Countdown To Christmas

This year along with the 24 books, I decided to start a new tradition. I took my daughters out and let them pick out Christmas fabric they liked (I did not tell them what it was for) and made pillowcases for them to open December 1st along with their first book! They loved it and were so excited to curl up in their beds with them and read our first book!

The second I saw this fabric I was over the Moon for it!

We have one of the big Pottery barn advent calenders that we use every year, but as soon as I saw the post on the punch board I knew I wanted to do it! For ours we pull it off the fridge and punch it. Also this year instead of getting candy each day for the countdown I made ( except for a few above) handmade gifts. Little things that I have seen on pinterest and saved for later. I wrapped Lilly's in green tissue paper and Raley's in Red so I would not have to guess when they pulled their gifts out since some of them were not the same. I have another post coming with the rest of the gifts that I have made, I could only get a few out to take a quick picture before Lilly wandered in.. Also each day in the advent calender they get a piece of paper that has a series of scriptures on it that follows His life, so we get out our bibles and read them together. Lastly they get a second piece of paper that has a Christmas/Jesus Activity to do.  Hopefully tomorrow I will get our list up of the activities we do!

The pillowcases follow the pattern here! 

For the Advent Calender here

Jesus Scriptures here

Friendship Bracelets here

Mrs.Potato head here

Crayons in a box here

Hello Kitty Softie here but I did not put her's together so she could sew it

Jacks Straws and Rhyming dominoes  here

The ball of yarn is for finger knitting. The Chalkboard books I just painted old board books with chalk paint.  Fox mask I free styled out of felt. Journals, bracelets bought at target. 

Felt Christmas Tree

Last year I saw all over Pinterest this felt tree which is awesome! So this year wanted to make a felt Christmas tree for my daughters to play with but make it moveable and more for dramatic play. I love all things forest like so I wanted this tree to look kind of shaggy like it came from.. well the forest. My mom thinks it need feet and should star in a SiFy movie... hmmm.. full of jokes that one. I think its cute and the girls love it! I make some quick ornaments and got some sparkly red yarn from my stash I also threaded some sparkly pompoms to string around it but they are not pictured. The tree I made a cone with one layer of felt and stuffed it sewed it shut. For the leaves I cut long strips of jagged felt and hot glued it around until it was done! 

Very Exciting News!!

I have a "little" project that I have been working on! It is also one of the reasons while I have been so busy and have not had a lot of time to spend here. My two daughters and I are members of one of the largest Methodist Church's in our area. 20,000 large. Today I met with the facilities and Construction director at my church to talk about my "little" project.


I want to start a Congregational garden, where 100% of the produce grown will go to local food pantries to feed the homeless.  They asked me "how much land I would want?", I asked them "How much would you give me?" Right now we are talking about 2 acres! That's to start off with. That is one of the gardens that we talked about today. Another is a Children's garden and another garden to grow produce for the cafe inside the church. Iam going to list the rest because manly its late and I have been going since 7am and my brain is not working the best right now.. Some other ideas that I want to do are


* A Children's garden where we have "Farmers Markets" that the kids put on and sell their produce they grow and use the money to donate towards a Children's cause that is local so the kids understand where the money went.
*A pumpkin patch where we grow our own pumpkins and have a Fall festival where the families can go pumpkin picking, sip cider, roast smores, play in hay, face painting, crafts.. etc and again all the money will get donated or go towards a new wing of the church.
* Fruit trees, there is a grant that you -short version- have to donate the fruit to a pantry but they give you 25 fruit trees. So an orchard.
* Sweet potato project, where they give you the slips and they come dig them up all you have to do is supple the land.
* Potato seed project where they also give you the "seed" and you plant them you dig them up but the potatoes go to feed people in the Appalachian mountains.
* A Gleaning team. I am part of a local Gleaning team and I want to start one for our church. What Gleaners do is go to the farmers and pick produce that is left over or Seconds and then take it to the food pantry for those in need.
* During next summer I want to start classes on Canning , fruit leathers. People pay a small fee which is donated and they learn how to preserve and make the most of the fresh food.
There is more but for now that is all I can think of ... it is exciting and the feeling it gives me is Ah-mazing.. its like a boyfriend in a since.. It makes me excited and happy and I can not stop daydreaming about it..

