December Crafternoon

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

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

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

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!

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"

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

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

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

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!

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!

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!