Monday, Monday

Pumpkin's Favorite Sleep Spot--Under the Tree

Mondays are weird days here. Every other Monday we have our cleaning people come at 7:30 a.m., so I rush around making sure things are somewhat picked up so they can clean. Then my mother-in-law usually takes Hazel for at least part of the day though lately it has been for the entire day. Some Mondays I have an appointment, but then I need to figure out what I need/want to do for the rest of the day. It always is a struggle to decide to do what I should/need to do or to enjoy the childless time. Today I think I will take a bit of a nap (I didn't sleep well last night) and then after lunch get organizing my craft room. I'm hoping to move most of Hazel's crafts downstairs with mine and getting it all organized so we can find things.

Advent Calendar

Today I will share a few of the things we made at the Advent Workshop at church last night. Hazel and Steve came early which worked out perfectly. Hazel and I did the crafts before dinner and then after dinner she was ready to go home since she hadn't napped.


The first craft is an Advent calendar. We cut out the picture and bow and glued them to a cut paper plate. Now we have holly leaves to glue on each day until Christmas.

The next is a Christmas tree ornament. We bought kits from Oriental Trading. They are red and green felt cut as wreaths and glue them together then glue the buttons, bow and ribbon on.



They also had wreath making with greens and also a great picture wreath making spot. I brought the supplies home to make a picture wreath. I may make one with a picture from each Christmas since Steve and I have known each other and maybe will buy the supplies to make one for Hazel for each year of her live to give her when she is older.

The final craft Hazel and I did were these beaded wreath pins. They are just tri-beads (3 green then 1 red repeated for a total of 28 beads) on half of a green pipe cleaner then close to make a loop and glue on the ribbon and the pin back.

Then we had caroling and the card making station. We made 100 Christmas cards to give the City Mission Society of Boston who will distribute them to the homeless. Our church does a lot with/for City Mission Society.

Overall it was a fun evening. And this year there was plenty of food. (Last year we ran out due to lack of signing up and still coming.)

Hope you are having a great day!

Merry Christmas with a few Nativity Crafts

Our Family in "Bethlehem"

Merry Christmas to one and all!! I hope you have a joyous holiday remembering the best gift we ever got was Jesus!!

On that note, here are a couple of Jesus crafts.

This is a simple one with half a walnut shell, peg doll and scrap of felt or fabric. Hazel added a face as well. I need to glue a ribbon on to it so we can hang it on the tree.

This one was inspired by the cinnamon stick manger at Childmade. We changed it a bit. We did not use anything on the back and just glued the sticks to each other. Then we added some "hay" instead of the quote. We used flannel instead of muslin because we had it and we made the gold ring out of a pipe cleaner. Hazel loved working with the cinnamon sticks.

For more Christmas crafts, books and ideas check out:

• Love ornament
• Advent Week 1: Hope
• Advent Week 2: Peace
• Advent Week 3: Joy
• Fruit Christmas Trees (perfect for any Christmas party) 
• Christmas Craft Round-Up
• Multicultural Christmas Books
• Must Read Christmas Books
• Christmas Pinterest Board

Sharing Saturday #48

Once again, there were some amazing ideas shared last week. If you have not had a chance to check them out, please do so! There were many Thanksgiving crafts and ideas shared. I know I pinned them for next year. Click on the Most Clicked picture to see the post!

With December starting, I know I have Christmas and winter on my mind. Plus Sunday starts Advent this year, so I decided to feature a few of the Christmas/Advent/Winter posts shared.

1) From Wesens-Art: Advent Calendar
2) From De Gulle Aarde: Cup Cookies
3) From Making Boys Men: Using Kids Art for Christmas Cards
4) From Taming the Goblin: Snow Play (Indoors!)

A few of my other favorites as well:

1) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk, Native American Salt Sticks Evaporation
2) From E Strea Chikitu: Needle Felted Star Tutorial
3) From I'm not a trophy wife: Fun Word Cloud Project (introducing another free word art site like Tagxedo)
4) From Ziezo - Crafting and Living in Kenya: Dyeing Wool with a Child

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:

Winter Pants: Yellow Ducks and Red Snowflakes

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. 

Sharing Saturday 13-47

Have you entered my current giveaway? It is the perfect gift for any doll lover!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! We had some wonderful ideas shared as always. This week is a bit crazy for me. Tomorrow is our BIG event at church. It is almost all together. I visited a few of last week's posts and we had many snowmen crafts shared, so I'm featuring a few of them and a couple of my other favorites!

