Simple Pinecone Garland

My husband knows me well. I guess after ten year of marriage he totally gets that coming home with a truck load of aspen branches, or a trailer full of evergreen clippings, or a garbage can full of pinecones leaves me feeling all twitterpated and goofy inside. Yep, he’s pretty thoughtful. And it also helps tremendously that he’s a lawn care maintenance guy, it makes finding those kinds of treasures pretty easy for him.

So, this time it was pinecones. He spend a day doing yard stuff at grandma’s, and she let him take her beautiful pinecones. Love that.

I also loved that I have a lot of pinecones to work with this year. It took some time, but I finally figured out what to do with them.

I made a garland for the kitchen window. I love how it turned out, even if getting there was a bit of a process.

I’ll tell you how I did it, and I’ll tell you what not to do too.

I used thin hemp jewelry cord, because that’s what I had on hand. I gathered up all my pinecones.

Then I gathered some Band-Aids and antibiotic ointment.

Because pinecones are very sharp. Very, very sharp.

I stared with my first pinecone and tied the cord around it, at the top. Then I let out a bunch of cord, more than I knew I needed. I cut off the cord there. At first I just wrapped the cord around each pinecone, when I was all done I picked it up by the ends and all the pinecones fell to the floor. Oops. I guess a whole bunch of pinecones are pretty heavy.

So then I just tied on the rest of the pinecones until I thought it was long enough. I made a loop, like I was getting ready to tie the cord into a knot.

Then I slipped the pinecone through the loop and tied it up really tight. Once I was done I took them outside and spray painted it silver. Cause sparkly things just look better.

After I hung it up I realized my spacing was totally off. I was hoping for one pinecones one right after the other, but that’s not how it worked out. So I grabbed a bunch of snowflakes and stuck them in between. So far, they haven’t fallen out. If they do I’ll just put a dab of hot glue on the pinecones to hold the snowflakes on.

It looks pretty and sparkly now. But I’m thinking I need to stick up some lights too. What do you think?

Oh, and here’s the cool part: pinecones, we already had; hemp cord, already had that too; Band aids, had those also; and the snowflakes we’ve had for years. So this project did not cost one penny. I really like that!

I’m sharing with Kim at Today’s Creative Blog and Kimba’s DIY day today.

An Encounter

This is a repost from last year, I think it’s a fitting reminder for the beginning of the Christmas season.

image credit

I was at Target the other night, picking up a few Christmas gifts to deliver to family over our Thanksgiving break. The girls and I were taking our time wandering the toy aisles; seeing what there was, pushing buttons and giggling lots. That's when we saw her. She looked like a very busy mom, bustling through with her cart loaded and a list longer than my arm. She had her bluetooth in her ear and seemed rushed and stressed. She stopped close to us to look at a toy cash register and commented to me how this one was better than the one on the next aisle, how it's on her son's Christmas list. She said, "That's what he wants. I just want it to be over."

With that she sped off, leaving me overcome by two feelings: sadness and exhaustion. The Christmas season hasn't even begun and she's ready to be done with it. It is so easy to miss it, isn't it? To miss the heart of Christmas because we are distracted by all the things that come along with the season, things that God never intended as we celebrate the birth of his son.

Matthew 11:28-30 gives us an invitation. It says, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." I believe that's what God has in mind for us, especially during this Christmas season. I'll be the first to admit that I have a hard time finding rest and remembering the heart of Christmas. I like to decorate and shop and bake, and have things just so for my home and my family. Those things are good, but they distract me from the main thing.

In the midst of that I hear God calling me back to a place of rest and remembrance. He is inviting us not to a Christmas event but to a Christmas encounter. An encounter with him this season that leaves us different, full of peace and rest. I think of the people we've come to know in the story of Christ's birth: the shepherds, the wise men, the evil King Herod, even Mary and Joseph, and so many more. Not one of those people came away unchanged after meeting Jesus. He made an impression, even as a small baby. He's still making impressions today; but we're usually too busy to notice, too busy to hear his voice calling us-inviting us to a life changing encounter with the Living God.

This season I want to answer that call, I want to trade all the pageantry and events of Christmas for an encounter. A meeting with God. That is the heart of Christmas, I pray that we don't miss it.

Today I'm sharing with Melissa's Holiday Linky Friday.

