At Low Tide

Birthday Jellyfish

2010-03-13T20:47:00.001-08:00

Today Liam finished making his birthday present for me and he couldn't
wait until my birthday tomorrow.
With Dad's help, he cut out a jellyfish out of wood, drilled holes in
the bottom, and inserted pieces of wire for the tentacles, and painted
it pink! I love it!!
He loves to work in the shop with K. And he comes up with the most
creative designs. Last mother's day was the first time he was
interested in making me a gift and I'm just loving it.
Before I had kids I had this idea that they did everything, almost,
from birth, like making gifts. But it really hadn't meant anything to
L until he turned 5. Now he really puts his heart into coming up with
gifts for the people that are closest to him. I love the boy he's
becoming!

For My Valentines

2010-02-19T18:41:00.001-08:00

Test

2010-02-19T18:39:00.001-08:00

Sent from my iPhone

February Crafternoon: Needle Felting

2010-02-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

Today the craft was needle felting. And to my knowledge only 2 of our crafters had done it before. It's the art of taking dyed wool and piercing it with a barbed needle to knot it up into the shape of your choice. Our crafters felted fruit, a carrot, a flower, a dragonfly, and a ball. The rhythmic motion of felting was relaxing and peaceful.

We lucked out in having a beautiful and warm spring-like day. Almost all of the kids spent their entire afternoon in the backyard in their imaginary worlds. They'd occasionally come in for a snack or to see what mom was up to, then they were out again.

We had a brand new crafter this month who was born in the middle of December. After a good snack from mom he fell asleep in a sling while mom felted some fruit.

Happy 3rd Birthday Partner

2010-01-18T20:19:00.001-08:00

We celebrated our cowboy's birthday today since Dad was off from work.
Our little cowpoke had a wonderful time. He woke up to a living room
full of balloons and gifts on the table. He loved all of them, the
cowboy gifts especially.

We went to the childrens museum to celebrate. He wore his full cowboy
get up and he could have spent the whole time in the farm themed room
riding the 'horse'.

We came home and wrestled the day away with some breaks to read his
new cowboy books.

The day ended with a dinner of turkey burger sliders and a treasure
chest birthday cake.

December Crafternoon

2009-12-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

On the 8th Crafternoon my true love made for me, 8 Gingerbread houses!
7 Clothespin dolls
6 Painted Ceramics
5 Bleached T-shirts
4 Cement Step-stones
3 Beaded Necklaces
2 Stenciled T-Shirts
And 1 Felt Embroidery!

Our 8th Crafternoon and we've only missed one month! Last month we had a bit of a swine flu scare so there were only three of us crafting. And only two had free hands to make the craft. And it was so calm and relaxing that I forgot to take pictures! We made little clothespin dolls with acorns for heads and felted clothes. It was a lot of fun although the kids could easily decapitate them so I think if I were to do it again I wouldn't use an acorn head.

This month was the complete opposite. The house was packed with children and the table was full with candy! My original plan was to make one gingerbread house with everybody. But after a bit of research I decided that graham cracker houses might be the way to go. The adults built the houses and the kids decorated them.

For the most part the houses were easy to put together if the crackers stayed in their large size without breaking. But it was increasingly more difficult to build the houses with half and quarter size crackers. One handy tip that I figured out, the crackers were easier to cut if the knife was wet with warm water.

The kids took to decorating their houses like, well like kids to candy! The crafters brought over an abundance of different candy to choose from. The kids would decorate for a while, then run around the house, then add a few more pieces of candy to their graham cracker house.

The house was filled with Christmas music and the kids were all playing music on the piano. The atmosphere was so joyful and festive it felt like a wonderful holiday party!

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

Dracula and our pirate had a wonderful Halloween filled with parties, trick or treating, and too much candy. This year I decided to limit their haul. I wrote out on a piece of paper the numbers 1-20. They put a piece of candy on each number and the rest disappeared. I was amazed that there was no upset over this plan. They were excited to pick out which 20 pieces they wanted and didn't bat an eye as I took the rest of it away. Now it's locked away ready to be handed out until next Halloween!

