Thanksgiving Yields Creative Influences

This Thanksgiving (here in Canada), I had family visit. My mother and father came for a visit, to the delight of my children. Their visit prompted "adventure" throughout this area, and thusly provided opportunity for craft making.

I took my mother to a park nearby that holds a great Weeping Willow tree. It sparked ideas for my mother (as well as myself) for things to make. We gathered fallen branches and brought them home. My mother attempted to make baskets from them (of which she is going to make candle holders). I found myself making a head wreath for my daughter, perhaps for Halloween, as she will be one of the Disney Fairy's (being given a fairy costume from our neighbor's daughter).

What I did, was took branches and simply twisted them into a circle and secured them by weaving the end through the twists, then allowed the branches to dry. I think I'll attach some ribbons to it, maybe some flowers, and beads, just to make it more fun for her. Other than wreaths (of which I think I may make a wall pentacle from), I can't think of anything else I can make from these branches.

Other craft adventures yielded corn dollies. I always thought they were harder to make than they were. I'd already made a variation of such dollies using dish cloths. I've learned how to make them with corn husks and may make more, simply to decorate my altar during this time of year.

To make them, I simply took 3-4 corn husk leaves and sat them on top of each other. I folded the top (where the leaves come to a point) down 2-3 times (depending on preference). I then gathered the sides up a bit and tied it with string (or husk if you like). I took more husk leaves (about 2-3), and folded them first lengthways in 3's, then sideways in half and sat them below the string between 2 of the vertical leaves and tied under the horizontal husk leaves. Essentially, that is a corn dollie. You can also tie the ends of the horizontal husk leaves to make little hands if you like, and you can split the bottom of the vertical leaves to make legs, or leave it as it is, depending on what "sex" you want your dollie to be. Quite simple actually, I was surprised.

The last craft we did for this year's Thanksgiving, was to paint small pumpkins. My son painted emotions on his pumpkin (kinda made me a little sad to know how he feels sometimes, but that's beside the crafting point). My mother, (haw, haw, haw) made a "Witch"...stereotypical, with a long pointed nose lol. It actually was impressive. I made a flower on mine. A purple flower. I really had no idea what to paint on my pumpkin lol. I have to let my daughter (who is at the moment fighting a terrible cold) make one tomorrow.

Crafting is a fairly relaxing project to participate in. It allows the imagination to become free and flow outward into our hands. Something I'll always enjoy.