Simple Flower Craft to Make
Inside: A simple flower craft to make with items you likely have on hand, our folk art flowers can be made with the kids or alone while binge-watching your favorite TV show.
Our Favorite Folk Art Flowers Revisited
As readers are searching for fun and easy (and attractive!) craft projects to make alone or with the kids using items already found in the home, I decided to take out my folk art flower post, dust it off, and see about reposting it. Well, the first thing I noticed was that it was a long narrative about our adventures putting the flowers together, but the post lacked a set of practical directions for making them. Sifting through the long post, I found the steps and put them together to make it simple. (After all, that’s my word for this year.)
So I’ll keep this post short and sweet, but if you’d like to slog through the longer version, you can find it here. Otherwise, read on. By the way, I’ve included the materials you will need for two flowers.
You Will Need:
- Two mason jar screw bands with lids, regular mouth (no need for new when old will do)
- Strips of material, (old plaid shirts or whatever you have) approximately 40 1 inch by 6 inches and 70 1/2 inch by 6 inches
- Two circular pieces the circumference of the jar screw band of the same material as the strips, for gluing on the back of the flower (to give it a neater appearance)
- Two pieces of burlap, 5 inches by 12 inches
- Four cotton balls
- Twine string or thread (type doesn’t matter)
- Two thin, straight (and strong) sticks, cut from a tree, one approximately 10 inches, the other approximately 8 inches.
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Directions:
- Cut the strips into 1-inch by 6-inch pieces for thinner cloth or 1/2 inch by 6 inches for thicker material.
- Tie the strips onto the screw band so the ends of the strips are about equal and with the knot on the side of the band. (Where you place your fingers when unscrewing it from a jar).
- Push the strips together to make room for more, making a tight design, until band is completely covered.
- To make the center of the flower, gently push the lid (the flat) into the back of the screw band nearly half way, with the orange edged glue side facing the back, shiny part facing front (you won’t end up seeing it).
- Fold the burlap over to double it and place two cotton balls in the center of the burlap.
- Gather the edges together to form a flat “lollypop,” tie a piece of twine around the ends, and trim off the excess twine.
- Using the shiny part of the lid as a guide for how big to make it, shape the “lollypop” with your hand, making sure it will fit over the lid.
- Apply a generous amount of hot glue on the lid and press the burlap center into place.
- To attach stem, put a dollop of hot glue on the top edge (on the back side) of the ring and another dollop on the bottom edge and glue the flower to the stick. Use enough glue to hold it firmly in place.
- Hot glue the circular strip of cloth to the back of the flower, attaching it to the edge of the screw band back and the stem.
- Find a nice vase to display your flower and enjoy!
A Few Notes
You can substitute regular material for the burlap for a different look. I’m experimenting with a western theme using a bandana center and strips of old jeans for the petals. (Strips 1/2 inch by 6 inches because the material is thick). Also, if you’d rather have something less rustic you can use dowels for the stems. I’ll update this post when I get pictures of them.
Okay, back to the crafting! Enjoy. If you get stuck, drop me an email at amy @ thewritehelper.com.
Resources and related posts:
How to Make Jelly From Wildflowers
Unique Containers for Gardening
Starting the Long and Sentimental Project
Past posts from this month:
My Adventures Growing Zinnias (2017)
What is a Sheet Pan Supper? (2018)
How to Have Hope
Inside: Is it possible to have hope during tough times? Absolutely! You can learn to focus on the positive. Read on to find out how.
Got Hope?
Hope. There is a very good reason for adding a period behind the word in the picture. In grammar terms, that makes it a complete sentence. An action verb with you as the subject. Hope isn’t just a feeling you catch. It’s something you have to work at–cultivate. Something the writer–this writer–is compelling you to do.
Hope.
But in practical terms, how does one do that? I won’t say it’s necessarily easy, but it is doable. Want to know how? Here are some suggestions for cultivating hope in tough times.
Avoid the Negative
The best place to start when developing hope is to avoid the negative. The nightly news (or daytime, for that matter), Facebook and Twitter feeds, newspapers, people who discourage or dwell on the negative. TV shows that cause panic, fear, or sadness. Dark music or books. I am a firm believer in the importance of guarding your heart. (Proverbs 4:23.)
Surround Yourself with Positive Messages
Once the negative is removed, it’s time to replace the bad with the good, and this will take some effort. Begin by changing the “diet” of your heart. What I mean by that is, much like replacing unhealthy foods with more nutritious ones, focus on positive choices in what you allow yourself to see and hear. Uplifting stories. Words of encouragement. Inspiring quotes. Scripture–my favorite is Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” (That’s our unofficial motto here at ARGW and what drives our content.)