Starbuckish Wreath

I remember seeing some very cool wreaths last year at Starbucks. Shiny ornaments and yarn wrapped balls never looked so good together. I was inspired at the time, but had already put all my Christmas decorations up. I didn’t really want to go to the trouble of making them right then.

I was reminded of that inspiration this week somewhere in blog land. I really don’t remember where, it was late one night after a long, hard run. Long hard runs usually turn my brains to mush, so I’m sorry I can’t tell you where this inspiration came from. If it came from you, dear reader, let me know.

So, I really wanted to make one, but I so didn’t want to buy anything to do it. Guess what? I succeeded.

Here’s most of the junk I used:

• Old ornaments that I just don’t care for anymore (to cover with yarn)
• Newer, shiny silver ornaments
• an old grapevine wreath
• leftover yarn
• hot glue (lots and lots)
• a glue stick
• practice golf balls (to cover with yarn)
• and not pictured, gray felt.

To make the wreath I just started wrapping yarn over the old ornaments and the practice golf balls. I found that unless I put a little coat of glue from a glue stick I couldn’t get the yarn to stay. My hands were covered with glue, but that yarn isn’t going anywhere. I wrapped what I thought I might need for the wreath, but ended up wrapping up more. It took way more ornaments and yarn balls than I thought.

Once I had the yarn balls all done I started hot gluing everything on. I learned something here: hot glue on ornaments does not really stick to a grapevine wreath. So I grabbed some felt leftover from some project and wrapped the wreath. That gave the glue something nice to stick too. After that was all done I just started gluing things on, starting with the biggest ornaments and the biggest yarn balls. I learned something else here: hot glue works great but it likes to slip off of smooth shiny ornaments. So there was a lot of holding ornaments together waiting for things to dry. But it was all worth it, I love how it turned out.

I thought it needed a little pop, so I put it over a canvas that I painted blue just for the occasion. Before the paint dried I sprinkled some silver glitter on, just for a little sparkle. I think it totally makes it, and it totally makes it stand out on the wall.

And with this project, I think we are officially done with our Christmas decorations. Unless I get a wild hare to do something else, which stranger things have happened! We’ll see.

I'm sharing this with Kimba's DIY day and Today's Creative Blog.

A Perfect World

In a perfect world dogs wouldn’t shed all over the kitchen floor.

In a perfect world kids would stay tucked in after their bedtime stories.

In a perfect world chocolate chip cookies wouldn’t burn.

In a perfect world I would be constantly in touch with and aware of my Creator’s hand.

In a perfect world there would be no sorrows, no pain.

But, I don’t live in a perfect world. 

However, I was made for a perfect world.

I was made for a world where I’m always in my Creator’s presence.

I was made for a world where I am known by God and completely know him as well.

I was made for a world where the sun always shines and where there are no more tears.

In short, I was not made for this world.  This world isn’t home.

So until I’m there, in that perfect world; I’ll choose to be content with this glorious-though imperfect world that he’s given me. 

I’ll bask in the rays of the sun, knowing that someday I’ll be with the Son.

I’ll laugh over my children’s antics, knowing that someday laughter and joy will be all I’ll ever know.

And I’ll cry as well, but when I do I’ll remember that one day he will wipe away every tear.

 

Until then, I’ll always long to be home.

Thanksgiving Learning

With Thanksgiving just a week away we’ve been taking a break from our regular routine to learn about, you guessed it, Thanksgiving.

We found a few fun books from the library and have exploring what life for the pilgrims was like. I love the book Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation. It tells the story of two kids who travel back in time and gives a bit of history, in a fun way. The kids have been reading it over and over and over. And then reading it to their dad. I expect they’ll be spouting it verbatim by the end of the week.

We’ve also been talking turkey. And making turkey too. We made these cute little pinecone guys yesterday.

Just grab your pinecones, a stack of construction paper, a glue gun, a few hole punches and a glue stick.

Trace the feather shapes onto colored construction paper. I let the kids pick out the colors they wanted.

Have the kids cut out the feathers, punch out different sized holes for eyes, cut out a red blob for the gobbler thing and a beak too.

The kids put the faces together and I hot glued the feathers and face on for them. We got three happy little Tom’s, just as different as the three happy little kids who live here. Notice the Cyclops? Gobble, gobble!

