Anyway
Last week I had the darndest time getting anything to turn out right. Oh, I guess the turkey pot pie I made from Thanksgiving leftovers turned out well (don't ask the twins for their opinion, though!). I just didn't have the magic touch last week.
My friend Astrid was hosting this amazing Advent calendar-making party, and I wanted to be ready. I spent about a week scouring the blogs and trying to come up with some meaningful, yet simple ideas for things to include in our Advent calendar. I did find some really good Bible verses which point to the Christ child every day. I would give the blogger credit, but I kind of gleaned them from various sources. (Doesn't "glean" sound so much better than "stole"?)
I thought I'd get really clever and have the kids make a symbol for each day's verse. For example, Day 3 highlights how God created everything, so we needed a miniature "Earth". I found this awesome idea online for making your own shrinky-dinks out of Number 6 plastic. "Just ask at the deli counter, or buy a container of strawberries" the crafters in Blogland told me. So on my next trip to Walmart I scoured the produce, meat, and bakery departments in search of #6 plastic. Do you think I could find it? Noooooo. Sure, there was #5 and even a few #7's...and I'm happy to report a majority of #1's for those of you with heightened eco-awareness. But not a single #6. The deli guy didn't know what I was talking about. He said, "I've gotta go tell my friends this one! I've never heard of numbers on the back of plastic containers before!" See, I like to enlighten people like that.
So I splurged on some organic greens and brought home a #7 container. After a lovely salad for supper that night, the girls and I set to work making Advent symbols. I think they did a fantastic job!
Sometimes I needed to do the drawing for the twins, then they would trace.
Note to self: make sure Wynne doesn't get a hold of the permanent markers. Unless you wanted to change out the countertop anyway.
The online crafters told me that you could even use the sides and the bumpy parts of the plastic. It would all melt down flat in a 250 degree oven anyway.
Snag #1 came up when we tried to use our hole puncher to punch holes in the top of our little Advent ornaments. Try as I might, I couldn't get the hole to punch through. Good thing Daddy lifts weights every morning!
Ready for heating and shrinking. Don't they look cute?
Post-oven. Something went horribly wrong. Sure, everything went flat, but that's about all that went right. Sigh.
We're using the ornaments anyway. I'd still like to find some #6 plastic and see if it really works like Shrinky Dinks. I can't afford the real deal, and we just want a bunch of clear to work with, anyway.
The Advent party was really fun, although my first two attempts at making containers went south. (Like I said, it was not my week.) Thank goodness Astrid bought a bunch of tiny brown bags for the craft-impaired like myself! And her number punches were a LIFESAVER. The Advent tree turned out pretty well, in spite of my best efforts. Thanks to Astrid for her generosity and supplies!
***
Please don't ask me how last week's molasses cookies turned out. (Maybe I can wrap them up and give them to the girls as "American Girl hockey pucks" this Christmas.)
***
In other somewhat-related news of the week, we had 3 away games. Game 2 was on the night of the first snow and involved a white-knuckled drive home. Thank God the kids were quiet. Ally's team came up on the short end of the stick three times, but I feel like they improved from Tuesday to Friday night. Even though they were defeated by a large margin all 3 nights, they came out fighting and never gave up trying. The defense got better and the offense started taking more shots. Like I told Ally on the way home, "You may get beat, but you have to keep trying hard anyway. Good things happen to those who keep trying." Ally has to learn that things worth having do not come easily.
***
I didn't have a title idea for this post, but after writing it I noticed I used the word "anyway" about 5 times. It just made me think of Martina McBride's song of the same name. So no matter how your crafts or cookies or basketball games turn out, "do it anyway"!
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.--Hebrews 12:1
My friend Astrid was hosting this amazing Advent calendar-making party, and I wanted to be ready. I spent about a week scouring the blogs and trying to come up with some meaningful, yet simple ideas for things to include in our Advent calendar. I did find some really good Bible verses which point to the Christ child every day. I would give the blogger credit, but I kind of gleaned them from various sources. (Doesn't "glean" sound so much better than "stole"?)
I thought I'd get really clever and have the kids make a symbol for each day's verse. For example, Day 3 highlights how God created everything, so we needed a miniature "Earth". I found this awesome idea online for making your own shrinky-dinks out of Number 6 plastic. "Just ask at the deli counter, or buy a container of strawberries" the crafters in Blogland told me. So on my next trip to Walmart I scoured the produce, meat, and bakery departments in search of #6 plastic. Do you think I could find it? Noooooo. Sure, there was #5 and even a few #7's...and I'm happy to report a majority of #1's for those of you with heightened eco-awareness. But not a single #6. The deli guy didn't know what I was talking about. He said, "I've gotta go tell my friends this one! I've never heard of numbers on the back of plastic containers before!" See, I like to enlighten people like that.
So I splurged on some organic greens and brought home a #7 container. After a lovely salad for supper that night, the girls and I set to work making Advent symbols. I think they did a fantastic job!
Sometimes I needed to do the drawing for the twins, then they would trace.
Note to self: make sure Wynne doesn't get a hold of the permanent markers. Unless you wanted to change out the countertop anyway.
The online crafters told me that you could even use the sides and the bumpy parts of the plastic. It would all melt down flat in a 250 degree oven anyway.
Snag #1 came up when we tried to use our hole puncher to punch holes in the top of our little Advent ornaments. Try as I might, I couldn't get the hole to punch through. Good thing Daddy lifts weights every morning!
Ready for heating and shrinking. Don't they look cute?
Post-oven. Something went horribly wrong. Sure, everything went flat, but that's about all that went right. Sigh.
We're using the ornaments anyway. I'd still like to find some #6 plastic and see if it really works like Shrinky Dinks. I can't afford the real deal, and we just want a bunch of clear to work with, anyway.
The Advent party was really fun, although my first two attempts at making containers went south. (Like I said, it was not my week.) Thank goodness Astrid bought a bunch of tiny brown bags for the craft-impaired like myself! And her number punches were a LIFESAVER. The Advent tree turned out pretty well, in spite of my best efforts. Thanks to Astrid for her generosity and supplies!
***
Please don't ask me how last week's molasses cookies turned out. (Maybe I can wrap them up and give them to the girls as "American Girl hockey pucks" this Christmas.)
***
In other somewhat-related news of the week, we had 3 away games. Game 2 was on the night of the first snow and involved a white-knuckled drive home. Thank God the kids were quiet. Ally's team came up on the short end of the stick three times, but I feel like they improved from Tuesday to Friday night. Even though they were defeated by a large margin all 3 nights, they came out fighting and never gave up trying. The defense got better and the offense started taking more shots. Like I told Ally on the way home, "You may get beat, but you have to keep trying hard anyway. Good things happen to those who keep trying." Ally has to learn that things worth having do not come easily.
***
I didn't have a title idea for this post, but after writing it I noticed I used the word "anyway" about 5 times. It just made me think of Martina McBride's song of the same name. So no matter how your crafts or cookies or basketball games turn out, "do it anyway"!
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.--Hebrews 12:1
posted by Amy Siegert | 11:56 AM
1 Comments:
I LOVE that Advent tree!!!!! It turned out great!
I can't tell from the photo what went horribly wrong with the shrinky dink ornament project. I've also heard about using #6 plastic for that purpose but I've not tried it.
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