Posts tagged ‘holidays’

This post on the Red Thread (very cool blog I just found) has a different take on the paper wreath. She used cardboard for the wreath form, which I think is a better structure than the twisted paper and floral wire I used.  Mine is starting to sag. I should glue some cardboard to the back. She also used Chinese paper for the poofiness.

Paper Wreath by the Red Thread

I had a big group of moms over for brunch on Friday and my friend Megan suggested using song sheet music. I don’t have a whole lot of sheet music but I do have some old books that I’ve already cut up which have that great old book crumply paper. I am considering making all new Christmas decorations this year because I am tired of all the ones we’ve had. Only the Christmas village that Rob’s Grandmother made is really interesting to me. Perhaps this year will be a paper wreath and garland decorating year.

I had my livingroom set up like a galley style dining hall, with a table for 17 running the length of the room.  The navy table cloth was Rob’s Grandmother’s, and it was hand embroidered in Morocco. It wasn’t long enough for the whole table, so I used some fabric from my stash to cover the ends of the table. I liked the miss-matched look and used multiple prints of cloth napkins as well.

The turkey was pastured, and raised about 10 miles from our house at H and H Farm. We’ve gotten chickens and eggs from them in the past, but this was our first turkey. By the time we reserved ours all the heritage breed turkeys were taken so we got a 17 pound broad breasted white. I dry brined the bird with fresh herbs and roasted her for 6 hours. It turned out fantastic, though not as moist as the heritage bird we got two years ago.

While I was peeling potatoes I put the peels in the garbage disposal and clogged the drain. We plunged it, we took off the pipe. We broke it completely. We called the plumber. We carved the turkey while he charged us double time to put new pipes under the sink. He warned me never to put peels down the drain again.

Finally, everyone showed up, and ate and were thankful. It was a really busy. So busy, in fact, that I didn’t get the chance to take any pictures. But I did get to eat food, drink wine, chomp pie, and give thanks.  I hope you all had a blessed day!

Akron Trick or Treated tonight. It was great fun. Just for holiday spirit, here’s some pics of our pumpkins.

It’s the Totoro.

The Cat

The Dalmatian

Happy Halloween!

Here is my awesome Elise, modeling her big sister Olivia’s witch costume. I had so many ideas for how to sew this costume, but in the end, Olivia’s opinion had to win out. She wanted the basic black, broom carrying, hat wearing witch, and I had to push for the frilly tutu. I didn’t want to make just a plain black frock.

It ended up being a good challenge though. I had to sew with stretch velvet for the first time. It wasn’t as hard as I feared, once I got going. Gotta love my serger! We’ll be trick or treating twice this weekend, so this should get some good use. And I made the velvet top separate, so we can use it as a church outfit shirt later. I love the irony of wearing a witch costume to church.

The other two girls are wearing clothes from the dress up box. That was a blessing since I’ve been working on the basement so much I haven’t had a lot of sewing time.

So what are your plans for the weekend? Any moms or dads dressing up? If all goes well, I might have a costume for myself to post here, too.

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!