Easy Christmas Garland

I love having Christmas garland up and around the house, and I love having garland that’s thick and textured and doesn’t look too plasticy.

Usually the non-plastic garland is either real and won’t last or it’s artificial and too pricey.

Here’s my easy solution.

I buy the cheap, plastic garland. It’s usually less than five bucks at a craft store. I get it home and wrap some lights around it, and then plug them in to make sure the lights a.) work, and b.) are even. Both are really hard to fix when the garland is hanging up. Trust me.

Then I pick up some “bushes,” or other realistic looking greens to add in. These are usually more expensive but that’s okay but you don’t need too much. I took advantage of a sale at Michael’s and picked up about thirty dollars in bushes (those are in the second picture) for all the garlands, plus a few wreaths in my house. I used wire cutters to snip the bushes apart into individual little pieces that I can cram into the garland.

Now here’s where I had a choice to make; I debated about sticking in all the stuff now, before the garland was hanging or after it was up and hanging from the curtain rod. I choose to do both. I gathered up all the pinecones that my hubby had earlier gathered up for me and I wired them to the garland using florist wire. I just cut a long piece, wrapped it around the pinecone and then wrapped the extra wire around the garland. It’s highly scientific. Even my super smart kids helped with this one. Then I stuck on some parts of my cut off bushes, I just figured out where to stick them and used the bendable part of the garland to wrap around the edge. Once I was done with that I hung it up.

Then I climbed up on the couch and stuck in the rest of the bushes until it looked right. I ended up using a lot on this one because you see it right when walking through our front door.

Then I moved upstairs and did the same with one for our bedroom.

I had enough left over to do this wreath and a few others too.

For only thirty dollars I think I got my money’s worth. Once the season is over I usually just take them all apart and start fresh again next time. The only reason I do that is because we don’t have a lot room for storage and I usually just cram the bare wreaths and garlands into a big storage bin.

I’ll be sharing with Kimba’s DIY day and with Kim’s Get Your Craft On day. Check them out for other fun, crafty inspiration.

I'm also sharing with Melissa's Holiday Linky Friday-lot's of cool ideas there-go check it out.

It’s Not Randomness

 fresh snow, taken right out our front door last year

“We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance…We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail.  Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order.  Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.”

-Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

This weekend I’m ready and I’m watching.  I want to discover what He’s up to, see His amazing designs everywhere I go.

Holiday Decorating and Being Content with What You Have

This last week I’ve been slowly getting out our Christmas decorations. As I do every year I challenge myself to put things up in a different way, to be creative with what I have and create a new look. And like in years past I’ve found myself searching through magazines, websites and blogs for inspiration. There’s a lot of inspiration out there for sure, and that’s a great thing. Except when it becomes a bad thing.

You see, I’ve noticed something very interesting, the more I look around for ideas the less content I am with what I have. I feel more paralyzed in my decorating, simply because I feel like I have to go buy something new to complete the look.

I was digging through the bins that store our Christmas decorations and I started thinking about Christmas growing up. I fondly remember the kitschy things my mom decorated with. There was the plastic Santa face (that’s what we called him). He hung on the wall and played a music box version of Jingle Bells when you pulled the string. There was a little ceramic, red boot that Mom always had plastic holly in. And then there were all the amazing things my Grandma had at her house.

As I was thinking of all this I realized that I can hardly remember all the specific holiday things that my mom decorated our home with growing up. What I do remember is the heart of it. She took time to make it special, no matter what we had. And I sure don’t remember her bringing in a bunch of new things every year. I’m coming to an understanding this year that decorating for Christmas is as much about making our homes beautiful as it is creating memories for the people who live in our homes. I don’t want my kids to remember the stressed out mom who got crazy trying to recreate all the cool things she saw in a magazine. I want my kids to find comfort in the sameness of our Christmas decor from year to year, even as I work in new touches. And really, I want to choose to be content with what I have while looking for new and creative (and thrifty) ways to add to. Because the heart of Christmas is not found in the decorating, it’s found in a tiny little baby who came to bring life. It’s about celebrating that, not a magazine worthy home.

So I’ve embraced a can of silver spray paint to update a few things. And even though I have purchased some artificial greens, I’ve decided to stop there and use what I have to make Christmas at my home. And in that I’m deciding to put my Christmas focus on the things that really matter this season.

