Crafty Craze

When I look back and consider that these craft projects are the culmination of all of 2013, it seems a little pathetic. Cakes are, in some ways, easier. There's a tight deadline and I can justify letting the house become a tip for a few days to get a cake done. DH understands that too. Sadly, I can't use that justification all the time.

Proof of knitting:

 My one and only knitting project of 2013 (and likely 2012 if I were to look back). It now has a huge mistake in it that needs to be taken out and reworked. Something that requires time, patience and no interruptions. I fully expect it to sit in the box its been relegated to until 2018 or so. I can tell that this is an early 2013 picture by the fact that Youngest has no hair (he now has ringlets and, when his hair is being washed, it extends down to his shoulder blades. I haven't had the heart to get his curls cut off yet), Eldest has short hair (he's now shaggy as he's growing his out) and Middlest's hair looks to have been cut by a professional (he's cut his own hair five times over the past year and it shows).

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I really tried to do well with teacher gifts during Eldest's first foray into school. I think I set myself up though. One child with one teacher wasn't too bad but Middlest goes to school this September and Youngest follows two years later. I love how I set these impossible standards for myself!

Most of the following projects are a direct result of Pinterest.

I found this project on Pinterest from the Pearle's Rosebuds blog. I didn't follow the instructions though, just winged it myself with what I had. I put natural cotton quilt cotton underneath the letters to add dimension and frayed the raw sides of the letters to give them a more rustic feel that I thought suited the linen I used for the fabric. (from my stash).

This pillow is a play on a Scrabble tile. I had a problem deciding
whether or not to say 'A +' like a report card or stick to the
original.

He used a fabric marker for his signature. Very Kindergarten-ish;)!

This present looks great but was ridiculously easy. Why I have not taken the time (what's that?) to make an updateable (new Patty word) subway art frame for myself is beyond me. I used the free subway art that I found on Pinterest from the Eighteen25 blog printed at Walmart then painted a $5 frame from Value Village with chalk paint.

A little closer view of the paint job.

Eldest and Middlest had a pirate themed birthday party this past summer. Until I manage to devote an entire post to the festivities (if), here is another sample from the day (the pirate ship cakes were others). I carved my own pirate stamp and used it to stamp onto paper bags for loot bags. Easy peasy and more environmentally friendly than plastic loot bags.

In keeping with the pirate theme, I spruced up plain $6 Walmart t-shirts with pirate intent. Eldest wouldn't wear his to his party but did wear it on his actual birthday day a few days earlier.

You'd think the child knew who Vanna White was… He's a
cuter demonstrator in my opinion. He has grown so much in nine months!

When I was growing up, we almost always camped in a tent. Now that my siblings and I are grown and moved on, our parents are still confirmed tent campers as are DH and I. We have a camping coffee carafe similar to this one belonging to my parents but ours came with a Neoprene cover to keep the coffee warm. Mudder and Fadder's did not. For Mom's birthday in August (naturally she received it later in the fall), I made her her own coffee carafe cosy. I love stipple quilting with my sewing machine.

I bought the fabric at an online Canadian fabric store called
My Fabric Spot. I have ordered from Karen a couple of times and I
LOVE her selections. This fabric is from one of her pre-cut packages.
I used this one.

It was another handmade Halloween with respect to costumes this year. Eldest designed his own costume (he drew it out and I sewed it up. Not bad for a six year old).

Middlest's tiger hoodie and face paint. I LOVE using face paint.

Pants and tail.

Eldest was a caveman and the other two tigers (Youngest wore a
costume I bought at Winners a couple of years ago that ended
up being too small for Middlest two years ago). I had to cut corners on the
costumes somewhere;)!

I found something like this on Pinterest from The Pink Couch blog before Christmas and came up with my own version for one of my SILs for Christmas. As I'm so slow and wanted to get this present in the same box as the rest of the presents for my brother's family, the whole box arrived well after Christmas. Apparently they enjoyed a really late second Christmas though.

What Were You At?

