DIY Pine Cone Wreath

2016: I really feel the need to decorate for all the holidays this year. Maybe it's because SourPatch is old enough to appreciate the decor? Or maybe it's just an extension of my nesting instincts (a less useful one; my nursery is still a disaster.)

Yet since this is me, I also don't want to spend any money... there lies the rub. When I casually looked at wreaths online, the prices were quite shocking. $100 wreaths from Walmart?? You've got to be kidding me. Luckily, I really knew in my heart that I wanted to make my own wreath (nesting, right?), and that I wanted to make it out of pine cones.

I think pine cone wreaths are lovely. They are naturey and have great texture. There are so many tutorials out there, too! We live next to several pine trees, so over the past few weeks, I would gather a few cones every day during my walks with Patches.

Good idea: gather lots of pine cones. I was going to count how many I used, but then I didn't. You need a lot.

Another good idea: wash and bake them. I found that some tutorials wash first and others bake first, mostly depending on if they wanted them open or closed when applying the cones to the wreath (a bath in cold water will cause the pine cones to "close up" tight.) I liked the idea of putting them on my form closed so that when they opened, they would interlace together tightly. This worked great with the first wreath I ever made. It worked less well with my second. With my third? The pine cones all popped off and I had to start all over again. The lesson? Glue them on once they've reopened. It's safer.

So first, the washing: I doused and swirled the cones in cool water several times until they looked nice and clean and the water stayed clear.

I popped the cones in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees to kill any bugs and dry up any sap. (I forgot to take a picture here. All I did was line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and pile them on! Here are the rejects that for some reason didn't make it into the initial washing phase.)

 This... is where the tutorial ends. Thank you for reading. Okay look, I kind of trialed and errored my way through this wreath rather than sensibly following one of the sensible tutorials out there. Would you like a list of my bad ideas?

• I wanted to fit my pine cones into a wire frame and let them expand to keep themselves in place. No gluing or wiring? A dream come true! It's a good idea if you have the skinny kind of cones, such as in this tutorial here. Though I knew my cones would probably be too fat, I tried it anyways. Bad idea. Some did fit, yes, but most didn't. 
• Most tutorials with a wire frame actually wire them in place (such as this tutorial). I used hot glue. (Update: Shockingly, both wreaths I made in 2016 are still kicking one year later, good as new.)
• Most wreath tutorials have you sort the cones by size and then put them in concentric rings accordingly. I preferred the wreaths that mix up the sizes a little more, giving it a more natural look (see the difference at this blog). However... I still should have sorted the cones so I could better created overall symmetry.

Disclaimers aside, I'm so glad I made this wreath. I had a fun time doing it, and it felt very low-pressure working with the free cones nature provided. Any frustration over my poor choices I shrugged off, knowing that I'd only invested $2 in the wire frame (and I suppose in the glue sticks.) Overall, I think it turned out actually quite beautiful. I lightly dusted it in gold spray paint and added $3 worth of berries and flowers from Dollar Tree. I do plan to spray it with a clear, acrylic sealer to better preserve it for future years on my door. Voila!

2017 Update: My glorious fall wreath I made last year held up so well! It made me happy all autumn long. Yet autumn did end, as it always does, so I thought I'd share the Christmas wreaths I made as well (one for me, one I shipped off to Chicago last year as a Christmas gift.)

Valentine's Day Story Bracelets - Toddler Time

When I was looking for some fun Thanksgiving activities for my toddler to do around the holidays, I was introduced to story bracelets. Basically, the idea behind these is as you tell a story to your child, they put beads on a bracelet that correspond with a person, thing, or event in the story. Eventually, they will be able to tell the story themselves by putting each bead on the bracelet and relating the part of the story that corresponds with that bead. (Click here to see the Thanksgiving story bracelet that I found worked really well with my 2 1/2 year old and her friends.)

I loved using pipe cleaners and big chunky beads for the bracelets, because they were so easy for my toddler to work with. And she still plays with the pipe cleaners and beads just for fun.

picture from papermart.com

I got these wonderful beads from Hobby Lobby.

Since Valentine's day is fast approaching, I decided to do a Valentine's Day story bracelet. (I adapted the little story below from this little story.) If you are interested, give it a try with your kids! If you have boys that you think will be less than interested in a story about cats, birds, and squirrels, you can make the animals different types of dinosaurs or dump trucks or something that will amuse them.

Valentine's Day Story & Story Bracelet

"One Valentine's day, a pretty black cat (black bead) sat in the sunshine wondering what special note or treat she could give to her friend Evie (blue bead). Evie, you see, was sick and had to stay in bed, and the pretty black cat wanted to do something special for her. As she walked along the snowy (2 white beads) path, the pretty black cat met a furry red squirrel (red bead).

"Good day, Mrs. Cat," said he. "Where are you going?"

"To find a valentine for little Evie who is sick," said the cat.

"There is no one I love better than little Evie, "said the squirrel. "She always feeds me my favorite food: acorns. I will send her a valentine too."

"Oh good," said the cat. "Meet me under the big oak tree (green bead) at 3 o'clock."