How could you be creative and use what you have in a new way this season?

Today I’m sharing with the Inspired Room Beautiful Life Friday’s.

Projects, Projects, Projects

It must be the time of year, I’ve finally stopped thinking about outside stuff and now my brain is filled with ideas for inside my home.

Here’s some that have got me going.

The Tortoise and the Hare

I saw this cool idea for cute pom pom’s at The Tortoise and the Hare. I’d love to try it for some Christmas decor.

And I saw these super cool wrist warmers at Posie Gets Cozy. Love them! She’s got a link to a little how to on her post. I’m seeing more crochet work in my future!

Posie Gets Cozy

Then I saw these great curtains over at Tatertots and Jello-I’ve had burlap waiting around to hang over my kitchen window. Now Iknow what to do with it.

Tatertots and Jello

I’ve also got lots of plans for Christmas. Yes-I’m getting my home ready for Christmas already. And I love it! Inspiration has hit hard over here-I’ve got lots of projects up my sleeve, hopefully I’ll find the time to get some done!

Enjoying Fall

We’ve been finding great places to enjoy fall’s beauty. I love the changing colors and the amazing textures that seem to come alive this time of year.

The photo below is from a beautiful hike we took to Steelhead Falls. It’s an amazing spot that we are so glad to have found. Dad, you would love this place.

Although I’m relishing the beauty of fall, I find myself really looking forward to the Christmas Season. I know some people think I’m rushing things, but I usually feel like the month is just way too short.

So I’ll just be treasuring the beauty of fall in photos like these, while I’m slowly pulling out the Christmas decor. I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty excited about the most wonderful time of the year.

I'm sharing with The Beautiful Life Series over at the Inspired Room, head over to be inspired.

Flip Over Apple Cake

What to do with three kids when the school work is done and the apples are piled high in the fruit bowl?

Make cake of course!

Use a handy dandy peeler/corer to slice and peel four apples. Then let the kids eat the “snakes.” Those are the ribbons from the peel. Yum!

Mix the sliced apples with sugar and cinnamon then arrange in concentric circles in your cake pan. Pour some batter over it and bake it up. The smell is amazing!

Let it cool a little bit, then flip it over onto your serving dish. Enjoy with whipped cream or a little bit of ice cream. But, it’s just as yummy on it’s own!

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 stick unsalted butter (I use I can’t believe it’s not butter sticks)
• 4 medium apples
• 1 TBSP cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 TBSP sugar (divided use)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of an 8 or 9 inch cake pan. Melt the butter and set aside to cool to room temperature. Peel, core, and slice the apples. Place them in a bowl and coat with cinnamon and the 1 TBSP sugar. Place apples in the pan. Sift the rest of the sugar and the flour together, whisk in the egg and melted butter until it’s just combined. Pour over fruit, and smooth it with a spatula.

Place in the oven on the center rack and bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. Cool about 15 minutes on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Note: The original recipe called for 1 whole cup of sugar, I cut it in half and it was still very sweet. We used some gala and a golden delicious apple.

I'm sharing with Kimba's DIY day-head over there to check out some awesome projects!

Waxed Leaves and the New Cubby

We’ve been busy making stuff around here. This past week we made waxed leaves. I found the idea here, at Clover Lane. The kids all got into it and we were left some beautiful leaves to remember the season. All we did was melt paraffin wax in a disposable pie tin and dip the leaves in. Then we set them on wax paper, that was over newspaper. I melted the wax over our electric griddle, it seemed safer than the open flame of our gas range. And I gotta say, that stuff gets super hot so be extra careful and extra cautious for the safety of your little ones. But, it’s definitely a project we’ll do again.

And then, my sweet husband helped me hang our new cubby. I knew I couldn’t get this one done right all by myself so I waited for him to finish it. I love how it turned out, and it’s been quite handy to hold notes and keys and other random things. I love that it has five little cubbies, one for each of us. Our middle daughter has already taken to leaving her dad love notes in his. You can see the rest of the family is a bit neglected right now. I plan on stenciling some little numbers above each one-someday. And I also plan on leaving some love notes myself.

Remember the before?

I’d say that we improved on this one for sure!

I’m sharing the craftiness with Today’s Creative Blog-head over for some cool craft inspiration.