rumtum

Broadway Beware

2009-11-22T12:03:00.002-05:00

Last night (most) of my family performed in Broadway Beware, a fundraiser for our church. It's a night of Broadway show tunes performed by our talented church members and some guests. We sang a 15 minute medley from Les Miserables, complete with costumes and choreography. I think the best part was the practicing we did for the performance- every Sunday for the last month or so we got together at my parent's house and sang, ate, and just hung together. It was like all of our favorite things put together!! Eating, singing and being together.

hello Again!

2009-07-14T12:10:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted in, like, forever.... and I don't know if I will very often, but I just felt like it today, mostly because my little girl friends are here (Gabby and Cate) and so we had a tea party

complete with flowercrowns

and itty bitty snacks (nilla wafers with a dap of frosting and a giant raspberry)and it was fun and girly and I wanted to share itThanks!

Hair...and Goodbye

2009-03-12T11:21:00.003-04:00

My daughter's musical is this weekend. She is so very excited. I have volunteered to do hair for the show and so for the last 3 nights I have been a braiding fool! (That's the top of my daughter's head all braided up for the rehearsal and that is her again in the bottom picture.) Last night I did 10 heads in about 1.25 hours... every night there seems to be more girls asking. Hopefully for the real show nights I'll have enough time to do everyone who wants their hair done.

So that's what I have been up to this week.... that and kid juggling ad tending to my little guy who coughed so hard he vomited the other night and then kept me up last nigh with even more coughing. Poor kid.

And.... I think I am done here at Rumtum. I have plugged away at this for over a year and really have not a lot to show for it. I have tried really hard to make sure I post at least once a week- sometimes that doesn't happen, but that is life, right? I thought I put out some nice things, some good ideas...but I have no readership except for Amber and Deborah and I am feeling like I am putting "comment guilt" on them. And I really don't want to add to any ones else's sense of responsibility. Maybe I am just being grouchy or over-tired, but I'm annoyed (I can't even GIVE stuff away!) and I think I need a break. I will still check on all my favorite blogs and wish you all the best!! Amber and Deborah thank you both so much for always stopping in over here and leaving me comments. You guys are fantastic! (I will still post over at wildwilliams because that's how I keep my far-away friends and family updated.) Maybe I'll be back... who knows?

Anniversary Give way.... Finally!! (edited)

2009-03-07T11:47:00.007-05:00

A month or so ago I realized that my blog was a year old!! I promised to do something about it, and never followed through.... so now, after reading about Amber's giveaway, I am finally coming through. I signed up for this on Amber's blog, so I am copying her instructions.

The first 5 people who respond to this post WHO ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING will get something made by me. This offer does have some restrictions & limitations:
•You will receive this item before the end of the year...or sooner.
•You will have no idea what the item will be, or when you will receive it.
•To participate, you must re-post this meme on your blog and put together something to be sent out as 5 surprises of your own. These surprises can be anything -- it's up to you!

I like how easy going this giveaway seems to be... and it's like the "Pay It Forward" giveaway that I did a while back. What I really like is that I have a while to plan, design and send out the goodies... so if something really awesome somewhere inspires me, YOU may be in luck!!

Ok- must sign off now.... Hudson needs to get to soccer practice, and later I need to get Alex from her play practice (she already had ballet class this morning). Speaking of play practice, a mom just called to get people to sign up to feed the kids next week during "Hell Week"... dress rehearsal every night. I am on for 4 nights of desserts for 35 kids. Yikes!

Tonight, as a treat for the kids (and ME!) I am surprising them by taking them to a hotel that has an indoor pool!! They have no idea... this should be fun! ** Edited to say you can read about our night here.

Raccoon tails just aren't cute

2009-03-03T13:29:00.012-05:00

Although I spent Saturday sewing costume pieces in the cold dimly lit basement at my kids' dance school, I don't have much to show for it... because honestly, raccoon tails just aren't very impressive.
But we put in a lot of hours and got a lot done... spider legs, afore-mentioned raccoon tails, cat ears, bat wings, etc. Sounds interesting doesn't it? Every year our dance instructor puts on a fabulous ballet - well, with tap and jazz dances too- that is story driven, meaning that the kids' dances tell a story. Last year it was about a french baker that lost his touch and was whisked off to the land of sweets by some cutie little sailors and the Sugar Fairy, where he was greeted by yummy goodies (wedding cakes, bon bons, cupcakes) and learned how to create wonderful treats. It was a bright and colorful show, and unfortunately my camera was being repaired at the time so I can only share the few pictures my sister took. Here's Alex and Gabby. Gabby was one of the sweet sailors (danced to Good Ship Lollipop) and Alex was one of the kids who made it clear that the baker's goodies were just not so good (danced to I Want Candy). The other dancers in Alex's class wore the same dress and spats just in different colors- blue, neon green, and hot pink. They also wore the dress (but without the spats) for their tap dance, which os Costume Moms made. (I joke that she looks like Super Banana!) For ballet they wore this.

Below is Hudson in his tap dance at the dress rehearsal. For the show he also wore a hat I made and the girls wore headbands with giant suckers attached. After the dress rehearsal I didn't like how his costume looked so I ran out the morning of the first performance and bought some material to make him a pair of white pants, and I taped his tap shoes with neon green duck tape...one of the perks of having the only boy in a class, I can change things up like that and it really doesn't affect anyone but him! I really wish my camera had been working because he looked so cool! They danced their jazz dance to Lollipop by Mika, and their tap was Sugar, Sugar by The Archies.

For ballet he wore a handmade shirt, which he hated so much, the ladies in his class wore this.I guess I did not mean for this blog entry to run on and on about my kids' dance recital, but that's ok I guess. Dance takes up a lot of our time (Alex dances 4 days a week, Hudson 2) and I do the newsletters and help with costumes and scenery, so it makes sense that at some point some talk of dance would filter in over here. As we do more with the costumes and scenery for this year's show I am sure I will post about it. In the meantime, my daughter was cast in her school's musical... hop on over to wildwilliams (my "family" blog) to see more!!

Tag... I'm it! (Picture Tag)

2009-02-26T14:05:00.004-05:00

I was tagged by Deborah Sunflower Stories... I am supposed to post the 4th picture in my 4th picture folder, and blog about it. I don't have fancy categories for my pictures, they just get automatically filed by date... so the 4th folder is from our trip to the Rochester Museum and Science Center where we saw the Giant Insects exhibit. The family of one of the little ones that I babysit for gave us a Family Pass to the museum as a Christmas gift. The kids had a great time there...I'll have to take them back soon. There's a GPS exhibit coming up that I'm sure Ethan will love.

And just because I have the folder open I might as well post a few more from it.....
Now... who to tag?? Amber, have you done this yet??

Deborah tagged me because I have been quite lame and haven't posted since Valentine's Day..... well, I haven't really had much to post about. The kids were off from school last week, Justin and I made an 8 foot tall bed for the musical that our daughter is in, my sister is getting a divorce, we stimulated the economy by getting new furniture (and new mattresses for the kids.. their mattresses were like family heirlooms, having been passed down through many generations), I am working on dance costumes for the recital in May and selling old dance costumes on ebay.... hmmm... is that it? Even though there is a lot going on I jsut don't have the time or energy to write. We have our "Costume Weekend" the weekend fort he dance studio where a few moms get together and make costume parts and pieces for the 170 kids that dance. It is always a lot of fun. Maybe I'll take a few pictures of what we are up to and then I'll have something to write about.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T13:23:00.003-05:00

We seem to be surrounded by pink today, mostly in anticipation of Alex's party tonight.....goodie bags

...collage hearts

...treats from yesterday's parties at school (and leftovers that Alex's didn't give away)

...hanging hearts

...cookies and yummies left over from the school parties yesterday, but I'm sure will be eaten up tonight.

Even More Valentines

2009-02-12T11:21:00.004-05:00

Have you ever been over to The Crafty Crow? It's an awesome website filled with great craft ideas for the kiddos. I stop by there at least four times a week. Its wonderful when Cate (the little girl I babysit) wants to try something new and we need inspiration. They are all about Valentines right now at The Crafty Crow. I saw this easy craft and thought it wold be perfect to fill that last half hour before Cate's dad came to pick her up. Ethan was home from school with strep throat (but had been dosed with antibiotics several times before Cate arrived, so don't worry!) so he joined the fun.

Both kids really loved painting with watercolors. I forget that just switching up the supplies can be so exciting for these little people.

They drew what was in their hearts first, then painted them. Cate painted a "crazy man" and her cat Pumpkin. Ethan first made the veins and arteries coming out of the heart (future medical illustrator perhaps?) then drew in his family, including my grandmother and great aunt who both recently passed away and the Ford Escape that Justin rented once for a business trip (??) I know, sort of random. But I love them!

If you have a 9 year old boy you may understand how awkward Valentine's Day can be. Hudson hates the store bought Valentines so we always have to come up with something that is not too mushy or lovey or "girlie" but still captures the essence of Valentine's Day. This year he drew a spaceship and I transferred it into a stamp, the same way I did the stamps for letterboxing earlier this year. Then I printed a simple message on the computer and he stamped away. We added the little heart stamp so it would be more "Valentiney". We folded each card, sealed the bottom and side with tape and he had a little pouch to place his goodies in for his schoolmates. (You can see it at the very top of the picture below.)

The nice thing is that he now had a cool spaceship stamp to use when we go letterboxong, or for whenever!

Sweet and Simple

2009-02-10T14:10:00.004-05:00

This year Ethan went simple and to the point with his Valentines. (Last year was pretty simple too.) He stamped out hearts, on blue paper for boys and red for girls, using the same sponge I made the hanging hearts with. I had him write all his classmates names on the outside of each little card. I wrote "Happy Valentine's Day" on the inside and he signed each one. We probably attach some little goody to the back- a candy bar or a sucker or something. Our school has a "no homemade goodies" policy.

Sunday

2009-02-09T11:45:00.005-05:00

Sunday I was exhausted. After church I crashed on the couch and snuggled with Ethan. I asked him to go get my camera so I could get a picture of his precariously dangling front tooth. Silliness ensued. I love this picture even though it looks as though I am dying. It could easily be the image that goes with that creepy Christmas song about a boy buying shoes for his dying mother. Like I said, I was exhausted... I am exhausted. There has been so much emotional stuff going on in our family... as soon as you think one thing is resolved or dealt with something else happens.

Anyway, Ethan had a lot of fun playing with the camera. He loves to know how things work, and to mess with buttons and stuff, so this thrilled him to no end. I showed him how to set the automatic timer and he set up this shot.

Then he went about documenting what was happening around the house.. which was actually not much. Just a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Hearts A- Flutter

2009-02-07T12:48:00.003-05:00

More decorations for Alex's party.

I just cut a sponge into a heart shape and printed out 72 images onto white and cream construction paper.

When they were dry I cut out the hearts, glued two together wrong sides facing with a piece of white thread sandwiched in between. Then I taped them to the ceiling in the kitchen. There are 36 hearts fluttering from the ceiling.

Alex wasn't home when I hung them, so when she came in I got a great reaction... a huge smile and "Oh, COOL! Thanks Mom."

Finished the Quilt and more....

2009-02-06T13:27:00.004-05:00

I finished my quilt on Saturday and celebrated by snuggling up on the couch with a glass of wine and a magazine... after I fought my daughter off of it. Here is a picture of Cate napping under it on my dirty couch. It's the perfect couch size. It ended up a bit wonky (isn't everything I make a little wonky?) but I still love it because I made it just for me! I threw it over my comforter on my bed the other night and realized it it goes perfectly in my bedroom. My walls are green and my comforter is brown. If my room wasn't so dark I would try to get a picture of it in there, but it probably won't be happening. My daughter is having a Valentine party next Saturday, so we are changing out the more colorful lanterns to pink ones. And I finally got around to hanging up my paper heart garland. I made it a couple years ago, but just recently saw some very similar ones at maya*made

(And keeping it real- here is what that picture started out as..... my messy kitchen.)

I had some girlfriends and their kiddos over this morning for coffee and made this delicious orange zest cake that I found over at Angry Chicken. It is sooooo good. Try it. Yum.

I added walnuts and craisins to the recipe. It is seriously yummy, and goes great with coffee.

And, oh my gosh, I just realized that I missed my blog anniversary!! It was on Feb. 1st. Whoops! I'll have to think of something to rectify that.... hmmm. Any ideas?

I meant to show these a week ago...

2009-02-02T11:47:00.003-05:00

Aren't these cute? I saw them a few weeks ago in my Kid's Craft Weekly newsletter. (You can see it online here as well.)

We hung them up as a surprise for Justin's Chinese New Year birthday party, and kept them up because they brighten up our dull winter days.

My daughter is having a Valentine Party on the 14th and we are making more lanterns out of pink paper.

(The smaller ones look better, but Ethan asked me to make a big one using blue paper and a piece of map, because "Daddy travels." I obliged, but it looks too saggy in my opinion.)

Look Who's Back!

2009-01-31T10:09:00.003-05:00

Yep, picked up the machine on Thursday... and my quilt is nearly done now. Oh, she runs so smoothly now.

And last night we put Justin's birthday gift, an ice cream ball, to use making our very first batch of homemade ice cream. I can't eat ice cream (especially when it is as rich as this was) but I did take a little lick and boy, it was good.

Snow Day

2009-01-28T13:54:00.003-05:00

We had a snow day after all.Not horrible, but enough I guess to close school.... but not the neighboring schools. Hmmmm. So we spent the morning with Alex teaching Hudson and I how to finger-knit. Alex was "roped" into making the tails, cuffs and chest "muffs' for 15 cat costumes for the spring dance performance, so she decided she needed some help.

She tried to teach Ethan too, but having the yarn wrapped around his fingers made him think of Chinese finger traps, and we happened to have a bunch from Justin's birthday party on Sunday. His real birthday is Jan. 21st, but he was traveling for work, so we celebrated on Sunday with a Chinese New Year twist.And a cake made from stacking Oreo Caksters thanks to Grandma.

Finally...

2009-01-27T20:28:00.002-05:00

I just got a call from the sewing machine repairman. My machine is finally done!! Yay! I had no idea how much I missed it. I can't wait to finish my little quilt! I am going to pick it up tomorrow unless we get all the snow we are expected to. Nothing yet... but there is talk of school closing.

The repairman said that there was a jam in the bobbin area... jammed so weirdly he has never seen anything like it. Yikes!

Totally Random

2009-01-18T14:30:00.008-05:00

My sewing machine is in the shop. I am feeling a bit low (combination of missing my husband, grieving my grandma and I have a touch of the stomach bug that Hudson had earlier this week). My parents took my kids for the day. I took a nap. Had some chicken soup and now I'm bored.... so I am going to write about something that has been on my mind recently... packing my kids' lunches. (I can hear the collective, "Huh?")

