I’ve been trying to preserve some beautiful fall leaves for a couple of weeks now. Normally I’m pretty skilled at arts and crafts kinds of things. I read online about three different methods, and chose the easiest sounding one: ironing them between two sheets of wax paper. Well, for some reason, I cannot successfully do this. Everyone makes it sound so easy. Even girl scouts can do it! But I never was able to after trying many different ironing techniques, wax paper brands, and types of leaves. I finally gave up on the method, and decided to try another. Since I didn’t want to risk a fire in my microwave, that method was out of the question. Well that left glycerin. Unfortunately, pretty much every craft store and grocery store I went to either didn’t carry it or was out.
I decided that this year maybe I’m just not supposed to be preserving leaves.
My art project.
On a somewhat related note, yesterday I had a not-so-good day. Who knows why. Sometimes things just don’t go my way. Anyway, as I was stewing a little bit in the afternoon, and watching Elias play (he decided not to nap yesterday with the exception of a 20 minute car ride), I realized how stupid I was being. I realized that I have so much to be thankful for, and maybe I just needed to remind myself that.
So I switched art project ideas and decided to make a tree of thanks as a centerpiece for our table. I got the idea from another blog I read, and changed it a little to make it my own. Instead of preserving leaves, I’d remind myself of all the blessings in my life. The pictures don’t really do it justice, but you can see how it turned out. I could have come up with a lot more, but I got a little tired of tying strings onto the twigs. Maye I can add more later. I am quite pleased, and now every time I have a negative thought, I’ll just look at my tree of thanks and remember that I am blessed.
A close up of some of my blessings.
Some of the things I'm thankful for.