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Cocoa and Crafting

December 6, 2008 By Laura 1 Comment

We’ve been doing more crafting than usual around here lately, as Christmas gifts.  I’m way behind in blogging about them, but in thinking about that I realized in a different light….they are Christmas gifts!!  Surprise gifts, of course. Granted, the recipients,,,our extended family….rarely visit our blog. If ever.  But, you know, they MIGHT.  And we really don’t want to ruin their Christmas surprises.  So…..I guess I just won’t post the finished products, until maybe after Christmas, and if anyone concerned visits and guesses what we made, oh well!!

So for one of our first projects a few crafting Sunday’s ago, we were discussing what and how we were going to do what we were going to do.  The plan was to hand sew them, until my husband said,

“Well, why don’t we just bring up the sewing machine and figure out how to use it?”

(me)  “WHAT?  What sewing machine?  We don’t have a sewing machine! ”

(him) “Yes we do.  It’s downstairs in the basement.”

(me)  “We DO?!  Where did we get it?”

(him) “It was your mother’s”

After a moment of stunned silence and a confused stare, I think I ended up on the floor, laughing hysterically.  Outright bafflement hysterics.  WHY you ask??  Because TRUST ME, my mother never sewed a day in her life! In fact, she had one of those trigger gun things that shot plastic things to put a button back on.  And anyone reading this, who knew my mother, is probably laughing at just imagining my mother sitting at a sewing machine.  I loved my mother, God rest her soul.  But she was NEVER the sewing type! She was just not the real domestic kind.  In fact, neither am I, by genetic-nature, that is – believe it or not. My early years as a wife, was on the comical side. I loved this man, but really….did I really have to do all those things they do? I wanted to want to. But…where WAS the WANT to??  Only for him. You know? Love is a crazy thing. I had to grow THAT bone, and I DID! In time.  Granted, it’s still growing.  But I have found deep and abiding joy in things I never knew I could embrace.  In fact, I feel myself really…going back in time, if you will.  My husband has really noticed how I have evolved over the years.  In fact,  he actually called me “my little pioneer woman’” the other day.  And I think I gushed, “Real-lly?” Truth be told, I was beaming with pride. Because I am admiring their ways more and more every year.  Thus…hand making some gifts, I suppose.

So he goes downstairs, and low and behold, he comes up with a SINGER, and dusts it off.  Well I’ll be darned.  There it is.  I tried to remember seeing it before. In a closet maybe?  In my childhood basement? Hmmm.  Just not sure.   Anyway….he got to figuring the thing out, because he’s mechanical like that. And he was suddenly seeming to be MORE than enjoying it.  Can I just say?…..

Men and their toys!!

m

He showed {A} and I how it worked, …..and showed us.  And showed us some more.  He just didn’t want to give it up.  Finally, he let {A} in there to give it a whirl, and I did a few as well.  a

Then {A} happly sat down to do more too.  But Daddy was itching to get in there!  Seeing his hand??  Next thing we know, he tells her “OK, time’s up!!  It’s my turn.  Let me in there.”.  Maybe a little uncomfortable to announce this, but not as eager as he was to have another turn, apparently!! m1hand Oh ,,,,just look at the show-off sewing with one hand. Cute though, isn’t he??

all4

The little ones were helping too, on another part of the project.   They LOVE projects of any kind.  Family crafting is the most fun.  Usually. : )

o

Our little dolly, always willing to roll up her sleeves and get to work.

Maybe you can guess what we made on this day?  Probably.  The great thing is, besides getting one project done, is that we know how to sew with a machine now!  Granted, we’re not pros, but {A} may be before long.  She’s pretty ambitious at that machine on just about a daily basis.  You should see the the little things she’s made already!

Gosh….my girls, AND BOYS, just may get that genetic-domestic bone thing.

Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, WINTER Crafts and Creations Tagged With: crafting, crafts, sewing, sewing-machine

Getting Creative with Pumpkins

September 29, 2008 By Laura 3 Comments

unique-pumpkin-decorating_

On Sunday after mass, we went and picked up our pumpkins, having planned to paint some for our home decor.  It’s such a wonderful and inspiring time of year, and we were really looking forward to this project.

