Felt Daffodils

Is it too cold and snowy in your area for the daffodils to bloom?
Why not create your own daffodils from felt.
I found this cute tutorial over at HARTFELT FABRIC ART  and since I had a stash of felt laying around I thought I'd give them a try.
Now I know that daffodils are yellow but I couldn't resist adding a a few more colors. I wanted to make the white daffodils with the orange centers but I didn't have any white felt so the pink and blue took it's place.

These were so easy to make.
Just a few cuts, a tiny bit of stitching and wahlah!
I placed my finished flowers on straws and then wrapped them in the green floral tape. I didn't have any small empty pots so I just used a canning jar that I wrapped in some spring colored fabric. I used a rubberband around the rim to secure the fabric and covered it with a pretty ribbon.

If you make those and want to try your hand at another flower then you may want to visit WEEFOLKART. They have a tutorial for brightly colored Poppieswhich I'll be trying next!

Have a great Monday and stay safe!
Lots of stormy weather all around.

Making Window Stars

The kids and I spent the afternoon yesterday making these window stars. They were really fun to work on and they have definitely brightened our windows up a bit.

I let Gage use my rotary cutter, self healing mat and quilt block template to cut out the squares for these. Typically, the kids aren't allowed anywhere near my cutting scissors for fear that they will use them on paper and dull the blade. However, this blade is already good and dull so I figured I'd let him use it and save some time cutting all those squares.

Next we folded each square several different ways until we ended up with a star point.

Then we applied a small amount of glue.

And finally, we glued each point to the next one creating a brightly colored window star.

After the glue dried we used some double sided tape and taped them to the windows.

These can be made in all different sizes. If you want a smaller star then cut your squares smaller. I believe the ones we made were about 10" squares.

If you'd like to try your hand at these then you can go HERE to view complete and easy instructions as well as step-by-step pictures.

Gathering Nuts, A New Favorite & Salt Dough

Happy Friday to all!
I am so glad the weekend is here.
I have tons of stuff I should do but the sounds of a quiet weekend spent doing nothing sounds wonderful.
Not that that will happen but I can still dream.
I've got a bathroom that needs repainted, vehicles that need washed and waxed before winter fully arrives, sewing, Ebaying, catching up on everyone's blogs and so so much more.
Wonder which or how many of those will actually get done??
Yesterday afternoon I looked out the back window to see two of my kids pounding away at my little Burr Oak tree. Yikes!
I went out to yell at them but I was quickly greeted by the nut gatherer.

She was so happy with how many she had gathered and Gage was grinning ear to ear each time he knocked one off the tree that it was hard to yell at either one of them. Instead I sat and watched as they carefully knocked more down thinking the whole time that maybe without the nuts on the tree that all the little pesky chipmunks that are burrowing up my yard will go away!

After Mark finished work we headed to the mall to grab a bite to eat. When we finished eating we headed over to Ollie's Bargain Outlet. This store has been in our area for a good while but I never take the time to go into it. That is until last night. It is now my new favorite!
As soon as you walk in the door you run into aisles and aisles of books. Tons of cookbooks, history, educational, romance, amish reads, religious, hobby etc. I could have spent the whole shopping trip in just the books alone.
In the end we ended up bringing plenty home with us.

These are a few of Logan's picks.

I also found a few jigsaw puzzles that will keep us busy indoors when the weather changes
and some new Christmas cards as well as the book Amish Peace that I have heard from a few bloggers was a good read.

Today, we managed to squeeze in some time to try a new recipe for salt dough. ( Do you gals put lemon juice in your dough??--It said that it would make the dough even harder.) 
The kids always enjoy playing in the kitchen and getting their hands dirty so they enjoyed this.

The dough is drying in the oven right now so maybe tomorrow we can get them painted up cute.
Well I'm off to get a few more things done so that I can spend my evening here just sitting by the fire.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Fall Crafting with the Kids

Aren't these cute?
I was blog hopping the other night and ran across a new craft blog. One that has a section geared for kids, so I browsed through her ideas and copied  many to try in the coming months.
Here in our homeschooling adventures, Fridays are for catching up on things (like Art class) that get tossed to the sidelines on normal days.

These were easy for the kids to make and fairly inexpensive if you already have some basic art supplies laying around. I did have to go to an art supply store to buy the little hats for a dollar but the rest of the stuff I already had. Well, all except for enough glue sticks. I ran out of those but luckily, Mom & Dad had a few of those at their house so instead of having to stop and run to the store I just ran across the street and borrowed one of theirs.☺
You can find the instructions for the scarecrow over at CRAFTS BY AMANDA. I've added her site to my sidebar so that I can check it daily. I'm always looking for ways to entertain and occupy children. :0)

It's windy and warm here now but it's supposed to cool down by morning which is good. We've got lots to do this weekend. We're going shopping for a pool for next year. We have talked for several years about buying an above ground pool but have never done it...I think we're just going to jump and do it this time.
Also, we're going to tour the former WV Penitentiary using the tickets that I blogged about HERE and this weekend the Elizabethtown Festival is also going on inside the walls of the penitentiary.
Lots to do and we've got great weather to do it in.
Hope you all have a great weekend!