Little Turkeys All Aglow !

Want a sweet Thanksgiving project easy enough for the whole family to create?  Look no further than these adorable Tissue Paper Votive Holder Turkeys!
I first saw these cuties a while back in a magazine.  I of course can’t  remember which one, but I wanted to give credit where credit is due so I did a search for them and came up with none other than Family Fun! For some reason I think it was a different magazine, but since this is the first thing that came up  here  is their tutorial.

What you will need:

• Small Bubble Votive Holders
• Wooden Doll Heads
• Itty Bitty Black Beads
• Hot Glue Gun
• Mod Podge
• Tissue Paper
• Tacky Glue
• Flameless Tea Lights
• And if you are more patient than me, time to wait for your little ones to get home from school to help!

As I mentioned before this is a very family friendly craft. I however, am very impatient and wanted to make a few of these up before my kids got home from school. (I decided I would only finish 2 of them and leave the other 2 for the girls to do later.)
First things first:
Cut your tissue paper into small scrap pieces.
I did the next steps a tiny bit different than the tut. You do what works best for you.
Brush Mod Podge all over the votive holder then apply your tissue paper scraps in an overlapping manner. Then apply Mod Podge and tissue paper to your doll head. Next attach your doll head to the votive holder with a dab of hot glue. Hold the head on the votive holder for about 10-15 seconds to make sure the glue is good and dry before moving on.  When your sure your head is stuck, reapply Mod Podge over your entire Turkey and head. Let dry for at least 45 min.  Here is what they look like in the drying process.


While your bodies are drying you can begin to cut tissue paper for the tail feathers, beak, and wattle. The Tutorial says to measure 9x2 inch strips of tissue paper. I’m not one to measure so I’m not sure my exact dimensions. (It just adds my own personal flair right?) When you have your strips, fold them in half one at a time over your index finger. (be careful not to crease the fold) Twist the open ends together, set aside and continue with how many tail feather you would like. My feathers were kind of big (remember I didn’t measure) so I only used 3 per turkey. Cut a triangle on the fold for a beak, and a long oval with 1 twisted end for the wattle. When your Turkey bodies dry you can begin to assemble the parts. using small dabs of tacky glue attach the beads to the head for eyes. Again using tacky glue apply the beak and wattle. This part gets a little tedious, I used tweezers and a toothpick to help me out. Next apply the tail feathers to the back with tacky glue. And finally add your flameless tea light.  Make sure you don’t use real candles due to the tissue paper sticking up in the back. You want to set your turkeys aglow not on fire!



  There you have it an adorable Thanksgiving Craft that is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face when they see it in your home!



Be sure to check out the awesome linky parties I'm linking up to!

Party Like A Peacock!

As I mentioned before I am soooo far behind on my girls’ Halloween costumes this year. YAY!! I’m finally making some progress! Allison’s is mostly done. Just may add a few things here and there to add to it’s sweetness!

I decided a bit of  a lot of store bought help would be needed this year if I was going to pull this off.

A huge thanks to Gymboree for these way too adorable tights…..

And how’s this for an impressive wingspan? Thanks again Gymboree!

Of course it wouldn’t be Halloween without a little “Mommy flair”. I decided to go with tutus since my sewing skills are still lacking! (Hey I try, but most of the time my machine and I end up fighting……. In case your wondering 9 times out of 10 the machine wins!) And besides tutus are soooo easy. If you can tie a knot you can make a tutu. There are about a bazillion tutu tutorials out there if you haven’t found one already go for it! They are fun and addicting!

Notice the bustle in the back? That’s her favorite part! ;o)

Remember that beautiful mask I posted in the sneak peak of the costumes? That is from Wal-Mart! I really had my heart set on making some ahhhmazing masks for the girls, or doing some fancy face painting for them, but hey my time got away from me and these fit perfectly with the “theme”. Saved time on the masks and a whole lotta mess from the face paint. It’s a win win situation!

I added a peacock feather to make it match a little better. Though, it did look great without it too.