Take Care of Yourself
Don’t neglect caring for yourself. Yes, people need you, but not at the expense of depleting your mental and physical health. Get enough sleep, eat mostly healthy foods, and take time to do things that replenish you. I am reminded of the emergency directions that flight attendants give at the beginning of the flight–secure your own oxygen mask before helping others on with theirs. In the same way, you can’t take care of others properly when your soul is running on empty.
Hang out with Encouraging People
While it is not always possible to avoid negative people completely, chances are you can limit your exposure to them. Instead, seek out those who encourage you and add something to the relationship. Spend time with people who genuinely care about you and listen to what you have to say.
Choose who you give permission to speak into your life. While you might not always have a choice of who is speaking to you, you do have a choice as to whether you listen and take to heart what they say.
Do What Brings You Joy
Do you love to make crafts? Bake? Hike? Take pictures? Whatever you love to do helps to refresh you and feeds your soul.
So what does pursuing a hobby have to do with hope? You give yourself permission to live and to do activities that feel “normal” until you get to a more stable place. Your mind gets a break from scary, sad, or hopeless thoughts as you focus on what you love to do–even if at the moment you feel pretty numb.
I remember years ago when I was deeply depressed and feeling hopeless much of the time. Hard as it was–and mostly because I didn’t want to share that information with the people I knew–I kept attending my weekly writing critique meetings. I had a ritual I did before leaving the house–I spritzed myself with my favorite perfume. Why did I do that when I had zero desire to put on cologne? For me it was a leap of faith. It was believing that sometime–I didn’t know when–I would be okay. It was an act to show I wasn’t giving up when so much of me wanted to. (Spoiler alert: I did get better, thanks to God!)
Laugh More
Laughing is more important than people think. HelpGuide.org, a mental health and wellness website, says this: “Laughter boosts the immune system. Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease. Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals.”
I like to relax with classic sit-coms and funny movies. The Internet is full of funny video clips from cats to babies and folks who are just plain funny. When I really need a good laugh, I have bookmarked a cat video my daughter sent me years ago that makes me laugh so hard I’m crying. Laughter is subjective, so when you find something good, try to bookmark it for when you need a good laugh, too.
Help Others
If you are in a healthy enough place and you are able to do so, helping others can be just the right thing to get your mind off your own problems and give you hope. Much like laughter, performing random acts of kindness releases dopamine, also referred to as “the helper’s high.” Giving and helping others just makes you feel good.
In times of crises, I’m reminded of something Mr. Rogers said his mother told him as he was watching something scary on the news. She wisely told him to “look for the helpers.” That story has really calmed me in the past–and continues to do so–when I see situations that are beyond my control. And if I can join in with even some small act of kindness myself, I’m doing something proactive–plus giving hope to others! Don’t underestimate a kind word or smile or opening the door for someone. That simple gesture might just be the cup of cold water another parched soul needs that day.
Be Thankful
For me, developing thankfulness has been instrumental in helping me to heal. At first it can be difficult, coming up with anything to be thankful for when hope is in short supply. But as with so much of life, the more you practice gratefulness, the more your eyes open to the many, many things you have to be thankful for. I actually keep a gratitude journal, with daily lists of things both small and big for which I am grateful for. By the way, this is also good for mental health, activating reward centers in the brain and boosting bonds with other people. In those suffering from depression and anxiety, it can even lessen symptoms.
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Often hope is something you have to work at, but it’s worth the effort. Hang in there, my friend.
I’ll leave you with a song to motivate you.
Resources and related posts:
HelpGuide.org “Laughter is the Best Medicine”
25 Ways to Be Good to Yourself
When Your New Year Didn’t Go as Planned
Past Posts From This Month:
Colorful, Mini Milestones, and Other News Fresh From the Farm (2019)
Second Chance Month, Dog Reunion, and Other News Fresh From the Farm (2018)
Old-timers (2017)
Country Roads, Blog Birthday, and Other News Fresh From the Farm
Inside: Country roads that lead home, A Rural Girl Writes turns three, and announcing the launch of our Stories page. Check out all the latest news fresh from the farm.
Country Roads That Lead Home
As some of you know, I’ve been doing a weekly photo challenge through a site called 52Frames. This past week’s challenge was “Line From A Song,” and for most of the week, I couldn’t seem to think of anything that would work for me. Then this line comes barreling into my brain: “Country roads, take me home.” Perfect! (Though this is Missouri and not West Virginia, as in John Denver’s famous song.) This particular stretch of road is up by the old milk barn, a few hundred feet from where I live. The setting sun adds a nice touch.
Home has been on my mind a lot lately, as I’m sure it’s been on yours, too. I’ve got it better than most, I think, with so much land to spread out on and family (Mom, brother, sister-in-law, nephew) living in homes on the farm. Cousins, also living close, on their part of the original land passed down from my grandfather. I am blessed, indeed!
