mommo

Moving Day!

I made the decision to move on to cheaper and hopefully craftier pastures.  I have made a lot of changes in my overly busy life in the last few months- picking ang choosing things to stay and things to go.  It has left me a little more peaceful and with a little more time to do things that I enjoy, like making things just to make them. With all of this I moved the blog to http://limegardenias.blogspot.com/  .  To celebrate I am giving away some Valentine goodies so stop on by and give a hoot at the new blog.

Baby steps

I just have to share this- not the money but the story.  For the last few years we have had a big bottle in our room and it was always called, somewhat generically, the vacation fund.  It was fun to actually finally have a vacation to assign to the fund this year.  It was made up whatever change was in our pockets at the end of the day as well as misc. one dollar bills that I would have in my back pocket after work days.  Leftover lunch money.  Then there was the twenty dollar bill M put in.  I asked her where she got it and she said, "Daddy's wallet".  Oh, of course.  Periodically I would go through my hubby's top dresser drawer as he tended to toss change in there after work.  This was not money we missed.  (except maybe that $20...) it was mainly just bits and bobs that alone didn't amount to much more than a buck or two.  Well,  A few days before our vacation, we all gathered around to dump,count and roll the fund.  We all made guesses as to how much we had in the bottle and mid way through realized we had to change our guesses because it was adding up pretty fast.  Two hours of counting later, we had $774 !!  Can you believe it?  It felt so great!  It feels like such a metaphor for so many other things in my life right now.  Taking my time,  doing things slowly and deliberatly while not overthinking them.  Plus it was a fantastic exercise for the kids because to have a jar full of change turn into what seems like a million dollars to a five year old was pretty impactful.  It also helped on the vacation because they could put the money we would spend into the context of all that saved money.  That after spending $100 to get into the aquarium (!), that our $774 was suddenly $664.  Putting it into context and realizing that even though it sounds like so much money, it goes fast if you aren't careful.

When we were all done counting,  we had a handful of odd nickels, dimes and a quarter or two that were left over after rolling all the rest so we threw them back into the jar and off we go again. 

Home again! Home again!

Well, we have just returned from a little winter holiday feeling rested and content.  We spent the first two weeks of the month in Maui.  We thought we were leaving just in time to miss the big storm here but we just flew to an equally large storm there.  Actually it was a Monsoon and there was a few hours one day where it rained 4 inches an hour.  Not total- each hour for a few hours.  Crazy. Roads were wahsed out, schools were closed and a chunk of the island lost power for a couple of days.  We only lost power at night so we fared pretty well. We sat in the condo and made paper chains and I crocheted neck warmers.  After the first week the sun came out and we had tons of fun boogie boarding and playing  in the sun and sand.  I lived there for a while about 14 years ago and still have a dear friend over there so it was fun to reconnect with her and see her lovely children.  We had not been anywhere for a vacation in many years so it felt indulgent and was such a nice time to reconnect with my kids and hubby for two weeks of no phone and no computer.  When we got back the phone at our house was actually down so until late afternoon when they fixed it we still had the luxury of not being distracted with calling folks. It must have gone out that first day we were gone because there weren't any messages so it was also nice to not feel that pressure of getting back to folks. It was a nice way to ease back into things.  The photo above is of my girl at The Sacred Garden in the Labryinth.  The kids were too squirelly to sit through the guest lecture that day which was given by the author of ,"Too Much Thinking, Not Enough Pooping!".  Could have been a good lecture! Here is a beautiful Hawaiian quilt that was at the hotel- I would love to learn how to do this. And here is a shot of the ceiling of a Korean temple we visted .  So gorgeous.

We arrived home at our house about 12:30 a.m. and the next day we went out to get our Christmas tree.  This whole Christmas season is feeling very condensed so we had to get to it.  I didn't even unpack most of my ornaments.  Here are the decorations I did manage to put out.  The wreath is one I made several years ago.  One of my chenille Santa's made it into this one. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the countdown! Just a week left!!

Vintage Yumminess!

