Ugh, I'm back

Well, it seems the entire world got really sick around my birthday, and I haven't had much time to do anything. Well, so far everyone seems back to their old selves, and the weather has turned bitterly cold. So, you'll probably see me making up for lost time as we snuggle in at home.

My birthday was wonderful, I did nothing which was the goal. Tim's mom took the boys (they had off of school, and she had off of work, everyone was happy!) I watched some soaps (believe it or not, I totally caught up.) I took a long bath, painted my toenails, drank tea, watched the snow fall, read a bit from a book I enjoy, Tim brought home some Chinese (my fav, he hates,) and we did absolutely nothing! It was so nice!

I received some wonderful gifts from a craftster birthday swap. I got a neat crocheted fairy.

I received a whole package full of crafting goodies!

Also, I received my One Tiny Thing Swap item. It is a beautiful knitted wristlet. I know I need to get better at my picture taking techniques. I'd love to blame my old camera, but I really think itis more user error. Here it is and the picture doesn't do it any justice.

Well, that's fairly caught up.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Well, today is my father's birthday! We'll be singing the birthday song by the beatles to him later tonight. And we'll be taking him out for brunch on Sunday. But until then

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!!

Scrabble Scrabble

Tim and I have always loved Scrabble. I never played it when I was a kid. It was something we sort of picked up together a short time after we met. I had a dream that I painted a room like a scrabble board. I don't know if I have the patience to do that, but it would be really neat! Anyway, boredom and avoiding doing my homework I found this.

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 12. What is your score? Get it here.

Pholph's Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 15. What is your score? Get it here.

Yep, Tim's name is worth more points than mine!

My first birthday present!

Well, my birthday is coming up on Friday. I turn 29 this year. (Or 29 for the first time, depending on how I feel next year.) I was very excited to get my first birthday present today. When actually I have received a few now! My first one came this morning, a friend of mine has been busy writing a crochet book, and I have been helping her out by proofing her work. Well, she sent me a gift this morning. It's all wrapped up in pretty paper, and I am refusing to open it until my birthday (we'll see how that goes.) Then, this afternoon, I received a package from a craftster birthday swap! I know it is a tote to carry my crochet projects in, but I'm also going to wait to open it until my birthday. Lore painted me a picture for my birthday, which I may have framed it's so cute. My mother-in-law is taking the boys on Friday so I can have a day to myself! (Excellent gift, since they have off on Friday!)

I sat down and just thought today about where I thought I'd be at this age, and surprisingly, I'm NO where near it. However, I am really happy, which I don't know if I ever really thought I would be at this age. So many people go through life getting through it, and I think at the ripe old age I am, I have finally realized that looking around is so much better than coasting through. I am so blessed! So I guess if this is what getting older is, just appreciating everything more, then I guess.... BRING IT ON!!

Rainbow Notebook Cover

I watched the color craft-a-long last year, and hoped to participate this year. Then I saw the quilt challenge this month (both on craftster.) And had a thought. I always use tons of different notebooks to make tons of lists. It's a horrible habit of mine. I then almost always lose the particular notebook or list before I really need it. So I bought myself a 5 subject notebook, thinking that I would have one subject for different aspects of my life. Meal planning, crochet, quilting, gift doodles, other.... you know what I mean. Anyway, the cover was so ucky and looked just like any other notebook. I figured even though it's bigger, I'd still find a way of losing it. So I again remembered the challenge and craft-a-long, and came up with a quilted notebook cover in rainbow (which was January's color.) So here it is. I love it, and haven't lost it yet, but I don't think I will!

Here's the outside cover. You can see I used a wide piece of elastic to hold the cover closed.

Here's a shot of the inside cover. I can keep my pens and pencils in there. (At the bottom you can see that the elastic is tucked on the front of the cover because it is open.)

Here's a not very good closeup shot of the quilting.

Tree Of Life Pendant

I am not a jewelry maker. I've dabbled in throwing some beads on a string and making book thongs, I've made a few row counter bracelets for friends, but never actually making jewelry. Well, I saw a pendant similar to this the other day on craftster, and I just had to make one. I did my best, and these are my results.

I am really quite proud of it, and would like to wear it, however, I can't figure out what to wear it on. I know in the picture it looks like copper wire, but it's really more of a brown. I have tried it on gold, silver, and copper chains. I didn't like any of these. I tried it on 2 different sueded leather cords and didn't like those. I have it on a black cord right now, and it's ok, but not really as attractive as I think it could be. Does anyone have any suggestions?

