Tales From The Bonny Blue House

Stained Glass Craft

Recently I had the children work on a quick little craft that was inspired by Dawn's stained glass window decorations.  I brought the materials over to Chris' house for our Friday craft time.

I had squares of tissue paper, purchased already cut up thank-you-very-much, and an outline of a window shape that I cut out of black card stock. I had the children lay the outlines in laminating sheets and arrange the tissue to their liking.

They enjoyed this process a lot.  There were many consultations as to color. :).

When they were happy with their colors I had them lay a carstock black cross on top, and through the laminator it all went. Then we trimmed with a sharp scissors to retain the window shape and hung them up.

Pretty, no? I had to wait for a cloudy day to take a photo. Taking a picture of a window is tricky.  

Up close.

Contact paper would work just as well if you don't have a laminator.

 

I hope you enjoyed our little craft. I'll be sharing more soon.

Blessings,

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Tomorrow Lent begins and I spent the weekend getting us ready for some activities to make it more meaningful for my children.

Right now they are feasting on Mardi Gras pancakes...

The purple one isn't so vibrant. They like it anyway.

Our Allelulia is ready to be buried tonight. I'll pop in later to show you where.

We will be making our salt dough crown of thorns later and I will be putting together a few supplies for a Friday craft day.

I hope your Fat Tuesday is a good one!

Years in the making

I am posting this for those people who might read this blog and think I have it all together. Or even a little bit together. I have nothing together.

My children made this cute fish project. Five years ago. FIVE. YEARS. AGO.  

At the time I put them carefully in a folder because my  idea was to hang them in the bathroom. At the time we had this ugly little upstairs bathroom that the kids used. 

I came across the folder while cleaning off my desk last week.

I never blogged the craft but there is a complete explanation here at Our Domestic Church. 

So when I found the pictures I remembered that Elizabeth Foss had hung them up in her bathroom. She even had a cute fish shower curtain. I didn't actually remember the shower curtain but I was wondering if I was channeling Elizabeth when I picked the color for the new bathroom.  

So I ordered some new frames from Amazon. The cheapest ones I could find. I have to say they really are very nice and came packaged so well I could have dropped them off the roof and they would not have broken.

This morning I hung the fish. FIVE YEARS LATER

The kids were happy to revisit this little bit of their artwork. They were particularly happy because the little dark fish at the top of the second picture was Ryan's.  How nice to have another bit of him in the house.

So now you all know. I am currently somewhere about 4.5 years behind in project completion.

Lanterns for St. Martin

Last week we had a lot of cathing up to do.  The children were also participating in two plays whose performances had been put on hold pending my mom's funeral. Needless to say it was a bit hectic.  I also had a dead dryer and my vaccuum cleaner burst into flames. 

Ever had one of those weeks?

One thing that did go nice and smoothly was our St. Martin craft.  St. Martin's Day, November 11th, is such a wonderful opportunity to teach children about the different kinds of generosity Christians are called upon to exhibit. Generosity to the poor of course, St. Martin's cloak having been sacrficed to the beggar, and the generosity of those who risk their lives to serve their country. St. Martin was first a soldier before leaving the military to follow the call to be a monk. That Veterans Day, in the US and St Martin's Day share a date is wholly suitable. I don't think we moms should ever miss an opportunity to drive home to our children the generoisty involved in military service or in a religious vocation. 

It is also a great opportunity to make cute little lanterns. The lanterns, when lit, symbolize the light of generosity. One of the symbols of St. Matin is a globe of fire and it isn't really practicle to have children parading around with globes of fire so lanterns make good substitutes.

We began with this simple materials.

Those little paint cans I found in Michaels for about $2 a piece. And yes, I purchased tissue paper squares rather than cut them out. I'm lazy.  Then I bought some battery operated tea lights so that I wasn't dealing with five year olds and fire.

There is also a book about Saints and Mrs. Sharp's Traditions both of which I read from while they worked.

It was pretty simple. I had them paint white glue on to the paint cans and then stick paper squares on the glue. Then when they were finished they painted water-downed glue over the squares to seal them.

They had fun.  Brendan was napping and that was a deliberate choice on my part because I am a total wimp when it comes to two year olds and glue.

Here they are in the window that night.

Thanks for indulging me in our little craft dear friends, I'll be back soon.

Ember Days

Today marks the begining of the autumnal Ember Days in our faith. I wrote a  complete explanation of the Ember Days last December at O Night Divine and I invite you to click on the link to check it out. The short story is that four times a year the church provides us three days to offer sacrifices and do penance in order to thank God for the wonders of his creation. It is a time to celebrate the beauty of the world around us and to wonder in the awesome love of God who created this world for our use and enjoyment. 

The Catholic Church was the first enviromentally aware organization. :). What they don't do is spiritualize the earth (no, it is not your mother) rather give credit to the Creator. The church has always maintained that we should be good stewards of the earth.

To observe the Ember Days we can call our children's attention to the seasonal changes going on around us; a leaf collection walk, an acorn pile, build a fairy house, a temperature chart... anything like that. My little people made bird feeders from milk jugs to attract the birds who will be wintering over here in the northeast.

 

This is the simplest of crafts, which you already know since I'm the one doing it . Cut a hole in one of the sides of the jug, smooth out rough edges with an emery boards and then let the children paint and decorate. Fill the hole with bird seed and hang.

However you spend your Ember Days I hope that they are filled with sunshine and joy.

Blessings,

 

Quick and Crafty Holy Spirit

Thursdays are the days I read over the Gospel for Sunday and if possible try to fit in a little craft to further enhance the message. I use the Magnifikids magazine, which the younger set bring to Mass, we read, discuss and then craft.

