Outdoor decorations

It's been so, so cold here for the last week or so.  And I have to say that when it's so cold and the snow had all melted away before the cold snap, it was looking a little "blah" outside.  So I thought our yard needed some little bursts of colour.  So we got to work making some outdoor decorations.  All we used were a few pieces off our cedar bush, some frozen cranberries, some string and water.   

The kids each took two small containers and laid the pieces of cedar and cranberries in the bottom. They took a piece of string and laid it in between the layers to make sure it would stay put when the water was added.

Then I took some hot water and poured it into each bucket on top of the cedar and berries.  (I learned that if you use boiling water to freeze things like ice cubes, they freeze clear instead of cloudy like when you just use tap water).  

We took them outside and left them there overnight to freeze.  In the morning a light dusting of snow was covering them.  

We took them out of the containers and hung them up around the yard.  I thought they looked so pretty.  I have to admit, I was wishing we had snow - I think it would look that much better against a white backdrop.  

The day we hung them up, the sun was shining so brightly despite it being bitterly cold.  So when the sun beat on them, they started to melt a little and icicles formed on the bottoms.  The kids thought the tails were hilarious.  

The next day, we finally got more snow and it made everything look so pretty!  

I'm thinking the birds will be quite happy when they melt enough for the cranberries to drop out!