Spreading "JOY"

Good Morning! Just wanted to share some reader "JOY" with you. Remember the berry "JOY" decor? I had two readers send me pictures this weekend. I just love how they both suspended their decorations...from a doorway... 

 and a picture window.

Thanks Erin and Ashley! They look great!

JOY

I have taken about a three week sabbatical from blogging. I am having a hard time finding a good balance between sewing for my etsy shop and kids, blogging, and taken care of my family. Does anyone else ever feel that way? I have just come to the realization that I can't always do it all and sometimes I need a break:) So we took one and went to Atlanta for Thanksgiving! We had a great time visiting my in-laws. And since we have been back...decorating for Christmas is in full force! My mother-in-law had her house decorated to the nines when we got there. I was inspired to get a move on it when I got home.

I made this simple berry decoration for above our stove.

I feel like the kitchen often gets neglected when I decorate and needed a little Christmas "Joy."

Berry "Joy" was three things I love about a project...fast, easy and cheap! I bought five stems of "berries" at Michaels. They were on sale for 99 cents each. You really only need about four. You also need ribbon, command decorating clips and pruning sheers(regular scissors aren't strong enough to clip the wire. At least mine weren't).

All I did next was shape the stems into the letters, J-O-Y.

I twisted the top of the "J" into a loop so I could attach the ribbon.

For the "O" I used one berry stem and and tore off some little berry stems from another stem. Does that make sense? I didn't quite use two whole stems.

For the "Y" I had to cut a 3 inch piece of wire off and reattach it where I wanted to hang the ribbon. I just twisted it until I was happy with the way it hung.

I used Command decorating hooks to hand the ribbon from. These are easy to use and don't put any holes in your wall.

All finished!

I hope everyone has a "joy"ous holiday season!

These are some other ways I used my left over berries...

Happy decorating!

Linking up with...

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My Little Chickadee

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween! I am trying NOT to dive into any of the girls' Halloween candy...very tempting.

I finished Clara's costume in the nick of time. The first go around didn't work out. I posted this picture the other day...

I was originally going to make a little skirted onesie using the yellow chiffon and tack feathers all over the bodice. When I tried it on her she cried. I think the feathers were itchy and uncomfortable. So I went with plan B, which I think worked out better.

*Tutu- elastic, ribbon, tulle, chiffon, and feathers.

* yellow tank -Target this past summer.

* little leggings -shirt I had found at the thrift store a while back

*yellow headband - embellished with feathers

* booties -Target...

and Viola...a little Chickadee!

Carson decided to be a "kitty cat" THIS time. Luckily we had everything on hand(black t-shirt, tutu, leggings, ears and an eyeliner pencil)!

All in all the girls had a wonderful Halloween with their friends and family. They enjoyed a hay ride and trick-or-treating! We are looking forward to next year!

Have a great week everyone!

Taylor Swift and her Guitar

Happy Friday everyone! And happy Halloween weekend! I love Halloween...who doesn't? It the one time of year when you get to dress up, eat a lot of candy (without feeling guilty) and carve pumpkins. Every year around the beginning of October people begin to ask, "What are you going to be for Halloween?" This year Carson had a tough time deciding who she wanted to be. It was really the first year she has had an opinion. She changed her mind every day depending on what her cousins/friends were going to be. She has wanted to be a witch, KiKi from the Fresh Beat Band, Ariel, Taylor Swift, a Kitty Cat...and the list goes on.

The other day my sister asked me to make a Taylor Swift costume for my niece. I got to work and made the pink, sparkly dress.

Well, Carson saw me making it and immediately asked where her Taylor Swift dress was. So from the leftover fabric I made her a dress too. She then asked, "Where is my pink, sparkly guitar?"I should have known...If you give a little girl a pink, sparkly dress...then she will want a pink, sparkly guitar to go with it. I felt like I was dealing with the pig in "If You Give a Pig a Pancake."

So I got to work making her a pink, sparkly guitar. Well, I didn't make the guitar per say. I just made over one we had. I taped it off, spray painted it, and then added glitter glue.

Viola! A pink, sparkly guitar to go with a pink, sparkly dress.

She was excited about her new Taylor Swift ensemble.

Now, I have to get to work on Clara's costume! What are your kiddos going to be for Halloween?

Pumpkin Fun for Kids

Carson loves file folder games. I had a few from when I taught kindergarten and she plays with them all the time. So I thought I would make her some pumpkin games and poem plays. We made a counting game using these pumpkins. I took the pumpkin and saved it to my photo library. Then I uploaded them to Picnik and added numbers to them. I printed them out and saved them! You can download the pumpkin numbers for the games Here.

First we colored our pumpkins...

Clara really enjoyed trying to eat the crayons!

Then we cut them out and glued them to our folder.

For the Pumpkin Counting game we are going to count seeds and place the correct number of seeds on the corresponding number.

For the Five Little Pumpkins poem I just glued the poem to the front of the folder. We are going to laminate the other set of 5 pumpkins separately. This will allow us to be able to play with them when the poem is read.

We used pocket folders because that's what I had on hand. I like them because you can stick things inside them for storage(and they don't slide out), but they do not laminate well. And I like to laminate them so they are durable. You can also use regular manila file folders which work better with the laminate.

Here they are laminated...

I ended up tearing the lamination off the counting game. It had bubbled up in a couple spots.

Here is Carson at work...

When you are finished you can put the seeds in a little baggie and store them inside the folder.

For the Pumpkin Poem we used this removable putty to put on the back of the laminated pumpkins so we could stick them to the wall for our poem.

Here she is acting out the poem. Every time I read about each little pumpkin she took it off the wall. Then when we were finished she put them back in number order.

Happy Counting!