I just posted the next Christmas craft tutorial over on Dwell Well. Day 2 is all about sparkle, baby.
Hop on over there to learn how to make this vintage-inspired glitter garland.
I just posted the next Christmas craft tutorial over on Dwell Well. Day 2 is all about sparkle, baby.
Hop on over there to learn how to make this vintage-inspired glitter garland.
Posted at 01:02 AM in artsy fartsy, Christmas, other blogs, tutorials | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
My house looks like a Christmas explosion right now. There are baking ingredients dusted all over the kitchen floor, "cherry wink" cookies covering every inch of countertop, glitter-covered crafts on one end of the dining room table and handmade greeting cards on the other. Oh, and millions of little bitty pieces of red yarn under the table because when a 2 year old decides she can entertain herself for 30 minutes by cutting cheap yarn, you don't complain.
Thank you, thank you for all the great feedback on the Santa dilemma. After giving it a lot of thought and talking with Bo's teacher, we decided we're just not going to emphasize the big guy this year. We're not going to sit her down and tell her the truth; we're just going to focus on other holiday traditions more, like the Nutcracker and singing Christmas carols and building gingerbread houses and making cookies and crafts (hence, the mess). I'll put more of my thoughts on that issue in the comments section of my previous post when I get a minute.
Speaking of the Nutcracker, Seattle magazine had a darling idea in its December issue: Throw a Nutcracker-themed party for kids before or after attending the show. Pink tulle tablecloth. Cupcakes that look like toy soldiers. Invitations that look like theater tickets. Squeal! More details on my Kids' Parties site.
And if you're heading over to the Kids' Parties site anyway, here are a few other things I've been working on over there:
-Food to serve at a kids' Christmas party (that one is a work in progress--I plan to add many more pictures and recipes in the coming weeks)
-Theme ideas for a kids' Christmas party
-And this one wasn't my idea, but I love it so: an Advent calendar of books. Every day, a new Christmas themed book to open and read together. Brilliant idea courtesy of Babyccino.
On my other blog (seriously. how did I end up with so many blogs? my computer is like a rabbit), today marks the start of my 12 Days of Crafting. Between now and Dec. 17, you'll see a new tutorial every day for something holiday related. I started with these twig stars today--easy, cheap, earthy:
You can use them as tree ornaments or string them together like garland or make a super big one to hang on your door.
Much more on the 12-Days-of-Crafting front coming soon.
Let's see ... what else? Our first three holiday cards have arrived from the Kids' Craft Weekly card swap. Bo looooves opening these.
Yesterday, we had breakfast at Chaps, one of our favorite Spokane breakfast joints. Hee haw! The Christmas decorations were darling:
(Yes, I took a picture of the bathroom.)
Best children's play area ever. Vintage toy kitchen appliances. Pink cowboy hats. Tin tea set. Love it. Love it. Love it. Thanks, Celeste (owner). You're brilliant.
Lastly, a quick tip courtesy of a friend of mine from high school (thank you, Facebook). After swearing that I would never again take my wild-animal children to the grocery store, Rachel suggested I have the kids make their own grocery lists before we go and use them once we get there. The girls cut pictures from the Wednesday newspaper ads (all based on what I actually needed), and glued them to paper. I made dotted letters spelling out the products for Bo to trace.
And, yes, that's turkey food. We didn't host Thanksgiving this year and we're missing the leftovers.
We headed to the grocery store this morning and the lists worked like a charm, as long as you don't mind your kids lying on the floor in the middle of the aisles so they can cross off what they've just put in the cart.
Sorry for the crappy cell phone photo blur.
I better clean up this mess before this guy comes home. Hope all is well, bloggy friends.
Posted at 06:19 PM in around town, artsy fartsy, Christmas, crafting with kids, food and drink, green, other blogs, parties for kids, party on, tutorials | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
I have this dream of one day running my family like a well-organized, stimulating boarding school. Each night after the kids go to bed, I'll lay out the fun and educational activities for the next day, prepare healthy meals and then have time for five miles on the treadmill, a bubble bath and an Ogilvie Home Perm.
Or something like that.
I usually snap back to reality when the microwave beeper goes off letting me know the frozen burritos are ready to eat.
