Homemade gingerbread house (vegan)

We had a spent a wonderful morning making gingerbread houses with out friends. Well to be honest we made the actual houses the day before and decorated them the next day. My friend's children are allergic to milk and eggs so we used a vegan recipe for both the gingerbread and the icing. I think they turned out great! Here is her website that links to the recipes that we used.

http://doodlebugdeb.blogspot.com/2010/12/gingerbread-house.html

Bird feeder cutouts

For advent this year we rotate between activities, crafts, and little presents. Here is one crafts I came up with that actually turned out really cute.

First I cute Christmas shapes out of cardboard. Then we tied strings on to the tops of them.

Next we smeared peanut butter and birdseeds over both sides of the shapes.
Here they are in their finished state. Some of the shapes worked better then others.
Then we hung them outdoors. The birds loved them. We had a titmouse, downy woodpecker, and blackcapped chickadee visit.

Hanukkah Celebration

Last year we bought K a little Hanukkah set for the 1st day of Hanukkah. We aren't Jewish we enjoy exposing K to lots of different religions and holidays. Each year we celebrate by reading stories about Hanukkah, eating Latkes, and putting out K's Menorah.

Advent Calendar Finished (Kinda)

The advent calendar is finished (kinda). Next year I plan to add animals, but it is now in working order. I'm really excited to start december first.

K's little foot popped in there.

I know, I'm no artist, but these are the little slips I'm putting in the calendar to represent what we'll be doing that day.

I ended up using a small curtain rod to hang it by. Here is a close up of the pockets. They are each needle felted on wool felt.

Snowy Windowstar

So it hasn't really started snowing here yet, but K has been begging to make a snowflake window star. While I worked on it, K made these great little pink stars using tiny scissors and glue.

Baby Booties

Today is one of my good friend's due dates. She is expecting another little girl. I'm excited that both our children will be really close in age. She lives pretty far away from us, but we still are able to see them a couple of times a year.

I found this great bootie pattern at the store (I think its Macalls). I made up the embroidery, however. I'm excited to get the birth announcement and send along the booties. :)

Thanksgiving Candles

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! We had a nice Thanksgiving at my mother's house with my family and also my Mother-in-law's family. It was nice to have everyone together this year. Because food has still been grossing me out, K and I made candles to contribute to dinner. I found the idea in LivingCraft magazine.

First we carved out the middle of two orange halves and a pomegranate. Then we used scissors to make jagged edges. Finally we filled them with melted beeswax.


They looked great on the Thanksgiving table.