some rambling thoughts / we made ornaments (now you make some too)

One of the first memories I have with my step-mom is making salt dough Christmas ornaments with her and my step-brother the first Christmas she and my Dad were married. He and I were 4 and 5 and we didn't do a perfect job, but they were ours and they were special. Many of those ornaments still hang on their tree today. 

The most mysterious thing about the Christmas season is how memories and feelings are resurrected that otherwise lay dormant. It's a mixed bag of all the intense feelings of awe and wonder and happiness combined with the hurts of life and memories - good and bad - that the sounds, smells and sights of Christmas can bring, and the presence or absence of someone or something is so radically amplified. It's like life goes on steroids for a few weeks. I've said so much in the last few posts, but I am really allowing all that needs to come up and be healed this season to be released. Seems like I am crying at every song that was the soundtrack to the Christmases of my childhood, or those that talk about Jesus and the message of Christmas. Actually just intentionally listening to Christmas music in the car when I am travelling alone leaves me in a mess of tears at some point. The thing is I am not sure what kind of tears these are, they are just tears, so I let them come, and then they're done, and that's it. It's sort of become my therapy for now.

In my last post I shared some of my favorite ornaments and how during one of the worst years of my life (in the quality of my living) I worked a part time second job at Pier One during the Christmas season to fund my drug habit and would have this deep longing in my soul for home - being around all of their incredible stuff, being so broke but daydreaming about being a legitimate grown up decorating my own place and wondering how I would ever have the money to do that kind of thing. The ornament section had so many pretty things and so one day I used my employee discount and spent I think a little over $100 on ornaments. This was a huge splurge for me and I can remember filling my cart and having to put so many back. But, I still bought a bunch. I still have many of those ornaments to this day and putting them on my tree reminded me that there was still some life and humanity and warmth inside of that young woman who was oh-so lost at the time. I have a story to tell about them... if they survive the years. It is something good that happened during something very bad. 

So this year as part of my attempts to make this season memorable, I wanted to make some ornaments with the kids... something that would last, to be remembered as being made during this tumultuous season - hallmarks, if you will. This is such an inexpensive way to decorate your tree, but in reality this is not why I had them do this. Capturing these little artists' work has infinite value. So what could be better?

We did a couple of things. 

First, we collected pine cones from my parents' yard when they were in town last, painted them and glittered them. The kids did the painting and I did the glittering. I ended up using these for the mantle but when I pack things away this year I am going to add wire to them to hang on the tree next season.

Secondly, we made salt dough. It's super easy. You mix up the dough, roll it flat on a floured surface, use cookie cutters to cut shapes for your ornaments, poke holes in them so you can hang them and then bake them for an hour. Once they've cooled you can paint them, glitter them, glue stuff on them, whatevs. 

As you'll see below, the kids (and I) had a ball. We hope you'll make some memories yourself ... take a walk in the woods and get some pine cones together... whip up a batch of salt dough and spend an afternoon making ornaments together. :) Totally free and yet priceless when they're finished.

Google "salt dough" and you'll find a million creative ideas for grown ups as well as kids. I am happy to keep it simple and kid oriented, but if you get a wild hair, follow it!

Salt Dough Recipe

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup warm water

Mix dry ingredients and slowly mix in warm water. Once blended, roll into a ball and knead until smooth on a floured surface. Roll flat and cut into shapes. Bake at 350 for one hour. Cool and then decorate as desired!

painting pine cones... and himself.

Noah's mess

I had fun too!

Not sure why Noah was crying except that he probably wanted to run and was covered in paint so I wouldn't let him.

just some of our pine cones 

The finished salt sough ornaments - we painted, glittered, and glued colored glass and stuff to them.

diy - inexpensive and easy centerpiece

Our dining room table tends to be reserved for work and play, and is usually lacking in any kind of centerpiece. I am not a really design-y kind of person, and anything to fussy just irritates me. So whatever sits in the center of my table has to be quick and easy to move, slide, get out of the way quickly. 

Saw this on Pinterest, and I definitely want to do this sometime in the future (will need to expand my glass bottle collection)... but in the meantime, I am working with what I've got to make an easy and interesting centerpiece. 

Source: wholeliving.com via Brooke on Pinterest

Here's what I used:

1 empty clementines/cuties box (buy a box of them at the grocery store, save the box)

5 or 6 empty jars. I used 3 empty Prego jars, a salad dressing bottle and a mason jar or two

water

flowers

that's it! I spent money on the flowers outright - $10 total at Harry's - and what's even better is that the statice (purple ones) and aster solidago (chartreuse ones) will last awhile and dry beautifully. So you could even ditch the water in a week or so and dry these, and use them later.

