December

Tomorrow is December, it still feels like August to me.
Not weather wise, but time wise.

Tomorrow we will start our second year of using our two advents to count down to the big night. I was super excited for this year, due to a change in Papa Bears job in September, he was going to be able to be with us every night! Last year he missed a few night because of school related things. I was looking forward to this holiday season, I had plans galore! Concerts, activities, Little Bear is in a play, the town has lots of stuff going on, and I was going to do it all.

Not anymore.
We got word that Papa Bear has a job he needs to do, out of town. Way....way....out of town.
12 hours away. For 24days. He left this morning and is expected home on December 23.

so. sad.
It's just not the same without him.

Remember

source

How do I not take a minute and write about today? How can I let this day go past without falling to my knees in gratitude? I can't. The words "Thank You" are not big enough to express what is in my heart.

To those that fought, who are fighting, You have my deepest gratitude for giving me the opportunity to live in a free land. To raise my daughter with freedoms like, education, a religion of our choosing, and the ability to walk outside without fear.

I am grateful, I will never forget.

Absent

It's been a whole week since I last wrote something. I had plans of writing about some things, making some things, and now I don't feel like it at all. Some things have happened in the last week that has taken, or rather, sucked all the desire to do anything out of my life.

Instead of crafting, and sewing, and enjoying the sunshine we still have, I have been enveloped is a cloud of sadness that I cannot seem to shake. Maybe I am over thinking things, maybe I am being selfish. Whatever the reason, I may be absent from here for a while.

isn't this fabulous?

Thrifty Find

I am not one of those people who haunt thrift stores, for one I don't have the patience to sift through 86 things to hopefully find the 1 treasure lurking there, plus I live at least 60 minutes away from one. After I saw this post, I went to the thrift store to see if I could find something to make one, I did, (see here) so I made two. Then I stumbled upon stuff to make a third, then I went to a thrift store and found stuff to make a fourth, then a fifth and sixth. Yesterday I had the chance to be in the city, so I made, my now typical, stop at the thrift store, while I did find supplies to make more cake plates, I think I also found a treasure.

 

BOO!

Ok. I don't like Halloween. There I said it.
I don't like ghoulish costumes, and I don't like scaring children.
I am not a mean Mommy. I like be involved, and encourage Little Bear to be as well.
I still allow Little Bear to choose a costume, with some strict guidelines. I take treats to school for the little party, and I even allow her to go out with her cousin and get too much candy.

I am pretty sure I have the cutest little "Hermione" around.

First attempt

So. Paint chip art. I am sure you've all seen it. It's everywhere.
Lately I have been finding and coming up with a bunch of "make it my self for pennies" ideas, from things I've seen online and things I've seen other do. So, paint chip art. Pretty simple. I wanted to make a really big one, so I gathered my stuff. After trimming my paint chips to size I had a container of narrow pieces, and not one to let things go to waste, I decided to do a trial run. Boy I am glad I did!

You will need:
*A canvas, any size will do, I used a 12x12
*Paint chips, I got mine at Home Depot, you may want to make several trips to get yours. I don't have that luxury  living where I do, so I am the crazy lady at the Martha Stewart Paint display with 122 paint chips stuffed in my purse. I got the Martha Stewart chips cuz they are 5 inches by 2.5 inches. Big means less cutting!
*Mod Podge, I got the glossy kind, cuz I like shiny stuff
*Time - do not start this 12 minutes before a wild baby comes over. It will result in a lovely art project glued to the carpet.

To do this:
Paint your canvas. ALL of it. Trust me, you do not want white canvas showing between your paint chips. I only painted the sides, and a bit of the surface, I wish I would have painted it all.

Cut your paint chips to whatever size you want. It helps if you live with a mathematician, so he can do all the fractional crazy math. My paint chips very from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch wide. Glue the chips down in any order

Cover with at least 2 layers of Mod Podge

Hang! Which I haven't done yet, I am waiting for the Engineer to get home so he can make sure it goes up straight!

More Art

More ideas. 

More things I've seen. 

More desire to create and explore mediums. 

This pile of beauties will be something very awesome in a few days. 

Stay tuned! 

Warm

With the coming of fall comes cool weather, and chilly nights. Our new home came with a wonderful feature, that Papa Bear has been dying to try out. a few nights ago, he declared he could not wait anymore! We must have a fire, so we did.

Books

Books, Papa Bear says we have to many. I say - not possible! Books, my escape, my alternate reality, my education. I learn things when I read, things like the names of some characters aren't just weird words like "Regulus" or "Sirius", they are the names of stars. I love books, and I have tried very hard to teach Little Bear to love books. Not just any books, but books with soul. Books with depth. Books that will uplift and teach. That is why today I am filled with happiness. Yes, happiness over books.

