Do-Vember in the Treehouse (Pulling out my Pins)

Do-Vember

It's a new month. It's that new month that, in my corner of the blog world, usually means the  Christmas sewing and crafts start to appear.  Sew Mama Sew is starting their annual crafting-plus-giveaway. 

There isn't any Wednesday Hodgepodge this week (since our indefatigable Hodgepodge Hostess and family are finally getting to move into the house they've been building. I was browsing through the archives there, looking for an old Hodgepodge that I could borrow for inspiration, and I found this 2011 Pintervention post instead. Short version: some people just like to Pin things. Other people actually make and do the things they pin about. The challenge in that post was to take photos of things you had actually made that were inspired by something you saw on Pinterest.

I started a Pinterest account about a year ago, actually when I was looking for Christmas gift ideas. So yes, I can say that I am not just a "serial pinner," I do make use of a lot of what pops up. Some of my boards are just dreams (things to do in Edinburgh), and I admit that I am not too likely to make Hallowe'en mummy cookies. Others are just nostalgia: I don't really want a stack of the books I read when I was little, but I like seeing their Tip Top Elf covers all arranged in a row.

But other Pinterest boards I created--those are the do-it ones, the equivalent of the Mom-I'm-bored box for grownups.

So November is going to be Do-Vember at the Treehouse. I'm going to Use it or Lose it on a number of the things I've pinned over the past year.  Successes and fails: I promise to be honest.  Watch for the first Pin Post later today.

Do you want to see a secret? (Holiday makings)

I put up a new page today called Mama Squirrel's Twelve Days of Christmas Crafting. Maybe it will inspire someone else!

Something crafty to look forward to

Handmade Holidays runs through the month of November.

A fun way to dress up no-flour peanut butter cookies

See, I told you that you miss out if you don't click on the Sew Mama Sew links because they don't apply to you (today's theme is Boys, and we don't have any except for Mr. Fixit). The recipe link today is for Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, which turns out to be the old standby sugar-egg-peanut butter recipe stacked with frosting.  It's obviously not something you can take to a nut-free classroom or church potluck, but if you don't have peanut problems it sounds like a winner.

Frugal finds and fixes

Frugal stuff we've been finding and fixing:

I won a book on SewMamaSew's Handmade Holidays, a random draw from the comments section. (Thank you to the providers of prizes!)

I also got a free copy of Canadian Geographic Magazine, their annual Energy issue, along with a poster and some promotional teacher stuff, because somehow I got myself registered as a Canadian Geographic Education member and forgot about it.  It's always nice to get school surprises in the mailbox.

Do you remember how Dollygirl made a doll tutu back in September, and the dolls put on an impromptu Nutcracker show?  This week Samantha (the doll) decided she likes gymnastics better, so the rec room has been taken over with improvised doll balance beams (tissue boxes and yard sticks), bars, and fun-foam floor mats.  We also watched You-tube videos of Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Olympics.

We went to arts night at Ponytails' school (Ponytails was one of the organizers).  Fun and free, and some unnamed squirrels did some Christmas shopping from the tables of artists and crafters.  Dollygirl decorated a mug with bake-on markers, for $2 (you had take them home and bake them yourself).  I also bought a $15 holiday arrangement from the horticulture class, which doesn't sound frugal, but we needed one, and I would have had to spend more than that at a store, and I would rather support the students' work anyway.

Dollygirl and her friend went to a free Saturday event at the public library, with lots of different things to explore and create.  The Rainbow Looms table stayed crowded the whole time, and so did some of the other most popular stations; but they did dress up at a photo booth, and they also got to see a 3-D printer in operation.

I've been using odds and ends of yarn to make amigurumi animals.

Tonight's dinner menu:  beef burritos, using last night's roast beef and some tortillas that we bought on sale and froze.