Home Made Christmas: Family Advent Calendar

So many lovely ideas floating around the web right now for

advent calendars.

My dear bloggy friend, Teach Mama

has a wonderful post about her family's advent calendar this year!

In the past we've used chocolate open a door-each-day-style calendars.

Last year we opened the Playmobil winter forest animals advent set

(now part of our ever-expanding Fairy village!)

One year, the Frog Princess made an adorable Santa Advent,

we glued a cotton ball to his beard each day to count down to Christmas.

This year, we're trying envelopes.

I have a huge box of small key envelopes

leftover from an altered books workshop I attended last spring.

I was inspired by this envelope advent at Design Sponge,

this one at Blue Cricket Design

this one at Nice Package,

and these gorgeous Origami paper envelopes at Kiddley,

they also have a wonderful list of activities we borrowed part of our list from!

I made a "rope" by braiding fat yarn --

Red, White and, Green.

We strung it across the doorway

between our family room and kitchen table.

I brainstormed a list with the kids and hubby,

printed it out and slipped our ideas into the envelopes.

Each day, we'll do a new activity to celebrate the season!

Here's our list: Harris Family Advent 2009

1. Candlelit bath!

2. Make Paper Snowflakes and Decorate the Windows

3. Make a CD of Christmas Music for the playroom.

4. Rootbeer Floats!

5. Bake something yummy with Mama

6. Make Christmas Cards for Friends/Family

7. Have hot chocolate with marshmallows.

8. Make a pipe cleaner candy cane or wreath.

9. Make a Paper Chain.

10. Use puppets to tell a Bedtime Story.

11. Have an indoor picnic.

12. Family Game Night (Wii, board games, puzzles?)

13. Make and Decorate a Gingerbread House.

14. Dance and Sing to Christmas Music.

15. Set up the Mouse Nativity.

16. Make a Christmas Craft.

17. Make a Christmas Ornament.

18. Dress Fancy for Dinner tonight.

19. Fashion Show with Clothes made out of gift wrap!

(Recycled from opening presents with grandparents)

20. Make and Hang Edible Gifts/ornaments for the Birds and Squirrels.

21. Surprise a neighbor with an act of kindness.

22. At Home Pedicures!

23. Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn.

24. Pick your Favorite Christmas book for mom (or dad) to read aloud.

25. Open Presents!

We always drive around our neighborhood

to look at lights and displays,

this year we'll be surprising the girls with an impromptu,

in Pajamas holiday lights tour.

We're taking our cues this year from Shells in My Pocket

blog and her Minivan Express! (so. cool.)

The girls won't know what night it will be until...

Daddy will get them in their PJs

while I pop popcorn and make cocoa downstairs,

then we'll tell them to put on shoes and

go for a ride with our special holiday light viewing glasses--

they change the lights into shapes like stars, words, angels, etc!

(my MIL bought them at a holiday store years ago for us!)

Happy Countdown!

Homemade Christmas Gifts: Scrappy Bookmarks

Pssst....if you're a female relative reading this,

and you don't want to know what you're

getting for Christmas this year,

go read something else!

I like to mix store-bought gifts

with more personalized homemade gifts.

This month, I'm on a roll producing

simple, but heart-felt gifts for family.

I pretty much leave the boys alone but I do

make gifts for the special women

in our family.

I am blessed to have grandmas, aunts, my mom, mother-in-law,

and a lovely sister-in-law to create for.

Many generations of women that came before me

worked as seamstresses for their families,

quilting, making clothing, mending,

and sewing beautiful home made doll clothes.

Whenever I sit at my sewing machine,

I feel a special connection as

I think of these talented women creating for their families.

I also like to come up with gifts that are useful.

We are all voracious readers

so bookmarks hit the spot this year!

My scrap basket still has bits of baby clothes

left over from the

memory birthday quilts

I made for the girls this year.

I also have a nice stack of paint swatches sitting on my craft table

(the perfect bookmark size if you ask me).

I combined the baby clothes scraps

with scrapbooking paper scraps

and machine stitched them to the paint sample cards

to create these easy and whimsical bookmarks.

Homemade Christmas Gifts: Paint Sample Purse Notebooks

I believe I first saw this fantastic project

over at Whimsy Love.

So quick and easy you can whip them out on your own

or with your crafy kid assistants.

Artsy + HeARTfelt + Simple + Useful =

a perfect homemade Christmas gift.

I folded paint samples like a match book.

