We have a house guest…

for the week and his name is Virgil.  He’s the mascot at Lauren’s pre-school and he’s spending a week at home with each child.  He comes along with a journal to record his antics, including pics. 

As you can see from the hanging thread that used to be his mouth, Virgil has been around the block a few times.  I think we are the six or seventh family to host him.  I hope he survives his time with us…time will tell.  ;)

 

Here’s a few pics from Thanksgiving at grandma and grandpa’s house (Joe’s parents).  She loves her “Unca Ed” and had a great time with cousin Jessica, who we haven’t seen in over a year.  She just finished up a 10 year stint in the Navy. 

 

Counting my blessings

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I hope you can slow down a little today and take some time to count the many blessings in your life.  Sometimes in the daily whirlwind of life, we get stuck on some of the ugly stuff.  Today we get to focus on the positive and leave that stuff behind!  

This year we are heading to my in-laws for dinner.  I’m making the Pioneer Women’s Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Apples.  It’s the recipe she used when she was on Throwdown last week with Bobby Flay.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  After dinner, we’re off to my side of the family at my brother’s place. 

This evening it’s time to plan my strategy for Black Friday shopping.  Yes, I’m one of those crazy people who get up before the sun to stand in line at Kohl’s and Target.  It’s a holiday tradition and it wouldn’t seem like the start of the Christmas season without it! 

Speaking of blessings, here’s one of mine.  We made pumpkin bars on Monday night and I brought them into the office this week.  She LOVES to help me bake and I spent many years dreaming of a baking assistant!  ;)

   

Not a sight you see everyday…

It was quite a surprise to see Hello Kitty as large as life as we drove back to the office from lunch.  Apparently, it’s Sanrio’s 50th Anniversary and they have teamed up with Target for a little road show.   Of course I parked and headed over to check it out. 

 

Can you see the Hello Kitty head rests in this truck…

  

Bet you’d get lots of stares in this Smart Car…

They had lots of 50th Anniversary goodies for sale, but nothing I had to have.  Lauren could really care less about Hello Kitty at this point, although I think she’s darn cute. 

So, what do you think?

I saw some totally adorable headbands at a boutique recently.  They were more than I would usually spend on a hair accessory, so I decided to try and make one myself.  I didn’t have any cute fabric scraps on hand, so I picked up a few coordinating fat quarters at Joann’s for a total of $5.  I have enough left-over to make something else too or a few more headbands. 

  

Here’s how it looks on.  Keep in mind that I was working with a moving target who really wanted nothing to do with trying this on.  I’m thinking with an actual matching outfit and a hairbrush, it will look much cuter. 

So, what do you think?  Totally not as cute as the original, but still cute nonetheless.  M3, I think Ro & Ree would look oh so adorable in these!

Clean out time…

Yesterday I did the dreaded clothes clean-out in Lauren’s room.  I pulled everything out of the closet and drawers and went through each item to make three piles: Goodwill, garage sale and might still fit next summer.  Wow, what a chore!  I found that it’s a bit of an emotional drain to go through everything.  There were some items that I had a hard time putting in the Goodwill and garage sale piles.  I still had some things in the closet that she wore in China and things I had purchased back when she was only a dream to me that now have been worn and no longer fit….sigh.  I have to admit that a few of the things I couldn’t part with went into the box for next year even though I know they won’t fit next year.  ;)

Last night I told Lauren that it’s time to put Mickey in his pocket and she ran over to the calendar to put the second one in.  It’s very cool to see her enjoying this after all my hard work. 

I told her that we’ll put a Mickey in every night and when the last one is in its pocket then it’s time to go visit Mickey Mouse where he lives at Disneyland.  She asked…and Goofy too?  Yes, baby, Goofy too. 

 

Countdown to Mickey

Julie, you guessed right...it's a countdown calendar! We are planning a trip to Disneyland next month and I thought it would be fun for Lauren to countdown by putting a Mickey on the calendar every day until we leave. I thought this might help build some excitement for the trip and help teach her the concept of time, which at this age she has no concept of whatsoever.

This project turned out to be more time consuming than I thought with cutting out all the little numbers and letters, but I figure we’ll get quite a few years of use out of it and I’ll pass it down to Lauren to share with her kids someday.

The finished calendar measures about 31” x 22” and each little pocket is a 2.5” square. The pocket at the bottom of the calendar stores all the Mickey heads when not in use.

The Mickey heads are cut from glitter felt so they stand out nicely and I sized the pockets so Mickey’s ears would stick out.

The squares and the jumbo rick rack border are machine sewed and the letters and numbers are glued on with Aleene’s Super Fabric textile adhesive. Love this stuff. Easier and faster to use than a glue gun and it’s a super permanent bond on fabric, especially felt. Of course, it takes longer to dry than a glue gun, but that wasn’t a problem for this project.

All in all, I’m very happy with the finished calendar and I’m looking forward to Lauren having fun with it.

I'm linking up at the Sugar Bee for Take a Look Tuesday...

and Strut your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple...

Lauren and her bunny, Hoppy, were casualties one night as I spent a little too much time working on my project.

More crafting

Okay, I just snuck in a little crafting and got my felt numbers cut out.  Lots of them!  First the Mickey heads and now numbers…hmmm…what can it be?

Sometimes I find it frustrating trying to get fun things like crafts done with my full-time work schedule.  I have it do it in little bits and pieces unless I have a weekend with big chunks of free time.  I SO envy those who work part-time or not at all.  Oh, the things I could do! 

Can you guess?

I just finished cutting out 30 sparkly felt Mickey heads.  It’s the first step in my latest crafty project.  Can anyone guess what I’m making?

Oh, and by the way, these particular left-over Halloween candies are resident evil.  Have you tried them?  If you haven’t, then I suggest you don’t let them in your house.  Especially a whole bag of them!  ;)

 

It was a great Halloween

On Saturday we hosted a pumpkin carving party at our house.  It was such a fun party to plan for and I think everyone had a great time, especially the kids. 

We had some good food and lots of treats.  My home-made chocolate cupcakes topped with a tombstone and “bone” (pretzel and marshmallow dipped in chocolate) were a big hit. 

The chocolate pretzel witch fingers were a favorite with the kids…

I cut out some sparkly felt bats and strung them up over the kitchen island…

and we had LOTS of tools for carving pumpkins thanks to my friend, Jennifer, who used to host an annual party…

The weather was perfect, so we had the backyard set up for the pumpkin carving…

I had a candy bar set up so guests could fill their own favor bags on the way out…

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night we had a couple of friends over.  We had pizza (thanks Heather & Damon) and then got the girls dressed in their costumes.  I love this picture of Lauren with her BFF, Lily.  They are SO cute together.  My friend Nancy, Lily’s mom, made that beautiful princess and the frog costume (notice the froggy backpack?). 

 

 

It took the girls a few houses to get the hang of the trick or treating gig, but after they felt comfortable with it they were off and running from house to house.  We could barely keep up with them! 

Once we got home, the buckets were dumped and faces were stuffed with candy.  It reminded me of Halloween as kids when my brother and I would sort out our candy and make trades…those were the days!