Getting my crafting/artistic mojo back since having Eldest has taken a long time. I'm still not sure it's back to normal. If you asked me ten months ago, I would have told you I wasn't working on anything. When I reviewed our pictures a few weeks ago, I realised that I have actually been up to more than I'd first thought. One of the things I have really struggled to keep up with are birthday cakes for each boy though I have missed a couple of years. Cakes are creative, right? Here are a few of the cakes I have made over the past couple of years:

I made this cake for the daughter of a friend of mine. Her birthday invitations were princess themed and she's a girl. Those were my only instructions. Do you know how nice it was to mix up PINK icing???

For Youngest's first birthday, I overdid it and made two cakes. The first (which highlights a vintage train candle holder from DH's childhood) was in the shape of a drum and the second larger one was the shape of a number one which we brought to a playgroup we attend twice a week.

Eldest and Middlest's 2nd and 3rd birthday cakes were store bought. I finally got it together for the following two years:

Rocket cupcakes.

I forgot to take a picture of the cake until we'd cut into it! Trust me, it was a very cute dinosaur.

Middlest's fourth birthday cake.

Eldest's sixth birthday cake.

When Eldest started Kindergarten last year, I decided to make a few treats for his class.

Valentine's Day party cake.

No, not cake but I did decorate them for Halloween this past fall.

Too cute not to share;)!

Kindergareten Graduation cake. 

 Finally, two cakes I made for another friend's two boys a few months ago. The Angry Bird cake was for a ten year old and the Spiderman cake was for a four year old topped by a really cute Spiderman candle.

Oops. Didn't get a shot with the Spiderman candle on top. My bad.

No Guarantees

For those of you who think there are no guarantees in life, I'm about to rock your world.

Here are some Parenthood Guarantees:

1. When you are in the bathroom, no matter how long or how short your little darlings have been playing quietly, as soon as you are in an uninterruptible condition, someone will get hit/bitten/pushed/scratched/punched or otherwise maimed ensuring that the ensuing chaos drags your unwilling and half dressed body back into the living room. The one with the big windows that face the road.

2. The children get up to the same antics whenever you get within a two foot radius of a telephone. 

3. No matter how hard you plan and take into consideration your children's eating idiosyncrasies, most night's you're going to hear "Yuck! I'm not eating this!" over and over and over again.

4. If you have three children, one of them is going to fall asleep on the drive to and from some activity. This inevitably creates a free pass to an 11:00 PM bedtime. 

5. As soon as the bathroom is cleaned, your toilet-trained-for-two-years four year old will pee all over the toilet, floor and shower curtain because your house was inexplicably designed to have the bathtub and its the shower curtain a foot away from the toilet.

6. No matter how hard you try to be early, someone is going to have to go to the bathroom/need their diaper changed just before you go out the door.

7. As soon as your husband gets on that airplane for parts unknown, it's open season on snow storms, hurricanes, the car breaking down, you locking yourself of your house or car or both.

8. If your house houses scissors, they will be used to cut hair. Particularly four year old hair by your four year old.

9. Even if you have washable markers for your children to use, it will be the black permanent marker for parcels that you keep hidden high up in the closet that one (or more) of them find to redecorate the walls, couch, refrigerator, toys, paperwork… I could go on but I'm still being surprised by the ingenious locations that the little juvenile delinquents graffiti artists have managed to find in this house.

And finally, two small snapshots from our current lives that proves our four year old is not yet wise in the art of subterfuge though I do fear he has found his lives calling.

Organizational Challenge: Update Post Two

This post should be entitled 'slog' because that's pretty much the stage I am at with my craft room. However, as directed by Laura over at 'I'm an Organizing Junkie', and also because I promised you last week that I would, here is update two on the beast room.

I have been trying to follow Laura's PROCESS system for the space and heaven knows I needed strict guy lines (God knows I needed one of those too before I opened up the pocket doors and went into the room) guidelines. As per the afore mentioned organizing system:

Still removing stuff but I wanted to show you that there IS
a counter top in my room! Can't see it again tonight though :(

PLAN: I planned to sort, purge and organize my craft room, evaluated that very little in the room was working except that I wanted to keep the sewing table with my sewing machine on top of it and keep the antique chair that I'd been using for sewing. I knew that I wanted to get rid of my drafting table and chair, despite DH's concerns about that. What wasn't working was the room being used (by me. This mess is ALL on me) as a dumping zone. Budget? None. It's a craft room for heaven's sake, if I don't have something I need, couldn't I just make it?