Trimmed some purple paper from a post-it notepad,

stapled the little stack (approx 15-20 sheets) and tucked under the flap.

I just eyeballed it, I'm not a big fan of exact measurements.

Who doesn't need a little notepad in their purse, glove box, backpack?

Happy Crafting!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From my little family

to yours...

Wishing you a

happy and healthy

Thanksgiving.

I am so thankful

for you taking the time to read

about our projects.

Thank you for following us

on our little journey here.

Your kind thoughts and comments

are something I hold near and dear.

Reading your comments

(and your blogs) has been so inspiring

and uplifting.

You have helped me feel less isolated

as I spend my days parenting my sweet girls.

I feel like I actually know so many of you

and consider you to be

my bloggy friends!

I am also thankful for:

*BIG THINGS*

* family - -all of us under one roof

to celebrate and feast together

(thank you in-laws for traveling great distances,

siblings for driving with precious cargo,

and parents willing to host us!)

* a bountiful table of wonderful

homemade food (thanks for cooking dad!)

* the gift of time to play with my girls

and make fun art year round

* good health, two healthy and happy little girls

and a wonderful best friend of a cancer free husband

(almost 14 years!)

* our warm home

* friends (old and new)

* AND LITTLE THINGS... *

* the ability to play flag football (in our turkey bowl)

today with good friends and neighbors

* new sweat pants that aren't too short

and don't make my butt look fat

* good books!

* peppermint coffee creamer

* digital photography and

the ability to record the little things

and share our lives with family

across the miles...

*making home movie DVDs on iDVD

and being able to travel back in time

and see my girls when they were smaller!

* my reusable Starbucks to-go cup

(All artwork in today's post

was made by my wonderful in-residence artist,

the Frog Princess.)

What are you thankful for this year?

Play Time: Farm In Our Playroom

When the girls were stuck inside

with the swine flu a few weeks ago,

we had to get creative and come up with some

new quiet games to play.

With cold weather and long afternoons ahead,

I thought this might be fun for some of your households as well.

We decided to build a farm.

First we collected all of our barns,

barnyard critters, fences, and trucks/tractors

from the playroom menagerie.

I put a big piece of green felt from my art studio

on the floor and added some smaller squares of brown and tan.

We cut a duck pond out of some blue felt

and lined it with pebbles

from one of our sensory boxes.

We planted some acorns

and plastic greenery as our crops.

The Frog Princess helped her Polly Pocket

deliver this baby sheep.

I'm hoping to make some wooden pumpkins soon

(and perhaps a few hay bails) to add to our crops.

The girls and I played for hours (for several afternoons) with the farm.

I packed up all of the supplies in one box

so we can set it up again easily.

Daisy the cat guarding our farm.

Bubble Wrap Printmaking: Ocean Scene

The Frog Princess got the idea for this project

while we were making our

bubble wrap corn prints.

She asked for some blue and purple paint,

and printed some bubble wrap onto white paper.

Then, she wanted to add fish to her ocean scene,

and asked if we have any fish stamps.

Then I said, "no, but we can make some!"

I folded scraps of cardboard

from our recycling bin

into rectangles and we added

stick-on craft foam fish

I folded the cardboard back

to make handles

and stapled the card board.

I love this picture,

I think she did a great job on it.

Check out the

coral and sea snails

she added with my skinny brushes!

If I was still teaching art,

I would do this as a printmaking lesson

with some Eric Carle books

in a heart beat.

Bubble Wrap Printmaking: Thanksgiving Corn

The girls and I decided to get crafty

and make some decorations for the

upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

We dove into our "invention box"

(recycling that can't be recycled)

and snagged some bubble wrap.

and yes, we washed it and will be re-using

it for our next craft adventure.

I set out plates of washable paint

in red, orange, and yellow.

The girls had fun painting the bubble wrap

and printing the bubbly textures on

fall colored construction paper.

It was a very Eric Carle inspired process!

Note: I keep baby wipes (or damp rag/washcloths)

in arms reach at all times while we are doing

crafts like this with paint or glue for sticky, messy hands.

After the texture papers dried overnight,

(and the girls had a long soak in the bath!)

we practiced "cutting" and cut out some corn shapes.

I also traced Mini-Saurus' feet for some of our corn.

(Little square toes just like her mama,

I'm part platypus!)

She helped me tear strips of green and brown paper

to add to our corn.

Our finished corn-tastic project...

pardon the corny joke.

