dream big.

Happy New Year + Semi-Handmade Gifts

Happy New Year! I gratefully say goodbye to 2011 as it has been one bumpy ride. We finished off the year with our furnace and water heater going out in the same week. Yes, the same week. To top that off it happened two weeks before Christmas. Oh, and let’s not even discuss the dollars that had to be poured into it. Yes, I am happy 2011 is over. I am ready for a fantastic 2012.

I have been busy over the holiday. I created a semi-handmade Christmas this year. I am thrilled to report all of the handmade gifts are well loved! Yeah! Now that Christmas is over and I have no more surprises to keep I thought I would share the gifts that were made this past holiday at my house.

The first two gifts I want to share have to do with the two old suitcases I shared in December. Well…one of those suitcases smelled VERY musty. I am working on getting out the musty smell, but thankfully had an extra suitcase at home that I could use in place of the musty one.

I was inspired by a dollhouse suitcase I saw on Pinterest, that was made for a dolly. Ella LOVES Calico Critters, and really wanted a house for them for Christmas. I just couldn’t see spending over $100 for a house made of plastic, so I created this dollhouse suitcase for her critters. The best part is that it holds ALL of her little furniture and critters, plus fits under her bed when she is finished with it! Needless to say this was a complete hit at my house.

I created the little house by cutting a piece of cardboard to fit inside the lid of the suitcase. Then, I covered it with batting to make it soft and squishy. I just did a rough cut and stapled the bad boy to the cardboard. Easy peasy.

Next, I placed the covered cardboard onto my background fabric and cut out the back ground fabric. I left enough fabric to later wrap around the cardboard and staple in place.

Then I cut out strips of fabric to create a door, windows, and curtains. After cutting them out I stitched them onto the background fabric. I planned to add more details, but Christmas was coming and I had lots more to create!

Next, I created a floor for the house. I did this the same way that I created the house detail insert. I just used some fun fabric and core board instead of cardboard, because it is what I had on hand.

Also, I wanted to use the suitcase as storage for Ella's little Critter's, so I used coreboard and made padded siding for the base of the suitcase for the floor lid to rest on.

She loves it and actually is playing with it as I type right now!

The whole idea of a suitcase being the storage container for a toy or project inspired me to create a crocheting kit for Natalie. I included the super cool Kids Crochet book and bought her all of the supplies that are listed in the book to get her started. She LOVES it and is happy to be crocheting beyond a simple chain!

The book fits inside at the bottom and everything has a home. Just got to like that.

These gifts were fun to create and are well loved by my kiddos. Who said a semi-handmade gift couldn’t thrill a child?!

Today's post will be taking part in the following link parties: Fireflies and Jellybeans, Homemaker on a Dime, Made By You Monday , Today's Creative and Tatertots and Jello.

Art Week - day one!

I am back. I know completely MIA for a while, but I needed to live life in real time and focus on my family. And today's projects are created by my family and students I work with.

So, I figured out my uploading issues, and want to share what we have been up to.

Part way through the school year I decided I needed to spend more time creating art with my kids. I decided that about every six weeks we would take a week off from our normal school work and spend a week creating and learning about different art styles. This kids LOVED it. This week I want to share our first official ART WEEK.

On the first day of Art Week we created self portrait collages. This was perfect for using up my scrapbooking scraps and the kids really loved the results. I found the idea at Better Homes and Garden.

Olivia created the portrait above. The girls each drew an outline of how they felt their face is shaped and then started gluing torn pieces of scrap paper in the correct color hues of their skin, hair and eyes. They then did the same for a shirt.

Next. we cut out the final portrait and using dimensional squares adhered the portrait to some patterned background paper.

This was a great project to kick off Art Week, because everyone felt super successful.

 

It took some patience, but because we had an entire day to work on it the kids didn't feel any pressure and ejoyed the creativity.

Tomorrow I will show you some of the mini art pieces we made.

