Solemnity of the Motherhood of Mary (The Circumcision)

We made these felt flower pomanders for the feast day.  I thought the white Styrofoam ball reminded me of the pure white host which is the Body of Our Lord, and of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart.  The felt "roses" surrounding it reminded me of how Mary's body concealed Him for nine months.  The pins used to affix the flowers to the ball reminded me of the swords which Simeon prophesied would pierce Her Immaculate Heart.

Caeli easily made each of the flowers after I cut them out and cut them into spirals.  We chose these colors for their festiveness and their symbolism of joy and sorrow in pink and purple.  The whole project took the two of us about 15 minutes to complete.

It's a pretty addition to our Christmas ornament collection.  Maybe a little smaller and we might hang it from the rear view mirror.  A little bigger and we might hang it from the ceiling hear Her image.

St. Thomas, Apostle

For St. Andrew's feast day we made a ribbon sash with the words "Mari O Alahi," which is Aramaic for "My Lord and My God," Andrew's words after the Risen Christ allowed him to touch His wounds.

I spray-painted little wooden letters gold and hot-glued them to a gold ribbon.

I used tiny balls of artist's putty eraser to stick the sash to the mirror over the place where we'll set up our nativity. After Christmas I'll affix it to the wall over our crucifix.

Sts. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Patriarchs

For today's feast of Sts. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we've made a beautiful triptych with card stock, glitter glue, and gold spray-painted masking tape.

Using two pieces of black card stock, I cut one in half lengthwise, then laying the two pieces over the remaining whole piece, I cut them into an arch.  Actually, to keep the arch symmetrical I cut the two halves into half arches first, then cut the whole piece.  I did the same to the background, making them about 1/4 inch smaller than the black card stock all the way around.  I taped the two side pieces to the center piece with scotch tape that I'll cover with the gold masking tape which I'll cut into a hinge shape. I cut out each of the patriarchs.

I glued the background to the card stock.  I swirled a thin track of tacky glue all over the back of each piece and then used a hatpin to spread the glue into a thin layer and reach all the way to the edges.  I did the same for the patriarchs.

To paint the masking tape gold I just sprayed it on the roll.  After it was dry I cut it into four equal pieces, being careful not to let the sticky side touch the painted side.  I cut the gold masking tape into hinge shapes and covered the scotch tape.  Then I outlined all the background pieces and also the halos of the patriarchs with gold glitter glue.

I'm really happy with how it came out.  From a distance it could almost pass for an expensive, professionally done work of art.  Up close you discover the truth!

O Antiphon "House"

After looking in all the local craft stores for one of those adorable little wooden curio houses for our O Antiphons, I finally decided to make up my own design, all those little houses being apparently used up. I got a wooden plaque from Walmart and Caeli and I painted it gold.

I used eight little matchboxes for the "windows." I used this document for the inserts for each drawer. Seven of them have the O Antiphon for each day printed in script, and the eighth has a lovely image of the Holy Family, for Christmas Day. I cut strips of pretty cardstock to cover each matchbox.

I used a different color for each box.

Then I taped ribbon to the backs of each drawer leaving a little "tail" with which to pull the drawer out. I cut the ribbon long enough to that I can slip it through the matchbox cover and tape it to the back side so that when I pull out the drawer the ribbon will keep it from falling all the way out.

I slipped the ribbon through the opening of the matchbox cover, slipped the drawer in as far as I want it to go when it's opened, and taped the ribbon to the back of the cover. The drawers are going to be pulled downward after their mounted to the plaque, so I inserted the Antiphons oriented for this arrangement.

This picture might make it a little more clear.

Then I folded the strips of deco paper to fit each matchbox and taped it in the back of the cover.

I wrapped ribbon horizontally all the way around the box and taped it in the back. This helps keep the paper in place. Then I inserted ribbon vertically all the way through the opening in the matchbox cover and tied a bow in the front of the box to make it look like a little gift.

Once all the matchboxes were arranged and glued to the plaque, I glued the symbols for each antiphon underneath the closed gift box so that the Antiphon will cover the symbol after I open the drawer.

