Words of Wisdom

It is true that all that you ever needed to know you learned in kindergarten, it is even more true that the rules of life are refined in first grade...

On my weekly visit to my local First Grade, I found evidence that there are some philosophically important Rules of Life prominently posted on the walls....

A good rule: Always be nice to your family.  Always.

 I find this one more difficult but probably good to remember: Always behave when you are bad.

 This one was at my local Hallmark Store.  Fortunately, I do not have an Ex Mother in Law, but apparently there is a need to reach out and touch those in our extended, extended families...Remember, Always be nice to your family. Even Dad's Wife......

 And this rather scary bluebird, (that perhaps looks more like a crow?) Reminds us that when  you talk to your mom and send her hugs and kisses on a scary, blood spattered (?) crow, always get her attention first.  Hey.

Do I have your attention?
Have a good weekend.

Craft Lady Strikes Again!

I'm at the grocery store last month when a little girl in a cart speaks to me as I pass by. 'I know you!  You're the Craft Lady in my class!'  I acknowledge her cheerfully and tell her that I am in the store, actually, to get supplies for the Thanksgiving Craft that we would be doing the next day.  She asks, so what will we be making?  I inform her that we will be making little Thanksgiving Baskets that will be filled with our thankfulnesses.  She seems pleased and I continue on to the discount meat section of the meat case.  The next morning, I enter the first grade class to a louder than normal voice than is allowed in first grade, 'There she is! The Craft Lady! And with a bit of an air of superiority, she says quite confidently, 'And I know what we will be making today!  Thanksgiving Baskets!  I know because I saw her at Jay C's last night!'  Thankfully, she did not mention that she saw me rummaging through the discounted meat section.

This month, the craft was Christmas Stockings that will be covertly filled with little treats from now till Christmas Break.  Lovely Wife and Pretend Granddaughter Sara helped Saturday with the cutting out of 40 little sockie shapes.  Hubby painstakingly cut three holes in each one.  And I volunteered more of my vintage sequins and goo gaws for the effort.

I am always well pleased with the artistic interpretation of each little creation.  This month was a hoot as this year's class warms up to this weekly visitor to the class.  Monthly, we do crafts, but once a week I go in to help their very apt teacher with the weighty paperwork of copy making.  Each weekly glimmer into the goings on in this very busy room adds to my admiration of the profession of teaching.  Magic is worked in the lives of these little people and if I can sneak in with my Craft Box chock full of sequins, buttons and yarn, then I am a happy crafter.  Nothing like installing the love of gluing and felt into impressionable pre artists and crafters.

I had stockings completely covered.  I picked the well glued sequins from many a little fingers.  I loved the courage of the minimalist.  I enjoyed the little girl in love with my vintage buttons.  One little toothless wonder asked me no fewer than ten times if we could use glitter.  She assured me that she NEVER made a mess with glitter.  I told her that glitter had a life of it's own and was known to remain in a room long after children had graduated.  She would pause a bit then approach with a new tactic.  Admittedly, I almost caved only to be relieved when the same little persistent girl's little red stocking was the only one dripping in glue and falling embellishments. One could only wonder what she could have done with three vials of glitter that she caressed in her hands.

I presewed most of the stocking but left about six inches on the perforated side open so that the kids could 'stitch' it closed with a bell laden piece of yarn.  I let them know that this was the first step in sewing; putting two pieces of felt together without benefit of staples, glue or tape.  They were impressed with themselves.....

And I was too.
Get messy with your favorite child today....

Busy Thursday

How does a Busy Thursday start?
1. Head off to school to turn Loving Tree into Wishing Tree.
Stop first at the library to get several St. Patrick's Day books to share with my Favorite First Graders.
(One little boy even complemented me on my new haircut. Gotta love first graders.)
Have each one of them tell us the wish that they had while they put up their Lucky Shamrocks on the Wish Tree.
Break your heart. 'I wish my brother lived with me'...things like that...

2. Turn into Nurse Ratchet to help Crazy Dee back to Crazy Health.
First stop: New Diet.
Big long list for her hubby so that we can implement immediately a heart healthy diet.
CD just happens to love veggies and fish so we are good.
Take her blood pressure, make sure the meds are ingested, stick her finger to test blood sugar and go hide all the Girl Scout cookies.
Prepare a fiber/iron/cholesterol helping breakfast cereal for tomorrow morning.
Make sure she's taking 'laps' around the house after each bathroom visit.
Arrange her multitudinous floral arrangements so that she can see them well from her vantage point.
Make sure my Nurse Hat that I made for the occasion is where I left it and out of reach of eager grand children's hands.