Behold, an easy, cheap, slightly different way to do a floral centerpiece.

house tour part 1: the babies' room

Hey y'all! I am so excited to share our "new" home with you, room by room!

Soooo... we moved in December. December 21st - to be exact - was our first night in the townhouse. New readers might want to look back on some posts under the "transitioning" tag to learn more about the WHY of our move...

And since we're on that topic of the house, I am so thrilled to report that of the two offers we got on the house within two weeks of changing our Realtor, the second one seems to be a go and we have a closing date scheduled for March 3rd! Add to that great news that we will benefit from relocation assistance funds which will buy us time as Jason prepares to enter a little bit of a different field in the insurance world. He should be able to start training in March and the money we get will hold us over until he starts making money from that. *fingers crossed and praying*

Also, God has provided carpentry work for Jason to do in the meantime via his BFF Sam, and we are so thankful. It's sporadic but provides and it's better than the alternative, by far!!

Anyways, here are some photographs of Shiloh and Noah Bear's room :). Room sharing is going fine... had a few rocky starts but we are in a groove with naps and bedtime now and all is well.

I plan to share a tutorial on how I made the pennant banners... I made these originally for Noah's first birthday party. Super easy and inexpensive to make!

I couldn't afford curtains, so I just reused these pennant banners from Noah's birthday party.

This Noah's Ark was built by my Granddaddy for my aunts in the 70s. My Grandmama sewed and stuffed the animals. This is a true treasure to me! When we had Noah, my aunt and Grandmama gave it to us. 

Shiloh's quilt is a vintage find from Keepsake Designs . The down quilt on the end of her bed is a vintage family quilt that we brought back from Chicago this past June. Until then it had been stored under the eaves of the family home for years and years.

Noah's toy "center". The collage on the wall is something I made originally for Shiloh's room, and the rocking chair Shiloh is sitting in is vintage from the 1950s and was originally my mother in laws, also brought back from Chicago.

and this is funny... just thought I'd share... 

This is Shiloh's toy "center". Pendant lamp is vintage from the 70s. The bride porcelain doll and lamb were both mine as a child. :o)

Many treasures in this photo. To name a few - upper shelf, sock doll is from Chickabidee baby - you can find them on Etsy here. The mouse is my "miskit" (my way of saying "music") mouse from when I was a baby. On lower shelf, books were all my sisters when she was a kid passed down to me, the multi-colored toy was Jason's baby toy, the car was Dakota's Pinewood Derby car and the little teenie doll sitting with Raggedy Andy was on Jason's mobile as a baby.

These are "Octopuss" dolls custom made by my friend Jen Jarrell for Noah and Shiloh. Dakota has one too. I don't know if she is still making them but you can visit her website here.

We hung these from the ceiling above the kids' beds. I made these for Jason the first birthday (of his) that we were together. I snuck into his bedroom and decorated it with Christmas lights and hung these all from the ceiling. We are reusing them now and so glad!

The needlework above was made by my Mom when my sister was a baby and reframed for Shiloh when she was born. The bottom piece I made for Shiloh when I was decorating her nursery. 

Next stop... our bedroom! :) Stay tuned!

Much love,

Brooke

FIRST GIVEAWAY!! Feather clip and earrings from SONGBIRD GLORY!

Y'all, I am so excited to announce my FIRST GIVEAWAY!! 

I am so happy to introduce you all to the stunningly beautiful and immensely talented Jessica Inman, the crafty lady behind Songbird Glory! Lucky for me, she agreed to help me out with my first giveaway! I am a big fan and a repeat customer and am so excited to share her and her work with you all!

Meet Jessica! See that gorgeous turquoise feather hair fancy? Yep, that's her work!

YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO WIN THIS BEAUTIFUL FEATHER HAIR CLIP and CHRYSANTHEMUM EARRINGS!

A handmade hair clip with brown, cream, and tan feathers, with a brown button accent.  The mix of classic, neutral colors is flattering in all hair colors.  Perfect for adding a little interest to a casual outfit, or for a night out on the town!

15mm grey resin mum earrings. The stainless steel posts are both lead and nickel-free.  These cuties are both feminine and modern and are a great accent to any outfit!

 If you live in the Atlanta area and were to visit Rebirth Boutique in Decatur, Shine Salon in Woodstock, or Tryst Salon in Alpharetta, you'd pay $30 for this lovely pair!