Sunday's Gospel (John 1:29-34) is the story of John the Baptist revealing the name of "Lamb of God".  You would think I would do a lamb thing wouldn't you? But no I had doves so doves it was.  It works since the Holy Spirit is featured rather heavily here :).

We discussed the beginning of the ministry of Christ and the fact that all three persons of the Trinity are present here at this time and place (how cool is that anyway?).  While we read and discussed Erin, Kelli and Kevin worked on a sheet I had in my folder, we also have this from www.catholicmom.com which I will give them tomorrow.

Then I gave them these little cardboard doves I bought in Michaels a few weeks ago. They came in a package of 20 and they were .99.  There was a wall full of these bank cut-outs and I'm kicking myself for not buying other shapes. Looks like I'll have to go back :).

I gave them each a few fluffy white feathers (I had them on hand) and some glue and they went at it.

They look pretty hanging over the table.  THis was a nice little craft to do in a few minutes while Katie was taking her online literature course and the twins were playing with a friend. Brendan was occupied in the high chair with a paint brush, a few drops of water and construction paper.

Now it's back to work...

Holy Name of Jesus Craft

Our first day back to school went pretty well. There were still some children who were not feeling quite up to snuff but we all pulled together and got things accomplished.  

I was on the ball this morning in that I got up early, woke the children up early (giving up some precious alone coffee time) and had a craft set up before they started school. I gave a little lesson on the HOly Name of JEsus, the feast day was yesterday and it is January's devotion, and then Erin, Kelli and Kevin got started.

I was inspired by Dawn's craft so long ago.  How did I remember that you ask? Well I didn't but I did have it printed out a filed away in my January folder.  Another happy Dawn idea.  

I say inspired by because I changed it a bit.  And we did three.  Here's our version.

First we painted the rim of a cheapie paper plate yellow (by the way I had all of this stuff in the house already).

Next they painted a smaller plate blue. I didn't actually have a smaller plate so I cut the rim off a same size plate. This plate was not the cheapie kind but a sturdier type. I have all these paper plates because we've been entertaining over the Christmas season so I seem to have acquired a variety. Also don't be impressed and think that Bridget and Brendan are crafting. They are slapping paint all over plates and themselves. No matter, they are washable. Just as an aside I should mention that one of the ways to have a less stressful homeschool with toddlers or just a less stressful home with toddlers is to not worry about mess. Mess happens and you know what? It gets cleaned up. I do the best I can to contain the mess, notice the trays and the smocks, but really everything is washable and it's all part of doing business with little people. Make up your mind to it, have lots of wet soapy rags around and try to enjoy.

O.K. back to our regularly scheduled craft.

The next step was to set the plates aside to dry (which took about ten minutes) and color a sheet that Charlotte so generously provided (what would the craft impaired homeschool mama do without Dawn and Charlotte?). It was the Holy Name of Jesus 2 sheet. 

You can see the image is round. Once the children had finished coloring in shades of blue and gold the plates were dry. We then glued small plate onto big plate (no pictures here, sorry) and then glued the cut out round image on top. The kids sprinkled a bit of blue glitter we had around their "plaques". When all that was dry (a few hours) I hot glued some blue yarn to the back as a hanger and we were done.

One we hung over the crucifix in the learning room.

The other on the bulletin board.

The other is over the calendar. I am probably going to move this one upstairs soon. I'm still in the process of putting away the decorations so I'll move it up when I've got things back together. As if I'm ever together :).

Now those math books aren't going to correct themselves (if only, if only) so I'm off. 

Have a blessed evening.

Happy Solstice

Today is the shortest day of the year. In terms of light that is, I'm sure I'll still have kids up at ten o'clock :).

While my hatred of being cold is well known among friends and family I do love the Solstice. It is such a cozy time of year when the light wanes early and we can surround ourselves in the soft tree lights and candles that are around the home. It is the dark before the Light of the World comes. 

The day begs for something cozy and warm for dinner; soup with crusty bread? Stew? A nice comforting casserole?  I will have kids out and about this evening at dance classes but everyone should be home by 7:00pm and I intend to have a roaring fire built to welcome them in.  

I was trying to get a picture of the full moon last night but between the clouds and the dopey wires I couldn't get something nice. Maybe tonight.  The Full Dark Moon as December is known should be shining bright and in the wee hours of this morning was a lunar eclipse. I missed it. A lunar eclipse is when the full moon passes through part or all of the Earth's shadow. I knew about it and wanted to get up and see it but my dear husband took me out for dinner and some quiet conversation and by the time we got home I was tired and forgot to set my alarm. Oh well.

Dawn posted a really nice Solstice craft, making suet cakes for her outside tree. It fits in so nicely with our observance of the Ember Days that I posted about at O Night Divine. The days set aside by the church, four times a year, to make sacrifices and penance in thanksgiving for God's beautiful and holy creation.  So many of my nature loving friends Macbeth, Dawn, Jennifer (have you seen her garden photos?) incorporate this love of God's creation into their lives and homeschool so well.

I'm working on it.

 

I hope everyone has a happy, cozy Solstice.

 

Happy Feast of the Archangels!

Yesterday Chris was kind enough to host a few of us for a feast day celebration. Our mutual friend Fr. Angelus was visiting from London and after celebrating noon Mass he came back Chris' home to give the children a little lecture about the upcoming feast days. After a lovely lunch the children made a craft that Chris had dreamed up and put together for them.  She gives you a step by step at her blog so click on the that link and you'll get the details.

Why do I look like a bobblehead here?

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin

 




Blessed feast day to you.