The kids worked together on this white pumpkin, below.  The polka dot theme was inspired by September’s issue of Better Home and Gardens.  The circles were embossed with an plunger-type apple corer.  While the directions instructed to insert the completely cored out pieces from other colored pumpkins into other colored pumpkin’s holes, (which is a great idea), we opted to just just partially carve a circle, and paint it in. We didn’t have enough different colored pumpkins to do the other way anyway. The kids all worked on this one together.

kids-painting-pumpkins

And it came out great!  So fun and whimsical!!

polka-dot-pumpkin

I was really excited about a design idea I saw in a magazine last year.  That particular project suggested using paper doilies as a template.  After going to 3-4 stores that were out of doilies completely, or didn’t carry them, I came up with Plan B….have my husband cut some designs out of vinyl, and use those as a template! : )  Seemed like a great idea, but applying a flat piece of sticky vinyl to a very round pumpkin, was a challenge and 1/2, to say the very least.

pumpkin-masking_

I had intended on painting it with some black acrylic I bought, until we tried some gouache markers we had.  They colored in like a dream…the coverage was unbelievably perfect, fast and easy.

pumpkin-masking

I thought this big pumpkin was my own to work on, but soon had begging helpers who got to work with me too. It seemed you couldn’t really make a mistake, so I let them join in.  I was anxious to peel off the vinyl template anyway, so the more hands, the better.

pumpkin-decorating

But I got too excited, too soon. When we peeled off the template, it had really bled (a lot!) underneath the edges of the vinyl.  What a mess. While the designs look pretty dang nice in the end, I can’t tell you how much cleaning up I had to do on the first big pumpkin. (The one we are painting in above.)  I mostly used the edge of an x-acto blade, but also some wet q-tips and a pencil eraser for the light smudges left.  Talk about tedious work.  But it was worth it to me. : )

Just 2 pumpkins took so much longer than I had expected, so after the kids went to bed, my husband and I got to work on the other big one, with acrylic paint and a sponge brush this time.  It went pretty easy still, and came out much cleaner.  Some cleaning up to do still, but not nearly as much.   Then we did the little ones, and I was sad when I turned around and realized we did the last pumpkin!  I wanted to do more!!  I just LOVE them. and can’t decide exactly where to put the 6 we did around our home, because I want them everywhere, in every room!

Below are all of the ones we did. We may do more if we have time this month.  If not, this is a project worth doing again next year.

unique-pumpkin-decorating

Today, the colors of Fall we have seen so far, continued to inspire everyone…..

kids-watercoloring

We’ve only just begun to enjoy our harvest festivities!  We have so many places we want to go, plans and ideas for creating, crafting and baking, and can only hope we manage to get them all in!  We don’t want to miss a moment of the joy this season brings.

Thanks for dropping in.  Come by again soon.  : )

Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, FALL Crafts and Creations, Home Decor, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, The Homestead Tagged With: decorating-with-pumpkins, fall-crafts, painted-pumpkins, pumpkin-designs, pumpkins, seasonal-decorating, unique-pumpkin-decorating

May Day Baskets and The Feast of the Ascension of our Lord

May 2, 2008 By Laura 2 Comments

May baskets
(Our May Day Baskets)

May Day
by Evaleen Stein

Let us take our baskets early
To the meadows green,
While the wild-flowers still are pearly
With the dewdrops’ sheen.
Fill them full of blossoms rosy,
Violets and gay
Cowslips, every pretty posy
Welcoming the May.
Then our lovely loads we’ll carry
Down the village street,
On each door, with laughter merry,
Hang a basket sweet.
Hey-a-day-day! It is spring now,
Lazy folks, awake!
See the pretty things we bring now
For the May-day’s sake!

Doesn’t it figure that two days we planned to acknowledge, had to land on the same day!  So it made for a busy day for us.  But the kids fell asleep that night with smiling faces, and peaceful hearts.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to teach the kids about May Day, and help them celebrate it the old fashioned way.  I’m not sure how many of you know the May Day Basket tradition, but I had an experience from my childhood that not only taught me what the day was about, but helped me remember it to this day.  It’s a story my kids ask me to tell them over and over. And lucky you…they insist I share it with you in this post as well.

I forget what grade I was in, but one year in elementary school, we made May Day Baskets in art class.  We were told that we were to leave it on the doorstep of an older loved one, to ring the doorbell, and run away and hide before the recipient opened the door and found the basket.  It was meant to bring joy to others, in celebration of springtime.

The only person I could think of, to leave my May Day Basket for, was my grandmother.  She was a very kind and well-intentioned grandmother, who lived in an elderly complex.  She was closer to my older sister than she was to me, but I loved her none the less in the years she was here.  The funny thing about her, to me, was that she could never remember my name.  She would always call me Susan.  It didn’t make me feel like the most loved grand-child in the world, but I understood somewhat where her confusion came from.  She did have a grand-daughter named Susan, who was my cousin of course. And it was better than the fact that she called my brother Jeffrey, because in his case, that was not his name either, and there was no Jeffrey at all in the family.  She was up there in age by this time, and sometimes it seemed she didn’t recognize us at all.