I estimated that I have packed about 1600 lunches over the course of my kids' schooling. And I still have many, many years of lunches to go. (My kids are 11, 9 and 6. My daughter brings her lunch every single day. The boys 3 or 4 times a week.) I have tried to use all reusable packaging for the kids' lunches. The hardest thing for me was finding a nice leak proof drink bottle. We tried Litterless Juice Boxes made by Rubbermaid, but we had trouble with them leaking in the lunch pails. I still have a few on hand at home for the kids I babysit for or for a car trip. I'm not worried about my kids tipping them over- they are pretty much over that stage- but the boys' lunch pails get tossed into a basket at school- and sometimes end up upside down. So these just didn't live up to our needs. Then I found Foogoo straw bottles. I bought mine off of Amazon almost exactly a year ago, but then found them in Target and my grocery store Wegmans. The funny thing is that they are in the baby section. These are great. They don't leak and are pretty easy to clean. I recently saw them again at Target and they have a new design that is even easier to clean! I might get another. On their website and in stores they come in all sorts of designs, but I got all three the same plain blue so that they could be interchangeable between the kids (and I'm not a huge fan of licenced characters all over my kids stuff). They keep the kids drinks cold, are BPA free and have kept approximately 480 juice boxes or milk containers out of the landfill! (I guessed that there are about 40 weeks of school in a year. My daughter would take a juice box every day= 200 boxes per school year. My boys took one about 3.5 times per week= 140 per boy per school year.)

For their sandwiches (or wraps, or peanut-butter roll-ups, or leftover meatloaf, or whatever) we use Lock 'n Lock containers in the 15oz size (I can't find the exact one on that site, except in the 17 piece set. I bought mine individually at Wegmans.) The 15oz size is perfect for a half sandwich or a wrap made from a large burrito shell and then cut in half. (My daughter's favorite is a spinach wrap with humus, baby spinach and match-stick carrots.) I have also bought the Lock 'n Lock lunch kit and use the small containers for salad dressing and croutons (if my daughter is taking a salad) and my husband uses the large one for his sandwiches. I'm psyched to discover the divided containers on that site. I'll have to get some of those!

We also try to avoid buying individual packs of yogurt, so we buy a large container of vanilla yogurt and put it in Rubbermaid x-small containers (4oz size). Same with pudding... I'll make a box of instant pudding and put it in the Rubbermaid containers or in Gladware 4oz, stick them in the fridge and they are all ready for packing in the lunches. These are two places where we really reduce garbage!! I like the Gladware because they are so cheap and they don't leak, but the lids are harder to clean. There area lots of little crevices that trap pudding.

For fruit (sliced apples, canned peaches that are mostly drained, applesauce, grapes) and pretzels or crackers, we use Rubbermaid twist and seal cups in the 1.2 cup size. It's funny because many of the reviews on that site say that they leak, but we've never had any trouble with them leaking. They are my favorite container.
So here is a typical lunch all packed. I made my daughter's lunch bag because we couldn't find one "cool enough". It has a sleeve on the side to hold the thermos (you can see the top of it sticking out a bit) and a pockets on the inside and outside. I wish I had made it a tad bigger... on days when she brings a salad we use a lot of containers and it is just barely big enough. My boys are not handmade- theirs are from Old Navy and Arctic Zone. The Arctic Zone is a little small... it is a tight squeeze to get all the containers in there, but it has a solid easy to wipe interior that I like.

So there you have it. Are your kids school age? Do they bring their lunches? Any advice for me?

My week

2009-01-16T16:39:00.003-05:00

If you want a glimpse at what my week was like, these are my facebook* updates from this week...

Sarah wonders why every time Justin leaves to travel for work something weird/tragic/major happens here at home?????

Sarah is wondering if Hudson's timing could be any worse... he has the stomach bug and this is just not a good week to be sick!

Sarah realizes that the day your son has the stomach bug is not a good day to run out of laundry detergent!

Sarah is missing Justin.

It's been a rough one. My husband left for 15 days on Sunday. (He travels for his job.) Then my grandma died on Monday. She was 96 and had suffered with Alzheimer's for about a decade. It was horrible. It was a blessing that she is finally at peace. Tuesday my son came down with the most dreaded and evil stomach bug...both ends I'm telling ya, both ends!! Wednesday were the calling hours (does everyone call them "calling hours"? or is that a po-dunk thing to say? I don't know what else they would be called, but my sister who lives on Long Island told me they call it something else there- although she couldn't remember what.) Thursday the funeral. My sister and cousins and I sang. My sister read the eulogy. My mother sang Ave Maria. it was beautiful.
Today I am recovering. I feel exhausted, although i am going out to dinner with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins... most of of live nearby, but a few traveled from all over the country (Wisconsin, Montana, Washington State) and they leave tomorrow, so we want to get together one more time.

My sewing machine is still on the fritz. My wishful thinking didn't work this time, but here is picture of the pj bottoms I made for Alex for Christmas. She loves them. I feel bad that I didn't make the boys anything.
*Yes, I am on facebook....want to be my friend?

Scrap Quilt

2009-01-10T18:22:00.005-05:00

I had hinted that I wanted some blankets for couch snuggling for Christmas, but it fell on deaf ears I suppose, so I decided to make myself a gift - a scrap quilt. It started like this... some scraps lying on my sewing table.

Which pretty quickly morphed into this in about an hour. The picture below is the top about half way done. I didn't have much rhyme or reason for the scraps I chose, except they had to be either mainly green or brown. Then I threw in just a little bit of light blue just for the heck of it. I didn't realize that I had so much green fabric lying around. I guess I like green... of course that should be obvious as 6 of the 9 rooms in this house are green. The quilt should be fun... it will remind me of all the projects I made last year using these fabrics.

Now, I have told you before that I am incredibly cheap and lazy...wonderful character traits, no? So not only did I decide I would buy nothing to make this quilt except the backing (I didn't have a big enough piece of solid fabric for the back- and I used an old flannel sheet for the batting) but I also didn't measure anything.... lazy, I tell ya. But I plugged along and it was coming out just fine- a wonderful smallish quilt just big enough for me to snuggle with on the couch- and then "crunch!!"... something happened to my machine. Don't know what. Hope it's not too serious. (My cheap lazy brain says, "Wait till tomorrow... it will be better!") And now I'm bummed because I was sooooo close to finishing this tonight. Oh well.

And while I was at Joann's buying the backing fabric I picked up this super cute book. I haven't really looked too closely at it yet, but now that my evening project is put on hold, maybe I will.

New Year..... catching my breath

2009-01-09T19:45:00.004-05:00

Sorry I took quite a break there... between Christmas prep and then recovery I have done very little in the way of anything crafty. And so far this new year is kicking my butt!! But I wanted to check in here and say Happy New Year. I especially want to say Happy Blogiversary to Amber!! Hi Amber! And thank you so much for mentioning me in your post about your anniversary. That was awesome. And also thank you for mentioning me and the bag I made you in your give-away post. You are too kind. Seriously!! That bag is fantastic and I am jealous of the winner :( Oh- and I love the new look over there, Amber. So soft. Love it. OK then.....

I just re-read the last post I wrote here...OK, I guess it was the second to last post I wrote and thought I should let everyone know that I survived the weekend before Christmas.... the babysitting/fundraising event went relatively smoothly and the Christmas Pageant went pretty darn well. Thankfully I had the forethought to get all the kiddos in their costumes and snap a group picture in front to of the backdrop (I decided to forgo any individual animals and went with a simpler backdrop, that I painted 3 nights before the show). One woman in our church said it was the "most moving Christmas pageant" she has ever seen. Wow. See the shepherds beards?? How cute are they? I was also talked into making a Patrick costume for my nephew. My sister wanted to order one for him for Christmas but they were , so I stupidly volunteered. Actually I said, "Why do make him one?" And she said, "Why do YOU make him one?" So I did. It was a hit. I also made Cate an oven mitt and a matching one for her mom. I put them with some sprinkles, cupcake papers and a cool spatula. I was told that Cate received a play kitchen from the big guy, so she was pretty excited to have her own little oven mitt.
Up next is a scrap quilt. I 'll try to get some decent pictures of my progress soon.

Happy New Year to you all!! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Procrastinating

2008-12-18T11:50:00.016-05:00

I have so much to finish up, but I wanted to show you this..... it's the gift I made for the little one I watch, Cate. She loves all the "If You Give" books, and this is the newsest version. So I made a little kitty to go with it, wearing tropical shorts (he does in the book) and a cupcake. The Kitty and the cupcake fit into a little lunch pail, which actually would be better for another book in the series, If You Take A Mouse to School, but she'll still like it. I think I might also give her a cupcake recipe and a jar of sprinkles.

And just to procrastinate a little more, here are some of the finished oven mitts with a cookie cutter attached. That's how I plan on presenting them. They'll be going into my sisters' stockings so I'm not even going to wrap them. I made some cinnamon ornaments with each cutter first and will attach those to the mitt as well. I highly suggest making the cinnamon ornaments, they make your house smell soooooo good.

For the few things I need to package up, I whipped up these gift bags. I was looking at printed gift bags and even at $1.00 a piece I thought, that's too much. (Have I told you that I am extremely cheap about somethings?) So, I bought a pack of plain white ones, (10 for $4.00) cut some tree shapes out of sticky backed felt that I had on hand, had Ethan help me glue sequins onto some of them and stamped them with a "Merry Christmas" stamp I got at Michael's last year. Festive and super cheap!!

And this little cute thing, I just had to share.... it's a reindeer Ethan made in nursery school a few years ago. We reined him up to this Santa and sleigh that we received as a gift. I just think it's hysterical.

This past weekend we went away (kid free- yoo hoo!) to Aurora, NY. My parents rented a house (with servants!! yoohoo!) so we could all hang out, drink wine, be served dinner and celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Aurora is a totally adorable little town on Cayuga Lake (one of the Finger Lakes) and Mackenzie Childs is located there. We looked around the shop a little, and although everything is so fantastically cute, it was also so fantastically expensive!

Here is my hubby (sister and parents are in the background) leaving the grounds. We thought about staying for a factory tour, but Bloody Mary's at Fargo were calling us. (Did I mention we were kid free!!)

This was a cute tree decorated with chicken ornaments.... I almost bought one for my daughter because she made some chicken ornaments for her brothers for Christmas and I thought it would be ironic... but $18 was too much to pay for irony.

You can order tiles and sinks and knob there too.... if you can afford to outfit you home with it.

The displays were all so wonderful.

This little girl bed was so beautiful... and I don't even want to tell you what it cost (more than my husband's car). But, to be a good consumer, I did buy something.... this little cardboard house.

It goes with the little cardboard church I bought a few years ago and the sparkly tree candle that Ethan stared to peel this year!

Frantic

2008-12-16T13:52:00.002-05:00

How did it happen that Christmas is NEXT WEEK? And that my kids' last day of school before the holiday is this Friday?? It just dawned on me this morning that I still have to make the peanut brittle that I give to the teachers (along with a gift card to Target or Borders). I also still have, oh, 6 oven mitts to finish, a movie/babysitting/fundraising event to plan (takes place Saturday), the Christmas Pageant to get ready for (more costumes to finish, and some cardboard animals to paint- takes place Sunday) as well as regular old Christmas stuff to do...... so it may be a bit before I am back here.

In the meantime enjoy this picture of my kids...

Christmas Present Makin' (Part 3) and Buying!

2008-12-09T11:30:00.006-05:00

I've slowed down a bit on the oven mitts... but finished one lat night, along with a set of cloth napkins! Now I only have,what, 6, to go?? Something like that.

And I just made my second Etsy purchase. I followed a link for one of your blogs to find the Etsy seller.... so thank you to who ever linked to Lynn. I am so excited! look at the gorgeous packaging!

And the necklace!! So beautiful. The necklace is for my mom for Christmas and the flowers represent her five daughters.

I have one question.... is it pronounced? ET-see or EET-see?? Anyone??

Christmas Present Makin': Part 2

2008-12-06T07:11:00.003-05:00

Now, just so you don't think I am biased and only make gifts for Jack, I made something for his baby brother Griffin too.

And in keeping with the name theme, here is the art work I made for my daughter's room. This is not a Christmas gift. I actually finished it up a few weeks ago but we have yet to hang it up on her wall. The A was bought from Anthropologie back in Feb. when we went to NYC. The L is just painted canvas. The E is a cardboard letter from Micheals that I covered with Starburst wrappers. The X (Alex's least favorite part) is a small solid cardboard letter from Micheals mounted on canvas that has a page from an old encyclopedia glued to it. The canvases are about 10" x 10", so this whole thing is pretty good sized.

Christmas Present makin'- Christmas Past version

2008-12-04T13:11:00.012-05:00

Because I don't have anything new to show you yet, and because I did not have this blog last year at Christmas present makin' time, I am going to share what I made for gifts last year.

This is the little train bag and quilt set I made for Jack. (My little charge Cate was my toy tester.) Before he was a tractor freak he was a train freak. I bought the fabric with the train on it at the awesome fabric store that closed, and added the rest from my stash. The quilt flips over to a play mat. I got the train at Target in the dollar bin, and the tote was from Micheal's or Joann's.

Here's a close-up of his name on the bag. When Ethan saw the bag he wanted something special too... so I made him a "5" pillow. It's in the picture below behind Knuffle bunny... which I made for him for Christmas.

Here's Knuffle on Christmas morning.Knuffle Bunny is one of Ethan's favorite books. I searched high and low for a knuffle softie, but didn't like what I found... so I decided to try to make him one. He's made from a green sweater I found at the local thrift shop, some felt and a big white pom pom tail. I didn't use a pattern (do I ever? I'm far too lazy) so he's a little wonky... but Ethan loves him.

I also made for some fabric flower barrettes for Alex, a squid t-shirt for Hudson, a set of coasters for my friend Sue, artsy clutches (from Bend the Rules Sewing) for all my sisters and my mom, some rolo turtles for one brother-in-law. I helped the kiddos make ice candles for their grandmas.

This year, in addition to the toy barn and the oven mitts, I plan on making more rolo turtles (my BIL ate them all in about 5 minutes last year!) my peanut brittle that I make every year, a painted sign for my nephew Griffin, a little kitty with some accessories for Cate, a tag like this for my husband (it will be from Ethan) and some pj bottoms for Alex. I am also helping Alex make some chicken ornaments for her brothers to represent their real gift.

**If you need any ideas for Christmas crafting with little ones, head over to the Crafty Crow. Such cool ideas!!

More Beards!

2008-12-03T14:47:00.001-05:00

I know... 2 posts in one day!! (In one hour even!!) But I had to share this... Remember when I made some shepherd beards? Well, my friend Deborah found this awesome site!!! Check it out, its so hilarious! I am feeling a felt beard coming on.....

