Hand Print Christmas Ornaments

In the past few weeks, Brookelynne and I have had several opportunities to make keepsake hand print ornaments for Christmas.... Our first time was when Mrs Christina and Kalea had us over for lunch and we did hand prints of the girl. It was more about getting to spend some time with them and less about the ornaments, but we had a great time doing both!  The girls played and ran around the house and Christina and I got to catch up! I was super excited about getting the hand prints done because I hadn't really thought about something like that before (at least not about the fact that I could do it from home for relatively nothing).

Anyway, I was already planning on having my Mom 2 Mom group over a week or so later, so I got all the materials and worked it out so that we could make them for all the kids! We definitely had a house-full and I made chili in the crock pot so that once everyone got here, we were just rolling out the circles, getting good handprints and making sure that they got baked in time for everyone to take theirs home! Brookelynne and Dallas were the only two girls here and all those boys were running the house! (Maxwell, Chandler, Collin, Lee and Nathan were all here). We had a great time and the ornaments came out pretty well! :)

 Unfortunately my friend Kelly wasn't able to make it that day, so she and Malachi came over today to do them one more time! :) Brookelynne has come to LOVE doing these and gets really upset when other kids get their hands pushed into the clay and she doesn't go immediately after they do! Anyway, we made a few more and I actually got my camera out this time! We have enough to give to each of the grandparents and keep one at home.

For those of you who are interested in how to do this, here are the directions that we followed...

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1.5 cups water
Food color
Straw
Polyurethane 


Mix the flour and salt, and add food color to water (if desired). Then add water/food color to the salt and flour and knead it for 10 to 20 minutes. (Until thoroughly mixed and at good consistency) After greasing a cookie sheet, roll out the clay and use a cup/bowl/cookie cutter to cut out a circle or shape big enough for your little one's hand. Then press their hand into the shape. (Make sure you press hard enough that it doesn't 'disappear' when the clay rises a little during baking). Then use the straw to make one or two holes in the clay (to thread a ribbon through for hanging) and use a pen or toothpick to write on it, if you wish too. Then bake in the oven at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes. It will feel like a soft cookie, but still won't break anything. It continues to harden for the next couple weeks. After that, we used the polyurethane to coat the imprinted part. (just the hand print) and it makes it really pop! Just add ribbon and you're ready to hang it! :)

Here is a picture of the finished product! (The one that is staying at our house!)

A trip into Fernandina...

Well, anyone who knows me, knows that I hate driving roads. I would much rather be on an interstate where there is no red lights, stop signs, or only one lane of traffic. Therefore, when I have to go shopping or really anywhere, I usually head into Jacksonville instead of going into Fernandina. (I've also learned that it takes me the same amount of time to get to Fernandina as it does to get to the airport exit, which has more of the stuff I need and is all interstate!) But I digress.

Today I had to go to KMart and the closest one that we have is in Fernandina, so we headed that way. I have to say that the trip was a success for multiple reasons, but mainly because I successfully got what I went for and the coupons that I wanted to earn! They have a deal going on right now that if you spend $35 on Proctor and Gamble items, you get a $10 off coupon to use next week on any purchase of $10 or more. They also had Luvs and Pampers on sale (which qualify and are always needed in this home!) So I got there, and successfully made my purchase and the best part, you ask??  Brookelynne stayed in the cart the WHOLE TIME! :) It was kinda like a miracle! lol

Then we drove down parking lot a couple hundred yards to the Publix to pick up a few things, and I was looking at the parking lot, sighing, because it looked like I was going to have to park a block from the door, until I started to turn down one of the rows of spaces and realized that the first space wasn't a handicap space, but an Expectant Mother space. And what do I just happen to be???? That's right, EXPECTING! hehe. Then I carried Brookelynne up to the carts, (which she loves at Publix since she gets to be a driver)

while calling Mitch to tell him something and he was like "What's that noise?" and I said, "Oh, someone's car alarm is going off." When I finished my conversation with him a minute later, a nice lady walked up to me and said "You do realize that's your car alarm, right?" LOL. I definitely had NOT realized that I had hit the panic button and was looking like and idiot, standing 20 feet from my own car, alarm blazing, doing nothing. To top it off, when I came out and was loading the bags into the backseat, a gust of wind came and totally blew my skirt up....and did I mention that the expectant mother space is the very first one???? :)

Thankfully, I'm in one of those moods where I just laughed all of that off and am still VERY happy about that space! That's hormones for you!