When I don't have time to put my long-lost degree in elementary education to use, these are a few of the no-brainer activities I fall back on when we need something to do:
-Freeze dancing. Play some '80s music, dance like mad, hit pause, freeze, rinse and repeat. It never gets old.
-Crafts. Of course. I always have the painting easel set up, a giant jar of Crayons on the kids' table in the kitchen, and plenty of blank paper on hand. Kid-friendly scissors go over big here, too. Lately Magpie will come up to me and ask, "Can I cut?"
-Play dough. This recipe for homemade play dough is way better than the stuff you buy in the store.
-Baking cookies. This can be dangerous, but sometimes it's worth the extra calories when the girls are begging for something fun to do. When my willpower is strong, we bring the cookies to our neighbors.
-Cleaning. The girls love being put to work. They'll gladly spray and wipe down windows, put clothes away in drawers and wash walls. The house isn't always cleaner when they're done, but they have looks on their faces like they've just cured cancer or something.
-Go to the library. They get so excited for this, you'd think they were going to Disneyland. Note: They've never been to Disneyland so maybe that's why it works? Keep the bar low when it comes to expectations for fun? Hmm ... Anyhow, I always make sure I have a diaper on library outings because there's something about that place that makes Magpie poop.
-Don't feel like getting in the car? Push the couches together in the living room to make one giant couch and call it the library. Pile up a stack of books and read them one by one. My sister and I did this for years when we were kids.
-Go for a walk.
-Clean out a closet.
-Watch home videos on the TV. Nothing thrills the girls more than seeing how they talked and looked six months ago.
-Have a picnic on the kitchen floor.
-Exercise. Pick out the cheesiest workout video from On Demand and press play. Avoid "strip tease." I made that mistake once.
-Give the girls a bath. It's like a playpen. The fewer toys in there the better. Just give them a couple of measuring cups and a washcloth and you've got a half hour of fun. Sometimes I dangle my feet in the tub and let them give me a foot massage. Brilliant, eh?
-Get fancy like Nancy. My mom (Nancy) used to be a makeup lady so I have a ton of old free cosmetics samples from her. This is a mess, of course, so you have to be in the right mood.
-Play school. Bo loves to "read" to her little sister. And boss her around.
OK, none of that was rocket science, but it helps us make the days fun. Care to add to the list? Let's get some ideas rolling.
For the record, we do watch TV here, especially during the cold months. We have one TV. It's in the basement, so have to make a bit of an effort to watch it. I wish I could say we're TV free. I think a child's imagination can be stymied when they're constantly fed images instead of being forced to come up with those pictures themselves after reading a book or listening to a parent tell a story. But TV--especially movies--can be fun. And it can buy me three of those five miles on the treadmill.
On a related note, one project they did today was to make Christmas cards for 10 kids around the world. We're going to take part in Kids Craft Weekly's annual card swap, where you send a handmade card to 10 children and receive 10 cards from 10 different kids from all over the globe.
I figured we'd better make the cards before signing up since I'm kind of famous for not sending cards to people I actually know. It's always my New Year's resolution to be better about that. Maybe 2010 will be the year I set out a stack of stamped envelopes on the kitchen counter and make it a habit.
Here are a few of the girls' creations:
That's a reindeer on the right and a pissy post-op snowman in the middle.
Speaking of Kids Craft Weekly, I bought Amber's Christmas Crafts and Christmas Cards e-booklets last week. I love everything she does. Her projects are based in reality. I love that my kids can look at her examples and not feel like total failures because their crafts don't turn out like something you'd see in a Martha Stewart magazine, as is clearly demonstrated by the photo above.
Posted at 05:12 PM in Christmas, crafting with kids, general musings, music, other blogs, paper crafts | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Hooray for another birthday party! Last night was Magpie's Little Red Riding Hood-themed 2nd birthday. These are getting more fun all the time--so many kids running around the house, so much excitement beforehand, so much more time for the grownups to catch up with each other now that the little ones are more self sufficient.
Something always goes a little wrong, but that's part of the fun, right? Right?!
Besides, the look on this face makes the mad scramble at the end worth it:
You can see more pictures/details on my About.com Kids' Parties site.
You might notice that she's clutching a couple of her birthday gifts there--a stuffed pig and a plastic giraffe. Almost every picture I took last night shows her with those two toys in her hands. I guess she took a liking to them right away.