So the morning came to deliver my May Basket to Grandma.  I was a little worried about just leaving it on her doorstep and running away, because I knew she was a worrier, and it might scare her. I wondered too if she would even see it on the porch there,  because she had one of those solid white metal doors with the screen, and the step down to the porch was steep. So I brought my concerns to my mother.

My mother agreed that it might shake Grandma up, to open the door to find no one there.  And wondered too if she would notice the basket down on the porch.  So she asked me what I thought I should do about it.  I told her:

“Well, I thought maybe I should take the basket to her door, ring the doorbell, and when she answers, I could say “Hi Grandma, it’s me, Susan! Happy May Day!” and then give her the basket.

My mother laughed hysterically. And through the years she brought that story up again and again, never losing the humor she found in it.  So eventually I told that story to my oldest daughter, who is ALWAYS asking for another story from my childhood.  This one was bound to come up eventually–because honestly, I’m running out. (Or running low on memory.)  She loved the story, and laughed just as hard as my mother.  So she then asked me to tell our little ones my story, and they think it’s just as funny!  Now really, I do not think it is THAT funny, and you probably don’t either, but my kids wanted me to tell it, so there it is.  I hope it was worth a chuckle at least.  And if not, I hope the photos or rest of this post help make up for it. : )

So below are 2 photos of our kids assembling 2 May Day Baskets, for some older folks we know of.  Unfortunately, none of their grandparents are local, to be able to leave on their doorsteps.  So we chose an old couple who still live at the end of our street, where they actually raised their now grown 13 children! I think they have ump-teen grandchildren and great-grandchildren now, who all come to visit a lot. We also chose Sr. Jeremy from our parish, whose service and dedication to her vocation is truly inspiring. She is such a blessing to our parish family, and she loves children!

In the baskets the kids put what {A} shopped for the day before (with me of course):  Celestial Tea, Tea Biscuits, some chocolates, and some sugar-free hard candies.  They were such a team, and got the baskets together nicely.

May baskets
May baskets

Of course then I wanted another photo of them all together. In the photo below, they are all just recovering from a hardy belly-laugh. See, I thought they were being especially co-operative for the camera, with their big smiles, until they broke out with laughter.  Turns out, Daddy was behind me, pretending to lick my head.   NICE, huh?

May baskets

In the morning, we added the fresh flowers to the baskets, just before delivering them.  I know so many photos of this is not really necessary, but I couldn’t choose. I love each one of these images for different reasons. In the last one, {J} felt there was no room for the last flower, and decided to give it to his sister. Aawwww. <sniff>

  May baskets

May baskets

May baskets

May baskets

kids-delivering-may-day-baskets

kids-delivering-may-day-baskets_2jpg

kids-delivering-may-day-baskets_3

Feast of the Ascension of the Lord

With this day being a Holy Day of Obligation, we had Mass to go to that evening.

So we ate dinner early and got there in plenty of time. It was a wonderful Mass, with an effective homily (as always) from our pastor. But what touched me most, was the part of the Mass when we say the Lord’s Prayer.  As a family, we have always held hands for this prayer.  We say it together on a daily basis for Devotion, and of course always at Mass, and I don’t remember ever not holding hands. With that being said, I know there are people and families who do not join hands.  In fact, some are quite against it.  We know and respect that it is each one’s choice, and it’s a personal preference for each person.  But we just do.

So that part of the Mass comes, and as always, we join hands. I was second to the inside end, and {S} was at the very end of our family, at the far inside.  A few feet away next to him was an older couple.  As we began the prayer, I saw out of the corner of my eye, him slowly turn his head to look to his right.  And suddenly, his little feet shuffled to the right, and he reached out to hold the older woman’s hand. I looked down at his sweet face, now looking forward again, as he mumbled the prayer—holding back that smile, as he always does when he is feeling a little shy, and a little pleased with himself, at the same time.   Apparently, he noticed that the older couple was holding hands too, and so he reached out to her.  I think the lady just about melted.  I know I did.  And I was really thankful she was open to his outreach, and the notion of holding a stranger’s hand, as we were gathered together in His name, and didn’t break his little heart.

It was a wonderful day all around.  We hope your May Day was just as sweet, and if you didn’t get a basket on your doorstep, look on the bright side:  Maybe no one thinks you are old enough yet.  : )  I’m happy to report, I didn’t get one either.

 

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Filed Under: Celebrations, Crafts & Creations, Holiday Crafts, Holidays, Homemade/Handmade Gift Ideas, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, SPRING Crafts and Creations, The Big Picture, Traditions Tagged With: Catholc-family, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-kids, kids-May-activities, May Day, May-basket-delivering, May-Day-Basket-ideas, May-day-ideas, teaching-your-children-thoughtfulness

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