Christmas Present makin'

2008-12-03T13:59:00.007-05:00

I asked my sister in law what my nephew Jack (who is three) would like for Christmas. He is known to be a tractor freak, but Maura said he had enough tractors. "Maybe a barn," she suggested. So the hunt began for a reasonably priced nice toy barn for Jack. I found a few nice (but pricey) wooden ones, and nearly ordered one, until I saw the shipping price was $18!! So I decided I could try to make him one.

I saw this tutorial and thought that it was just adorable, but didn't know if I'd have the time or the patience to make it. So I took the pattern but tweaked it.

Instead of using fabric, batting and something rigid inside, I made the whole thing out of stiff felt. I just cut out the pieces and sewed them together using a zig-zag stitch. The little fence is from the flower decor section of Joann's. I sewed it to the side of the barn with red thread with tiny stitches around the wire that is holding the slats together.

The hay bale on the inside is also a floral item. Its and actual real small straw bale, and to make it so that it doesn't shed it's straw all over I covered it with Mod-Podge.

I'm adding a tube of animals (I took them out of the tube for the pictures) to complete the set. I figured Jack could play with the little barn with his tractors too. Hope he likes it!

The Real Deal Tag

2008-11-27T11:02:00.003-05:00

OK... so Amber and Deborah both thought my last post would make a good tag. So you are both it! Here's the low down.... take a picture the way you would normally do to post on your blog, preferably crop it to showcase the subject. Then show us the "real deal"... the nitty gritty daily clutter that we sometimes try to avoid posting. Talk about the messes you cut out in the cropped picture. We'll still love you!!! Then tag at least two people and link back to your post. OK? Sound fun? Can't wait to be invited into everyone's real life.

And the winner (and only entrant) in the Most Apologize giveaway is Deborah.... quite embarrassing really (not that Deborah won- she's awesome, but that she was in the only one who commented) but since we are airing all of our real life-ness here, there you go.... Hello, my name is Sarah, and I write a blog that 2 people read.

Happy Thanksgiving! Off to my mother-in-laws!!! Have a great weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T22:13:00.003-05:00

This is Ethan caught slightly off guard just as he got home from school yesterday. They had celebrated their "feast" and he came home with a "pattern pouch" and a headdress. Cute picture.
But I cropped it.
It's amazing what I can crop out, and what slices of my world I can choose to show you in this little window of my life. This is the original picture, pre-cropping. I thought it would fun to show you the "real me", well at least my real kitchen as it looks every day without being "dressed" for pictures. I even included labels... so enjoy!

A: Our old step back cupboard. When we acquired this house (it was my great grandma's, then my great aunt's, then my parent's but my sister rented it from them, then mine, then my cousin rented it, and now we own it....phew!) this piece of furniture was in two pieces in two different rooms. Both pieces were painted white. The bottom piece had contact paper stuck all over the top of it. My MIL stripped it for us. She was concerned that the woods were different colors...but we love it. We keep 90% of our kitchen "stuff" here. According to this picture, 75% of it must be in the dishwasher at this moment.

B: A big ole bowl of Halloween candy. My kids are notorious for forgetting that they have candy in the house... Me? Not so forgetful.

C: The TV we watch most in the house. It will stop working in Feb 2009 unless we do something. We are old fashioned and we live under a rock.... no cable or satellite here. Oh, it's available- we just choose to go with out.

D: This little spot constitutes 33.3% of our total counter space in this kitchen.

E: Apples!! Justin is making applesauce for Thanksgiving as I type this.

F: Ethan's other Thanksgiving project... a place mat. He has been playing a combination chess/checkers game on it ever since he brought it home.

G: Cate's coat. Cate is one of the little ones I watch. We don't really have a great place to put coats so hers usually ends up on a chair. And speaking of chairs you may notice that we only have two...one on either end of the table. The chairs that came with the table have all fallen apart. We bought two replacement chairs and use benches on the long sides of the table. Justin made one... one is an antique.

H: The never ending pile... do you have one of these? There is always crap lying around on the step back. Its so annoying. As you can see there is a dust mask lying there.... wtf?

So.... what do you think? I'm not really sure why I did that... but it was fun. I sometimes feel like we only show the good and polished pieces of ourselves out here in blog land. And why wouldn't we?? I am totally guilty of this. I know my life is a cluttered mess, but here in this little space I can pretend it's not. But after I cropped the picture (to show Ethan off better) and compared it to the original, I laughed and thought, gosh... look at all I cut out!! So much about who I really am. All the nitty gritty. The cluttered fridge, covered with pictures of my kids, and my nieces and nephews and friend's kids, and the notes that come home from school (the trees!!! the trees!!! think of the trees! good lord stop sending notes home!) the scrubbed up table, and the gross low ceiling and the dirty floor. But lots of living takes place here in our kitchen... so I am happy to have invited you here too!!!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Shepherd Beards

2008-11-25T11:18:00.010-05:00

My sister and I are in charge of the Christmas Pageant at church this year, and the one thing that the kids all seem to be excited about is wearing a beard. So I decided to try to whip some up. It was actually pretty easy and I think they turned out OK. So, if you have any shepherd's or wise men to costume this season and need a beard, here's how I did it.

Step 1: Wrap yarn around a piece of cardboard. My cardboard was about 9 x 12. To remove the yarn I had to bend the cardboard a bit. Slide the yarn off, keeping it in this shape as best as you can. Step 2: Run the yarn through your machine. This can be tricky, so go slow. I had to stop a few time and tuck the yarn back under my sewing foot... it kept wanting to ride over the top of it. This doesn't have to be perfect or beautiful, and uneven spaces between the yarn are OK.... you can fix that later.

Here's the yarn after it was sewn.

Step 3: Lay the yarn on the middle on a piece of elastic. My piece was about 30 inches long, which turned out to be too long, but you can trim and adjust later. (The elastic needs to fit around the front of the face, in front of the ears and up over the head.) Pin in place, scrunching the yarn together if needed to cover the elastic. Sew in place.

Step 4: Make a moustache. Wrap some additional yarn around your palm a few times to make a bow shape. Tie it in the middle with another piece of yarn. Then sew the ends of the "bow" onto the beard near either ends.

Step 5: Cut the loops that are end the ends of the beard. Adjust the elastic and sew it or tie it to fit your shepherd's head. Then you can trim the beard if needed. I found that the furry type of yarn looks better, but the thick stuff looks ok too.

Turkey Day Decorations

2008-11-20T11:10:00.014-05:00

A few years ago I went to a fantastic fabric store in downtown Rochester, which has since gone out of business. It was when I was just starting to do crafty/sewing "stuff"so in my naivete I didn't realize just how totally awesome the store was. Too bad, because I would have bought a lot more stuff! I did grab up some of these mattress springs, without a clue as to what I would do with them when I got home, but they looked fun.
Inspiration struck, and I made springy-turkey decorations, or as my friend Sue calls them "boingy things".

I traced each of my kids hands onto brown felt and then made a stuffed turkey out of it... sort of like what is happening over at Bella Dia, then sort of slid them onto the spring (the wire goes right through the body of the turkey). I love getting these out every year. My children seem to be growing up so quickly (don't you hate how that happens?) and this is a nice reminder of when they were smaller. The very first year I had these on display I had a bundle of wheat stalks inside each one. It looked pretty neat that way. Maybe I'll have to go get some more.

The next year I saw a great Thanksgiving banner at pottery barn kids (the link may not be the actual one as it was a few years ago and they don't make it any more- but it's close). Of course after looking at the gazillion dollar price tag, I thought, "Hey I can make that! And so I did. I think this is year three with the banner and year four with the boingy things.

I also made a funky-looking turkey table decoration. But since I don't have a nice table to put this on he gets hung on the door. (Don't you just love the little baby sock lying there? It belongs to the wee one who is sleeping in my lap right now.)
I love that the Thanksgiving decorations are somewhat sparse and simple- just like I think the holiday should be. OK, well, maybe not sparse... I do love a nice big Thanksgiving meal, but I like how Thanksgiving brings me back to what is really important... the small stuff, right? (I wrote the post in the link in 2006)

And speaking of small stuff, check this out....

our hen's very first egg!!! Discovered last night by a very excited 11 year old! Oh- and don't forget to leave me a comment, any comment, just say "Hi" and you'll be entered into my making amends drawing.

Must Apologize.....

2008-11-19T14:07:00.005-05:00

The other day I wrote something about no one reading this blog and then Deborah said, "Hey I read it!" So I need to apologize to Deborah... an to any one else who happens to stop by here. Sorry! In fact, why don't I give something away to mend fences. Leave a comment on this post by Wednesday November 26th 11:59pm EST and I'll choose a winner at random and send you something. Maybe an oven mitt? Or a kiddy tote bag? Winners choice.

There, that's better.

(P.S. The picture has nothing to do with anything... my daughter drew it a few years ago and I really like it...and there is part of a pumpkin in the foreground that makes me think of fall.)

Turkeys!

2008-11-17T06:21:00.003-05:00

The 1st graders in my children's school do a project called "Gorgeous Gobblers" every November. They bring home an outline of a turkey on white card stock with instructions to decorate him in any many and with any medium they choose. And the family can help! This is the turkey Hudson (and I) made back when he was in 1st grade. Every November since his creation he hangs on a wall or a door to help us usher in Thanksgiving Day.

And this is the one Ethan made last night. I just provided the materials and cut out a few felt feathers and get did the rest. I love it! It has to go back to school to be hung in the hall with all the other Gorgeous Gobblers, but he'll be part of our permanent Thanksgiving collection soon as well.

I feel a little guilty because I didn't save the one Alex made, and it would be so cool to have all three displayed together... but Alex used cereal to decorate hers, so it deteriorated. Too bad. I wish I had had the for thought to at least photograph it.

Some crafting (warning: bad photos ahead)

2008-11-12T12:29:00.009-05:00

My Kansas friend Deborah, mama of three, saw over on my family blog the tooth fairy pillow I made for Ethan last Christmas. (I made one or Hudson too.) She said how cute it was and that her son Aidan would be starting to lose some teeth soon... and that's about all I needed to make her kiddos their very own pillows. I know it will be a while before little Ella can use hers, but it was fun to make. I snapped some quick photos before I mailed them off. The pictures are terrible, sorry.

For her boys I added little sculpy initial charms so that they could tell them apart. Of course when Ethan saw the charms he wanted his own.

I am starting to do a little Christmas crafting, and because I am nearly positive that no one who I plan on giving a gift to reads this blog (or for that matter, anyone at all reads this blog, except maybe Amber...hi Amber!) I am going to talk a little bit about what I have been doing. I found a great tutorial for oven mitts over at Skip to My Lou. And because I figure that everyone can use a new oven mitt, I plan on making them for all my sisters, my SIL, MIL, my mom and a few friends. That's like 10 mitts. My first one, on the far left in the photo below, looked great, but I'm glad I decided to try it out before I made more... it wasn't heat resistant enough. So I went back to Joann's and got some thin batting to sandwich between the lining material and the insul-bright. Works much better! But because there is added thickness now I needed to use a thicker binding. On the one in the middle I tried some brown knit I had left over from Halloween costume making. It worked OK. It feels really soft, so I guess that makes up for the less than great sewing. The red one is my favorite so far. The material is vintage that I found at the thrift store. I have used it before in a bag I made for a friend's daughter. One of my sisters has red accents in her kitchen and I just think it will look great in there.

This one is a work in progress. One of my sisters has chickens. In fact, she gave us our first two chickens. I need a little bit of black or red for the binding to finish it up. That would make 3 that I can give away... only 7 to go!

Oh, and I made one other change to Skip tp My Lou's tutorial (besides adding the batting).. I use Amy Karol's "sew then cut" rule. It is seroiusly the best tip I have gleaned from her incredible book. (If you don't know what this is, I'll explain: instead of cutting out the mitt shapes and then sewing them together, I place the two quilted rectangles right side facing together, trace the mitt pattern onto it, sew on the pattern line and then cut it out all at once.)

I'm Back

2008-11-04T06:43:00.006-05:00

I'm still feeling pained by the loss of Fahris. Her funeral was this Sunday and gosh, it was a toughie. I just cannot imagine losing one of my children. No matter how crazy they make me, I will try to be grateful for those moments... all those normal, everyday regular moments because I am lucky to have them. Thank you Deborah and Amber for your kind words.

Here are the Halloween costumes from this year.... Ethan was a pirate skeleton. We re-used parts of Hudson's pirate costume form a few years ago and added the skeleton parts. On Halloween morning I realized that he had no skeleton shirt to wear so I whipped out the freezer paper and stenciled him up nice set of rib bones.

Hudson was a beast, re-using the beast parts I made for my Dad to use for a church talent show. I made him some fuzzy pants, a tattered shirt and we added a dollar mask from Walmart.

Alex was Velma Kelly (from Chicago). I made her a little flapper dress (man- fringe is pain) and a garter, added fishnet stockings, a wig and my mom's ancient rabbit fur coat. Oh, and she's wearing my shoes. They were probably small on her.

So, that was Halloween 2008. We had a busy day... the elementary school had their traditional costume parade, then we ran home so Alex could get dressed, ran over to our Church trunk-or-treat event, then out trick-or-treating, and finally took Alex to a party.

And just so don't forget...go vote! Here is Ethan's pick...

Yesterday...

2008-10-29T21:03:00.003-04:00

...my daughter turned 11. I was planning on writing a post about her birthday and my 11 years of being a mother. Then my mom called me (you can guess where this may be going...) and told me that a little girl who I have know since her birth, had died. She was only 5. She had been sick, but I did not think it was at such a critical point. Her mom took her to the doctor's office and she died there in her arms. She was born with a heart defect, had gone through numerous surgeries, the last one was a year ago. She just could never get over that last hurdle and get well....

I was telling my 6-year old this morning that Fahris had died. My boys and Fahris go to the same elementary school where there are only about 500 kids, so everyone knows everyone. I wanted him toknow that the teachers may be sad today. Ethan said, "Oh Mom, she's only in kindergarten. Kindergartners want to live for a long, long time!" Hudson, my 9 year old said, "She didn't deserve that Mom," and "She didn't get a chance to play very much on her new playground." (Make a Wish Foundation installed a new huge playground at their house this summer.) So true Hudson.

Alex, my daughter, was sad the night before, Monday night, the eve of her 11th birthday. She said to me, "Mom- 10 was so good! And I'll never be 10 again!" And I said, "Feel lucky that you get a chance to be 11. Some kids don't." Who knew that my words of wisdom would be so poignant and hit so close to home so quickly after being stated?

So although Fahris was the one whose heart had a "boo-boo" now it is our entire community with a broken heart.

