Sharing Saturday #38

Wow, once again, I'm blown away with last week's amazing ideas. If you have not been back to check them out, please do so (and don't forget to leave some comment love!).

Ok, now for this week's features! Our most clicked was a wonderful way to remember a loved one. And with this feature I also send my deepest sympathy for your loss and prayers for you and your family.

Some of my Must-Share Favorites:

1) From Life with Moore Babies: Location Nesting Boxes

2) From A Happy Song: Humpty Dumpty Doll Tutorial

3) From Rustic Remnants: Name Puzzles

4) From Art Mama: Yogurt, Apple & Summer Squash Muffins

And since autumn is beginning here are

Some Fall Favorites:

1) From I HEART CRAFTY THINGS: Apple Tree

2) From We Made That: Crock-Pot Apple Butter

3) From I HEART CRAFTY THINGS: Fall Tree

4) From One Creative Mommy: Paper Candy Corn Bunting

5) From A Happy Song: Fall Hair Clips

6) From Two Big, Two Little: Apple Printing Wall Banner

7) From Reading Confetti: Maple Seed Birds

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: Autumn & Her Fairies a Short Story (and some clothespin dolls)

Now for This Week's Party

A Few Simple Guidelines:
1) Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

2) Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc. Remember to link to your actual post.

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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Pause in Our Rhythm & Autumn & Her Fairies

Yesterday morning, Hazel woke up extremely early (3:30 a.m.) with a sore throat. She did not go back to sleep. I had trouble believing the sore throat thing since she was singing and jumping, but as the day went on it became obvious. She had an awful night last night and was awake quite a few times crying in pain or wanting something to drink. This morning she slept a little later and then wanted to listen to her stories on cd. At 7 she climbed into bed with me and we stayed there (sleeping most of the time) until 8. Needless to say, we canceled our plans for the day and she did not go to school yesterday. So we have a pause in our weekly rhythm--the first week of our full rhythm with swim lessons starting this week. I got to thinking about how it is easier to pause because Hazel is sick than because I am. And I know how fortunate I am to have my mother-in-law close by and always willing to take her when I'm sick.

Autumn

Source

This morning I made some clothespin dolls for Hazel of Autumn and her Maple Fairy and Oak Fairy. I shared the story I wrote about them the other day. I used a paint marker to paint their shoes and eyes. Then I used cotton for autumn and some scrap red yarn for her hair. For the fairies I used felt and cut out templates of the leaves. Then I used some fabric paint markers to have their spilled paint on them. I decided not to sew the clothes since I originally was going to have Hazel do this with me. So I used Sobo Glue which works great with fabric. I discovered it when I was making dollhouse furniture and dolls.

Maple and Oak Fairies

The other project I have been working on is a doll from Joan Russell's Dolls of the World Collection. The pattern is from The Woman's Day Book of Soft Toys & Dolls by Joan Russell. I'm hoping to make all of her collection as well as her Native American collection and my ultimate goal is to make her Amy doll (the cute one on the lower corners of the cover) and all her clothes and doll for Hazel for her birthday gift. I figured I would practice on the other ones first and it is a good thing I did because I messed up the hair and the eyes are not perfect. Oh, well. Now I just need to make the poor doll clothes. Joan Russell is very detail oriented when it comes to costumes so this may take awhile. Can you tell which country she is suppose to be from?

Did I mention that September is National Sewing Month? So it seems like a great time to be playing with doll making! I hope you will join us for Sharing Saturday later tonight!

Multicultural Monday/Thursday--Latin American Dance

As promised my late Multicultural ~~Monday~~ Thursday post. So as I mentioned in my last post, Hazel has not been in the mood for crafting lately. (I don't know why.) So today we read a couple of books about Hispanic Families (Mexican to be exact) and then had a Latin American Dance Party based on one of the books. We are continuing our celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month!

