the moments in between

getting ready to record summer

We're in the honeymoon phase of summer vacation. I generally let the first week be a free for all - which means a lot of general laziness and video games. ;) But after that, we need a bit of structure!! Last year, we made a summer list with a mix of big activities and silly little things we could do around the house. It was a great way to keep us exploring the city and doing new things. 

We haven't put together this year's list, but I've already decided that I'd like to record it. Which meant that it was time to finally pick a side on my "aqua or gold" debate on these cute little 4x4in albums from WRMK. I got gold, and intend to print a pic from each activity and add it to the album with a caption on a label. It should be an easy way to record another fun summer!

So... what's on your summer list? 

the last day | saying thank you to our teachers

Today is the last day of school. Which means it's time to say goodbye and thank you to the teachers that have taught, guided, challenged and put up with (HA) my boys for the last year.

We've mixed up end of year gifts over the years depending on how much time we have and what we think the teacher will like - sometimes flowers, sometimes gift cards, sometimes something handmade. But there's one thing we always do - include a card or tag to say thank you, and have the boys write their teacher a short note.

I wanted to do something special for Sam's teacher this year - she is, as he says, the nicest teacher ever. She's taken Sam from a kid who was very reluctant to leave me and walk into class for the first two months of the year to one who's upset that school is over. She's helped to spark of love of learning in my sweet boy and we're so glad that he was in her class this year.

 

We decided to make her one of my favorite projects - a quilted list taker. I bought this pattern from an etsy shop years ago and I can't recommend it enough. It takes about an hour to make, and it's perfect for small pieces of fabric. This pattern is awesome even for if you don't sew much - it's all straight lines.

Sam picked out the colors and patterns for this one. He has good taste. =)

Inside, it has pockets for notebooks and pens. I found the kraft notebook in the $1 post at target - we dressed it up with some washi tape and sequins. Sam added a note to Mrs B and a picture he drew to the first page. 

Alex's school day is ending as I write this..  Ben and Sam have about an hour to go. Bring on summer. =)

color dipped wreath

No matter how busy the holidays get, I make sure to set aside time to personalize a wreath for our front door. It's a project that can be completed quickly, but that makes me smile every time I come home. In the past, I've mainly stuck to adding garlands - I've done buttons, punched book paper stars and felt circles.

I bought  a wreath at Trader Joe's yesterday, but was uncertain exactly what I'd do to it. Inspiration struck this morning - I wanted to create a color dipped look. 

I opted to paint the wreath with aqua spray paint, and just used newspaper to mask off half of the wreath. The spray paint worked well on the wreath, but it took about 5 coats to get good coverage on the pinecones.

 

To finish the wreath off, I strung buttons and wood veneer stars from Studio Calico's Printshop collection on floral wire. Sequins would also make fun accents - they'd add a bit of shimmer! 

Christmas may be less than a week away (eek!), but there's still time to add a little cheer to your door. IIn fact, I think I'll just call this a winter wreath and leave it up well in to January. ;)

boys will be boys

and boys, even big ones, have a thing for water fights.  i was safely inside while this was going down, but poked my head out to get a few pics of my drenched four before they came in. alex's shoes are still wet, 3 days later.  his sandals fell apart while we were at adventureland and i'm having trouble finding him a new pair this late in the season.  they all had fun, though, and sam went to sleep asking if we could have another water fight the next day.

 

our other end of the week fun was the parents vs kids soccer game at the bigs' soccer camp. somewhere in that chaos are matthew, alex and ben.  apparently, if the parents win, the kids have to clean their room, and if the kids win, they get ice cream.  well, it was a tie. we had ice cream for dinner and will be making them clean their room this week. =) neither of the boys had played soccer before - but ben was asking to play in the fall, so i figured a camp would be a good way to introduce them to the sport. ben's decided it's not for him - so i'm glad we discovered that in a week long camp and not in the first week of the season!

 

since i hadn't used my fuji in a while, i decided to pull  it out to document the occasion.  then i used a whole roll of film taking pics of them enjoying their ice cream.  these are my 5 favorites. =) it had been a hot day and we'd had a fairly late lunch, so there really wasn't a more perfect dinner.

in all of the summer crazies, i've gotten behind on sharing some projects. i did a nature box project for fiskars - i love this project because it gives you an activity to keep your kids busy, AND a place to stash all the *stuff* they inevitably pick up while they're exploring outside.

