A Different Type of House

I saw this cute veggie house a couple years ago and it instantly appealed to me as a replacement for making gingerbread houses. We have so many Christmas traditions that center around the kids (and myself) eating ridiculous amounts of sugar so this seemed like a good alternative.

 

So, on Sunday afternoon, I pulled out the vegetables and tore the kids away from the puzzle they were working on and showed them the picture. They agreed it was cute (and then ran right back to the puzzle until I finished all the prep work making Lincoln logs out of 2 pounds of carrots).

 

And in 2 hours time, we managed to take the house in out minds and 

turn it into this. Haha! Cutting carrots into exact shapes is almost impossible and so was building the roof. In fact, almost nothing with the house worked how I'd imagined it. (And the lighting in our house gets pretty bad once the sun goes down, so even the pictures aren't particularly good, not that that would help in this case.)

 

 It's a fail as far as the actual results, but I had fun (mostly) trying to make it and the kids liked the decorating part. We probably should have built the house out of actual Lincoln logs and then added the veggies as the garden.

Look how much fun their little people are having in the hot tub :)

Better Late Than Never

 It's only taken a year--Peanut's room is finally done.  We got it painted before he was born, but the decorating has struggled.  I knew if I didn't get it done before he came, it may not happen, but honestly, being sick for the entire pregnancy really affected my productivity.  But I've dabbled here and there, and now the room is pretty much how I want it.  Good thing, too, since Peanut may only be in there for another year or so before we play musical rooms.

 Refinishing the dresser/changing table was the last project I finished a few weeks ago.  I saw this idea here and loved it.  And with the $3 sample jars of paint, its a very inexpensive way to add a splash of color.  After almost 8 years, the dresser needed a new coat of paint anyway, and it will be easy to redo the drawers if we change the color scheme.

 The stars over the bed have been hung for awhile now.  I wanted something reminiscent of a mobile, but in the color scheme of his room, and making a few stars to hang from the ceiling seemed like a quick fix.  Peanut was fascinated when I first put them up and still loves it if we send them all swinging.

The fabrics I picked out for his quilt had a splash of orange in them, so I painted the little shelf over his dresser and the coat hooks orange.  Not a color I'd feel safe using much of, but I think its fun to have a little bit here and there.

 And the "H" on his wall is a yarn-wrapped piece of cardboard.  I've seen a lot of different ones on Pinterest--and it looked so easy, but the execution was a little trickier, maybe because I picked a style of letter that had curved spots.  I had to do some notching, and a little hot glue, to get the yarn to stay, but I like the finished product.

 And the quilt.  I need to get a better picture of the whole thing laid out.  That project was all my mom.  She's made a baby quilt for each of my kids and I love them.  She also helped out with the curtains and valence when she came to visit this last summer.  Even with them almost complete, it still took me several months to get them hung.  I'm just not good at finishing things up when I have so many distractions (and so little sleep).

Finally, I love having these pictures of my sweet little guy.  When I hung these up, he wasn't much bigger than in the photos, but now, it's been almost exactly a year and its getting harder to remember that sweet little newborn who just snuggled and slept so much of the time.  Peanut loves to say "night-night" to the babies, too.

Only thing left is some sort of bookcase or book holder on this wall under the photos.  I wanted to repurpose some wood spice racks from Ikea, but they haven't been in stock for months so I may need to give up and do something else.  Or if I wait another year, Bean will be ready to move in here and I can completely change the whole thing.

A Very "Pinny" Christmas

I know I've already mentioned my new love affair with Pinterest on a couple occasions.  I really love having such an easy place to find new ideas, and I have some pretty fun friends, so there are lots of ideas to find.  I was noticing after Christmas that I actually got around to doing a lot of the ideas I'd "pinned" on my Christmas board.  I've already shared some of these pictures this month.

We made wrapping paper, and I found the cute idea of labeling the gifts with monograms.