Candy Corn Bean Bags **UPDATED

2008-10-21T13:41:00.009-04:00

I am in charge of coming up with a few games for our Trunk-or-Treat. The event is only an hour long so I'm not getting too crazy with my ideas.... just keeping it simple. One game I think would be fun for he kiddos and easy to put together is a bean bag toss. I wanted to make some Halloween themed bean bags, but I was just too tired to go to the fabric store yesterday for cute Halloween fabric, so I went through my stash and came up with this idea.... Candy Corn! I had some yellow flannel, orange fleece and some black and some white cotton something-or-other (I am so limited in my knowledge of what material is called). I started by sewing together strips of the orange, yellow and white. Then I laid out the black and colored pieces right sides facing, and laid an additional white piece on top. This piece will be the lining. Then, taking a trick I learned from Bend the Rules Sewing back in my bib making days, I sewed then cut the material. SO much easier this way. Then I turned the bag right side out, filled them with 1/2 cup split peas and top-stitched them shut. It is sort of hard to top stitch a bean bag when it is already filled with beans, so some of the stitching is a little wonky, but who cares? They are only bean bags!It wasn't until I was all done and got out a few real candy corns that I realized that the orange should go in the middle. Oh well. If I were to do this again I would have used a brighter/darker yellow as well, but I was just using what I had on hand. (Sorry for the lousy photos... its a grey day here today.)

Now I just need to figure out what to toss them into??? My friend offered up a plastic black cauldron. That could work. Maybe a cut-out of a trick-or-treat bag? Any suggestions???

**UPDATE: I went with a big cat. Thanks for the suggestion Amber! He's a little freaky looking, but o-well.

Ethan gave it a trial run when he got home from school. Celia (who I babysit for) confirmed it's creepiness.

Rave Reviews....

2008-10-17T17:54:00.004-04:00

We have to give a great review to Dawn Rice and her little guy over at Artist Reborne for the Halloween game they came up with. (We found it via The Crafty Crow ...which I just love by the way! So many awesome ideas every day!) She even included pdf downloads, so it was a snap to put together.

We had most of the needed supplies here at home.. and what we didn't have, we just substituted with something we did have. For example, we used some blocks for the bases of the playing pieces. Instead of painting the die, I colored some white stickers and just stuck them on the sides of another block. The drawings are adorable. And though I intended this to be a kid project, I ended up doing most of the coloring on the board... my youngest did help out a little.

We made the game this afternoon and have already played it twice. Thumbs up all around. The boys said, "It's like a cooler version of Candy Land!" And my husband said, with a smile, "Yeah, just shorter!" (Is it just us? Or does it always seem to take 2 hours to play Candy Land???)

Halloween Tree

2008-10-15T14:06:00.004-04:00

A few years ago I made a Halloween tree. I used the branches of the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick from my parent's yard. First I spray painted them black, leaving a few of the dried leaves on for added creepiness. Then I mixed up some wood putty (the powdered kind you mix with water) and poured it into a tin bucket. When it started to set up I stuck the branches in and once dried the putty held them tight and made a nice heavy base so the tree won't tip over. To disguise the putty I stuck some decorative moss on the top. A few years ago I made a teeny-tiny paper chain out of green, orange and black construction paper. I also downloaded some vintage Halloween images from The Vintage Gallery to make some hanging ornaments. I need to make some more. Maybe some tiny ghosts?

This is how we had it set up when I first brought it out this year. We added the gravestone candles, Ethan's paper-bag pumpkin from nursery school and our little spooky house (a bird house actually), which we got from Michael's last year and painted in Halloween colors.

Then I found our little grave yard. The fence is shared with the Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations as well, so the graveyard is removable. The base is a painted piece of cardboard. The graves are painted cardboard hot-glued to the base, and we stuck the gravestone candles in there as well as some mummy candles left over from Hudson's spooky birthday party last year. There are also some cute little wooden pumpkins that I keep out for Thanksgiving tucked in there.

Last is my tiny Boo! box made from a match box and some decorative paper, felt, ribbon and a button... and the skeleton guys we made a few years ago. They are made from A wooden ball (I guess.. I am suffering from a brain freeze right now and cannot think of what theheck it is called!). It had a hole in the bottom already. I painted it white and added the facial "features". I stuck half of a chop stick in bottom of the ball (the cheap kind I grab for free when we get chinese food at the grocery store, wrapped the stick in wire and made wire arms and legs as well. then I covered the whole thing in masking tape and drew on the "bones". They are bending and the kids like to re-arrange them. I think that one of them had a black suit when we first made them becasue he was supposed to look like Jack Skellington.

BOO!

2008-10-15T11:35:00.003-04:00

Inspired by Two Straight Lines I put together our Boo packages today for delivery tonight. Here's a peek...I included: hot chocolate mix, mini-marshmallows (I wanted the ghost shaped ones but they didn't have them at my grocery store) popcorn, a votive and a few pieces of candy. I added to the note that the contents would help make a great family movie night and included the date/time for the airing of the classic Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Oh, and I added the super cute skeleton from sewing stars. The instruction sheet came from Organized Christmas.

The kids are super excited about this!! Tonight should be fun!

Beautiful Day

2008-10-14T10:41:00.010-04:00

Yesterday was great. The kids had the day off from school and the weather was gorgeous! We had planned on going with a group of friends to Stokoe Farms but since we had gone to Long Acre Farm the day before with family, we were pretty burned out on corn mazes and such.... and we were still recovering from Hudson's 9th birthday party extravaganza... so we hung around at home instead. Hudson spent nearly all day putting together his new Lego sets. He got a lot of new Lego's for his birthday.

Ethan spent a good deal of the afternoon creating his "masterpiece" in chalk on the cement slab that we call our side porch.

He said he was finished, so I took a picture... then he changed his mind and went back to work. I love this version of it though. It looks like a Picasso face, doesn't it?

Cate and I feed the chickens a huge feast! Soy beans and corn from the farmer's fields, tomatoes, a huge zucchini, a rotten pepper, apple slices, carrot greens.... just about anything we could find that they might ingest.
Alex asked me to make her a leaf crown. There is probably a better way to do this, but I just braid the stems together and add a new stem every third "twist" or so... kind of like french braiding.

She and Cate dressed up like "fall fairies" (I made Cate's crown from flowers) and played in the leaves. Alexandra seems so mature sometimes for her nearly 11 years, so it is so nice when she acts childish and lets go and does something like this!

Then to top it all off, when I went out to the compost heap I saw this on a tree. Alex's doing.... warmed my heart!

Elephant Bag

2008-10-09T13:15:00.005-04:00

I was going to write a post about my Halloween costume progress...but I just finished this bag last night and thought it would be more fun to talk about. It is a Pleated Beauty from Bend the Rules sewing. Only the second one I've made. Number one was for my first (and only) swap.

Back in May I made a tote for Teacher's Appreciation week. It was a raffle prize. Well, a male teacher from our school won it and joked all day about his "man-purse", but then went home and gave it to his wife, and she loved it. The other day I saw his wife and she asked me make a bag for a friend of hers as a Christmas gift. "Ok," I said. "What does she like?" Her answer, "Purple, polka dots and elephants." Hmmmmmmm......interesting...but, ok.

I was lucky to find some cute elephant fabric online. And as soon as it arrived I dove into making a tote. I never use a pattern when I make a tote, and I have even gotten lazy about measuring, but usually they come out ok. But, I must have been in a funk because this one came out horribly!! All weird and wonky... and not in a good way! So I tried again, but this time got out my trusty Bend The Rules Sewing book and actually followed the directions. By this time I had very little elephant fabric left, so I had to use it sparingly. I added the embroidered elephant on the front to tie in the fabric that is on the inside pocket. I also added a tiny patch of elephant fabric on one strap. I hope they see it as arty and not as a mistake.

The little one I watch arrived to day wearing similar colors so I had to get a picture of her slubbering on, I mean with the bag.

Halloween Costume Season

2008-10-04T12:53:00.005-04:00

I should be planning and sewing the kids Halloween costumes.... but instead I am entering a contest with last year's costumes!! So, if you feel so inclined, could you stop over at Family Fun and vote for the Headless Guy??? You'll be my best friend! Vote for us!http://family.go.com/2008-halloween-costume-contest/costumes/headless-groom-1008/

That's my daughter under there. (Alex won Best Costume in a local contest last year. Here she is holding her winning bag of candy and certificate.)

Here are the boys from last year as well... Ethan was a mummy.... and Hudson was a kid being abducted by an alien. (This one was a real crowd-pleaser, but I didn't enter it into the contest because it was featured in the magazine already. That's where we got the idea.)

If you want you can go to my youtube page to see videos from last year of the kids in their costumes.

Car organizer

2008-09-24T20:26:00.005-04:00

The other day I finally made something for myself. I have been wanting a car organizer for awhile...checking them out online at at places like Target. Nothing seemed right though. Then I happened upon this... and I was inspired. Not inspired enough to actually order the pattern, because honestly, it looks way too complicated for me and my limited sewing skills. But I kept going back to the images of it and thought, what the heck? I can give my own version a try.

My organizer started life as a box of 48 waffles from Wegmans. It was the perfect size I was looking for. It's not perfect, as you can see by the wonky fit of the divider, but so far I am pretty pleased with it. Although I wish I had added more pockets. (I am not a planner, so the pocket was the last thing I put on... not a smart move. It was very difficult to get the thing through the machine in the direction I wanted to sew.)

Then I made a garbage bag too. I had intended to use plastic grocery bags as a liner, but they are way too big (again not planning or measuring before making this was not working in my favor! go figure)...but I think bread bags will work well. We go through enough bread to keep us steadily supplied with bags.

Pear Crisp

2008-09-22T22:34:00.002-04:00

We have a pear tree in our yard. It's weird though, I don't think it gets enough sun... all the pears grow at the top. I climbed up it the other day and still couldn't reach any pears. So I gave it a good shake and pears fell down like rain. The kids gathered them up for me and now we have a 5 gallon bucket full of pears (and oh so many more that can be shook down!)

So tonight, after the kid went to bed, I made some pear crisp.

I reminded me of this time a few years ago when my youngest, Ethan, was still at home with me...he was probably in pre-school, but we still had a lot of time together every day. We picked pears one day and made pear crisp and he kept calling it "crust", which sounded so umappetizing!... and it makes me sad because I miss him. I mean, he's still here, but he's getting older and moving further away from being my "baby" and I miss him at that age. Tonight when I put him to bed we talked about tomorrow's school day and he said, "I love first grade, but I miss you Mom. I miss you when I'm at school." It broke my heart.

I've had a rough couple of days here. My husband has been away for a week, and I've been dealing with some "stuff"... just stupid stuff that makes me question my parenting, and then to hear Ethan say that on top of everything else was almost too much to take.

So I came downstairs and made some pear "crust". It smelled delicious as it baked... and I cried a little bit.

How big a loser am I?

2008-09-19T21:45:00.003-04:00

Ok... don't answer that. I already know.... and I have proof. Remember back in April (APRIL!) when I made a little tote for my husband's best friend's son Fritz? And I mentioned that I needed to make another for Fritz's twin brother Beck??... well, I just finished Beck's.

Sorry for the super crappy picture...but I wanted to be sure I got a picture of it before I send them off.

More Freezer Paper Stencils

2008-09-08T21:19:00.008-04:00

We used the freezer paper stencil technique to create peace sign shirts for our children's choir to wear as they sang "Imagine". The project moved along pretty well... I cut the stencils, another mom ironed them on and we let the kids go nuts with the paints. IMO the negative images turned out better (where the peace sign is white)...but they all looked pretty darn cool. After service a man came over and asked my sister and I how we made the shirts, so I gave him a quick tutorial and a big sheet of freezer paper (it was still in my van from the night before when we all got together to paint them). Sometimes it's nice to feel like the craft boy-scout...always prepared.

Cate gave it a try too. I cut out a large butterfly for her and set her up with some paints. I did have to help a little... mostly to make sure she painted right up to the edge of the paper to make a nice clean line. I'm a little anal like that.

She was quite pleased with the results.

And remember this picture from the other day?? See the pile of zucchini?

This is what happened to it today.....

Today

2008-09-05T12:54:00.006-04:00

Look at what I picked this morning!

I need to make some more sauce or these babies will go bad I'm guessing. My husband and I are good for about one tomato a day each- unless we make a pizza or something, which we will probably do tonight- but the kiddos just are not tomato eaters. I can't really fault them. I didn't like tomatoes until I was an adult. I think it was a texture thing.

We are having some chicken drama around here... the two boys are making everyone CRAZY! They are such beautiful birds and for the most part not a real problem at all. But the crowing, oh God. The crowing, or as I call it, the cock-a-doodle-doing, is making for some tired people around these parts. I do not have a problem sleeping through the noise, but my husband does. And we used to let the birds roam free, so one morning when Justin went out to go "kick the damn birds" (he really can't kick them because we can't catch them) and he stood in door of the back porch and was scared half to death when one crowed from BEHIND him... it was already on our porch.... our enclosed porch... like a stalker. I thought it was pretty hilarious! He did not. And, during their free-roaming days, they would go up on my great aunt and uncle's front porch and crow at 5am. Not a good thing for 75+ year old people. So every night we have been waiting until they (the roosters) fall asleep and then we sneak up on them, catch them and stick them in their coop. This seems to keep the crowing down a bit- or at least muffle it enough that we can all sleep. But now, to make up for it, after being released from their coop they crow ALL FREAKIN' DAY LONG!

We called our local humane society as we know they accept farm animals, but the lady said that they have too many roosters already and that they would just euthanize them. That's not ok. If they are going to be killed, they should at least be eaten. And honestly, I just feel too bad to do that to them. I mean, they are kind of our pets, and I'm not planning on eating my dog any time soon.

So if you know anyone who wants a loud but pretty rooster, let me know!!

Our Vacation

2008-08-29T21:21:00.002-04:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Well, hello...

2008-08-20T22:56:00.007-04:00

Yes... I have disappeared again. The end of summer is upon us and I am trying to take it easy (which is just not happening) while getting ready for the school year to start up again... but I thought I should stop in here and say hello... especially because we are leaving on Saturday for our annual trip to the Adirondacks, so I won't be around here for a week.

Now, this is what I have been up to (and why I am not here writing so much lately) and just some other cool stuff I thought you'd like to know:

• We got another chicken. Introducing Amigo! She was from the same group of eggs that were hatched at the school where my sister teaches, where we got McNugget and Fries. My sister felt bad that the two chickens she brought gave to us originally ended up being males, so she brought us a little girl. Her kids had already named her... I know, it doesn't make any sense... but we kept the name. We usually call her "MeeGee" anyway.
She is very affectionate (can chickens be affectionate?) and loves to be held. Maybe because she is terrified of "the boys" (whom I have taken to calling Dip and Dab because they are so dumb and do everything together). The kids LOVE her.

