Funk

I am in a funk!

I want to craft but nothing I am attempting is working! UGH!
Ape baby needs something for her feet when we are out and about now that she is everywhere. Her feet are so tall that they don't fit in normal sized shoes, and too skinny for wide shoes. So I attempted to make her some little booties. FLOP!
I was working on some projects for the church craft day and couldn't put my ideas onto the pieces I was working on. SO I am stuck. I don't even have an idea of what I want to work on...
Need some inspiration!
feed me some inspiration!!
what should I try next?

Does anyone know what might cause this?? I was spray painting and on the second coat I got this. I waited two hours between coats. The spray paint is suppose to be with primer for plastics, which this frame is. I thought it might have been too hot or humid so I sanded it down and waited for an ideal day and it just got worse. HELP??

Crafting with ape baby and Emo

Been busy the past few days cleaning up.

This is letting my children "help" me craft.
Time to get organized so I can move on to the next thing.

Flags and more wood

So you have seen these all over the blog world as seen here

SO I had to have one. As I sat painting mine, I got to thinking of my vow this summer- I was not bring another American flag into the house without bringing a Canadian flag in with it. So...

I used the same idea. With four 2x4s cut to equal lengths (I cut mine at 5inches)- two for the middle white part and one red for each end (turned sideways). I then found a maple leaf in clipart and printed it out on red card stock. I cut out the star and modge podged it right on one of the white blocks, and Voila! Hope that makes sense.

With Christmas coming up we are preparing our churches Christmas craft day. We had made plans for plenty of crafty things but had neglected to find anything Savior related. So I was on the look out for some sort of inexpensive nativity. I found a craft book that had small pictures of a craft show. In the itsy bitsiest corner I saw something like this.

What you need
6"-2x2 (I did not sand them down before painting. I wanted a rough unfinished look)
5"-2x2
3"-2"furring strip
2x 1-1/2" ball knob
1x 1/2" furniture button
desired paint, hot glue or gorilla glue, some twine

I cut the 2x2s for Joseph, and for Mary. I did not sand them down before painting. I wanted a rough unfinished look. I painted them and distressed them topping each with a flesh colored 1-1/2" ball knob with a hot glue gun.
For baby I painted him with a thick layer of cream, using a slanted criss cross action to give the effect of a swaddling cloth. I distressed him and used a leftover furniture button from this project.
I simple lined all three figures up and tied baby Jesus to Mary and Joseph with the twine.

You can attach a gift tag with phrases like
-"There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries." ~W.J. Cameron
-"Christians awake salute the happy morn; Whereon the Saviour of the world was born." - John Byrom
-Jesus is the reason for the season!
-"When we have the spirit of Christmas, we remember Him whose birth we commemorate at this season of the year." - Thomas S. Monson

I also made a larger version (still unfinished) with left over 4x4 post from my desk. I cute them at 12" and 9", using a 4.5" 2x4 for baby Jesus. Our local wood supplier did not have large ball knobs to make the heads so I will have to keep looking. As well as something for baby Jesus face. Any suggestions?

See me here

Heat packs

I was in need of a heat pad this week and had limited energy and time. I wanted something that was fast and easy!
With two very active boys who we have lots holes in pants which this summer were made into cut-offs.

I have lots of these lying around

So with two seams and a little rice I had an instant heat pack.

Once again it pays not to throw things away.

under the weather

I have been quite under the weather this week. I came down with a nasty cold and a debilitating crick in my neck. After spending two days supervising the kids from the living room floor my little man was begging for me to go out and finish a few crafts we had started. It was extremely therapeutic! I needed to listen to his babble and relax a bit while trying to be creative.

I have created a monster!! He loves to paint. This is the second shirt he has ruined this week. The other one he decided to paint on the way home from Hobby Lobby with his new paints he picked out. "I couldn't wait, I sorry!" Who am I to get in the way of his creativity?!