The pretty black cat (black bead) continued to walk along the snowy path (2 white beads) and met a sweet brown robin (light brown bead).

"Where are you going?" asked the robin.

"To find a valentine for little Evie who is sick," replied the cat
.
"I want to get a valentine for her, too," chirped the robin.

"Oh good," said the cat. "Meet me under the big oak tree (green bead) at 3 o'clock."

At 3 o'clock, the pretty black cat (black bead), the furry red squirrel (red bead), and the sweet brown robin (light brown bead) met under the big oak tree (green bead) and together they went to Evie's house to give her their valentines. Little Evie (blue bead) was asleep when they came to her house, but they left their valentines on her bed. When Evie woke up, there on her bed was 1 fat shiny chestnut (1 dark brown beads), a dark pink rose (1 dark pink bead), and a pink note shaped like a heart (1 pink heart bead) that said,

"Little friend, so kind and true,
These valentines we send to you
Our very dearest love to tell.
We hope that you will soon be well."

Evie smiled as brightly as the sunshine (yellow bead)."

Sugar and Spice Cookies

Let me start with a disclaimer: we have actually been really healthy eaters as of late. I have mostly limited my baked-good making to healthy muffins and breads. I feel all warm and fuzzy when I send Jeffrey off to school with a blueberry oatmeal muffin or pumpkin pancake rather than a poptart. True, we usually add chocolate chips to the pancakes, but still...

Yet this recipe is definitely a dessert, no other way of looking at it. Yet it's also a wonderful, Christmasy cookie, and ever since our storage unit got flooded, prompting me to put up our Christmas tree several weeks early, Christmas has been on my mind.

Now, Jeffrey isn't usually much of a cookie-eater, but this recipe is possibly his favorite. It comes from his childhood best friend's mother, and it is super quick, easy, and delicious. AND it makes your house smell wonderful! So without further ado:

Sugar and Spice Cookies

Look at me! I totally did one of those "I'm going to take a picture of all the ingredients" pictures! Mostly I wanted to take a picture of the shortening sticks to comment on how I LOVE that they exist! I don't often bake with Crisco, but I would never use it if I still had to scrape it out of the giant tin cans.

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp cloves
• 3/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt

Cream together the first 4 ingredients: shortening, sugar, egg, and molasses (isn't molasses gloopy?)

Sift together the dry ingredients and then add to the creamed mixture. Combine well. (Full disclosure here: I rarely actually sift the dry ingredients together. Ergo there's no picture. I just added them individually to the same bowl. I just haven't ever noticed a difference from when I do sift and don't, you know?)

Form into walnut-sized balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes. If using a dark or coated pan (like I did), reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Actually, I reduced mine to about 360, which was perfect. But since when does a recipe ever tell you to bake things at 360? Never. Better not start now. Something drastic could happen.

They should come out cracked on the top and soft. I removed mine fairly promptly from the pan to cool, and they came out perfect. This recipe usually yields 20-24 cookies.

They're so good, I promise, and are disappearing embarrassingly fast from our house. Mmm...

Valentine's Day Post Office

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I have been scrambling to find ways to make the week special for my husband and little girl. One thing I have done in the past that has worked well has been hanging up this little family post office box.

My mother actually found a few of these wooden letter holders on clearance somewhere. Before we jazzed them up a bit, they had a tile with a picture of a rooster in the center--but with a little mod podge, fancy paper, and some doo-dads from Hobby Lobby, we turned them into a fun way to get notes and treats from each other. 

Here is how it works: Each person in the house has a tag with their name on it. All of these hang on the left hook. When you place a note or treat in the box, move the receiver's name to the right hook. That is how they know that "they have mail." Once they take the note/treat out of the box, they move their tag back onto the left hook. 

If you are interested in making one like this, check stores like Ross, TJ Maxx, and Hobby Lobby for similar letter boxes. If you want a letter box almost identical to the one pictured above, you can search for "wooden letter holder with key hooks" at amazon.com and some almost identical options are available for purchase.

Instructions

1. Measure the tile square in the center of the letter box and write down the dimensions. Using a ruler, draw a square with those dimensions on two pieces of paper of your choosing. (I used a patterned paper for the bottom square, and a solid paper for the top square.) Cut out both squares.  

2. Using a sponge brush, cover the tile square with a thin layer of mod podge. Place the paper square that you want as the bottom layer on the tile square. While the mod podge is drying, take your second square of paper and measure and cut off about a 1/4'' off of the bottom and 1/4'' off of one side of the square. 

3. Using the sponge brush, cover the back of the small square paper with a thin layer of mod podge and then place it so that it is centered on the base square (that is now attached to the letter box). 

4. Once the mod podge is dry, take the sponge brush and cover the small square and what you can see of the base square in a thin layer of mod podge.

5. When the mod podge is dry, apply whatever doo-dads you want--like these awesome letters and pearls pictured below. Embellish!

 

6. As for the name tags, at Hobby Lobby, we found these black and white circles to use as bases, and some bright, colorful circle tags to glue on top of them. 

7. To finish it off, punched holes in the base circles and tied some loops of black and white string to them so that they could hang easily from the key hooks. 

Happy V-day!