 

when my friend may flaum asked me to do a layout for an article that she was writing for ella's july e-zine, i HAD to say yes.  because i love may, and i love ella. and on top of that, i have scads of travel photos that i haven't gotten around to scrapping yet. i mixed studio calico's july kit with documentary - a perfect combination for a travel page. (ETA - if you click on the july e-zine link, you can see may's article and my page)

and one more... i made this for the crate paper blog a few weeks back - it uses my favorite line from the last release, brook. totally loving their new lines - definitely has me regretting not applying for the design team.  can't wait to see it in person in chicago.

 

(crate paper brook patterned paper and rubs + making memories flowers + jenni bowlin buttons + tiny attacher + fiskars small and medium flower punches + fiskars scallop sentiment punch)

ok, it's taken me all weekend to write this..  i'm thinking i'd better wrap it up so i can write about new adventures this week. ;)  hope you all had a good weekend!

library tote + PATCHWORK winner

first -this is one of those projects that i've been dying to share since the day i finished it. when i proposed this project, i wasn't 100% sure which direction i wanted to go with it.  but as i sat and sorted through fabrics, i reeeeeeeeeeeeeally wanted to work with some of the fun colors i've been collecting for a quilt for sam.  and then i realized that if i made him a tote bag for books, i wouldn't have to empty the toys out of his backpack every time we went to the library.

i worked off and on one day, with him by my side.  he likes to drive cars and trains on the strips of fabric (and on my ruler!) while i'm working.  and once i told him it was going to be a bag for HIM, he kept pestering me.  is it done?  can we go get books?

 

and about 5 minutes after i stitched the strap in place, we were out the door to the library, filling it with books. i love how it turned out.  the orange dot as the strap was a happy accident - i had waaaaaaaaaaaay less unbleached cotton than i thought i did.  as in, i barely eeked the bag out of what i had on hand.  oops!

(you can find directions here at the fiskars website, we're celebrating national craft month with a new project each day)

we've got a busy saturday planned - the bigs have swimming lessons in just a bit (um, i should probably get dressed!) and we're all going to a play at the children's theater this afternoon.  even sam.  it will be his first time, and i'm hoping he'll make it through the show!

but before i go - the winner of the patchwork add-on. =) (which is still available for purchase, btw, if you didn't win ;)

 

congrats to Erin W!!! please email me, there's a link up on the left sidebar. =) 

Erin W said...

What a brilliant tutorial. I have some of that inkjet fabric at home and just don't know what to do with it! Thanks for the great ideas. And thank you for sharing the chance to win that yummy SC kit. If I was luck enough to win I would make a garland to hang over my bed. Thanks again, and totally LOVE your SC projects.

Reply March 05, 2010 at 11:20 AM

brainstorming (and a plea for help!!)

so.  the countdown to the second annual bagel handmade christmas is in the single digits (it's monday) and have i started my gifts? no. am i even sure what i'm making?  well, um...  no.  i have some ideas. one stands out right now but i'm not sure if it's *right*.  i've been flipping through books, going through the top 100 tutorials of 09 (thanks for the link, kelly), and randomly web searching - but nothing is really jumping out.  got any favorite sewing tutorials to share???  it needs to be easy-ish - i need to make six - but still awesome, because these girls rock.

thanks for any links you can share - or even just commiseration. non procrastinators need not comment. ;)

tuesday

so.  today is all about researching whether or not i need new carseats, and going to school to make candy houses w/ my fave kindergartner.  and snow.  wheeeeeeeeee, snow. =) at least it's warmer than yesterday.  and matthew is working from home so that he can watch sam while i go make candy houses, so he took the bigs to school.  and brought me back a diet coke.  he's a good man. ;)

yesterday, in addition to cleaning, sam and i redecorated our front door wreath. it had featured a lovely red velvet bow and pinecones with bells on them and that wasn't working for me.  when i saw this post on mel's 2peas blog i totally had to buy that chipboard joy to put in the middle of my wreath.  i punched a hole in the top and tried to hang it but it wouldn't hang straight.

so i got resourceful and stuck that thing right to my front door.  HA.