With all the windows closed you can see the symbols for each antiphon.

Today with the first window open:

Here it is as it will look Christmas morning with all the little windows open.

I hotglued a gold mesh ribbon, tied in a bow, to the back with which to hang it on the wall.

St. Lazarus, brother of Sts. Martha and Mary Magdalene

For a few years now I've thought Lazarus would make a really cool boy's name, but I'm not sure I'm the one to do it. Maybe we'll find out come April. To celebrate the feast of this dear friend of Our Lord, we're making rag wrapped ornaments on Styrofoam eggs, the egg being symbolic of life and the rags an allusion to St. Lazarus's burial cloths.

And for dinner, St. Lazarus Corpses.

St. Adelaide of Italy

St. Adelaide is the Patron of Large Families (among other things) and Italian so that makes her especially dear to our large, Italian family. To celebrate we're building a Gingerbread Church (or maybe a white chocolate church with our Pampered Chef gingerbread mold) since she devoted much of her life to building and restoring churches and monasteries.

St. Christiana (Nino)

Make staple-less paper chains to adorn your Christmas Tree in memory of St. Christiana, a slave girl in Iberia, who called upon the power of Christ to heal the sick. (We'll post our own pictures later!)

The Feast of St. John of the Cross

We had buckets of matchsticks left over from our Saints of Advent Countdown Calendar so we decided to make a matchstick cross to celebrate the New feast of St. John of the Cross (on the Traditional calendar it's celebrated on November 24, but I had to do something with all these matchsticks!).

We started by burning the tips of about 200 matchsticks. It didn't take as long as we thought it would and made the house smell so nice--that is if you like the smell of burnt matchsticks.

Then I drew the two lines of a cross on a piece of cardboard and glued the first four matchsticks to the lines so that the ends all touched without leaving a gap. Then I glued four more matchsticks in an X shape radiating out from the angles of the cross formed by the first four matchsticks.

Once that's done and the matchsticks are set, the glue relatively dry, you're ready to go to town. Caeli and I took a few minutes to glue all the other matchsticks into place.

We still have to add another row to the top and sides and two more to the bottom.

Then I cut the cardboard around the dried-in-place matchsticks and taped a paper clip to the back for a hanger.

St. John of the Cross, pray for us!

Santa Lucia's Day

Santa Lucia is a very significant saint in our family, my heritage being strongly Italian and John's having a notable Swedish influence. To celebrate her feast day we started by making a "Crown of Light." I bought a straw crown (from the Goodwill) and spray-painted it gold. I pushed my finger down between the straw to make a "hole" for the candles and then pressed the candles down into the wreath. I'll probably end up hot gluing them before too long. Then I wrapped it with 4 yards of wide brown satin ribbon, tying the ends into a bow for the back of the crown.

Getting the idea from As Cozy As Spring, Caeli and I cut, from two different shades of green felt, 60 leaves (I cut them four at a time from two sheets of each color) and sewed them around the edges and up the middle to make a vein. I used one of each color felt to give it some effect. Then I arranged five leaves between each of the six candles, pinning them in place, and poked the wire ends of the berries (which came with the wreath from Goodwill) into the straw, snaking the wires over the surface of the leaves.

Julius Caesar wearing Santa Lucia's Crown:

Little Caeli Girl modeling the Crown (I may end up tying bows around each candle):

Maybe I'll be able to persuade my non-singing family to join in singing Sankta Lucia with this Swedish version:

In Swedish:

Natten går tunga fjät runt gård och stuva

Kring jork son sol förlät,skuggorna ruva,

Då I vårt mörka hus, stiger med tända ljus,

Sancta Lucia, Sankta Lucia

In Italian:

Sul mare luccica l'astro d'argento.

Placida e l'onda, prospero il vento.

Venite all'agile barchetta mia!

Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!

English translation:

The silver star shines on the sea,

the waves are gentle, the wind is favourable.

Come to my swift little boat!

Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!

Rachel making the icing for Cinnamon Buns for our breakfast:

And serving them up hot arranged so nicely on a white platter:

We used red satin blanket binding for her sash, and a beautiful white embroidered nightgown from Goodwill.

