The Birthday Boy

I believe that grandparents are chosen by God to be part of a team that brings desire for heaven to our little ones. Whenever they see us pray, or do a kind deed, or offer a gesture of forgiveness, our grandchildren are motivated to do the same. In each of these acts, a priceless lifetime gift is delivered to them.

"The Birthday Boy" invites conversation about the childhood of Jesus. He, too, was born to parents who joyfully anticipated his arrival. He played with toys and learned to read and write. He had a birthday and loving grandparents. Yet we, his brothers and sisters, recognize him as God's only begotten son, born to us because the father we share so loved the world.

When I was in grade school, Franciscan sisters taught us to nestle a flaxen strand inside the bed of the holy infant every time we did a good deed. Each of the cribs I make for my six grandchildren will be accompanied by a little bag of straw. I will encourage them to do the same thing I did more than half a century ago. On Christmas morning, the "Birthday Boy" will lay down his sweet head on pillows of love made soft by the innocence of childhood.

Make a crib from 8 "Popsicle" sticks. Glue 2 sets of crossed sticks for head and foot pieces. Lay horizontal sticks as shown and glue to complete.

Add an optional twig to decorate with paper leaves and birds. Glue to crib as shown, top right corner.

Fill crib with excelsior, straw or similar material.










Make a pattern for Baby Jesus by cutting a 2.5" x 5" paper rectangle. Round corners on one 2.5" side for the head.

Trace pattern, centered, on a folded 7" square piece of unbleached muslin. Sew along traced line, leaving open at bottom. Trim fabric to 1/4" all around sewn line. Turn to right side.

Stuff body firmly so it is 3.5" long. Press firmly with hot iron to flatten it. Hand sew opening closed and trim excess fabric.

Cut a 1" x 36" strip of blue fabric. Cotton, flannel, or any lightweight material will do. Begin wrapping baby at an angle at neck. Crisscross fabric until bottom is reached, then hold in place with a few hand stitches.

Use a fine point permanent marker, such as Micron Pigma 005, to draw the eyes. Use pink craft paint and a fine point brush to add cheeks. Hair is a scrap of jute string attached with a hand stitch at center top of head. Glue an optional button to baby's chest for children over three years old. A heart shaped one is a good choice.

Cut a 3" round paper halo by hand or with a craft punch. Lay baby in crib on top of halo.

If using the attached twig, cut paper birds and leaves and glue on.......
Sing "Glory to the newborn king!"

This original design, like all blog content, is intended for personal use only. Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Thank you!

Donut Delivery!

Like all domesticated grandmothers, I love to bake with the kids. I adore their enthusiasm and the way they patiently perch on stools that circle the counter, waiting their turn at the next task. Even adding a teaspoon of baking soda to the mix delights them, although sweeping a tasting finger through the dough just before it's time to pass the bowl is probably the highlight of this phase!

Over the past few years we've made drop cookies in almost every variety - raisin, oatmeal, peanut butter and chocolate chip. We've cut sugar dough shapes for every occasion, made Nick's favorite blueberry muffins whenever possible and enjoyed the bounty of warm loaves of banana bread.

Time to move on!

I bought and squirreled away a mini donut maker when Bree was just an infant, knowing this day would eventually come for both of us. I imagined she would delight in the petite size of these tasty little bites and I was correct! I also admired the fact that we could enjoy donuts without the mess and danger of a deep fryer. Right again, grandma!





And so we got to work, not only making
chubby little donuts for ourselves, but extras for
gifting to those we love....and not just on a slippery paper plate covered with plastic wrap that won't sit still either! Oh, heck no! Bree decorated and filled custom bags for her seasonal goodies. They went to Grandpa, paternal grandparents Nana and Pappy, Mommy and Daddy, and favorite neighborhood playmate, Jakey.

Bree loved stirring and tasting ingredients for the Pumpkin Donut recipe we used. Since the mini  appliance gets very hot, it was up to grandma to pipe the dough into each crevice.

Next, replace cover and wait. That's it!

It's necessary to experiment to find the correct baking time for each recipe. Because this dough is thick, two minutes is enough time for each batch to cook to perfection.






Once the donuts cooled slightly, Bree could dip them in melted butter and then a cinnamon/sugar mixture to complete.

A rubber stamp alphabet personalized each bag with names and tempera paint accented them with a perky little pumpkin - a hint of the flavor waiting inside.

The best fun was delivering them - but no, maybe not! That part might have been tasting our mini donuts, right out of their hot little oven and into Bree's cute little mitts!