Are these the sweetest?  I bought them at a Senior Center Rummage sale several years ago.  I got them for FIVE CENTS EACH!  I covet them and have only used a couple of them.  I just can't seem bring myself to use them all.  I have a pink one on a wreath I made awhile back but that yellow one may never find a proper home because I think he is too neat.  Now that I have said that out loud, it seems silly that if I think he is so great, he would spend his days in a big old box and not out where I can see him.  Looks like I will have to rethink my plan...

I have boxes and boxes of the yummiest Vintage Christmas stuff that I have collected for a long time now.  I finally decided it was time to sort things out into seperate containers so I know what I have to work with.  It drives me nuts to have to look for every tiny thing through a mass of huge boxes. So take a gander- All the like little items in the same box.  All the cardboard houses, all the tiny glass balls, all the funny little charmingly garish corsagey looking present toppers together.  I am so enthralled with old Christmas stuff.  It is just too good.

How funny is the Santa with one boot? Not sure what I will do with him but he might come in handy.  That bowl he is in I found at an estate sale a couple of weekends ago.  It has little wooden ball feet.  It just feels good and woody.  Here is one of my very favorite things I have.  I found it at an Estate Sale a few years ago and I know Ididn't pay that much for it.  They feel so nostalgic- my Grandma used to put this little decals on our presents.  The colors and designs are the best. I just love that sort of thing.  I have some old gift wrap too so today I wrapped some little $1 frames I got at Michaels in them.  The others have the german glass glitter.  Don't you just love all those colors?

So you can see the holidays are in full swing here.  Now I just have to finish sorting all the stuff so I can make more stuff!

Room Makeover#2

I finally got around to doing my son's room.  He turned 8 in August but I told him we should wait for the Ikea to open so I could get furniture there.  We did end up finding his desk and chair there and they are the perfect size for him. He is a kid who really loves his room.  He spends a lot of time in there and I give him pretty much free reign to do what he wants in there in terms of artwork and where he puts (copious amounts) of staples and tape.  I love that he has a special place that he is really connected to so I wanted to just enhance how he felt about it by adding some color and getting it organized for him.  I added some art supplies to his desk which he loves.  The only things I ended up making for him were a few pillows and the shark fabric covered bulletin board.  His goal in life is to be an ichthyologist ( a biologist who studies fish).  He has had the same goal for about three years though last year he thought it would be cool if he could play baseball in the summers and study sharks in the off season.  I (and he) love all these colors.  I love the way the red pops off the blue and green. The best thing I did was getting his closet doors off and hanging curtains up.  It has made things a lot easier now that we can access the whole closet and not just one half at a time.  I also put his dresser in there so he has more space to play and build in his room.  I liked it so much I went back and took the doors off of my daughter's room and my craft room.  So nice!  I wanted his room to still feel youthful- in that place between little boy and slightly bigger boy because that is where he is.  I can't tell you how difficult it was to find bedding that wasn't either too young or too stupid- all sport teamed and commercial charactered out.  I got lucky doing it when we did because the college dorm stuff was out.  I made the valance out of a curtain and had lots left over for pillows.  Such a fun stripe!

The best part is he loves it and I am done with room makevers for awhile!

I knit it AND I finished it!

How about that? Not a whole lot of that going on around here lately.  I will say that my feelings of acomplishment were short lived when she decided she probably won't wear it.  She said the same thing about a skirt a couple of years ago but she came around- hopefully she will with this too.  It was the perfect pattern to use up a couple of balls of this super soft I don't remember who made it or what its made out of yarn that I had.  I have been wanting to do a lot of knitting lately and I took my first crochet class the other day which was great.  I don't have a lot of time to do either so I was thrilled to think that I could crochet during an hour's worth of swimming lessons the other day only to discover I remembered everything but my hook.  Today I won't forget. 

We took Dusty to Doggy Daycare today for the first time.  I am not so sure about this.  I had to laugh at how nervous it made me- I just really love that dog.  We will need to board him this winter for a bit so I thought it might be a good idea to get him used to the whole lots of dogs thing.  They have a web cam so we have been able to watch him today. Ahhh, technology!

