Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post to wish all who are celebrating a very Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everyone enjoys time with their family today and takes time to give thanks for all we have. In the spirit of Thanksgiving I thought I would feature a few of the Thanksgiving crafts that were shared this past week and a few of my own. Enjoy!!

Our Salt Dough Ornaments

Today, Hazel spent most of the day at my mother-in-law's and I spent it resting again. I'm starting to feel better, but my energy doesn't stay there.

When she got home we painted our salt dough ornaments. Hazel had fun with the glitter and the gold glitter came out a bit fast. But here they are. Safe travels to everyone on the road today. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you are celebrating tomorrow.

These are the ones I painted

Sick Day Crafts

Today I wanted to call in sick, but as a stay-at-home mother there is no calling in sick, so we stormed on. To fill our time, I thought we could make some salt dough ornaments. I saw Amy's post over at One Artsy Mama yesterday with their creations and since there are so many steps it would fill the day. So this morning we mixed the dough. I had printed out Amy's post so I would be sure to do it correctly and learn from her mistakes. Hazel wanted to pour all the water in at once, but I explained that it wouldn't work that way (Thanks, Amy!). Then the dough had to sit for 40 minutes.

So we did some other crafts. I finished our TP roll pilgrims and Native Americans.  I used felt for their hats and the hair for the Native Americans. I added some feathers on the male. They could use some faces, but I didn't bother with that yet. Not that it really matters much since we canceled our Thanksgiving celebration.

I called my parents today and told them I think it is best that they don't come for Thanksgiving. As disappointing as that is, I know it is the right thing for all of us. I would feel horrible if I got them sick and we still don't know if we were exposed enough to the stomach bug going around and certainly don't want to pass that on. We will still have turkey and a few fixings (assuming we don't have the stomach bug) since I already bought the turkey breast, but it will be just the three of us. Perhaps, Steve's mother will come over for dessert, but we will see.

The other craft we worked on was making a gum drop topiary. Since Mommy is sick we had to use supplies we had on hand. I had a few small Styrofoam balls, gum drops, tooth picks and a paper cup. After starting out we decided to put more than one gum drop on a toothpick (since they were rather long). I had to play with what would hold it up. I finally threw in some of our homemade play dough--cranberry and gingerbread. Hopefully it will hold it as it dries as well.

The other thing we did to fill the time was write the postcard for Hazel's new friend in Australia. Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts contacted me to see if Hazel would like to exchange postcards with her three-year-old son, Dexter. We of course loved the idea and are hoping it will turn into a great friendship/pen pal exchange. We went the other day to buy a postcard. Hazel liked several so we bought three of them. I also bought three stamps for them so we can mail all three over time. So I asked Hazel what she wanted to write on the postcard today and wrote it. Then she drew a little on it after I explained where she could write and where she couldn't on a postcard. Then I ran out and stuck it in the mail, so hopefully Dexter will get it soon. We chose to send the Massachusetts postcard with a nice fall tree on it since that is basically what we are seeing right now here.

Then we rolled out and cut out the salt dough ornaments. We ended up with 22 ornaments. We baked them and had some lunch. Then we read some stories and tried to take a nap. Ok, Mommy took a nap and Hazel did not. Then I called Steve who called his mother and she said she would take Hazel so I could sleep. I dropped her off there and slept all afternoon. It was wonderful. Fluffy curled up with me in bed and slept. The only time we woke up was when my friend called to tell me the gender of her baby that she is carrying. After that phone call I fell right back asleep and slept until I heard Hazel and Steve come home. Boy, did I need that this afternoon.

Since Hazel was at Nonni's for the afternoon, we did not finish the salt dough ornaments. So tomorrow we will paint them! I will have pictures of them tomorrow for you.

So the other realization I had today is that Hazel's birthday is only a little over a month away. I better get going on all the birthday party crafts I have been planning and putting off. So mixed in with my Christmas crafts you will see lots of nursery rhyme crafts.

Hope your day is going well.

Angels, Angels Everywhere

Today I went to the doctor and found out I don't just have a cold like I thought. Instead I have strep throat. Guess my idea of ignoring it and it will go away won't work.

Holiday Fair and More

Yesterday we went to the Holiday Fair at a Waldorf School in  Massachusetts. This is the school Hazel and I take our parent/child class and where we plan on sending Hazel through 8th grade. I had gone Friday evening with a friend for the adult only preview of the vendors. What I discovered in the past week was that in Europe (and perhaps other places) they have 100% wool felt that is much thinner than ours. One of the vendors who does amazing needle felting was at one of the craft groups getting ready for the fair and watching her was amazing, but she was using this other felt. Well when she found out we couldn't get it here she had her daughter go buy more so they could sell it. So I bought three different pinks since Hazel loves pink and now I'll be able to make a pink fairy picture with pink flowers, etc. I also bought from the Enchanted Caravan (the school store) much needed craft supplies. A proper needle felting foam, more roving, wool stuffing, 100% wool felt to name a few. Then I hit the beeswax/ local honey vendor. She is actually one of the kindergarten teachers and she and her husband also sell the honey and beeswax products. So I got a few Christmas gifts and some candles and some honey. I have found that eating a teaspoon of local honey really does help with my seasonal allergies. My mother had told me that it would and it definitely did.