Our Thankful Garland.

This little project was a doozy.

What was originally a plan for a thankful tree

turned in to a thankful garland.

And what originally was intended to be a crafternoon,

turned in to crafterallday. And a half.

But, it's a cute little way to focus on our blessings.

And a craft that's easy to include the munchkins in on.

{Warning: crappy iphone photos ahead.}

So, here we have:

CRAFTERDAYANDAHALF THANKFUL GARLAND

Supplies include:

a hole punch

glue

a ruler

a pencil

scissors

hemp string (or whatevs)

and some pretty fall colored card stock.

And a pointy nail

a circle punch (not pictured, whoopsy.)

some neutral colored card stock (seen below)

And some scrapbooking sticky numbers. (seen below)

and some mini-clothespins (seen below) or paper clips.

I started off by measuring out my paper so that

I would get 6 strips each of 5 colors.

I cut the 81/2 x 11 cardstock in half.

So each strip was 5 1/2 by 1 inch.

I cut the strips out.

And played scrabble.

Then hole punched both ends.

Used some brads to fasten them.

Like this.

Alot.

60 times. Cause I made 2.

Then poked a little nail hole in the top.

And tied a knot to secure it.

{This was originally the "ornament" for my thankful tree.}

Just tie a knot right here to link them together.

Using some other plain cardstock that I had,

and some scrapbooking numbers for days of the month

and that aforementioned circle paper cutter,

I banged out 30x2 of these circle babies.

And then enlisted a cutie patootie

that is ALL ABOUT GLUE

to help glue the circles on.

Lastly, I cut out small scraps of paper to write

a little ditty about what made us thankful that day

and clipped em on with my most favorite mini-clothespins.

And voila. Our thankful garland.

Originally, that green tree above was going to be the thankful tree.

But then when I pieced these together, I loved it just the way it was.

And since I already had most of the supplies,

it cost me about $4 to make 2 of them.

What fun ideas for you have to focus on your blessings

this holiday season? Please do share. :)

I'm a Garbage Picker.

Last night, I was driving home from time with friends when to my excitement I drove past someone's trash pile. I saw a little gem there that quickly made it's way in to the passenger seat. It took me a total of about 10 minutes this morning to fix this little thing up to make it one of The Bug's entourage for imaginary play.

BEFORE

It was just a little beat up.

And in need of a little camo effect for these holes.

And of course needed a good wipe down cause who knows

what kind of nastiness could have been crawling around here.

AFTER:

I used my exacto knife, a little scrapbook paper that I hadn't yet

found a use for, and some modge podge and

Vwa-la!

The funnest part is that it matches her $30 wooden kitchen that she got last year.

Coordination is always important, even if it's play toys. :)

I have so much fun with this stuff that my fear is one day, I will be one of those folks that you see driving around the night before the garbage man comes. You know, the ones with with garbage piled up strategically in a tower so that they can fit an obscene amount of things in to the truck bed?

There is something metaphorical about this I think. Taking something ugly or dirty or broken and making it beautiful. Kind of reminds me of what Jesus is doing with me. And I like being reminded of that.