Chasing Bluebirds

my day

groceries clouds ikea visit 20 minutes on the trainer = 200 calories burned sewing projects the tutorial for these was found here and last the tree fabric from ikea i have been dying for...found at last! i saw the idea to make pillows by just cutting out the trees somewhere but cant remember!! there were examples that had embellishments like birds and critters in the tree that i really liked. i just dont have the time for that right now. getting ready to visit family in colorado and wanted to make some quick gifts. i havent mentioned here that i am in training for a half marathon in october, on my second week of serious training and so excited! i feel so good and am up to 6 miles (just run/walking) already! it is hotter than hell here right now so we are spending time in our little blow up pool and drinking gallons of water. really feels like summer! so my day off went well, back to work tomorrow and then off to vegas (for an ultrasound conference) then colorado (with a visit to mt. rushmore thrown in) i will try to post pictures of our trip!

whirlwind

my blog has definitely taken a back seat to this rummage sale (and facebook) but i am still here!! we are doing our guerilla art along the street trying to spread the word, i feel a mad dash feeling with one week left to the sale, hope i can pull this off! lizzies graduation was today, from pre kindergarten (preschool really) which made me tearful. emily went here first, this summer will be the last for liz, she is starting public school in the fall (can't say i will miss the tuition! but this was a very special place for both girls. if you are local i can let you know more about it!) congrats liz! boy was she excited! but the day wasn't over, we still had her dance recital to go to: at her preschool there is a dance school that teaches once a week. emily did this as well and it was such a great idea. you dont have to take your kid anywhere, they come to the school each week and teach. to me, it was the best kind of multi tasking! they run a swim school during the summer which incorporates the same idea, the kids are pulled from class each day for swimming lessons. this kind of thing isnt cheap, but there is zero hassle and i love the variety the girls get with different kinds of lessons. swim lessons are a must to me. i forgot to mention the frantic friendship bracelet making we are up to, we will be selling these at the rummage sale and offering "lessons" and i have to admit this was HARD to learn. as crafty as people may think i am, if i cant learn something fast i usually lose interest. the problem is i COMMITTED to this project BEFORE i learned so i was stuck. this was actually a good thing because i am forcing myself to learn and i am finally getting the hang of it! i found a few books on it (one was in my daughters bookshelf, she remembered getting some kind of kit once) and this post was the original inspiration. here is another link too. i will leave you with this lovely chalk drawing: chalk art on the sidewalk is working really well for us right now. its cheap, easy and the girls can really spread out. not as much bickering. we had a pretty rough day yesterday (an overscheduled day at the end of a busy week with a to-do list a mile long is not something i recommend) at one point i had a major meltdown but somehow we made it through and so far today is much better.

mish mash

a few bags made for the preschool teachers

and a bag made for a future camp fire girl (lizzies group starts soon) a little something from the thrift store (my dad of course) breakfast at a favorite hang out love this hammock, it was just taken up to the cabin but i think we need another here at the beach! lots of tomatoes coming in, couldnt find the juliets this year so i planted some strange ones: pineapple, plum and two different kinds of roma hanging at the skate park, liz was fascinated by it. i see a skateboard in her future, she is such an interesting kid. you never know what your kid will be attracted to, just gotta go with the flow i guess. since i have been facebook obsessed, i thought a little update was in order, i think we are pretty caught up now. happy weekend!

handmade christmas continued

more magnets

free range kids (mish mash post)

wow, i found the greatest website, something to think about for sure. i often talk with friends about how we grew up with so much more freedom than kids have today. i also had a patient recently tell me she works at a university and parents are actually registering their "kids" for college and intervening with professors if they feel their "child" has been "mistreated". she said it is epidemic, meddling parents in college!! who knew??? it is embarrassing to think a college student would have a parent involved in their schooling this way, when do you let your kid grow up? college isnt the right time? hmmm....

handmade christmas. this is a bean bag i got from the craft fair, i have been using it as a paper weight. it works great! might be a nice assembly line gift... i have enough fabric for sure. i am a big fan of lara bars, i have even made my own version of peanut butter cookie, the best!! i went to their blog and posted a comment, guess what? i got a t shirt and a whole case of bars!!! thank you lara bars! i am realizing more and more, i am a cat person. lu lu minds the plants, my dogs are driving me nuts! they are elderly and disoriented and just plain bonkers!

handmade christmas

a new design, not quite right but good enough for a christmas gift, shhhhh dont tell!

patchwork craft fair

our bounty from the craft fair

cinnamon roll gang dolls, the coolest! and meeting up with kokoleo, someone i met years ago at a craft fair and felt so inspired by. feels like seeing old friends. fun was had by all. oh and i ran into these guys, their website was how i found out about this craft fair. they were super nice with such wonderful, crafty things. check them out sometime.

daily dose of creativity

since i set up an impromptu "art studio" on our dining room table, the kids have been obsessed with crafting non stop

all on her own, liz started making these puppets. she even found chopsticks and used the tape instead of glue at just the right spot. strange! and here is my "duck" book, i am a huge fan of keri smith (as everyone knows) and thought, heck i can make a little goofy book with a catch phrase and xerox it myself. be my own publisher, and here it is! a bit rough but i think it will xerox ok. i will hand them out at the duck patrol today (the kids can fold them up on their own)

duck patrol

tomorrow is the first duck patrol

i made this t shirt for lizzie to wear tomorrow since she doesnt have a camp fire uniform yet. we have our local newspaper coming tomorrow, cant wait!! we are also going to try and get to a craft festival if we can get going early enough in the morning. our "outdoor" table had to come in from the recent rain and is heading up to the cabin (chris is taking it as i write this). not sure what we will do next summer, maybe we will invest in a real out door table. this was our quickie cheap fix (ikea table) and i LOVED it, but it will not make it through even one winter outside. lizzie loved dancing on it and i actually thought i might leave it in our living room (swapping out our fancy modern table) but in the end it was just too big. my bohemian girl, waldorf would do her wonders, she is the free spirit of our clan. this is emily's version of a sick duck being fed bread, interesting how kids interpret the world into their art. more on the duck patrol tomorrow.

mask craft, FINISHED!

the never ending mask craft

how we did it? wrap tin foil around a plastic bucket, wrap twine (the coarse garden kind worked best) around and around, pinning at the top as you cross it back and forth and back around again. one mom found paper clips worked best, the safety pins we used were hard to get back out. the point is to have a way to cross the twine on top without it sliding off. use watered down glue (i ended up taking old glue bottles and added a little water then squeezed the mixture out) to paint on the string. let dry for several days and then put more glue/water mixture on it. let dry (seriously this took a week to dry!) pop off the bucket, peel off the tin foil and decorate. we used pipe cleaners, pom poms and feathers with a minimal amount of hot glue (i was done with the white glue!) thats it! wear it if you dare!