No matter what I am extremely proud of it, and I think I may make more of them possibly for Christmas ornaments next year.

Christmas Gifts

I didn't do the greatest at taking pictures of the gifts I made for everyone this year. However, I did manage a few shots, so here they are.

This is an Amish puzzle ball that I made for my new baby nephew Evan. He's only about 2 months old, so he didn't care a whole lot. It has flannel dinosaur fabric on the outside and red on the inside.

For my 2 youngest nieces I made monkey finger puppets. So they could act out the 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed. Here they are all together.

Here is Jorden posing with 2 of her monkeys. She didn't really care for her picture being taken.

Here is Ambrosia with her favorite monkey. Her favorite color is orange, so her favorite monkey was the one with the orange bow in her hair. They played with them all night together, it was really cute!

Ambrosia's mom, Terri, is my sister-in-law. I made her this scarf. I caught a quick picture of it right before I wrapped it. It is rolled up tight around some wool socks, some iron-close teabags, and some fabulous lipchap! She loved it. It looks similar to Neapolitan Ice cream.

These next 2 I didn't make, but I had creative packaging, so I thought I should share. My mom's boyfriend asks for beer every year, so that's what he gets, but since it's the same thing, I feel I have to be creative with the wrapping. It's 2 of Santa's toy bags in the sleigh, which are being pulled by 8 tiny ReinBeer. It took about 15 minutes before we went to my mom's house.

A close up of the ReinBeer Antlers

The last picture I remembered to grab was a scarf for my grandpa. He wanted a scarf for dress, and church, so I came up with this one. This is rolled up around Old Spice (His choice not mine,) some lottery tickets, lip chap and some grenadiers (cigars that he likes.)

Merry New Year!

Oh, I have been having some difficulties getting into blogger, but I think I may have figured it out, so I'm back now.

I had a wonderful holiday season! I hope everyone else did too.

I was wonderfully lucky to have Tim off of work the whole time that the boys and I were off of school! We got to spend a nice week together. Much of the time was spent with extended family, but lots was just the 5 of us having fun together. We played lots of games, and just got to know each other again, it was fabulous!

We went to a hotel one night, that had a bit of a water park, so the kids could just have fun. Here are a few pictures from then. (Unfortunately they are a tad dark, sorry.)

A picture of my hubby on a little water slide. He's such a dork!

Here's a picture of Liam on the same waterslide.

Levi just finishing the waterslide.

Levi again, looking a tad creepy!

And one last pic of all the boys right before going to the room for supper.

Christmas Program

We had our Christmas program for the preschoolers today. It was amazing. My husband and I laugh at our boys' programs, because their music director keeps explaining that simple concepts (like tapping rhythm sticks in time with singing) is a REALLY DIFFICULT concept. Well, if it is than my preschoolers kick butt!

They were all dressed in their most special clothes. They sang their hearts out! It was wonderful! They began the night with a boisterous version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, second they recited a poem with actions called "I am a Christmas Tree," then I led them in the Mele Kalikimaka (sung better than most adults by the way!) After that they recited another poem with actions called " Gingerbread boy/girl." This was followed by the song "Ring the bells" which they played music too, and for the finale they sang the most rousing version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas I have ever heard!

I had plans on getting pictures, but I was far too busy, and my hubby didn't think of it, so it is again a picture-less post, but it was a fabulous night! I am so proud of them!

My ball has arrived!

My swap partner has received her ball. I'm very glad it got there safe and sound.

I made a felted bag, with the broach on it. I made a kleenex holder, and I made a mini journal.

I also made an amish puzzle ball pincushion

Here's the rest of the things I included

4 balls of super soft yarn

2 darning needles,

4 mini cookie cutters,

sourpatch kids,

sweet tarts,

burt's bees lip chap

mini purple scissors,

post it notes,

striped knee high socks,

mini sharpie,

polka dot pencil,

2 bags of organic pepermint tea,

a fimo covered crochet hook,

some special edition hershey kisses, lindor truffles, and christmas nougat

I think that's everything.

And here it all is rolled up and ready to send. She said she liked it, and is crocheting it out right now!

This was such a fun swap!

