Pinecone Projects

First let me say, hurray! I'm back! Our little family has been very busy and we've had some computer issues - but now... all is well - and I'm happy to be blogging again.

I've been waiting to post some of our fun pinecone projects we did a few weeks back. My daughter decided she wanted to decorate her "treehouse", aka, the platform attached to the swingset. We got out the paint and had a lovely time being carelessly creative! (And I mean it... I had forgotten how much fun it is to blob paint on wood and let it drip into crazy, swirly designs.)

Since our paint was in mason jars, we decided to dip pinecones in them to make some bright, colorful "lanterns" to hang from the treehouse rafters. What an immediately rewarding project... dip and done! They were so cute when we clustered them together like "chandeliers"! We used lovely shades of pink, orange and purple. Perfect decor for an afternoon tea.


The next weekend, we decided to embark on the peanut butter-bird feeder pinecone project. We smeared the pinecones with great big blobs of peanut butter and rolled them around in birdseed. Again, another immediately rewarding project... so pretty those little pinecones! We saw a few birds enjoying the seed from the pinecones but the squirrels enjoyed them even more. At one point, I saw a squirrel hanging from the trellis by his back legs and pulling up the rope holding the pinecone - like reeling in a fish!

After the pinecones were hung and the treehouse decorated, we taught our dog a new trick with the milk crate my husband rigged up with a rope. What a good dog!! Such a fast learner!



See more photos of our pinecone and treehouse fun on Sunniviews!

Making Cakes

The other morning my husband had to work, so my daughter and I had some time to spend together - just the two of us. We played a little Disney video game where Minnie Mouse makes cakes - the party kind - two layers with lots of icing and confetti. When we finished, my daughter put on the Krispy Kreme baker's hat my mother in-law brought home from our local Krispy Kreme shop. She looked at me and said "Let's make cakes." I laughed and said "The real kind?" She shrugged and said "We can make them out of paper." I thought for a moment and said "How about clay?" She nodded in agreement.

I rummaged through the craft room and found some Sculpey. I also found a bag of aquarium pebbles from our unfortunate experiment with hermit crabs (poor things - does anyone raise those little guys successfully??) We spent the morning making cakes, candles and plates decorated with colorful pebbles. Aren't they cute?

Afterward, she took the cakes to her "shop" where I could buy them. And so I did. About 10 times. Ah, to be young again! How thrilling it must be to pretend you own a lovely bakery where you sell the most delightful cakes to the most appreciative customers!