Grandmother Wren

I’m a little late in getting my blog posts up for today.
I began well – lunch was done, Maya off to an afternoon of kindergarten. I made a cup of tea, decided to bring along a handful of pretzels to munch on, settled down at the keyboard to work.

A handful of crunchy pretzels.
Not a chewy granola bar. Not pieces of saltwater taffy.
Pretzels.

And then I was missing a front tooth.

This sort of mishap was not all that uncommon before I had dentures. (that is why I have dentures). But now? I didn’t know this was even possible. The tooth was not broken, the socket (or whatever it’s called in a denture) was not broken – the tooth had simply removed itself neatly from its position in my mouth.

Okay.
No need to panic.
I called the dentist. Surely there is an adhesive that they apply? It looks like there must have been an adhesive holding the tooth in place to begin with?
There is.
But they don’t do that at the dentist’s office. (of course not).
I would need to bring the denture in to the office, they will send it to the lab for repair and I’ll have it back in a week.

I don’t think so….

Or…
there is a dental adhesive at the pharmacy that can be used for temporary repairs. It will hold the tooth in place permanently (more or less, I would now suppose) but they refer to it as “temporary” because surely a day will come when I will want to send my teeth away for a week and wander about toothless waiting for them to be returned to me.

Right.

I went to the pharmacy.
Everything is back to where it should be.
I am feeling ever so much better now.

We’ve been crafting.
Tired of the white of winter, we went to the dollar store and bought supplies to make a Valentine’s Day wreath for our front door.

Color and fresh scents.
That’s what we’re needing to make our home sing with the promise that winter will end.
We’re starting some potpourri and pomander projects too.
Today we made a blossom from fresh orange peels.

I’ll be adding some recipes and tutorials for herb and spice scented projects in my Thrifty Creativity blog throughout this week.
If I can keep my teeth in my head.

Enjoy more of Making Your Home Sing Monday - visit Nan at Mom’s The Word

I do a few collages every year – when the seasons change, on my birthday, when the creative spirit moves me…
This year I’d like to try and do one every month.
Or maybe try doing smaller ones to fit my journal pages.

I’m liking the turquoise in this one – the same shade I chose for the sheers on my living room windows.

I also like the original version of the familiar Serenity Prayer that I found in the newspaper on New Year’s Day.
(I didn’t know there was an original version…)
I cut it out and gave it a prominent place in my New Year collage.

Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things which should be changed,
And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right, if I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen

Hope, resolution, and the courage to change.
Let us begin, anew.

Would you like to try a journal collage? Here’s one of the articles that inspired me - The Language of Imagery, Keeping a Visual Journal 

If you have a collage to share, please leave me a comment and I’ll post the link.

It’s Fall – the weather is getting colder, it’s getting dark outside earlier and earlier – this is a good time of year to pull out the family’s favorite board games or…
why not try making some new games of your own?

(These instructions are from a book Grandmother Wren had as a child – some of the materials will have to be adapted to those more readily available now – some forty years later!)

Four Good Toss Games To Make

Number Ring

This game can easily be made on a cardboard box top about 12 inches square. Cut 10 holes about 1/2 inch in width through box top at places shown in drawing. Write the numbers 1 through 10 in the places shown. Insert a wooden clothespin into each hole. Now get a few rubber jar rings, and you’re ready to play the game.

You should kneel about 5 feet from the game and try to toss a ring over the clothespin with the highest number. Play with several friends and keep score, seeing who gets the highest total after 10 throws each.

Baseball Button

You can use a box top for this game, too. It should be about 10 x 14 inches. Mark out your baseball diamond in pencil on box top, following the one in the drawing. Each base should be about 2 inches in diameter. Cut out holes for bases with a knife or scissors. Cut base lines from colored paper and paste in place, as shown. Label each base as in the picture; also label the left, center, and right fields.

To play the game, use large buttons and toss them from a distance of 5 or 6 feet into the various holes. Play with several friends and take turns being “up at bat.” When your button lands in the hole marked “out” three times in one inning, it’s time for your friend to be “up.” Keep score exactly as you would in real baseball. If you have a man on first or second base, try to score by getting more men on base or a home run.

Egg Box Marble

Using an ordinary egg box (holding a dozen eggs), carefully open the cover so that it forms a gentle slope from table top to inside of box, as shown. Hold cover in place by attaching it to table with a piece of cellophane tape or masking tape. Mark each square of box with a different number. Play with several friends, taking turns rolling marbles up the sloping cover into box. You should roll from a distance of about 5 feet.

Another way to play would be to cut out pictures of wild animals and paste them in the spaces instead of numbers. As you play, see who can bag the most animals. Let the elephant and lion count highest and the smaller animals be worth fewer points.

Spelling

This is played on a piece of plywood or very heavy cardboard about 18 x 24 inches. With a ruler, mark off a 1-inch margin all around the board. Then divide the board into
three equal sections across and six equal sections up and down within the margin. Draw lines where you have made the marks. Where each line crosses another, screw in a cup
hook.
Paint a letter of the alphabet underneath each hook. Since there are 28 hooks, there will be no letters for two of them. Leave these blank, and they can be penalty hooks that everyone should avoid.
Make the rings out of sections of clothesline about 8 inches long. Form a ring and
fasten ends together with twisted wire or masking tape.

The object of the game is to see who is the first one to spell out all the letters of a
short word which you have chosen ahead of time.

Would you like ideas for more games that you can make and play with your family and friends? Check out this link from Cornell

Click here to enter your link in the blog hop and view the entire list of entered links…

My friend Kimela came up with this fun – and pretty! – way to use up all of those little balls of leftover yarn that accumulate after projects are finished.

Kimela rolled the leftovers into big balls, tying the ends of one color to the next to keep the balls of yarn growing. She used a simple design for her afghan, single crocheting a starting chain to the width she wanted, then continuing in rows of single crochet letting the colors flow like magic.

Very pretty, Kimela – thanks for the idea!

See more afghans made by Kimela – Click here and here

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When Grandmother was a girl…
(I love stories that begin with that phrase )

When Grandmother was a Girl Scout (even better!) we would prepare autumn leaves for crafts by pressing them with a hot iron between sheets of waxed paper. Even then, there were drawbacks to this method – lots of little girl scouts with singed fingers.

Now that I have a granddaughter -
who knows where the iron is and who buys waxed paper anymore?

There is an updated version of preserving leaves with wax (or sort-of wax) that’s a lot easier and no one gets burned. Leaves will keep their color and remain pliable if dipped in any of the liquid no wax floor shiners. ( like Mop ‘n Glo)

We pour the liquid into a pie plate, dip one side of the leaf, lay it on newspaper to dry for a half hour or so, then dip the other side. If we want to extend the project (and play with paint brushes), then we paint the shine on.

By the next day, the leaves are completely dry and ready to use in garlands, wreaths, bouquets…
Acorns, pinecones – even rocks! – can be polished using the same method.

Seasonal, Fun, Fast.

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