A bit of Christmas in the jungle

We have not been doing a whole lot of preparations for Christmas this year.

Usually we spend all of December making decorations, keeping traditions of different kinds

and baking cookings. This year however there have been different priorities.

We do still have the little dry Christmas tree and a lot of our home made decorations from years past.

Kaleena also took it upon herself to make us an advent wreath. Usually this marks the beginning of our Christmas preparations, the first sunday in advent we make œbleskiver, 

hot cocoa and make the advent wreath, but this year Kaleena finally got tired of waiting for me to make one so in this last week before Christmas she made us one beautifully.

I have also added the Christmas cards that we have received to the tree, this is a first but I really like it.

My mom and dad sent us a box with Christmas candy and goodies and in it was also a kit to make little gnomes, the children found these in one of their advent bags and they

 loved having a little craft to get into. 

Finally we found some of our favorite christmas books which we read every night,

so while this years Christmas will certainly be quite different at least there are things familiar to the children through this special time.

I once again realize why these traditions and celebrations are so important for children. 

It supplies them with an anchor, a place of familiarity, something that they can count on to return, time after time no matter how life may other wise be different around them....

~May this Christmas be filled with joy and peace~

~Blessings~

Halloween lanterns and simple trick or treat baskets

Since we arrived in Mexico the children have been asking for craft projects, if you have been reading along here since last year you know I used to do a lot.

However it seems my creativity was completely dried up and I have really done none since arriving.

As Halloween approached and the neighbors were hanging up ghosts and skeletons Kaleena was almost in tears that we had none, and I was having a hard time getting into the spirit of things.

In our home Halloween have never been about scary, it has always been about the coming of the darker season, adding candles and bringing in light, the time to go to the fields to
pick the pumpkins, carve them, roast the seeds and make a pie.
Last year we also made these cute paper bag Halloween lanterns.

Our decorations were autumnal never scary, but staying with my sister last year the children 

got a taste for adding ghosts, skeletons, and sculls around the

 yard and apparently especially Kaleena loved it.

I kept telling Kaleena to get creative use what we had in the house but found no energy to get involved. Then yesterday morning before going to the land, Keenan came in with a dead butterfly he had found, and he wanted to add it to a jar. I pulled myself together and got out the Mod Podge and together we

added his little butterflies with some orange tissue paper to a small jar (found on the land).

Kaleena came in and at the sight of the Mod Podge her face lit up and she too wanted to do decorations.

I had to offer up my one and only Mason jar, empty it's contents and we also used an old mayonnaise 

jar and made a couple more little simple lanterns.

(we just added the orange tissue paper to the jars and cut out a jack o lantern 

faces and added that on top with the Mod Podge)

 When I returned from the land Kaleena met me proudly with a homemade trick or treat basket.

She had been crying for one, and I had told her that we would have to use something already here, 

the children's little wicker baskets being in the storage in Miami:(

I love what she came up with, so creative and so pretty really.

She had taken and old yoghurt container Mod Podged it with black and orange tissue paper, 

and cut out shapes for decorations.

Today when we returned from the land Keenan painted the inside of the containers orange and Kaleena finger knitted orange and black embroidery thread for the handles. I added little holes with the leather punch, and added little beads to the strings to fasten.

Very simple, very inexpensive and very lovely.

I was so proud of her initiative, and really love the outcome.

Best of all she herself is proud of her creation and looking forward to use it.
Also, how wonderful it felt to get creative again (other than at the land), to see how excited they both were that we were all finally doing a project together again, surely we will be at it again soon.

~Blessings~

Handmade Holiday, A glowing wax lantern

Today I finally got around to making this glowing lantern for my Mom for Christmas.

I followed this wonderful tutorial from Rae @ Morningsunrae. I have been wanting  to do this for some time now, I got myself a brand new crock pot from a fellow Freecycler, (love love that that group, 

all giving and receiving) and I received the beeswax that a bunch of us mamas ordered from a local farm at a good price. I was a bit concerned about dipping the ballon, but followed Rae's direction and dipped a leaf first to check the temperature, and after the first couple of dips, Kaleena took over. The children were fascinated with the warm softness of the hardened wax, 

and the smell in the whole kitchen was just delicious.

Kaleena also wanted to prick the hole in the balloon which sent a fountain of water over the sink.

I used the technic mentioned at the bottom of the tutorial, standing the lantern on a hot pan for a second to shape the bottom, and later to smooth the top edges. I dipped the pressed flowers into the wax and then added them to the side of the lantern before dipping the whole thing again. I think I dipped too many times as the flowers almost disappeared, yet once a candle is lit inside they show up nicely.

For the first try I think it came out very nice, 

and it will look pretty on my Moms breakfast table back home.

Besides a few little remaining projects that pretty much wraps up my 

Christmas gifts for this year, pretty much....

~with love and gratitude~

Christmas projects

We have not been doing nearly as many christmas project as I usually would. Living at my sisters house I am limited to none messy projects, at the same time there are so many other joys of sharing this special time together, lots of cozy chats by the fire, and a bonding time we have not had in many years. 

Soon our lives will once again bring us far apart (geographically), and it is so nice to have shared this past year.

So instead of the crafting I would usually do with the children all this month I have come up with a few simple  projects, that they can do without too much mess.

Next week we will mess up the kitchen in a big way though and bake cookies:)

 We have been making presents for grandparents, my parents are coming to spend Christmas, so the children have been very busy making cards and gifts for them. They each painted a cup for them and then made a special gift bag to set them in ( I got the idea for the bag here ), cutting felt pieces and gluing them to a plain bag.

 One for Mormor and one for Morfar.

 Kaleena made this for Mormor

 and Keenan made this for Morfar

I saw these on The Crafty Crow, a simple tree ornament, made with cardboard and string. Both children adored making these. They are so simple and very pretty on the tree.

 We also made woolen hearts. Keenan loves sewing, he is always asking if he can please sew, and he is getting very confident with the needle.

We cut the wool from felted sweaters sewed it up and stuffed it with wool batting. Lovely for the tree and also for a vase with pine branches on the table ( how I would usually have them)

~sweet blessing~