REMOVE ITEMS: I really liked this part. Really, really, really! I will ignore the fact that it took me three days to move everything into our small guest bedroom where I could close the door and keep the children away from all the bits and dangers likely lurking there. When all of the stuff was moved (less the sewing table, sewing machine, antique chair, drafting table and drafting chair), I was able to close the bedroom door. Just. Remove then sort and purge: I am still at this stage likely because I am doing it in conjunction with the next step,

ORGANIZE INTO PILES: DH is going to find this one funny as he calls me the 'Pile Queen'. When things are out of order, I sort them into piles and then ignore them until they get so cumbersome that they need to be moved for child safety reasons. Therefore this stage is second nature already.

So, even after a month and a half, I am still sorting, purging and organizing. That being said, I am starting to move into the CONTAINERIZE stage as I am putting away (into those gorgeous cupboards and shelves and drawers) whatever makes it through the sort and purge stage.

Still moving things out...

One of the things Laura said in her suggestions for this challenge is not to purchase any other containers, etc until you know what you will need at the end of the sorting and purging. I have spent $5 on a piece of pegboard to put over my sewing table to hold my quilting rulers, scissors etc and have plans on making two spool racks for thread but not before this challenge is over as something else she stressed is the importance of making a clutter free space that is easy to maintain rather than concentrating on making it cute. The decorating siren's call is strong but I'm trying to resist. So far.

I HAD to add the flower for inspiration. Three DAYS of
shifting stuff out was HARD!

I also added a stipulation of my own to this project in hopes that it will help me maintain some semblance of a deadline: no using the craft room for projects while I'm organizing. I've only managed to ignore that rule once which is pretty impressive for me ;)!

Wow. A window with brand new window stickers still on it. Nice.

Time is running out on this project. We do have company coming in June therefore the guest room has to be emptied by then. Happily, the guest room is now 50% emptied of the stuff I piled in there (which will likely come as a huge relief to anyone planning on visiting us who might need that room to sleep in).

Update Post Three will be next week as I'm extending my deadline again...to the end of May 2013.

House Envy

A couple of weekends ago, DH was nice enough to let me off the childcare hook for an hour or so and I was able to tour the 2013 St. John's Health Care Foundation's Home Lottery show home - a first for me since we moved back to the province. I now have serious house envy (and if you want to see really good pictures of the house, visit the website. I was taking pictures for ideas and forgot about blog quality ;)!).

It's not so much that the house is that much nicer than mine (I prefer ours, particularly our land, view and backyard, pit though that is) but that the show home is so finished and by finished I mean so nicely put together.

SO not child friendly. But I love it!

It is challenging to be at home with three very young children full-time. When you are someone who really, really, REALLY enjoys decorating? Wow. It's even harder. I have so many ideas and visions in my head of how I want their bedrooms (and ours!) and parts of the house to look, the cute spaces I could make for the kids (can you say 'reading nook'?) that it's hard to keep to the plan of cleaning up the kitchen each night, getting the laundry done, and people fed and still feel like I am accomplishing something.

The  house had SO many cool ideas for the kids and for our house in general.

The finishes were super cool.

This wallpaper was used on the bar room ceiling and really gave an aged tin ceiling effect. Pretty easy to replicate as well.

Ah dreams. 

Blog Worthy Conversations

From the mouths of our creatures children:

From yesterday:

Eldest: Mommy? How many minutes are left in the year?

Mommy: How should I know, Eldest? Ask your father. He's the engineer! (Thank God I married one...).

An overheard conversation between Eldest and Middlest:

Middlest: What's a teenager?

Eldest: Weellll, a teenager is a kid that still goes to school but goes to a bigger school. A bigger kid. A teenager's job is to look for a husband or a wife. Really, I don't understand why teenagers have to go to school. If I was a teenager, I should spend my time looking for a husband or wife, not going to school (and teenagers around the planet would agree with him too I daresay).

A conversation between me and Middlest:

Middlest: Mommy?

Mommy: Yes, Middlest?

Middlest: You're a girl, right?

Mommy: Yes, Middlest.

Middlest: You're a girl because you got breastisis for nursing babies, right?

Mommy (somewhat concerned by the simplistic nature of this conversation but going with it anyways):  Yes, Middlest.

Middlest: And I have breastisis too.