If you can't find a mini donut maker locally, here's one (on page 8) at a very good price!
You'll find the recipe we used right here!

Turkey Tags

I'm currently enjoying a love affair with paper punches. Never mind the old school discipline it took to find a suitably sized geometric, painstakingly trace it and then cut along the line to produce the same little charmer you get from one healthy push on a handy little punch. Not only am I in love, but (thankfully!) the young 'uns are too. This time of year we're gobbling up every last scrap of grandkid-water-colored pretty paper and assembling them into cute and versatile Turkey Tags!

I think what I like best about this idea is that kids who are too young to paint figuratively can participate, seeing their hand work showcased in a finished product. The punches are safe and easy to use too, so kids can operate them with success.













After watercolor abstracts have dried, cut five feathers from a 2" oval punch. Alternately, hand draw and cut them out with scissors.

The 5" tall completed bird has a 3" scalloped circle body. Head is a 1.5" diameter circle. Black paper eyes come from a hole punch and wattle and beak are triangular scraps. Assemble and glue everything to a lightweight piece of contrasting cardboard, hand draw legs and cut turkey out, allowing a narrow border all around.

Use completed tags as place cards, napkin rings, units on a seasonal garland or as accents on Mason jars filled with "pumpkiney" goodness to be trotted out by the grandkids when it's time for dessert. This year we'll use them that way, serving a family favorite Pumpkin Pie Frappe recipe. We'll decorate the jars with turkey tags, tying on raffia and ribbon, then slipping in a few fancy straws for easy use.

Two of Everything!

I don't usually turn heads at Costco, but one memorable experience proved an exception. That was the day I found myself not only in woeful need of cat supplies, but determined to never be caught short again. I lumbered along, propelling a double-wide cart heaped with three bags of kitty litter - that's 126 pounds - and another 64 in crunchy dry food. (Hey people! It's Costco!) Yet several shoppers stop me, gaping openly to ask, "How many do you have?" (Of what? Arms? Heads? Oh, you mean cats!) I provided a truthful answer, (six!) although Dear Abby suggests a worthy deflection for too-nosy people that I might have considered, "Why do you need to know?"

Today I write of a return mission to that place, this time in pursuit of three other things - coffee filters, compliments, and observations. Two of these items were collected in abundance......

Ava

I glide into the store, fully aware that multiple pairs of eyes follow me. In my cart, snugly strapped into the kiddie seat, are one year old twin granddaughters, Ava and Angeline. They are dressed in pink from head to toe, cute as a pair of little buttons. Their five year old twin brothers, dashingly handsome Nick and Sae, amply fill the "race car" part of the cart. Yes, I know. We are a sight to behold. Grandma has staged it all and cannot wait for the party to begin.

The boys - Halloween 2013

But mommy is here for groceries. Lots of them. She's been told that numerous times by fellow shoppers. You see, everyone has an opinion on the spectacle that is a set of twins, doubled. "Wow! You sure have your hands full!" Sometimes mommy just can't take it any more. So, today I tell her to go ahead on her own and load up. Enjoy the luxury of solitude. My own needs are simple. I know what I came for, and even before I turn the first corner, I find it. "Oooooh! Twins! No, wait! TWO sets? OMG Ellen, come look at this!" The women squeal as if beholding the bearded lady out on a date with the half-snake man. I pull my cart alongside them and graciously introduce us all. The kids are used to it. I'm on top of the world.

Angeline

We move on, but it happens again. "Do twins run in your family?" "They do now!" I smile in reply. And again. "Do they do everything together?" "No, they are individual personalities with their own  strengths, interests, and friends." I check off my first observation. It is always the ladies who stop to comment. The men in the store are glued to the elbows of their wives, anxious about being in the right place when it is time to hoist a 50 pound bag of oranges into the boss lady's cart. I observe only one poor soul - a bewildered elderly gentleman - break rank to accost a bakery employee, asking if shoelaces (!) can be found near shelves that groan with Italian bread loaves.

With grandma at the wheel, the boys are in heaven. They point and I steer. "To the toy department!" we shout in unison. Three foot Darth Vader and Spiderman dolls are poked and prodded. We return again and again. Grandma is never in a hurry so there's plenty of time to examine everything. We visit the Christmas aisles and the boys stand up in the cart, mesmerized by a decoration that strikes me as bizarre. It is a disemboweled ceramic snowman with a pair of tiny trains circulating in the place his intestines ought to be. "Junk! Dust collector!" I breathe to myself, but only before one of the boys announces that if they had that snowman at home he'd sit and watch it all day and all night long. I didn't expect this observation to strike me the way it did. Has a lifetime of accumulating things misled me to a place where there is no room for the same unbridled joy a little boy discovers on the shelf of a warehouse store?