One more little goodie we made with our "corn feet"

Home-made cards for long-distance relatives

to send thankful greetings.

These would be fun place cards

if you're hosting thanksgiving dinner!

I cut out the feet but Mini-Saurus was able to tear

the paper strips for me.

The Frog Princess had the great idea

of printing with some real corn.

I didn't have a fresh ear of corn

(which works beautifully by the way)

so we used our pitiful little dried up ear of corn

from our garden...

It didn't work very well.

We pretty much just made a huge painted mess

but it was fun to try out.

Happy Printmaking!

Texture Plate Fall Leaf Rubbings

Instead of making traditional leaf rubbings

(which we do plenty of this time of year)...

We decided to try an old-school art favorite

and did some texture rubbing.

We used my set of texture plates,

place them bumpy-side up under your drawing paper

or printed out coloring sheet,

peel a crayon or use a

home-made crayon

and start rubbing.

Here's the link for the printable leaf coloring sheets we used.

You can get texture plates from teacher supply catalogs,

art supply catalogs,

and if you scrapbook they sell plenty of these

in the crafting/scrap-booking aisle of your local craft store.

If you don't have texture plates at home,

have no fear you can also go on a texture hunt

around the house!

Materials to gather or look for:

Mesh (from produce or tangerines) works wonderfully,

bubble wrap,

brick (our fireplace hearth and patio),

wood or tile (floors, deck, boards in the shed, shower walls),

rough concrete sidewalks,

tree bark (in the backyard)

the possibilities are endless!

After you make the rubbing with crayon

you can go over it with colored markers

(we used our scented set -- nummy)

or watercolors for a resist effect!

This would be a great kid's table activity

at Thanksgiving dinner...

so would this great leafy project over at

Filth Wizardry or these cute leaf rubbing fairies

(you could make leaf turkeys)!

If you don't have leaves to rub you can

always hop over the the Let's Explore blog and shop

and order a set of her wonderful leaf rubbing plates!

Happy Coloring.

Playroom Alphabet Border

I have been wanting to paint an alphabet

on our playroom wall for the past 2 years.

Alas, I didn't want to actually stand on a ladder

and do it so...

I procrastinated.

Sometimes my procrastination pays off...

when I saw this genius solution

(this beautiful alphabet over at the Snail's Trail)

I knew I'd met a woman after my own heart.

I must say, I've been coveting this scrapbooking

paper set for sometime at our local Walmart

(in the scrapbooking aisle)

but needed a good reason to buy it.

Then, I saw her post and realized that she used

the exact same paper set

(woo-hoo) !!

It was my arts and crafts destiny.

I was supposed to buy it and use it in our playroom

(or at least that's what I told my husband

when he came home and saw what I did!)

And yes, if you were curious...

I put it up on the wall

with my CM tape runner.

Before I added this lovely alphabet,

I hung our Eric Carle alphabet flash cards

from this curtain wire I purchased at IKEA.

It's a less permanent solution if

you're not down with the tape runner

on the wall idea.

I also use the wire to display kid's art work

and seasonal decor.

(those are just little curtain clips that I clip the art with)

Preschool At Home: Marbles and Golf Tee Game

I saw this great lesson at A Bit of This, A Bit of That blog.

So perfect (and simple!) for our

preschool at home Montessori shelves.

Both girls love it.

I gathered up the supplies:

(bet you have them in your garage!)

Golf Tees

Marbles

Foam Block

Set it all up on a tray with two bowls...

Showed the girls how to do it once and they were off!

Great for tiny fingers and fine motor skills.

Have fun!

Preschool (First Grade) At Home: Paint Chip Word Family Game

Okay, so this is more like "First Grade At Home" than

"Preschool At Home" but both of my girls like to play with it.

The Frog Princess is getting the most benefit

(as the newest reader in the house)

but the Mini-Saurus is learning her alphabet

and wants to be included in whatever her big sister is doing!

I saw this idea over at the Snail's Trail blog

and it was too perfect for words!

You can get her great lists of phonograms,

consonants, word blends, diagraphs, and word families.

An educational game with letters

and rainbow colors?

I'm in and so are my girls.

I used my square (CM) scrapbooking punch,

my trusty sharpie,

and some lovely paint samples from Sears.

Oh...word families, how I love thee.

I may need to make one for her first grade classroom.

Do you think her teacher would like one for Christmas?

Rainbow Leaves and Pom-pom Acorns

I love the felted rainbow colored acorns from

the Magic Onions and her Etsy Shop.

