Have a warm and fuzzy Valentine's Day!

Mabel and Stella have been working on making their Valentines for school.  This year we busted out the yarn stash and googly eyes and made some pompom people to give out.  They have pipe cleaner arms so they can give warm and fuzzy hugs and even hold hands with each other.

                     It's a Pom Pom party!

               Be my warm and fuzzy valentine.  From Mabel and Stella

Here comes the rain!

I was expecting to be sitting on the beach with the ocean waves crashing in the background this Fourth of July.  But Mother Nature had other plans.  This is not so bad though.  I'm sitting under our camper awning, very happy to not be stuck huddling inside a soggy tent. 

Patriotic toes

Where were your toes on the Fourth of July?  Mine are at a playground near the national seashore on Cape Cod.  We are anticipating rain and wind any time now from Hurricane Arthur which is making its way up the eastern coastline.

Best Fortune Cookie Ever

This came out of my fortune cookie after dinner last night.  It will be my mantra whenever I eat something sweet and I will smile.

Birthday Party Invitations

It's that time again!  This year Mabel and Stella want to have a "stuffy party" where all their friends bring their favorite stuffed animal to their birthday party.  I have no idea what we are going to do with these "stuffies" when they arrive.  I've got two weeks to work that out.  Any suggestions?  I've considered doing a little sock puppet making activity with the kids, but can't figure out how to work the stuffies into that.  Stuffies are not super helpful when it comes time to glue stuff on a sock.  Maybe the kids can do a puppet show with the stuffy and the sock.  Hmmm...  

Here are their birthday invitations.

Coloring these reminded me of staying up till 1am on a Saturday night helping mom color her primary materials.  It's actually almost 1am right now.  Sheesh.

Making Toys and Fun with Things Around the House

Noah is my 3 1/2 year old son, the youngest of the bunch. When all the kids go to school, he says, "What should we do together mom?.... I know!  Let's make Frosty the Snowman! ... Let's build a tractor!..... Let's make a kitchen!... Let's make an airplane!.." He is an engineer in the making. The last couple weeks, that is just what we have done. Here are some fun photos to see. 

 Their names are Frosty and Freeze. Noah's new friends. Note that they are dressed for church. Frosty is on the right. He has a bow tie and belt. Freeze has a button up shirt with a hanky in the pocket. This is all per his instructions. 

 This tractor is fully functional. It moves up and down and is a great scoop for sweeping up the kitchen floor. The criteria were, there had to be a usable scoop and a bucket to load things. Noah loves tractors, especially with scoops and buckets! He help me sweep when we finished with the tractor.

 A full kitchen with a stove, oven, sink and fridge. He asked I make a window with two imaginary boys, Jeffrey and Jack, playing ball outside. Later they came inside and ate with us. Noah set the table for these imaginary friends and we all had a great time! I was astounded at his abilities and imagination. He did most of the designing and organizing. Wow! What a great boy!

I love this! Later that day, he made another meal for me AND for our baby. He was the dad, I was the mom, and this is our baby. :) He set a table especially for her. That impressed me so much. My thoughtful and sweet Noah "bear". 

Now for fun, I just had to show you this. At Christmas time I was at my sister Heidi's house. She had her pumpkin from Halloween and I asked her if she still wanted it. She said to throw it out. Well, the frugal and resourceful woman I try to be said in my head "You could make pie or cookies with it! Don't throw it away! It's food!!!" So when I brought it home and cut it open, I was surprised to see these little green darlings  inside!!! I carefully took them out and put them in some dixie cups with soil and water, and set them in my window sill. Look how they have grown!!! Aren't they lovely!

I love that we were able to have so much fun together, 

creating and learning, all for free!

Pretty Bird

Thank you, Lisa!

This little bird flew in this summer for my birthday--she continues to keep me company!

Dollar store bracelet embellishment

I like these little glass-bead bracelets that can be found at dollar stores.  Mabel and Stella wanted to give one to their friend for her four year old birthday.  We had to take off a few beads to make it small enough t stay on her tiny little wrist.  While we were at it,  we added in a pretty little heart bead and it made it so much prettier.  The white bracelet has had no alterations made to it.  The pink one is what we fixed up and gave away.

The hardest part was trying to feed the elastic band back through the larger bead next to the cone shaped bead.  It has three holes in it, one on each side for the ends of the elastic to go into and one on top for the elastic to come out of.  Each end of the elastic has to make a 90 degree turn at the center of the bead.  I snaked a little piece of wire through there to fish out the end of the elastic.  

More Cinnamon Rolls!

Lisa, your post of cinnamon rolls last week has been driving me crazy! I didn't have egg nog, but I did have some old apples and dried up raisins. I boiled them up, added some nutmeg to the dough, and did that brown sugary cinnamon thing with the apples and raisins. For the glaze I mixed up fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar, nothing else (my new favorite glaze). It's Friday, a three day weekend, and I have a tummy full of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate--I am officially a happy camper!

Mmmmmm...eggnog cinnamon rolls

I saved a bit of eggnog from the holidays because of this recipe that I found over at A Beautiful Mess.  I love cinnamon rolls and I love eggnog.  It's a match made in heaven!

If you are a fan of eggnog then this recipe should not be missed.  You'll want to eat the entire pan of them.  I might have if nobody was watching.

School Flag

Update:  done!  

I was commissioned by the school where we live and work to made a flag that will hang in the dining hall next to the United States and Connecticut flags.  It's a simple design which is very similar to a flag seen in a photograph of the school from the early 1900's.  We updated the font from the original block lettering to the current official font of the school.  I'd post the historical photo, but I don't think I have permission for that.  