Speaking if the kids... here is a rare picture of the 3 of mine all together... each with a chicken friend. This may have been the last time "the boys" let us hold them. They don't like to be held.

Sometimes MeeGee does weird things like jump up on my uncle's back....

....or find her way onto our enclosed porch and try to roost on a shelf.

This is what the two dumbies are usually doing.

Ok... other non-chicken related "stuff"...

What we have up to lately:

•Watching the Olympics.... I just love them. Winter, summer, doesn't matter... I love the Olympics.

•Ethan is taking an art class at The Mill... the same place Hudson took one a few weeks ago. This one is a week long deal for little guys. He is enjoying it, but I am thinking that, my god, I could offer classes like that for kids out of my house next summer!! But maybe not... do I really want more kids here???

•My parent's put in a pool and we have been swimming like crazy people over there. It's awesome. They put it in as an alternative to taking the entire family (which would be all my siblings and their husbands and all of our children- so like 26 people in total) on a trip to celebrate their 40th anniversary that will take place on the 14th of December. The kids swam for about 4 hours today.

•We have been letterboxing some more. We are even getting ready to plant our own box... our very first!!

•We are all a little sick... Hudson threw up today (then he felt GREAT and swam for 4 hours... crazy kid). Ethan and I have runny noses and red eyes. Hope we feel better before we leave on Saturday.

•I picked about 10lbs of tomatoes out of my garden today and so far have made one big batch of sauce. I am too afraid to try canning, but I will freeze it instead. Also have been picking lots of zucchini. Made two delicious loaves of zucchini bread yesterday, and also have been grating and freezing zucchini so I can make it all winter long. We may need to invest in a chest freezer.

• Ok... not about me, but also cool... my sister hung out with Ty Pennington last night... fer real! The Extreme Makeover Home Edition crew is in a nearby town doing a house and my sister ran into Ty in a bar last night! They played some video game together. She said he's really really skinny.... and kind of dumb.

Enjoy your last weeks of summer.... see you when I get back!!

Stamps

2008-08-07T11:56:00.013-04:00

My family likes to letterbox... a lot. If you haven't heard of it, it is a fun, free way to explore an area in a scavenger-hunt like way. There is more information here, at Atlas Quest, a letter boxing site, and a great article here, from Family Fun magazine. (The Family Fun article is what got us really intrigued in the activity.) What's great is that we can letterbox near home, and when we travel, so we print out clues before we go on our vacation in the Adirondacks. It adds a little something to our hikes, which we enjoy to begin with, and makes them even more fun. (Who can resist a challenge??)

Alex finding a hidden letterbox.

When we started 2 years ago, we just grabbed a stamp from our pile of stamps and used it represent our family when we "stamp in" the logbooks we find.

Hudson "stamping in" the logbook.

But while browsing through the logbooks we would see some really awesome hand cut stamps, and we always said we'd give it a try.

Someone elses's cool hand-cut stamps.

So, just recently I bought a Speedball Speedy Carve kit from Michael's and decided it was time to make our own. Now, why I didn't try sooner was beyond me, because it was sooooo easy. Now, I'm not saying that these stamps are perfect, but they came out pretty good and I'm pretty pleased with them!

The very first one I cut is the "Rumtum Cat". On Atlas Quest, when you log in you have a member name, and ours is Rumtum. (Sound familiar?) Rum Tum was the name of one of our cats...our favorite cat actually. The name has stuck with us, as you can see. Anyway, I made a Rumtum cat stamp so that we now have a "signature stamp" for our family for letterboxing. (I have to admit that carving the word RumTum backward reminded me a bit of the scene in The Shining when the kid walks around croaking "Redrum, redrum..." and then writes it on the back of the door and then the mom reads it in the mirror.... MURDER. Freaky movie!! One of my favorites.)

Then, realizing how easy this is, I transferred part of a drawing that Ethan did and made a stamp of that.See the little guy in the top right in the drawing? Well, here he is as a stamp.

Then my husband got in on the action and made a second Rumtum stamp...this one is an eyeball... so I guess we have options when letterboxing. And then I gave my niece a piece of the Speedy Cut block and let her draw a fairy on it. Then she wrote she name and I transferred it backwards onto the stamp. (You can see the progression of her stamp in the images we stamped with it... the bottom one was first. She wasn't happy with the eyes. So we fixed them. Then we added her name.) For all the stamps I cut a piece of plywood, stamped the image onto it and then glued the carved stamp block onto the backside.

This was a relatively quick project... Gabby's took about 10 minutes total from conception to stamping with it. And it was pretty easy. I think we'll keep trying to make new ones. I really like the idea of turning one of the kids drawings into a stamp. I have my eye on an R2D2 that Hudson drew. I'll keep you posted.

Shadow play

2008-08-05T21:20:00.008-04:00

I try to read to Ethan most nights at bedtime. We'll snuggle down on his bed, turn on his desk lamp and read. Many nights his brother will join us, and sometimes his sister will too. (That's a lot of people in a twin bed!) One night while all piled into Ethan's bed we discovered that the desk lamp created a great set-up for making shadow on the wall. And since I didn't know how to do many we got a book out of the library to help us along. (I can't seem to locate teh exact book we used, but this looks similar.)

This is a dog. (My daughter took these pictures.)

A bunny. Alex, my daughter, had a hard time figuring this one out..but see his big ear and half of his other ear? And his 2 front legs and one hind leg? And take a look at how twisted my hands had to be to make that bunny. Definitely a hard one for the kids to do.

Here's a cow.And a cow sticking his tongue out!

Hudson made a swan....

And Ethan made a turtle.

And then just for fun I tried to get silhouettes of each kid. (That's Alexandra, Hudson and Ethan top to bottom. Hudson looks a little stretched out.) I remember having my teacher do these to us in kindergarten. We would sit with a bright light shining on us and she drew our outline with white chalk onto black paper, then cut it out, mounted it on light paper (usually light blue) framed it and we gave them to our Moms for Mother's day. It must have been all the rage for a few years because I remember seeing framed silhouettes of all my friends and cousins hanging up in their house when I was a child.

Random

2008-08-03T17:16:00.016-04:00

Today my sister and I put on a little treasure hunt as a Sunday School lesson prior to our church's annual Service in the Park. This was designed for a mixed-age group of kids, and the kids who participated were from 5 to 12 years old. I think it worked out well because there were some easy clues that they all got, and some harder ones that the "big" kids helped the younger ones with.

Here is an older child helping her younger brother read a clue.

I printed the clues on my printer and then attached random keys I found laying around my house. Only 1 key would open the treasure box. (One child wanted to keep his key and I had to say no because one of the keys was to my back door!)

We started by handing them a clue, which led to the hiding place of another clue and so on and so forth. The kids had to figure things out like, "Head toward the rising sun" which would be east, or "Find the twelfth word in Mathew 14:13 and locate that object." (This could work for a birthday party too, but since we needed it to be a Sunday school lesson we tied biblical passages into it.)Here the clue said, "Face North. Pretend you are looking at number 12 on a clock. Now point to where 10 would be..." Its was easier for some than for others!

Reading more clues.

After all the clues were found they lined up to see if their key was the special one that would unlock the treasure! (Also, we had 14 kids doing this and only 9 clues and it worked out fine... there were no hard feelings if someone did not have a clue card and key, and lots of swapping and sharing going on.)

Once opened, there were final instructions and a treat. Inside the box they found a small treasure box for each child to decorate and take home. In each small treasure box were Smarties, because they were so smart to have figured out all the clues, a compass necklace to decorate and wear to remind them to always be on the right path, and some small gold coins. One small box had a treasure chest shaped trinket. The lucky finder of the trinket got to keep the big treasure box!

My sister and I set up a table for painting and decorating the boxes and the necklaces. We really didn't offer much, just paint, glue, glitter and beads, but the kids loved it! It all worked out really well and we were super pleased with the lesson and the resulting creativity.

Here are a couple of the necklaces. I got the idea from Jean at The Artful Parent to use Sculpey to create them. I stamped an actual stamp (that you would normally use with ink) into each one before I baked them.And this is my son Hudson's finished box. I wish I had taken pictures of the other kids' too.

Ok... moving on.... here is a bag I made for my daughter's friend's birthday. I guided Alex in the fabric choices, but she made the final decision. We also made a freezer paper stenciled shirt for the birthday girl, but I forgot to get a picture of it :( Also in the bag was a cool lip balm, a little notebook with the b-day girl's initial on it and a bag of potato chips. (I know...strange selection of items, but Alex picked it all out.)

Now, just for fun... you've seen this picture before... it is of my neice Gabby with one of our chickens, McNugget, on May 27th.
And here is Gabby holding McNugget just the other day! Let's just say chickens grow fast! (And poor Gabby broke her elbow the other day, but it doesn't slow her down one bit!)

I've Been Tagged!

2008-08-02T22:02:00.002-04:00

Amber tagged me!! My very first tag. I have often read other peoples "little known facts" and wondered what I would write about myself if I had to do one of these... and always thought of witty and clever things to say. But now that I have to do it, I can barely think of one.... and I know I am supposed to tag six other people (or is it seven?) but since I don't really know anyone in the blogisphere well enough to tag, I'll leave it as an open invitation. So, if you feel like playing along then write seven little known facts about yourself and leave me a comment so I can go read them and say how witty and clever they are compared to mine :)

OK, here goes:
1. I have an extra vertebrae. My doctor told me that I would be about an inch to an inch and a half shorter if I did not have it! (And my cousin has one less vertebrae than normal...weird!) And speaking of vertebrae, I had surgery on a ruptured disc in 2006.
2. I was in an ad back in the late 80's for Massachusetts tourism, along with my sister and aunt, after a photographer snapped a picture of us on a beach in Cape Cod.
3. This isn't really little known, but I named my first son Hudson because it is my maiden name and I wasn't quite ready to give it up. People still to this day say to me, with a look of confusion on their face, "His name is Hudson Hudson?" duh- no, he has his father's (and now my) last name.
4. I can't eat tuna fish or most potato salads if someone else makes them (I would never order either in a restaurant) in case there is something crunchy in there. Crunchiness of unknown origin makes me gag.
5. Songs make me cry. I was part of my senior class choir and I couldn't sing at our graduation because I was crying through the whole thing. Sporting events and plays make me cry too... whenever someone is doing really, really well at something I get all teary- even if I don't know the person.
6. I love(d) JFK Jr. I even called his office when he was as Assistant DA in NYC to ask him to speak at my college graduation. I talked with his secretary. He never got back to me :(
7. Ok- nearly done!.... I really don't like Ann Curry. I can't even watch the Today show anymore because she makes me insane... which is too bad, because I do like me some Matt!
8. Wait...I have one more!! I just discovered that I cannot spell because with out messing it up and spelling it becasue... thank goodness for spell check!

Now, its your turn...

Taking the Crafty Out of the House

2008-07-29T16:05:00.011-04:00

We have been finding the "crafties" outside of the home this past week....
My sister and I took the kids to a paint your own pottery place on Monday.

I had never been to one before, although I heard that that can be fun. Megan, my sister, took Gabby the week before to a different location and just gushed about it. So she invited me and my kids (and Cate too, of course) to join her at a place a little closer to our hometown. It was ok... the kids liked it, but I was not really feelin' it, I guess.

I wasn't thrilled with the selection of things for the kids to choose from... I just keep thinking, "This stuff will be collecting dust in my house soon." Maybe I'll feel differently about the whole experience after we go pick up our finished pieces next week. Or maybe I should have painted something for myself, a nice coffee mug or a plate or something... but it was killing me to spend $40 on this stuff to begin with. It also put me in an agitated mood that the chairs there were super flippy and 3 kids in our group flipped their chairs over! Or maybe I was just being a grouch...

Cate chose a bird and painted it blue and yellow. Her parents will love it I'm sure.

Dominick and his dino.

Gabby chose a cheerleader.

Ethan and Hudson both picked out skulls. Ethan wants to put his in the fish bowl.

****

I also signed up Hudson and Ethan for art classes at The Mill Art Center in a nearby town. The location is beautiful... and old stone building with a fabulous restaurant on the first floor, and art gallery and classroom space on the second and third floors.

Hudson had his first class on Tuesday. It is a cartooning class taught by his art teacher from school. He loves to draw comic book figures and has a real knack for it. His class is once a week. Ethan's class is called Pottery, Pastels and Paint. He'll go everyday (except Thursday) for a week. How fun!!

Sweetness...

2008-07-28T22:27:00.012-04:00

We must be having a sweet tooth around here... The kids and I made some chocolate covered bananas the other night after being inspired by this post over at the Crafty Crow.

Ours were no where near as pretty as Andy's at Dinners on Me... since we didn't have any popsicle sticks we used the bases that came with our popsicle mold. They were a bit long (and therefor poked out the side of the banana) but such is life. And then the kids said there was too much chocolate on them.... Ah hum, what??? I say. Whose children are you?? They preferred the banana plain. So I then just froze two bananas au naturale and Alex ate them up this afternoon. (I have to admit that every time I type the word "bananas" I sing that Gwen Stephani song in my head... this "bleep" is bananas... B-A-N-A-N-A-S....)

On now to more sweetness...

Ethan was sad the other night because both his brother and sister were invited to sleep over at friend's houses and he wasn't... and daddy was not home... it was just me and him... so we made a cake... just for the heck of it... and put a candle in it and sang "Happy Thursday"... just because.

And check this out!! I know... I am such a nerd, but I was SO EXCITED about the fact that I actually grew potatoes!

I mean, I do realize that potatoes must be grown somewhere by someone... but this thrilled me! I had a rooty looking potato in my bag that I tossed into the ground when I put my tomato plants into the garden back in May. A lovely leafy plant grew. But it was starting to get too big, and I was dying to know what was happening under the dirt, so the other day I dug it up. And low and behold there were actual potatoes in the ground! It was like having a baby... I was so excited!! I washed them and swaddled them. I took their picture. I ooed and ahhed at their sheer existence. Then I chopped them up, spritzed them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, cooked them until the were nice and crispy and ate the best freakin' homemade french fries ever! (I promise I never did all that with a baby!)

And, just because I do claim this to be a craft blog...

we did a lady bug craft from Kid Craft Weekly. I wanted to try it with the little one I babysit for, and my boys joined in as well. It was a bit beyond Cate (3), and although he did a nice job, it was a bit below Hudson (8), but Ethan (6) enjoyed it.

Finally...

2008-07-16T21:31:00.004-04:00

...I am posting about something crafty! Finally...I know, right? Two reasons for getting back into the crafty groove... we have vacated the lake house and my sisters have gone home. (Two sisters live very near me; in fact my youngest is spending the night at one of their house's tonight...but since they are here all the time we don't have to get together everyday like we do when my other sisters visit, because we don't see them as much.) So things are settling back down and I have discovered that I have become, like so many do, addicted to freezer paper stencils! So easy! So satisfying! I have a short attention span and love instant gratification- so this project is perfect for me!