1) From Crayon Box Chronicles: Build-A-Snowman Foam Dough

2) From Happy Hooligans: CD Snowman Ornament

3) From Little Wonders' Day: "Frozen" Treat Roll a Snowman Ice Cream in a Bag Game

4) From The Connection We Share: Snowman In A Jar Playdough Kit- Gift Ideas

5) From Keitha's Chaos: Math Activity from Our Elf on the Shelf

6) From Wesens-Art: Dancing Angel Tealights

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:
This week we shared our craft filled Advent calendar, our Hope ornament and Advent Workshop crafts and wreaths, our leather doll clothes giveaway and a round-up of some of our top Christmas books that teach the story of Christmas or the meaning of Christmas. We will share an update on our crafts from our Advent calendar on Sunday as well as what we are making for week 2: Peace!

Don't forget to enter our Giveaway for that magenta leather doll clothes and accessories & a gift certificate for Leather Hide Store (see picture above)!!

 

Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

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

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook,  Google+, and Pinterest 

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

Sharing Saturday #49

Wow, I had a very hard time choosing features this week. Have you checked out the wonderful ideas shared last week yet? If not, you need to. They are so inspiring. I know I found several ideas I want to try with Hazel.

Click on picture for link to post.

I definitely have Christmas on the brain and I can tell many of you do as well. Here are a few of my Christmas favorites (I also shared one on Wednesday that we already tried).

1) From Family Home and Life: Scripture Ornaments
2) From Scissors and Spoons: Clothespin Stars
3) From Making Boys Men: Nativity Peg Dolls
4) From Raise a Boy: DIY Block Ornaments
5) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: My First Nativity

On Monday I shared many Advent calendar ideas from last week and several other Sharing Saturdays. I apparently missed a few so I am including them here as well as a Hanukkah craft and some other favorites.

1) From Boy Mama Teacher Mama: Clothespin Menorah
2) From Lewis Music Studio: Recycled Drums
3) From Explore and Express: Advent Nature Table (What an amazing activity!!)
4) From Science Sparks: Candy Cane Goo
5) From Mess for Less: Advent Calendar Jar
6) From Mess for Less: Meringue Snowmen


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

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From Your Hostess:

Focus on the Nativity (This is a multiple blog--blog hop, but here are some of my ideas including play sets, books, music, printables, and crafts)

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. 

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-001.jpg" /></a>

4) We would love it if you would follow us on Facebook and Google+

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. 

Holiday Craft Fun with Jingle Stamps

 

Disclosure: I was sent a set of these stamps in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Now I know it is only October, but if you are going to make holiday cards, gifts, or wrapping paper, now is the time to begin! So today I am sharing a fun holiday stamp set with some different ideas for the fall, holidays, and beyond for you and/or your kids to make. The stamp set is called Jingle Stamps, and it includes 22 stamps and a duo ink pad of red and green ink.

Sharing Saturday 15-47

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! Even with the issues I had with Linky Tools last weekend, there were many amazing ideas shared. I had trouble choosing between them for features!! Our features are just a sampling of the wonderful things shared, so if you haven't checked out the rest you should!! The features for this week include Christmas Crafts, Holidays, and a Few Favorites. I have also started a new craft link party (the crafts just have to be family appropriate and not kid related) and it is a place to share crafts, reviews of patterns, craft books, etc. and patterns. I hope you will come check it out tomorrow.  Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a monthly party, so be sure to stop by to share your multicultural posts and ideas and recipes there.

Clay Nativity Ornaments

Today we are sharing our fun and simple Christmas ornaments. Hazel is making these for all of her teachers and family members as their Christmas gift. The idea came from making a nativity set using clay and nativity cookie cutters. This was one of our crafts at our Night in Bethlehem last year, but Hazel did not try it since I was busy and Steve is not that into doing crafts. I made a sample one up for the church event this year.

