gourd birdhouse

A few years ago my mom grew several different types of gourds in her garden and then dried them. She gave me a few and I turned this pear shaped one into a birdhouse. Scott helped me hang it this afternoon using a wire clothes hanger.

It's in the tree right outside the porch. It will be fun to see if any birds actually take up residence there.

repurposed pickle jar

This morning I cleaned out my fridge and was going to throw away this pickle jar. I had put a can of spray paint on the counter to remind me to help Thomas spray paint his pinewood derby car for boy scouts this morning and I decided to see how it would work to spray paint the pickle lid too. It worked great! It looks pretty cute and is the perfect size for holding small things. I think I'll be saving my pickle jars now. The next one is going to hold all of the golf tees that get left in Scott and Thomas's pockets this summer!

christmas crafting

This morning after we worked on schoolwork for awhile we took a break and did some Christmas crafting. The kids started working on these gumdrop trees yesterday. I think they are so adorable. Here is where I got the idea. Elle continued to work on hers this morning but we ran out of spicedrops so we'll have to pick up some more at the store later.

The other project we are working on are crystal snowflake ornaments. These are so fun and so easy! Here is how you make them -

Supplies you'll need:
- wide mouth jars
- white pipe cleaners
- string
- scissors
- pencils
- boiling water
- spoon
- Borax (20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster)
- food Coloring, optional

Make snowflakes with the white pipecleaners and string. Make sure that your snowflake will fit inside the wide-mouthed jar while it is still empty. Tie several inches of string to one of the pipe cleaners. Tie the other end of the string to a pencil so that the snowflake will hang from the pencil and dangle inside the jar without touching any of the sides.

Remove the snowflake from the jar and pour boiling water into the jar. Add about 3 tablespoons of Borax per cup of water. You can get dramatic with the pouring in of the Borax if you want to...like Thomas here.

Give it a stir and add more Borax if needed. The water should be supersaturated with Borax. You want to see undissolved Borax at the bottom of the jar. If you want colored snowflakes, add a few drops of food coloring to the water. Then hang the snowflake in the jar and let it sit for several hours.

Here are the six snowflakes the kids worked on this morning. It is fun to check on them every now and then to see the crystals forming.

This is what they look like when they are done and dry. I did a test run with one yesterday just to be sure it was going to work. I think they would be cute ornaments or gift toppers.

This would be a fun project even if it isn't Christmastime. Borrow the book, Snowflake Bentley, from your library and learn about snowflakes then make some!