The hardest part is cutting out the stencil. I am not very adept with the exacto knife, so simple shapes are best for me. And I feel like a complete idiot when I cut off the part I meant to keep...trying to picture what is negative space and what will be painted...the brain is old... but I think I will get the hang of it.

Above is the space ship shirt I made for Hudson. Good thing I got a picture of it because he helped his dad paint the floor of the tree house this evening and got blue latex paint across the front. :(

These are 2 little ones I made... carrot is for my new nephew Griffin, and the birdie- I'm not sure yet.

Chicken Update

2008-07-16T09:56:00.010-04:00

My how they have grown!And I'm pretty sure that at least one (McNugget) is a rooster...he cock-a-doodle-do-ed today. Crap.

This is their "play pen" or as my brother-in-law calls it the "chicken tractor", because we can move it around the yard and the chickens till up whatever area they are in. We've moved it about 6 times in the 2 months we have had them and they have done no permanent damage to the yard (not that I really care if they did). The top has two removable pieces, one solid, to give them a little sun protection, then other is screened to make it lighter. We can easily slide the tops around or take them right off, to feed and water them, or hop inside if need be!

They love to roost on the edge of this little barn. My husband made this for my daughter to play with when she was 2 and in a "nay-nay" (horsey) stage. It was her Christmas gift, along with some Beyer horses that year. She outgrew it very quickly, and we had a handful of legless horses laying around for a while, but I was really reluctant to get rid of the barn. It has been a book receptacle, a toy box and most recently it sat empty on our back porch...until the chickens arrived. Now it is their sun shelter and their perch.

And isn't this the cutest little chicken house ever? My husband made it. It's nearly finished- just need to paint the white x's on the doors per my daughter Alex's instructions. The slanty part on the left lifts open to reveal a storage area for their feed and bedding. The other side opens up to the hutch itself, so that we can get the chickens in and out. There are two screened in windows for ventilation, and there is a perch inside. Because it is warm out we don't put them "to bed" every night, but when it starts to get colder we will. It is pretty comical watching the chicken get wrangled up out of the play pen and transported to the coop!

Hanging...

2008-07-12T21:16:00.007-04:00

I know, I know... I have disappeared again. I think that this blog thing will be harder in the summer. Although I love reading everyone elses entries at the end of a long hot summer day, but darn it... I am just too tired to write my own post! And I have nothing to say, so there.
My sisters from out of town have been up here visiting. We all got together at my parent's house on the lake for the 4th. Between us there are 14 children (ages 17 down to 3) so we are a loud, rowdy group with varied ideas about parenting.... and let me tell you, that can be hard.

Anyway, so that is what I have been doing.... spending time at the lake house (which my parents own but rent out for most of the summer, so when they have it for two weeks we spend lots of time there) driving my daughter back and forth to her Broadway Camp, taking the kids to soccer games and practices, swimming, giving Ethan a mohawk, hanging with my family. But things will settle down here I think. The lake house is rented starting on Monday, so tomorrow will be our last swimming day. One sister left today... another leaves on Monday.

I have done one crafty thing... I finally tried my hand at freezer paper stencils and made this t-shirt for Ethan. He was tired of having me take his picture... can you tell? (It is an octopus in case you can't tell.)

But oh,oh,oh!!! I almost forgot!! I got my Pay it Forward package from Indigo Girl!! It was delivered to me by my daughter and husband at the lake house a few nights ago... so i had to explain the whole "blog contest thingy" to my extended family...but they thought it was like Christmas!! My sister grabbed the Literary Mama book right away and my husband dove right into the dark chocolate... in fact the package was so ripped into that I couldn't even photograph it!! But guess what was buried at the bottom just for me????

Pay It Forward

2008-06-26T20:58:00.002-04:00

Amber got her package today and got a picture of the tote I made her... and wrote such nice and lovely things on her blog. Thanks Amber!!! It was fun to make and put together the package, and take a guess what you guys might like. My little friend Cate picked out the chicken and the lamb for your Ethan when we were picking up chicken feed for our real chickens. (Poor little kid... I take her everywhere!) But I think she was confused and thought they were for my Ethan.

Isn't this a Craft Blog?

2008-06-25T06:29:00.005-04:00

I know, I know... but with out a camera to document what I've been doing, it seems silly to try to keep up with the crafting I have been doing. It would read something like this, "I made another tote today, but I can't show it to you, so never mind." I am really hoping to have my camera back soooooon. We had to send it off to to Connecticut to be fixed. So, yes, not having my camera is annoying me to no end....

Whoa

2008-06-20T15:33:00.003-04:00

No- I haven't disappeared entirely... it has just been unbelievably busy, weird, frightening and crazy around here.... my last post was on June 8th to announce the winner of my Pay It Forward contest. The days just prior to that were the dance recital, and I felt like taking a break from everything and just re-cooping a bit... then on Monday June 9th at about 10:50pm I got the scariest phone call of my life. I was enjoying a glass of wine and watching Atonement when the phone rang... it was my mom. My dad had been in a head-on collision in his little sporty convertible about ½ mile from their home. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital and that was all she could tell me. "Don't freak out," she said, which was her way of saying hold it together for a minute, ok? I could tell by the panic in her voice that she was freaking out just a bit herself. (She was calling me from the car. My sister was driving her to the hospital. She hadn't even seen him yet. But because the accident was so close to home, and my Dad's friend was following him, and called her when it happened, she was at the scene and saw him being removed by EMTs and loaded into the helicopter.) My brother in law came over with my niece and they slept on my couches while my children slept in blissful ignorance and my other sister drove me to the hospital. (My husband was traveling for business.) We sat in the ER for hours before we were allowed to see him. And he was lucky. He sustained a severely broken arm that required surgery to repair, a broken neck, broken ankle, bruised lung and lacerated knee...but he was going to be ok. It is moments like that, receiving that phone call, that shake you up and make you step back and take stock in your own life. I'm happy to say that Dad is home and recovering nicely (well, he had to go back to the doctor because he developed cellulitis in his ankle) and we have all taken a collective sigh of relief, but man, was that scary.

Then we had a wicked storm here and we lost a tree to lightning and it took out our internet access for a while :(

But I am back...my camera is still broken which really stinks because I just made 3 new totes as end of year thank you gifts for teachers and I really want to photograph them. I am just now putting the finishing touches on my Pay It Forward package for Amber...who by the way gave birth to Noah on MY birthday. What a great gift! Thanks Amber!!

And the Winner is...

2008-06-08T21:19:00.003-04:00

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:10
Timestamp: 2008-06-09 01:17:02 UTC

So that means that Amber is the winner!
Amber said...
I have to get in on the contest fun!I am already scheming about what to make for a give away on my blog if my number came up...

Now, I know, it seems strange that the one person I have linked to on my blog is the one who won, but hooray for you Amber!! It also is funny to me that we both have sons named Ethan... and she is expecting baby #2 any day (or minute) now... in fact I just checked her blog and as of yesterday she had not delivered... but maybe she has by now. She's totally crafty and makes some super yummy looking soap, aprons and totes. You may have to wait a little while before her contest is put up because, you know, she is delivering imminently...but it will be worth it!

So, I am here...enjoying a glass of wine thankful and a little down at the same time... the dance recital(s) are done and I always feel a little bit down when they are over. For nine months dance consumes our evenings, then for 3 weeks we breath "performance".... sweating over costuming details, props, rehearsal schedules, etc. and then... it's done. But it was fantastic! I am so proud of my kids (and my neice- she was great too). I have no pictutures to share becasue my camera is broken and was shipped off to be fixed :( Hopefully my sister got some good pictures.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by because of Indigo Girl!! I hope you come back often!

Pay It Forward

2008-06-01T14:51:00.000-04:00

I won the Pay It Forward contest over at Indigo Girl, and even though I am totally swimming in dance recital prop-making, end or year school gifts, birthday "stuff", soccer games, field trips, etc. etc. etc., I decided I'd better step by and do my Pay It Forward contest soon or I would forget about it and then I'd feel really crappy.

Ok- so here goes.... leave a comment on this post by 11:59 pm EST Saturday June 7th and you are automatically entered to win a package of stuff from me! I will probably make a little tote and fill it goodies.... essentially a grown up version of the Busy Bags I make. Then I will use a random number generator to choose the winner. I'll then contact you letting you know that you won. You will email me your address so I can send you your goodies. Then, you have to have your own contest on your blog. "But what if I don't have a blog?" Well, I will copy Indigo Girl and randomly choose someone else from my comments and then you can mail them a package and then they can have a contest on their blog. Got it?? Pretty easy.

I know I have bemoaned about how busy this time of year is, but it is seriously kicking my butt! Last week and this week coming up are crunch time at the dance studio where my kids dance. They have rehearsal every night except Tuesday for their dance recital which is on Friday and Saturday. I have unofficially been crowned prop "finder/maker" and have spent the last week making big fake cupcakes, peppermints, candy canes, gingerbread men, lollipops and a giant wedding cake from bakers clay, cardboard, foam core and paint. I really wish I could post some pictures of what I have been working on but my camera broke (WAH!) on Thursday. Unbelievably bad timing. My husband made a ship for the recital that will carry two little sailors and the baker off to the land of sweets. Did I tell you that where my kids dance they don't do a normal recital? It is always a story ballet, which is so much more entertaining than just a regular recital. This year the story is about a French baker who has lost his touch. The baker fairy takes him on the Good Ship Lollipop to the land of sweets where he gets inspiration for news yummy creations. Then he goes back to France and makes all of his goodies. The dances are the goodies... skittles, lollipops, blueberry muffins, raspberry sorbets, cherry cordials, hot chocolate, bonbons, etc. My daughter is in four dances- she's a skittle(tap), a demanding kid (I Want Candy! jazz) a cherry truffle (ballet) and a Tootsie Roll (hip hop). She is also in the wedding cake scene, although she doesn't dance (she's the bride) and in the opening act reading part of the narrative. My son is a Good n' Plenty (ballet), a gumdrop (tap) and a lollipop (jazz). He gets lots of little extra parts in each dance because he is one of only 4 boys out of about 180 dancers.

On top of all the dancing going on around here, we also are swinging into soccer mode.... with 3 kids on 3 different teams that means that someone plays and/or practices every night.

Chickens are doing good.... still alive! Stop over at my family blog to see the exciting thing Alex and I did this past week (when my camera was still working- thank God!!)

None of this is all that crafty, is it?? Someday soon......

Ok... I'm back!

2008-05-27T21:11:00.001-04:00

Hello to you if you stopped by because of Indigo Girl (and for any other reason too!). She's so awesome! I love her. (And right now I am all a-gush with warm fuzzies.... her random number generator picked me!!) What I love most about her is that she writes so fantastically! I want to know, where do you find the time Indigo Girl? With 3 little ladies and a job on top of it! I must have poor time management skills because I can barely find the time to fold laundry, let alone really write something substantial. So, to add to my lack of time, I have decided that I need some chickens. Seriously. My sister is a teacher and the 1st graders in her school hatch chicks every year. My sister has a small flock of her own and just took in 4 more. This year I bit the bullet and accepted two. We just got them yesterday and they are happily living in a box in our breezeway (with a heat lamp because it is un-Godly cold for May 27th) until they are a) bigger and b) my husband builds them a coop. He has some ideas. So does my five year old. He drew an elaborate drawing of a coop with his Lego Dwarf's' Mine carts to catch the eggs and haul them down a ramp to a bucket. Good idea! (God, I hope they are both female.) That's Gabby there holding one. She's a chicken pro.

My daughter named them McNugget and Fries.

Yikes!

2008-05-27T14:23:00.001-04:00

It has been forever since I have posted here.... been crazy busy with stuff...time of year always kills me. I promise that I will be here tonight with a new post- so stop back and check it out, ok? And I'm feeling the pressure now because I just won (YEAH!) a contest over at Indigo Girl.... and she's so super cool and everyone loves her and reads her and I'd hate for people to find me through her and be like, "BORING!". So, I promise I will be back tonight!!! In the meantime you can check out my family blog if you want to.

Sunny Day Fun

2008-05-09T12:14:00.000-04:00

I was inspired by some other craft blogger- can't find it right now- (edited: found it!) try bubble painting with 2 of my little charges. We used food coloring instead of paint and it worked out really well. For the sake of experimentation I tried real bubble formula (left over from a 3 year old's b-day party) and bubbly water made with dish soap. In my opinion the dish soap solution worked better.

We did this outside because A) it was beautiful outside and B) it is quite messy. When the bubbles pop they spray color all over. I looked like I had blue freckles on my arms!

The finished products were ok.... it was the process that these two girlies (ages 3 & 5) loved the most.

After bubble painting it was time to be a woodland fairy..... because, you know, that's fun too.

Quickie

2008-04-30T13:41:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post here to show the bag I made for Teacher Appreciation Week. Its a door prize.... so I don't know which teacher it will go home with. My daughter likes this apple fabric so much she wants me to make one for her teacher as an end of the year gift. This one I whipped up the night before I had to deliver it to school, and I don't even know if who ever gets it will like it.... so I sweetened the deal by adding a Starbucks gift card!

I would love to stay and chat- but my to do list is getting longer by the minute:
• gift for the baby I watch- she's having her baptism this weekend
• gift for one of the little ones that I watch- she'll be 3 this weekend (we are double booked for parties on Saturday)
• I am deep in costume-mode for the kids' dance recital- I'll post pictures soon
• I do name paintings and donated a certificate for one....and it was called in this week
• have to finish the teacher appreciation poster for Ethan's kindergarten teacher by Friday
• Ethan is Student of the week next week and we have a packet of pages to do before Monday (mostly for him to do but he needs guidance)
• Hudson has a big project on Italy that is due on Tuesday- again, mostly things he needs to do on his own, but he still needs help and guidance
• I need to bring some sort of baked good to the library sale on either Thursday or Friday
• and just all the regular "life" stuff like taking the kids to dance class tonight, Thursday and Friday (yes, we are at the dance studio every night because at least one of my kids has a dance class every night- and I take my niece on Thursdays too!) laundry, cleaning, etc.
• Unfortunately my husband is "closing" for most oft his week, meaning he works from about noon to 11pm. Fortunately my husband has Friday off. Unfortunately (well, not really) he's going on a field trip with my daughter and won't be home all day.

And the baby I watch is MISERABLE today- so I've done nothing but hold her. (In fact I am typing this one handed.)

Whoops!

2008-04-22T20:28:00.000-04:00

Remember the little Frederick bag I made? I ended up sending it off to one of my college friend's daughter for her birthday. She sent a nice thank you note. It read, "Thanks for the cute bag, little mouse, books, pencils, stickers and rocks." Wait a minute.....Rocks???? I didn't put rocks in there. Well, I didn't put rocks in there on purpose anyway. My niece was playing with the bag before I told her that it was a gift for someone else and maybe we should leave it alone. I guess she added the extra little gift.