Back to School

BIG first day of school today...so I am a little late getting this posted. I wanted to post the project I have working on, but I had to prepare for school.

I did print those cute free printables this morning and took first day photos! Thanks I Heart Nap Time!

This is my Mohler Academy crew! They were fun to have together again today.

I can't believe how big my 3 girls are!

We had a great day and got lots accomplished. I am hoping for another fantastic year.

Inspired to create by chalk board mugs!

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at back to school ideas and I stumbled on this.

This is on my pinterest board and can be found at Funky Junk Interiors. I knew immediatly that I didn't need this as a teacher's gift, but needed it for my house. We go through glasses constantly because no one can remember whose glass belongs to them. I didn't want the mug, so I hopped to the store and picked up four glasses thinking this would make glasses and drinks during school more manageable!

This project took maybe 30 minutes top and the kids and I are already loving them. I am not certain how they will hold up to wash after wash, but lucky for me I have more chalk board paint!

The first thing I did was to mask off the areas that I didn't want to paint.

Then I shook up my can of chalk board paint and sprayed away...I used 2 - 3 coats of paint. It was a hot day and it dried VERY fast.

After the paint dried I pulled off the tape.

Super easy, very useful, and even my 12 year old LOVES her glass. the kids like to draw pictures on them as well. Fun.

I still have some more paint, and thought I might make the girls dance teachers a glass to take to them on their first day of dance class! I LOVE pinterest and the inspiration it provides. Happy Friday!

Our weekend get-away.

Dancing on the beach. We had the BEST time together this past weekend. Perfect weather and warmth, all of which has been in very small quantities this summer here in the northwest. I know other areas of our nation are sweltering, but after all the rain and cold of fall, winter and spring I really need some sunshine. Thankfully it didn't hide from us at the beach!

The water was cold, but refreshing!

They hated being there...can't you tell?! :)

They found treasures!

Got wet some more...

Flew kites and my dear friend Shelley came with us which was so much fun!

Ella took this picture of me before we began construction of a new sand castle.

Natalie warmed up after being in the cold Pacific.

It was beautiful and as we pulled away from the beach house Ella said, " It is hard to say goodbye to here."

And she is right.

Party + Green Dessert Stands!

We had a successful party for my oldest last Friday and then left for the BEACH! More on the beach later, today I wanted to share some party decor pics and an alternative to cake.

This is the birthday girl who is not fond of cake. I know, who doesn't like cake...I never said my children weren't weird! So, instead of cake this year she decided she wanted pie. Cool, I LOVE pie. Her party was at the lake, so I had just a small table to add decor and I needed a way to dress up pie. Here is a peek at the party decor table.

I have been placing plates on top of glasses for a quick cake stand for years, but I wanted something more festive. So after a quick trip to Goodwill for plates and glasses and picking up some spray paint I quickly created some sweet little dessert stands.

I set the plates on top of coordinating glasses and I was finished. Now, if I had been worried about the stand being wobbly I would have hot glued the two together, but I live dangerously and wanted these to be stored easily as well!

Oh all of this cute little jars are pies in a jar, from the cookbook Our Best Bites.

They all had a great time, friends, cousins and relatives. Love when fun and decor come together like that!

My oldest is 12!

Today Olivia is 12 years old! I can hardly believe it. This is a picture of her from last year. I will be busy today with her party at the lake. Should be a great day.

Happy birthday my sweet girl.

The Beach.

This is Ruby Beach. This is a beach I want to come back to and explore.

 

These are my girls on the beach in Grayland. In Western Washington we have not had much of a summer, but that doesn't stop my girls from LOVING the beach.

What's not to love about a beach where you can gather BUCKETS full of beautiful sand dollars?!

Planning an August trip back to the beach and the girls can hardly wait!

My summer and guest blogging!

 

Yeah, I got some answers and now I can upload images again!!! So, here is a recap of my summer. First we terrified my three girls as we hiked to Olympic Hot Springs and they had to walk over this CRAZY log bridge. I truly was not certain the three of them would actually walk across, but they were proud of their accomplishment once they did.

