Indeed very impressive! Pudge you do have a talent for that kind of craft! What's the hanging grass in the bottom photo, on the right rack on the left end (the dark one)? I want to grow that in my garden ;) btw, I think we have the same cupboards and light switches. LOL Sharon

I love the little birds made out of pine cones that we used to have when I was a kid. I almost bought these vintage ones on ebay, thinking I would then copy them. But if you look at the pic, (blue bird in the 4th pic is the best) you can see they are fairly simple. I think the head may be paper mache, but I am thinking acorn! Or something else round. The tail could be made out of cardboard and the beak from pine cone pieces. I like the colorful look, but ivory paint with a bit of brown highlights would give them a shabby chic look. I love that you do this with your daughter. What a wonderful tradition. Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: Pine cone birds

Hi Momof2girls: Someone posted this in the Tole Painting forum and it sounds really neat - A THANKSGIVING TREE - "We went camping this weekend and they had up a Thankgiving tree. Decorated with field corn, spray painted yellow and orange. Dried Gourds, raffia, sunflowers. She said the day after Thanksgiving, she takes those decorations down and puts the Christmas ones on. It was beautiful!" A lot of the Fall decorations are going on super sale right now at Michael's and Joann's Craft Stores - I picked up a corn garland for $2, florals are real cheap right now, so are the faux smaller gourds and sunflower bushes and smaller Fall florals, etc. Get a two foot faux Xmas tree at Walmart (shouldn't be too much) and decorate it as a Thanksgiving Tree. I don't think you'll need a lot of decorations on it either. I bet it will be a real HIT at the silent auction. What folks like to see all the time, definitely something new and different - When making it, I'd lay the tree down or prop it at an angle and use a hot glue gun to glue the floral (such as one sunflower and a couple of leaves attached to it) making sure those pieces are holding on before turning the tree to a different side. Then the gourds, corn, etc. Tie some straw colored raffia into small bows around the trees branches here and there to fill in gaps if needed and I'd top it with a larger raffia bow. OR, don't put the raffia bows all around and make a medium size one to put on top with the raffia strings streaming down the sides of the tree. Use enough raffia for the bow to get a lot of "streamers." If you don't like that idea, again, all the floral and gourds are on sale and so are baskets. A real pretty floral/gourd/pinecone basket with a pretty Fall plaid ribbon would be an excellent donation for the auction. Here is a pic of a Thanksgiving basket I was "throwing" together. I'm not finished yet and when I say I just threw things in it, I meant it, I do that and then go back and rearrange everything or add more or get rid of stuff. Yes, those are "White Pinecones" and regular brown ones. Here's my secret for White Pinescones (got this out of Martha Stewart mag) - gather (not store bought, they must be covered in something or cleaned to begin with and they just don't work) pinecones and put in 5 gallon bucket or whatever you have to hold them, put enough bleach in the bucket to cover the pinecones, put plate on top of cones and then brick on top of plate to hold them down under the bleach. The cones will close up when wet. (Martha says 4-5 hours soaking), but I let mine go overnight (7-8 hours). Drain the bleach and rinse the cones off and let them dry. Drying them near heat will take less time and they will open up faster, otherwise it's a few days for them to dry and reopen. No, they don't smell like bleach. If you want to, you can set the bucket outside overnight. Yes, you can peek at them and see they are turning white. Sorry this is so long, hope you like the ideas. Sal

Oh, joanie - I love that pic! I am always tagging spam messages myself.