DIY Christmas Decorations -- a Crafty Sundays Post

 

Sorry I was missing this past week. Hazel got sick and was out of school all week. I felt like I was fighting it and with some extra sleep and Rachel Carapella's advice, I seemed to fight it off. Now sadly Steve seems to have it. Fortunately it is not Covid-19. It seems to be a cold or a little bug. While being home with Hazel I was able to make some crafts I have been thinking about for awhile. Have you noticed gnomes seem to be everywhere this year? One of the moms of one of Hazel's friends loves them so I have been noticing them everywhere. I was going to try to make one of the fabric gnomes shared here, but haven't gotten around to it. I shared the tutorial with my friend but she wanted a non-sewing version so here is what I came up with.

Multicultural Monday: Product Review: Happy Kid Heart Empathy Kit

With the start of December and Advent, I thought I would share each post where our Mouse and the Miracle Mouse (Holy) has been up to. (He now has an elf friend named Elfie who often is hidden with him.) Also make sure you stop by Multicultural Kid Blogs to read my post on Advent Around the World!

Holy reading The First Christmas Night by Keith Christopher
(comparing it to what he remembers of that night!)

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Happy Heart Kid as part of the Multicultural Kids Product Promotion Services. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Today I get to share with you a wonderful product from Happy Heart Kid. The product I reviewed is their Empathy Box. This box arrives with four complete activities to help teach your child(ren) about empathy. Hazel loved these activities!! 

Focus on the Nativity

This year one of my goals is to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I feel our society is so much turned away from the religious side of Christmas and more into the commercialism and the receiving. I do not want to bring Hazel up this way. I want her to understand why we celebrate Christmas and why it is a special day. So I have been on the look-out for ways to do this. 

St. Nicholas Day

Today is when Hazel's school celebrates St. Nicholas Day. This is a holiday that is not traditionally celebrated in the United States, so I had not heard of it. However, in her advent calendar she got a needle felted St. Nicholas (I made it last night). I did some research and the best site for information on St. Nicholas including free stories--printable or on-line-- is St. Nicholas Center.

We read a story about The Real Santa Claus after opening  the advent calendar. She then started to color one of the print-outs from the website, but got distracted.

Before her nap, she sat on my lap while I read to her several of the stories on-line. Many are like books on-line. She fell asleep in my arms. The free stories can be found here.

This website also offers crafts and activities. Printable ones are found here.

They also have suggestions to celebrate on your own. The idea I liked most was leaving a gift of food at a neighbors with a card about St. Nicholas (printable). If we have time to bake some banana bread after Hazel's nap we may try this. Run a loaf with a card attached to a porch, ring the bell and run.

I'm hoping by celebrating the different saint days with Hazel that the Waldorf School does, she will get a better understanding of each of them. I know Steve loves this part of her education, being the one who is Catholic in the family.

So Happy St. Nicholas Day! I hope you find a way to spread some love and goodwill to all.

Sharing Saturday 13-45

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! There were some amazing and inspiring things shared. I haven't seen all of them, but have enjoyed the ones I have gotten to so far. I hope you have had a chance to check them all out and leave some comment love for each other! Now onto our features.

From Gift of Curiosity: 20+ Turkey Crafts & Activities

With Thanksgiving next week, I decided to feature some of the Thanksgiving lessons, crafts and decorations shared. We had so many wonderful Thanksgiving ideas shared. I picked only a few of them. If you are looking for a lesson, craft or decoration, make sure to go back and check the rest of them.

1) From Thank You Honey: Tiny Turkey's

2) From Green Owl Art: Corn Cob Doll

3) From Sugar Aunts: Cardboard Tube Turkey Juice Box Cover

4) From There's Just One Mommy: Candy Corn Turkey

5) From 3 Boys and a Dog: Thanksgiving Printables: Reading Flashcards 

6 & 7) From Bible Fun for Kids: Thanksgiving with Preschool 

8) From  Kims Kandy Kreations: Turkey Napkin Place Card Printable

9) From EduArt 4 Kids: Thanksgiving Crafts: Awesome Turkeys and Indian Pottery (Sorry I couldn't take a picture from the site.)

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:
This week we shared two more Native American Cinderella tales, our exploration of Thailand with Around the World in 12 Dishes, a round-up of Thanksgiving books we enjoy and a thankful corn craft, and a wonderful flamingo book for Flamingo Friday.

Next week I will be focusing on Advent, so if you have any Advent calendars, wreaths, etc. please share them so I can feature them!!

Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

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

3) Post the newly updated button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/search/label/Sharing%20Saturday" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-150_zpsba88f805.jpg" /></a>

4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook,  Google+, and Pinterest 

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