My friend probably thinks I am so weird!

Money Talk

2008-04-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

This is a craft blog. I do have a family blog, where I document the kids lives for my family and friends who don't see them often. I try to keep them separate, but obviously there will be some overlap, as a lot of my "crafting" revolves around the kids. And sometimes I feel like this space may be a better place to talk about some things about the kids that just won't fit in the family blog.... my parents and sisters and far flung aunts and uncles don't want to read about my insecurities in raising the kids... they want to see cute pictures! So today I'm going to share a story about my daughter that, after the fact, I realized was a terrible lesson for her.

She was playing Webkinz yesterday. As she frantically played games to earn "money" she told me "I need to raise 1000 kinzcash really quickly because I want to buy (some random thing I can't remember)." Oh, I said, "You have more than $1000 in your account. Why don't you just buy it first, then raise the money later." She smiled a huge smile and said, "Great idea Mom! Thanks!!"

It wasn't until later that day that I realized what terrible advice I gave her. It was like holding up a mirror to my own financial pit-falls..... buy now, pay later. I went through a terribly irresponsible stretch in college where I nearly maxed out my brand new credit card on a shopping spree. It literally took years and years to pay that off. My husband and I will sometimes count the over draft protection on our checking account as actual money. The good thing is that we don't bounce checks... the bad thing is that they keep upping our overdraft amount, so it continues to be harder and harder to pay off. We'll do through really great stretches of paying things off and feeling really great about ourselves, followed by lean months where we are using our credit cards to get us over humps. It usually follows some sort of unexpected hardship- needing a new roof, new fridge, new car.... that kind of stuff.

I try to keep my money worries to myself, and not burden the kids with them, but there are times when I have to say "Sorry buddy, you can't get that right now." That's ok- they need to learn that you can't always get what you want, right? And my kids, especially the boys, think that there is a magic money machine that just spits $20s at you at the touch of a button (I'm sure your kids think the same thing, right?) But I didn't realize how twisted my relationship to money was until I gave my daughter that terrible advice.

How do you teach your kids about money??

Pleated Beauty

2008-04-13T15:37:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I was so excited to find that there was a Bend the Rules Swap going on. I have never done a swap before, but always read with great interest about other swaps...it seems like everyone was having so much fun sending off and receiving goodies in the mail. So after finding out about the BTR swap I bit the bullet and signed up. I only received this book at Christmas time, and have only made a handful of projects from it, but I thought, "What the heck?" The worst that can happen is that my project will be a complete failure and the poor recipient will politely email the lovely lady in charge and ask to never be paired with me again, right???

So I sign up and am paired up with my partner. How fun! The first swap is the Pleated Beauty Handbag.... not a project I have made before. And the reason I hadn't made it is that it looked to complicated! But I read all the corrections that were posted at the BTR flickr site and all the suggestions from folks who have made one before, and headed off to Joann Fabrics with my partner's likes and dislikes in mind. And here it is.....

I didn't realize until I just put this picture up how similar the photo is to the one in the book.... this bag must have a "hanging from branch" vibe going. Honestly I hung it there because it happened to be a sunny spot.

I have never ever used interfacing before, but it wasn't too scary once I got going. I also took someones suggestion and put in a magnetic closure...also something I have never done. I'm glad I did though, because this bag is so big and it seems like it would gape open if it didn't have something to help keep it closed. I also took a few liberties with the pattern- just little things, like for the handle I sewed the fabric right sides facing (and added a layer of flannel lining as well to make it sturdier) then turned my tube inside out and top stitched the edges. It seemed easier to me to do that than try to iron 1/4" because I know I would burn myself doing that! I also lined and backed the pocket as well.

So, all in all, I am pretty pleased with the outcome. It was fun and not as hard as I thought it would be, although I really took my time (about 4 hours!) and carefully read the directions... normally I am not so conscientious about things like that! I wish I had done something more to embellish it. I wanted to try to do some free motion quilting (I think that is what its is called) around the flowers, but I chickened out, and instead all I did was add a few buttons. I sure hope my partner likes it!!

New Projects

2008-04-05T18:24:00.000-04:00

Here are a few new projects I've made recently....
A "Busy Bag"- my new name for the kidlet style bags I've been making. They follow the kidlet pattern, but I add a second handle (to make it a true tote) and add an inside pocket with tiny pockets for pencils to slip into. This one, all purple and girly, was for my niece's 5th birthday. I filled it with a few colored pencils (they have a different color on each end, so it was like giving her six colors!), a blank notepad, some stickers, a snow globe and a new book.

A second girly Busy Bag... I was so happy when I found this remnant of ballerina fabric in the sale bin at JoAnn's because I used the same material in my daughter's quilt and now I can make her a matching pillow or something!

This one is for my husband's friend's son Fritz. Working on a similar, yet different, bag for his brother.

Now this I LOVE! A Bend the Rules bib with a matching burp cloth. I just think it is pretty cute.

Here's a second bib/burp cloth set. Not as cute or funny as the other set, but o-well.

Hope your weekend is going well!

My Space

2008-04-01T12:39:00.000-04:00

Inspired by the entry over at All Buttoned Up I decided to post about my craft space. Although I would love to have a room dedicated just to crafts (with a door that I could shut on all the mess and chaos and not have to look at or think about until I was ready to!) I am lucky to have this space. My husband made me this table using the top of an old desk that his mother had lying around. (The picture above was taken last year when he first made the table- the one below is from today.) What I love is that my machine is always out. If I had to put it away then I know I wouldn't do even half of what I do get accomplished- which isn't much to begin with! I find little snipettes of time here and there and that's how I work... and I stand up when I sew! Which makes my MIL crazy. She just can't imagine it. But it works for me. Seriously, I can just walk away when I'm done without even having to make the extra effort of standing up first! Yes, I am that lazy. (The table space is limited, so I cut out fabric on the floor and do my ironing in the kitchen.)

The table is in the corner of the former dining room. We still call it the dining room, and I think it confuses my kids. They'll ask where something is and I'll say, "On the buffet table in the dining room." The what??? We don't have a dining room! Well, actually for a time this was a real dining room, with a real dining room table, eight chairs, china hutch and a buffet table. The set was the first set of "real" furniture my parents owned. My mom spent a lot of time refinishing the pieces, and they were always in own homes when we were growing up. In our home (which by the way was my great grandma's home and four generations of my family have lived init) we never utilized the dining room. Our kitchen has a large table and we just have always eaten there. Also, the table was really wobbly and it made me crazy, AND it was basically a dumping ground for all the piles of crap that you can never seem to find a good home for. So when my cousin was looking for a dinning room set I told her to stop by and take mine. I wasn't home when she and her dad arrived with his truck, but I guess they could only fit the table and not the hutch or buffet table. The hutch is on my back porch waiting for them to return (it's been 2 years) and the buffet table is where it has always been, and now I like it and it can stay. So our table-free dining room became our computer/craft/dancing/play room. We spend most of our time in here. All of our music is on our computer, we don't even have a stereo system, so lots of listening and dancing happens here. We'll roll up the carpet sometimes so the kids can tap dance. Daddy wrestling matches take place in here. There are bins of toys under the buffet table for the kiddos I babysit for (this also keeps them out of my daughter's room- she is ten and is starting to have some privacy issues). This is also the only room in our house besides the kitchen that has a southern exposure- so sometimes we just enjoy the sun in here.

I found the awesome sturdy Danish designed oak table at an estate sale for $50 to use as a computer desk. You can see my niece playing on the computer, my fabric stash spilling out from under the sewing table, the new printer that we need to hook up still, the edge of the buffet table and the little kids table that was recently taken out of my daughter's room and I am trying to give away (I am in a paring down mood).
This is the shelf/ ribbon holder that my husband made for me. I found a picture somewhere (I think a Martha Stewart magazine) and he sort-of copied it. It hangs above the buffet table. I love it and I love that he made it for me. In this picture you can also see my kids' school pictures, two giraffes (can you see themboth?) and the kidlet-in-process that nearly killed my sewing machine. Um, I need to put that snowman away, don't I? This is a picture of the antique cabinet in the kitchen that holds all the kids crafty stuff... paper, markers, pencils, paint, feathers, beads, glue, plastic tubs from butter, toilet paper rolls, and more and more paper. This piece of furniture was found in my great grandma's "carriage house" (a different great grandma than the one who used to live in this house) and I think it may once have been a home to rabbits or something equally disgusting. I scrubbed the bejesus out of it and replaced all the screening. I love the funky paint job.

I Feel Like A Fool....

2008-03-28T21:35:00.000-04:00

...for titling the post before last "Spring Crafts" because although the calendar says it is spring, this is what it looked like outside my house today.

Kidlet

2008-03-27T10:38:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd give the kidlet tutorial a go. It looked pretty easy, very similar to the simple tote in Bend the Rules. I had plenty of fabric on hand and a quiet evening after the kids went to bed, so I went for it. The only thing I didn't have was interfacing. No problem, I tell myself! Who needs interfacing? Well, apparently kidlet does.It's a cute little tote, (I added a second handle so it could be an out and about tote) but I was so disappointed with the limpness of it. Note to self- interfacing is necessary! And why can I not seem to get the inner and outer "bags" to be the same size, ever?! No matter how carefully I measure, and painstakingly I cut, I still end up trying to sew together the two pieces of the bag that are vastly different in size! (Now, when I say vastly I mean less than 1/4 inch... but it sure seems like a lot when I have worked so hard to make them the same size. Sigh.) So I inevitably end up with puckering and weird-o looking tucks. Maybe it is because the materials are of such different weights?? One is pretty heavy home decor type fabric (vintage from our local thrift store) and the other? oh, I don't even know. I am new to all this. Oh well. I am going to take Amy Karol's word for it... she said, "Mistakes are always much less noticeable in a week or so, and in a month, the project will look amazing." So I am waiting for amazing.

Ok, so let's try this kidlet thing again. I am having all sorts of visions of giving away a kidlet filled with books and toys and whatnot to all my little people friends for their upcoming birthdays. Still,I have no interfacing in the house... but I do have fusible web. Hmmm? Would that work? So I iron it to one side of my fabric...but now it is sticky-ish on the other side. No problem- I'll just fuse it to the same kind of fabric to make it extra durable, and not so see through (another problem I encountered). I am such a genius!

Or not!! The material is no so stiff that I nearly break my machine trying to sew it! I did manage (through gritted teeth and much swearing, and soooooo much broken thread it wasn't funny) to get the pocket sewn on, sides sewn up and the box bottom created...but that was as far as my machine would go. It was making weird, scary noises, and the bobbin thread kept breaking. Can you see the holes on the top wear I thought I was attaching the lining bag???? Oh, I was so mad. I really liked the pocket too. Pooh.

And I still had the inner bag carefully measured, cut and even sewn!! So, lets give it more more try!! (Am I channeling my inner cheerleader? or a masochist?) Ok, so still no interfacing, and not going to use fusible web sandwiched between layers again.. and I am running low on the nice tan material that I like for the body of the bag... what to do? What to do? So, here is what I did. I used a thin cotton in plain white as a backing to the tan. I had to piece together two pieces of tan to make the back of the bag. Created a similar, although not quite as sweet pocket from scraps. Use the inner bag from the previous (failed) project. Decide to go with a small handle/big handle combo like the simple tote in BTR, using a bias tape for the handle because by now I am too freakin' tired to care but determined to get something useful out of this night.....

And here it is. The big handle/small handle thing is bit weird. Not sure if I would do that again. (The small one is there, just flipped back so it is hard to see.) Overall I think it is ok. Not so bad. Maybe usable. And you know what??

Amy was right. Wait a night, throw in a Frederick book and a little stuffed mouse, and it's not so bad after all!

Spring Crafting

2008-03-24T13:59:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter yesterday! I didn't get a chance before Easter to post this project I did with my niece, so bear with me as I talk about it now. We got the idea from Family Fun magazine. I had bought white fluffy yarn to do this craft, but Gabby wanted her bunny to look like her real bunny Cocoa, who is (can you guess by the name?) brown.To make this bunny you wrap yarn around a styrofoam ball that has been drizzled with glue. Gabby had a hard time wrapping the yarn, so I did that for her. Then she drew the ears, tail and face on brown felt (with white chalk) and I cut it out for her. She glued everything together, attached the google eyes, drew and cut out the carrot from paper and attached that to the bunny. The bunny was then nestled onto a piece of cardboard to which we glued a handful of paper grass. (We came up with a trick to help little fingers attach google eyes: have the little one lick her finger, then touch the eye-ball side of the google eye. It will stick to her finger. Have her flip her hand over. The google eye will be bottom-side up. She can then easily put glue on the backside to attach it to her project.) Look how proud she is!!

More spring time crafts:

"Summer pants" and a t-shirt for Cate. The t-shirt I boaught at Walmart for about $4, and I added the butterfly using fusible web. I am not very good yet at sewing around curves on my machine, so I hand-stitched around the butterfly.

She was very happy with them.

And another tote from Bend the Rules. I got the fabric from the remnant piles at Joann Fabric. (I love shopping from the remnants! No waiting in line to get things cut! Cute patterns that I might not ever see otherwise! And CHEAP! I got almost a yard of each material for a total of about $6!) This little bag has an inside pocket, and a fabric flower to dress it up. This bag was dropped of to a friend who just opened a new flower shop. (I made a second tote out of the same fabrics for my dear friend who gave me the BTR Sewing book for Christmas, and I still have some material left!!)

Bunnies!

2008-03-19T11:01:00.000-04:00

Easter is so early this year... I know you know this, but it really seems to be sneaking up on me. I mean really, the leprechauns just paid their visit on Monday!! Do leprechauns visit your house? They visit here, leave a little mess (glitter all over, green toilet water), play a few tricks (toothbrushes in the fridge, green milk) and leave a treat (gold coins, and various other green wrapped candies, and wasabi nuts for my husband, because there is nothing like "little green leprechaun nuts" right?). Ethan wants so desperately to catch one. He asked me to set out a mouse trap, until I told him that a mouse trap may kill a leprechaun. So he's busy making "trap" plans for next year.

SO back to Easter. I am the "class mom" for Ethan's kindergarten class and am in charge of the party planning. I thought it would be fun to make a little goodie for Ethan to pass out to his classmates, and came up with this bunny candy holder. Our elementary school has a new rule about not allowing any homemade treats to be passed out in class (no more homemade cupcakes for birthdays even!!) so it can be difficult to come up with something creative and cost effective to pass out. I called the nursery school where I used to be the administrator and asked if I could borrow 15 toilet paper rolls. (They collect things like that throughout the year.) Then I wrapped each on in white paper, cut out 30 ears and 15 heart shapes for the "feet" (base). I glued each tube to the base. Ethan and I split up the ears to color. (He said that boys like red ears on bunnies and girls like pink....so we went with that.)