We had very little trick or treaters this year, 18. Last year we got about 45! Where did they all go? And no one starts trick or treating around here until well after 6! What ever happened to the 3 o'clock trick-or-treating?

Kindergarten Picture

2009-10-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

I am in love with everything about our new school, but the one public school standby I can not live without is the school picture. I'm determined to take a school picture of him every September, or October. Here's how this year turned out.

October Crafternoon Painting Ceramics

2009-10-04T21:04:00.000-07:00

This month we ventured out of my dining room for the first time and headed to a ceramics store. All of our painters carefully searched the store for just the right item to paint. And for some, one item wasn't enough.

When I walked into the store the place was packed. Every table was filled with friends and family painting away. A bit of a panic set in when I realized that I had invited 12 people to paint with me and there was no place for us to sit. I spoke to the staff and it so happened they were just cleaning up a party in the party room and we could slip right in there when they were done. No one was the wiser. It was the perfect space for our crafternoon.

After about an hour the kids started to go a little stir crazy. We had some cookies to hold them off for a little bit, but those quickly disappeared. Having antsy kids in a store filled with breakables is a dangerous situation. Fortunately there was a small park right next store. While some of our crafters stayed behind to finish their projects the rest of us made our way to the music park where some much needed running around was enjoyed by all.

One of the highlights of our October Crafternoon was our newest crafter, Sophia. Welcome to the world Sophia!

First Day of School!

2009-09-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow L starts his first day of school! I can't believe it. He looks so big in this picture. Yes it seems late to just be starting school, but he's going to an amazing school called The Attic. We are so excited for him to go. Both K and I wish we could have gone to this school growing up.

Well as you can see L is sporting a new book bag that I made him with the help this blog. When he first saw it he cried. I asked him what he wanted on his bag and he had told me a cat and books (since it was a book bag). Well I cut out the books but they didn't look like much so I just left it with the cat. In his mind he was thinking that it would be a scary cat. But the mama didn't get this message. We talked about it and he decided that if there was a witch on it the cat would look scarier. So now we have this for my little Halloween lover:

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully when I show him the witch I added he'll cry with tears of joy this time!

Tonight was also my first time making a school lunch. Even that was emotional to me. I made some granola bars from the cookbook Best New Recipe by Cooks Illustrated. They're a little over done but the boys didn't seem to notice.

This Friday will be my October Crafternoon. We'll be going out to a ceramics place to paint Halloween decorations! When I was growing up my grandmother used to go to a ceramics place once a week with some girlfriends. She was really quite talented at painting these little figures. Especially the eyes. Last Christmas my mom mailed me a couple of Christmas figures that my grandmother hand painted. The boys love them, and I love having something that my grandmother created!

September Crafternoon "Bleached Shirts"

2009-09-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

The scene was set with watermelon and pink cupcakes ready to go. At around 2:30 there was squealing on the front deck as Daisy (our dog) went to visit some of our youngest crafters.

We were a small group this week of 4 moms and 5 kids. But there was much delight as we shared our stories of summer adventures and the first week of school for some of our kindergartners.

Our craft was an easy and enjoyable one. Bleached stenciled shirts. Here's how it went.

Step 1: Round up some happy women and energetic kids.

Step 2: Trace a bold picture onto freezer paper. (Shiny side down.)

Step 3: Cut it out.

Step 4: Iron the freezer paper onto the shirt with another piece of paper on the inside of the shirt so the shiny sides are together and they adhere to the shirt.
(Sorry I forgot to take a picture.)

Step 5: Pull shirt over a box top and spray with a 50/50 bleach/water solution.

Step 6: Rinse bleach out of shirt. You're done!

