Mama's Mumblings

Hey friends!  I hope you all have been enjoying this wonderful Fall weather!

It has been absolutely beautiful around here.  The skies are so blue, all the leaves are gorgeous colors, the weather is cool and the wind has been gently blowing.  This is my favorite time of year!

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Last week, Jameson got to go on his first Gifted Class field trip.  As third graders, their field trip was to the Georgia Aquarium and The World of Coke.

  

(More pictures to come in another post...lol)  

Despite the fact we had to meet at Wal-Mart at 6:15 am, the rest of the trip was a BLAST!  I've never had this much fun on a field trip.  It's too bad we can't go more than once a year.

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After all of the craziness of the past month, this week (after work and the field trip), I decided to do NOTHING this past week.  No crafts, no sorting, no blogging, no rearranging.  I did manage to wash clothes and dishes, get the Halloween stuff put up, and straighten some things up, but for the most part, I did NOTHING.  It seems like the house is always a wreck, so I don't think having it messy for one more week is going to kill me.  Then I realized today that Thanksgiving is in less than two weeks and I have to get this house ready for that.  Now, I'm in PANIC mode.  LOL  It will get done, eventually.

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Thanks to Pinterest, I've about decided to abandon all Thanksgiving decor and go straight to Christmas decor.  I do have a few Thanksgiving-type things up, but I don't know how long it will stay.  HaHa!  

I found these adorable pine cone elves and decided I just had to make some.

So, I go out into the woods and try to collect some pine cones.  I found a TON of them, but they are all big and ugly.  I read that you are supposed to heat them in the oven (low heat for a few hours) to help dry them out and kill any critters that may be in them (**shiver**).  So, I fill up two aluminum roasting pans with them and turn the oven on.  About 3 hours later, I go to get them out of the oven, and I can't get them out!  The pine cones are stuck and are falling all over the place.  Apparently, I was too stupid to realize that as the pine cones dry out, they open up.  I now have enough pine cones to fill up about FOUR roasting pans.  HAHA!

I will admit, they do look much better, but I doubt I will be able to make any super-cute, tiny elves out of them.  LOL  So, I am thinking doing something along these lines:

From Here

And/Or these:

 From Here

I sure hope I have enough pine cones!  LOL

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For all my crafty friends out there, I finally broke down and bought some "Terrifically Tacky", double-sided tape from Hobby Lobby, when I was making my Halloween test tubes.  I LOVED the stuff, but it is expensive in the store.  It cost $6.99 for 5 yards!  You better believe I used it sparingly!  Well, thanks to Pinterest, I found a source to get it MUCH cheaper.

Confessions of a Ribbon Addict sells it for $12.99 for 36 yards of the exact same tape!  What a difference when you put them side-by-side!  If you have never used it, I highly recommend it for all your "double-stick tape" needs!  I think my next project using it will be glittered candles.

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I hope you all have a wonderful and fantastic week!!