Crafting frenzy!

 My brother had his Navy drill this weekend so he and his wife and two daughters and two beagles came to stay with us.  We had a very productive Crafty Fun Time.  We made 8 batches of bath bombs for Christmas gifts and Halloween teacher gifts.

 We used my jack-o-lantern mold for some large spiced apple shaped bombs.  This was the first time they'd made these and they did a great job.  I tested out a jack-o-lantern bomb in my bath last night!

These were some Christmas ornaments that took about 3 minutes to make.  I'd bought these ornaments on sale at Michael's thinking they were plastic but they were in fact glass.  We had a harrowing moment when Annika dropped one on the carpet and it bounced onto the linoleum but didn't break.  I'd picked this greenery off the evergreen tree in our yard a few weeks ago and let it dry on the counter.  We just pulled the caps off the ornaments, snipped some greenery and stuck it in the ornaments and then put in some small red jingle bells and then put the tops back on.  We tied some ribbons through the loops for a hanger and we were done.  And yes that is my trusty old yellow Formica table.  It used to be my kitchen/dining table but now it is a full time craft table and lives downstairs in the family room.

We also made a slew of these Santa ornaments out of dried milkweed pods I'd picked last year around this time.  We painted them with acrylic paint and put the beards and fur trim on with Snow-tex paint.  These were such a hit that we decided to go out and pick more milkweed pods.

We drove out to Battle Creek Park to forage for natural craft components.  Battle Creek is not far from here and very close to our old apartment.  It is a lovely wooded area with paved walking trails and cross country ski trails in the winter.  We've seen deer and wild turkeys there and they have bow hunting in the fall.  The trail takes about 45 minutes to walk and is a favorite with dog lovers.

We found all kinds of good stuff:  acorns, pine cones, fallen birch trees for birch bark, big strips of regular tree bark, spongy moss and of course more milkweed pods.

We had beautiful weather for the walk and in places you'd swear you were in Norway or Finland.  We've already decided that we are going to do this every year.