She's also wearing another gift--this apron I sewed her (modeled by Lulu the lamb the other day so I didn't ruin the surprise):
I wish I'd had more time to make her some other handmade gifts. On my to-do list were a Mimi Kirchner doll (dressed as Little Red Riding Hood), a felt cake and a camping blanket, but time ran out. Oh, well. There's always Christmas.
Anyhoo, she was happy to get the apron, especially after having to borrow her big sister's for the last year or so. Magpie is an avid cook--I can't make anything without her "helping" these days--so I'm glad I got that project done for her.
Moving on ... to Christmas.
I really don't see the point in decorating the house for Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, but we're not going to be here for it, and why put the effort into decorating for Christmas if it's only up for a few weeks?
So we pulled out the crates labeled "Christmas" today and put a few things out.
The big hit was the nativity set (the one I let them play with). You wouldn't believe the adventures Mary, Joseph and Jesus had today. My goodness. Did you know Mary is a princess? Yep.
The best part, though, was that every time Bo would say something about "the baby Jesus," Magpie would look up and ask me for a "cheese stick."
Posted at 12:59 AM in Christmas, family, other blogs, parties for kids, party on, sewing, toys | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
One of my favorite movies in high school (and this might make some of you youngins realize how old I am. 35) was "Say Anything." I was so in love with Lloyd Dobler. Still am, really.
The movie is set in Seattle, which of course is thrilling when you're 16 and you sort of think Seattle belongs to you even though you live in a suburb 86 miles away. That was before Nirvana and Pearl Jam made it big, and then we really thought we had something to brag about--even us sheltered kids from the 'burbs who probably couldn't relate to half of the angst those guys sang about.
My friend Simon, who lives in Seattle, has this for his status update on Facebook this morning: "The drive to work in the rain through tree-lined streets that were shedding their leaves, listening to Classic King FM ... I heart the PNW!" (Translation: Pacific Northwest.)
I'm four hours away, on the "dry" side of the state, and it's pouring down rain here today, too. The rain is like a baptism (a Lloyd Dobler line) on my back patio. (I don't have any profound rebirth to report. That line from the movie has just always stuck in my head.)
The rain sounds more torrential than it is because we need to clean the pine needles out of the gutter, but I almost want to keep them there because the sound of the water crashing down onto the concrete reminds me so much of home.
Rain was a constant growing up in northwest Washington. It didn't keep you indoors during recess--you just wore your slicker or played kickball under the "covered area" at Roosevelt Elementary School. It didn't stop you from riding your bike through Whatcom Falls Park. On especially wet days at home, you stayed inside eating grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and doing arts and crafts at the card table with your big sister. When you got older, there were first kisses in the rain and nights out with your girlfriends when the roads always seemed to be wet.
I've got the icks (again!), so I don't much feel like being out there today. But it's a perfect day for hunkering down, getting some work done, and then hopefully finally sewing up the girls' Halloween costumes later tonight.
If it's rainy where you are and you're looking for an arts and crafts project to do with your kids, check out these 3-D pumpkins I wrote a tutorial for for the new About.com site. You can use them as Halloween decorations or save them for Thanksgiving dinner and set them out as place cards.
One other crafty thing to report--the last book sling I'll be making for a while:
(Note to self: if someone ever asks me to applique the letter "S" again, just say no! Damn those curves.)
I put my little Etsy shop on vacation for a bit. Just too much other stuff going on. It's not like I had that many orders, but it takes a lot of time and care and I really admire the people who make a living out of doing that. I'll open it back up soon, but I need to get some Christmas and birthday gifts made for my own family first.
Don't forget that you can make your own book sling. Tutorial here.
And speaking of book slings, one that I had the pleasure of making recently is hanging in a home that many of you are probably familiar with, if you're a fan like me. Meg from Sew Liberated did a trade with me--a book sling in exchange for some of her patterns. I was quite honored that a talented person like herself would want something from my humble craft room. You can see it hanging for little Finn here.
Posted at 01:10 PM in crafting with kids, Etsy, other blogs, other houses, paper crafts, parties for kids, sewing, tutorials | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
I'm knee deep in a work project right now. Did I say knee? I meant neck. It's time consuming but fun, and I'll tell y'all about in a few days.
