picking and a whole day of fun

I'm done using the word 'hoarding.'  These items came to me via a really good 'pick.'  After our teacher Christmas party, one of the girls announced that they had cleaned out some Sunday school closets and had craft items to give away.  It all had to go and we should go through it first.  YES!  We were like crazy ladies at 4am on black Friday.   We spent an hour going through it all and calling dibs on things.  I brought home all of this.... 1 large tub mostly full of felt, two cardboard boxes and a smaller tub full of random craft supplies, baby food jars, bells, beads, lacing lanyard, foam balls, sand dollars, shells, glitter, clipboards, die cut paper pieces, origami paper, electric pencil sharpeners, baskets, cigar boxes, clay pots, etc. 

Here's one of my favorite finds.  I've been scouring garage sales for an old-school style pencil sharpener with no luck.  I just found a brand new one!  It's already installed in the basement.

The next morning, the kids and I spent a good while going through all the goodies and then spent the whole day playing with them.  One thing in the lot was a bucket of instant snow. We had to try it right away. 

It starts as a powder and then when you add water, it expands and expands and fluffs up like snow.   It's fluffy and soft and does feel a lot like snow.  If you put it in the fridge for a little bit, it really feels like snow. 

It keeps for weeks, the box says.  We've gotten it out several times and have really enjoyed it so far.  

We even tricked daddy!  He was away on business for a few days and we convinced him that he missed a big- but short lived snowfall.  We saved some snow for him in the freezer. He was tricked.

There was a bag of sand dollars. The kids are always wanting to break open my sand dollars to find the 'doves' inside, but I don't want to break the sand dollars we collected when we lived in Florida, so now they had their chance.

Bee and Lou each broke one in half and collected the 'doves.'  

I guess there are five in each although I told them they would find 7.  Guess I was wrong.

There was a roll of paper, which promptly was unrolled and drawn into a car racetrack and a castle scene. Those go together, right?

There was a pack of origami paper, which we cut into snowflakes.  It took some practice, but we finally figured out the 6 pointed snowflakes.   

Bee, Lou and I must have cut 40 snowflakes.

We hung them on every window and bare wall.

We got better and better the more we made and as we figured out what cuts made the prettiest finished product.

Then we made more and hung more.

We ran out of origami paper and went out and bought more!

 We tried scrapbook paper, but the thickness was bit too much for the six pointed snowflakes.  We made several, but they were harder to cut and the detail was lacking. 

We also did a bunch of beading and stringing bells as well as a project with the clipboards.  This was the most fun that we've had from a 'pick.'