Weekend Projects

First order of buisiness is to tell you that you have three days left to sign up for the Holiday Apron Swap. Oh how I hope you will join us! Head over here for all the details.
And invite you friends and fellow blog readers!

This weekend was a busy yet fun weekend. We spent Saturday at the Art Museum with the boys and did a bit of thrift store shopping. After a long week of rain, we were able to finally get outdoors on Sunday. We have a million projects going on at once around here...all the time. Is it like that around your home too?



Canaan and Mike have been working to restore Mike's old rusted out childhood bike. They've been sanding it and finally this weekend were able to start painting it.



We took the shutters off the house and have been priming those for a fresh coat of paint as well.




Mike found an old door on the side of the road that he brought home and we are now prepping to make it our new coffee table. (notice the spilled can of primer all over our driveway?)

This week I hope to start decorating for fall indoors. I love changing up our mantle for the seasons and our current mantle decor is way overdue for a change.

Freezer Paper Stencils





I have had a small stack of plain shirts for the boys up in my studio for a LONG while. They've been staring me down each day and I have put off doing anything with them until today. It has been a really rainy day which meant Ezra and I spent alot of time indoors...a perfect day to work on those shirts.


(this was the only still photo I could get of Ezra...that boy likes to move!)



I copied a design from Mini Boden and made Ezra a skateboard shirt. With the inverse of the stencil (the other part that was left from Ezra's ) I made Canaan one. It took less than an hour to do both. Oh how I love FPS! They are so easy and fun and by the end, I feel so accomplished!

Holiday Apron Swap




This year I have decided to host a little holiday apron swap. I have participated in one a couple of years back and loved it.

Here's the link~share it with your friends and post it to your blog if you'd like. Depending on the response I may open it up to more than just 50.

http://letsapronswap.blogspot.com/

New Home Decor



Around our home we have lots of quilts. Quilts we've inherited from family, quilts we've made, and quilts we've bought from estate auctions. They have moved from place to place in our home~ a cedar trunk, an old crate, stacked up on the floor, and now on an old ladder.
I have looked for a couple of years now for an old wooden ladder to display our quilts. I was surprised at how hard it was to find the perfect ladder. About a year ago I noticed an old ladder hanging on a shed in the hollow where Mike's mom lives. The home had been torn down but the shed still stood with the old ladder hanging on it. This year for my birthday I asked for that ladder. Mike's mom went and talked to the owner of the property and they gave her the ladder for my birthday present.
We brought it home, sanded it a bit and put a quick coat of sealer to protect the wood and protect the quilts from the old wood.



This weekend we brought it in and set it up along side our sofa and old bookcase. It goes from floor to ceiling and houses almost all of our quilts (except those we use on our beds.)
Another addition are these small wooden boxes I picked up at a little shop a while back. I had absolutely no use for them but at $2 a piece, I knew they would find a place at our home. They now house Canaan's ever growing rock collection.



Yes, he is at that magical age of rock and "crystal" collections. He spends his days out at recess looking for these little gems and then brings them home to put them in the boxes.
The weather is slowly starting to cool off. The leaves are beginning to change and we are definitely gearing up for the fall season around here...our favorite time of year.

He Loves Me...

He showed up at the door at 2:45pm with this for me...




Then he was off again to work.
He's amazing...

I Just Wish...




Ezra's new thing nowdays is to start many of his sentences like this "I just wish..." Here are some recent wishes

"I just wish I had a race car."
"I just wish I could be big so I could go to work like daddy, drink lots of coffee, and wear a coat."
and last night he said as I tucked him into bed
"I just wish that baby would come out of your belly."

I am not sure I can fulfill any of those wishes at this point in time, little Ezra.

Southland Jamboree




It was the final jamboree of the summer. Each Tuesday night in the summer beside the bowling alley lies a little lawn with a very little stage. Each week you can find local bluegrass bands playing some amazing music as the sun sets. Its oh-so-much fun. The weather was beautiful last night, just chilly enough for a long sleeve shirt.



We went early with our picnic dinner (quiche, crudites, grapes, and a batch of cookies)and enjoyed watching as hundreds of people set up lawn chairs for the 7pm show. I never quite understand why they only do these sorts of things in the summer. Do organizers think we wouldn't enjoy bluegrass as much with the changing leaves and 50 degree evenings? I sure would. But alas, we'll have to wait another year for our beloved Southland Jamboree.

Christmastime




What the...? Blogging about Christmastime already? Well it has been on my mind on and off in the past few weeks.
One of our upstairs closets houses a tupperware tote. In it I stash random gifts I find throughout the year for birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas. Its crazy as I reach this time of year how full the box already is. I went through it the other day and was amazed at how many Christmas gifts I had already started tucking away. Gifts I bought as far back as January with a certain person in mind. I am a firm believer in buying gifts that really speak to me about that particular person. I hate having to rush out and grab a gift last minute and literally buying something just because I have to have...something.

One of Ezra's gifts arrived in the mail yesterday. I found it online for $10 ( a discount from the normal $80 price tag). He will absolutely love it.

And today I was shopping at Big Lots for some shipping supplies. I went with no intention of Christmas shopping (nor do I ever go to a store with that intention), but low and behold~I kid you not~ a book that I had written on my Christmas shopping list to buy someone was there...at Big Lots...for $5! This is a very rare book that I have never even seen at a bookstore. I was fully prepared to pay $25 for it online. Isn't that so crazy?
I still have many gifts to buy but I'd say I am a little over 50 percent done.

I don't know if you remember last years flurry of handmade gift giving around here.

I started months in advance and remained organized and on top of each project to make sure I finished in time. Unfortunately I didn't take into account the amount of WORK that it would take to handmake nearly every gift. As time crept closer to December 25th I worked feverishly into the night (after the boys were in bed) sewing, embroidering, painting, and crafting. I remember thoughts of frustration as I'd see my beloved husband curled up by the fire with a book or the laptop enjoying the lights of the Christmas tree while I was slaving over gifts. He was totally off the hook and the worst part was that I had done it to myself!
As much as I adore handmade holidays and the practice of keeping things simple and sweet, I never again will go to quite the lengths I did last year.
Without a doubt Mike and the boys will always get something handmade from me. I am also thinking of using VistaPrint
to get personalized notepads made from the boys artwork. They would make great gifts for teachers, extended family, and friends.
What are your holiday gift giving plans? Share any good ideas you have because although I have a little over 50 percent done, I still have a little under 50 percent still to do.