On the Craft Table (for under a dollar)

Last weekend I spent some much needed time away in Huntsville, and at my dad's lake house in Guntersville.  Saturday I had lunch with a dear friend from high school.  It is always nice to catch up and talk with someone who really knows you well.  Deb and I graduated together, were married in the same year, and also lived in T-town together for a while.  I'm glad I had a chance to catch up with her. 

Sunday was a beautiful day at Lake Guntersville.  My brother and I started a fire in the fire pit and burned some of the rubble on the property.  We barely made a dent in the piles of downed trees and brush, even though we kept the blaze going all day.  For a couple of hours I walked the property and picked up gum balls, acorns, and hickory nuts.  I brought home three quart Ziploc bags full.

There was a reason for collecting these nuts, other than trying to control the squirrel population.  I was scheduled to have a brunch at my house Nov. 17th for the girls in our youth group.  For quite some time I have had a craft in my head involving acorns, pine cones, gum balls, and hickory nuts.  Unfortunately, the brunch did not happen but I crafted anyway.  Hannah helped me a little but I did most of this myself.  Here goes:

I searched the internet for leaf templates.  I chose a maple leaf shape and an oak leaf shape.  Then I cut card board bases for my wreaths.  I placed a votive candle holder in the middle and started with a circle of acorns.  Next remove the votive holder and grab the glue gun.  Add the nuts in any pattern you like.  My original votive holders were pink, so Hannah painted them fall colors for me.  I have a red and a green which will serve a dual purpose and show up again at Christmas.  I have enough nuts left to make some nice circle wreath holders for Christmas.  To put the final touch and pretty things up, I found a good use for my spray ModPodge.  I sprayed the wreaths to make them shiny. 
               Here is the finished product:

You can see the card board.  To avoid this, cover with felt or burlap first.  I was just being lazy.



 Credit for this craft goes to my mom.  She used to take numerous walks in the woods, gathering nuts and pine cones.  Of course I used to help.  Did you know that Mobile pine cones look different from Huntsville pine cones?  It's true, and they are also prettier in wreaths.  Mom used to make large scale wreaths with plywood bases and take orders for them at Christmas.  They were huge pine cone wreaths and could be hung on the door or placed  flat with a candle in the center.  These are just a mini-version.  But they were fun, and I'm sorry the girls didn't get to help and take one home for their Thanksgiving table. 

The best part, I only spent $.84.  I already had the votive holders...left over from my wedding in 1989.  (Ummm, yes, I save most everything.) The nuts and gumballs were found on the ground, except for the squirrel I had to wrestle.  I already had acrylic paint and  ModPodge.  I paid only for the brown votive candles themselves...on sale at Wal-Mart for only eighty-four cents :-). 

And that's it in a nutshell.

In other news, S is home for Thanksgiving break, and it is great to hear the sound of my three kids together again.  Han quickly asked S to complete a level for her on one of her Ipod games.  Hours of gaming commenced...together.  J and S are horsing around and J may be close to overpowering his older brother.  We'll see.  S was still the victor and brought J to his knees.  :-)  Nothing was broken and I told them if they broke something they had to pay for it.  Still, it was great to see them acting like boys brothers.
For most of Saturday there were three teenagers in the house, and one tween, and it was awesome.  Of course, I was gone much of the time on a date with hubs.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone and Roll Tide!!!

The Great Outdoors

I've always been an outdoor girl.  Credit that to my Dad, whom I spent lots of time with during the pre-teen years.  My Dad owns property on Guntersville Lake, and he spent many weekends working on the property.  I would always tag along, roaming through the woods while he worked.   I had a friend named Kenny whose parents owned the lot  nearby. We would run through the woods with "swagger sticks" blazing trails. We jumped from rock to rock on the banks.   I also swam in the lake and learned to ski, albeit not very well.  The swimming hole was best at Kenny's because you could touch bottom there, but beside our red boat house there was an excellent fishing hole.  We still pull bream and catfish out of the water  today and all of my kids caught their first fish from the boat house dock. 

 I was also a girl scout and loved camping, and went on to become a summer church camp counselor for two summers post high school.  No air conditioned cabins at the time.  No bother to me. If you visit my house today, you will see I would rather work outdoors than indoors.  It the weather is nice, I might mow the lawn instead of clean a bathroom.  Oh well.

So recently my family went on a camping trip to Auburn, Al.  Hannah has not been camping since she was three with the family, so I guess you can say it was past time.  We took a borrowed tent, and one borrowed sleeping bag since one of ours seems to have disappeared.  (don't worry...we had the other four on hand so no we did not all share one sleeping bag).  We picked up Scott at Auburn and went to Chewacla State Park.  Chewacla is about 5 minutes from his dorm room.  Somehow Friday night the campground was booked, so we took a very disappointed twelve year old to a hotel for one night.  ***Note we did try to make a reservation but were assured that one would not be needed.  That's Auburn people for you.  Oh well.  We arrived early Saturday morning for try number two and set up our tent.  The campground is really quite nice and the first hint of fall was in the air.  Temperatures were great and it was wonderful to spend time with Scott. 

Outdoor camping is a lot of work.  Especially the preparation beforehand...packing and loading the van with all the essentials.  The difference from just checking into a hotel (which my hubs prefers) is packing the food and drinks, items to eat them on and eat them with.  Also, packing your own bed. Quite an extensive list for folks who don't camp regularly.  In order to save money we cooked all of our meals at the campground on the grill, and also a Coleman Stove for breakfast.  Lowell, Scott, and James set up the tent twice.  That is because when we arrived early Sat. morning we claimed the first spot available, but later found one we liked better and relocated.  Above is a picture of the first site.

So, what exactly did we do all day?  We hiked to Chewacla Falls.  I am using the term Falls extremely loosely.  Due to the lack of rain in Alabama, they were more of  a trickle.  You will see what I mean.  After our hike, Scott returned to his dorm room to do some studying and Hannah and James got a little bored so they explored some more.  Chewacla has an old fashioned playground equipped with a teeter-totter.  I laughed so hard I cried watching James torture Hannah on that thing.  I did get some video but not the funniest.  When I got on the teeter totter James did the same to me.  If America's Funniest Home vidos had been there, I can guarantee we would be winning.  I screamed my head off.  You see, due to child birth, I really don't have any abominal muscles.  When James tilted me upright at a 60 degree angle, I was sure I was coming down face first.  I couldn't straighten up my back to compensate for the tilt.  It really was scary, and I am sure I was way more than 3 feet off of the ground...honest!  Anyway, we eventually mastered the crazy see saw and had fun together...like you are supposed to do in the first place. 

The rocks are black where there was actually a little water falling.  The boys climbed up the middle to view the lake at the top.

                                                                                 

That's me making the Hobos.  I would like to point out the mini-van in the background, our version of a truck, which was packed to the ceiling with camping equipment.  I have to point this out because one day, young mom mini-van haters who drive them any way, you will appreciate yours!

Scott returned later that afternoon and we cooked Hobos on the grill and made S'Mores on the campfire for dessert.  We played a round robin game of storytelling where everyone adds a sentence until you have some crazy story.  We  played that for a long time until ours were the only voices in the campground.  Time for some shut eye.  The sun shone brightly into our tent at about 7 AM and a few of us got up, others slept a couple more hours.  My only complaint?  The bath house was a bit far away and of course I had to go in the wee hours of the night.  I should have slept next to the tent door because I had to climb over Lowell to get out.  We had a great time, stayed on a budget, and got away from the hum drum of T-town for a while.