Posts tagged ‘holidays’

We’re heading out this weekend for a family bike ride. We’re packing up our kids and hitting the trails on our bikes I have rescued from the curb over the years. I’ve learned a lot about the mechanics of bicycle repair from piecing together wheels from one bike, brakes from another, and handle bars from yet another.

Our plan is to ride the Tow Path Trail from downtown Akron out to Peninsula on our bikes. Eat some lunch or a snack in town and take the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad Train ride back to the car. The Bike and Ride program offers a super discount on train rides, just $2 per passenger! We’ve done this once before on Elise’s 2nd birthday and it was a great success. I hope adding a third kids doesn’t make the trip too overwhelming!

My Dad lives really far away, in Austin, TX. Which is great when we get a chance to visit him, because Austin is one of the coolest towns to visit. But it is awful when Father’s Day rolls around. Yesterday I was able to talk to him on the phone and plan a fall trip out to Texas. But I was not able to remember that Father’s Day was coming until the Monday before, and therefore ran out of time to get him anything, even a card to send.

So I did the next best thing. I sent him a digital card. But I didn’t use of the many online card makers, instead I let my kids draw pictures on our computer with the Wacom Tablet and laid out a card in our photo editing program. Then I sent it  to his email box with instructions on how to cut it out himself to get a 4×6 card. The blue field on the top gets folded over so that the card will stand up on his desk.

I love you, Dad. Wish you were closer.

If the Bunny visits you Easter Morning, I hope he brings you exactly the right amount of candy. In our house, that means none!

But we’re still enjoying a basket full of creative and exciting surprises: Bubbles, crayons, glue sticks, and glitter pencils for the older girls, and a stuffed bunny made from Folksy Flannels for the baby.

Have a blessed holiday!

Easter is sneeking up on me this year. I haven’t really done any seasonal crafts and I have been feeling like I better get my act in gear. So today I spent the day working on Easter crafts, including Elise’s dress, which may or may not be done in time.

But I did succeed in making paper mache eggs with the kids. We wadded up a paper bag into an egg shape and then used watered down glue to paper mache wrapping tissue paper to the outside. For some stripes we wrapped the eggs in embroidery thread. I think that if we make more I will use paper strips instead as the thread looks too different and doesn’t have the same effect as a dyed easter egg.

Why didn’t I just dye eggs? Well, I only had two eggs and I didn’t want to hard boil them!

I wanted to do something lovely with my girls for Valentine’s Day. So I sent them on the scavenger hunt through the house to find all the purple, pink and red broken crayons. Then we put them on the stove in a double boiler made from a tin can, and we melted them down.

Colleen had just handed-down these candy molds to me. We filled them up with the melted crayon mixture, which had turned to a swirly pinkish-purple. The girls were really excited about the whole process. They had no idea what to expect for the final outcome.

When we ended up with these heart shaped crayons they were pretty surprised. I don’t know if they intend to use them for coloring or not. Next time we do this I’m going to make them a rounder, more sturdy shape. We already snapped one of our hearts. And no one wants to be broken hearted because of a valentine!

It’s the first Monday of a new year. I love to make resolutions, and I usually share them. I’m not really the kind of person who makes “life change” resolutions, so much as I set my goals for the year in January. For three years I have met my January year long goals, so I’m hoping to follow suit this year. 2009’s goal was Clever Nesting, so I’d say that was a pretty successful adventure and I can’t wait to see what 2010 holds for us.

Quilt with Anna Maria Horner flannels

I only have two new goals for this year coming up. For one I want to visit my grandparents at least twice. I’m finishing up the binding on my Nina’s quilt this week and I plan to head down and give it to her in a couple of weeks with Baby Cressida in tow. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring the rest of the family down in the summer time, too.

My other goal is submit a book proposal. I don’t want to give up too much more information, but I’ve been in the brain storming phase for a few months now, and I’m moving into outline phase right now.

So what goals do you have for the year, crafty or otherwise? I wanna know what this new decade has to offer us all!

Colleen and I are going to take a little Christmas vacation from blogging. We’ve been working hard these past two months and some time off is much needed. We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season and get everything you need, and nothing you don’t want. I’m going to spend the week enjoying these three little Buggers!

Hopefully my mom won’t read this post, because this is going to be her Christmas present. She collects ugly trees, and I usually buy her one, but this year I wanted to make it for her. After a few mistakes I found a method that I really like and I decided to share it here.

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Today I was cleaning up the kitchen and I almost tossed out this glamorously shiny purple coffee bean bag. I stopped myself in time, and cut it into loops. These loops I stacked up and twist tied together with the metal strip from the top of the coffee bag.

I fluffed it out and now it’s a fabulous gift bow. I will be making these all month long. Good thing I’m addicted to coffee.

Each year I have plans to make an Advent Calendar with my kids, but it never happens. But when I checked my email this week I found an advent themed edition of Kids Craft Weekly and I found new inspiration to make it happen. There are some really cute projects that use recycled paper items, like toilet paper tubes. But the one that I like the most is the origami paper advent box which from Loobylu.

This might be just the right sized project for me to complete this weekend. Just in time for the first Sunday in Advent.