terrariums

We were down in Kelowna today and I stopped into Michael's with the kids and we picked up a couple of supplies need to make little Lego terrariums.

Just a little apothecary jar and some moss.  Cute!

Pom Love

Several months ago I ordered these handmade tissue paper folded poms from Pom Love. I put them in Sophie's stocking for Christmas.

It's taken this long to get them "poofed" - I had my friend Paula over tonight and we made them up. They turned out really pretty and I think they will look great hanging from Sophie's ceiling. Just her colours :)

In other news we are planning Fynn's baptism (better late than never) for later this month. Vic's cousin Neville and his wife and kids are coming, along with his other cousin and his wife from Vancouver and possibly a few more relatives, so it should be fun. Since we don't see many of these family members it is kind of nice having an event like this to bring everyone together.

a little bit of this and that

Ah, Friday. So much to look forward to this weekend.

Sophie has a playdate tomorrow with her little friend Erica.
Then, later in the afternoon we are going to see this matinee. Can't wait! It is supposed to be lots of fun.

And finally we wrap up Saturday with American Thanksgiving dinner with Vic's cousin and his wife and family who have moved to Salmon Arm from California.
Vic was busy making appetizers tonight while I photographed the snow and my December Daily album.

tenley

I set a goal for myself that I would make a card for a co-worker who had a new baby named Tenley. I really wanted to do something special for this little bundle. Each day I saw the notice about her baby shower on our lunchroom door at work and I kept reminding myself that I needed to get to her card. Tonight I finally had a few moments -- more like about 45 minutes or so -- to make one.

I really like how it turned out :)

kindergarten craft #3

This morning was my 3rd (and final for the year) craft with Sophie's class.

I bought these cute little kits from Oriental Trading. The kids' ability to assemble the crafts has improved a lot since the first time we did this back in December. Sophie was my designated helper and she went from table to table helping her classmates.

I think they all had fun and some of the kids said they will be giving the sun magnet to their dads for Father's Day.

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After baths tonight, the kids watched this video that we borrowed from their daycare. Very educational about farming and equipment. Sophie actually enjoys it, and Fynn LOVES it. He is a tractor fiend.

crafting on demand

One of my parenting lessons that I've learned is that when Sophie gets it into her head that she needs to make a specific craft, I better find a way to make it happen. She's had this idea in her head that she wanted to make a clock. Old scrapbooking supplies come in nice and handy. The hands even move thanks to a brad. She was happy with her little project.

6 years ago if you asked me if I could wipe up a clock project on a Saturday morning I would have said, "huh?"

a zipper

The skirt I'm making calls for a zipper. This is my first attempt at putting in a zipper. Thank goodness for YouTube as I found a video on how to insert a basic one.
I also had to Google my Kenmore sewing machine because I didn't know what the zipper foot looked like and fortunately someone had posted a photo of one.

The zipper isn't too bad considering this is my first go, but I have a little gap between the base of the zipper and the back seam of the fabric. I need to figure that out.

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Parents are encouraged to volunteer every so often at Sophie's Kindergarten. I suggested to her teacher that we do a craft and she was more than game! So in December I'm going to go up and do some of these with the kids. Madame Styles said that they had some uncut foam at the school, but I thought it would be MUCH easier to pick up a couple of kits that have them precut!!

we love Halloween

Actually, I'm not sure if Vic always "loved" Halloween before he met me, but I'm sure now he does. I start thinking about it in late August. This year, I was planning for Fynn's Halloween costume (which turned out very cute). From there it was helping Sophie get her's -- which was easy since we bought it this year.

I've been creating some little vignettes around the house. I needed a black plate to replace my usual red one, since we are definitely having an orange, black, and white theme. The Halloween banner was the biggest project (second to Fynn's costume).

I'm also happy with finding the Martha Stewart cut out crows. Sophie got a kick out of seeing those this morning when she came down the stairs. I don't think Fynn cares for the witch, however. Witchy Hazel and her little sister also came out for the season. Her little sister needed a pedestal to stand on so I painted some plain round wooden boxes I got at Michael's.

I have a few more things to add, but those will come after Thanksgiving this weekend and Fynn's birthday. Tonight I'm baking cupcakes with these fellows on the top. I've also got a baby shower at work tomorrow that I created two banners for using this website as my inspiration. They turned out really cute and people were commenting on them at work since I have them spread out in my office. I used white and blue cardstock and spelled out the names of the two babies (we had 2 babies born very close to each other so we are combining their celebrations).

Gotta keep busy, right?

These two

Here they are with their "TV eyes" on watching Arthur and eating Tapioca pudding.

We are trying to encourage Sophie's love of painting.
I picked her up some acrylic paints and a tiny little palette holder and this witch cut out for her to paint. I think it helps if kids have decent art supplies. The crummy little brushes that come with child size paint kids don't work too well.

She did a great job and had a lot of fun with it.

I had an exciting email today! I won a spot in Ali Edwards' online class that starts next week. I entered it by leaving a comment on her blog. I think she had over 1000 entries, so it never hurts to leave a comment, right!!

painting a home for Witchy Hazel

I bought these two boxes at Michael's along with some craft paint.

