We are Thankful

I decided that we needed to start a new Thanksgiving tradition this year. Our old traditions of eating too much, arguing about politics, and watching football are fine, but somehow they don't really capture the spirit of the holiday. So, I decided that we should make a wreath of thanks. I was inspired by this give thanks tree that I saw on Dixie Delights:

You make a bunch of paper leaves and you choose something that you are thankful each day, write it on the leaf, and stick it to the tree. Brilliant. But, I read the brief tutorial that Amanda gave to make the tree and she lost me at a "width" of cream felt. I started to panic because I don't know what a "width" is and I'm sure that if I pop into our local Hancock Fabrics and ask for a width of fabric, the ladies will laugh me out of the place because they will know that I have no clue what I'm doing. Also, I figured that in between Halloween, several birthdays, a school fall learning celebration for the girl that I'm working on, and the usual sports and activities, I had approximately one hour and 17 minutes to spend on the project.

I immediately thought of a wreath. Since my success with the Halloween wreath, I consider myself the wreath queen of, well, the family, anyway. The Girl might take me down someday in a "Great Santini"-type one-on-one-wreath-off battle, but until then I'll reign supreme. Getting back to the project, I went into the study/junk room/catch-all room/don't-open-the-closet-or-you'll-be-buried-by-throw-pillows room, and pulled out one of the three willow wreaths I have left from my Tarjay excursion. I'm recently obsessed with burlap and decided that the wreath had to be burlap. I mustered up my courage and went to Hancock. I tried to act all nonchalant as I walked past all the sewing-type things that I don't understand. I found the burlap without asking anyone and dragged the bolt over to the cutting table and asked for two yards. The lady asked me what I was going to use it for and I told her a wreath. She gave me a look that was skepticism combined with pity. I also picked up some pieces of brown felt, just in case.

After some trial and error, I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to cut a strip of burlap and wrap it around the wreath. Of course, because the children are always swiping my scissors, I had to go on a hunt for my fabric scissors (only called such because they're actually somewhat sharp). I didn't find my scissors, but I did find this:

How does the Baby/Audrey the Moose come up with this stuff? When I see a smushy styrofoam toy, my first thought is not, "Hmmm, let me cut this up with my leopard scissors." But, I guess I'm not a three year old with a scape moose to blame.

Also, Audrey must have been shooting craps while destroying the little fellow:

So, I cut a strip of burlap and also cut up the felt into strips, as well:

I wrapped them around the wreath, alternating the felt and the burlap so that it looked like this when I was finished:

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the actual process, I was only about 30% sure it would work and even finished, I'm still not entirely sure. I hot glued the end of the burlap to the wreath and then set out to make it look a little nicer. I tied a burlap ribbon (told y'all I was obsessed) around the top to hang it and finished off with a little bell we got when we rode the Polar Express a couple years ago:

When the Baby got home and confessed to absolutely nothing with regard to the the doll evisceration (be glad that she's on our side, folks), I put her to work on the leaf aspect of the wreath. I made a cardboard template and cut around it to make some leaves:

Then my child laborer stuck the hook part of some velcro dots on the backs of the leaves. Little fingers are so good at doing the delicate work:

Because I have a compulsive shopping problem when it comes to the $1 area of Target I had some maple leaf-shaped felt coasters (?) that we also velcro dotted. We put all the leaves in a glass vase and decorated it:

The final part of this project is a list so we can keep track of what we are thankful for each day:

So, this is how it would look with a few leaves stuck on:

I figure that on Thanksgiving, we'll go through the whole list and read everything for which we are thankful. So, for November 1st we got these responses:
The Girl - my life (awww)
The Boy - the iPad
The Baby - flowers (and scissors, apparently)
Me - that we're in a safe house with electricity
The K - our family (double awww)

My response was such because I've been reading and hearing all the coverage of just how horrible things are in New Jersey. The pictures of the devastation at the shore, Hoboken under water, gas leaks threatening to burn what is still left standing are all heartbreaking. My step-mother sent me this picture last night:

This is the house that I grew up in from age 13 until I graduated from high school. Mom sold it in 2009. My bedroom was just to the right of the porch gable. The tree crushed the front porch and tore the  gutters off the roof above the master bedroom. Thank goodness no one was hurt. I received many pictures just like these of the destruction in my little 1 square mile home town. I am so thankful that all my friends and family are safe, but cleaning up from a storm like this will take years.

