Theme Week: Homemade

Before I get to my post for today, I think WeThree need to pause for a moment and remember those involved in the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday.  Words cannot even begin to express the sadness I feel for the families of those children and teachers.  My heart completely breaks to think of what their last moments must have been like and the fear they must have felt.  No child or adult should ever have to experience such horrific circumstances.  The students, teachers, and staff of Sandy Hook, as well as the entire community of Newtown, will remain in our thoughts and prayers in the weeks and months to come.

I've spent a lot of time this weekend thinking about what our response to this tragedy should be and whether or not WeThree should post as usual today.  What I've come up with is this:  We will pause to remember those beautiful children.  We will pause to remember the heroic teachers and staff who died trying to protect their students.  We will pause to remember.  We will pause to remember.

And then, with those angels close to our hearts, we will carry on.  

You see, I realized that the only way to respond to such evil is by searching even harder for that which is good and beautiful and true.  To honor the children and teachers of Sandy Hook, I will hug my husband and children, smile at strangers, give to those in need, watch for small wonders, look up, be thankful, and remember.  

And we will carry on.

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This December, WeThree have been working on a few homemade projects and decided to take this week to show you just what we've been up to.  First up, an angel tree-topper.

Let me start by saying that I'm not a crafty person.  Not.  At.  All.  To me, crafts are messy and time-consuming, and just another way for me to burn my fingers (hot glue is really really hot).  But ever since Tommy's been old enough to ask questions, he's always pestered me about why we have a star on the top of our tree and not an angel.  (Several years ago, after learning that Will and I had an impressive number of ornaments but no tree topper, friends of ours were kind enough to give us a beautiful star for the top of our tree that I happen to love, but as Tommy points out, "It's not an angel.")  So I decided that this is the year that we...gasp!...make our own angel tree-topper. 

I didn't follow any pattern or instructions for this.  Somehow, I came up with an idea, as Tommy would say, "by my own."  So we headed to the craft store last week to try and find what we would need.  Here's what we bought and how we made our sweet little angel.

 Somehow this photo ended up upside-down, but you get the point.  You need a  Styrofoam cone and ball, white paint, "khaki" or whatever color you'd like to paint her face, black paint, paint brushes, gold glitter glue, sparkly gold and silver pipe cleaners, scissors, and a hot glue gun.

Paint the Styrofoam ball with your "face" color.

Using scissors or a knife, hollow out the middle of the Styrofoam cone, and then paint it white.

While you're at it, go ahead and paint the plates, too.  Why?  Because it's fun! 

While you're waiting for the paint to dry, collect some pieces of felt (color doesn't matter besides the green), and a Sharpie.  Begin "filler craft" #1 (this one came from Pinterest).

 Fold the green in half and draw half of a Christmas tree.

Cut it out and then cut out ornaments and presents from the other colors.  Remind your son ~100 times to be careful with those scissors! until he finally responds with Mama, I KNOW. 

 Use hot glue to glue ribbons onto presents.

Have fun decorating your tree over and over again!

While you're still waiting for the paint to dry, gather received Christmas cards, hole punch, twine, and ornament hooks.  Begin "filler craft" #2.  Find a prominent corner of your home and tie up the twine.  Punch a hole in the upper left corner of each Christmas card and put a hook through.  Hang Christmas cards on twine for a homemade Christmas card garland.

 While you're still waiting for the paint to dry, collect cookie ingredients and begin "filler craft" #3. 

Tommy is awesome at decorating Christmas cookies.

 When the paint is FINALLY dry, make a halo out of a sparkly gold pipe cleaner, and arms out of a silver one.

 Glue arms onto back of cone.

 Glue halo onto back of head.

 Glue head onto body.

 Using black paint and the wrong end of a small paintbrush, attempt to paint a sweet, angelic face.  Decide that she looks completely ridiculous, and paint over her face so you can try again later.  Using gold glitter glue, make two angled lines for her robe.  Also, glue a sparkly gold pipe cleaner around the top and bottom edges of the cone.  (Note:  In this photo, I hadn't glued the top one on yet...see below.)  BE CAREFUL!  I burned my finger multiple times on that stupid pretty sparkly gold pipe cleaner.

 As you're squeezing and squeezing the gold glitter glue, look down and realize that the reason it's not coming out the top is because somehow there is a large hole in the bottom and gold glitter glue is all over the palm of your hand.  Curse under your breath Smile, wrap it in a paper towel, and continue on.

 Admire your amazing creation that sort of looks like an angel, hug your crafting partner, decide to paint her face next Christmas, and....

 ...put her on the tree!

Whew!  We did it!  And I have to say, I'm pretty proud of our new angel and all the memories we made while making her.  Maybe I'll become a crafty person yet......or maybe not.  Happy Monday!