And the last little bit of  “Mommy touches” were some real peacock feathers that I glued with some permanent stitching glue (Can’t think of the brand offhand.) onto the store bought wings.  The wing feathers are a bit a lot more sparse than I had hoped. The shirt was a lucky find in the closet! It already had a key hole in the front, so I used it to my advantage and tied some tulle through it. I think you could easily “add” your own hole to a shirt on hand or even just hand sew the tulle in place.






I am still waiting on a shipment of feathers that I ordered, and since we have a Halloween event tomorrow and I need to make two of these I had to spread them out some. If they get here by Halloween (or sooner) I will try to fill some of the gaps in!
Karsyn’s costume is still in the works. She will also be a Peacock but will have a tad bit different costume! I’ll post pics when I’m done.



Very new to this but I thought I would try to join my very first linky parties! Super excited……. so here is where I am linking this post up to…..

Toilet Paper Pumpkin Project

These little pumpkins are too cute to spook! I originally got this idea while searching for some creative Halloween projects to add to my fall décor.  I found these little cuties on the  Family Fun website. Here is their tutorial.

Awesome I can do this and I think I have everything I need:

Toilet paper and fabric: check  Wish I had some different fabric but since I really wanted immediate gratification this would have to do!

 

I was minus a few things so I had to improvise. All I had were sparkly green pipe cleaners and not a green piece of felt to be found! Oh no what’s a girl to do? I so had my heart set on making some of these! Never fear your mind is here…..

 

First I decided I would use some green korker ribbon for the vine, and cut a leaf out of ribbon with my trusty wood burning tool.Nope scratch that the bus comes in less than 20 mins. I really want to get this done and cleaned up before the kiddo comes home. (Although I think I may do this for another set of pumpkins. I think it would be super cute!)

 

 Hmmmm think think think……. (enter that ding noise here) some red and green raffia I’ve had laying around for many many years! Only using the green of course.

 

After finagling with the skimpy pieces of fabric I had I decided it was very unnecessary to cut it down into squares. I didn’t have the appropriate amounts, if I cut them they wouldn’t work. I think I ended up using more of a rectangle shape. Hey whatever works right? Anyway I placed my toilet paper roll in what appeared to be the middle of the fabric, (rectangle remember?) I then proceeded to fold up and tuck in the fabric around the roll. The stem is a piece I cut from a brown paper bag that I just rolled up, taped, and stuck in the hole. To finish it off I grabbed a few pieces of the green raffia and tied it in a bow around the “stem”. I love them, easy, fast and so adorable! What better place to keep them then in the bathroom. Think our guest will realize what they are if they are in a pinch?

 

Funky Toe Socks Turned Groovy Leg Warmers!

Ok so I didn’t dig too far into the creative mind today.  Just something simple done with something I’ve had laying around waaaaay to0 long! If you’ve read my first post I’m sure you have gathered just how much my girls like to dance! They also started their dance classes up again last month. Oh they look way too stinkin’ cute in their little leos and tights! But lets face it we live in MI and it’s fixin’ to get down right  FREEZING cold! Brrrrr. What a better way to keep those little legs warm than some “mommy” made leg warmers!  This project is so easy. All you have to do is find some cute adult knee socks, (or in this case toe socks) snip them off at the bottom, and run them through the sewing machine using a zig zag stitch. This keeps the bottom from fraying and also adds that cute little “lettuce” edge ruffle. Cute aren’t they?

 

 

 

The Ghost of Halloween costumes past

Ugh I feel like such a bad Mommy! I am seriously neglecting my girls costumes this year.  In the past I have always had their costumes made or purchased by the end of August. I have not even ordered the materials yet for this year! Yikes! I better get my rear in gear! In the mean time here are their costumes from the last 3 years…..
A sweet little which and her adorable black cat!

The pick of the patch and the sweetest candy corn ever!


And my favorites thus far, A Roaring little lion and a Pirate Princess!