To be honest with you, staying home hasn’t been hard for me. I’m an introvert, and my life has pretty much been the same, with the exception of Mike’s hours being somewhat different and not working the weekend or Wednesday services and no Thursday night practice. I feel a little guilty saying it’s been nice having him around more often when there are people going through very real hardships.
Even with those who fall into the inconvenienced category, trying to work, run a household, and keep kids from climbing the walls, while, at times, warding off fear, can take its toll. I suspect many of these folks, particularly the extroverts, are thinking of home right now as too much of a good thing.
But as my friend Joy is fond of saying, “God is aware, He is there, and He cares.” Soon enough, we’ll be traveling those country roads, jaunting out into the world, only to come back to that place that sums up so nicely all we hold dear–Home.
A Rural Girl Writes Turns Three
March has always been special to me–my birth month. (I turned 54 this year!) It’s also the anniversary of this labor of love I call ARGW! On March 30 we celebrated three years at the blog–and also an unexpected jump in the number of hits we’re getting per day, tripling in number. I suspect homebound folks are doing a lot of surfing the Internet. (Do people still say “surfing the Internet,” or am I showing my age?)
Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the top posts visitors are reading this year. (Posts written since the beginning of the blog are included in the running.) So without further ado, here are your favorites, along with my comments:
- The 12 Posts of Christmas, Day 9: Tortilla Cinnamon Rolls. Although originally published as part of my annual 12 Posts of Christmas, the recipe is so simple, fast, and good it remains a popular post year round.
- Make Our Simple Egg Fast Chai. This used to be the most popular post, and probably is in the number one spot for all-time favorites. Again, it has that magic combination of simple and fast to prepare, yet also yum.
- Uncovering Strawberries in Spring. So many folks with time on their hands seem to be more focused on gardening than just the usual spring crowd.
- Simple Suppers: Easy Pizza. While this recipe isn’t terribly original, it’s got only four ingredients and–you guessed it–is simple and quick to make. And tasty, too.
- Turn Sprouted Sweet Potatoes into Plants. This one surprises me. A lot of people are wanting to know this little trick I tried many years ago on a whim. I guess I’m not the only one with sprouting sweet potatoes.
- Make Our Keto Red Velvet Mug Cake for Valentine’s Day. While not difficult to make or time consuming, I believe it’s the popularity of mug cakes, combined with the novelty of red velvet cake and the holiday that makes this one a winner. Also another recipe that works the whole year through.
- Planting Sweet Potatoes in a Cardboard Box. Intriguing idea, yes. Spoiler alert: it didn’t go like I had hoped. I do plan on giving it another try this year because I think I can make it work better. So call this a post in progress.
- About Me. Not actually a post but rather a page. Inquiring minds want to know about the person behind the posts.
- My 3 Essential Tips for Growing Strawberries. People are strawberry crazy this time of year. I have an entire series of posts on the subject.
- When Your New Year Didn’t Go as Planned. This post remains a perennial favorite that I try to republish every year because there is always someone who needs to read it. Basically it’s about navigating a disappointing (or devastating) start to the year.
That’s the list so far this year. Thank you so much for tuning in to read!
Announcing the Launch of Our Stories Page
I’ve gone and done it–finally! After years with a silly traffic cone graphic on the Stories page and a notation that I’d post something in the near future (yeah, right) I have at long last published one of my fictional short stories for your reading pleasure. “Women is Precious” is the title. (Yes, this editor knows that’s grammatically incorrect, but you’ll understand if you read it.) It’s an uplifting and humorous story (something I think we could all use right now), and it takes place in spring. This story has actually been previously published about 13 years ago, but when I pulled it out to spruce up and post, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it held up.
I’ll leave you with a short excerpt and a promise for more stories, essays, and poems in the future. (No, really, I mean it.)
Happy reading!
Amy
Women is Precious
I wouldn’t have said Arlen was dull, more like preoccupied. A man’s mind can only be filled with so much—the rest has to wait its turn. At the moment, I was a part of “the rest,” pushed to the back burner—actually, set off to the side of the stove, I think, but still near the burner. What came before me were things like cheap hay to finish out the winter, wood to keep the fire going, reports from the weather radio gathered three times daily, and a Civil War chronicle five inches thick and not anywhere close to being finished but “completely interesting,” I was assured.
The winter itch had set in, that endless expanse of time between Christmas and April when the crop farmer waits for spring to arrive like a bull pacing in his pen, waiting to be turned out with the cows.
The old timers had their own take on it. The neighbor lady said spring would be here at the first sighting of a robin. Old man Cutter, who’d seen ninety-two springs himself, said the season takes its time in coming and any fool planting garden before the oak tree buds is just asking for failure.
