Joy of Camping

"In every walk with nature one receives far

more than he seeks." - John Muir

  



My Dad fishing at sunset



Clare and Kevin tossing rocks

Feeding Ducks



Camping is having the best time doing nothing at all. 

We played tons of games, without having brought one toy. 

We learned new things, without having to open a book. 

We connected with each other, without looking on facebook. 

We got plenty of exercise, without trying to.

We played hard, ate hard, and slept hard. 

No TV, no computer, and still tons to do.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my parents for loaning us their RV. 

We had more fun that I could ever express in words.

Felt Flower Wreath for less than $10

I have recently become obsessed with the website Pintrest.  I found some tutorials on great fall wreaths and felt flowers, so I decided to mash them together and create my own wreath!  Here's the steps:

•  You will need 1 Wreath ($4.99 @ Hobby Lobby), around 6-8 sheets of Felt in your chosen color scheme (4 for a $1 at Hobby Lobby), Scissors, Glue Gun, and Random Leaves from your back yard. 

• To make the felt flowers, cut out a circle from your felt.  I freehand cut mine out about the size of a CD, because you don't have to be exact in any way.  If your not lazy like me, you can use a CD or cup rim to trace out your circles.  For small flowers you can get at least 6 circles out of one sheet of felt.  Try to mix up your circle shapes to allow for different sizes.

• With your felt circle start cutting around to make a curly Q/ pig's tail shape (see pics below).  For a rose, leave it as is.  For different flowers, cut out different petal shapes.  Get creative!

•  You can roll up the flowers two different ways: (A) start from the outside end and roll or (B) start from the inside end and roll.  Each way gives you a different looking flowers.  I did all of mine from the outside rolling in, because I thought it helped them lay flatter and be bigger around.   Dab some hot glue at the end to stop from coming unrolled.  And Viola, you made flowers!

•  Next get your mother to come over, who took a class in flower arranging years ago, and force her to decide how the flowers should be arranged.  If that's not a viable option, just wing it.  It can't look that bad in the end.  Hot glue flowers to the wreath.  Then pluck some dying leaves from you yard and glue them into some nooks and crannies around the flowers.  It will help it look better, I promise. 

I think next spring, I want to make another one with different colors.  Heck for less than $10 a pop, I could make one for each month of the year!  Please note how adorable and happy my daughter looks holding my pumpkin.   It was only a few hours later that she broke it into tiny pieces all over my kitchen, causing us both to throw a fit.  *sniff* I will miss you little plaster pumpkin!