recycle material turkey centerpiece

Friendsgiving, Black Friday Eve, Thanksalotapalooza…. however you are celebrating, it is fun to pay tribute to the bird most associated with the fourth Thursday in November, though turkey may or may not have been on the menu for the storied meal shared by the Plymouth Colonists and Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people indigenous to the area. Novelist Sara Josepha Hale popularized the idea of turkey as the main dish for Thanksgiving in the 1820’s with a campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. We are presenting a budget friendly turkey for the center of the table that even your vegan friends and family will approve. Raiding the recycling, we have put together a step by step for a life-size gobbler— no brining, no basting, and no baking required!

You will need 3-4 regular paper grocery bags, kraft paper or kraft paper used for packing, toilet paper rolls and/or paper towel rolls, tape, and glue. A stapler helps expedite the construction — can be used as temporary holds while glue dries and removed later or hidden inside paper folds.

Starting with a kraft paper grocery bag, turn it inside out if it has any printing and puff it out to form the basis of the turkey body.

Using the paper towel rolls, scrunch the bottom of one to fit inside the body of another and another to form a support or armature for the turkey’s head and neck.

Checking length of the future tail against grocery bag body, cut to same length then accordion pleat or fold kraft paper or packing paper.

Gather pleated paper together tightly and secure with twine, string, or wire. We used a chenille stem.

Create a hole in the front of the grocery bag turkey body just large enough to pass the paper roll neck/head assembly through. We split the bottom into four flaps and folded them outwards to provide more stability.

Cutting basic kraft grocery bags apart provides working material for wrapping the neck and head, crafting wings and stuffing the body.

We wrapped the neck assembly with kraft paper, leaving excess at the top to form the head. Crush shape the head into an almond shape with a pinched point to make a beak.

Once the head is in a basic bird shape, glue down folds in the paper to refine. We used chenille stems to stabilize the head until the glue dried.

Taking a cut out side of a kraft paper bag, crush curve the edges to form an oval to attach across the front of the turkey to build out the breast and help hide the mechanics of the paper tube at the bottom of the neck. Tape down the crush rolled edges of the oval. We reinforced spots on each edges of the oval, made an opening, and ran a chenille stem from side to side behind the paper roll neck so the wire can draw tight to be stable.

In the this photo, you can also see the twist of paper added, draped over the beak, to form the distinctive turkey wattle.

Turning to the rear of the turkey, we balled up heavy kraft paper give the body substance, and added pillars of toilet roll paper columns to increase stability in the interior.

Splay out the fans of the accordion pleated paper to form the tail. It helps the paper to stand to attach edges of individual fans together. We made two layers of paper fans so the tail is really full. We attached the tail with brass brads — but could have used tape or glue. As the tail stands by itself, it could be set behind the body sitting as a centerpiece without being attached.

Wings on turkeys are sort of useless, but as a design element on a centerpiece, they add a lot! We cut kraft grocery bags into wing shapes and add symmetrically matching sections imitating rows of feathers, gluing them one over the other. Before gluing, we folded the faux feathers down the center to add textural interest and a give a more featherlike appearance.

Once the layers of feathers were glued and the glue dry, we crushed rolled the outer edges of the wings— the non-feathered edges — to add dimension. We attached the wings with brass brads— but tape or glue works as well

(Hint: clothespins make great tools for softly holding paper edges while glue dries.)

Tom on the table showing the layers of paper added at the front to fill in any gaps, hide any mechanics or attachments and imitate a turkey’s feathered breast.

an autumnal meditation

This is the second Fall season of a pandemic that radically changed our lives in varying ways. Last year was rough. Not going to lie. We dug deep and found ways to move forward, to hold what was important more closely— but in new ways. We scrambled a bit trying to figure out how to newly create our treasured traditions and celebrations amongst strange, new constraints. We are not just talking sourdough bread baking, or plastic film hugging walls, but zoom rooms and screen meals and outside picnic parties with china. This year we have more time and wisdom on our sides. We can plan ahead, take the best that last year taught us — let’s go with more intentional, conscious decisions about what matters, who matters most, and how to put that, and them, altogether first, amen.

Meditation: What kind of Fall do YOU want? Drop down the Beauty lenses, activate the “everything is up for change” vision. Look around with those fresh eyes. "Have to”s for celebrations are out the window and a new way of doing sprawls before you. Time honored traditions are wearing new shoes, dancing to new tunes… Avoid the stores and maskless hordes and make your own fall decor! How about a Thanksgiving picnic? Who doesn’t love a turkey sandwich with cranberry relish? Oh, and hand pies… Leaf it to us, we’ll lead the way!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll drop some posts with how-tos for make-dos and make withs what you’ve got that last from the first of Fall through Thanksgiving…In the meantime, wrap yourself in everything Autumn, gather up some pods, and corn, and other naturey bits and bobs to bring inside to honor all you’ve weathered this year. Be gourd to yourself, punkin’, and each other.

It’s Fall, y’all!

September. Have we missed you! Babe, when you roll up on the calendar, you usher in the best months of the year. You bust in trailing leaves, crowned in fruits and grains, trays of goodies balanced against your bouncy bosom, handing out muffins, shouting "Fall, ya’ll!” You are here. Meteorologically speaking, and soon, astrologically as well. We’ve been holding in all of our gourd-related puns for so long we are about to burst. We want to dust the world in cinnamon and nutmeg — to orange up the decor and live our best pumpkin-spiced life! And, 90 degrees or no, we whip out our warmest, coziest throws and wish for it to last and last. But before we dive headfirst into a dog-poo-free leaf pile wearing our favorite sweater while sipping a spill-proof hot apple cider— a word, please.

The Big Boxes That Be are already pushing the great red and green consumer festivus on us, packing the shelves with jingle and jangle. We are here to throw that switch and turn the Christmas train right around. Let’s put the Ho ho holiday back in its box, right back up on the shelf in the closet of assorted celebratory gear, figuratively and mentally. Pause. Take THIS moment in. This glorious, pivotal, equinotic season. This stretch when time   turns   on its axis. The changes happening are a season all on their own. In this pause, make room— create some sacred space to celebrate the mercurial moments therein. Celebrate you. Celebrate yours. The Christmas train will be along to sweep us all up soon enough. For today, and for at least a few weeks hereafter, stop and take this all in. Celebrate the richness, the layers of senseplay abundantly available…the colors, the flavors, those sounds… the atavistic ingathering eyeing incoming winter, felt in the bones. Exit Persephone. Welcome pumpkinpalooza, yes, but also the transitions, the contemplative variations, of precious, fleeting Autumn.

We plan to share some fall-lovin ideas here to help you fill your days and homes. To note the moment. Stay tuned for simple, budget-friendly crafts, makes and alternative activities— with not a Box in sight. So, go ahead— start saving treasure leaves and gathering some sheaves from around your world. If you’re #blessed to live in an area where colors change, take advantage and enjoy those living canvasses.

peek inside: wreath construction

Formerly fresh garden rose wreath showing construction. Lightweight green floral wire wrapped around cut stems.

Structure behind the construction: not always a pretty face. Woven bark wire for stability on back of once fresh picked garden roses woven with lightweight wire to form a wreath.