How To Make A Corn Cob Doll

Granny helped Teddy make Kitty a Corn Cob Doll. The boy is now a Little House On The Prairie convert... and Granny too!

We started with some old corn cobs that we had cleaned and set out in the warm Fall sun to dry.

Teddy then used a little saw to cut the cobs to the right size...

Then, he trimmed the edges so that they were nice and rounded.

These are the segments he cut for Kitty's doll... a small section for the head, a large one for her torso, two segments each for two legs.

I used a permanent marker to mark where he was to drill holes into each segment so that we could connect them with wire.

He LOVED this part of the project.

He drilled holes through each corn cob segment.

Then he threaded wire through the holes.

Don't you just love his dirty little boy hands?

He twisted the wire pieces together to connect the head to the torso and the legs to the torso.

We cut lengths of rope into threes fro the dolls arms, tied them together with a simple knot.

And braided the rope to make arms.

We measured some pretty fabric for her dress against our corn cob doll and folded it into 4.

Rounded the bottom edges.

And cut a small hole in the top corner for her neck.

With the dress on her, we cut small holes for her arms.

Some hot glue from my gun fastened her corn silk hair.

And a pretty little fabric bow...

Voila!! The prettiest little corn cob doll you ever did see...

Kitty was DELIGHTED! And Teddy was even more so to realize that we can make our own toys. Ha! Thanks Granny... Your sweet doll still sits in pride of place on Kitty's 'SPECIALS' shelf... she say's she will keep her forever. We miss you more than you can know.

Happy November Friends!
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Let's make a Harvest Garland.

Today, in honor of the season of harvest, we made a dried fruit garland to hang in our home. It was wonderful for the kids to work with the fruit but I must admit that as much got eaten as got strung, so be sure to double up when you make yours :-)


To make a dried fruit garland, slice your fruit into thin slices. We used apples and oranges.


Make a small hole in each slice. String your fresh fruit slices in a cool dry place to dry. Our oranges and apples dried within a day.



Once your fruit slices are dried, string them along a fresh length of yarn.


And find a special place in your home to hang your harvest garland.


Blessings and magic,
Donni

Let's make Harvest Candle Holders.

Don't forget to enter our wonderful GIVEAWAY from Meadowsweet Naturals.

After yesterday's horrible spider's nest pumpkin, we decided to make something sweet and calming for today. We are enjoying the early darkness as, each night, at our evening meal, we light a candle as we sing our blessing. The kids take turns to blow it out when the meal is over... being the 'candle blower' is a big deal and there is much discussion over whose turn it is . Funny to us as there are only two of them to choose from... either you blew it out last night or you didn't... dah! But, to them, it's very important that they get it right... wouldn't want to miss YOUR turn.

Today we made little apple and pumpkin candle holders.


All we needed was an apple and a small pumpkin, a sharp knife, and apple corer and a candle.


We cored the apple...


Making the hole just big enough for the candle to sit in snugly.


Isn't it too pretty...

We did the same with the miniature pumpkin, using the sharp knife to score the hole for the candle.


Our home is starting to look wonderfully 'harvesty'.



On a side note; the apple candle holder did not make it through the whole meal. It just looked too delicious, flickering with golden light. Teddy had it for desert!

Happy Halloween week,

Just a heads up to look out for a super Giveaway that is coming up... I'll post details soon.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Let's make a Harvest Corn Necklace.

Mexican corn has always fascinated me... the colors are just amazing!!! Where I'm from, we only got the yellow kind... we called it mealies. The word, surprisingly comes from Portuguese... oh, what a melting pot South Africa is. One thing is sure, we really do LOVE our mealies for dinner!


One of Kitty's friends lost her first tooth this time last year. Instead of leaving her money, the Tooth Fairy left her a beautiful necklace made from Mexican corn. When Kitty saw an ear of Mexican corn in the market the other day, she immediately asked if we could make her a necklace just like the Tooth Fairy left for Fin. 'Of course', I said.

When we got home, we shucked the corn (I've always wanted to say that!)


We covered the corn kernels with water and soaked them for a couple of days to soften them.


When they were nice and soft, we rinsed and dried them.

We threaded a medium sized needle with embroidery thread. Kitty threaded most of her necklace herself. She chose a brightly colored corn kernel, laid it on the wooden cutting board and pierced the needle through it until it hit the board.


Then she turned the needle upwards and pushed the corn all the way through, being careful not to prick her fingers.


The corn kernels are still quite tough, so care with the needle has to be taken and this method seemed the safest for her.


It was painstaking work and I was proud of her for sticking with it. With each new colored corn kernel, her necklace grew more and more beautiful.

When she had threaded it long enough, we tied the two ends together and Voila! Kitty has worn it all day... I think she thinks she'll grow up to be a Tooth Fairy :-)


As we worked with the corn, we talked about how each little kernel is a seed. That if we planted it and watered it, it would grow into a great big corn plant. We talked about how we cook corn, the different things we can do with corn. We talked about how people can grind the corn kernels into corn flour and make corn bread and corn tortillas. I told her all about the sweet yellow corn we got as kids in South Africa and how we called it 'mealies'. After saying the word a few times, we agreed that it did sound like a funny name for corn. We laughed.

Every day with our children is a gift.

Blessings and magic,
Donni