I have had this Martha Stewart Pom-pom Tom Turkey pattern and instructions for years but I never got around to make one til now! My own directions for making a pom-pom are below, I will also share my finished Tom Turkey as well as a CONTEST! To Enter my Contest for a free skein of Charcoal wool yarn just leave a comment and click on the ads, or leave a comment and share this site with friends and family, or leave a comment and a trackback from your own blog or site! I will pick the names out of a hat and then email the winner on November 10th. Enter today!

STEP 1) I had a thin piece of cardboard and cut out four semi circle donut shapes measuring an inch across, together would measure 2 inches, and then cut out 4 semi circle donut shapes measuring 1.75 inches, together they measure 3.5 inches. I had some old charcoal gray Wool Ease yarn and other supplies I pulled from my craft drawer, I did have to buy coral colored Vanna’s Choice Baby acrylic yarn as I didn’t have anything that color. To make the pom poms for the turkey really only takes a few minutes but you have to be very nimble to hold on to those fibers! It’s perfectly ok if a few fall out!

STEP 2) I wrapped the coral color yarn around 2 smaller cardboard cutouts 4 times, taking the scissors cut the outer edge of the yarn at the edge of both pieces of cardboard. Repeat these steps on the other 2 cutouts using the same yarn.

STEP 3) Fit both sides of the pom-pom together, this will form a circle with the fibers in the center and the cardboard around the edges.

STEP 4) Take a 5inch piece of yarn and slide it into the middle of the cardboard halves pulling the 5inch piece tightly, remove the cardboard and tie a knot

STEP 5) Fluff out your pom-pom with your fingers slightly and give it a good trim all the way around til it is a nice round ball!

Most of my supplies

Step Two

Cutting the edges

Edges now cut, I’m carefully holding the fibers in place

Step three, Holding both halves together very Very Carefully

Step Four, taking a 5" piece of yarn and slipping it in between the 2 layers of Cardboard

Tying the knot very tightly, I’m using my free hand to take the pictures all while a baby is fussing. Trust me you can do this!

Voila! A Pom-pom all I need is to finish Step Five the fluffing and trimming!

To finish the Turkey you will need:

1) several pieces of felt in ivorys, reds, and brows for the tail, plus pattern

2) a small piece of red felt or tinsel for the throat

3) 2 teeny tiny pieces of Yellow paper or craft foam for the beak

4) left over pieces of yarn in oatmeal color for the eyes and wings

5) Hot glue gun and craft glue for putting the pieces together

6) 2 pieces of wire or pipe cleaner tinsel for the legs

7) sharp scissors

My turkeys body seemed to be too heavy to stand on the tinsel so a heavier gauge wire would probably be best, so I made mine sitting down!

Don’t Forget to ENTER my FREE charcoal Wool Yarn Contest to make your own Tom Turkey with! Just comment and click on ads, comment and share with friends, or comment and link back from your own site/Blog!

"When my friend Ricki Lake approached me about making this film, I admitted to her that I was afraid to even witness a woman giving birth, let alone film one." -quote from the Director of The Business of Being Born Abby Epstein 2007

-Birth is a miracle, a rite of passage, a natural part of life. But birth is also big business. Compelled to explore the subject after the delivery of her first child, actress Ricki Lake recruits filmmaker Abby Epstein to question the way American women have babies. -synopsis of The Business of Being Born movie

My Husband and I recently watched the movie on Netflix and were really floored to learn that many women and men have never seen an actual normal birth or have never even heard of a midwife. Much like the director of the film and other voices from the film share, there seems to be a big taboo about talking about birth and definitely a serious push to keep women from asking questions.

After giving birth to our third child at home this summer I felt compelled to share about the art of Natural childbirth and our own home birth experience. My natural childbirths came about from the first hand experience of being with my mom, Gerri Plummer, as she gave birth at home, and definitely the overwhelming frustration from a hospital birth with our first. Her midwife was Brenda Buffington TLM who actually delivered me as a baby and mentored me through my first pregnancy, eventually also delivering my son at home in 2005. By this June 2009, Jackie Griggs RN, CNM, IBCLC brought our little daughter into the world.

The reason I chose home birth is I wanted to be in control over my own body. I also wanted to experience a calm and relaxed atmosphere that would help me to stay focused on my own timing, my own breathing. I didn’t want to sit under a loud ticking clock and be harassed into speeding up my labour which actually transpired with our first. I had back labor the first time and it went for 36 hours, they wouldn’t allow me to get in the hot tub, they wouldn’t allow me to have any ice or heat for the back pain, every time I had a contraction they had to watch me which caused more discomfort. Almost everything we had talked to our doctor about and didn’t want done was done to me to speed up labor.

