Give Thanks

Today I'm attempting to cover Thanksgiving this weekend before it morphs completely into Christmas.  I adore fall at my house because I am a total earth-tone chick and as soon as stores start putting out autumn decor, I salivate.  I don't decorate for ever holiday, but I cannot get enough fall leaves, gourds and pumpkins!  Just so beautiful!

This fall I've had a bit of a turkey thing going on.  First off, I've had a new church calling.  I now am the primary chorister - so I created my friend Tom the turkey.  Oh, I did NOT sew this adorable turkey!! I bought him at Hobby Lobby.  But then I created a disguise for him.  For each song the kids learned and/or sang well, they earned Tom a new piece of his disguise, with the goal being to get him unrecognizable by Thanksgiving so Farmer Brown wouldn't be able to find him.  Disguise pieces?  A wig (I made this of craft doll hair),  glasses (courtesy of our Ms. Potato Head + googlie eyes for silliness factor), tutu (just sewn on an elastic band - super easy), boots (using a doll clothes pattern), a necktie (felt, I didn't feel like interfacing a turkey tie), and a sombrero (doll straw hat + rickrack with beads hand-sewn to each peak).  So much fun!  I giggled the whole time I was sewing the stupid tutu just thinking about how ridiculous the concept of a turkey tutu is!

My second big turkey project is an illustration of the extent of my insanity and my extreme problem with misjudging time.  The day before Thanksgiving, with my kids home from school, I felt like doing a little craft project with them.  A LITTLE craft project.  I browsed the web and didn't find anything that tickled my fancy, or for which I had supplies.  Stumbling across a blog that discussed making marionettes out of toilet paper rolls (though it was british, so she called them loo rolls, which makes me smile), it gave me the inspiration I needed.  I pulled everything out and we got started.









I wanted to take pictures to document, and only ended up taking one lousy picture before it all erupted into an out-of-control insane all-hands-on-deck intense project that lasted for the next seven hours!!!  Painting, gluing, cutting, designing - using everything from fabric, craft foam, chenille stems, wooden beads, cardstock, googlie eyes, and lace, it was a crazy, crazy, crazy day!  But the kids had a blast, and I only had to take two mommy-time-outs to go and breathe, so it was pretty successful.



I love how each one was unique and reflects the personality of the designer.  Thanksgiving day, a script was attempted and a play was tried, but mostly silliness with dancing turkeys was what happened.














 If anyone is interested in detailed instructions, I'm happy to oblige, but they're basically two toilet paper rolls - one for the body, one for the head.  The head has slits cut about halfway down so that it can be shaped into a beak, then taped and painted.  Head and body are covered with fabric.  Tails and wings are cardstock/foam/lace.  Legs are a rope-like trim I had on-hand.  Wooden beads painted to match feet weigh down the legs a bit.  Chenille stem for neck.  Craft sticks (tongue depressors) glued in an X make the control for the puppet with strings attached at head, body, and each leg.  I would have liked to cover the open hole of the paper roll, but I needed it for access to attach strings, feet, and neck.  Maybe I could cover it now that they're done?

And so I give thanks for great kids with huge imaginations who will stick with a project for an entire seven hours (breaking for lunch and dinner), despite my urging that we quit because we've had enough fun.  And I'm thankful that I sometimes act on the urge to take on the projects, when 99% of the time I brush it aside as too much work or as not as pressing as the mountain of laundry or the sink of dirty dishes.  And I'm thankful that having kids keeps me deeply entrenched in silliness on a daily basis - what would life be without googlie eyes?