Homemade.

There’s nothing like it. We’ve been doing lots of projects this month, so I thought I’d share some of them with you today. Blogs are so tricky—it’s a balancing act to keep all aspects of life up-to-date in one place. All-in-one posts seem bland, so I like to write about one topic at a time. But then it feels like there are always so many things that never get mentioned at all. So I keep posting tidbits and hoping that my loyal family and friends somehow piece together an idea of our life as a whole. For today, here’s one sliver of our goings-on of late: projects!

I adore colorful leaves. There are so many cool things to do with them! And they are beautiful.

Leaf rubbings (layer leaf first, paper second, and rub it with the side of a crayon). Jay didn’t really get in to this one, but he liked coloring his own paper while I made my leafy collage.

 

Leaf printing (paint a leaf stamp it onto paper). Once again, this didn’t turn out to be as 3-year-old friendly as I thought it would. Characteristically, Jay preferred to rub the paint into his hands like lotion.

 

Fingerprint leaves. We ripped and glued brown paper for the trunks.

My leaf-mobile. Martha Stewart claims that if you dip leaves in melted bleached beeswax, the lovely colors will be preserved. So I tried it. The ones that are 100% coated in the clear wax are actually keeping their color. Unfortunately I missed the prime leaf colors because I couldn’t find the beeswax anywhere and ended up ordering it from amazon. So the leaves I dipped were not as vibrant as I hoped. But the wax leaves are so cool! I had a great time making them…this is one of the projects that I did not let the children help with. Boiling hot wax and all.

If you can believe it, we still have lots of autumn art projects to do before it turns into Christmasy project time. We may have to save some for next year.

Jeff taught me how to use his drill this week, and our house is never going to be the same! I did my very first ever wood-and-drill project this week: I made a shelf! And then I stained it dark to match everything else in our family room. I screwed clips on it to display all of our other artwork, and then hung it on the wall. Then I made a little thankFULL garland. It’s kind of a plain, papery, homely little display, but we like it. We’re not fancy here. I was so absorbed in making the shelf that I didn’t take time to think of what to put ON it. Details, details. For now 2 pictures will have to do.

[the clips]

We got a discount hall table to complete the décor of this once-naked wall. I can’t wait to put our Christmas decorations all over this ensemble next week!

I also sewed Rose a fleece hat and we made banana bread together. Jay peeled and mashed the bananas very well for a 3 year old. Rose helped hold the beater and dump in flour and salt. I can’t decide which smell is more homey, baking banana bread or baking regular bread. Ah, I love good kitchen smells that waft through the house. They make it seem warmer and cozier on a chilly gray November day.

Yep, this was a fragrant day too—bread and apple butter all at once.

I wish I could show you all of the cool Christmas gifts I’ve been concocting, but those will have to wait. It feels so satisfying to make things myself. Victorious triumph!