Here is view on the life in the Appalachian Mountains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocqTQBk_aco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63np8bbF9Aw&feature=related

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/04/23/11355138-appalachia-struggles-to-overcome-poverty?lite

What a changed place this world could be if everyone used their strengths and gifts that God gave them to make it better. This is the beginning of my piece and what I want to show my daughters.

Thanksgiving Bunting

This is the Thanksgiving Bunting that I made. I cut leaf shapes out of felt then just ran them threw my sewing machine. I have seen really cute ones on pintrest but I did not have the time. You can see some of  our Pilgrim houses and Indian tee-pees on top of the mantel that Lilly and I made. She was wanted to display them there so we put little lights in them and turn them on at night and they are pretty cute! Plus some of our smaller pumpkins.The bunting I got from this web site 

http://atsecondstreet.blogspot.com/2010/11/give-thanks-banner-free-printable.html

Halloween/Fall part 2

1-6 Leaf Maze and Leaf Piles 

7-9 Spooky Show, This was Lilly's first Horse Show! I made her horse saddle pads like Angus  but you can't really see them in this picture and I made fake fur legs to make her look more like a draft horse. Lilly loved it! 

10- I made Remy the same horse outfit but made him a bridle to go with it that Lilly lead him by... he looooved it... fake fur legs and saddle pads. We won the pet contest we were in!! We got lots of treats/toys/ and a gift card!! Lilly was super excited about all of that.

11- Carving pumpkins

I forgot to put these with the other Halloween post.. 

Around The Blog

The plan
1 Recipes
2 Sewing/Woodworking/Crafting
3 Antiquing/Thrifting
4 Random Goodness
5 Weekly Homeschooling unit
6 Pretty Pictures
7 Bits & Pieces

Details from above
1 We eat organic, pure, no GMO's. I also have picky eaters. So these will be recipes that my children eat. 
2- I will be showing projects I make. From crafts with my kids to building with wood.
3- I go Antiquing several times a week and will show what I get. Also I will start to show my collections and family herlioms
4- Life
5 We do a different unit each week, and I have been horrible about posting these. I never remember to take pictures and when I do its never enough to do a "Unit" post. Also I will show how we practice speech.
6 Inspiration
7 Our Week

This is my plan. Buuut plans can always get thrown. Mostly this is to hold my self accountable. I have also decided to open up more about my personal life.  Get more detailed about who I am, my thoughts, my feelings, my past, my present. A random blog post every now and then is fine and dandy but I want this blog to be a blog where friends are made and meet. Where you go to see what a friend has been doing that day and feel like you know my family.

Also with the Holidays coming up, I will start a series of post on toys/crafts/books that we have and love and some that are on our wishlist. I will always say if a post is sponsored. But mostly it is going to be my personal opinion on what we love.  

Bits&Pieces Halloween

1/2 Max, Iam going to eat you up!

3 My rad pumpkin I picked on Lilly's school field trip

4 Fall/Halloween Color matching 

5 Halloween Gingerbread House 

6 A House full of decorations

7 Halloween Bunting and Houses I made of local "Haunted" Houses

8 Our Spider I Hide every day, the girls knew I hide and would love to look for it every day

9 My hooded cape for part of my Halloween costume. Lilly wanted me to go as Eleanor, Merida's mom.

10 Classic Halloween coloring book

11 "Booing" our neighbors and friends, we made these on the cricut   

12 Halloween water balls. The girls would pull out all the different hidden items and graph them 

12 Halloween popcorn for one of our "Family Friday Movie Nights"

Hamilton

Took Hamilton to the Apple Orchard to see if he would like it there. It went down hill the second he saw all of the other ducks... He ran away scared from them and hide behind the kids. He would not get in the pond. Decided to take himself on a tour threw the event barn and walk around with the groom whose wedding was going on. Tried preening on the large dogs who did not appreciate it. Thought he would go shopping in their cider store. At one point I looked over and a group of women were standing in a circle talking... and so was Hamilton like he was one of them.... He thoroughly enjoyed his day, I think his highlight was riding shotgun and watching the birds out the sunroof... I think I have given him a complex..

