The Season of Giving.

We had a beautiful Christmas, family and friend visits, homemade goodies and lots of fun.  The only thing that was missing was a lot of snow.  We were able to make a gingerbread house this year. Our forst one!! YEAH. We had lots of fun making it and eating it. Christmas morning brought lots of mess and come evening I was taking down the tree. Usually I keep it up for another few days but space in my house is getting tighter and with all the new toys and games we needed the spot that the tree had made home. I find myself looking through seed catalogs and planning my garden. Is that strange or what? 

CG singing with her new mic and stand.

Our first ever gingerbread house

2 more felted sweater nature bags.

My felted sweater slippers for a special niece.

Bags and baskets of homemade gifts for friends and family.

Soap!!!!

We made some soap using a base.  I love the oatmeal glycerin soap base, we have tried others and we don't like them. We melt the base  saop and add the fragrances that we want.  It is fun to try different soaps. We have made ones that smell like blueberry, popcorn and fresh cut grass. This year we are making a batch of Lily of the Valley, Apple pie, and we also made an experimental batch with Sage and Cinnamon and Rosemary. Try something new right. I created our own mold because I can make whatever shape I want. I saw a candy making television show once and it used corn starch as the mold for the hot liquid candy. When it cools you just scoop it out.  I used this idea for the hot soap and it worked. So that is my mold, a pan of corn starch. I just press the shape in the corn starch. I enjoy this it really is a calming time for me.

This is how the soap comes. We cut out what we want to melt.

This is the corn starch mold. I use a pestle to make the shape that I want. You can use a toy or any other shape that you want using this process.

I named the soap and printed labels, wrapped them in cut up paper bags and tied them with raffia. The one in the front is unwrapped.  We like to keep the natural color but you can add color and any fragrance that you want.  It is so fun and make great gifts.

Felting Sweaters

We have been working on a project  this week. We took a trip to the Goodwill store and bought a few wool sweaters.  We then felted the sweaters, cut them up and designed out Nature Study bags, we will give these out as gifts. Adventure Academy Dad cut up some wooden buttons. This was a very fun project. C.G. and S.A. looked for the wool sweaters at the store. It was like a treasure hunt, when they found one they would say 100% wool!.

Front of Nature Bags.

Back of Nature Bags.

Pine scented sachet

Today we made pine scented sachets. CG added cinnamon and apple spice to hers and SA added green tea to his. We used an old shirt and had many smells to choose from.





We could have filled them more. ...next time

We made clay

We made air dry clay today, it was very fun.C.G. said she could do it everday. I wanted to make some as well but ran out of salt so I had to pass this time. If it turns out nice I am sure we will be making more.

3/4 C flour, 1/2 C salt, 1 1/2 t Alum, 1 1/2 t vegatable oil, mix together add boiling water to desired consistancy (I think it was around 1/2 cup maybe) and mix. Color is optional.

SA made blue

CG made pink

Surprise under the table.

After our clay pieces dry I will post pictures.

Fun in the snow

We really enjoy playing outside in the snow. C.G. and S.A. love making snow angels, snowmen forts, slides, and exploring everything cpvered in white. We obviously got some more snow and had some fun.

 

They made us a walkway and a throne. I am the Queen (I was told)

Fun with Books and Magazines.

 For some reason I find it very interesting to make things out of other objects that are around. So I made this folded book just for fun. My husband asked what is it, my response was I don't know but it would look really good on a Library wall.  I also made a bowl out of old magazines. That was very interesting, I am going to make more and change the sizes a little. Keep in mind that these are not perfect, they are the first ones that I have made. I am can only improve from this point on.....right..