Pepper Paints

Nature Table

Over the weekend we went for a walk and collected many treasures .

It doesn’t take long to fill a basket or a bag with pretty, little interesting things. I am worse than the kids!! I love little collections of this and that. If you just look around my house you can easily see my love of “stuff.” I also love to arrange these little collections, to set them out in interesting ways, like little still lifes. Molly also loves to arrange and rearrange and set up little scenes. Ginger on the other hand likes to investigate and touch everything. And sometimes break things in the process

I had just the thing to organize our finds…an old printers box. I set the box on top of a small table and perched a mirror on the back. Instant nature table.

Ginger sorted out the pinecones, rose petals, rocks, acorn tops and nuts and pretty red leaves into their own sections.

Until all the little pieces had a new home!

Ginger spent a long time this morning moving stuff around and taping the tops back on to the acorns (and taking them away from the bad, bad puppies that think they are treats!)

So between Ginger and the puppies, I give this pretty little set up a couple of days until things are smooshed, mixed together, tipped over and dumped. But that’s ok…I know where we can get lots more ‘stuff!!”

Preserving Fall

Fall seems to be the shortest season. It’s the time of busy work; putting summer to bed and preparation for the long winter ahead. On days when the sun is shinning bright and the temperatures are still tolerable we tend to run outside to savor those crunchy, colorful leaves and take in the fleeting beauty of the season.

One of the ways to preserve that beauty and bring it inside is the simple but very satisfying act of ironing  leaves between sheets of wax paper. Never mind that this is not a new activity actually it’s more of a traditional one around here.

It’s a little late in the leaf season but we were still able to find several newly fallen, not yet crunchy leaves for our project. We heated up the iron to” almost high.” Ripped sheets of wax paper and folded them in half. We pinched off our stems and placed our leaves facing down, leaving a little space between each one so the wax can seal around them.

We folded the wax paper back over the leaves and placed a single layer of newspaper over the wax paper and gently pressed the leaves. Next a quick iron with out the newspaper and then ……

Ooooooo Ahhhhhhhh!!

Next we cut out our leaves, leaving a little space around them so they stay sealed in the wax paper.

We hung some on our front door and side door. And the rest we poked holes in and and hung from our ceiling. I love the way they blow around and catch the light.

Hurry up and enjoy the Fall….winter is just around the corner (whether the calendar says so or not!)

Leaf Garland

First we went on a walk to find “monster leaves.”

Then we painted them.

Then I tied them together by there stems and strung them up to make a leaf garland.

Sorry about the bad photos-it was late and dark!  Really these look great.