Crafts

Waaayyyy back when I was a youngster my cousins and I dreaded having to be seated at the kids' table. Every holiday forced to sit at the ugliest, most boring worn down card table with equally old folding chairs. In fact, the best thing about sitting at the kids' table was complaining to one another about how much we hated sitting at the kids' table.

Again, as we enter the Thanksgiving season I'm on the hunt for an important new fall tradition for my family that helps them express gratitude for all the things they are thankful for. With so many excellent ideas out there like this gratitude garland from Full Circle fulfilling my goal will be a cinch.

Rooms By You offers a super-cool way for transforming some of your most precious artwork crafted by your most precious little ones into keepsake pillows you'll treasure. As a parent of two kids who love sharing their art with the world I love, love, love this idea and can't wait to customize a few pillows using the online service offered by Rooms By You. Pillows range from $24 to $44 dollars and are quality pillows.

After seeing Maya*Made's tutorial for fall newspaper bunting I knew I just had to jump into Autumn action.

It's down with the old holiday (Halloween), up with the next holiday (Thanksgiving) time. As I unpack our Thanksgiving decorations I'm struck by how grateful I am for all the wonderful people I have in my life. That's not to say I don't constantly think about how fortunate I am; but, I tend to get extra emotional around this time of year. I'm one lucky girl and one of my biggest wishes for my children is as they grow they continue to truly internalize gratitude, reflecting on the good things in their lives and expressing that gratitude to the world through their actions and words.

Dia De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a notable holiday falling after Halloween and is celebrated by many Mexican and Latin American families. The holiday is a vivacious and spirited celebration of the deceased honoring their lives and life itself.

Wikipedia:

This papier mache candy bowl by Ellen Luckett Baker of The Long Thread is simply too sweet. What trick or treater wouldn't want to dive their costumed paws into one of these bowls made from recycled materials...What trick or treat supplier wouldn't want to make one of these bowls then fill it to the brim with yummy Halloween treats?

Ellen:

My 4 year old daughter has decided this week to be equally enthusiastic over leaf collecting and sending mail. She's decided every day we must collect 3 leaves on our way out to our mail box...place our letters in the box (she flips up the red flag and closes the box)...collect 3 more leaves on our way back to the house...And so it's continued, day after day this entire week. As you can imagine, not only do we now have a fierce collection of autumn leaves but we are coming up new ideas for stationary we can craft so she can send words of love to all her favorite people.

We have some serious shadow puppet love. The puppets and theaters are a cinch (and cheap) to make from ordinary household materials. And they offer oodles of imaginary play opportunities and pumping of creative juices.

Being gung-ho about making at least one costume for one of my kids yet limited on time and skill I set out in search of a costume that would be homemade without being overly complicated or underwhelming. I wanted to make the costume out of materials I have since we've already spent a pretty penny on kiddie costumes and also consumption bad..recycling good.