We enjoyed the hot springs, while my oldest was completely disgusted by the smell of sulfu and wanted to be know where near the pools!

The pools were shallow and clear and my two youngest were loving the hot water on their sore feet.

There were beautiful wild flowers every where. Which I just LOVE!

We also went on a hike to Sol Duc Falls which all of my girls said was their FAVORITE hike this summer. Easy hike with a GREAT pay off!

I truly LOVE waterfalls. I think every where we went I was calling out to the kids whenever I saw a trickle of a waterfall.

Sol Duc Falls ran through this cool narrow gorge. Simply breath taking!

It was fun just spending time with my family. I really enjoyed the uninterrupted time we had together.

We also went to the Hoh Rainforest and did a little hike there as well. The trees were stunning and this spruce tree is immense!

More on my summer tomorrow.

On the creative front I am blogging at Big Picture Classes this week, so be sure to take a peek at some fun GREEN ideas I have been working on!

Have a great day!

Life Changing Moment #2 and Write it Wednesday Challenge

Moment number two for me is really about what it was like growing up on a farm, and just how different I may be without this experience. Below you will find out what life was like on the farm from my perspective. What I realized is that I really have an abundance of farm stories I could tell, and I will but on other pages. I will need to round up some pictures from this time in my life before I tackle these stories, but it will be very fun to do.

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I grew up on a farm in Oro Grande, California. The town was in the dusty desert, full of tumbleweeds, dirt roads, and the Mojave river.

 

The farm was owned by my Grandma and Grandpa Fox, and there were two houses on the farm; a yellow house at one end, and a faded light 70’s green rambler at the other.

 

In between the two farm houses were several barns and lots of pens for animals, primarily pigs, but sometimes cattle and goats. Of course we had a coop full of chickens, a few ducks and an extremely mean goose we called George.

 

There was a tire swing at one end of the farm near the yellow house, haystacks everywhere and acre after acre of pasture land.

 

I remember dreaming of having horses at the farm. It never happened, but I had relatives who did live on farms with horses, although

I am not sure who they are. I do know the lovely lady with the horse here is from the Gentile side of my family, so I guess one could say it seems perfectly obvious that I would spend a large portion of my life on a farm.

 

The farm was the Fox family gathering place. Everyone lived there in one home, or the other over a period of time. And every aunt, uncle and cousin would be there each weekend cooking, working and playing together.

 

Growing up on a farm allowed me time to explore and run free in a way that most kids today do not get to. I would climb tall haystacks and jump from one stack of hay to another. I would gather my cousins together and direct performances on the back of large flatbed tractor trailers. I would collect chicken eggs, and help feed the calves when we had them. My cousins and I would walk down a long dirt road past the pastures and into the woods to play, pan for fools gold at the river, and just have grand adventures. On the way home we would always stop and pick grapes from the vines that grew during the summer months. I was truly able to experience life out on the farm, and I loved it there.

 

The railway tracks were right next to the dirt road that led to the farm, and I remember walking down the dirt road often on the way home from school. There rarely was snow in southern California, so it seems so funny that most of the photos I have from the farm are of the snow and the major train crash that happened right next to the farm when my Grandma Irma came to visit us one winter.

 

Living on this farm and spending so many years close to the Fox family is a moment in my life that I treasure. This time period is one where I gained independence, began to understand how families step up to help each other, and always provide a place for you to come home to. This time in my life helped mold me and I have many memories and stories from my life that happened while  on the Fox Family Farm.

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So, a challenge and Write it Wednesday prompt:

Write a story from your life that shares why you are grateful for growing up with a specific experience. Mine of course is living on the farm. I know there are other experiences I am grateful for as well. Write your story and when you have time illustrate it. This might be a page you can add to your 100 life changing moments or simply a page about you to add to your albums...either is good, and what a piece of you to share with others!