A little Christmas softie

I was home on my own on Friday night, and decided to try out a little craft. It was one of those nights where I had two loads of laundry to fold and a movie to watch.

(As a side note, it was WWJD (What Would Jesus Do? with John Schneider and Adam Gregory . . . got it from the library. . . and was quite impressed with its message, just FYI. Good to watch . . . not raving about the acting or anything like that, but a good movie to still watch and I am not regretting it. I liked Fireproof a lot too, for that same reason. So. . .that is my take.)

I had wanted to make a tree skirt for my Christmas tree--knowing full well I should start that NOW if I wanted to get it done by the time we set up the tree! I had this great idea, but wanted to test out the stitching before doing it on the final project. . .so I decided to make a little Christmas ornament. I got this idea from here. (BTW--adorable blog!) I was going to make it look EXACTLY the same! When I was looking for my felt, it turned out my "white" was actually a white with apple green polka dots! Hmmm. . .what to do.

 I did a little google search for Christmas colour trends, and found this fantastic photo. I loved all the bright colours. . .not sure I would ever try it in my own house, but loved the colours together . . . which gave me the confidence to keep trying my little softie.

(image from here)

I chose a deep magenta-kind of purple embroidery floss. Then I put the two star shapes together and started my stitching. Blanket stitching, I believe it is called.

 Okay, okay. I got too excited! Back up to the beginning. This is what you want to do first: Get a star pattern. Cut out two. Choose embroidery floss and get a needle.

 THEN, start stitching! I tried to get some close-up photos to show you my stitching. You just do your regular go in the back and come out the front stitching . . .

 . . .except that when you are ready to go in the back you need to thread it through your loop.

 That will "hook" the top and make that nice line along the outer edge of your piece of felt.

(And for some reason, I want to do this stitching around about 10 stars on my Christmas tree skirt!!! What am I thinking?!!?)

 At about this point, I decided to get some of my "stuffing" (quilting batting for me) to make it poofy and soft.

 Once it is full, I finished stitching around the last point of my star, made a loop for hanging. And there  you go--a star.

 However, I added a little star button (just lighter than my embroidery floss) and the extra floss in a bow. I placed it just off to the side of the centre of my ornament (although it is kinda hard to see from the picture.

I think I will have a bunch of nights like this if I am going to finish up that tree skirt idea of mine. . .

anyone want to come for a crafting/coffee/cookies night?

Happy crafting!

Halloween Weekend

This weekend we did all of our "Halloween Stuff" (for lack of a better way to say it all!)

The local library had a program for kids--they could come dressed up, but their stuffie also had to have a costume! Very cute idea! So my kids picked their "costumes" for the kids, got on google for its help in printables, and enlisted the help of Oma for making a tutu for the fairy stuffie.

My Spiderman with his bat-dog.

 My fairy princess with her fairy princess Ruthie-Lynn

 The kids listening to some stories at the Library. They also got to play some games, make a mask, and collect a treat!

 Later in the evening the grown-ups went to a pumpkin carving get-together with our small group. . . here was my food contribution. Chocolate and creepy-crawlies! Yum!

(See below for the {small} pumpkin the hubby created!)

 The next day was pumpkin carving day with the kiddos.

 Daddy and Princess A making their scary pumpkin face

 E designed his own this year and needed some help learning how to get it on the pumpkin "the way Daddy does it."

 E hard at work. . . and Princess A there for the photo!

E's pumpkin 

 Princess A's pumpkin

 Then came the actual day! Here is our chauffeur, in true pumpkin-day style!

 Here are our fearless trick-or-treaters!

A fairy princess, a fisherman (minus the hat that was just too annoying to keep on for him!) and Spiderman.

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Al's neighborhood, where we saw our cousins too. . .

 . . . and then met up with some of our friends to tour Opa and Oma's neighborhood, where we saw our other cousins, too!

 And here is our "pumpkin-magic" for the evening.

Happy Halloween to you all!

Pumpkin Patch

More Fall FUN!!!

The school I teach at went on a field trip to Aldor Acres. It is a 4 seasons farm, but we went to help celebrate our unit on Fall and Pumpkins. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day! I'm not sure we could have asked for a better day! (Okay, maybe a few less bees. . .)

One great thing about this field trip was that the class I taught had lots of parent supervisors come along, so I got to spend some time with my class and some time with my son, who is in a different class. What a blessing that was for me (because it is also one of the "bad" things about working/teaching as a mom!). So here is my little guy with his pumpkin!

 Playing on some of the decorations they had. . .E loved this one!

 This is one of the barns the kids got to go in and see/play with the animals. This farm did a pretty good job of having displays and information about the animals, and lots of them to pet as well!

 The big pig and the piglets!

 Just a fun little picture of E and the kids in his group. It was great to be able to see the kids in all the classes play and explore around this great place!