 Saturday morning pancakes were transformed into reindeer,

 Santa brought us these cute paintchip matchbook notepads,

and I captured the kids' footprints in a cute holiday decoration.  I had tried to do their handprints in clay ornaments for us and the grandparents, but that was a crafting flop, so we went with this memorial instead.

 These wood nativities were probably my favorite project I found this year and I'm planning to make more for next year (as soon as we get the little issue with the saw fixed.)

These paper ornaments were quick and I think look really pretty on the tree.

And then there were the kids' shirts,

 some caramel popcorn,

and the teachers' gifts.

I just realized that while I have a nice collection of fall and Christmas ideas, I need to start spring and summer boards on Pinterest!

Gifts of the Season

The gift giving has begun.  We've been busy making, wrapping, shipping and giving out presents the last couple weeks. Besides the gifts for family, one of the things we always try to do is to find a couple charitable opportunities.  It just feels good to give gifts to people who aren't expecting anything and to let people know they are being thought of.

Our church does an angel tree each year for those who may need a little extra Christmas cheer.  This years focus was on the older, single women so we were asked to put together baskets of a few fun little gifts or treats. We made up this basket with a couple Christmas decorations, a candle, cranberry chutney, a hand towel and a plate of cookies.

This little nativity was one of the decorations--another Pinterest find (directions are in the link).  This project was one of those that actually ends up being easier than I was planning on (except I might have broken the miter saw, or it just needs a new blade.  Let's hope it's the second one.)  I'll have to keep this in mind for a future Souper Saturday craft.

I made up a second nativity to give to the neighbor we're doing the 12 days of Christmas for.  I've done this a couple other times as a teen and always loved getting doorbell ditch presents.  This is the first year we've done it as a family and the kids are having fun dropping the gifts and running, although they're a little scared to be the one to ring the bell.  Once they're out of school at the end of the week, I'm also going to get them involved in helping me make the rest of the little gifts or treats.

And then, we made the teachers' gifts--crayon monograms (directions in the link).  It was Pinterest to the rescue, once again.  Have I mentioned how much I love that site.  I have found, and used, quite a few ideas from other peoples' pins, and also just love having a place to visually bookmark my favorites, wherever I find them.  This project took a little longer, but the kids were able to help snap the crayons after I scored them, and they picked the crayons and order they went in, so it was a nice way to keep them involved.

I have several other half finished projects that I'm hoping will get  finished next week when we're not running so many places, but I have a feeling that I'm going to have some carry over to next year. 

And finally, it has nothing to do with gifts, but I just thought these 4 boys eating their popcorn on pajama day was too cute not to share.  They wore their pj's to school, had hot cocoa and popcorn and had a great day.  I think Bug would be happy to wear his pj's every day.

Making A List,

Checking it twice.  Or three times. Or four.  I'm pretty forgetful these days.  I keep waiting for the newborn haze to clear, but its only gotten worse, probably because my sleep has been more interrupted than ever lately.

So lists are saving Christmas this year.  To Do, To Buy, To Make, To Call, To Look-up.  Lists of all the errands to run.  Lists of what gifts I've already found (I have a bad habit of picking up little bits here and there and hiding them away, and I certainly don't trust my current state of mind to lead me back to all those places without a little bit of a clue).  Lists of ideas for charitable gifts.

Judging by the length of my shopping list and To Do list I made today, it would seem I haven't really gotten very far on Christmas preparations.  But I'm actually done with the majority of my gift shopping, our house is pretty much decorated, and our parties are planned.  More likely, the lists reflect the fact that I'm trying to do too much "extra" stuff this year. 

Last year, between being nauseous, and then traveling, I missed out on all the holiday crafting.  And last year, I hadn't heard of Pinterest yet, so my idea bank wasn't quite so full.  This year, I've got plenty of projects to play with--for myself, to do with the kids, and to use as gifts for some of our friends and neighbors.  Now if only I had started a little sooner.  But I'm plugging away at the list.