I brush that aside and move forward again, reflecting on the times my daughter has been confronted with intrusive queries about her children. What kind of a person would ask such things, I wonder. But when we turn the corner I see the answer to my question. She's shopping the pasta aisle. Stopping dead in her tracks, she demands to know if the kids are fraternal or identical twins. I think it's obvious but I answer her anyway. "Fraternal. Both sets." She absorbs this, confirms it for herself, and then brazenly asks if these grandchildren of mine are the result of In Vitro Fertilization. On paper, Dear Abby's rebuttal is genius. I've always kept it in a handy part of my brain - just in case. But I face this young woman and detect only intense interest without a shred of malice. That makes it impossible for me to offer the answer she probably deserves. "No," I reply truthfully. "They are not." Satisfied, she moves away, but not before I tell her that her own little ragamuffin of a kid is cute. That time though, I'm afraid, I did lie.

On our last revisit to Darth and the Spiderman, I am approached in a now familiar way. "Twins?" I turn around, facing a couple who are smiling affectionately. Contentedly. "We have a set of them too!" they tell me. Grandparents. Something about these people makes me wish I could reach out and group-hug them both. Their eyes are kind, not darting and curious, their comments gentle, not probing. Their own grandchildren are 12 years old, a boy and girl. They are so proud of them. I'm not offended that they don't tell me my grandchildren are cute because I live Grandma Code too. Only our own are the world's cutest and smartest. Yours and mine. We know that. No need to belabor it. Grandparenthood is far too wise and much too gracious to indulge in the ugliness of competitive comparison. We've traveled the same road to become who we are now and we celebrate one another with fondness and respect. My chat with these lovely people lasts only a moment, but when we move to part, I tell them how nice it was to talk to them. They tell me the same thing. Grandparent Code - at its finest!

We meet mommy at check out. The young clerk fakes a double take (pun intended!) and asks if we're familiar with the store's "buy one, get one" offer. Hardy har har. He thinks we've not heard that one before, but we chuckle kindly anyway and agree to be "charged" for just one kid from each pair. He means well. They all do.

We're not yet out of the parking lot before I realize that I've forgotten my coffee filters. Understandable. But my observations about human behavior - especially those of my own -  have come home with me to stay!

Tintinnabulation



 

 

Bells? For Halloween? Well, consider this reflection from the hand of Edgar Allen Poe......

Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune

I wasn't there when those words were written, but perhaps ordinary vessels of merriment were cast in an eerie glow because the poet, while penning of them, encountered interruption of a disturbing nature.....

....with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a Raven of the saintly days of yore

Here I will help myself to a generous portion of creative license by suggesting that the aforementioned bells shrieked from the perch of ebony birds.....birds that refused departure despite a hearty implore to not only do so, but...

Leave no black plume as a token.....!






Consider this speculative interpretation of Poe's dilemma. Consider the pecking and cawing congregation - the one taking residence on a cluster of bells, bells, bells, bells. Consider, further, their persistence in the casting of curious eyes upon the craftsman who dares assemble them in heroic homage to the poet! Then pose the question, "Will crafted bells and watchful birds comply to actually peal for us a melancholy tune?"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"
 

Make a set of Halloween bells from plastic or Styrofoam cups. Spray interiors black. Cut a strip of tissue paper a few inches taller than cup height and longer than circumference at its widest point. Wrap tissue around the outside of the cup, pressing along top and bottom edges to make a pattern. Cut on pressed lines. Double check the shape to make sure it curves to cover the cup. Trace pattern on paper, then cut out and glue to cup.

Cut a length of thin cord, string, raffia, ribbon or yarn twice the height of the cup plus ample extra length for hanging. Punch a small hole through center bottom of cup. Pull cord through, then make a knot larger than the hole at the point where cord is twice the height of the cup. Pull backwards until the knot catches and holds on inside bottom. Secure with glue.




Hand draw ravens on black paper, cut them out, then nest them in sticks and excelsior on top of cups. Tie miscellaneous gizmoes to cords for clappers.

Hang completed bells in a group, close your eyes, and imagine......

....the tintinnabulation that so musically wells 
From the bells, bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells

then waken to observe that.....

 the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting......