Mommy (catching on a bit): Yeesss, but you are a boy so you can't nurse babies, honey.

Middlest: Awww! (Pouting). But I want to grow big breastisis when I grow up so that I can nurse my babies too!

Mommy: I know, honey. 

A van ride conversation:

Middlest: (In a very angry voice) Mommy!

Mommy: Yes, Middlest?

Middlest: (Arms now crossed and brow ferociously furrowed) I am so mad! You never let us drive!

While leaving Michaels Art and Crafts with Middlest, him again with brow ferociously furrowed and stomping mad (why, yes, he is a pretty intense little boy. Why do you ask?):

Middlest: But I WANT to WORK at MICHAELS!!!
Mommy: Yes, Honey, I know but you aren't old enough to work at Michaels yet. You need to be sixteen.
Middlest: But I'm STRONG enough!
Mommy: Yes, I know.
Middlest: And I'm a hard worker!
Mommy (sighing): Yes, I know you are. I'm sorry but you're going to have to wait awhile yet.
He sat with his arms crossed and bitterly angry the whole ride home.

When Eldest was a toddler and knowing I am a breast feeding advocate and nursing Mom, my sister gave Eldest the cutest t-shirt that said 'I'm a Boob Man' (she was going to get DH a complimenting t-shirt that said "My son has great taste" - too bad she decided not to!). Eldest had the t-shirt on a couple of years ago and my sister and one of my SIL's were teasing him and asking him if he knew what was on his t-shirt

Eldest: "Yes, it says 'I'm a boob man." Then he smiled and said very proudly. "Actually, that's not true. I'm only a little boy but, when I grow up I'm going to be a boob man!"

Two years ago around Halloween, Eldest had a giraffe costume on. My Mother was here and commented on the giraffe in the house. Eldest said something to the effect of, "Grandma! I'm not a real giraffe! I'm just pretending. I'm just a boy!"

Styling The Pit

The weather over the past two weeks has been phenomenal. April and May are not generally known for being 'spring' in this part of the world. When I was growing up, this time of the year was most definitely still late winter. Yesterday afternoon hit 21 degrees on our thermometer in the back yard. The boys were greased down with sunscreen and I was almost concerned about being too warm. I have even had the heat off and the windows wide open most days over the past two weeks.

With any hint of Spring weather comes the desire to create an oasis in our gravel pit of a backyard. The Veseys catalogue comes out and DH and I start dreaming. If we don't procrastinate too much, we might  actually get to use the $50 off our order coupon on the back of the catalogue this year.

When DH and I first got together, we agreed that I would have decorating veto power on everything in the house except for the kitchen as DH also cooks and bakes and is very, very picky about his cooking space. When we moved to this house, I found the large, untouched space of the outside of the house so overwhelming that I gave him complete design control over that too. In hindsight that might not have been wise as DH has teasingly reminded me that this open concept house means the majority of the living space is in the 'kitchen territory' so I have essentially lost decorating veto power in most of the house. Sigh.

Let's talk about one of DH's projects for a change. I have told you something about my on the go projects and when DH has a project on the go, it is usually something big. Real big.

First off, DH worked very, very hard the summer of 2011 digging a hole in preparation for a larger, grade level deck in our back yard. He had to stop due to the Fall weather which worked out actually as it gave him a chance to look at the fruit of his labour and see how the plan would work with respect to drainage etc.

Turns out, it wasn't going to work out well. At. All.

Hmm. A pond in the back yard wasn't part of the plan. The boys
enjoyed it while it lasted though.

So, Plan B was developed.

DH's hand dug deck space before the gravel spreader turned up.

The stone slinger was a bit hit with the boys. They watched safely from
inside the house.

More back breaking labour.

Eldest looks so intense and so cute!

Ah! Major progress.

Lookin' good!

Every deck raising requires extra helpers (all the way from
British Columbia no less!).

Helping Daddy.

Enjoying the new deck already.

Beautiful mitres.

More extra hands.

Aww!

The home stretch.

Completed on a gorgeous evening.

The bank behind the deck is one of the areas we hope to tackle
this summer 2013.

The sky we will get to enjoy from our new deck.

The view from the end of the deck back towards the house and the
smaller 'cooking' deck. Middlest calls our new deck the party deck. I
think he's right!