Today was the start of the book fair at school, we always go and we always buy something. Today as we prowled around looking at everything I noticed something. Little Bear would only hover for a second at books with pink covers, or ones that had fairy's on the cover. She drifted past all the .50 cent items, and silly trinkets. I found her in the back corner, in front of a shelf of books that had no pink, no fairy's. After several moments of deliberation, she made her choice. When she showed me her choice, I was impressed. Books with soul. Books with heart. Books full of history. Instead of fluffy books (as I call them) a trilogy of books about the Titanic.

Thankful

It was Thanksgiving on Monday, and I am grateful for many things. We had a nice dinner with Papa Bears family, and while we were eating we got to talking about things we are thankful for. Little Bear was grateful for: clothes, food, shelter warmth and family. Papa Bear was grateful for his job, and us. I am thankful for all of those things, plus running and a few other things.

I am Thankful for dirty dishes, because it means I have food to eat.
I am Thankful for laundry, because it means I have clothes to wear.
I am Thankful for vacuuming, because it means I have a home.
I am Thankful for all of those things, because it means I am healthy, and have the use of my limbs.

What are you Thankful for?

Crayons Again

So, I loved making my crayon art so much I wanted to make more, but who really needs to have 12 canvases with melted crayons on them? Well......Nobody. I bought the supplies to make a bunch more anyway, and took them to my sister's house. Sister1 has 4 children ages 7-15, and they all got a kick out of making something fun for their rooms. We had quite a good time making these, the children got to chose their crayons, and they glued them in the order they wanted. So without any ado I give you3 of the 5 we made. Sorry for the completely junky cell phone pictures. Some of us forget our camera when we go on a trip.

Chachi:

Hammy:

Little Bear:

The Other Canvas

So in an earlier post I used a canvas to make some cool art (here) and I had an extra canvas leftover. SO! What does one do with a 16x20 canvas? Well, we find another idea we can copy and make it for super cheap! So, here is another project that whips up in minutes and is just the right size to fill that empty spot above my bed.

You will need a canvas, I used the extra one from my crayon project.
You will need some chipboard letters, or I bought thin wooden ones at Wal-Mart for $3.
Craft glue, which I had & Spray paint. I used glossy white, also bought at Wal-Mart for $5.

Super easy directions. Glue letters in desired phrase, in desired location on canvas.

Sprat paint it chosen colour, I used 2 coats.

I wanted mine to have a splash of colour, so I bought a flower stem from Michaels when it was 40% off, and took apart the flowers, I had these rhinestone brads kicking around, and used them to secure the layers of the flowers together.

I then trimmed the stem, and shaped it the way I wanted it to look, and glued it to the canvas, then glued the flowers in place and TA-DA!

Pumpkin Patch

I have never been into decorating for Halloween, never been into Halloween either. This year, I really wanted to decorate for fall, but not have an overly Halloween themed house. Now, this craft is not one of those super cheap ones, but it is one that I can use over and over. I wanted to celebrate fall, and the harvest, and Thanksgiving. Since Canadian Thanksgiving is squeezed into the beginning of October before Halloween, I think it largely get ignored. I mean, it's not as though we delicate an entire month to decorating and celebrating it. This year, I decided that I was going to make something that incorporates both days. So was born my pumpkin patch.

I don't like pumpkin as a general rule. Not in pie, or muffins, or the like. I don't carve pumpkins with Little Bear because I cannot stand the smell. So, I saved my pennies and waited for those fake pumpkins to go on sale at Michael's (Canada's version of Hobby Lobby).

I then picked out a sweet font, and made the type huge, I think it ended up being 460 or something like that.

Then I traced the letters onto my pumpkins.

Used some craft paint to fill them in.

And set them up outside, where, in this crazy wind they promptly fell over. So I drilled a small hole in each and put a few rocks inside to help them stand up. Not the cheapest craft ever, but one that I can re-use.

DIY Arm-warmers!

Arm warmers, have you seen them around? They are becoming more and more popular. I saw some on 2 different websites, and I really wanted them for running. Downside? They are $30! and shipping to Canada is CRAZY! Even if I wanted to buy then from someone who makes them, I am still looking at $30-$45! So, pretty much no way!

Then I got to thinking, hmmmmm, I think I am pretty crafty and I figured I could make my own! And I DID! And so, I am sharing with you my super easy, make them yourself, 5 minute, arm warmes!

Ready? Ok, you will need knee socks, and a sewing machine. Here it goes!

 Cut the foot off your sock, try to get as close to the heel as you can.

Take the foot of your sock, and trim off the end of the toes, and the curvy part of the heel.

Take the foot part and fold it is half, like so, to make the cuff

Line up all the raw edges, and sew!

TA! DA! Arm warmers for $3.99 and 5 minutes!