3. Tuck CD in carefully and back to the elementary school to pick up my little friend Lily for an evening full of seven year old activities:
a). Long walk with dog.
b). Get a fire going so that she can cook hot dogs for part of her supper.
c). Prepare the real supper which she ate as well. And a large apple, some grapes and I was impressed. Whew.
d.) Make snicker doodles. Eat a lot of the batter to boot. Don't you think mixing the dough with your hands just feels better? Certainly more fun when you can lick your fingers! What a girl!
e) Search storage for more tempera paints but ending up only using the blue that we could find. If you only got one color, blue is a good choice.

f.)Pack up the cookies and the little Paddy's Day pin I made for her while she painted my dining room blue and off I take her to her home where math problems await.
Math Problems are not allowed at her friend Debbie's house.
Just fun. Not that math isn't fun, Daddy Mike- Math Teacher. No offense.

Sigh.
My kind of day....
Full of friends, crafts, laughing, children...
Thank you Lord.....

The Valentine Tree

Off I go on another Crafting House Call!
This time I go to our local elementary school to help spread the cause of promoting the love on Valentine's Day!
Valentine's Day.
A favorite of mine. Had my first kiss on Valentine's Eve and first date with The Hubby at a Valentine's Day dance in high school. Baby Girl was born 57 minutes before the Big V Day.
Holds a dear spot in my heart so I promote it at every turn.
I asked Teacher Friend if I could enter her domain and present her class a Valentine Loving Tree. This one is an enlargement of one that I made for my kids decades ago. Back then, I painted the branches of a bush white, placed the embellished twigs in a small bucket of sand and had the kids make small heart valentines that would promise a gift of doing to someone in the house. Signs like: 'I will do the dishes for my sister.' 'I will not complain about schoolwork', ' I will be kind' sort of messages accumulated on the little tree.
Lovely.
So here I start on a bigger scale for four times as many children.
I raided my garden for a large pot and then sacrificed to the Valentine gods, several Rose of Sharon bushes from the sleeping garden area.
Rose of Sharon branches are pretty light colored so I could skip the painting part of the project.
Pea Gravel, (thanks to Youngest Son who carried the quite cumbersome bag from parking lot wayyyyyyyyy to Teacher Friend's room for me, a weak old lady....:D)
took the place of messier sand. Our local school is a beautiful, well kept school so I did not want to be a messy crafter.

Back in the Sewing Room, I fashioned 14 little stuffed felt hearts with a simple design and blanket stitched all around, with a piece of ribbon to hang from, for a gift for each of the children. One suggested that he could hang his on his Christmas Tree, to which I heartily agreed...

Some card stock, doilies and an abundance of shiny thingys to make their creations spec-TAC-u-lar, and off they go to create their 'gifts'..

I might like to mention that some of Pauline Hill's auction goodies got put to use again! A plethora of goo gahs in a myriad of colors for just that shiny fascinating effect that children (and many adults apparently) love so much.
Several of Pauline's goo-gahs had prices on them: 3 for .67...Maybe 1965?

Several the little girls had pink shirts on that day. I pointed out to Friend Audrey that her shirt matched her valentine!
One little boy avoided the pink paper like the plague! I reminded him that maybe the recipient of his valentine, might like pink. He stated emphatically, 'NO ONE in my family likes pink!' Got it.

I would like to point out that Hubby found the gilded gold doilies and thought that I needed them for the children. Big hit.

And here we are, be-ribboned,be-lighted, be-ginghamed, be-adorned and a big hit in Teacher Friend's classroom!!

Might we see a Lucky Shamrock Tree and a Spring Fling Tree.....
Maybe....!

Catch up

Baby Girl has a friend in Lafayette that owns a wonderful shop called, First Class Clutter. It's an amazing display of everything wonderful from the past. It's a small shop with each nook and cranny filled to the brim. My kind of clutter. Last winter I found a fab piece of fabric in one of the corners of her shop. Beautiful stuff. I waited for just the right opportunity and pattern to make it up, and, of course, Amy Butler provided...The Madison Bag looked wonderful with the fabric. I packaged the purse and shipped it off to Baby Girl's friend. I visited her yesterday and she had many thanks for the bag AND another donation to the cause; MORE fabric for more bags! Lurking in another vintage container, was GRAND buttons! Be still my heart....My thoughts could not turn off last night what with making plans for the new fabric to be made into bags, totes and purses for the First Class Clutter store! One particular fabric calls to me and maybe want to stay with me.... A dangerous habit to get into! After looking at it, you're thinking so too, aren't you??!

Lily came over today as well. More on that later, but suffice to say, WE completed a nifty little shoulder bag for her first day of first grade on Monday! It's incomplete stage is pictured above....

Another order for a hobo bag came in last week and it's makings is the other photo..

Off to work on that one now.....

Yay!