whatever

pretty.

i was working on some projects over at the craft house yesterday.
i love being in my sunny craft room. 

i have been hoarding embroidery hoops.


that is my favorite photo of craig. 
when i make him laugh that is the face i see.  
i love that face.




a rainbow gift from craft weekenders.


you've got mail...again.
because why not?
sometimes its better than music.

thift store birds spray painted yellow.
i need to find a place to hang them up.


i love my glass star from Piggie&Dirt.  i want to buy them all and hang them all over the ceiling!


hello new fabric i ordered from Hawthorne Threads.
please tell me you smiled really big with that combo like i did!


my grandma's flower frogs.


hankies.




more hoarding.


mr. duerksen....i love your shirt.


ummm....yeah.
this is... by far... the best fabric ever to exist in all of time...past....present....future.
the farm will get curtains with BIG rainbow chevron.  
and if i could i would just wrap up everything around me in the other.
my furniture, my kids, my dog..all wrapped up in rainbow chevron.

it's by riley blake and i ordered it from hawthorne threads also.

a lot of it.  :)


doiles.


sparkles.






happy maps from elizabeth st.


wire rack from the barn....i love rust.


i need to start decorating my gloves!
ha.


and whatever i can't drape with rainbow chevron....i will cover in vintage quilts.


vintage sparkles.

here is the other fabric i ordered.... 




i am determined to create more now that the kids are in school all day.
i NEED to be using my hands.
i need to work my mind that way much more often than i am.
it's calming and helps me think clearly.
so i am making a schedule and at least one day i AM creating.
no matter what.

do you make time for something like that in your life?
what is that important part of you that you don't want to miss out on?

 

 

 

 

 

 

craft thursday!!!!

what??

craft thursday?!

:)

finally.

here's the scoop on WHERE craft thursday has been...
1. we moved  (insert delayed exhaustion here)
2. craft weekend has taken LOTS of time this year
3. our house is much smaller than the other one so in order to make a craft we first have to clean the entire area first...just so we can mess it up again...and i haven't had the energy to do it.
4. my kids are getting older and think my ideas are not as cool as they used to.  (can that BE possible??)

BUT...if everything aligns perfectly...craft thursday happens.

it did and they liked it!

i found this Painted Peacock craft through pinterest (of course) and it linked through to smART Class.
watch the cute peacock video...my kids were amazed. 

we started by painting paper first.

 
i had annie help me with this since her siblings had friends over and she was LOOOOONELY. 
it was so relaxing.
after we painted several big sheets of paper we used the end of a paint brush and "drew" in designs on the paint.
we discussed how much Eric Carle must LOVE his job.

then we left all the painted paper to dry.



we did this craft outside and you can see why.  
 

 
i painted their hand and they stamped it onto a sheet of heavy white paper.
then they painted the arm part on with a brush.
then i made them wash it all off.
i only found a tiny bit of blue paint on the bathroom sink afterwards.... not bad for three hands.


 
while the hand print was drying we cut "feathers" out of the now dry painted paper that annie and i made.
i made them a pattern to trace onto the painted paper in a feather shape....kind of.


 


we used school glue and gluesticks...just depended on their preference.
they cut out five "feathers" and then cut out the eyes/circle shapes for the feathers next.


 
aren't the colors so rad?!



busy bees.

they glued the eye/circles to the feathers.
they made an eyeball with white paper, the orange painted paper & black. (annie begged me to make hers for her)
they glued it to the center of the handprint.
then cut the handprint out and glued it over the feathers.


ANNIE

and a close-up...  glitter paint!!  i would have them use a bunch more had i known how pretty it would be!



SEAN
his patience had worn thin by the time we were done.
no fancy details on his peacock face.  
but i was grateful he stayed as long as he did.


TALBY

and her close up....

 
this was a FUN craft.
messy.
i like messy.

you can check out our other Craft Thursday projects right here....
we have made some really cute stuff!!
i love looking back at their projects.

if i had to pick a favorite i would choose....this one. 

or maybe this one.... 

i can't decide.

there is THIS great one too! 

happy crafting to you and your littles.

here's to hoping for many more craft thursdays!
 cheers!!
{clink  clink  clink}
(toasting our Sonic Cranberry Limeades together in awesomeness!) 

