Long Holiday Weekend

We started our Thanksgiving holiday watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  The natives got restless and some how it turned into a circus in the play room.

  

Davis got hot and took off his shirt.  He said he wanted us to see his ribs.

 

I had the easiest assignment for Thanskgiving dinner.

A tasty green salad with cranberries, bacon and cheese.

My cute sisters came with us to Mike's brother's house for dinner.

Cherie was being shy.

All the food was so yummy, especially the dessert.  Tess ate several pieces of pie.

Collin had some too.  He really liked Rachael's lemon cream pie.

Saturday we bought our christmas tree at Harmon's and set it up. 

Harmon's sells trees for $35!  That is such an awesome deal compared to what we used to pay when I was growing up.  I remember the trees costing upwards of $80, and most of the needles would fall off as we were taking it into the house.  Hawaii is a long way for a christmas tree to travel. 

The kids crave crafty things as much as I do.  Davis suggested we make sugar cookies.

I let Tess and Davis frost their own cookies.  Davis ate all of his before I even got a picture.  Tess' cookies were two inches thick with frosting.

I took my time and decorated some gingerbread people for one of my neighbors.  There were three girl cookies and three boy cookies.  Each of them had a different colored clothes and their initial in the middle.

I also made a snowman family for another neighbor.  The girls were outfitted with a purse and necklace.  The guys had a scarf and tie.  I am actually excited to make more cookies to try different outfits and designs.

Sunday night we had chicken soup for dinner.  I have alphabet cookie cutters and never use them.  I thought we would change up our noodles and do the alphabet.

 

The alphabet noodles turned out just as yummy as straight ones and they were fun to eat.

I know there were a lot of food pictures, but it was Thanksgiving weekend!

Flowers Make Me Melt

This is my 100th post!  I thought I would take a stab at my first tutorial...Melted Flowers.

This is super simple and fun to make. 

Supplies-

• 
  
  
  A scrap of polyester fabric.  Look at the label on the end of the bolt.  It will tell you the fiber content of the material.  I only bought 100% polyester.  There was cotton/poly, but I didn't want to take the chances of starting a fire.  I like to shop the remnant section.  The fabric is usually marked down to half price because it was the end of the bolt.
  
  
• Candle and matches.  I used a tea light and set it inside a pie tin.  I also did my melting in the kitchen by the sink in case of any mishaps. 
• A clothespin.  I used this to hold my fabric over the flame.
• Needle and Thread.  I used a neutral colored thread, but any color you want is fine.  The stiches are so small you will hardly be able to see the thread.
• Some kind of hair pin.  I used a bobby pin for my flower, but I have also glued them to other kinds of hair pins.  Use the one you like best.    You can also attached it to a pin back.  If you are gluing it, I would recommend using a strong adhesive like E6000. 
• Small button or bead/glittery thing.  This is optional, but it adds a nice touch to the center of your flower.  I liked it with or with out.

 Trace and cut out several different size cirlces on your fabric.  5-7 circles depending on what you like.  Melt then and then you can decide how many you want to use.  I drew my circles with a pencil, but it doesn't really matter becuse you will be melting the edges.  Your circle also doesn't have to be perfect because it will warp when you melt it. 

Use your clothespin to hold it over the flame.  Slowly turn it so the entire edge of the circle gets melted.  You will have to adjust it in the clothespin to get to all the edges.  It will start to crinkle up as the heat hits it.  Repeat with all the circles.  Be careful and don't burn yourself.  Sometimes the fabric can get hot. 

Take your melted circles and stack them.  They are cute centered or off center.  Use your needle and thread to stitch them together.  I made a tiny x like stitch.

I attached a small button while I was stitching the circles together.  I decided to use a bobby pin on this flower and just stiched it around the upper bar.  I looped it several times and actually tied my knots on top of the flower under the button.  You can add a dab of clear nail polish to your knots if you are worried about them coming undone.  Be careful not to touch the fabric with the nail polish, it will leave a spot.

 There you have it!  Go and make a ton of flowers!!!

I thought it would be good to have a picture with it in use, but Tess wouldn't wear it for me.  I commissioned Davis to take my photo.  It took 7 tries to get most of my face in the frame.  Then I noticed my hair was messy in the back, but it wasn't worth trying again. 