It was interesting to see what color the bleach would turn the shirt. The blue shirt in the middle would not take a bleach stain. It got slightly lighter which made a great effect. It was a Cherokee t-shirt if you're looking for a bleach resistant shirt.

Thanks to all my crafters! Next month we're moving out of my house to a plaster paint store!

Plugging Away

2009-08-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

In my mind the holiday season is already upon us. I have this grand idea that everyone's Christmas present this year will be homemade. Whether my family likes it or not. Which makes it difficult for me to post my progress, since most of my readers are the gift receivers.

So in cryptic terms... I just finished a birthday gift for my husband's birthday, which is in the end of October. I have been working on a project for all the females in my family and it doesn't seem that I have enough fabric. And I bought the fabric at a craft fair so I can't really pick up more. Ugh.

I'm currently embroidering a picture that my son drew. It's a witch with a cauldron and black cat. It will replace the bunny embroidery I did a few months back. I'm hoping to make a new pillowcase for that pillow for every season and I love the idea of having L draw the designs.

August Crafternoon

2009-08-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

I have been having such an amazing time with my crafternoons. I'm kicking myself that I haven't kept a nice blog of them each month. I have a wonderful group of friends that come over once a month with their kids and we craft together. We have a different medium each month and it's so great to see all the different ideas everyone comes up with. And the kids add such life to the afternoon! They stop by our crafting table to take part and have a snack and then they're off again usually hunting for my cat.

This month we made cement step stones. We all just bought a step stone kit that comes with a mold, glass pieces, and cement. We mixed the cement with a little water, poured it in the mold, smoothed out the cement, and began our creation. Most of the stones involved handprints from our favorite little hands. There was a beautiful mosaic of fish created. And I made mine with the shells I collected from Long Island and the Oregon coast.

In July my mother-in-law was in town. She's been wanting to come to the crafternoon since its inception. So I sent out a last minute invitation for a crafternoon when she was visiting. The theme was jewelry! It was a beautiful day. We sat outside at the picnic table drinking lemonade and making some truly beautiful jewelry. It was our most relaxing crafternoon yet!

Long Island

2009-06-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

We've been having a nice visit with my parents on Long Island, but the
boys are begining to miss their dad, their pets, and their art closet!

We've had crummy weather since we've been here, but today is
beautiful. We spent some time at the beach hunting for crabs. We found
tons of the tiny guys.

A Camping Trip to Celebrate the Big 5!

2009-05-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went camping at Deception Pass for L's 5th birthday! We invited 2 other families with us, we had 5 boys all under the age of 6 1/2.

Deception Pass

The event started at the crack of dawn. L woke up at 5:30 ready for presents. We held him off for as long as we could, but we all got up by 6:45. I started making some pancake batter while L looked over the table full of presents. He was very subdued while he opened everything, quietly taking it all in. By 7:30 he was already hankering for a birthday cupcake so...

We all sang happy birthday as he donned his birthday crown and he happily ate his first of many cupcakes this weekend.

I had planned many games, scavenger hunts, letter boxing, and crafts for the weekend. My favorite was this web of yarn I thread through the woods behind our campsite. Every boy had to follow his string to the end to find his loot bag. It was pretty hard for the younger 3 boys, but they were happy to get help from E, the 6 1/2 year old, and tromp through the woods.

No camping birthday party would be complete without lots of time at the campfire. The boys cooked hot dogs, marshmallows, and snakes (dough wrapped around a stick and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar).

After a restless night sleep by all adults involved, we packed up our stuff and headed down the road to the Rosario Beach tidepools. With patience we discovered a world of crabs, hermit crabs, sea anemones, limpets, fish that looked like rocks, and a world of other creatures we couldn't identify. It was wonderful to watch the boys just crouch down and wait patiently for something to move and to hear a scream of, "I saw a fish!!".

We had a nice picnic lunch at a table where we spotted a circular rainbow around the sun. I'm sure it has a name but I don't know it. It was beautiful. An unimpressed passerby said, "It means it's going to rain."