If you make any, and you blog about them, I want to see your crazy socks! So, please leave a link in the comments below! Which, by the way, if anyone knows some crazy cool places to get some funky knee sock can you let me know? Even better, if you will send me some I will make you some arm warmers!!

Gallery Wall

In Little Bear's room, I have started a gallery wall. We currently have 2 things up there, but there are many, many plans to add more. I enjoyed my first round of crayon art so much, I wanted to try it again. This time I used a much smaller canvas, 8x10 and some leftover crayons. Since Her room is grey and blue, those are the shades of crayons I used, with 2 white ones, and 2 black one thrown into the mix because I needed a few more.

This time I cut the crayons in half, I thought smaller canvas, smaller crayons. When melting the crayons this time I kept the canvas very upright, so there is very few places where the wax dried thick. After letting it sit for the night, I put up the first 2 pieces on the gallery wall.

I think I will just call this the Louvre wall.

Moved

During the summer we moved. Again. We bought a cute little house that was all done, but in serious need of an update. There are plenty of projects that could be done, but there are none that have to be done right away. I like that. I have a million ideas for this place, and I have already started some and finish others. We had a little dinner here with Papa Bears family a couple weeks ago, and my one sister-in-law wanted to see how I had "Mam Bear-ized" the house. So here are a couple of before/afters to show how we've started to put our personalities into our new little cave.

Living Room Before:

Living Room After:

Of course it is now was cleaner *cough*, and those pictures will be coming. So, our new place? We love it, and it is sure fun to Mama Bear-ize it. Feel free to stop in for a tour!

The Room

Once we moved in and were somewhat settled, the one thing I wanted to do the most was Little Bear's room. In fact, when we moved in, we didn't set up her bed, and she wasn't even in the room that was to be hers. I wanted to leave it empty so I could make the most of the blank canvas. It was blank, white walls and tan carpet, about as bland as it gets. I had a vision of what I wanted the room to look like, and it was nothing like Little Bear wanted it to look like. We had very different ideas about this room, most often when I decorate or re-do something I get both Papa Bear, and Little Bear to give me feedback, and ideas too. This was not one of those times. This time, I just said "This is what we are doing". Little Bear's ideas involved a lot more colour and busyness than I thought would be good for a bedroom. I wanted to give her a quiet, peaceful place to relax, and read. We kept other areas of the house bright and fun, the places where we play and watch TV.

The room, is fabulous. It came out almost exactly the way I had it in my mind. So, here in pictures in Little Bears Room.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

For the most part the room is very neutral, I wanted something that could grow with her so I don't have to re-do when she is out of a phase, so that meant no characters of any kind.We did a board and batten look, because I just loved the dimension it gives a room. I wanted it tall, to give the room the illusion of being taller than it is, and it works. The blue is my favorite, it is called cloudless day, and it gives the room height, as well as a nice pop of colour. The bed, we built! and painted a slightly off white colour. The quilt is one I made for Little Bear when she was 2 or 3, there is a new quilt in the works to match the colours of this room.

View my inspiration board for the room on pintrest ---> here

Crayons

So there is this trend that is floating around blog-land. It involves 3 things: Stretched canvas, Crayons & Heat. It will cost you $100 or MORE if you buy it in Etsy, & looks something like this:

Well folks, I am here to blow the lid off  this craft that will cost you less than $10.
You need a canvas, any size, I used 16x20. I got mine at Wal-Mart, 2 for $9.
You need 1 box of crayons, I chose to get a 96 count box for $6, I used half of them.
You need craft glue and a blow dryer. Both of which I already had.

Glue on the Crayons in any order. Let the glue dry for an hour or 2.

Melt with blow dryer.

When you melt the crayons, have something covering your table, and have the canvas tipped up quite a bit so the wax will run down it. I didn't have mine up the whole time, because I was going for the thicker look. If you kept the canvas tipped nearly vertical the whole time, the canvas would be more covered than mine, and you would get more of a washed look to your art. Hang it anyway you want, I think it would look cool to hang this one horizontally. Have fun! I'd love to see what you do with your crayons! Leave a comment below with a link.

Another idea ---> HERE

Quite a Turn

In a hilarious, and almost poetic turn of events, I was asked this morning if I would be in charge of the meal for the Relief Societies Christmas Craft day. HA! I thought for sure after my post (see here) about that very event I would be barred from coming. Well, I didn't really, but I wasn't planning to go to the event. I did some google searching, and I have some ideas for the meal, I wonder how the Ladies would feel about sushi for dinner? I am happy to help out, and making some fun Christmas themed food, for me, is more fun that crafts I don't need. So I guess from now on you can just call me:

Laughing

I was browsing pictures on my computer, and I came across this one that was taken 3 years ago at Thanksgiving. This is my youngest brother, who I call, Repeat.  It just made me burst our laughing at a moment I needed some funny.