as i mentioned, we were headed to my mom's company's christmas party when we got rearended (by an insurance adjuster, in her company car, who happened to be married to someone who worked at my mom's company.  wacky, yes?).  ANYWAYS, we finally got there, and sam let my mom hold him in the vicinity of santa.  the bigs refused to have anything to do w/ the big man.  sigh. 

the boys loaded up on cheese, crackers and christmas cookies and then waited in line for the balloon guy.

ben got a dinosaur.

alex got spiderman.

and sam got a penguin.

okay, i've got a date with the little dude to empty the dishwasher.  stay warm! ;)

a little christmas

whew...  after a weekend of intermittant internet access, we're back in business w/ a new wireless router.  that was NOT fun.  i need my gmail fix.  though i did finish 2 pages, 2 cards, a project for fiskars and the christmas project i'm about to show you, so maybe it was for the best?

here's what the boys and i did saturday night:

 

we started with styrofoam cones, about 1/2 a yard of amy butler fabric, my button drawer and some pins.  we tore the fabric into strips (they loved that part), and wrapped it around the cones, pinning each piece into place.  then we added buttons as ornaments.  super simple, super cute.

 

they're hanging out some cute little berry wreaths that i found at target this morning and the gorgeous matboard that becky gave me last christmas.  and they're on top of my fabulous card catalog drawers that i found in october.

it makes me happy. =)

and now i'm back to figuring out what to do about cmas jammies for the bigs.  i bought them some from the gap, size 6 and size 8.  ben is wearing his tonight and they BARELY fit.  i figured that since he can still wear 5s from babygap that 6s from gapkids would work fine, GRRRRRRRR.  so i'm guessing he'll be wearing alex's 8s and alex will be wearing.. ummmm.  yeah.  the 10s are sold out online, so i guess  calling stores tomorrow or coming up with another option!

sleepy.

littlest has been fighting a bit of a stomach bug, and it caught up to him last night. oy. there wasn't much sleep, and i've changed a lot of diapers. he's fitfully snoozing in my lap right now, and it seems that my day of marathon shopping to finish off my cmas to dos is OUT. ah well. time to figure out what can be done online, and the rest will happen on monday.

i've been bookmarking some holiday crafts i'd like to do this year.. this garland is going on the list. this wreath is awesome, but i think it's going on the next year list. i bought some styrofoam cones to wrap in strips of red and white fabric, hoping that will happen this weekend. as usual, i have more ideas than time. ;)

so. it's friday. today is going to be all about diet coke to stay awake and lots of "nuggles" and "rock a rock" (snuggles and rocking my littlest). hoping to get some scrapping done, as i have totally been ignoring it with family in town over thanksgiving and then going into super shopping mode. i'm glad i did, as it was nice to be able to focus on those things, but i'm missing it now!! i have a bunch of things coming due for fiskars and i want to play along with this challenge at 2peas - my slice needs to be USED.

happy friday and happy weekend! =)

back to normal

it's been a crazy busy few days. tuesday we went out to dinner w/ family that had arrived early for thanksgiving. wednesday we went to the zoo, helped FiL set up at his church for thanksgiving (matthew + the bigs) and ran errands (sam + me), and then went to dinner and swimming w/ family. thursday was thanksgiving, 11-7. friday we were up early for a cousin's bridal shower (me + sam) and swimming (matthew + the bigs). got home around noon and spent the day watching football and working on some little projects. saturday we slept late and were slow moving for most of the day, but we hit kelly's daughter's katie's wedding reception at 7 and danced till 10 (and i gotta say, the place was AMAZING. so cool to see how all of the details came together - just wait till you see the pics!!) this morning we got up late again, and then got groceries, were visited by my mom and made chocolate chip muffins. oh, and matthew hung some lights outside. whew. now i'm catching up on some email and paperwork, and about ready for bed.

i wanted to share these ornaments that the bigs made. i was inspired by these ornaments by jennifer mcguire. the bigs helped me cut 4 christmas trees out of white cardstock using the slice, and then colored and glittered them. i folded them in half and glued them together and now they have cute little ornaments to give to grandma. i think we're going to have to make more, they loved doing it. =) i'd also love to make these ornaments that jennifer made - i want to use felt for the circles. i think those might be the ornaments that i make for the boys this year. =)