Friday Friends!

I'm excited to get back to Friday Friends! I am in the process of trying to learn to make a button you can grab when you've been featured. If anyone has any hints, please email me or leave a comment! I'm all ears.

Today, I had a really hard time picking out just three or four blogs for you to peruse. There are so many great ones out there and so many are going again due to resolutions, etc. I spent hours (unknowingly) just hopping from blog to blog, checking out all the wonderful ideas and projects. So here are the first four I've picked for 2012. I hope you will make them a regular part of your daily surfing.

First is Christie at A Lemon Squeezy Home. How many of you have read the Pigeon books by Mo Willems to your kids? Or to yourself? I absolutely love them. The pigeon is just like a little kid, always trying to get away with something that he shouldn't do. Well, Christie has made a tutorial to teach us how to paint the pigeon or make a stuffed pigeon that will be perfect to go along with those stories. So click on over to her blog and make yourself a pigeon. And if you've never read any of Mo Willems books, go check out your public library. I guarantee that you'll be captured by the little-boy actions of the bird, and his hilarious escapades.

http://alemonsqueezyhome.blogspot.com/2012/01/pigeon-painting-and-softie-tutorial-mo.html .

Second is Andrea Badgley from Sacred Suds. She makes the most beautiful soaps and her Etsy shop is wonderful! In the post I'm linking you to, she explains the soponification process for those who wonder "What the heck is soap, anyway?" At the bottom of the post, if you click on "handmade soap" it will take you to a post that shows you how to make hot process soaps, and there is a link in that post that will take you to a post on how to make cold process soaps. She also recommends some really good reading material, if you are seriously interested in making soap. Even if you aren't, it's interesting stuff. Check it out at http://www.blog.sacredsuds.com/?p=719.

I just love the look and feel of handmade soaps.

Next, we have Mindy Tsonas, creative director, founder and hostess of Wish Studio, a great blog and website for your creative side. Her post on green gift wrap ideas was inspiring to me. I love brown kraft paper, and I would never have thought about painting on the ribbons and bows! Lots of good ideas from other folks, too. Go to http://wishstudio.com/2011/12/24/green-gift-wrap-ideas/ and look around. Check some of her other posts, too, and you're sure to find some inspiration of your own.

Last, but NOT least is Emily from Massachusetts at Red Bird Crafts. Her whole blog is really impressive. I love the feel of it, the look of it and the direction she's taking it. It's one of those blogs that feels like home. In one post I particularly like, she made a nest with little blue eggs in it. She says it's a reminder to believe in the beauty that surrounds her. Her outlook is.......the best word I can find is peaceful. Comfortable. I hope you will take the time to peruse more than just the post I've linked to, because you're going to like what you find. http://www.redbirdcrafts.com/2011/03/nest-building-tutorial.html .

That's it for this week. I think this is a really great group of Friends and I hope you will visit them often. I know I will.

I leave you with my favorite Erma Bombeck quote. For those who know who she was, you will recognize the truth beneath the humor. For those of you who don't know who she was, I'm sorry. You have missed a great lady. Go to the library and find one of her books and get to know her. Anyway, she said, "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'" I have this same hope. Love to you all until next time....

Day Seven of the Twelve Days of Christmas

Today's project is a bird's nest. There is an old legend that says that great happiness and good fortune come to those who find a bird's nest in the branches of their Christmas. I like the legend, but I like bird's nests even more, so I have several to choose from to nestle in the branches of my tree every year. If you are not lucky enough to have the real thing, you can make one. They also make nice gifts, with a little card attached telling the legend and wishing it to come true for the receiver.

Find a small, vine wreath, or make one if you have vines in your area. If you are making it, you will need more vines than you think to make a nice, full wreath. Take 5 or six vines about 18" long and form a circle a little smaller than you want your nest to be. Now take another long vine and start twining it around the circular vines, going in and out and around, so that the wreath becomes sturdy and holds together. When it's the size you want, simply weave the end into the other vines and you're done!

Now you need some moss. Spanish moss is the best because it's kind of straggley. (Not really, but that's the best word I can come up with.) Use the moss to fill in the whole in the wreath and to pad the nest. Hot glue it in place, but be careful, because it's thin and the glue will come right through to you! (I always keep a cold drink next to me when I craft, and I can dunk a hot-glued finger in it and stop the burning immediately.) Your little nest is done. Add a little bird or some tiny plastic eggs and put it in the branches of your tree. I don't know if the legend holds true for homemade nests, but I like to think so.

"And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests...." Luke 9:58
"Another parable he put forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches." Matthew 13:31,32

Today's thought is from Gramma G. Jesus is the reason for the season, and that's the most important thing to remember. 'Night all.