The Workshop..or I should have been an elf!

Last year about this time, my sweet artist friend, Natalie, painted some cinnamon ornaments to look like birds.  She did a fantastic job on these things! I was impressed at the beauty of the birds and thought perhaps I would try my hand at making a few.  My daughter, Elizabeth, had made the cutest little Gingerbread Boys by the same method so she helped me mix up my first batch.  I confess..I am horrible!  I never painted those birds!  It takes a good while for the things to air dry so they sort of got "lost" in the craft room and there they stayed until this week.  Aha!  A craft project just begging to be completed!  I pulled out the cinnamon ornaments fully expecting them to smell a bit more musty than cinnamon-like but I was wrong!  Those things still smelled delightful!  I set to work.

Well, I finished the birds that Elizabeth and I made and needed more!  This was indeed fun!  Although my birds will never compare with those that Natalie painted, I was satisfied with their appearance.  I must make more birds!  Son was kind enough to knead the lovely "dough".  This is a mixture of cinnamon, applesauce and glue.  We added a bit of ground cloves and some ground allspice just for good measure.  After working the stuff into a lovely mix, I rolled it out and used some cookie cutters that Elizabeth bought just for this purpose.  My cookie sheet was soon filled with birds but I did not want to wait for days for them to dry.  My dehydrator was put to use.  Within a matter of hours, the birds were dry and ready for painting.  (Warning..if you do use a dehydrator to dry the cookies, watch them!  They will need to be turned about every ten minutes or otherwise you will wind up with curly birds!)

Now my living room resembles Santa's Workshop!  The birds are being painted on one table and ceramic plaques are primed and ready to paint on another.  Three gourds are hanging as the paint dries on them and snippets of ribbons and fabrics are waiting to become rag dolls.  Between all of these projects and a bit of crocheting, I will be quite busy (and the room will be strewn with projects!)  Oh, what fun it is to craft Christmas!  I think I should have been an elf!