 Holding the baby bunnies. . .I think E wants a pet now!



It was another great day to explore God's creation and the changes He brings about during the seaons of FALL!



Family Fall Fun

Around Thanksgiving, my sister and her family came out to visit. There were a few sunny days, so we took a little trip to a local "farm." We left the youngest kids with Oma and Opa, and then all of us big kids enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of Willowview Farms. I love the cutesy-country feel of this place! They have great decorations for Fall and the Country Store--oh my! Loved it!

 It was quite a sunny day, and it seemed like all the photo opportunities were facing the sun! So here are the kiddos, squinting as I forced them to stand for a picture!

 My adorable niece! She loved seeing all the pumpkins.

 And my adorable kiddos!

 Walking through the big pumpkins, and trying to move them. We were not successful at that, but it was fun to try.

 And many more pumpkins to choose from. Too many actually!

I loved this little "How Tall This Fall?" height measure! If only the sun were shining the other direction and I could get a decent picture. . .oh well, maybe another time. Or to create one of my own somewhere. . . (to my hubby's horror!) 

 Our favourite animal of the day. . .little piggies!

 A picture in one of the pumpkin patches. . .those are big pumpkins!

 And a picture in the corn field. . .the kids had never walked in between row of corn before, so that was kind of exciting for them!

 Oh course there was the apple orchard, the play area, the animals, the candy sticks and pie. . .so much to do and enjoy there!

{And the bees! Who can get away from the bees this year!}

And so much fun to do it all with family!

So long Fall Fun Day!



After-School Closet

This past weekend my hubby did the greatest thing. One of many of his greatest things, of course.

We have re-done (well, almost re-done. . .you know how those ends of projects--the little details, the little fix ups, the last coat of paint--last forever!) our kitchen. In our "older" box-like home, we had a closet at the top of stairs. We had turned it into a pantry soon after we moved into the place as we needed the space to store stuff as our small kitchen/lack of cupboard space didn't allow for the room we needed. Now that our kitchen has a few more cupboards and drawers, I didn't need all that space for pantry anymore.

I love the new kitchen, but I was getting annoyed at the mess made by the school bags, dancing bags, diaper bags and extra junk sitting around the living room and kitchen--and I was making that mess too! We just didn't have a spot to put it all that "worked." I had talked to the hubby about converting that closet into and area for all the "bags," and he had said he would do it one day, but. . .you know how that goes.

So maybe it was the fact that I had thought I had checked all the pockets of kids' clothes after the school week was done. I have kids who like to find treasures and a hubby who likes to keep candy wrappers in his pockets, so this is quite a ritual for me. Maybe it was because it was Friday night and work week #3 was done for me. . .but apparently there were crayons in my son's pockets. They went through the washing machine just fine--and gave no sign of them being there. But then when I was getting the clothes from the dryer. . .it was a tie-dyed mess! Primary colours were EVERYWHERE!!! (I was suddenly cursing the meal out we had (you know , the kind of meal out where they give your kids crayons with the menu that somehow ended up in my sons pockets!!!)--even though it was really nice not to have had to cook that night!). So there was me, googling to find a fix. This and the accompanying articles saved me! All the clothes are spotless and the dryer is cleaned! Phew! Don't think I want to test that out ever again! I figured if I were ever going to have to clean up a crayon mess, it would be from kids colouring on the walls. . .nope not me! I get to be the one to figure out the dryer!

Maybe when the hubby came home on Friday night really late and saw me crazy at work (and maybe a little annoyed!) prompted him to get started on this closet project the next morning. Or maybe it was just on his to-do list.  At any rate, I am totally happy about it!

First he took out all the shelves, with the help of two fine workers.

He enlisted the help of one of those workers to take out all the old screws and brackets. . .

 Then he was busy constructing away. Here is (kind-of) the end result. I have two storage/pantry shelves above a space of hooks for the bags, backpacks and so forth! There are hooks for the brooms and aprons, and he mounted one of those plastic storage things for re-using plastic bags.

(The big paint bucket is our current recycling bin, so I have to get a new one of those, and there is space on the bottom for storage, too. Again, those ice-cream buckets have to go, but I had them for now, so they are in the photo! I was just so happy with this closet! I had to post about it right away! The rush out to get proper containers will happen next week or so!)

It needs a little organization and rearranging of the food items, bins, etc, but that will come. It also all needs a coat of paint and a few holes filled. . .you know, all those kinds of details that take forever to finish. . .but right now it is very functional, so I am a happy wife and a happy mom!

 Here is a closer photo of the hooks under the shelf. . .

 And the other side. . .

 And, once the door is closed, you'd never know that there is a lot of junk hiding behind it! Now my living room and kitchen isn't scattered with lunch kits, backpacks and the like. . .and I love that!

I think my hubby is the greatest!