Happy May Day

You know it's cold when the May Day baskets you delivered to your neighbors have hot chocolate in them. Nothing like a little sugary warmth to help you see past the swirling snowflakes.

Easter 2010

Here's our little Easter observance.

My brother asked if it was a pet cemetery or an Easter decoration. Based on our pet track record this month it could be either.

Here's an Easter craft that we did.

- We used white paper place mats.

- I cut out an oval template and taped it over the the placemat, then we used blue tape to make the white spaces on our eggs.

Sometimes I cut the blue tape in half lengthwise before we put it on because I only had the 1 inch tape (easier for detail work). I helped put Agent E's on but Agent H made his by himself.

-Apply the paint and remove the tape before the paint is dry and there you have it.

I've seen lots of tape painting on blogs and have wanted to give it a try. I'd like to do a less planned painting sometime too. Click here for my SIL's version.

Easter morning we spent some time looking over the lapbooks we made last year and cracking open and discussing our Resurrection Eggs.

May Day

Happy May Day













Flowers carefully colored and delivered to a neighbor by Agent H.

Ornaments to stitch

Aren't these ornaments simply sweet? Ooh my fingers are itching to stitch. Now if only I could get my cracked, bleeding fingers to heal up so I could stitch. (I do have a new cream I'm going to start using on them, fingers crossed!)

I added this pattern (and her book!) to my Kaboodle list. EH's birthday is coming up next month so I'm going see if there is any camera gear under a few grand listed on his wish list. Okay so I'm kidding, that is so not in our Dave Ramsey budget but it will be fun to check out what he's been adding lately.

Lovely Easter Printables

There are some lovely Easter printables over at Matha Stewart. I think I see some chicks and bunnies paper chains in my future.

Facepainting

I love this KLUTZ facepainting book.












Agent H as a tiger















Ebug as a superhero

Homemade Christmas 2008

Christmas is usually my excuse to indulge in my love for making homemade goodies. This year I didn't manage as much as I had hoped but the chance to let a few creative juices flow felt oh so good!

For my new sweet niece - a set of felt envelopes with button closures. Laminated cards with "Happy Birthday", "Love you!", etc. can be passed around to the family or kept in their little case. Auntie P don't look too close in case one of these ends up as a birthday gift for G Love.

And here is an assortment of note packets I made for the homeschool co-op teachers.

Here are last year's homemade goodies.

Me time

Little LE has been toting along with me to my stamp club nights. He's done great though it hasn't really been a time for me to let down and enjoy some crafting as I had hoped. Monday EH gave me a huge gift as he agreed to manage all three little fellas for the night so I could go out alone. The whole drive over to Kari's I kept looking over my shoulder to check on a baby that wasn't there. My shoulders relaxed . . . my face relaxed (well as much as I could driving on slippery/snowy roads) it was wonderful. Thank you EH for giving me some time to relax.

Homeschool Co-op & a book bag

I'm so glad that I followed through on the encouragement I received to join up with the homeschool co-op at our church. Every other Friday morning we'll meet up with other homeschoolers and Agent H gets to hang out with other K and 1st graders. He has PE, art, and music. Ebug has joined the preschoolers class. He's a little young but the teacher says we'll just see how it goes. I'm working in the nursery for a couple of hours and then I get to go rub shoulders with the veteran homeschoolers and get ideas (and a few other newbies!).

Agent H needed a book bag and I still have fond memories of the Holly Hobby one my mom made for me back in the day so . . . I was convinced I needed to make him one too. He was all about doing stunts and tricks for the camera. At least you can kinda get the idea. It's a messenger bag - I found the tutorial at Lang Lang Creations. We repurposed an old jean skirt for the outside and lined it with some !TOTALLY COOL MAN! car fabric. Agent H picked out his favorite car and we sewed it onto the front of the bag. Ebug keeps asking for his so hopefully I'll get one made for him to show off as well.

A Fella's quilt

Thanks to my mom for helping out with the piecing (not my favorite sewing task) a little fella's quilt is coming along. Now I get to have the fun of stitching.

Results of sewing inspiration

So all those sewing blogs that I've been finding have left me longing to do some crafting of my own. During nap time last week I thought I'd try to sneak in a quick project. I saw this idea in one of Martha Steward's BABY magazines long time ago. (It's actually to prevent pinched fingers when babies are learning to pull themselves up on things.) It's not hugely amazing but very pretty practical. It's for those soon to be gone days when the house windows are wide open and the wind catches the doors and slams them shut shaking a person to the core.
Here's my old solution, so lovely.






Here's the finished product.

Furniture Flip

How I wish I could show you a picture of this bench when I found it at a garage sale. Picture a scuffed dark brown laminate beast, the top surface was peeling and had blister bubbles over the entire surface, junk. As I looked at it, the owner immediately said they would take half of the asking price, $3.00. Then they offered to deliver it to my house, I bought it. It's just what I was looking for for my front entry way, you know, minus it's current condition. After some paint, a remnant at the fabric store and some free foam I got off of Craig's List (the owner of the foam ended up living a street over from me and is a stay-at-home mom, how cool was that!), here's what it has become.