I won’t tell you what they are going to be this year but I’ll leave you with a hint,

I planned to make the girls masks, but being that I am waaaaaay behind this year I saw these and they fit the theme perfectly so I took a little store bought help.  Can You guess what they will be?

Some Days you gotta dance!

I wasn't sure if I should add music to my blog. I know some people don't really enjoy it... Sometimes it's slows the page down sometimes you dislike the music or sometimes it can be even worse.... You know, when your staying up late at night, and the whole house is asleep and quiet but your still surfing the web and you open up a page when... Surprise! Oh no! You forgot your speakers were on. Full volume! Now everyone in the house is awake, the dogs are barking, and your Husband wonders (and maybe even gets a little mad) why you never go to sleep!?!  What? No of course that's never happened to me.... Just Sayin'...... it could happen. LOL!  So I decided to make it the best of both worlds.... instead starting the music automatically and scaring you out of your socks I decided to let you listen at your own risk. If you so choose to do so, (which in honor of my first post I really hope you do) just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click play. Make sure your volume is set at a comfortable level. :o)  IThe music just fits and so it shall stay! But, only on your own terms;o) Ok back on track here.....

I've been thinking and thinking.......... and  thinking some more on what to make my very first blog post about. Finally a light came on in my head! (insert "ding" noise here)..........

SOME DAYS YOU GOTTA DANCE!

Ask me to name one song, just one and this would be it. No it is not my favorite song. Come to think of it I don't even have a favorite song. I like em' all! But anyway back to this one..... I choose this song because it says it all! It's how I am choosing to live my life. Naturally life is full of ups and downs, goods, and bads. Each day brings something new to the scene and lets face it, it's not always pleasant. My Husband has told me for years and years 13 to be exact. Whoa hold on back up did I just say 13 years? Yup that's right we've been together for 13 years married for 8 of them...... Oy' I'm getting old..... oops back on topic, my Husband has always said "Don't sweat the small stuff Jeana, your gunna worry your life away." Yes I'm a worrier but that's a wholenother (yes I make words up too) blog post, and I need to work on staying on track. A wandering mind is yet another one of my pitfalls.  Who would have thought way back then that what he had been telling me all that time would become so true. 


My girls LOVE to dance! I LOVE  to watch them. When they dance they are so carefree. They aren't worrying about who's watching them, whether they are dancing wonderfully or dancing horribly, whether the song is country or pop. They don't care if they are dancing slow or dancing fast.  They just dance! (and of course it usually involves a lot of laughter). They're having fun! They aren't thinking about yesterday or tomorrow. They are living for the moment, making the moves up as they go. I have to stop, smile, and just think to myself...  I need to dance more.  It doesn't matter if they've had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. (yes I stole that from a children's book)  This one to be exact.  One of our favorites! Oh shoot getting off track again...... It doesn't matter if their day was good, bad, or ugly. When they dance all their troubles melt away.


My first blog post is a challenge.  A challenge to me and a challenge to you. A challenge that my children encouraged me to take on.......
I'll admit it,  my life is not quite perfect not even close to being perfect.  I have bad days. I sometimes fight with my husband, I get angry with my kids for petty reasons. I worry about life issues daily. I don't do nearly as much housework as I should.  I get stressed, I get tense, and sometimes I loose it. I am human. But from now on at the end of the day I will erase any  problems with a song and a dance. I will dance with my girls. I will dance with my husband. I will dance by myself. I will laugh. I will have fun. I will make lasting memories with my adoring family.   I challenge you to do the same.  Live by the chorus of this song.
"Some days you gotta dance, live it up when you get the chance, 'cause when the world doesn't make no sense and your feelin' just a little too tense, you gotta loosen up those chains and DANCE!! "
   For your entertainment I have included some pictures of my sweet girls dancing!
 
 
                           


Feel free to leave comments.  Did you have a bad day today? Did you cure it with a dance? Make sure you include your favorite dancing music! I'm gonna need some ideas with all the dancing I"m gonna be doing!