Sadly, I seem to be the only crafter in America

who can't figure out how to do

successful wet-felting.

I've tried and failed miserably.

I was in the back yard last week,

surrounded by millions of acorn caps

and wondered if you could add a pom-pom

to get the "fuzzy acorn effect".

So, yesterday I sat down in the studio

with a craft glue bottle in hand

and started gluing pom-poms into acorn caps.

(bet you could use a glue gun too -

but this was more kid friendly)

I even tried trimming a few with scissors to

get a more pointy "acorn effect"

I like the round ones.

(the little gray ones remind me of pussy willows)

Then I decided they

needed some colorful leaves

to keep them company

and started cutting leaf shapes

out of my felt scrap basket stash.

Ta-da...so happy!

I think these will find a home in our

fairy land after the thanksgiving holidays!

Fairy Pumpkin Houses

If you've been reading my blog for sometime,

you'll know that last Christmas my

sweet hubby and I built a fairy house for our girls.

My dad is also a crafty fellow and

helped us out by building some small

twig furniture and a

tiny well for their drinking water.

He decided the girls needed some

fall pumpkin houses for their fairy land.

Each of the girls got her own custom

mini-pumpkin house

(made from an artificial pumpkin)

and a battery operated tea light

to add a cozy glow.

They love them

and so does their grateful mama.

We are lucky girls.

More Paper Towel Art - Experimenting with Color.

My hubby came up with this little artsy experiment

(I think he did it as a kid back in the stone age.)

He showed the girls how you can

separate the mixed colors

from a colored marker.

First, collect some markers in secondary colors:

Orange, Green, Purple

(not permanent - we tried, they don't work)

Note: Color Mixing 101

Secondary Colors = Orange, Green, and Purple

They are made by combining 2 Primary Colors

= Red + Yellow, Blue + Yellow, Blue + Red

Draw a small circle (diameter of a penny)

on your paper towel,

then drop a bit of clean water in the center

Watch it "star burst"

the colors will separate as it spreads.

(Do you see the purple that leached out of the blue?)

Ask your kid why they think there would be a color added to a

"primary" colored marker?

Later we tried other colors too like

Brown, Black, Pink, Blue, etc...

The girls loved it.

Paper Towel Color Wheel

I saw this wonderful sensorial art lesson

at my favorite Montessori teacher, Anne's site,

Itty Bitty Love.

I couldn't wait to try it with my own girls.

As it turned out, the post halloween morning

was the perfect time to try it

with both of my girls and their sweet daddy.

First we mixed up

three cups of colored water

RED, BLUE, YELLOW

Then I marked a template

for each of them to follow

on the waxy side of a piece of waxed deli paper.

Then I armed them each with a pipette

from our science box...

you could also use an eye dropper.

Each girl followed her "recipe"

One dot of food coloring water

per dot on the chart.

(mom and dad had to ask Mini-Saurus

questions like, "Where are the yellow dots?

Now put your yellow on those dots....")

Then use your pipette or eye dropper

to MIX the COLORS!

(important: we forgot to do this the first time and it didn't work)

Put your paper towel down

to reveal the surprise!!!

Ta-da!!

Halloween Round-Up: Harry Potter, Flying Ballerinas, and Snails

Well, it rained last night...

but at least it was warm,

(the warmest halloween I can remember)

It was slightly drizzly

for the first half of

trick-or-treating

then...

it down-poured.

At least the girls were cute stinkin' adorable!

Mini-Saurus the

"Pink Flying Ballerina"

(her costume idea)

The Frog Princess as

Hermione Granger

she kept her candy in her spell book!

A pretty good match if you ask me!

My cute girls, healthy (at last)

and ready to get some candy

from our kind neighbors!

One of our pumpkins.

The rest of our pumpkin patch!

The snail pumpkin on the left was our only

successfully home-grown pumpkin this year

(he was our sole pumpkin survivor)

The pumpkin on the far right

is the Frog Princess' pumpkin,

he's Harry Potter and wearing pipe cleaner glasses.

The tiny pumpkin is Mini-Saurus' collaborative pumpkin

she picked him out, scooped him, and

told daddy what to carve and where.

We met up with some really great friends,

reconnected with neighbors,

enjoyed the decorations,

and enjoyed watching the girls

have fun.

It was the first year Mini-Saurus could

really enjoy and understand

trick-or-treating and she was a trooper

hauling her own bag all night.

We had a great time.