Tilly Monster

We have finally named this little gal! Her name is Tilly. I call her Tilly Monster or Monster..Because she is. The breeder named her Jude and we were not sure if we were going to keep it.  Lilly wanted to name her peaches. Raley wanted to name her Noona. I liked Indie or Tatters.. because she looks like a tater tot. My mom liked Tilly because shes french and so is the name or Josie for her housekeeper that raised my mom. As far as Jude my mom like the name and thought it was funny, Lilly hated it, and for myself it would have been weird. When I was married that would have been the name if we had a son. But I was blessed with two daughters! Lilly and Raley are over the moon for their new puppy that my parents got for them. Shes perfect. She loves to play and is really wild but is such a snuggle bug she always has to be sitting on you. Remy finally warmed up to her and Raley calls them the papa lion and baby lion because that is what they sound like when they play. Lilly has been feeding her and "training" her, we took her to Show and Tell at school the last week and she was a hit!  

Thankful Basket

This year I am starting a new tradition to do with my family. I made these little felt baskets one for each of us ( Lilly, Raley, my Mother, my Father, and myself). Each night we write one thing we are thankful for that the other person did. So I will stick a note in everyone's but myself same with everyone else will do the same. Then on Thanksgiving eve we will open all the notes and read them. Its a great way to appreciate the little things your loved ones do on a daily basis and to teach little ones about the value of the small things to be Thankful for.  

Thankful Tree

Got all the Halloween stuff up today and Thanksgiving is no out! This is our Thanksgiving Thankful Tree. It has 22 hands from each girl on it. Everyday I am are going to write down 1 thing they are each Thankful for! Today Lilly's was "Her Friends and mommy" Raley's was "Her Minnie Mouse game" that I got her for her birthday. Its going to be fun seeing all the hands and their thoughts when it all done and going back over the years seeing the different sets! On the back I wrote there names and will number them.

DIY costume Max from Where The Wild Things Are

 I have had both of these costumes done for a month or more now...My goal was to get these up so other people could use the idea.. but celebrating Halloween and doing activities for that kiiiind of trumped. Sorry, maybe next year! For Raley's costume this year, she was Max from Where The Wild Things Are. It has always been my favorite children's book, from when I was little to now. I always wanted to do it if I ever had a son, but I think it is very fitting for Raley. She is wild and fearless and full of imagination. When she was little ( she still does it now sometimes) she would growl at Lilly and me and snap her teeth and cackle because it would always make Lilly squeal and run. Whenever she did  it always made me think of Max when he yell to his mom "Iam going to eat you up!!"

To make the costume, I wanted soft white snuggly fabric. I took Raley and gave her the choices and she picked this one and it is exactly the one that I had in mind! For the body I folded the fabric in half ( so the fluffy sides were touching) and laid her on the fold so half of her body was on the fabric and I traced it. For the arms and hood I used Simplicity pattern 5520 because it was what was in front of me. I used the arms for the little boys knight costume on the pattern and the hood that was on there also along with the "ears" I did make four of these pieces so it was lined when it was down. The ears I just stuffed and sewed on the outside. I cut the legs and arms so they looked like claws. The tail I just cut out what I thought a wolf tail would look like. I cut a little hole in the but and sewed it in from the inside. It pulls up on her so I did not put a zipper or buttons on. For the crown, I used the same fur as the tail. I also got the heaviest fusible interface  that I could but I did not iron it because I was afraid it would melt the fabric. I hand sewed the fur on and I wanted it to be detached from the hood so she could wear it alone.I put all the tips of the crown together and clipped them with a clothes pin so it would give it that funky curl. I really love it, so does Raley!  FYI This outfit cost $10 to make, in your face $90 pottery barn kids costume, Ha!