For the second birth with my son in 2005 I chose to use an exercise ball for early labor, a warm bath, and the Side Lying position for birth.

First Home Birth

Midwife Brenda Buffington

With my daughter’s birth this June we had labor through the night so to relax I brushed my hair which actually was very soothing, laid on my side during contractions and to my surprise the most comfortable feeling for my back was the Hands and Knees Position.

Second Home Birth

Getting Footprints!

After watching the film I wondered why another mom I know had chosen to have a natural birth. So I asked her "What was the main factor you chose to have a natural birth? "

"I could write a book! Natural is a choice! A great choice for the mom and baby. A mom told me that man came up with drugs to take away the most amazing experience a woman could feel, the power, the intensity, the joy, she got me soooo curious I did tons of research. I did it for the baby not for me. If I was getting my leg cut off I would choose drugs as it affects no one but me, but with birth, event thought they say drugs safe, always a chance, always a chance that thing stuck in your back could hurt you, turn and hurt you and that could prevent you caring for baby properly. Too many women I talked to loved the epidural but still had some pain at sight years later, not every day but occassionally. Not worth it.

Sure it hurts but its empowering. You get to feel your baby, you get to make those pushes work. You get to know when baby is coming. You get to get up and move around. Your up the next day with no cords. I loved it! I did have births at hospital but NO medication. PLUS if its your 2/3^rd birth you can get permission to not have all those ivs/hookups. I got the permission for my 3^rd but unfortunately We had some complications so it was important to monitor him. But I still had freedom to do what I wanted.

Get those birthplans made and make copies of it, take it to hospital. Interview Hospitals/Drs to make sure they will support your birth decision. I LOVED my 2^nd Dr soooo much. He told me I will tell ya once if you need it ask but wont ask again due to what we talked about (good southern man)." -Alisa Copeland

I was also curious to find out why the midwives I have known had chosen their profession. So I asked them "What was the main reason you became a midwife?"

Supplies

I was inspired after seeing an online tutorial How to make Pink Pipe Cleaners to see if I could simplify the process and vary the tinsel used to turn pink! So I got out some vintage tinsel, I guess it is a type of acetate, and some silver pipe cleaners to dye pink. I used the Bordeaux Ancient Page Archival ink to ink the tinsel well by just rubbing the ink pad over the tinsel until it was about 80 – 90 percent covered. I let it sit for a few minutes and then gently rubbed the excess ink off with 2 paper towels. It set out over night and was ready to use. Voila! Pink tinsel and pink pipe cleaners. This is just my own simple version and I’m sure there are other techniques but if you have the time to play around with it I’m sure you will have some fun, just make sure to wash hands thoroughly after inking or wear gloves!

ink, tinsel, & pipe cleaners

Rubbing off the excess ink

Finished tinsel and pipe cleaners

The month of October is national Breast Cancer awareness month, celebrating 25 years of awareness, Education and Empowerment, so I thought I would share some cute things I found on the internet to Shop for a cure! First one of the easiest and sweetest things you can do is buy the new Yoplait Chocolate mousse Yogurt with the pink cap, as part of their Save lids to Save Lives campaign. Eat the rich yogurt and then mail in the Pink Caps by Dec 31, 2009 and Yoplait will donate 10 cents a cap. Avon is also very active in their own Breast Cancer Crusade, this month offering a Cute Red Tote for $10, with all of the profits going towards the crusade. You can also register to walk in Avon’s Walk for Breast Cancer walks around the country, Houston Texas walk is scheduled for April 10-11, 2010. Reese Witherspoon models the Avon Walk Pink Boat Neck Tee, so chic! the Susan G. Komen shop also offers apparel and jewelry for the cure. I love the new Wrap Bracelets and the Soar for the cure pink tee! Our kids are the inspiration to Hope for a cure before they grow up!

Wanting to have a fun and affordable Hello Kitty Hawaiian party for my daughter’s birthday I scoured the web for some ideas and found some great sites that offer free coloring pages, bookmarks and more. The sites I loved were Family Shopping Bag, coloring pages at Hello Kitty Fun Stuff, along with a Hello kitty mermaid I used for my invites.

We made the bookmarks as favors as well as made cupcakes and bought a pinata ( the pinata would not break!) to round out the kitty theme.

The centerpiece is a Barbie mermaidia set with a little hello kitty we already had. For the Craft we beaded pink, yellow and blue flip-flops with plastic beads and 24 gauge wire that I have had for years! I’m so glad we got to use them and have fun.