S'more Swaps

Well, I had 2 swaps, and both are sent out. Both are out of the country, so I don't know when they will arrive. Hopefully they don't read here, or I may spill the beans just a little.


The first one was an unconditional swap. She requested a circle scarf that looked like this one. Not my personal favorite scarf, but if everyone liked the same thing, the world would be pretty darn boring. So this is what I made for her.












It took longer than I had anticipated, but I think it looks similar to her wish.








The next swap is a magic yarn ball swap. There are tons of these around. I am in one that is through craftster.org. If you don't know what a magic yarn ball is, basicly it's when someone has a ball of yarn that the other person would like, then they re-roll the yarn adding gifts inside the ball. Then as the recipient you get all of these wonderful, hidden, surprises as you unroll your ball. I won't show all of the things I included yet, but I will show you the whole thing rolled up.





If you look carefully you could probably pick out a few things, maybe not. After she receives I'll post everything that I put into the ball.

Naughty Blogger!

Well, I'm a pretty crappy blogger. I haven't been on much. For that I am sorry. Here is a big update on pretty much everything I can think of.

Well, my dad had surgery.... it got infected.... he got better. Now he's fine!

Levi's teacher gave him 2 weeknights to do an assignment that is crazy. He has to make a 3D model of the skeletal and muscle systems. He has to show on it the 3 major types of muscles, cartilage, ligaments/tendons, and the 3 major types of joints and how they work. You can not purchase a model, it all has to be from scratch. She assigned this on Tuesday, it's due Thursday. We have church practice tonight, and she doesn't want too much help from the parents!
WHAT?
Ooooh, she's beginning to drive me insane.

Liam is doing really well, he's been reading a lot, which has never been his strong suit.

Lore is fine, a happy little pain in the butt sometimes, but other than that he's great!

Tim has been working away a lot more, which is hard. But he was gone for over 3 months last year.... I can't complain about a week here or there this year.

I am fine, busy with work, and our upcoming programs. We have one this weekend, and we have another one on Thursday, December 21st. I am teaching all of them how to sing Mele Kalikimaka, which is really fun. We're going to make grass skirts out of crepe paper and flower leis too!

Thanksgiving was great, we spent some time with Tim's mom for the meal, then we went over to her sister's house. We had about 20 different types of desserts there, and then we went home too full to move!

Tim finally talked me into buying a fake Christmas tree.... This is really a long story, so I'll try to post about that tomorrow.

I finished a swap scarf that has taken me far longer than I wanted it too. It was what she asked for, not really my thing, but it's what she wanted. I'll have to post pics on that tomorrow too.

We have the Hanging of the Greens program at our church this weekend, so we are busy practicing for that. It's our church's annual big thing. The kids decorate the sanctuary and explain what the different decorations mean, and where they come from. It's neat to learn the different origins.

That's about it for now. I'll try to be a better blogger!

Babies Babies Babies!

I can't believe how many people are having babies right now. There are at least 3 women pregnant at the day care, (the ones who work there, not just general moms.) 3 more for sure are trying. (We only have about 12 women total, and 2 of us are for sure not trying or getting pregnant again, and 2 are in highschool, so I really hope they aren't.)

My husband's step-sister and her husband just had the most adorable little boy. His name is Evan Michael. I meant to get a picture of him with the boys this weekend, but he was too cute and I was too busy holding him to remember to bring out my camera.
We also found out that my husband's cousin who just got married, is also having a baby in July.
My neighbor is pregnant.

I really need to get to work on baby gifts as soon as the christmas stuff is all finished.

My 2 youngest nieces just had birthdays this last week, I made Ambrosia the cutest ball, I am hoping to get a picture of it and post it. If not I'll be making more because it is a great gift for babies and younger kids.

And finally my baby, Lore, is turning 6 years old today. I can't believe how big he is getting. I am making a cake right now, and it should be all ready after he gets done with school. What a great happy celebration of life and health!

Halloween Came and Went

Well, Halloween at our house is HUGE. There is no bigger holiday for us. Tim & my anniversary is on October 31st. We were married 9 years this year.