In My Family by Carmen Lomas Garza has a description both in English and in Spanish of the author's paintings of her family and special events. It goes from every day things to healing practices to weddings and other celebrations. It is really lovely and she identifies each family member for you as well as what they are doing in the painting. A great glimpse at another culture from a very personal view.

What Can You Do with a Rebozo? by Carmen Tafolla describes all the uses different family members have for a rebozo or a Mexican shawl (typically made out of cotton or silk). The uses go from dressing up, cleaning up, playing peek-a-boo, building forts, cradling a baby for free hands, etc. The story is told by a young girl whose favorite thing to do with a rebozo is dance. This is what we did. I pulled out three shawls--not rebozos but the closets thing we had. I put on a Hispanic CD, Latin Playground by Putumaya from the library and we danced. We even pulled out our homemade instruments from last week!

Hazel even put on her princess shoes--plastic heels! But I think she had trouble dancing so she often was taking them off and putting them back on. She played the guiro and I played the maracas. We had a great time!

Of course, Fluffy did not like the noise of our homemade instruments. Any time I shook the maracas she gave me a stare. This picture does not quite do it justice because of the flash with her eyes.

It was a fun time!! Afterwards we needed a little down time and went to play with hers and Daddy's trains. How are you celebrating National Hispanic Month?

Fall is in the Air!!

So I know I promised a multicultural post, but Hazel has not been in the mood to craft and I haven't finished my craft yet enough to share with you, so hopefully tomorrow. Today I'm going to share a few fall things. Yes, I'm finally starting to get in the autumn mood.

We have been noticing the leaves have been starting to change in some trees. Which got us to talking about autumn and the tree fairies. So I wrote a little story about the change of seasons. You can get a pdf of it here:

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Autumn and Her Fairies
The cool breezes started to blow and Summer got worried. She always hated giving control of the weather to her older sister, Autumn. Summer watched as the squirrels and chipmunks scurried around to gather food and knew the time was getting near. Many of the summer flowers had already passed due to the heat she spread. The birds had already started to fly to the other hemisphere for warmer weather. In the evenings she had trouble fighting the chill in the air and she saw buds on the mums. She was getting anxious. She had to stop the change of the season so she could stay awake and play more.

Summer loved playing with her friends. She loved going to the beach and watching the children play in the sand and in the waves. She loved seeing the beautiful flowers in the meadows and watching all the newborn animals grow. She often would play tag with the young animals and with the flower fairies. She loved the hot sunny days and the hot starry nights. It was so much fun to have the warmest season.

Summer always had a plan to stall Autumn. This year she decided to have a beach party and invite all the fairies. If the fairies were distracted there would be no one to paint the leaves their new fall colors and surely Autumn would not be able to awaken. If she could distract everyone with her party, then maybe no one would bother to wake her sister. She was sure this plan would work.

Summer sent out invitations to all of the fairies (well except the apple, mum and pumpkin fairies as she wanted them to stay asleep). Then she went to the beach to start planning, decorating and figuring out how to keep everyone there so they would not do their fall jobs.

The day of the party arrived, and everyone Summer invited arrived. There were lots of excitement. Many of the tree fairies had never been to the beach previously. They loved seeing the waves and smelling the salt air. Summer hoped they would all stay for at least a week. However the ocean breeze reminded them that Autumn would awaken soon and they needed to begin their painting project. The tree fairies are the ones that paint the fall leaves all the pretty colors, red, yellow, orange, etc. for Autumn. Autumn likes them to start with their painting before she awakens. So at the end of the night the maple and oak and many of their siblings said their goodbyes and thank you to Summer and rushed off to get their paints and start changing the colors of the season.

Once again, Summer could not keep Autumn from waking up. Autumn woke on her own as she smelled apples in the air. Autumn often slept with her windows open and her room was beside an apple orchard. She looked out her windows and picked a nice big red apple and took a bite. It was so delicious and she was so excited to be in control again.

