My Thankfullness Tree Guest Post

I did a little redecorating this year in honor of Thanksgiving. If you'd like to check it I wrote up a whole blog post about it that got published over at How to Homeschool my Child as part of her Thanksgiving series.

Check it out here and let us know what you think!

Support Small Businesses: 2018 Christmas Gift Guide

Support Small Businesses: 2018 Christmas Gift Guide
Our Gift Guide is here!! It is here!!

And do you want to know what that means??

That means 3 things are about to happen.

Thanksgiving
Black Friday
Christmas!!!
Whichever one you are most excited about. Click here to see the full post!

The gift guide will be Separated into Sections.

Homeschool

Girls

Family

Faith

I hope you all have an amazing holiday season!

Blessings to all!

Breakfast Applesauce Oatmeal Apricot Cookies

Rather than buying breakfast bars, I like to make breakfast cookies. I'll admit its been a few years, but I dusted off my recipe to make again. These are so yummy!
I invented them way back when my middle daughter was a baby, not for her, for me. She was allergic to milk protein, this meant I was on a no cows milk diet too. I was amazed at all the things that had milk protein in them, so I made a breakfast cookie with no butter.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

The end of an era...

Was it six or seven years ago? Its been so long that I can't even remember. I found you on the clearance shelf in September. I couldn't believe it. Marked down to .25, I grabbed three of you, that was all that was left. I was so gleeful when I showed you to my family and they just rolled their eyes.
We had just started homeschooling and while they had been patient in waiting to shop for school supplies, they where still more interested in binders, folders, and notebooks. Cute and trendy, but there wasn't much left to choose from. You were not high on the list of things my girls got excited about.
Then we got home and started our craft projects and suddenly everyone wanted to use you and only you. What had been three turned into one, that was lost and found horded in one child's room then another. I carried you in my purse for a while, my craft bag, to my co-op classes. As the years went by arguments started over who you belonged too.
For such a simple thing, you had a huge impact on all of our projects. Always bringing a smile to our faces and the faces of our friends. You never let us down, always up to what ever challenge we put you to. Other's came and went through our house and still you where the first pair we searched for.
Then it happened. My daughter went to use you and you snapped in half. She didn't do anything wrong. Nothing different, your plastic parts had finally given out.
We will miss you. I'm not sure you will ever truly be replaced, but I will remember you every time I see something that needed you to make it complete. Every time I reach for you and have to make due. Farewell my faithful pair of owl scissors.

Are you Creative?

I'm a creative person, I don't usually think about this anymore, its just part of life. Unless someone else brings it up. Usually its a friend who will say something about not being creative themselves. This has been happening recently and it got me thinking.
How do the measure what makes a person creative?
Apparently lots of people wonder about this, check out what happened when I typed it into Google.

There are tests to measure your creativity, there are people who compare creative versus logical aspects of a person's personality, the list goes on.  Sadly, the majority of people I know who look at my projects and longingly wish they could create something, were once told that they weren't creative enough. On the opposite side of those, those who are very creative were encouraged to think outside of the box
I just want to encourage those who think they aren't creative. In my mind the true difference between a creative person and everyone who wishes they where creative, is the willingness to try and fail, then keep trying.

I like to learn something new everyday. Sometimes all I manage is knowledge, but I get excited when I TRY something new. That counts as learning too, only much more fun. So next time you think "I wish I could do that" think instead "I wonder what skills I would need to do that?" then try it!

My favorite sites for leaning new skills.
BluPrint
Pinterest
Youtube

Making the Most of My Scrap Felt

I have been making felt dolls and finger puppets for the last few months and I ended up with this bag of felt that I didn't want to toss.
"What's your deal, just toss 'em" is probably going through your mind at this point. Well, if it was your typical craft store felt I would agree and just toss it. This is something different, this is NICE felt. 100% wool felt from Felt on the Fly. I even added a bag of scraps to my order. I know I bought scraps. EEK.

So what am I going to do with those scraps. Well I challenged myself and I made a whole finger puppet with just scraps. First here is an example of the fairies I was making before.

Notice I was using some of my scraps. This piece of green in her hair was trimmed off of a scrap. At this rate I was going to buried under a pile of scraps! 

So I challenged myself to use bigger pieces of scraps, and got these cuties. I used scraps for the dress's and the wings:

Then I took it a step further and used scraps for every part of the finger puppet. This is Maeve Fairy. I think she turned out super cute.

If you want to do something similar, their are tons of patters for finger puppets on Pinterest (linked to my felt board) and Etsy (I just searched felt finger puppet fairy pattern), just pick a shape you like and fill it in. Please note, I did not use anyone else's pattern. The hardest part may be the flesh tones, but who says a fairy has to be peachy cream colored? Have fun and share your creations in the comments!

What is Purposeful Whimsy anyway?

Hello, my name is Shannon L. Mokry. I write with whimsy and purpose as a children's book author and now as a blogger. I'm not yet certain where this crazy path will take me, but hop on board and follow along.
I may not have a focused direction for this blog yet, I can tell you that I try to blend purpose and whimsy into all parts of my life. It's easy to see that in my children's books. Bubbles the bubble blowing dragon just screams whimsy, and the messages in the stories show their true purpose, to teach our kids.

As a creative person pairing purpose and whimsy doesn't start and end with my books, its a way of life, just like homeschooling my kids and being Christian. (Not in that order of course.) 

I sew, but rarely manage to follow a pattern more than once. If I'm honest, not even the first time. To me a pattern is a suggestion that I spark idea's off of. From clothes, to dolls, to finger puppets, even the window coverings going up in my house. They all have a purpose and bring a smile to my face.

I'm a photographer. Though mostly I gift my services to others. Like when I spend a week documenting all of my the dance classes at the local rec center. I also document my growing children. I hope you can see the dual purpose here at well.

I have a vision for my house and will share portions of it as they are done.

I'm a homeschool teacher for my three daughters. Its a journey and I'm enjoying it. If your homeschooling this year, I hope you find the joy in it as well. If not I invite you to rethink your approach. Life is short, enjoy it! You have a purpose, but don't get bogged down in the just memorizing facts, make sure both you and your children smile regularly.

Are you a creative? How does that flow out into different parts of your life? I'd love to here how you balance purpose and whimsy in your life.