this week. Our church is having a huge Pumpkin Patch with Holiday Craft Fair tomorrow and I'm in charge of the craft fair and somehow have picked up some of the other things for the rest of it as well. Feeling a bit stressed today. Then on top of it my parents decided to come for a visit for a long weekend, so I'm trying to get ready for tomorrow and entertain. So I promise I will visit them all, but for now I will focus on getting ready for and through tomorrow. I still urge you to go check out all the great ideas shared. Here is the most clicked last week. To check it out please click on the picture!

Since I have the Pumpkin Patch on my mind, I thought it was only appropriate to share pumpkin ideas (ok and one candy corn idea since I loved it!).

1) From Mama Smiles: Jack O' Lantern Chains
2) From Life on Lakeshore Drive: Pumpkin and Pine Cone Fireplace Garland
3) From Learning Ideas - Grades K-8: Jack O' Lantern Clocks
4) From The Usual Mayhem: Folk Art Pumpkins
5) From We-Made-That: Jack O' Lantern Pancakes
6) From One Creative Mama: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes--Gluten Free
7) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Pumpkin Traditions
8) From The Messy Roost: Candy Corn Wreath

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: Autumn Nature Walks and Crafts with Nature Treasures

 

Now for This Week's Party   

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All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Come on November....

I am so glad Halloween is over with. I have to say this was one of my worst ones ever and it had nothing to do with the crazy snowstorm this past weekend. Well I guess it does in someways since if we didn't get the snowstorm Steve would have been home to help during my minor crisis. Since he was working, I had to call two neighbors to come over and help. Our little kitten escaped while I questioned teenagers on what they were dressed as besides just teenagers. Their response was "Strangers". It amazes me how many people come from the neighboring city (which is neighboring on the other side of our town so not really close) to trick-or-treat here. Of the 100+ pieces of candy I gave out today I literally recognized four or five families from our neighborhood. And if you are going to come to another neighborhood to trick-or-treat at least wear a costume!

Happy Halloween!

I will admit I really do not like Halloween. As a Christian it feels strange to celebrate it. Yet I see how fun it is for the children, so I celebrate it. I do love seeing the kids dressed up. Though I do have to admit since getting married and living in a neighborhood where the kids gets bussed in to trick-or-treat it has lost some of its appeal. (Literally we see people we have never seen before with cars following them through the neighborhood and go through at least 6-7 bags of candy before we turn off our light. Last year we gave out the candy Hazel had gotten because we ran out.) I find it even stranger that so many people put so much time and money into Halloween decorations. Hazel is still just beginning to get the idea of Halloween. She still does not like wearing her costume much, but at least this year we got her in it.

My Little Spoon

Craft at Party

Saturday we went to Hazel's school for their Halloween Party. It was a fundraiser for the eighth grade class trip. For a $5 entrance fee we got drinks and a snack and to play some games for prizes as well as do a craft and hear a story. Hazel refused to wear her costume when we got there. When we finally got it on her and got a picture of the two of us in our costumes and the party ended. However we had seen just about everything without the costume, and she had a great time.

Craft at Party

The craft was very easy and very cute. They had orange jack-o'-lanterns pre-cut out of paper so they would fold in half with a front and back. Using a glue stick they had the kids spread glue on the orange paper and then glue a piece of tissue paper (pre-cut in circles the a bit smaller than the pumpkin) on. They were given the choice of colors for tissue paper and could use two colors (one on each side). Hazel chose orange and yellow tissue paper.

Sunday we went to church. We skipped the Boo Breakfast due to the snow and a bad night of sleeping, but made it to church. Then we came home and had lunch and tried to get Hazel to nap, but she refused. Then we took her to some friends' houses and my mother-in-law's for trick-or-treating. She wore her costume somewhat to the first two houses, but refused to put it back on after that.
Then we came home and carved Hazel's first jack-o'-lantern. She helped me scoop out the seeds and goop. Then she used the scoop as a pretend knife and pretended to carve it. She looked so serious while she did this--I couldn't resist taking pictures.

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Today we have a busy day. Hazel is going to my mother-in-law's for their Monday playdate. Then I'm picking her up to take her to the special Halloween story time at the library (where costumes are expected since it ends with trick-or-treating at the various desks). Then after lunch and a nap I will take her to a few of our neighbors' houses. Since Steve got stuck working nights because of the storm again, I will than have to be home to give out the candy. Not sure how it will work to get her down with all of that going on, but we shall see.

The dish and the spoon!

What are your plans for Halloween? Hope you have a happy and safe one!! Remember to have your kids leave their candy for the Pumpkin Fairy!