Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Corn Husk Doll


My little girl had a surprise in her backpack yesterday. Her preschool class had made native american corn husk dolls.

She told me this morning that little boys and girls made these dolls a long time ago.

I think it was a pretty cool experience for her.


If you would like to make a corn husk doll you can find the instructions here. This link has great suggestions for decorating your doll including soaking her in watercolors, food color, coffee or tea to give them color.


You can watch a video tutorial here.


I want a whole family to decorate with this Thanksgiving.



you can find the legend of the corn husk doll here.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Moss Terrariums






I have been spotting moss terrariums everywhere lately and I am a bit smitten. I decided some time back to make them for the girls' teachers. I thought I would share some tips in case you decided to make one of these terrariums.

I found awesome resources online.
I especially used these



Since you can find loads of step by step instructions I thought I would share some of my personal experiences making these pretty little terrariums.
1. The activated charcoal was the hardest to find. I finally found it at a small speciality nursery. It came in large chunks that I just hammered into smaller pieces.

2. I had trouble deciding on the type of soil to use and finally decided to go with cactus soil because I think it will help by not holding excess water.

3. I looked online for moss but I thought it was pretty expensive. I decided to do a little exploring and find my own. I overlooked a great little creek by my house for over two weeks. It was full of great moss.
It was fun finding it by myself . I did have a crazy experience where I was poking around by our local lake and ran into a snake.

4. I had hoped to find my thrift shop full of great jars but had no luck. I found the blue top jars at Ross for a couple of bucks each. I found the tiny jars at World Market for 99cents.
5. I purchased the decorations on etsy.
6. I am going to find some travel size spray bottle to give with each terrarium to make for easier misting of the moss.
7. I made these early so they will have time to cure hopefully insuring I give a healthy terrarium as a gift.

the smaller jars are my favorite.


but don't forget about the awesome peanut butter jars.

the peanut butter jar made the perfect container for my little girl.
Let me know if you have any questions. I would be happy to share what I learned.