Monday, November 23, 2009

The Mayflower or the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria?

I love crafts. Arts and crafts of all sorts. I can't get enough of them. I'm sure my two kids who attend school think that I spend all the time that they're gone doing crafts. Well, if I decided to neglect my other duties as wife and mother, I guess I would be doing crafts or going to school again. Since we've been in Qatar, my social life has dwindled. I talk to ladies at church, I go to a quilting class, a playgroup with Cinci, and I probably get together with someone once during the week whether it be to have Cinci play with someone or for some other reason. I just don't get out much, nor do I feel the need to. It's just so much easier to stay home. . . with my crafts. I know, it's not healthy. Today while I was grocery shopping we were walking down the chip isle and Cinci exclaimed, "These aren't healthy!" I was so proud that he knew. But then when we got home I encouraged him to smell the lovely scented candle on my counter top, and he did. He then said "This isn't healthy!" Well, maybe it'll take a little longer for him to understand.
Back to my point, I love crafts. What I don't like is the expense of most of the materials. I'm cheap. I recently made a salt dough turkey.

I had the ingredients for the salt dough in my kitchen, I had the acrylic paint, I had the paintbrushes, but I didn't have the Mod Podge that you're supposed to finish it off with. I found some this morning at Jareer's Bookstore for 23 qatari riyals, which is $6.30. Not too bad since I just did the conversion. But 23 just sounds like so much, and the cheapskate in me just screamed out, "Don't buy it! It has double digits!"
I find myself browsing craft ideas on the internet. There are so many blogs and websites with great ideas on how to do things. It seems like a trend, in this past decade, to be crafty. Do it yourself! is also something that has gained popularity, however, I've found it to be very American. There is value in America when you can do it yourself. That value doesn't seem to have crossed any oceans yet.
Anyway, doing it yourself is sometimes more expensive than buying it done, or having it done for you. Who can afford organic fabrics when the other ones are so much cheaper? Or the wooden toy craze? I agree that wooden toys are much nicer, more real, feel better, last longer, etc. But there are times when the budget does not allow. I guess I just get frustrated that I'm not rich like the rest of the internet world out there. (Really I'm not mad about not being rich.) I know that everyone out there isn't rich. There are all kinds of people out there. You just aren't going to find blogs that post about how they've turned literal trash into something artistic and wonderful. If you know of any, please send their links this way. I'd love to see their converted trash.
So enough of my complaining and musing. Thanksgiving is coming up. I've been having fun making turkeys of all kinds. Yesterday Atticus and Shermy made little turkeys for their teachers at school. I was very impressed with their sewing skills. Atticus managed to complete one of his turkeys while watching TV which shows that he really can concentrate on something. Yay! I was looking for a fun way to fold napkins. I found this website which was quite useful except the authors assume you have linen napkins. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Should every family have linen napkins? Or even cloth napkins for that matter? All I've got is paper napkins. The cheapest kind. So I tried making a centerpiece turkey with cheap paper napkins. What do you think? Not bad, I say

From the adventures of bunsy and her tumbleweeds

Here are my felt turkeys. A big family turkey for our family. Then I made two finger puppet turkeys for Cinci and a friend who ended up not coming over today.

From the adventures of bunsy and her tumbleweeds
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of year that has been very much neglected in our family. I told the kids the story of the first Thanksgiving. Gosh, I'm thankful my husband is a historian. Well, I don't think your husband needs to be a historian to correct these simple blunders I made. I told my kids that the pilgrims sailed over to America on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Ha! Well, thank goodness he heard me talking to the kids about it because if he hadn't they would never know the truth. Who knows how many other blunders I've made in the past. I suppose we all do.


2 comments:

Jill O. Miles said...

Ha! (lol) You had better quick have your kids color my "Crossing of the Mayflower" link to get it straight in their heads :-) Here's a link to the link:

http://historyforchildren.blogspot.com/2009/11/pilgrim-cat.html

Sonja said...

Christine!! I can't tell you how much I love that last picture. I'm just not even going to try. A simple, "I love it" would not even come close to sufficing. Have I made myself clear? Hope so.

You are the crafty one. I think it's wonderful and your boys will remember this time and all the fun things you did to make it special.

And speaking of boys, BOY are yours handsome.

As far as blunders go, give it a year or so and the boys will be correcting you too. At least that's what happened to me. I think Sam was 6 or 7 when he started correcting my grammar. It's a beautiful thing.