For the past, oh three years, I’ve been trying to clean out my basement that is a land of misfit toys and activities. It’s where the loud, battery operated, messy, and too-big-for-our-living-room toys go to live. Every time I get motivated to weed out just one tiny space down there, I’m reminded of how difficult it […]
These days it’s about downtime and doing less
These days, this week, in what could be a furry of doing before the big day – we are doing as little as we can. The rain has brought all of us to a slowdown on this late (now yesterday) afternoon. I am enjoying a mama’s treat of a coffee and Baileys (again) while the girls quietly play school, […]
Ginger bread loaf house was “the best project ever”
Making a gingerbread house is a tradition in our house for the holidays. But every year I cringe at the candy ingested while going about the project, and the frosting that turns to cement, and the gingerbread pieces that never actually get consumed. We have used the kits and I have baked a house from […]
Yes we can bake that. It’s Christmastime!
I’ve told you before how I love to bake, that I always have since I was a kid, and about the time I ran away from home with my Easy Bake oven. Well, come Christmastime my want to bake explodes into long list of ingredients and recipes as my tastebuds water and my creative noggin […]
Simple photo ornament made from tree trunk wood
I knew I wanted to do this craft, making photo ornaments using cut off pieces from our Christmas tree trunk. So when we went to cut down our Christmas tree I asked the nice, old, 82-year-old man running the chainsaw if he would be so kind to cut off a few extra pieces from the […]
Sewing a felt tree garland or banner for Christmas
To get started on this project, for children draw simple triangle trees onto a sheet of felt and have them start cutting. My five-year-old cut about three sheets worth of trees before she gat tired of the craft. Out of all the crafts we did last week. I think was her favorite. She loves to […]
Making upcycled burlap balls for our homemade tree
I saw this fabric ball idea on Pinterest and immediately thought it would be a great use for some of the torn burlap that I recently acquired for free. I found an awesome source for authentic coffee bean sacks, with printings on them from Columbia and beyond. But they were reused to package concrete structures […]
How to finger knit garland for your Christmas tree
My seven-year-old learned to finger knit one day in aftercare at her Montessori school. Many Waldorf based education philosophies teach this too, using stories that go along with the craft that has been passed down from generation to generation. My daughter also enjoys teaching this skill to others, including me. So last weekend, my oldest […]
Christmas ornaments from stencils for all ages
Last year my oldest daughter took it upon herself to start making cutout Christmas tree ornaments from stencils. Now it’s becoming a tradition. My big girls usually make on them on fly, grabbing computer paper and doing it all on their own when the inspiration strikes them. Keeping colored pencils, scissors, a hole puncher and […]