Gratitude Rocks

We do a lot of rock collecting over here.  I've enjoyed collecting rocks since I was a kid and when I met Dr. J I was introduced to a whole subculture of buying rocks and crystals.  Needless to say everywhere we go our family ends up bringing rocks, fossils and crystals home. 

I love the feel of a smooth rock and remember hearing the concept of 'Gratitude Rock' from the book The Secret.  The concept is that by having a tangible object to remind you and help you focus your gratitude, you will attract good energy. 

I decided to combine my love of words with some smooth rocks and make gratitude rocks.  

I bought these adhesive stickers at Target and rubbed them onto smooth rocks.  For rocks that were not as smooth I simply brushed on a layer of Mod Podge first and let it dry before adding the adhesive and repeating the step. 

After sticking on the adhesive I gave it a few brush overs with the Mod Podge

I'm pretty happy with the final result, especially with the Red Rock which we find plenty of close to home. 

I will be mailing these to friends and family with thank you notes as needed. 

Do you believe in the concept of a Gratitude Rock? 

To see some photos of some of our hiking expeditions visit: here, here, here, here and here.

Volunteering In Guatemala

This post is long overdue but an experience that I would like to share.

I enjoy doing volunteer work. I volunteer in my local community and have gotten my children involved in various projects since before they could talk. I have done work project trips in Africa and in South America were I worked with children at local schools. This is something that I wanted to share with my children. While we were in Guatemala the boys and I volunteered at a special needs school.
The teachers at this school are amazing and kind. The boys and I had the opportunity to join some classes, see how the school functioned, donate clothes, toys, art and school supplies and facilitated an art class.
It was a fine balance for me as a seasoned volunteer, now in the role of mother too. It was important for me that my boys feel comfortable with the experience as well. Most of the children were very quick to hug and touch. Between the language barrier and the fact that some of the kids were bigger and older than my boys, we concentrated on working with the younger children for short visits in the afternoon.
I am confident that my boys took from the experience all that I had hoped they would.  On our last day there they both expressed that they would like to do something like this again. Personally, I found it rewarding to have the privilege of spending time with such vibrant and loving boys and girls and meeting their families. Prior to this school, no such program existed in this region of Guatemala and several families travel a great distance to participate.  We had the opportunity to meet many of the parents when they dropped their children off or stayed to help out.  Their gratitude of being part of this program was palpable.

This little girl loved to see photos of herself on my IPhone

Out of respect for the students I only took a few photos during the art class the boys and I facilitated.  We came up with a simple 'how to' cut a heart using zig zag scissors and then colored them and glued some eyes on.

I am so grateful to my cousin who mailed a box of baby clothes from NYC, to our many friends at home who dropped off toys, clothes, school supplies, bike supplies and medical supplies.  I am so grateful for my mother in law's golf friends for donating money to cover the transport of donations and the purchase of pull ups and for clothing donations from her friends and neighbors in Florida. Dr. J's cousin for donating money towards donations. My fabulous blog friend Valarie sent us a box of of school supplies, arts and crafts and first aid supplies.
Finally I really really appreciate all of the support I got from all my readers here.  So many of you sent kind words of encouragement and for that I am forever grateful.

Above: The box of clothes my cousin sent and supplies from Valarie who is also the author of:

A million thanks, 

xoxo Ren and Monkeys

All Natural Bird Feeder

Please welcome my 'friend in real life' and blog buddy Dani from I'm Just That Way And That's Just Me

She's blogging here at Lady Of The Arts and showing us how to make an all natural creative project that she recently made with her daughter. 

In the words of Dani G:

I've always called my daughter Little Bird and I decorate our home with birds all around, but nothing beats having the real thing right outside our windows. So, I decided we'd make our own bird feeder and wait patiently for them to appear. 

All you need is:

An orange

Peanut Butter

Birdseed

String

That's it. Really! 

We sliced an orange in half and then removed the pulp, setting it aside. 

Next, we mixed up the pulp with some peanut butter.

Added in some delicious birdseed. 

I'm just guessing it's delicious- I did not taste it. 

I poked about four holes in the rind of the orange and fed a string through the holes. 

Then, put it all together!

Thanks Dani! 

These are great action shots of the birds enjoying their yummy treat.

Thank so much for sharing this great project with us.

What kind of crafts have you been up to lately?

Do you have a bird feeder in your outdoor space? 

I'm Just That Way And That's Just Me

Reusable Plastic Containers

I hate single use plastics.   I took a pledge to limit my single use plastic and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Refuse.  Unfortunately there are still some single use plastics that I haven't gotten out of my life.  I save a lot of household items to use for our crafting so I've been saving those little plastic containers from our strawberries, blueberries and fresh figs.

Check out these cute boxes we made- They are sturdy and fulfill the motto of using the single use plastics more then once. 

We used recycled paper from the 99 cent store and newspaper, white glue, paint brushes and plastic containers. 

We cut the paper in strips and made a milk like liquid by mixing one part glue to four parts warm water

And we wrapped the plastic containers in paper

It took a few days for them to thoroughly dry and once they did we were ready for the second part-

Using Mod Podge, paint brushes and tissue paper we ripped up the tissue paper and glued it on.

We tried to seal all the edges and over lap colors to create new ones-

The results are glossy, sturdy reusable boxes- that would make cute gifts.

Questions to consider while creating:

What materials are we using? Where do they come from?  What is it made of?

Is this recycled art?  Why?

I took this opportunity to go over the concept of  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Refuse.

What colors are we using? Are you making a pattern?

What are warm colors?  Cool colors?

What materials are we reusing and what materials are new? 

Do you have any creative uses for grocery store single use plastic containers?

Holiday Tips

My friend S. sent me an email with some great ideas to make life easier-
Here are a few that are sure to make your holiday season a little easier:

Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough over the top and voila, you have cookie bowls for fruit or ice-cream.

Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor.

Use egg cartons to separate and store your Christmas decorations.

Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting crosses into a box lid.

What are your favorite tips to make the holidays easier? 

(Besides alcohol!)  

Hanukkah Craft- Wreaths

I'm not aware of wreaths being solely a Christmas decoration.  We made this craft at a workshop where other children used Christmas themed scraps of fabric- and we used white and blue.

First we cut a circle out of recycled cardboard.

 Then using two different fabrics we placed one on top of the other and tied them together to create a 'bow'.

We repeated that step 30 times! 

Finally we glued our thirty bows around the perimeter of the the circle being careful to rotate them slightly. 

Finally we tied a blue ribbon and glued it on.

I hole punched the cardboard and added another ribbon to make it easier to hang.

I imagine I will have these for years to come- My mom still has the macaroni wreath I made in kindergarten and she puts it up every year. 

What decorations of yours was your parents favorite? 

What is your favorite homemade decoration? 

DIY Holiday Gift Ideas- Spruce Up The Gift Card

We give out a lot of gift cards- I enjoy making the gift more personalized and having the monkeys get involved with making gifts.

We purchased mugs, hot cocoa, and candy canes.  

We then made non denominational ornaments and wrapped up little gift packages with a gift card tucked inside each mug. 

We started off by collecting pine cones and painting them.

We then glue gunned a piece of ribbon to the base and called it an ornament. 

I don't believe in cellophane- if you have any ideas for clear wrap that is better for the environment- please let me know.

For the sake of identifying what gift card was in the gift and to keep production lines moving on our dinning table I opted to use the clear wrap. 

I would love to get a gift like this- Wouldn't you?

In case you wanted to see the cutest dog in the world:

here is my Spike with his holiday cut and some bells to prove it!