Granny Smith Frogs

Hello,
Today I did a couple of Activities with the seniors. I found this on activityconnection.com and what a blast we had making these. I found some of my residents had a hard time cutting the apples with pairing knives, but the others enjoyed making them. I had Carmel dip for the on lookers. this is what we came up with.

Every one had a wonderful time specially with the candy corn I made.
Happy Carving!
Linda

The Bucket List

I am so happy to come back from a great WSAAP conference at Warm Beach Christian Camp. It was truly camping but we made it through and my Executive Director was given the Administrator of the year award. The whole team came up to see her receive her reward she was completely surprised!!!!
Today we celebrated with all of the staff and had a surprised fiesta .....my job was to keep her busy until everything was set up. So I took her shopping and it was hard today, because she had so much to do that she kept wanting to get back to the building I even had a fake twisted foot .....oh boy!
Well all went well and so everyone had a great time!!! That is what is important!
OK to get to the meaning of this Bucket List. Everyone was headed to go to the the zip lines and obstacle course we I was a Little well allot heavier then the Activity Directors that were going. We all went on the test course and everyone passed even me, Yahoo!
Then came the real course this very big tree and very high so everyone went and it was my turn, I got two steps up and oh boy!, that was hard, so I came down as gracefully as I could, and said to the teacher "oh well, it's on my Bucket list but, I will get there someday. At that point he said without hesitation ..."Hey Crew we got a bucket list request and we are going to make this happen for her"

I was so surprise and scared at once .....I didn't know what was involved...... all of a sudden everything was in fun swing they work with people with special needs, so all these ropes and all the commotion for me....what if I froze and had to come down? Really I was getting nervous. Everyone was mostly gone at that point and a few watchers in our group were still there cheering everyone on. So with the help of those wonderful Activity Directors that stayed behind helped pull me up to the platform so I could Zip down.... this is me ...... Scared to death but with all they had done for me I had to go I have pictures fro another camera that showed me coming down ....so when I got to the top I had two wonderful women up top telling it's OK they told me to sit down on the platform it would be easier ...........Bless their hearts .....but I just jumped not even thinking I just went and it was amazing!!!!! I want to thank to Zip line Staff at Warm beach Christian Camp in Stanwood. Thank you for making the number 1 on my Bucket List h........Thank you!     

Activity Directors Conference

I am so excited to go to the 2012 Activity conference at Warm Beach in Stanford Washington details and pictures to come soon ......it's like going back to music camp I was in music camp well back in high school......we will see what happens =) I will see you in a few days

Crayon Chandelier

Sorry it has been a couple of days since I had made a Blog , but I am alone until I get followers so I am taking it slow. I found this wonderful project on http://www.theletter4.com , What a wonderful wax paper & Crayon Chandelier. I posted this on my facebook page Activity Directors Sharing Ideas. This is beautiful and involves a lamp shade that I looked into even at thrift stores were pricey for an Activity so I went further and went to the craft store and found small clay pots that would look so pretty with the colors the residents used to make the wax paper disk that was made out of shaved crayons melted between two pieces of wax paper 

The craft calls for fishing wire and as we all know the elderly have a hard time even seeing the fishing line, so I went to the craft store and found thin white ribbon for 2 for a dollar at Artco craft store .....I would check your  local Artco and craft stores for prices because every state and every store is different. This was the easiest for the Seniors to handle. After I made the wax paper pieces you let it dry and then you cut circles, hearts, diamonds , or what ever you want, just make sure they are big enough for them to hold and work with. 

 

Thread them through the center whole , I used two large wooden beads to attach on the inside and outand knoted it up on top so they came out of the middle.

Then when they hang them it is preferred that they hang it in the window so you can see the colors in the sunlight.

That way they can see the mixed colors and is something pretty to look at. I must say they all enjoyed doing this  project. Please feel free to email me with any questions you have I will be happy to answer them.
Happy Crafting
Linda =)

 

Dried Apple Wreath

Today was our Dried Apple Wreaths... OK after many hours of drying apples I lost count at 40 I have been doing this during National Assisted Living Week too. I know how crazy am I so I found this wreath when I was at thrift store looking for some cup and saucers (this is for another project) but I ran into this one and I thought it tattered but seemed easy enough. I also saw this on a wonderful web site called activityconnection.com I would recommend this site it is worth the price! Both projects were on grapevine wreaths. When I was shopping for supplies the grapevine wreaths ranged between $5.99 up to $9.99. Well if your are like me I am on a budget and every cents count and with the other supplies oh my goodness I had to make this happen.
I had went to Artcocrafts.com and I found this  rope with green moss attached to it cost was $9.99 a roll and it made 8 circles ....perfect for my craft group. I tied wire around them to close the gap and made a loop for hanging.



So for the second step I started adding strips of wire in between the button holes and attaching them to dried apples and then twisting the wire around the hoop you can either twist then and tuck them down or cut off excess wire ...just make sure when you cut then you also push the cut portion in so it isn't sharp in back. Keep adding your apples and buttons.

this is the under view of the wreath

 

for the final touches add anything you want ....I added raffia a cheap way to add a little fun to the project. Other fun things could be silk autumn leaves, small pine cones or whatever you your hearts desire. Here is the finished project.







     

 

 

I had some dried apples left for a project next month called

 

House Warming gift for the Holidays for them to take for their families when they visit....I will keep up to date!!!! For now remember an apple a day keeps the doctor away! OK so that was a bad pun =)

 

Happy Crafting

 

Linda 

Button Tree

I saw this really cool project of making a tree and then using buttons as as leaves....this would be a great Group picture or smaller board for individual one on one project.

What you need:
Water color board ( big or small) depending on if your doing Large or individual projects
Brown Paint for the tree trunk
Buttons for the leaves

this is totally awesome courtesy of creativeideas.com way to cool not to share!!!

The New Blog

Hello everyone,
This is going to be a great day! I started this blog page to give free help to Activity Directors...YES I said free help. I have been an Activity Director for 12 years and well I find that I am forever looking for new and exciting activities to enhance my calendar. At times I spend most of my time looking through web site and web sites at night on my own time. Don't get me wrong, the thing is I enjoy doing this for others because there are so many Activity Directors, especially the ones in nursing homes don't have the time and when I worked in them ....I didn't even have a computer! So I hope that I help everyone to enhance programs for the seniors....so with this I hope you enjoy and share some of your ideas too.