We didn't get nearly the decorations out that we wanted to, but we worked really hard to get some things out. Including a new crypt we had built to house our FCG (flying crank ghost,) named Moana. Well, it was heavy and wonderful and we were so excited. We set it up on Saturday, so a few people had mentioned how great it was already.... well, we had TERRIBLE winds on Monday night until Tuesday. And at about 7:00am Tuesday morning, as we were getting ready for work and school (running a bit behind already.) We heard a huge BOOM and looked outside to see what hit the house. Our big, heavy, wooden crypt smashed against our house and nearly hit the neighbor's house. So Tim and I had to quickly move it so it didn't blow into their house. The blacklight we had mounted inside blew up, so there was glass everywhere. And a big hunk of siding fell off our house also. We quickly picked all of that up. Got our costumes and stuff on and headed off for work/school. Sad in the knowledge that we were definitely not outdoing ourselves this year. (This has happened before 2 years ago our things got hit by a tornado, and last year we had 50 mile per hour winds with bigger gusts.)



We still had a great year. We had nearly 450 trick or treaters even though it was very cold out. (Not bad seeing as our population is only about 900.)









I started off my preschool where we had a great little party. The kids were so cute, and they had a great time bobbing for apples, playing pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, frosting and decorating pumpkin cookies, and such. We then went for a walk to all the local businesses. It was an adorable parade where we got quite a bit of candy, and tons of "oohs and aaahs". After that I scooted home to meet Tim for lunch and then we went to the boys' school where they were having their parade. We watched the whole school walk around the gym. We quick ran to a nearby town and grabbed some supper, and dashed back just in time for Trick or treaters to arrive. My wonderful step-mother took the boys trick or treating so my husband and I could spend some time together handing out glow bracelets to the kids. We had so much fun! Here are a few pictures of my costume, and the boys' costumes. Tim and I also had different costumes for a party we went to, but I don't have those pictures back yet.



Here's a group picture of the boys. I was holding them back for a picture. They wanted to get trick or treating.



Levi was Luigi from Mario brothers. He didn't care for the mustache, but I think he was pretty recognizable anyway.





Liam was a "Men in Black". Obviously he just ran after some aliens because he is a bit disheveled. And he's about to use his flashy thing on us.


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At school the party was way more important then the makeup, but Lore is Fester Addams. He has a magic light bulb that lights up, but you don't see it in the picture. (none of the kids in his class knew who he was, but parents and teachers did!)



Here is a less than attractive picture of me, but you can see the whole costume here. I made everything except the white shirt, simply because I ran out of time.
Here's a close up of my face. The twins in my preschool class did not like the facial hair! They were a bit freaked out by it. None of the adults in the school knew who I was until I spoke, so I would say the costume was a success. I made the wig out of yarn, beads, and panty hose. The scarf I bought also on sale for $.75!


Last but not least are my boot-shoe covers. I had to do a lot of walking in the parades and stuff, and couldn't find comfortable boots, so I made these covers for the illusion of boots. I pinned the top to my pants, and there was elastic on the bottom to hold them down. They were wonderful! I've had to make quite a few of these in the past, but I'm beginning to get the hang of it. All in all it was a great year. The kids are already talking of next years costumes, and Tim is trying to talk me into letting him put concrete in the front yard for anchoring down props. (That won't happen)

Room Pics.... Where are they?

Ok, so I am a totally terrible person. I never get the pics up when I mean to.

Here are a couple of pictures of the room before hand.


Here is a progress pic. We couldn't go with black for the walls, as it's a really tiny and fairly dark room, so we opted for grey. It is a gorgeous shade of grey, far better than this picture is leading it to be.


Really the room is still quite a bit like this. Not much has been done since. We had a bit of family stuff come up, but I will be adding more pictures as it gets finished more. I am hoping to work on it some more tomorrow on my day off. (My dad had surgery today, so if he needs me I'll go by him, if not I will work on the room some more.)

Mario room beginnings

Well, today is Levi's 10th birthday, and for his birthday he wanted his bedroom decorated. The boy has been obsessed with Mario Brothers since birth I swear! Well, when he was thinking of a theme he didn't have to go far. He wanted Mario.
So last night we took everything out of his room. This morning so far I have washed down all the walls. Now, I am taking a small break to let things dry, and then I will start taping. His room was originally 2 rooms, but before we bought the place it was converted into one, it's a small room, and sort of weird shaped, and a sort of cruddy "closet" in there, but he likes it as is, and the paint alone was quite expensive, so we are just painting and ignoring the weirdness, hoping that it will add to the mario cuteness! After my little break, I will go up and take some before pictures. Then on my next break I will try to post them. It's been a while since I've painted a room, I'm excited, but already exhausted!