Then I taped a pair of ears on each tube and put 2 dots of glue on for each google eye. Ethan attched the eyes and drew the cute little noses, mouths and "toe nails".

He was starting to lose interest so I glued on the tails and then let him stuff each bunny with two little packets of candy (we used m&ms and Skittles). I'll haul them into school on Thursday for his "Spring Celebration."

Alien Pants Re-do

2008-03-12T12:35:00.001-04:00

Man, these little pants have been such a pain!! After I posted the pictures of them a few days ago I decided that the waist was just too small. So, taking what I had learned from House on Hill Road's Twirly Skirt Tutorial I added a contrasting waistband, threaded the elastic (bigger elastic this time) and a true drawstring through. Aahhhh...much better. Will be sending these off (and the onsie and bib too) later this week.

He Likes Gnomes

2008-03-11T23:03:00.001-04:00

Liking gnomes is like a joke within my family...

but I made this gnome for my little guy today. My bigger guy was making a leprechaun and this guy asked me to make him a gnome instead. Because, you know, he likes gnomes.

I got out the Easter stuff today...

2008-03-10T20:55:00.000-04:00

...and I came across these candles. My husband insists they came from one of my sisters, and I think they were a gift from his. Either way, I have never been able to put them out. They just crack me up too much!! I don't even have taper holders to hold them. But I decided that this year I will put them out. They are on the shelf above them buffet table that is currently the home to our Easter baskets, giant paper mache eggs and various bunny related crafts the kids have made through the years.

I stuck them in a bowl and when my husband saw them, he said, "Oh. You put out the d_ldo candles."

Finally....

2008-03-09T20:00:00.000-04:00

I have finally finished the little gift set for my soon-to-be nephew. Actually, the pants are so big that I bought a 9-12 month size onsie to go with them instead of the little 3-6 month I was planning on getting... so I think that this will actually be for soon-to-be nephew's big brother instead. He can pass them down. I made the bib a while ago, back when I was on a Bend the Rules bib kick. I had the pants cut out and all sewed except for the waist for a while too. For some reason they just looked so weird to me...so big. So bell-bottomish. I was hesitant to finish them. But I forged ahead anyway and I think they are ok... still weird. Still big. Still bell-bottomish. But I can live with it. They look sort of like yoga pants. Or lounge pants... and babies lounge, right? So, good. (Sorry for the extremely crappy photos. Not sure what is going on there...)

New Tote

2008-03-01T18:42:00.000-05:00

I whipped up this new tote for myself this morning, loosely following the Bend the Rules "Simple Tote" pattern. I find myself filling and emptying my current tote bag several times a week, so it will be nice to have another to put into rotation. This one will be my "Sunday School" tote bag. Currently I am teaching the 4th and 5th graders, and I have a big binder that holds my curriculum. I also drag pencils, paper, and whatever project we are working on back and forth to church each week. It will be nice to not have to take everything out and to pack it up again. I plan on making another to keep filled with things for Ethan to do in the waiting area while his siblings are at dance class.
The best thing about this tote is that it was basically free fro me to make!!! The striped fabric was given to me by my MIL. The blue polka dot I bought at the local thrift store for $.40!

Quick Room Fix...

2008-02-27T13:38:00.001-05:00

One of my resolutions this year is to finally finish up all those little nagging projects around the house. My husband replaced the shelf above my washing machine the other day- it had come crashing down recently spilling laundry detergent all over the place! I am in the process of painting my daughter's room, replacing the sky blue walls, a flower garden scene and clouded ceiling with plain green and pink walls. I love it though. It seems so clean in there now. I made her a quilt in those colors too- my first quilt ever! It came out ok. She likes it. Rookie mistake though..... it ended up with a straight pin sewn inside of it!!! Whoops!So, the other day I completed another little nagging home project. Look at this picture.... does anything seem weird?Look at the right finial on the curtain rod. Now take a closer look below....

It was missing, so after a futile search for a matching replacement, I made one out of pipe cleaner and black card stock. Pretty sneaky, huh?

A Little Break

2008-02-21T10:42:00.001-05:00

Well, I just had an unexpected little break from here... my kids, my parents and one nephew and I went down to Long Island to visit my sister and her family. We had fun singing to Mika and various musicals (Wicked, Mama Mia, Joseph....) on the cd player (yes, we are all musical loving nerds).

We arrived on Sunday night. Monday we took the Long Island Railroad into the city. It was great. We had planned on skating at Rockefeller Center, but one look at the ice and we decided against it. It was covered in an inch of water! I can only imagine the wet knees and bottoms after that. So we popped in St. Patrick's for a really quick visit. There was Mass going on so we just quickly took in the building, lit a few candles and left. Then we spotted an Anthropologie store. I have only ever in one once before (also in NYC but a different location) It is such a treat for the senses. I love all of their displays. My 10 year old thought the blue painters tape "sculpture" was the coolest. I bought some letters for the kids rooms and oohed and ahhed over the clothing...but with 7 kids in tow (6 of them boys) we didn't stay long. Then we headed over to the NBC Experience store. Such fun! Alex got to up close and personal with Matt Lauer! I got my husband a Heroes glass. Then it was off to the ESPN Zone for lunch.

While Mom and Dad lingered over their lunch, my sister Meredith had all the boys upstairs playing games at the ESPN Zone (bless her!) Alex and I ran down to the free Oscar display. There were 50 Oscars on display (I just read somewhere that they are not the Oscars that are being handed out on Sunday- those have been sent off already- but these were "extras".) What Alex is holding is exactly like what will be presented to the Oscar winners. I didn't lift it, but she said it was heavy.

The next day we went shopping out in Long Island and guess what? There was another Anthropologie at the mall! AND a Free People AND an Urban Outfitters! I realize that you are all probably rolling your eyes at my excitement, but we don't have any of these here near me. We do have a fantastic mall- that I never go to!- but it doesn't have any of these stores. I also realize that some crafters are upset with store like these for "stealing" their ideas. But, for me, who was in the midst of winter doldrums, to see the bright, inspiring displays, it was a refreshing treat. I also have a soft spot for Anthropologie because my friend's husband designed the interior walls in many of the stores.... and I think his sister is a buyer for them. (The friend I speak of is Heidi who is my ace in the hole whenever someone wants to play 6 degrees of separation. I always win because I know Heidi, Heidi worked for Martha Stewart and who doesn't Martha Stewart know?)

Silly

2008-02-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

This is my niece being silly. We had punched hearts out of yellow and purple paper to play a Valentine version of tic-tack-toe that we saw in The Valentine Express. (It's a very cute book.) After punching out the hearts we used the scraps to make this goofy crown... and Gabby amde this face to go with it!

More Valentine fun....

2008-02-08T14:30:00.000-05:00

You may think that with all the Valentine projects I am posting that I am some sort of Valentine's Day freak. Believe me, I'm not. My husband and I don't "do" Valentine's Day...and even back in college when I was "dating" (if that's what you want to call it) I had only one Valentine's Day dinner date. I remember it vividly, and exactly how cheesy the whole thing was. But I do remember really liking Valentine's Day in elementary school, except in 2nd grade when a boy tried to give me a necklace and I wouldn't accept it and he sat at his desk crying and trying to break it and I thought he was so pathetic I finally accepted it, only to be mortified about actually wearing it.... but usually I really liked Valentine's Day. I liked making cards for everyone in my class. I liked the lace doilies my mom bought just for card making. I liked trying to be clever with rhymes or how the candy I was attaching to the card fit with the prose I wrote. Also, my Dad always gave us girls cards or chocolates, so Valentine's Day has always seemed more of a kid’s holiday to me than a romantic one.

I have always helped my kids make their Valentine's for their classmates. Last year, when Ethan was in nursery school, I asked him to pick out the treat to give out with the Valentine. He chose plastic watches filled with little pieces of gum. I struggled for a few days trying to think how in the world multicolored plastic watches went with Valentine's Day and came up with little notes that we attached to each watch that said, "Will you be my Valen-TIME?" I thought it was pretty clever. I also used my one and only craft punch to cut out hearts from pink paper and newspaper. The kids stamped them with some stamps I picked up at Michael's. Then I stitched the hearts together, covered them with clear contact paper, and the kids gave them to their teachers as bookmarks. Alex made different versions this year.

Alexandra also wanted to make something unique to give out to her classmates. She has recently been interested in making word puzzles with her grandma, and we thought that might make a cool Valentine.

We found a free custom puzzle maker online (there are many, this is just the one we used). There we typed in all her classmates' names and it produced a word search that we downloaded to our computer. Then I created a page that had the puzzle on one side and a message on the other and printed them directly onto some large label paper. (This paper is so cool. We use it a all the time! It is an 8.5 x 11 full sticker sheet. It comes 10 to a package, and we get it at the $1 store! How cool is that?) We cut the sticker sheets out, and stuck them to the cards we had cut from some scrap booking paper. (The cards are 4 x 4 when folded. You can get 4 cards from a sheet of 12 x 12 scrap booking paper.) Then we cut two slits into the folded side, folded the slit into the card and inserted a pencil into it!

So, two of my three kids are ready fro V-day. Now I just need an idea for my 8-year old Hudson, that is cool and not too embarrassing for a 3rd grader to pass out to his class. Any ideas?

Play Food!

2008-02-07T07:01:00.000-05:00

I saw some fabric food on colorfool's blog and thought that is was just fantastic....and a perfect project to take care of some of the scraps I have laying around.

So I made breakfast...eggs, pancakes and bacon (using felt, some white material I used to make Alexandra's Halloween costume in 2006, some linen-like material and rick rack)...and lunch... a burger with everything, some fries and cookies for dessert. The "meat" is from a sweater that I used to love but stupidly shrunk. I made mittens out of it too. You'll recognize the lettuce from the Peter and Wolf grass. The pickle is leftover from a 50's style skirt I made for my niece that matches the one I made for Alex. The cookies are felt and some pink I used in Alex's quilt (and the patchwork bib). The fries are actually salt dough.

One of the little ones I baby sit for thought that the food was pretty cool. She wanted an apron so she could be a waitress. I scaled down the Bend the Rules vintage apron pattern and made a really big pocket to fit the order pad we had laying around.
She's all set to take your order!

Bean Bags

2008-02-06T12:48:00.000-05:00

When cleaning off my sewing table I found these.... recognize them? They are the neck holes from the Bend the Rules bibs I've been making. (They look like speach bubbles- don't they?) I hated to see them tossed... and seeing that they were the perfect size for bean bags, that's what I decided to make from them.

I just stitched them together, leaving the turning opening at the point of the "speach bubble", turned them, filled them with split peas, and voila....

...weird, kidney shaped bean bags. Perfect for my kids to throw at eachother. Great.

Valentine Garland

2008-02-05T15:21:00.001-05:00

This is a simple Valentine garland I made last year (but hung it up again this year). As you can tell I have gotton quite a bit of use out of my one and only craft punch! This was made from regular newspaper and red construction paper, and then simply sewed together using a zig zag stictch on my sewing machine. We used a similar technique to make some Valentine bookmarks as teacher gifts last year.

I was inspired by Courtney's mitten garland.

Bibs

2008-02-04T09:55:00.000-05:00

Just a few quick bibs for some little friends and nephews.... they all need to be ironed. The dark blue one still needs a snap....and hmm, it looks really boring in this picture. The green alien one will have a pair of pants to match, as soon as I get over my fear of making them! I love Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing!

Hi!

2008-02-01T13:33:00.000-05:00

Hello! I have decided, after some prompting from a friend to do something with all my crafty projects, to start this craft blog.

I have been an avid reader of many craft blogs for over a year now and am pretty excited to take this leap. Pretty scared too.... what if everyone else thinks my stuff is crap???? Anyway, some of my favorite crafts blogs that I check almost daily are Angry Chicken, Two Straight Lines, Artsy-Crafty Babe, Soule Mama, Artsy Mama...

I'm not new to the blogging world though... I have kept a "family" blog for over a year. It is mostly about my kids and all the stuff they are up to, and I think only my family and a few friends read it. You are welcome to check it out if you'd like.... Some of you are so adept at blending the crafty blog with the family stuff, and it probably should be that way if creativity is important in your life. But since I started my other blog as a family blog, I felt weird talking about the projects I was up to.... I don't think my extended family cares that much.

So, here is my first project. It's not really all that exciting, but I have to start with something.... oh wait! I guess the picture header is really the first project posted here. It was a gift I made for my kids' dance instructor. She is due with her first baby in March and therefore wasn't able to do the spring production of the Peter and the Wolf ballet that she usually does. (She would normally put on about 4 or 5 shows at different schools for school age children. Last year my daughter played the Grandfather in one, a hunter in two productions and Peter in another, so Peter and the Wolf was a major part of our home for a few months. I even helped out with costumes, making the Grandfather's, Peter's costume and the hunters, worked a little on the duck and the wolf costumes, and helped out with scenery.) So I gave her this little quilt for Christmas. I framed it in a plain white frame, hoping it would coordinate with her baby's room. I was inspired by the mini quilts that Amy Karol of Angry Chicken and King Pod does.

So, finally onto my first project... like I said, not too exciting... it is a Valentine project for my kindergartener, Ethan. He came home from school with two giant paintings of, well, nothing... just colors. So I cut hearts out of them...

...then I created a simple bookmark on the computer, and printed it out.We then glued a heart to each book mark, so they say "I LOVE TO READ!", cut out each bookmark, covered them with clear contact paper, punched a hole in the top and added a ribbon.

If I was the type of person who actually plans ahead I would have bought a few of the $0.95 books from Scholastic Books each time Ethan brought an order form home, which is like once a month, then we'd easily have 15 books to hand out with his Valentine bookmarks without breaking the bank. But since I am not the planning type I am frantically searching eBay for some cheap new books he can hand out to his classmates.

I'm pretty happy with this Valentine because

it was E-A-S-Y!
it was pretty original (I think)
it is candy free!! Now, don't get me wrong, I like candy, but kids these days are handed candy every time they turn around... the bus driver gives them candy on "pay day friday", the music teachers gives out chocolate in chorus, etc. etc. Just doing my part to keep the cavities at bay!
it is not too "Valentiney"... perfect for a boy to give out, and gets us far away from the (crappy IMO) pre-packaged Cars or Transformer Valentine's that every other boy will be handing out

If I were to do this again I would do two things differently.... move the "I" down a bit... it is sort of floating around in space up there at the top of the bookmark, and ask Ethan's permission to cut his paintings first. I was a bad, bad mama and didn't do this. He was sort of mad at first, but changed his mind when he saw the finished product.