Deadlines aren't what they used to be, though. When I worked full time for newspapers I used to thrive on knowing a story had to be filed by 9 p.m. After being wherever I had to be to cover the news, I'd have half the thing written in my head by the time I got back to my desk. And if I didn't, I was in trouble.
Everything changes with kids, though, especially when you work from home. Except when the girls are at preschool, there's never a guarantee that I'll have time to focus on what I'm doing and get it done by the time my editors need it. That uncertainty is more stressful than any breaking news ever was.
A phrase we seem to keep repeating around here is "It is what it is." In other words, quit complaining. Be grateful for the fascinating careers/assignments/life we have. Get it done. And move on.
But here's a phrase I came across tonight--on Sarah Jane Studio's blog--that I like much better:
"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." -Thomas S. Manson
I wish that had been in my head last night as I was frantically trying to get the dishes done before bedtime while Magpie was crying and tugging on my leg, begging for my attention. Instead of turning off the water, parking my rear on the floor and loving her up, I scrubbed those pots clean like a madwoman ... and eventually let all the noise turn me into, well, a mad woman.
Ridiculous. I'm not advocating being at kids' beck and call at all times (they need to learn patience, right?) but two minutes of quality time probably would have calmed her down and allowed me to finish the dishes in peace.
I read something once that said even if we do something we regret with our kids--even if it happened just a second ago--we have the option of changing our direction and taking a more positive route. In the next moment. Right then and there. Turn the corner. Don't look back.
I don't know how that looks when your kids are older, but at 2 and 4, usually that means shifting gears from frustration to total silliness. Usually that comes naturally to me. Other times, the dishes win. Grrr ... moving on.
I really just meant to pop on here to share a few tidbits:
-I'm getting a lot of hits right now on my pumpkin carving tutorial from last year. Just thought I'd post a link to it here to make it easier for newbies to find.
-Everybody and their brother also seems to want to bake an owl cake right now (based on Google searches that find their way to Penny Carnival). You can read about my adventures with owl cakes here and here.
-At some point, I'm going to have to start planning Magpie's second birthday party. The original idea was to make it a parade-themed party, which was inspired by these invitations I ordered.
Aren't they adorable? They're even cuter in person, with their sweet little rounded corners and all.
But the weather has become downright frigid here, so I'm not sure I want to subject a bunch of kids to a late-October prance around the neighborhood. I think I'll save the invitations for Bo's July birthday, since she's the one who's been begging for a neighborhood parade anyway. A parade party could be so much fun--tell the kids to bring their bikes/strollers/wagons, have a stash of streamers and flags they can use to decorate their rides, do the parade thing (inviting neighbors to cheer them on), then come back to the house and serve a long, skinny cake that's frosted to look like a street.
So I'm working on a Plan B now. Little Red Riding Hood birthday party? Three Little Bears? Alice in Wonderland tea party? Vintage circus? Hedgehogs? Mary Had a Little Lamb? OK, I need to have more kids so I can fulfill all my toddler birthday fantasies.
Update: I just want to acknowledge that I realize the birthday theme should be all about what the kid wants, but Magpie is at an age where everything is awesome to her. "Do you like moldy bread?" "I like mo-wee bed." "Do you like Brussel sprouts?" "I like bussybouts."
Other things I'm loving right now:
-This idea for thank-you cards (just in time!)
-A work-in-progress by Anna Maria Horner. I will never get tired of rainbows.
-and Art Nest Studio's (a.k.a. Susannah, the highly talented portrait artist) fawn softie pattern. Oooh ... another birthday theme possibility. Those could be the favors!
Posted at 01:48 AM in Etsy, family, general musings, other blogs, party on | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Yes, he's still swimming inside his mommy's tummy. And, yes, it'll be a few years before he signs his name on a library card.
Posted at 12:53 AM in gifts, other blogs, sewing | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
We just wrapped up a week with guests from Sweden in our house. I wanted to put the word "wonderful" in there before "week," but in classic Megan style I ended up catching some sort of cold/stomach bug by Day 3 and was out of commission for most of the visit.
Posted at 11:19 PM in crafting with kids, food and drink, garden, general musings, other blogs | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)