Our Cuccia for lunch:

Robert "crowning" around, as usual:

Justin getting in on the act:

A little creative anachronism, Santa Lucia (or should I say Luciano?) and the Ides of April:

A future Santa Lucia Bride:

Maid Marian modeling the crown:

Finally, we read the book Lucia, Saint of Light, a lovely story of Santa Lucia and how her feast day is celebrated by Swedes all over the world.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

I found this cool folkart version of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Caeli and I thought it would be cool to paint it on glass. First we sized it to fit a small glass frame--the kind that's just a piece of glass with metal doohickies to hold it to the kick stand back. Then we put the picture behind the glass (I should have flipped the picture sideways before printing, but since it was a folkart version it doesn't look so weird. You would definitely want to flip it if you were painting a famous art work) and started painting. Since we were going to flip the glass over for the finished product, Caeli painted from the foreground back--drawing all the outlines and highlights first. Then she filled in the background colors--skin, clothes, sky, etc. When it was dry we flipped the glass over and assembled the frame.
















Voila! Our own very folksy rendition of Our Lady of Guadalupe! The picture really doesn't do it justice--it's absolutely breathtaking in person! We've done this project with some other works of art and the kids all love it. I only remind them that we don't want it to look exactly like the picture, but like our own personalized rendition. That seems to alleviate any potential frustration. These make great gifts for grandparents, and only cost about $2 each!

Saints of Advent Countdown Calendar

As much as I love our Jesse Tree, I'm completely enamored with the tiny little Saints of Advent Christmas Countdown Calendar we made this year.


I started with 24 little matchboxes which cost me under $2. I masking-taped a stack of eight of them together, three times, and then glued and taped the three stacks of eight together. Then I cut pretty scrap-booking card stock in strips to cover the sides, and a square of the same pretty paper--a little bigger than the square of matchboxes so I could fold the edges over the sides--for a back to keep the "drawers" from falling out the other side.

Before I glued all the pretty papers on, Robert spray-painted each of the little "drawers" gold for me, as well as the face of the "chest." After I glued all the boxes together and glued the papers on, I just tied a pretty ribbon around to finish it off.

Next I found icons of each of the saints of Advent, St. Edmund Campion for December 1, St. Bibiana for December 2, St. Francis Xavier for December 3, and so on. I coped and pasted them into this document and printed them all on card stock. Caeli helped me cut them all out and trim them to fit each little matchbox drawer.

Then we slipped them back into the little "chest" of matchboxes, starting with St. Edmund in the back left and moving from left to right forward with each saint until we ended with Sts. Adam and Eve in the front right corner.

Then each day of Advent we carefully lift up on the drawer that contains the saint of the day. (I may end up taping little ribbons to the backs of each drawer to make pulling them up easier.) I plan to print out little strips of paper with a prayer to each saint on it, to keep in the little drawer for us to say with our grace before meals. I thought it would also be neat to hang each little picture drawer on the tree, but for now we'll just keep them all together in our little matchbox chest.

Feast of Our Lady Queen of Angels

For the Feast of Our Lady Queen of Angels we made paper doily angels to hang on our Christmas Tree. We used a 6 inch doily and a 4 inch doily, a white pompom, gold pipe cleaner and thin white ribbon.



I folded the 6 inch doily in half and just crimped the middle of the fold of the 4 inch doily.



I punched six holes, three on either side of the fold on the six inch doily, then laid it over the four inch doily and make dots on either side of the midline to mark where the holes should go so that they'll line up when I lace them together.



I made a cone out of the larger doily and lined up the holes with those of the smaller one. Then I used the thin, white ribbon to lace the two doilies together like a shoe. I found it easier to start with the top hole on one side, snake my way down and back up again.



Then I tightened the ribbon until the two doilies fit snuggly together.



I tied the ribbon in a bow.



Finally I glued the pompom on the point of the doily cone and affixed a gold pipe cleaner halo on top.



Maybe it sounds or looks hard, but I assure it was super simple. Just give it a try. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out as you go along!