 

 

mess it up...it's easy to clean it up.

when Clorox^Æ asked me to write about making messes with my kids and cleaning them up
i said, "YES! we are GREAT at making messes and coincidentally . . . Clorox Clean-Up^Æ is my favorite cleaning product!"

they directed me to the Clorox Clean-Up Recipes for Fun--Where Mess Doesn't Matter!
have you been there?
it is FULL of ideas for crafts or cooking or even science experiments to get messy with kids!

i make crafts with my kids quite often and i LOVE to see them get really into their project no matter how messy it gets!
at the Recipe for Fun site i found an idea for using collage and color together to make a color wheel!
we got busy on the mess making.

i got out our stack of old magazines and began ripping out anything that was mostly one color.
we made a big pile of magazine pictures.
i cut a large circle from a piece of poster board and drew lines diving the circle into six equal sections.
i wrote the names of the colors in rainbow order on the wheel to know where to put each scrap.
then we started gluing down our pictures.



i came across rubber cement at the grocery store and wondered if my girls had ever used it.
i knew i had never purchased it, so i got some.
my daughter was very curious!
"WHAT is this?!" she asked in a doubtful tone.
then i showed her how it had a brush INSIDE, and she was excited to use it.



we also used a paint brush dipped in the glue bottle so we could all work at the same time.
it's just like painting but you paint with glue.





layering and layering . . . picture after picture . . . overlapping until there are no white spaces at all.

 

 

we almost always make our crafts at this table.
i painted it white almost 10 years ago.
my kids use everything on it!
and it always comes back to white with Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner.



i was out of town recently, and when i came home i noticed my 10 year old had organized this coca-cola crate
with our art supplies by color!
how cute is that?! i love it! we like to do lots of things around here in rainbow order.









it was coming along quite nicely at this point.
there was glue all over our hands and the table!

they finished their color wheel collage but the mess still remained.

well...every Recipe For Fun needs a Recipe For Clean.
Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner combines a cleaner and the disinfecting power of Clorox Bleach letting you spray away messy play. It removes tough stains as well as the germs you can't see, leaving your home sparkling clean and ready for the next recipe.

usually after craft time my kids quickly scatter leaving the mess for me to clean up.
but today my youngest surprised me by helping out!
she loves to use spray bottles and paper towels.



when she saw the marker and glue wipe right off she said, "this is going great!"



with my daughter's help, a trash bag & Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner, the room was cleaner than when we started!

find the perfect activity for you and your kids to live it up, mess it up and then clean it up at Clorox Clean-Up Recipes for Fun ñ Where Mess Doesnít Matter!

do you like getting messy and creative with your kids?

tell me about it in the comments and be entered to win one of ten $100 Visa gift card s!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post*

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post*

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

Entries from all participating blogs will be pooled for winner selection; only two entries per household. This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

*Entrant is receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for the tweet/blog post.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/30/2012-6/24/2012.

Clorox^Æ and Clean-Up^Æ are registered trademarks of The Clorox Company.

monday....very farmy.

well...my day started with a looong run by myself.
i waited in my car for my friends but realized they were not coming...so i went alone.
and since i was supposed to be going with them i didn't bring my ipod.
so i ran without music....that is crazy talk!!
but i did the 6 miles without stopping and felt great.  
interesting.
no music or friends and i still did it.  
cool.

i came to the craft house to do some prep work.
and look what came in the mail.... 

my new favorite shirt.  :)
yep.
i bought that.

the bold banana has a bunch of really funny shirts but this was my favorite.   

 

i cut fabric for a couple hours getting ready to make a TON of bunting.
for my shop.
that who-knows-WHEN-it-will-actually-open-but-it-will someday-i-promise. 

i had music cranked and all the sunshining in....it was a really nice afternoon alone.