Jessica also has a shop on Etsy (which she asked that I note is a little bare at the moment as she is busy preparing for upcoming holiday craft shows) where you can purchase her unique items, but she also accepts custom orders (I know, she has custom made almost everything I've bought from her)! :o) Or if you live in the South, she will be showing at several upcoming craft shows... you can contact her for details at info@songbirdglory.com!

I absolutely adore Jessica's work so much that I have purchased several items from her - mostly for myself, but also for my daughter. Jessica custom-made three sweet felt and button hair pieces for my daughter that are our favorite go-to hair things today (and they're durable too with excellent quality felt!). The peacock feather earrings I'm wearing in the header of my blog? She made those for me too. And when I cut all my hair off, and needed an excuse to buy her lovely earrings, well, she brought a wide assortment to my house and waited patiently while I chose four pair that I loved. She does such beautiful work, and was so sweet to bring her shop to me!

Here are a few pairs of earrings I own ... they are my go-to everyday wear earrings.

And Jessica is so sweet. I am thankful to have gotten to know her a little bit more over the last year or so. She and I have known each other for a loooong time, but never really talked, except to connect over doing or wanting to do courses with Clayton College of Natural Health over the coffee bar at church. :o) Now we are back in community together at the same church where we met and I look forward to more great talks! You can meet her too - she recently started blogging about her adventures with Songbird Glory and about the most recent announcement that she and her husband Brad have decided to begin the process of adopting a baby! I am privileged to know this precious couple and to be in community with them and to watch their journey. 

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY - do these things:

1: Follow my blog - from under His feathers

2: Follow Jessica's blog @ Songbird Stories

3: "Like" Songbird Glory on Facebook

4: Leave a comment below and please include your email address! (so I know you've entered and can contact you if you win!)

Want to increase your chances of winning? Get an additional entry (be sure to leave an additional comment) - TWEET about this giveaway and mention me @brookehammel

GOOD LUCK!! Giveaway winner will be announced on Tuesday, December 6th!

garden update (radish harvest) and front yard picnic fun

Hello friends! Welp, I have completely failed to provide regular status updates on the growth and progress of this year's fall vegetable garden. However, not to worry. Things have been growing fine (har har) and yesterday we harvested our first fruits... radishes!

Radishes are ridiculously easy to grow and are really ready for harvest in about three to four weeks (a great learning experience for my little girl who both planted the seeds and harvested each one). I let mine stay in the ground for longer, but thankfully they didn't get grainy or fibrous like I thought they would. Instead, there was a certain sweetness to them that was delightful and different. I plan to use them in a salad or something tonight and I am hoping I can squeeze in another crop of them before the winter comes.

The collards are doing great, as well as the turnips (below) which will be ready for harvest very soon. The kale is not doing so well, mostly because I have random squash and tomato plants which I DID NOT PLANT that decided to start growing all of a sudden that are sort of crowding out the kale. I WISH the squash would yield something to make it worth sacrificing my precious greens, but with the inevitable cold snap coming I am afraid that it'll just be a waste. One can hope though, right? Oh and those tomato plants? It will be a miracle if they grow to yield anything at all. I should probably just pull them. Still it has been an interesting experiment. I will say the stalks look sturdy and the plants quite healthy.

After tending the garden the little ones and I had a not-so-fancy picnic under our pretty maple tree... PB & Nutella, apples and the Stonyfield Farm version of Gogurts. Whatever they are. Carried out on a broiler pan (lololol at myself), with a bottle, and a Hello Kitty juice, and paper towel napkins. You know, something so neatly arranged and suitable for a photo. Staged perfectly for my blog. HAHAHA. Sorry.

don't judge me... I put the timer on the camera on the tripod.... (*wants to run and hide in closet*)

After they ate their lunch, the kiddos ventured out into the yard. Noah decided to try to climb a tree. Lord help me! Shiloh started picking leaves from trees, and so began the idea to collect as many different leaves as possible for a leaf craft. I've learned how much she loves crafting and I am trying to find something new for her to do every day.

Here's Shiloh doing her "leaf craft" - originally we were going to do leaf prints, but that was a little too much for her, though we did do some, she just got frustrated and painted a big glob on the paper. So we glued instead and she loved that.

...and here are our radishes after their bath:

...and now it is time for me to be done with this post. My daughter is oh so quietly sitting at the top of the stairs post nap waiting for me... she is being sneaky but I know she's awake!

Much love.

Brooke