Almost time for swimming lessons so I had better go make sure I have all my supplies this week.

Yay!

I am just going to say it- I am that person who is totally fine with Christmas crap in the store in October.  I like to get a head start on things and I want to enjoy as much holiday festiveness as possible!  I love those little bells- we made them last year out of egg cartons and tiny vintage christmas ornaments.  That is what I love about the holidays- sitting in the house while it rains outside, Charlie Brown Christmas CD on, toasty warm at the art table, glitter an inch deep and scraps of paper eveywhere. Ahhhhh. We love to make things and I love that unhurried time at the table all together.  I am in the midst of busy time at work but I am making plans for a few hand made goodies.  I have a huge and wonderful collection of vintage christmas stuff just waiting to be repurposed into something new.

This Christmas will be extra fun because of our new family member.  Time for a Dusty update!

This dog is amazing.  Everyone said it would be so much work and while he does require energy, it doesn't feel like work. I love taking him for walks and it gets me outside which is great.  He is also so tuned into us and sensitive it just gets to me.  The other night we watched "The Ultimate Gift" which was a great movie but a tearjerker for sure.  We just had the one year anniversary of my Mother in Law's passing and it has been tough year just missing her.  That coupled with the movie had us pretty emotional that night.  Dusty was sleeping on the floor and half way through the movie, he got up, jumped up on my husband and just put his paws on his chest and stared at his face.  Then he curled up in his lap because he could see he needed some love.  Then the other day we were all at the park and he hopped up on the play structure and went down the slide with the kids.  It is a big wide slide at the top of some platforms he could easily get up and he would just lay part way down and put his paws out front and slide down with the kids.  What a personality!  Some nights when I finally sit down, he just can't get onto my lap fast enough and he just snuggles in and wants to sleep on me.  It is so nice to be around that love all day. It seems in the last week or two he might really be realizing that this is is home now.  He jsut seems like he is settled in.  We feel so lucky that he got to come and live with us.

Goodbye old friend

Look at that beautiful tree.  Specifically the 120 foot Douglas Fir towering over everything else.  For 140 years (or so) it has lived in that corner.  Of course when it began it wasn't the corner of our yard, it was probably wide open space.  Last winter we had a lot of wind and we, along with lots of folks around here, lost trees.  We ended up losing three pines on the opposite corner of the yard.  Each around 70 feet tall.  Tall but not big.  More like spindly pines with a puff of Fir on the top.  Good trees though.  When we had to come and have them hauled away, we had some tree people look at our Doug Fir.  Even though at that point it looked pretty good, it was noted by each arborist that it had been topped twice and that could mean trouble later.  Well, trouble was sooner than later and it just looked bad this fall.  I called up another couple of arborists to come and see it and they found several things wrong with it.  We discussed trying to find a way to save it but it had sort of turned a corner and he wasn't confident it could take the stress and his feeling was that it was weakend and not well.  So we made the difficult decision to have her cut down.  There is a lot of guilt in making decisons like this. We went back and forth and back and forth- consulted with several different tree folks and, if she hadn't been topped those two times, she probably would still be there.  We found out later that topping trees is illegal in the next suburb over and I can see why.  So this is what is left of our tree. Isn't that amazing?  Eight hours and four guys and the tree was just like that.  I will say, as sad as it was, it was a sight to behold.  I had never seen a huge tree taken down and it was pretty mind boggling.  I miss our beautiful tree though I will say this winter when the winds come I may sleep a little easier.  It loomed over two neighbor's houses and I was afraid that it would fall on one of them.  The one neighbor was sad but relieved too.  Once it really started to show the signs that it was an unhealthy tree, it was a little unsettling.  Part of the trunk just crumbled which made me feel a little better about the fact that it was probably dangerous.  The yard is now so bright in that corner- it changed the whole way the light is in the backyard.  We are going to keep some of the rounds to use as stools in the backyard and the rest of the wood will be donated to a group here in town that gives the wood to low income people so they can have heat in the winter.  That makes me feel a little better- the thought that the tree wil provide warmth to people who really need it this winter.  But I still miss looking up in her branches.  I wonder about all the animals and birds that must have been displaced.  I am sure we will plant another tree but it would take planting many trees to come close to equaling that beauty.   