The flag will be hung tomorrow morning.  I'm not done with it yet.  But it just wouldn't be right if I didn't stay up till 3 am to get a project done, don't you agree?

Here's what I've got so far.  I'll post more pictures of it when the flags are hung tomorrow.

The dimensions of the flag will be approximately 4x6 feet.  I printed the lettering out on a big roll of paper for the layout.  The letters were cut from nylon, interfacing and fusible webbing all layered together.  

I had to stitch the letters onto the printed layout to get the spacing correct.  Afterwards I flipped it over and ironed the letters down through the paper.

What a relief to see that the letters stayed where I wanted them to!  Now I just have to satin stitch around the letters, add two grommets to the top and bring it to the dining hall in the morning.

The Little Mermaids

I fell in love with this little pattern from a book that I borrowed from a friend.  Its called Wee Wonderfuls by Hillary Lang.  I love how the mermaids can change into a human by simply slipping off their tails.   They have super soft minkee hair, flannel "swimsuits" and a cotton head.  Their tails are made from from my quilting fabric stash.  

Water Bottle Carriers

I made my first water bottle carrier for Kelly--we drove up to Cascade Springs that afternoon during one of my weekend visits.

This is a detail of the knit pattern. Many of you got them for Christmas--hope you enjoy them!

They're made of 100% wool, so they are felted down to shrink over a quart size mason jar.

These are the ones I made my younger grandkids, they are for a regular water bottle--and yes, they are drying on my shower curtain pole after a nice hot shrinking in the washer!

Make Something

The sky is the limit for this one.  Anything goes. 

Dishcloths!

A friend and I decided to join forces and try selling these pretty dishcloths at some holiday craft fairs this year.  She bought the lovely fabric and I cut and sewed a nice edge around them then tied them together in either sets of two or as singles.  She will take them to the craft fairs and sell them.  Then we split the profit.  I just finished edging 59 for the craft fair this weekend.  I wonder how it will go.

Secret Santa

I joined in with a group of gals here at the school in a Secret Santa swap.  I love getting and giving random gifts!

My Secret Santa has been busy in her workshop making this amazing advent banner.  Each and every one of the 25 stars has an adorably hand stitched pocket on its tummy.  I love it!  Squeeeee!!!  And the set came complete with 25 delicious chocolates to tuck into the pockets.  But who can only have one chocolate per day?  Certainly not me.  

I made a couple of ribbon and bead ornaments for my secret person.  I used 3/4" grosgrain ribbon, glass beads and buttons.  I really like how they turned out!  Maybe I'll make a set for my tree...  But if I did I would probably end up giving them away to someone else. 

Gingham Checked Rag Doll

When I was 16 years old (an eternity ago!) I made my little niece Traci a pink gingham checked doll for her first birthday. We shared a lot of fun times together when she was a little girl. I loved her so much! Recently, Traci passed away, leaving grown-up children of her own. As I pondered over what I could do in remembrance of my sweet niece, the visual image of this doll came back to me and I knew I needed to make her daughter something I had made for her mom many years earlier. So, Traci, I love you, and  here for your daughter is that silly little pink checked rag doll.  

 

Baby Sea Animal Quilt

I started this quilt three years ago, and finally got all the pieces sewn together. I still have to put on the boarder and then of course the batting and backing. But the big work is done. I used a pattern (McCall's 6096) for the top three animals--ugh! That's why it took 3 years! What a lot of little pattern pieces, many duplicates of the same animal. My favorite animals are the two that I created myself, the sea turtle and the sea horse.

I hand appliqued the stars and animals using the freezer paper technique, and embroidered a few mouths.

I couldn't figure out where to put a mouth on the sea horse, so she will just have to be the silent type.

So the crab is pleasant enough...

The blow fish is kind of a dork...

And the octopus? Well, maybe we should call him a pentopus--get it, 5 legs, instead of 8. OK, so I'm an art teacher--the other 3 legs are really there, we just can't see them!

XeTava Lemonade

So for my birthday, Lisa & Bill took me and the girls to this wonderful local restaurant called XeTava--it was HOT outside, the desert tends to be that way in July. We ordered a lovely refreshing lemonade. While the rest of the lunch was scrumptious, it was the lemonade that was the real hit. I just had to try and duplicate it, so here goes.....

1 Cup fresh lemon juice--about 6 lemons

3/4 Cup Agave

1/8 Cup fresh mint leaves

2 Cups water

Blend this all up in your Vita Mix, you can stop before all the pieces of mint are liquified, or like I did, just blend it till it's a nice smooth light green. You're not done!

Now you are going to add the following:

1/2 teaspoon powdered vanilla

1/4 Cup canned coconut milk

1/8 teaspoon Xanthan Gum (this is totally optional, it just holds things in suspension-a health food item)

7 Cups of Ice

Now blend this all up till it begs to be poured into a nice tall glass. Top with a sprig of fresh mint, a mini umbrella, and get ready for one of the most refreshing drinks EVER!

Teapot froo froo

We gave a teapot to our friends as a little thank you gift for letting us park our camper at their house for a week.  I wanted to dress it up a little before presenting it.  I made a little felt flower with wool felt, glass beads and a big safety eye for the middle to hold everything together.  I attached it with a little crocheted tie with beads on the ends.  

If you look at the reflection in the teapot you can get a little glimpse into what we've been calling home for the past month and a half.