Moo’s Adventure with Construction Paper

I I love making things! Grandma bought me a bunch of colored paper and asked me to make the decorations for her tiny apartment. She doesn’t have much for decorations and it is almost time for Thanksgiving! We spent some time looking up what type of decorations she wanted me to make. She wants at least ten pumpkins of all sizes, hundreds of leaves, and a turkey or two! Right now we are sitting around the coffee table with stencils to make the leaves. We are drawing as many as we can fit on each sheet of paper. 

“Moo” Grandma said, “now that all the leaves are drawn, I’m going to leave you to cut them out while I go and make a few of the pumpkins out of the orange fabric that we pulled out of storage.” Now, I’m left in the living room with all these sheets of colored paper that need to be cut. I stare at the pile for a long time. I wonder what Grandma wants them for in the first place.

“Grandma, where are you?” I call out. I suddenly realized that I hadn’t seen Grandma for a few minutes.

“I’m in the sewing room” I hear Grandma call out from the depths of her apartment. I just had to go and check on Grandma. I was curious about what she could be doing so quietly in the sewing room. Grandma was seated at the table she uses to cut things out. “Pull up a chair” she said as I entered the room. This room was filled with awesome and mystical things! Some of the things in it had funny names. I like to play this thing that rolls and has a blue handle. Grandma says that it is used to press tight seams...whatever that is. I just like running it over the fabric pieces that Grandma gives me to play with. As I climb up on the stool beside Grandma, I start peeking at the sewing machine under its cover. 

“Now, Moo” Grandma said, “There”ll be time enough for you to sew later after we make the biggest pumpkin.” I love ‘sewing’ with Grandma! The stitches that the machine makes just by punching in the numbers is loads of fun to watch! 

“Have you finished cutting out the leaves yet?” Grandma asked.

“No,” I slowly said. I know that Grandma was planning on making something with those leaves.

“Why don’t you bring all the leaves in here and work on them in here?” Grandma suggested.

I really loved that idea! Grandma doesn’t care if I make a big mess! She helps me clean it up when we’re done, too. I hurry out to the living room and start to bring in all the colored papers. I get about half way back and drop some of them. As I bend over to pick them up, I drop the rest. “Grandma! Help!” I cry out.

Grandma slowly gets up from her cutting fabric table and heads towards the living room. She found me in the hallway with a mess of paper all around me. 

“What happened?” Grandma asks with a laugh. Grandma never really gets angry with me for making a mess. She always says that kids are supposed to be messy! Messy can be fun! “Looks like you need some help making all those leaves” Grandma said as she bent over to help me pick up the papers.

We take the papers into the sewing room and she gets me all set up at the cutting fabric table. “I think we’re missing something,” Grandma said. “Where are the scissors you were supposed to use?” Grandma asked.

“Oh! I left them on the coffee table” I said and scurried off to get them. I return with the missing scissors and climb up on the stool next to Grandma.

“I think I’ll make the pumpkin after we cut out all these leaves,” Grandma said as she foraged for another pair of scissors that she used for paper. No one is allowed to touch Grandma’s fabric cutting scissors…not even Mommy!

Grandma and I spend a few minutes cutting out paper leaves and listening to the music playing in the background. “Grandma,” I said, “where is that music coming from?” 

“It’s coming from one of the neighbors,” Grandma said, “I’m just not sure which one. It is kind of nice to hear it, though.”

Grandma cuts more leaves that I do and hers look prettier than mine. But Grandma thinks that mine are best! I just don’t know why. I have a lot of trouble staying on the lines that we drew. Grandma’s leaves are neat and tidy. But her sewing room is a real mess! By now there is a lot of tiny little pieces of colored papers all over the floor and table.

My curiosity was betting the best of me. “Grandma, what are we making with all these leaves?” I asked.

“I’ll show you after we clean up this mess,” Grandma said as she got out the dustpan and broom. “You hold the dustpan while I sweep the papers into it,” Grandma said.

In no time, we had this mess all cleaned up and all the leaves were piled neatly on the fabric cutting table.

“Now, we have to go into the store room for more supplies,” Grandma said as she went down  the hall to the store room door, opened the door and we both went inside. 

The store room was just a walk-in closet in the hallway of Grandma’s apartment. On one side were shelves full of fabric. The other side had shelves full of yarn. In the rear was a hot water heater with shelves over it where Grandma kept her cleaning supplies. There was also a rolling set of drawers that Grandma used to keep her office supplies in. So, whenever we went in here to get supplies, something wonderful was going to be made by us! 

“We need to pick out some orange and brown yarn,” Grandma said as she looked through her sewing box for some large needles. “We’ll also need these needles,” Grandma said as I took out one thing of orange and one thing of brown yarn. We leave the storage room and close the door as we go back to the sewing room. I climb back up to the top of the stool at the fabric cutting table. 

“We’re going to make a leaf garland,” Grandma said. She showed me how to poke the yarn needle with its yarn through one end of each leaf and tie a simple knot to keep each leaf in place. Pretty soon, we had strung all those leaves and the garlands sure looked pretty. Grandma is saving one for her dining table decorations and I get to take one home with me for Mommy! 

We sure made a mess today, but it was a lot of fun!