Turkeys

Now that Halloween is almost here it is time to start thinking about Thanksgiving. since every holiday has been out in the stores since before school started for the kids, it makes it hard to enjoy each holiday as they come. I remember as a kid each holiday was put out 30days before the holidays which made it more exciting to see what is new for that year. So it is what it is and now we are forced to sort through all of them at once.
I was searching through ideas for Thanksgiving, which is a lost holiday between Halloween and Christmas. For me, Thanksgiving is all about family and what we are thankful for throughout the year. I found a lot of pumpkins and turkeys in my search, so I decided to look for the way to design my turkeys. I went to the Dollar Tree and found some treasures to make my very own design.

I found a couple of pinecones I had on hand, I am sure we all have pinecones that we have collected throughout our travels. When I was shopping at the dollar tree I found some paper fall leaves 10 for a dollar and in the Christmas section I found gold glitter poinsettias which would be perfect for my little pinecone. I cut the ball centers to save later for another project and cut the bottom half leaves to be the feathers of the turkey and glued it to the back of the baby turkey. Yes I saved the left over center of the poinsettia to save for later too. 

 

 

With the other pieces of the poinsettia I add for the feet and filled in the rest of the pinecone to make him fuller, also I used the poinsettia balls from the center to make the wattle of the turkey.

For the beak I used a piece of the large pinecone and then added his eyes. Now time for the mama turkey it was pretty simple to do. I used the fall leaves- 3 of the orange color and glued to the back of the large pinecone. They were pretty easy to work with, the leaves have wire in then so I could bend them the way I wanted.

I used some of the leaves from the poinsettia leaves for the feet and one for the wattle. With part of the pinecone for the beak and added eyes and here is my mama turkey. I wish I was a great photographer, but I think they turned out pretty cute.

 

  

 

Thanks for stopping bye! Enjoy your turkeys! First seen on Activity Directors Sharing Ideas blog site. Linda Janicki  =)  

 

  

   
  

An honor to have a blog feature on DisneyBaby.com

Ok it has been a while since I have posted, but recently I had the honor of having my post of the Crayon Chandelier's on Disneybaby.com I was inspired again. So look for more post coming soon. I would like to thank Disneybaby.com again for bringing a spark back into my blogging again!
Here is the post http://www.disneybaby.com/blog/16-clever-ways-to-use-broken-crayons/
 

Drooling over a sewing machine.....

Saturday I went shopping for a Lady Bug Mothers Day Tea at Joann's. I must say either the changed the store over night or I missed the remodel they had. We were going through rows and rows of fabric and ran into this machine Janome Memory Craft 11000 Special Addition Sewing Machine.
Now I normally would just walk by, but that machine was working by it self. I have sewn before but I have put all that kind of stuff on hold, well for the last 20 years, I Know I know it's crazy, but since I am new to blogging and seeing so many project I have been missing. It was incredible on what this thing can do, my friend actually reached over to close my mouth. I mind was turning and I had to have one- really -REALLY had to have one. So since there was no price, I had to guess maybe 600 -1000 max. Boy was I wrong this machine was .......wait for it ..........$5999.00!!!!!! My dreams were crushed in just one second when I have been watching the machine do it wonderful job for about 20 minutes....oh well maybe I can save my pennies.....I must say this new age of sewing is outstanding and I need to someday branch into, but for now I will keep with crafts on a budget....

Starting the New Year

Ok we are already into the New Year and I haven't posted since, hmmmm well OK it's been a while so I need to start blogging again. I have been working on my facebook page and that is doing well, but I need to start here then  transfer to faceebook. These are things I need to learn as being a new blogger and working on generating new ideas to Activity Directors so it makes every ones life a little less stressed.

Being an Activity Director there is so much to concentrate on, nursing homes Directors have so little time to plan. MDS, charting, new state guidelines, and all the meetings, care conferences, daily management meeting, Resident Council meetings and I can go on and on. It is like you are in a whirl wind of balancing daily hats to wear.... go home and come back and doing it the next day.

Assisted Living is well, is a little different. The older facilities have the personal and classic way of doing the activities. I mean we are hands on planning and working with the residents one on one. The buildings that are smaller have a "family atmosphere". The new buildings are becoming less personal, computer generated calendars that scroll through out the day .....I can't even keep track.
Along with these new buildings there are less contact and companies pay less for the Activity Director thinking it is all done for them as a template outlined by Corporate Directors that plan for company Activities for all buildings in there company. Ok well, yes they meet the standards for the Corporate world. So what about the resident's? That is a good question.....what does that mean?
Every resident has an individual care plan to meet there specific needs....so how do you do that with a corporate outline ......hmmmm do you put people in groups to what the corporate planners make up activities for generic purposes?

This is nothing new to any activity director, activity assistant, caregiver, nursing and even the executive directors ....... we all know because we work with them everyday and we listen so this system seems senseless. Listening is the most important part of our job and  planning is the hardest part of the Activity Directors job. All we want is a happy building ....right?

So we ask ourselves where do you begin? Well a good place to start is with the residents themselves after all it's all about what their needs and expectations. Holding meetings once a month to plan activities is fun and rewarding for the residents, they have a purpose and you find out what they want to do. I aways say that I can put on an activity about Gumby and Poky ( green bendable guy with his horse) and have the time of my life ....but it isn't going to make sense to them .....maybe or maybe not now you have to figure in the clients you have in your facility.

Activityconnection.com has a great planning sheet that has of special days for the month and great reading, trivia, puzzles and crafts to plan your month. I love this web site, it has great tools, however there is still the individual likes and now a wide range of age gaps, short stay needs, low budgets and whatever the life of an Activity Director throws at you.

So I hope by bringing this blog page bring a less stress life to all Activity Professionals... Linda

Food Art...... Acorns

These are so awesome to do with the residents......they have been really loving the food art thing, I mean like asking when the next time will we making something else. I love the sound of "when are we going to do this again" of course, thats what is all about!!!!
Linda

Fall Leaf Craft

I haven't posted in a while so this is my Fall Leaf  Project and it is so easy and fun. For right now I am going to post the pictures and I will come back tell how it was done..... =)

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