We headed home with some very sleepy campers. L enjoyed a short look at his Yogi Bear comic book while he relaxed on his Yogi Bear pillow that his Grammy had made him for just this occasion.

A wonderful weekend that we won't forget, and a little boy that is headed into a whole new stage of his childhood.

It's Thursday!

2009-05-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Thursday blog. I'm trying to be consistent and blog every Thursday night. That way my numerous readers can look forward to reading my blog every Friday morning. So far this schedule has worked for me.

Tonight I finished my embroidery project that I started last month for April's crafternoon. My bunny embroidery has now become a pillow. I plan to make it an Easter decoration, but I'm going to leave it out a while and enjoy it before I pack it away. The pillowcase is sewn like a baggie so I can slip the pillow in and out. I'm hoping to embroider a new pillowcase for each holiday or season. It will add a nice festive flavor to the boys' room. L loves holidays so I'm sure it will be a hit with him!

Over the weekend I was invited to the birthday party of a one-year-old. We decided last minute that we were planning to go so I didn't really have time to make something. My plan was to buy a present and then if I had time I could make something and return the thing that I bought. I wound up at Gymboree where I found a cute little sweater and collared onesie with turtles on them. As soon as I saw it it reminded me of a pattern I had from "Bend The Rules Sewing" of a little stuffed turtle. It was the perfect companion for the gift.

I'm still pretty new at this crafting thing and one thing I always forget to do is to tell the recipient that this gift was handmade. Then I go home bummed because I think they didn't love it. Well this was one of those times. Fortunately this time my friend asked L if he knitted the jumper (she's English) and it gave me the perfect opportunity to say, "No, but he helped me make the turtle!" She was delighted and inturn, so was I!

I'm still not confident enough in my sewing to make it the only gift I give. I usually make something and buy something. But I'm trying to change this. I feel the love I put into it is better than something monetary. Right?

Tomorrow is my next crafternoon! We're stenciling t-shirts. I'm excited to share this cool technique that I learned from "The Creative Family". It's one of my favorite things to do. I'm a sucker for personalizing things. I even had pencils made for K and I's wedding. I love those pencils!

My new hobby makes me sick!

2009-04-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

So I've recently caught the knitting bug. And as most bugs do, it's making me sick. Over the weekend I was knitting an infant cap for an infant to be. As I was knitting I started feeling a little woozy and dizzy. K took my blood pressure and it was really low. I went to bed with my feet up and when I woke up my blood pressure was even lower. I called my doctor and she told me to eat something salty to bring up my blood pressure and to walk around and look out the window as often as possible. I've done all this and still I'm not feeling well. I really enjoy knitting but I don't know if I can take the vertigo. You'd think this would be a nice relaxing hobby. Who knew it would cause so much trouble?

I will show you the beautiful projects that came from this though! A cat for L's birthday at the end of May when he turns the big 5! And an infant umbilical cord hat from the Stitch and Bitch book.

No Oven... Again!

2009-04-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

We just spent money to have a new ignitor put in our oven. Then, in March I was baking some most delicious cinnamon sugar bread when I opened the oven and saw that the inside window was cracked. It has since shattered and the glass has fallen into my oven. This is a huge loss for us. We bake daily. This was after I bought a 50 pound bag of flour to make our daily bread. But it's not a total loss, we have been getting crafty with our dough. We now make daily; english muffins, naan, stuffed bread, calzones, and fried dough, all in the comfort of our iron skillet.

We're doing our research and trying to decide if we need a brand new oven that can take daily abuse or if we're better off fixing this one yet again. In the mean time we'll continue to make some delicious apple cheddar stuffed bread with jam spread on top!

Whistle While Your Son Works!

2009-04-16T21:51:00.001-07:00

There's nothing better than getting to use machines!

My house is a mess, but look what I made!

