Thankfulness Project

A Daily Project for Kids {and adults}
For the month of November

One thing in life that brings a smile to my face is an unexpected letter from a friend.  By letter, I mean a real pen-and-paper snail-mail letter.  Opening the mailbox and getting a personal letter can totally make my day {or week!}.

There is something about words written on paper by hand that carries so much meaning.  My ‘motivation’ {read, makes me happy} board in my office is mostly covered with letters from friends and family.  Sweet notes that I know were sent to me, only me, with love.  I know the sender took time out of their busy day to sit down and write me the letter.  Whether it was a special birthday greeting, or a ‘saw this and thought of you’ note, or a funny story to share, each letter is special to me.

Little forms of encouragement sent through the mail. 

Growing up my Mom would make me sit down and write personal thank you notes to every person who had given me a gift for Christmas or my birthday.  I hated it, I really did. 

But today, I appreciate the gift of a hand written letter. 

A good friend of mine is a big proponent for writing letters.  Real letters using a pen and pretty stationary.  She doesn’t just write generic ‘thank you’ notes or simple ‘how are you doing’ cards {although, those are important too!}, she pours herself into the letters she writes.  She is a very busy gal, so when I get a letter from her, I know she deliberately took time out of her day to sit down and write me a {top to bottom, front to back card} letter.

This same friend shared this TED talk with me.

After watching the TED talk by Hannah, it made me realize I want to teach my son the same thing.  The importance of a hand written letter. 

He already knows the excitement of getting a personal letter in the mail.  He is thrilled when something arrives in the mail for him {like mother, like son!}.  

November is the month to be thankful {as if we shouldn’t be thankful every other month too!}.  This year I wanted to do something with little man that would be fun, but something that would take more thought and time than just picking one thing we are thankful for each day {although, we will probably do that too!}.  And, I wanted something that might also turn into a little life lesson.   

Every day in November we will pick one {or more} person we are thankful for and write and send a letter to him or her.  

I think this will be fun for us both to do.  I think it will be good for me too.  Giving me an ‘excuse’ to sit and write a letter a day to someone who is important to me and giving me the opportunity to share that with her. 

Hopefully I can brighten someone’s day! 

Let ‘Project Thankfulness’ and letter writing begin! 

Join us!

Thanksgiving Fall Wreath Tutorial

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Supplies Needed:

~ Styrofoam Wreath {can be found at any craft store}

~ DMC floss, various colors

~ Burlap or any fabric, cut into strips roughly 2” wide

~ Felt, various fall colors

~ Fabric flowers {mine are made of felt and silk}

~ Needle

~ Pins

Cut burlap into strips, roughly 2” wide.  My strips were about two feet long, so I needed roughly four strips of burlap.  

Then take the strips of burlap and wrap them around the wreath, overlapping as I went along.  I used pins to make sure the ends of each piece stayed in place. 

Next step, and the most time consuming part, making the leaves.  Cut leaves from the various colors of felt.  Depending on how many leaves you want on your wreath will determine how many you’ll need to cut.  I used about 20 on my wreath.

Take your first color of DMC embroidery floss and cut a piece {I cut about 15 inches}, thread it into your needle, then tie a knot at the non-threaded end.  Starting from the backside and bottom of one leaf, push the needle and thread through.  Put the needle back through the felt leaf roughly ½ centimeter up the side of the leaf.  Continue this process all the way around the leaf.  Tie a knot at the end, cut the remaining thread, and start the process all over again on the next leaf.  

Making the fabric flowers {you can skip this and leave the flowers off the wreath to save more time}.  HERE is a fabulous tutorial on how to make fabric flowers by Tatortots and Jello.

Once you have ‘decorated’ all your leaves and created your flowers, you’re ready to finish the wreath!

This is the fun part {but also the part that took me the longest- cause I couldn’t make up my mind!}  Take the felt leaves you made and lay them around the wreath however you like.  Place the fabric flowers on top of the leaves.   I put the majority of mine on one half, and three on the opposite side.    Once you have the leaves and flowers where you’d like, you can use pins {or glue, or whatever you’d like} and stick the leaves and flowers in place.  

 

And… done!  You have a fun and festive wreath for fall and the Thanksgiving season!

What do you think of this wreath?  I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

Thanksgiving Fall Wreath

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Now that Halloween is over, and the pumpkins are {mostly} put away, I wanted to make something festive for the Thanksgiving season.

Since I often choose to spend time creating something fun and new, instead of doing things I probably should be doing {housework can wait, right?!}.  I decided the empty space on the wall needed a fall wreath.   

Fortunately, I was able to use supplies I already had on hand.  I’ve had the styrofoam wreath for a while, waiting to be used for a project.   I used burlap, felt scraps and DMC floss I had left over from various previous projects.  

Some left over supplies, a little time and viola!  New wreath!  The little man even told me he ‘loves it!’- huge compliment for sure!!

I think it might be missing something…or have too many leaves.  What do you think?  Do you think it needs anything else?  What would you add/ take away?

Easy tutorial coming soon!