Happy Halloween!

How cute is this little twin pumpkin?  This is a shot from Apple Tasting.  They have all these tiny pumpkins and the kids get to paint and decorate them.  They all look so cute, shelves and shelves of little drying pumpkins.

If anyone remembers, it was once again time for Lord of the Gourd.  I have to say that as a neighborhood function, it is a great time! We get all the neighbors to come with their pumpkins to weigh them, eat lots of food and gab the afternoon away in the front yard while all the kids get silly playing, climbing trees,getting wheelbarrow rides and trying to eat apples dangling from strings.  Plus this year the reigning two year champ brought his motorcycle and let all the kids sit on it and rev the engine. Great fun for the kids but a little noisy and nerve wracking for the moms!  For those who don't know him, my husband is the Pied Piper of Pumpkins around these parts.  He loves a little competiton, loves to get everyone together doing something fun and he loves to grow his pumpkins.  We take our pumpkins sort of seriously around here even though we have yet to have a really big one.  Here is a shot of this years vines.

  If you look toward the back you can see this guy:

The vine crawled up the neighboring hedge and this pumpkin was growing, dangling in mid air about four feet off the ground. My husband made a little perch for it so it could keep growing.  It turned out to be 60 pounds! we had to keep adding supports to it as it grew-  It was right in the front yard so it was quite a conversation starter.  Well wouldn't you know that all these years of reading pumpkin books and tending his precious vegetables finally paid off and he made out as Lord of the Gourd this year!  The crazy thing is he won by one pound!  Ours came in at 108 and a friend up the street came in at 107.  It was a nail biter those last few weeks because you could see they were neck and neck, plus we weren't sure if there were any big ones hiding in someone's back yard.  Besides bragging rights, this now sits proudly on our mantel: I found it at a garage sale this summer for a buck!  I took the weights off and put the pumpkins in their place.  If you look closely the guy has this grimacing strain on his face which is funny to me.  I didn't know we would end up with it this year- the idea being it will pass on to the winner each year.  Here he is cutting his pupkin into a jack o lantern last night.  Artwork compliments of my daughter. And check out the thickness of the wall!  One thing I will say, even with all that thickness, home grown pumpkins are nice and soft to cut into.

I hope everyone has a really great and safe Halloween!

Fairy Love

We have been quite captivated with all things fairy this summer and fall.  The kids attended a fantastic camp at a friend's house and she had them cooking up all sorts of fairy fun that just continued here.  We have a nice little pocket in the yard that is pretty heavily planted with old shrubs and trees so there are great nooks and crannies to build fairy houses in.  We also are fortunate enough to live next to a nature trail so we were able to go on a few walks and pick things up off the ground to make our houses with. We found this sort of activity so wonderfully relaxing for the whole family.  We all sat out there in our tiny forest and put our houses together. And wouldn't you know, there was glittery fairy dust sprinkled all over them in the morning so they were apparently a big hit with the fairies! This one was made with bamboo husks from our mini bamboo forest on the opposite side of the yard. Pretty clever. 

One other thing we did for fairy fun was make fairy lanterns.  The kids were given some glow sticks by their credit union where they have their savings accounts (the kind that you crack and shake and the stay glowy for a few hours).  We took empty plastic water bottles, cut the top off, put in a pipe cleaner handle and the kids decorated them by gluing bits of paper etc. on them. Not a great photo but you get the idea.  The kids really loved this because it did feel sort of glowy and magical.  We made them a bit before bed so they put them in their rooms so they could watch them glow while they went to sleep.  In the morning it was so sweet because my girl came creeping into my room holding her fairy lantern up by her head and it was still glowing.  I checked out some of the Spiderwick Chronicles thinking they would be a fun fairy read and , while they are for me, they are a bit dark for them. Any recomendations for good fairy stories?  I have a copy of that old "Gnomes" Book so that will be fun, especially now that we are hunkering down for the cold and rain.  Something fun to read while we are all snuggly under a big blanket.