2009-04-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

The boys and I made a cute Easter craft I saw on this blog. A little bird's nest made with shredded wheat covered in chocolate. How can you go wrong?! Well, it did back fire a bit. The boys and I are not used to nibbling on that much chocolate and I think the combination of caffeine and sugar made all three of us go a little loopy. We had a bit of a hectic afternoon, but they crashed hard at bedtime.

My parent's 40th anniversary is this Saturday!! So of course some homemade gifts were in order. I made them each a luggage tag they can use when they come to visit. And Liam drew their portrait which I embroidered on the other side of the tag. I also made them a little pot holder that says, "40 years and still cooking!". Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Now I'm onto Easter crafts. And like all my ideas, I come up with them just a couple days before the event and then work all night to get it done, or not get it done. For Easter I just decided today to make the boys little bunnies I saw here. I made one and have one to go. K and I are also in the process of making a little fish game where you catch the fish using a little magnetic fishing pole. I finished my bunny embroidery from my crafternoon but have yet to make it a pillow. All in good time.

I also just quickly made these little snack bags. I don't like to use baggies so I made these out of oilcloth. We'll see how they work out.

Crafternoon Delight-ful!

2009-04-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

My first crafternoon was a wonderful success! We had 6 adults, 4 preschoolers, 2 toddlers, and 1 baby. And with all that we even managed to get some crafting done!

The theme was embroidery. I got a bunch of books from the library to inspire us. We made felt Easter eggs, felt bunnies, and a bunny embroidery taken from this blog. Everybody found their niche and even the kids helped out or sewed a project of their own.

There was an abundance of sweets, cupcakes, chocolate pretzels, Gianna's cookies, and macaroons! I made some fruit sushi that I saw in Craft's latest zine. I also made some hummus from a recipe my sister-in-law gave me and some homemade naan I made with my bread dough from this recipe.

I'm already looking forward to next month's crafternoon! I'm trying to think of a good mother's day craft.

Hummus:
1/4 cup packed fresh basil
1 clove garlic
1 can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1/2 cup of tahini
3/4 t. salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

-In food processor, process garlic and basil until finely minced.
-Add chickpeas, tahini, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil. Process until smooth.

Refrigerate 2hours - 3 days.

Recent Crafty Endeavors

2009-04-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

I got a hole in the toe of these cute argyle socks. They were going to head to my dog's sock toy but I thought these are too cute to chew on! So we found a couple of willing volunteers to be our models and we cut up the socks a bit for some plush sweaters. L added a leash and bell to the ensemble!

My adorable niece turned 2 in March and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make her a birthday crown. I was told, although she's not really a hat lover, she wore her crown all through opening her presents and eating cake! It warms a crafter's heart! The other picture is a green cape with gold lining and t-shirt I stenciled with my brother-in-law's charity Greenseed Educational Supplies logo. A fantastic charity that collects gently used school supplies and donates them to schools and other organizations that can use them. I'm sure it will flood the nation in the next few years!

My Everlovin' Sister came to visit me so I crafted her and her wife some nice items. I made some napkins with their initials on it. I also made these cute 'otedama' juggling bags I saw a pattern for in craft zine for my sister-in-law's birthday. And, not pictured, L drew a picture of his Aunt H and I embroidered it onto a bookmark. This idea was seen in mothering magazine and will be in a book called Handmade Home due out in August.

Well that was my own little crafting March Madness. Tomorrow is my first ever Crafternoon! I'm having about 4-6 adults over and assorted kids to do some embroidering. I'll take some pictures and share next week!

My weekend of gluttony AKA My Birthday

2009-03-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

Another year gone by, or as L likes to say, another trip around the sun. For me my birthday means doughnuts, presents, and cake. (I have a little bit of a sweet tooth.) I ate so badly over my birthday weekend it took me 3 days to recover.