In high school I once went an entire month with out brushing my hair (I still washed it).  I am totally not fancy and am nervous about wearing this in my hair (even though I totally LOVE IT).  I have tried a few times to wear things I have made, but always seem to get a funny comment from somebody (mostly men at church...weird).  After said comment I have been too self conscious to try it again.  Oh well, since when do I care?  I think I will try this flower pin again for Thanksgiving dinner.  It will dress up my jeans and sweater.

Leave me a comment until next Tuesday, December 1st, and I will put you into a drawing for some of these flowers.   

Giving Thanks

Last year Davis and I made this Give Thanks turkey.

Davis drew the body of the turkey and colored it himself. 

I cut a strip of black paper and used glue dots to tape it to a pint size mason jar.  We glued two skinny pipe cleaners on the bottom of the body for the legs, bent the ends for feet and used glue dots to stick the body to the jar. 

We cut different colored cardstock into feathers and tucked them in the band around the jar.  When someone thinks of something they are grateful for they can write it on the feather.  Then we place the feathers in the jar.  Slowly the turkey gets plucked as we get closer to Thanksgiving.  On Thanksgiving we read all the things we are thankful for.  It's fun to see what your kids appreciate.   

Riddle

1. What slithers on the ground?
2. Eats drywall and food scraps found on the floor?
3. And tries to scratch your face to show you it loves you?

Collin

The kids call him Big, Fat and Chubbies.  Or just Chubbies.  I have heard several neighborhood kids call him Chubbies too.  He is super popular these days with the girls and the boys.  Very entertaining to watch as he explores the world around him.  He has four teeth out that he uses regularly and two more on the way.  Watch out he likes to nibble on people.  A couple of weeks ago we got his hair cut and now he looks like a little boy instead of a baby.  We love him!

You probably noticed the ladder in our front room and NO I didn't get it out for a photo shoot with Collin ;)

We had these decorations up for Halloween.  The ladder is out to remind us to take them down.  The banner is newspaper cut into big triangles and taped to thin hemp cord.  I wanted to use my jute string, but couldn't find it.  I free handed the words Happy Halloween and cut them out, then glued them on.  I noticed Cakies did something like this for decoration in her little girls' room (minus the words).  Way cute idea and super festive.  You could use colorful scrapbook paper for all sorts of occasions.  Birthdays, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, think of all the fun and cute possibilities!

Caramel Popcorn

Some of my most favorite recipes have come from my friend JoDee. Once she made this caramel popcorn for me I knew I had to have the recipe. When I was a little girl my parents would shop at Ward Warehouse (an outside mall). There was a candy store that I could smell from a block away. It was the smell of baked caramel popcorn. I loved going in and getting a small bag of caramel popcorn and looking at all the other fun candies.

I still get that giddy excited feeling when I see a candy store. No wonder my kids are sugar addicts. I passed this out to the parents of trick or treaters this year.

• 1 Cup butter
  2 Cups brown sugar
  1/2 Cup corn syrup
  1 Tsp. salt
  1/2 Tsp. baking soda
  1 Tsp. Vanilla
  3/4 Cup popcorn kernels

1. 
   
   Pop popcorn kernels in air popper or on the stove in a little oil. I do it on the stove in a large stock pot with the lid on. I shake it around every so often so it doesn't burn. Once it's popped put the popped corn in a large roasting pan being careful not to include any kernels that didn't pop.
2. 
   
   In a medium sauce pan melt butter, sugar, corn syrup and salt together. Bring to a boil and let it go for five minutes.
3. 
   
   Take pan off the heat and add vanilla and baking soda. Stir in and watch it because it will foam up from the soda. (this is a good thing, if it doesn't foam your soda wasn't good)
4. 
   
   Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and stir up trying to coat as much as you can.
5. 
   
   Bake at 250* for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes.

Let it cool and eat up!

Halloween Bugs

For our Halloween dinner we enjoyed...

Lizard Gizzard Soup, Snake Bite sandwiches and Bubbly Blood in mummy cups.Our costume theme this year was BUGS! Mike was an exterminator and Collin a bed bug.

Davis was a praying mantis and Tess was a beautiful butterfly.
I was a black widow spider, but I didn't get any pictures of myself.

It was a nice night for trick or treating. No snow or rain this year. Mike took the kids around the block while I passed out candy and caramel popcorn. It is Monday morning and all of Tess' candy is gone. Mike and I had a few pieces, but she ate the majority of it. Davis has a few pieces left, but I don't expect them to last the week. The kids are already talking about next Halloween!