pendants

Slowly getting the Etsy shop stocked up and ready for holiday shoppers. I've added some new pendant designs that would make excellent stocking stuffers! Check it out...

The weather has been absolutely beautiful. I'm feeling inspired. I'm anxious to start making some mobiles using a technique for transferring images to wood that Katie from Matsutake demonstrated in her tutorial. If you're thinking of giving it a try, here's a heads-up. Instead of prepping a piece of cardstock, coat a transparency sheet with the glue before printing. This makes it MUCH easier to peel off the wood.

costume designer no more

Now why did I go and spend all that money on a costume when Finn could have just as well dressed up as a Home Depot bucket for Halloween?

This year was all about store-bought costumes. A Star Wars Clone Trooper for one and Scooby Doo for the other. *Sigh* Is this the end of mommy's homemade costumes? Maybe one of these years they'll let me create something like a two-headed monster that they can both wear together. Hmmm... on second thought, that sounds a little dangerous. It's not like they need an excuse to hurt one another and if they were bound together? That would be nothing but trouble!

pumpkin patch with my pumpkin

A day at the pumpkin patch.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?
- Robert Frost

holiday preview

Some holiday crafting going on...

Elf
(perhaps an Elf on the Shelf?)

Amigurumi Monkey Ornament

time for another project!

*

I saw a cute little Halloween wreath at the store a couple weeks ago. I've been itching to get a wreath of any kind up on the door. I don't know what it is about something decorating the door. It makes me happy. But I just couldn't justify spending the money for one, so I hit the craft store and brainstormed a way to make one of my own instead. How hard could it be?

Well, it wasn't hard but it was slightly more time-consuming than I imagined it would be. This, of course, makes me wonder if it really was worth it to make my own, because time is money, after all. I do love having my own little jack-o-lantern faces to get the house in the Halloween spirit. So, yes, it was worth it. This wreath, along with my ghosts in the trees outside (they've actually weathered pretty well over the last 5 years!), has me very excited for All Hallows' Eve.

Make one yourself! It's easy.

Here's how I did it:

To start, I picked up a bag of sticks to use for the pumpkin stems and to connect all the pumpkins. You'll also need about 10 wooden circles and 4 wooden ovals. (My craft supply store didn't have a wooden pumpkin shape that I liked. If yours does... lucky you! Feel free to improvise with whatever materials you find.) You'll also need some paints, paint brush and glue.

1 - Using acrylic paints, I started by painting the edges and then moved on to painting the fronts with orange and blending in some brown for shading.

2 - Paint the stems. I used a light and dark green and made stripes. Use a darker orange to paint the groove lines on the pumpkins. (wait to do the faces after the pumpkins are all arranged in their circle - because some of them in the background won't need faces)

3- Once the paint is dry lay the pumpkins in a circle with painted side down. Using popsicle sticks (or, as in my case, the same sticks used for the pumpkin stems) connect the pumpkins together. Keep 5 or 6 pumpkins aside and glue these on top of the first layer once the wreath of connected pumpkins is dry enough to flip.

4 - Cut and glue on stems.

5 - Paint faces. I found a jack-o-lantern sticker that I loved and that's where I got the inspiration for my toothy grins and googly eyes. Have fun with it.

6 - Once the paint is dry, give the wreath a coat of gloss varnish. I even used a coat of sparkle varnish to make it glittery.

And now it's time to bring out the Christmas crafts. Yes. I said Christmas. (I've been waiting all year for this)

guilty

"Organize Now! A Week-By-Week Guide to Simplify Your Space and Your Life" by Jennifer Ford Berry is one of those books that, once I stumbled across it, I couldn't resist buying. I am guilty of judging a book by it's cover... and this one is so cute. It also had me with the words "week-by-week guide". I'm a sucker for anything that promises a week-by-week plan. Love the idea of someone else planning all my time and guiding me through the week.

I'm not too far in, but yesterday it prompted an exercise to help prioritize your time and it's just so simple that it's quite possibly brilliant. For this week's goal, I'm to make a list of my top ten priorities. Simple, right? But once I numbered a piece of paper from 1 to 10 and began the exercise, it was a little more difficult than I expected. I scribbled out the first few rather quickly...

1) baking/cooking healthy, whole food meals for my family
2) involve my boys in creative & stimulating projects
3) create wonderful memories for my family
4) nurture my creative outlets

And then I drew a blank. Wow, ten is a lot! After a lot of thinking I came up with the rest:

5) organization & clutter control
6) gardening (creating a comfortable outdoor space for the family to enjoy)
7) sew my own wardrobe
8) a healthy & fit lifestyle - lead by example for my children
9) fix up this old house
10) dedicate time to a book idea

I've never had a problem identifying what it is I enjoy doing with my time. But most of the time I find myself always feeling guilty for doing this and not that. Yesterday, I took the boys to the park and filled a bag with some crochet projects to do. On most occasions, I would find myself sitting at the park feeling guilty because I wasn't at home. Maybe because I left the breakfast dishes in the sink or I knew I should be on the computer working. But yesterday it occurred to me that I was knocking off two whole priorities by going to the park: creating memories for my family AND nurturing my creative outlet. No guilt! Done, that was all it took. This simple little exercise was nothing short of enlightening for me. Try it yourself. Especially if you're quite often riddled with guilt like I am!

pumpkin to start the weekend

While looking for a can of soup the other day I found a can of pumpkin puree and haven't been able to get it out of my mind. Technically, it's Fall. But with Santa Anas followed by heat and humidity, the last thing I crave is pumpkin pie. In fact, I never could understand why Starbuck's introduces their seasonal pumpkin spice latte before the end of our hot weather. I know it's cooler in most parts of the country and Starbuck's rolls these things out franchise-wide, but we live in an age computers and technology for Pete's sake! Surely they could probably adequately handle introducing seasonal products when it's appropriate to specific geographic regions. But, I diverge... point is, I was starting to vaguely crave something resembling pumpkin pie. So this morning, using the fog as my inspiration and excuse for baking, I made some pumpkin muffins before the sun could have a chance to make the kitchen miserable.

The recipe is adapted from the "Deceptively Delicious" recipe for Applesauce Muffins (I substituted pumpkin for squash/carrot puree and added salt & vanilla) :

T O P P I N G
2/3 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
pinch of salt

B A T T E R
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oats (I used steel cut oats because I used all my old-fashioned oats for the topping - worked perfectly)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup nonfat milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg

1 - Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep a 12-cup muffin tin with baking spray or paper liners.

2 - Make the topping: Stir together the oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut butter into small pieces and use fingers to work the butter into the oats mixture until it has a coarse consistency.

3 - Make the batter: Combine the dry ingredients and stir to mix. In a separate bowl, mix the applesauce, milk, pumpkin, sugars, oil, vanilla and egg with a whisk. Add the dry ingredients, and stir until just moistened.

4 - Pour batter into prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the topping. Bake until topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the muffins - about 18 to 20 minutes.