I hope that this Thanksgiving we won't just say we're thankful for things, but that we will be genuinely thankful for all the lucky things in our lives. Of course, we'll still have the football and the eating too much, but I hope that the wreath will be a new tradition that everyone will enjoy. Happy Thursday, everyone.

Halloween Fatigue!

So, before I start trying to cheer everyone up, because, let's face it, today totally sucked for a lot of people, I'm going to repeat something that Sister shared on Facebook.  It's from one of New Jersey's greatest ambassadors, Bruce Springsteen:

Everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty,
and meet me tonight in Atlantic City.

My thoughts and prayers are with so many of my friends and family who live in the areas hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Okay, are you all so ready for Halloween tomorrow?  I am, and I tell you why.  We can finally be finished with the do-a-fall-thing-everyday-insanity that I began on October 1st.  Confession time: the last two days it's been really windy in the ATL and my fall-themed thing has been to keep fixing our Halloween decorations when they blow away.  This brings up another reason that Halloween can't come fast enough: all of our decorations are all falling down, ripping, and rotting.  I'll show you what we've got going on here:

Clearly, I need to call an exterminator for our spider problem.  I already had to toss a pumpkin (the Baby's "favorite" naturally) because it was turning black and slimy.  I realize that black and slimy is pretty on-target for the holiday, but even I have cleanliness standards.  You see that orange banner above the door?  Here's a better picture of it:

So, the K is 6 foot 3 and he basically garrotes himself when he walks into the porch.  Garroting is also pretty spot-on for the holiday, but it's not very hospitable as a general matter. I keep shoving sticks in the mortar between the bricks and tacking the flags up that way, but they keep blowing down.  Does anyone have a suggestion for me that doesn't involve the words "masonry bit?" See the Baby in the window?  She was home with a cold today.  More on that later.  I should have prettied up the porch a little before I took the picture, but it was cold and windy today and it was all I could do to run out, snap my crappy pictures, and run back into the house.

Next up outside is the source of all those spider webs:

This guy got blown off his web shortly after the picture and is now lying eight-legs-up on our porch.  I've officially given up on him until the wind dies down or November 1st rolls around, which ever comes first.

Inside, we have another infestation, rats (and possibly some possums):

 
These are from Martha Stewart's decorations line and I got them at Michael's. The kids keep moving them, which is why the two on the bottom are doing burpees or downward dog or something. Look at that big guy on the bottom step. Doesn't that one have to be a possum?    
 

 
Rats are just the most vile creatures.  I thought everyone felt the same way until a message came across one of my listservs.  A woman posted that she found an injured rat and she wanted to contact an animal rescue group to help rehabilitate the little fellow.  Shut the front door!  Seriously?! I'm sorry, someone feeding a rat with an eyedropper so that he can one day return to scavenging garbage and spreading the plague seems like a wasted effort at best.

We also have bats:

which keep curling up and falling off the mirrors.  They're from Martha, as well.  My cleaning people are incredibly patient with the props, although they practically chortled when I reminded them that the next time they come, all the decorations will be down.

So there you go, my scary Halloween decor.  I want it all gone, folks.  I'm ready for Thanksgiving because it means no nylon spider webs blowing across the front yard and no more pumpkin banner strangling my house guests.

Remember how I told you that the Baby was home from school with a cold?  So, since she wasn't really sick, she was up to all sorts of shenanigans. For instance, while I was working on the computer she kept coming up to me and poking me in the back.  It felt kind of nice, to be honest, so she did it for like five minutes before it occurred to me to look at what she was actually doing. When I turned and looked at the back of my t-shirt, I saw this:

  
This is when I wish I were a better photographer.  But, can you see it?  The Baby was stamping all over the back of my shirt.  Here's a close up:

If I don't miss my guess, that's an airplane, two speed limit signs, an ice cream sundae, some hearts, and an Easter egg.  Sigh.  I hope that Melissa & Doug aren't fooling when they say the ink is washable. Although, I suppose it's a good excuse to get some new workout clothes now that this one smells like sweat and negligent parenting. Happy Halloween everyone!