Acknowledgements:

Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore. (1849). The bells. Retrieved October 5, 2013 from
   http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poebtsp2.htm

Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore. (1845). The raven. Retrieved October 5, 2013 from
   http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poebtsp2.htm

Pumpkin Patch Dart Board

Someday I'll host a Halloween carnival for the grandkiddies. Not this year, though. They're still too young to fully enjoy what I've got planned for them! Oooooooo! Are they scared? They better be!

But next week I'll be co-hosting a party with my oldest daughter for her five year old twin sons and a handful of their friends. Most of the guests are boys....a species who loves to throw things! Balls, sticks, pillows....and hopefully the sticky darts that go with the game board I've just completed.

I've used sticky darts before. Love them. They offer the same fun challenge that pointed, sharp projectiles do, but without all of the safety concerns. And I've found that, despite being a low cost item (about 10 cents each), they really do last the 20 or so tosses claimed.

Each child will be given unlimited turns at the board. We're not going to add up the numbers they hit, but that's an option for kids who are older and can keep track of their own math. This year, we'll just hand out those darts and "let boys be boys!"

I made the board on a 32" x 40" sheet of Crescent (matting) board. To make it sturdy, I backed it up with a same-sized foam board (both from Hobby Lobby). Cut friendly paper designs, glue on, and finish with a random flourish of stick-on numbers. We'll just lean the board against a wall to play, but attaching it to a heavy box is an option that will make it freestanding. If you'll play outside, you can tape a pair of wood stakes to the reverse and pound them into the ground like I did for my summer carnival version. Firmly clipping the mat board alone (without foam board backing) to a sturdy clothesline is another option.

You might appreciate the way this game sneaks some mental calculating into a classroom party or school carnival if you're an elementary teacher or a "teacher's-pet-room-mother" (like I was!).

If you can't find sticky darts locally, look online. I found mine at Windy City Novelties and was very pleased with their prompt, friendly service.

This design, like all blog content, is intended for personal use only. Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Thank you!

Charmed by your necklace!......

....and your bracelet! And your belt! And all of those other Halloweenie thingies a-dingie-dangling from every limb and piece of furniture about you! And whaaaaat? Around your cat's neck too?*

I distinctly remember the moment, years ago, when grandpa (back in that day known as "daddy") ventured to timidly suggest that, "Just because you have a coupon for something doesn't mean you necessarily have to buy the thing!" Um, huh? Yeah okay. Nice try. But what kind of an alien actually lives in a world like that? Today, five hundred weeks later, before the same amount of coupons from Hobby Lobby, Michael's and JoAnn's dared to expire, I have a collection of 40% off paper, ribbon, beads, striped paper straws, and craft punches that would blow away any little weirdo who hopped off any UFO!

But what to do with all this crazy-cute stuff?

Although three year old Bree isn't ready yet to design, punch, and string a necklace of her own, she certainly is ready to admire and wear the ones I made for her this week. We worked together, deciding on colors and placement for each element in the basic plan. She was ready for that, too!

Cut an appropriate length of ribbon or cord. Punch an assortment of paper shapes. Trim a few straws to inch lengths and offer a handful of beads in coordinating colors. You will also need a hole punch and rubber cement for assembling center medallions. Assemble jewelry by stringing components as shown above.

As a "crazy-about-being-a-grandma" person, I have planned "girly-girl" sleepover parties for my four granddaughters since the moment they were born. Food, crafts, entertainment....grandma and grandpa busting into the house at 5 AM to heat up the griddle for morning's pancake sculpture breakfast......it's all in my head, although some might suggest it's time to start writing it all down!

We'll have a Halloween-ing Sleepover, too! I think I'll make this project up into little kits for the girls to work on in between getting their finger and toe nails painted like jack-o-lanterns and ghosts, watching scary movies from beneath a glow-stick-lit blanket tent while shoveling down "monster munch" and recoiling in terror from the creepy hand shadows grandma makes from outside that shakin' and shiverin' spooky shelter!

If my granddaughters lived far away, I'd mail them each a kit in mid-October and include some cute candy to munch on while they assemble their jewelry. In fact, I like this idea so much that I think I'll pack the kits into cute little take-out containers and mail 'em off to the granddaughters of two very dear friends of mine. One's in California and the other's in Pennsylvania. Bet those will be arriving very soon!

* Sorry about the cat jewelry visual - "photo not available!"...and no longer is the necklace - unless a scattered pile of beads and shredded string is something you'd like to see! No. Our feline "modeling session" did not go well....the ultimate in "what-was-I-thinking?!" moments!

These designs, like all blog content, are intended for personal use only. Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Thank you!