I had my own ideas. Spring would surely be here, I knew, when Arlen emerged from the machine shed after three days of cussing and tinkering with the old diesel tractor and asked me to help him pull start it. Then I could count on being a crop farmer’s widow for the next month and a half while he was out doing what he was born to do—plant corn. CONTINUE READING
Resources and related posts:
52 Frames weekly photography challenge
My Top Ten Must-do Spring Activities List
Happy Birthday, A Rural Girl Writes!
Accidental Peppers, March Weather Madness, and Other News Fresh From the Farm
Posts from a year ago:
Posts from two and three years ago:
My Five Favorite Spring Posts
Inside: Ah, spring! No more cold, dreary days. The earth finally wakes from its long winter nap. We’re celebrating the season with my five favorite spring posts.
Spring! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. . . Er, on second thought, let me give a sampling of my five favorite spring posts for your seasonal reading pleasure.
Picture courtesy of Emily Moore.
My Top Ten Must-do Spring Activities
Ah, spring! We’ve gotten a nice dose of it this week, and it feels as though we’re finally leaving the heavy coat of winter behind us. I am more than ready to move on! Now I’m turning my attention to the new season, watching the stories of budding leaves, flowering trees, warm winds, and green grass. Eagerly listening to the melodies of birds fiercely belting out their morning tunes and peepers rising from slumber to add to the chorus.
Here at the blog, I’m dusting off words and airing out posts from springs’ past. One of my favorites from last year was my Spring Bucket List: 25 Ways to Celebrate the Season. While I’d like to do each and every entry on the list, realistically I’ll probably only get to do a few of them. What follows is my top ten must-do activities. See if your list matches mine. CONTINUE READING
Spring Forward
Is it possible to be homesick for spring? If so, I am.
While most years you can count me in with the folks eagerly awaiting robin sightings and tulips pushing up through the cold earth, this year I’m lacking in patience. Signs aren’t enough. I want spring now. Now! And the weather is just not cooperating. Like Tuesday night’s snow–thankfully brief. Okay, I’ll admit it was pretty, but I’m done. Memories from one particular Easter from my teen years came back to me as I recalled women and girls in their pastel dresses and open-toed shoes gingerly walking in the snow to church.
It can happen in Missouri. . . CONTINUE READING
A Dozen Uses for Eggs
The incredible edible egg–do they still say that in commercials? Probably not, but it remains true, nonetheless. This time of year eggs often go on sale, so why not take advantage? As for Mom and me, we share the duties of feeding and watering a ragtag flock of chickens on an alternating schedule. The one feeding gets the spoils. During winter months–unless you provide a source of light to trick them into laying–production tapers off. In our case to zero or one egg per day. Now with the longer hours of daylight, we’re up to six or seven. With better temps and still more light, that number will increase.
Out of necessity, my preoccupation with eggs has led me to finding creative uses for the chicken fruit. What follows is a list of a dozen ways, some fitting in the odd or strange category. Have fun!
1) Make Tempera Egg Paint. Who knew? CONTINUE READING
Starting Seeds Indoors
Seeds intrigue me. A little miracle inside a small package. Potential. Possibilities. I love this!
I get excited when I see a rumple in the dirt, tiny shoot pushing its way to the sun. A seed does its magic unseen, underneath a dark blanket of soil. It takes faith and waiting. And waiting and waiting. I never tire of the miracle.
At my cousin Phil’s funeral recently, his brother-in-law retold a story from Phil’s mother, how as a small boy he used to put seeds in the ground to see if they would come up. I tucked that story away to take along with me. As a child, the “seed” of what he would become, a farmer, was inside him, too. . . CONTINUE READING
A Simple Fruit Dip for Strawberries, Plus 5 Ways to Use Up the Harvest
So it’s June and my strawberries have stopped bearing. (They’ve always been more May-bearing, actually.) It was a lovely harvest with plenty of fresh berries as well as a few gallons in my freezer for future use. The problem, if you can call it that, is I have limited room in said freezer. I need to start using up some of them to make room for the rest of the fruit and veggies coming my way this season. What follows are my suggestions for five delicious ways to use up strawberries. (Excerpt taken from the middle of the post.) CONTINUE READING
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Enjoy our selection of spring reading and get ready for the warmer, better days ahead.
Yes, I said it, better days ahead. Count on it!
Resources and related posts:
Spring Bucket List: 25 Ways to Celebrate the Season
Leggy Seedlings: Don’t Let This Happen to You
Uncovering Strawberries in Spring
Posts from a year ago:
You’re Never Too Old for a Tea Party
My Top Ten Must-do Spring Activities
From two years ago:
Spring Bucket List: 25 Ways to Celebrate the Season