Here's a sneak peak at what we were up to. I am not quite finished, maybe this afternoon during Ape baby's nap time.

However my Emo child finished his projects and loves them. He is currently playing Legos with his giants.

My soldier boy was so sweet and made me a rice bag to help with my neck problems. I thought why haven't more people used socks as heat bags? It was a new sock so it wasn't like I was getting foot goobies all over my neck.

Well this is why, Poly-cotton has a tendency to melt! Rice started popping out. So I had to make a rice bag and quick before Ape baby found this one. I'll show you next time what I ended up using...gotta run cranky teething ape baby is demanding my time.

signs of autumn

The WINDS have changed, and I am not ready for summer to be over yet! Yesterday it hit 110F with the heat index and today we didn't get above 85F with some mighty cool gusts coming out of the north. It can't be over! I didn't get as much swimming in this year as I wanted. I haven't eaten enough watermelon. I don't have a good tan! We have hardly done any hiking! Where did the time go?
While summer is on its way out I must take advantage of the first signs of fall. With the cooler weather we opened all the windows, put some clove scented stuff in the Scentsy burner, brought out the mixer, turned on the oven and got to work. This is what my kitchen looks like. Isn't it a beautiful site! I can bake again!

I love to bake bread! Over the years I have tried about 30 different recipes but stopped when I found this one over at everydayfoodstorage.net.
Baking bread has been a way for me to feel like I am in control of what my family is eating. WE LOVE BREAD! We go thru 4-6 loaves a week depending on who wants what in school lunches. If the kids are hungry they go for bread above any other snack in the house. It usually turns into a family affair. But tonight it was just me with my noisy machines, and a cup of hot apple cider while my soldier boy put the kids to bed.

We always start with this sweet machine

There is something so beautiful about freshly ground flour.
I love to sit and run my hands thru it and just think while I wait for my mixer to finish kneading my dough so I can move onto the next loaf.

While I wait for my dough to rise I usually find something else to occupy my time. Tonight I made these delicious granola bars! The kids will be so excited to find these yummies in their lunches. I would have eaten them all had I not quickly packed them up!

I am starting to remember why I love the fall!

flowerless flower pot

Do you ever give a gift and wonder if it will ever be used? or if it will simply be tucked in a corner somewhere until it is eventually tossed.
I love giving crafted gifts! I think it is so much more personal and I hope the receiver realizes I put my time and a little effort into my gifts, rather than senslessly buying them something. It requires that I put a little effort into thinking of the person I am giving it to. Crafted gifts don't always mean I am spending less money either!
This past week we were walking thru the school and my flittering butterfly wanted to drop by last years teacher. There right as you walk into the room on her display shelf is this beauty!

The kids and I made these magnet boards last year for teacher appreciation week.
tutorial found here
The teacher made mention how it matches the classrooms decor (black and white) perfectly. She just had to place it somewhere for all to see. My flittering butterfly was ecstatic and so was I.

Here is my sensitive child's. I have seen this beauty grace the kitchen counters at his teachers home. I love to teach my kids the importance of giving thoughtful gifts. I am greatful others are showing them how to graciously recieve them.

check me out on here

UFO-wall art

My house is full of UFO's (Un-Finished Objects). Thursday night I decided to pick two to finish by next weekend. Last night I finished the first one (minus the framing but it can hang in its raw form for the time being).
So, I found these a few weeks ago and thought I should find something to use these for. I bought them over five years again in Germany for 2,50Euros, it's about time they find a home either on my walls or on someone elses.

I have this empty space above my computer-I thought perfect location for some wall art.

I went on a search for something to inspire me and came across this picture here

I grabbed my pens and started to "swirl," then school started and my canvas was put in the pile of UFO's in my bedroom.

I decided this would be a great inspiration to get my butt in gear and finish all those UFO's in my room. It would be something I would see everyday to encourage me.

