Stop the Presses… I'm Crafting!!

Growing up sandwiched in between four brothers, I wasn't much into the girly girl scene.  I didn't do ballet or dance nor did I show much interest on the domestic front.  And it wasn't for a lack of trying on my mother's part… I remember her sitting me down at a sewing machine on more than one occasion trying to show me how to use it.  Yawn.  Puh-lease.  At summer Girl's Camp I hated doing the customary craft.  I remember sitting at a table painting a wooden doll thinking how unfair it was we didn't get to do the cool stuff the boy scouts go to do… overnight hikes, river rafting, building canoes. 

So, as I've become a mother and have seen all the talents that other women around me seem to have… sewing, crocheting, quilting, canning, gourmet cooking, etc. I can't help but feel a little left in the dust.  Doesn't anyone want to get a women's basketball team together?  Or how about ultimate frisbee?  That sounds a lot more fun than knitting!!  But, lately I've been biting the bullet, mostly for my girls' sakes.  The crafty gene must skip a generation because Em is showing strong signs of being the next Martha Stewart (minus the criminal aspect).  

So, as I said, I bit the bullet and joined pinterest (shudder).  So far, I have two pins… wahoo!  both of which I completed with my girls last week.  It ended up being a lot of fun.   But only because I was doing it with them, I would never pursue this stuff on my own.  

First I'll feature our "thankful tree."  We enjoyed making it so much I think it'll become an annual tradition.  What I loved about this project was we didn't have to go to the store to buy anything... everything we needed was on hand.  

First we got brown paper bags and painted them with water colors… reds, yellows, greens

Then I crumpled them up and let them dry

Then I gathered some twigs from outside and put them in a vase and trimmed them down to resemble a leafless tree

Next we cut the painted paper bags into strips, folded them length wise and cut out a shape of half a football.  These were our leaves.

Then I hole punched them, put them in a bowl, and now every night at dinner we each take a moment to write something on a leaf that we are thankful for and then put it on the tree. For an added challenge, on the backside we write down a "hand of God" or "tender mercy" entry that happened that day.  So, C's first leaf on the left says "Grandma and Grandpa."  Emily's leaf says, "a rainbow."

This is what our tree looks like after three days of hanging our thankful leaves.  I'll post a pic of what it looks like by Thanksgiving!    Should be awesome. 

 I love that Thanksgiving is a holiday where you don't GET anything… you just sit back and reflect on all that God has given you. It makes for less stress and more happiness in my opinion. 

 In my next post I'll show you the awesome Thanksgiving treat we made (no, it was not sugar cookies, thank goodness!)