Autumn's first job is to put her little sister, Summer, to bed. Summer was trying to hide, but Autumn found her on the beach. She told her it was time for even the beach had to be prepared for their eldest sister, Winter. Play time was over and now it was time for preparation. All the animals, plants and living things must prepare for the harsher weather that was to come after Autumn had her time. She was proud to be one to help them prepare the most. She also loved all the reds, golds, browns and oranges around. The cool air and crunchy leaves always seemed to put smiles on the faces of those around her. Her tree fairies always did such a beautiful job painting the trees to new colors. She really felt sorry for her sisters, Spring and Summer. Spring got mostly green and Summer had the green and often it turned to brown. Nothing was as beautiful as her season.

After Summer was asleep, Autumn checked to make sure Winter was still sleeping soundly and then she went to check on the pumpkin fairies. She knew they had their big night at the end of October and wanted to make sure they were getting ready, especially Eve, known as The Pumpkin Fairy, who went and traded gifts for the candy the children gathered on that special night.

She also always checked on her apple fairies and turkey fairies. She knew Thanksgiving occurred and those both played such an important role. The cranberry fairies also would need to be visited at the bogs. She so loved that she was the one who got to see the harvest and the bounty of the other seasons. It was so fun to welcome in the cool and help everyone with their preparations.

So this fall, go look for Autumn and her fairies' work. When you begin to see them you know autumn is truly coming. Enjoy!

This morning Hazel wanted to make pancakes. Since we haven't cooked our pumpkins yet, we decided on applesauce pancakes and I cut up our last apple.

Then Hazel joined me for the measuring and mixing and a bit of the cooking.

Apple Pancakes

Makes: 15

Ingredients

1 cup(s) whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 cup(s) uncooked oatmeal

1 large egg(s)

1 1/4 cup(s) fat-free skim milk

3/4 cup(s) unsweetened applesauce

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small fresh apple(s), Diced

4 tbsp Bob's Red Mill Organic Flaxseed Meal, Golden, 100% Whole Ground

Today she actually helped do some of the measuring! We measured out all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mixed them. Then measured the liquid ingredients in another bowl and mixed them.

Then we put the liquid ingredients and the diced apple into the dry ingredients and mixed. While Hazel was doing this I heated the pan with a bit of cooking spray on it. Then she helped me scoop the first batch into the pan.

She ate them with maple syrup and I spread them with applesauce. They were delicious!!

Happy Family Times #26--Family Walk, Play & Dinner

In case you have not entered yet, please check out my current giveaway for a fantastic book!!

Have you and your family done something fun or different this week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting all of our great family ideas so we can all be inspired to spend more time with our families! Please share yours below.

This week after Hazel's second day of school, we decided to go on a scavenger hunt at a local state reservation. However Hazel was a bit tired from school so we kept putting it off and decided to wait for Daddy to get home. He agreed to go with us, however we did not plan for the early sunset and the mosquitoes. So we did not get too far on our walk/scavenger hunt. We did however find some neat holes that we were guessing what could live there (well and wondering who would throw their trash there), a huge rock, and a maple leaf and an oak leaf.

Going into the woods only a short bit, we turned around and headed to the Visitor's Center. Of course this was after a bug flew into my eye and Steve had to get it out. Not fun. Then we headed for the small playground. (The big playground is by the lake and about a mile walk from the parking lot.) We let Hazel play for a bit.

She was very excited that she could climb the "rock" wall since she could not last year. And one of the most exciting things for Hazel was sliding down the pole. We had to help her get on it, but she loved sliding down it and did a happy pole dance after the first time!

Steven noticed the back of the "rock" wall the dinosaur skeleton imprint. It is the first time we ever noticed it. After playing for a bit, we headed to a local pizza place for some dinner. Hazel has discovered their ice cream freezer and always wants one after dinner there. As you can see she enjoyed it!

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun

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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas

Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!