I wanted my picture to be personalized, I decided to add each family members name to my art (soldier boy wanted his to be on a grasshopper ?? no idea why. Can you see it on the grasshoppers leg).

My middle name is star so I added a star flower. I love citrus fragerances, the flower on the right reminds me of an orange and my name is in the center of the flower on top of the swirl.

I absolutely love my art! It isn't quite as good as sometimesiswirl but for my very first drawing ever I am pretty pleased. My kids love looking at it and finding their names, looking for the bugs and seeing the different flowers. Everytime they look at it they find something new. Just watching them enjoy it makes me love it all the more.

Thanks you sometimesiswirl for the inspiration!

Headbands

My little ape baby is our last. When I found out she was a girl I was thrilled. We did everything girly! She had her first manicure at 8days old. She never went without a headband until she was old enough to rip it off. I love having a girl to spoil again!

When ape baby was first born I had a hard time finding headbands that fit her. Even the smallest ones I could find at the stores were too big. They were always falling into her face.

Heaven forbid she be without a headband and cute bow! So I went on a search for the perfect headband. Someone told me to try nylon. Now I going to admit something very embarrassing...I couldn't find any! I went to Joann's fabric and asked the lady if they carried nylon. It never occurred to me in reference to "nylon" she meant nylons you wear to church. LOL The very nice lady at Joann's must have had a good chuckle over that one! After asking what I needed it for she explained what I needed and directed me across town to Wal-mart.

So for all those new moms out there (thinking of you Maureen), I thought I would explain how to make the ultimate newborn headband.

Buy some good quality nylons. I like the microfiber tights, they are thicker and don't pell.

You start by cutting a 3-5 inch strip then a smaller 0.5-1 inch strip off one leg. The 3-5inch strip will roll up as you stretch it out shrinking the size of the band.

Then you take the smaller strip and wrap it around the large band adhering the ends of the little strip with a dab of hot glue or E-6000, or you can hand stitch it. You want to be able to stick no more than a pinky finger in the little band so you may have to wrap in around it self a bit (this is to help provide a gathering point on the band so make sure it isn't too loose). Then you are left with the perfect headband for tiny heads! Plus you have plenty more material to make them for all your friends or have a back up or ten.

These are my most recent faves! My husband thinks they look slightly like a garter, but I personally love them.

I found some of this stuff in the fabric department at Hobby Lobby. It has an elastic middle.

I measure it directly around my babies head and cut it. I have also recently made one for an order that I had measurements for the babies head and subtracted an inch which work perfectly.

You can hand sew it together but I had my machine out so I just did a few stitches as seen here on the lower right side of the picture.

You can finish these off with a little ribbon to clip your bows/flowers on to hide your seam, but I am lazy and hide the seam with the flower clipped directly over the seem.
Hope this is comprehensive. Happy crafting!

butterfly net

I spent the morning at the hospital with this young man

Nothing too serious just needed a cat scan for a mild concussion.
They gave us a bunch of these to make sure we made it home without having to stop if he needed to empty his stomach.

By the time we got home he was feeling much better. So we had no use for the "barf bags".
How do you keep a 5yr old occupied all afternoon and evening when he can't jump on the tramp, ride his bike, go to school, ride his friends 4wheeler, or do anything that may cause another head injury or jarring?
You make one of these!

A wire coat hanger and one of those bags makes a great butterfly net.

But since we have no butterflies we caught grasshoppers, beetles, and spiders

Here he is showing off his mad catching skills

The kids also used one to water my garden plants, carry rocks from the rock all across my driveway, and feed the chickens.
Very versatile little thing. I only wished I would have taken more than five of them home seeing all the entertainment they have provided us with today.

too hot

It has simply been too hot to do anything around here!

We have locked ourselves up inside, lying around doing nothing.

Kids refuse to do anything. I refuse to just sit still.

good thing we are country folk and the kids don't need clothes!

Eating delicious fruits of the land