 

later in the afternoon talby yelled "MOM!!! THAT BIRD JUST HIT THE WINDOW!!" 

it was quite stunned.
it just sat there.
i opened our door and we were just looking at each other.

of course waffle was going NUTS over this bird just sitting there.
barking and barking and barking.

i have never seen a bird that close up...like a tiny bird.
i have seen the chickens.
but not a bird like this.

that beak looks too pointy for me.

i told talby "lets leave it alone now and it will probably get its wits and fly off pretty soon."

then i stood up and said "was that a goat?"
and it was.

the neighbors have two goats!


 


and how is this for a totally weird creepy picture.....



HA HA HA!!

i don't always look through my camera to take pictures so this was a shot taken down by my hip.
quite a surprise when that popped up on the screen.  
so funny.
i think his bottom teeth are straighter than mine!

then talby wanted to show me the neighbor's new kitties.
pretty cute.
but not tempting to me at all.

then THIS little lady came bouncing outside....

and i was immediately in love.
completely.

her name is Sue.

i wanted to kiss her.
and take her home.

and i wasn't the only one....

also not pictured...turtles were found and held and played with.
and wild turkeys in the road.

the bird that hit the window did indeed fly away.  
probably will never be quite the same but it's alive.

it was just a farmy night.

i like those kind.

ok...i have till thursday at noon to finish up that floor in the gray bedroom.
hmmm.
we will see if i can do it.
then we are on full summer break.
we started a rough draft of the summer list last night..... we don't have the big chalkboard at this house.
we will have to get creative.

 

it was a crafty day.

i forgot about the sleeping in part of spring break!
woo-hoo!
i LOVE sleeping in.
especially on these rainy days.

i ran at the gym....i got there and the tvs were being replaced!!!
running in front of a mirror for an hour?
i almost left.
it sounded AWFUL to me.
then the dude next to me left and he was on the only treadmill that has it's own tv.
i assumed it wasn't working since he wasn't watching.
i took a quick bathroom break at mile 2 and then checked that treadmill....it worked!
so i got to watch old grey's anatomy on lifetime for my last 3 miles. 
i am glad i did not leave. 

 
i promised my girls a craft when i got home.
we couldn't agree on one so we did a few different things.
 

 
annie and i made winter cardinal art from deepspacesparkle.com.
i was in a painting mood.

 
annie's cardinal.                                                             mommy's cardinal.

talby made a princess and the pea picture and painted the turtle shell!

 






later that night...i met some of my friends over at the craft house for a little paint party.



girls night out is getting pretty wild!!
look out...we are party animals!

we watched The Help and ate cheesecake and painted chairs.
such good friends.
they are helpful and funny and GREAT painters!

cheesecake.....it makes a great breakfast too!

have you made pam's cheesecake yet??

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

do it already.

:) 

 

DON"T FORGET ABOUT WORLD WATER DAY.
its coming up on thursday.
go get signed up to use your blog or facebook or twitter right HERE.

we need you.

let's do it together.

 

join us here to be ready on thursday!


 

fridays are awesome.

first off....i really wanted to go back to bed today.
bad.
my running clothes weren't clean.
i was tired.
it was cold.

but i went because my friends were waiting....thank goodness for them.
i would have slept my morning away otherwise.



WE RAN SIX MILES.
with only one quick bathroom break at mcdonalds (thank you body that birthed five babies....)
it was hard.
but we did it!!!!!

31.5 out of 100 miles.  
rad.


i went back and finished the baby doll quilt.
there was a commenter that said "she won't ask for a doll quilt for much longer....you can always make pillows."
that was the clencher.

 

 

 
it is so precious.
i looooove it.
and so did annie.  :)
 

i came back to the farm house and there were a bunch of trucks and a huge fire!

 
i guess today was the perfect day to tear down an old shed that was here at the farm.
it was pretty dangerous the way it was so it's probably good that it's gone.



kind of exciting to get off the bus to a giant fire in your yard!!



yesterday i followed talby over on her second round of feeding the neighbor's chickens. 

enjoy! 

what are you doing this weekend?

i think we are doing some swimming,,,,some soccer...some volleyball...some basketball....
that sounds relaxing right?

not.