My boys all treated me very well. The week before the three of them toiled away in the workshop. K made me this beautiful thread holder. You can't really see it here but the main post bulges in and out which gives it this nice organic feel. Liam made me this wooden guy. He told me that it's meant to hold my pony tail holders. Which is perfect, they are always raining down on me when I open my medicine cabinet. Not pictured here, H made me a beautiful ball out of wrapping paper. His love of balls just reaches out into all aspects of his life, and I love him for it!

What's For Dinner? Pizza Planet!

2009-03-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

It's really hard to come up with ideas to make for dinner, and yes, I admit, I ask my 4 year old sometimes. Well L told me that we should have Pizza Planet! (The pizza restaurant in Toy Story.) So I asked, "Well, what does that mean? You want to eat a pizza that looks like a planet?" To which he replied, "Pluto!"

We've been reading lots of books about the solar system lately including one called, "Why Isn't Pluto A Planet?". So of course Pluto is his favorite planet, to which he will sometimes amend, dwarf planet.

This idea snowballed in to the idea that we should make the solar system in pizza. We each drew a picture of the solar system and decided what toppings each planet would have.

And to answer your question, yes, I cook all my meals with a pirate and Robin Hood!

Mercury: cheese on the bottom sauce on top
Venus: meatball pizza
Earth: Blue Cheese and Basil
Mars: Pepperoni Pizza
Jupiter: Cheese pizza with a colby jack hurricane
Saturn: Cheese pizza with a pepperoni ring

Uranus: Pesto Pizza with a Parmesan ring

Neptune: Blueberry dessert Pizza
Pluto: (dwarf Planet) Meatball pizza

What's For Dinner?

2009-03-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just before Christmas we got this great cookbook from the library called "The Best New Recipe." It's written by Cook's Magazine and the show America's Test Kitchen, so each recipe is accompanied by the reason why they chose the ingredients they did and what the ingredients do. You need to give yourself a good half hour to read all their reasonings and then read the recipe, but it's totally worth it. I've learned that instead of using buttermilk you can use regular milk and just add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Although I don't remember why that works.

We've made and loved; black beans with lime and cilantro, beef and broccoli, fried rice, french toast, and the greatest pancakes ever (you don't even need syrup!). The only thing that wasn't the best ever was their thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies, they still don't touch the Tollhouse recipe.

We couldn't keep this gem to ourselves so we bought it for Christmas for ourselves, my dad, my sister, and my father in-law. I'd love it if you all shared your favorite recipes from the book!

Dino Day

2009-03-07T22:21:00.001-08:00

About a month ago L had dinosaur week at preschool. The school had
borrowed a trunk full of dinosaur fossils from the Burke Museum at
the UW. His teachers told me it was a great museum so I checked out
the site.

On the site I saw an ad for Dino Day. A one day event where they take out everything they have on dinosaurs. It sounded perfect for the boys.

Today we braved some late season snow, or grouple as some would
say, and waited in line outside with the masses for Dino Day. We
headed over to the fossil dig first. The boys got to chisel some
shale looking for some fossils. We didn't find anything but they had
a table of fossils and each boy got to have one.

L chose the redwood fossil on top. H chose the alder leaf on the bottom. They were taken from a lake that was covered in volcanic ash in Republic, WA.

The museum was packed to the gills. The place should have a dino week, not just a day. There was a line waiting to get into the museum when we left.

I think we would have gotten a lot more out of it if it hadn't been so crowded.

Am I ready to start another blog??

2009-03-06T22:27:00.000-08:00

I had a blog going for a good 3 years, but when I had a second child there didn't seem to be the time to do it justice. My biggest hang-up was uploading pictures from my camera. But my DH just told me that I can email them directly from my phone!! I can post everything on the go. Well, this just changes everything!

This past year I've been getting extremely crafty. Last February I got a sewing machine for my birthday (a month early) and I've been pumping out projects ever since. I should start a little slideshow of all my projects. This blog will be about me, my family, and my crafts!

Well here we go again, wish me luck!