Today's work:

One ribbon tree t-shirt, inspired by Pinterst,

and one present t-shirt because Bug likes me to make him things, too.  I didn't get the third one done, but Peanut's onesie is next on the list.

And then I did some present organizing and even got one wrapped (but really only because its for a gift exchange I'm going to tomorrow night.)  Oh, and the kids made the wrapping paper the day before.  I've been wanting to have home-stamped wrapping paper for a few years now and they had a blast doing it.

I also started a couple other projects and crossed off a few shopping items.  Slowly, but surely!

Fall is Flying By

 I can't believe how fast this month is going.  I love fall--love the weather, love the activities, but I'm not loving how busy its been.  I want more time to really enjoy it.  But better too busy than bored, right?

So here's a peak at some of what we've been doing the last week or so:

 Bug had Founder's Day at the preschool last week.  I missed it last year (we'd just started at school the week before so I hadn't heard about it and that morning, I think I was still in my pj's when I dropped him off and was in a hurry to go back home so I could throw up again.), so he's been reminding me of it for a month.  And he still panicked that morning when he thought I'd gone home and wasn't going to make it back in time.

 The kids made hats the day before, and then do a little parade out to the tree they planted in honor of the two women who started the preschool 10 years ago.  It's very lowkey and fun--just right for this age.

 At home, we've been working on Halloween decorations.  Thanks to pinterest (my new-found obsession), I found a couple fun decorating ideas I wanted to try.  The kids were skeptical of the jack-o-lantern in the window ("Why aren't you cutting out a round pumpkin?  They're always round!"), but once they saw it up, they were really excited.  (Except then the bulb burned out in that room, and I only think of it at night when its too dark to change the bulb, so we haven't had it on for the last couple nights).

 This wreath was more of a solo project, although Bug did help out for about 5 minutes before declaring it was too hard.  Also found on pinterest.  It is the product of a two naptimes and two romance novels that have somehow found their way into my house that I had no intention of ever reading, a little ribbon and a piece of black paper. Oh, and a half price straw wreath.  Pretty simple

 A little tee ball action.  Bug is not the most teachable ("I don't need to take lessons, I already know how to ______" Fill in that blank with anything that he's even been introduced to.), so we've struggled with learning how a tee is supposed to work, but he's getting the idea slowly.  He's actually doing okay hitting balls pitched to him, too.  His stance is pretty funny, but its cute and maybe someday he'll be willing to listen to us, or even look at us as we try to demonstrate.

 We've also been doing a lot of baking.  Fall is always baking time in my mind.  Only problem is that this year, I can't eat any of it.  But that hasn't stopped me from making homemade everything, including these pumpkin shaped "Ritz" crackers.  It's hard when I start researching all this food stuff, and completely overhauling my diet for one kid, to then keep feeding the other two a bunch of processed junk.  So we haven't been.  But they also don't want to just eat meat and veggies, which leaves me baking and cooking way more than normal, trying to keep the houes stocked with snacks and things that I feel good about giving them.  We've made granola bars, lots of muffins, an oatmeal bar (that's really a less-sweet cookie, but I pretend that its healthy), crackers, and lots of breads.  I haven't been able to taste any of it, but I hear most of the things have been pretty good.  And these crackers, while not exactly a Ritz, have been enjoyed.  Especially the ones I used to serve up some monster faces (I'm telling you, I should have named this post Pinterest Obsession).

 We've also been doing a lot of reading.  Magic Treehouse is the series of choice these days.  I love it that Bean can read to the boys (and love that Henry is fascinated enough with the kids, no matter what they are doing, that I can plop him down for a few minutes.)

Finally, you know how people always say that someday you'll miss the finger prints on the windows and the toys strewn around the house?  Well, I don't know if I'll really miss that stuff, but as I was cleaning the other morning, I did realize that I'll miss coming across notes like this that turn up  randomly all the time because my little boy loves me :)  Maybe Daddy-o will have to leave me love notes around the house at that point.  He's really going to miss these kids, too!