I'm painting them black so they can be a little pedestal for my two favourite Halloween decorations. I think another coat of paint should do it.

vintage look bunting banners

Paula and I were back sewing today. Make two more vintage look bunting banners. One is already spoken for by a co-worker. Check out our Esty shop if interested.

In other news: We finally have lawn! Yippee!! The turf was laid in our little front patch of dirt and in our backyard. Certainly better late than never.

Happy Halloween bunting banners

My friend Paula and I have started our little venture of making Halloween old fashioned bunting style banners. We have our own little Esty shop now!

They are double sided for hanging or would look great on your fireplace or entrance way. They are made of 100% cotton and held in place by wide black bias tape. Machine washable and low heat iron.

Approximately 8 feet long (each flag is 7.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches long) with 2 inch loops at the end for easy hanging.

getting crafty

Wow, two sewing projects for me twice in one week.

I worked with my talented mom on Fynn's Halloween costume on the weekend and tonight Paula and I created a Halloween banner. This was my inspiration.

Paula is extremely crafty and when I showed her this little project she happily helped me out. I bought the fabric when we were down in Penticton last weekend.

Notice the dualling sewing machines and glasses of Orgeta. A necessity.

Sophie stayed up until 9:30pm - way past her bedtime. She had a hard time breaking away from the fun of what we were doing. I'm really happy with how the project turned out and I learned a few tricks too. It's nice after all those years of school and focusing so heavily on my career to have some time to enjoy other things.

this and that

When I got home from work these two little beans were sitting on the stairs up to their rooms playing "school". Fynn was deep in a book :)

I've also been on a card-making kick. One of my co-workers is having a baby soon, so I made her a little good luck card.

Foodie Fridays (on Wednesdays)

Keeping Sophie busy is always interesting on Wednesdays when she is home from daycare.

The weather was crummy today, so we couldn't go outside.

I picked her up a Dora preschooler "learning lowercase abcs" workbook. She managed to go from letters a - h this morning (with help of course). Between doing that and tending to Fynn, cleaning up, changing her sheets, and having a shower it took us close to 11am. Time for some painting. That is usually good for about 20 minutes or so. I think when the weather warms up, I'm going to move her eisle outside.

After lunch we had enough time to do some baking. I was going to save this project until Friday, but today seemed as good as any. The recipe came together nicely -- the proof will be tonight when we have it for dessert. It just had the required 50 minutes (the bundt which we did takes longer) in the oven and then it was time to head down to the library to take back our books and for Storytime.

We are back home now and just relaxing. We are done....I am done. These two little people kick my butt some days :) I think I'm going to lock myself into my bedroom and watch Oprah and the "hoarder" lady this afternoon.

haircuts, sunshine, sewing...

Fynn was in a cranky kind of mood this morning, so I thought we were in for a tough day, but all turned out fine.

I find it helps to have somewhere to go - Fynn needs a change of scene. So off we went, in search of adventure:

Fabricland - Sophie only got told ONCE by the clerk to please not re-organize the colour coded spools of thread. Nothing will stop her in her tracks faster than when someone else tells her not to do something. We picked up the supplies for
this jumper that we will attempt with Grandma S's help this weekend. I must look like a "seamstress" or something because one of the women in the store saw that I was purchasing a little girl's pattern and offered to give me a bunch that she had at home. After assuring her that I was a BEGINNER, she insisted I take these patterns. I'm supposed to go back and pick them up. Okay, fine.

Library storytime - much nicer storytime this week. Last time a little girl who really NEEDED to learn some sitting still skills basically hyjacked the session. I felt sorry for the poor librarian who was constantly interrupted. Her grandpa who brought her thought it was funny for his little darling to be annoying.

Sophie needed another haircut. Her hair grows fast. She let the stylist at the mall wash it in the sink, which was so nice as she got it really clean (something we struggle with at home). All ready for Easter.

After a quick sugar pick-me-up from the Cinnamon bun place, we headed back home.

We had arranged with the neighbour for Sophie to come down and play with their little boy, so off she went. She doesn't mind being left alone without me when she is at the neighbour's, so that's a great break (maybe not for our neighbour)...they have 3 boys! Anyway, it was super nice weather today, so they got lots of outside playtime.

Here she is for the 24 hours or so where her hair will still look nice and fresh.

eating like a middle-aged man

Sophie likes her eggs and sausage.
Atleast the eggs can be scrambled and not fried.
I should be grateful for that.
Whenever we go out for Sunday brunch, she always orders the kids' egg special.
The "Little Logger" is her favourite.

In the spirit of letting kids be kids, I'm letting Sophie paint on the dining room table. A few rules still apply....like lots of newspaper has to be spread out and she can't run around with the paint - she needs to stay seated. So far it's working.
The girl can really wield a glue gun too. She did a nice little "collage" for spring.

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Our doctor called and Fynn's chest x-ray was fine. Just a nasty cough.

Here's a layout I did from the February Cocoa Daisy kit. I don't belong to any kit clubs --- I could never keep up! But this one looked interesting and it has been fun to play around with.

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Vic's been sprucing up our place like crazy...getting it ready for listing next month. We still need a handyman to come into the house and repair a few things, but the outside is really coming along.