Some more recent lunches

Ham & Cheese sandwich, leftover sweet potatoes, red peppers and cucumbers, dried apples with dried cranberries, berry and cinnamon-apple mini rice cakes


PB & J hearts with marshmallow stars, graham crackers and jack cheese, dill pickles, green beans and a garden tomato, orange smiles with purple adn red grapes


Dolphin love PB & J, cottage cheese with peach slices, apple cinnamon mini rice cakes with cheddar cheese, pesae & carrots.


Chicken salad on whole wheat roll, green beans and mini carrots, peaches, mini homemade blueberry muffins, homemade chex mix.


Banana, cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese, strawberry granola with dried cranberries and almonds to put in the yogurt, vanilla and berry yogurt, mini carrots with cheddar cheese cubes adn dried apples.


Not spectacular but has one of our favorite appetizer/snacks - chile roll-ups, along with cucumbers and carrots, mozzarella cheese and crackers and a trail mix of pretzels, dried berries, dried apples and dried apricots

Our Gratitude Wreath

We had a family craft project that we worked on during the Thanksgiving school break. What, you're surprised? Yeah right! We saw this cool craft idea from Chica and Jo (a cool new craft web site find), via The Crafty Crow (my favorite family craft site ever). But we wanted to be able to keep the wreath up during the year as well.




So we opted for a rainbow of colors instead of only the Fall colors that they used on their wreath. Plus, we can't control ourselves around acrylic paint. We must go with our strengths, yes? Well then color it is!!!





...and more color and more color...



It was a messy business....



but we persevered...




Then we wrote down what we are thankful for...



and look at our beautiful new creation!!


(P.S. The gray and pink striped clothespin in the upper left part of the wreath does NOT say "beers". I promise. Lil' Mermaid wrote bee's (now that she's reading she gets all caught up in punctuation and contractions that are usually incorrect but that she insists are right). Of course, now that I think about it. Ross was helping Lil' Mermaid when they were doing their clotehspins....so maybe it does say "beers"....hmmm....)

Happy Thansgiving!

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Hot Rod designed, cut out, nailed together and painted this turkey - with a little sawing help from his Papa - during a marathon working-out-in-the-shop night with his Papa. They were out there from 9 until midnight. I don't think I even have that much focus. I am thankful for my crafty boys. And of course my artsy girls, too.

Hope your thanksgiving time together was crafty, comfortable and filled to the brim with hapiness.

One -Skein Scarf = Success

I just LOVE these easy and fabulous scarf that I finished a few weeks ago. (Yep, I am a little behind on posting some crochet projects). The pattern is from the Stitch N' Bitch: Happy Hooker crochet book. Is that not the best name for a crochet book, or what? It makes me laugh every time I read it. Ahhh...yes, my warped sense of humor does surface here sometimes. Sorry. But truly this is a fabulous book. Her basic crochet instructions are funny as heck. And the patterns are just plain cool.



Anyway, this is the One Skein Scarf by Denise Cozzitorto. Simple, one-skein and it looks great. It was a great travel project - easy to pick up and put away for a bit. And it makes a cute and quick present. I think I'm keeping the pink one. But I have two others in the works for upcoming presents.



It's a great length to wrap around your neck and still have enough of the pretty pattern to hang down.


(sorry about the cleavage shot.)

Project details: Paton's Classic Wool in Heather Rose (worsted weight yarn). I have a small ball left. The pattern called for an L hook to chain and then a J hook to work the rest of the pattern. But I used a K for the chain and then the J hook for the rest.


Yep, it's that easy.

Latest Lunch Box Madness

Johnny cakes with butter on them and maple syrup, crackers with cheddar cheese, green beans and carrots, ham rolled up with green onions, jasmine rice shapes on a bed of dried cranberries.


Halloween inspired of course! Mummy english muffin pizzas, cucumber full moons, carrot goblin spears, orange pumpkin smiles, purple grape ogre eyeballs, and monster mash (black beans, corn, chile , cilantro salad)


Mouse biscuit pizza (idea from my good friend, Tori) with pizza sauce, tomato and olive and grren bean salad, citrus fruit, pretzels & dried cranberries.


Whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter and bananas, carrots with green beans and tomatoes, hard boiled egg, ranch dressing dip, club crackers with cut out cheese flowers.


Peanut butter and jelly dinosaurs on whole wheat in a rain forest of spinach and wax beans, grapes with walnuts, hardboiled egg with tomatoes, whoel wheat crackers with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese and a pumpkin bar.

Okay, about the curlers

Ross spent 20 minutes putting sponge curlers in Peelu's hair on Saturday night. He started doing this with Lil' Mermaid when she was about two years old too.


I'm not sure if he has a secret passion to be a hair stylist. I suspect he just likes cheap entertainment. He cracks himself up doing it.



Of course he did this the night before church. AND Peelu somehow ended up next to me in bed during the middle of the night - with her curlers sharing MY pillow. And then, the next morning....eek!


Her stylist was a bit dismayed because apparently he tried a new technique....


...and it didn't quite turn out as planned. However, the client appeared happy with the results.


But we still had church to attend and the curls were not succumbing to a brush...so we fell back on the ole kerchief standby.


Her kerchief eventually came off at church and all the ladies had a hard time trying to disguise their giggles. Of course they all tried to give ME tips on how to handle sponge curlers. I directed them to Peelu's stylist, of course.

Snowy Sunday

We woke up to a light layer of snow on the ground. This was the second or third time so far that we've had some snow stick around (very lightly) for longer than 10 minutes. Of course the kids were excited and wanted to go run out and play in it and we had all we could do to persuade them to get ready for church and eat some breakfast. Notice the curlers in Peelu's hair? More on that later.

Church was snowy and we had a small congregation that morning but the kid's choir was singing. However, we had some sick kids so Hot Rod and Peelu had to sing all by themselves for the first service. They ditched the song they were originally going to sing and sang "This Little Light of Mine"....all by themselves....up by the altar...ALL BY THEMSELVES! It was one of those Mama moments....sigh...where you are just so proud of your children that your heart feels like it will burst. And then they nag you the rest of the service and you want to wring their necks.....life with kids. Salty & Sweet!

(Unfortunately, I don't have a photo from this Sunday. But here's a cute photo of these two maniacs after their recital this past Spring).

After Sunday School and singing at the second service (with reinforcements) we headed home for a nice, quiet afternoon of crafts, chores, and family time.

Still snowy in the morning...


A heart shaped log being cut into firewood...


Snow going....going....going....

TUTORIAL: Fabric Scrap Ornaments

A super easy project using recycled bits - what could be better?

Here's what you'll need:

Fabric scraps (not too big - I get the perfect size scraps from these garlands , bags, and prayer flags that we make).
Wire (I used 22 gauge)
Needle nose pliers
That's it!


STEP 1
Squish (yes, that's a technical term) the fabric scraps into a fairly tight ball. Un-spool a good length of wire. Hold the start of the wire down with your thumb and start wrapping the wire around the ball of scraps.


Keep un-spooling and wrapping as you keep squishing the fabric ball together.


It doesn't have to be perfectly wrapped around, but you do want to get fairly even wire coverage around the ball just so all the fabric stays inside.


STEP 2
Cut the end of the wire.


Then use the pliers and wrap and tuck the wire end around itself so it's not going to scratch anything. Make sure your beginning piece of the wire is also wrapped and tucked.


STEP 3
You can then squeeze the ball in your hand to squish it into shape a little more if necessary. You can also tuck in any little wayward bits of fabric that are hanging out too much.


STEP 4
Cut a length of wire to make a hook or loop.


With the pliers, shape the wire into a loop and then wrap the rest around the base of the loop or make a hook and wrap the rest of the wire around the base.


Using the pliers again, attach the end of the loop/hook to any wire wrapping the ball. Attach it securely and then wrap and tuck the end in again so as not to scratch anything.


VOILA! C'est fini!


You can make several different sizes and string these babies up all over the place!







ENJOY!!