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.

Embrace The Camera

So, How much have I been slacking in this department! Um...lots. Anyway, With Papa Bear gone a lot working and this Mama Bear failing hopelessly at using a self timer on the camera, we have to wait for Papa Bear to man the Camera. This picture was taken during our last hike, when we hiked over the top of the mountain into the neighbouring province.

Me & My Little Bear

Lining up over ---> HERE!

Forum Lake

Another post about hiking! We here at the Bear house sure like our hiking, and this one was my current favorite. The trail head for Forum Lake is just north of Cameron Lake, this trail has several branches that can be hiked. One can be done over the course of 3 days, doesn't that sound like fun! The entire trail is called the Akamina Pass, and it goes a long way.

This trail was quick rocky, compared to others we have been on. It gets steep pretty quickly, and is a steady uphill walk for about a kilometer, then it is kind of an uphill/downhill for a while. One of Little Bear's favorite things about this hike was hiking all the way to B.C.! 

That's right! You cross the Provincial boundary on this hike. Not long after passing this sign, the trail forks, we took the main trail. The trail we were on on also leads to Wall Lake and continues the Akamina Pass. Further along there is a second fork, this time we took the smaller trail and boy did it get tricky after that. 

These 2 are so funny!

Once you branch off on the Forum Lake trail things get super steep, for a long time. I would like to do this hike again with a GPS of some kind to measure how much elevation you gain. You are in the trees from here until you nearly get to the lake. One thing I liked about this trail is, there's a ranger station! Which means a bathroom! Which means, an outhouse, but that sure beats a tree in my books. Just past the ranger station there is a little trail that forks off and takes you to Forum Falls. It is only a few dozen meters, and well worth the few minutes,

We took our time on this hike, partly because there was so many pretty flowers and other vegetation to look at and mostly because it was really steep! Little Bear was a champion on this hike, it was taxing for her, but she pushed to the end. When you get to the end you can see this

It was another successful hike, and we had a lovely picnic on the shores of this little lake. It was cloudy when we were up there, and I wish I could have gotten a picture of the lake when the sun came out for a few seconds. The lake turned this incredible shade of turquoise, It was breathtaking. If you ever feel like taking a hike that will challenge you, this is a good one. It is about 4km each way, and should take you 3-4 hours depending on how fast you can scale those inclines.

Looking down from above the falls

On the way back down we decided to hike the cut line along the AB/B.C. border just to see what we could see. Papa Bear always the surveyor noticed this. It is the official marker of the border, or something like that, ask him, he knows all the real words. 

True to our luck, we saw a Mama Bear & 2 cubs while driving out of the park. Un-lucky was that I was not camera ready! But that brings our bear count to 10 this summer! 

Christmas Already!?

On Sunday, when I arrived at Church, I saw in the hallway 3 table full of things that a person could make during the "Super Saturday" that is coming up in November. This is an annual event, where ladies can go and make all kinds of crafts or food items to either keep or give as gifts during the upcoming Christmas season. I know right!? Did you just think, as I did, it is SEPTEMBER! Why are we already gearing up to get Christmas ready!? I was really taken back by the fact that these tables were there, and had people crowded around them.

This display at Church caught me off guard a little, because I had already had Christmas on the brain for the whole week prior, but not in the - what am I going to buy!/make! for people - run around crazy - kind of way. I have been pondering lately the well known statement "Christmas is always so busy." or, something similar. It puzzles me, a lot. Last year (2010) I made a comment that went something like this - "I don't understand why a lot of people say that they are so busy during December." After making this comment in a group of people, I heard this - "You aren't busy because you only have one child." I really don't think that is true, or at least not the whole reason. I honestly feel that my lack of busyness, during the Christmas season, is due to the choices I have made, and will make.

I long ago got over the idea that I had to go to everything that is going on in town. I don't and I survive. My child doesn't and she survives. I heard a lesson given in Relief Society years ago that talked about priorities. You know the lesson that comes around every so often to remind us we don't have to do everything, because there is no way we can, and how to deal with the stress that life brings. Well, if you ask me, if Christmas is stressing you out! The meaning of the season is missing. Anyway, I took that lesson to heart that day, and my priorities changed. In my world my family comes first. Always. Period. The End. If something will interfere in anyway with my family than it is not something we do.

Speaking specifically about Christmas. About 6 years ago I hated it. Yup, totally disliked it. Felt like it was hardly worth the effort to put up a tree, and the only reason I did was because I had a little kid who wanted one. I never felt like Christmas was the meaningful event that I heard others talk about. But, as I said above, that lesson changed my priorities. I changed my attitude. I changed my outlook. I changed what Christmas was in my home. Last Christmas was perfect. The tree went up early and we decorated it together as a family. I have learned not to re-do anything that Little Bear does to the tree, yes it bugs me and my OCD ways, but it is her tree too, and she loves it. Our tree stayed up longer that it ever did before, in the past is would come down on boxing day, but it stayed up until New Year's. We didn't go to any events that didn't interest us, which gave us lots of time at home, together. We didn't do any Christmas baking, because we didn't want to, and you know what? Our friends & family still love us.

Perhaps my favorite thing about last Christmas was something new that we tried, and advent or countdown to Christmas. Each night we gathered around our lit tree, and we would pull from a bag a picture of Jesus Christ and read the scripture printed on the back. Then Little Bear would find a place on our tree to hang the picture. The spirit of Christmas, or Jesus Christ, was in our home during the season, and I know that made all the difference in the world. I know that it impacted Little Bear, she asked me last week when we could start our picture count down again.

Do I have a point? Maybe I do, and it's really just for me. Choose wisely what you allow to fill you life. Don't forget to leave room for what is really important. Perhaps like me, you too will find the busyness just fades away.

Summit Lake

At the end of July Little Bear had the chance to go visit her cousins for a week. During this week Papa Bear and I stole a quick trip to our mountains to hike. We also packed, moved, un-packed, and laid a tile floor during the week. I really wanted to make sure we spent some time at a higher elevation, so we set out on one of the nicest days this summer! We chose to do Summit Lake, it was the hike I had been wanting to do all summer and it was worth it!

This hike take you up the south/west side of Mount Carthew. You are in the trees for the majority of the time, but if you look back now and then you can catch glimpses of some very impressive scenery. This is a view of Cameron Lake.

This trail starts out nice and easy, and is only that way long enough to fool you into thinking that this hike will be a piece of cake. It's not. Not that is it super hard, we have hiked harder, but this one will definitely get you breathing. I am sure, had Little Bear been along, she would have been able to do this hike no problem. We say younger children that her on the trail, as well as some older people. 

First glimpse of the lake

Summit Lake

 This hike took us a solid 4 hours to do, I am sure it could be done quicker, but why? You would miss so much if you sped along the trail. This trail does continue onto the summit of Mount Carthew, and will eventually take you all the way back to the town site. 

Back To School

As I said in my last post, school is back in. There was a big debate this summer at the Bear House about school. To go or not to go. Little Bear agonized over the choice, but in the end she chose to attend school. Fingers crossed she has a good year. The first day of school would be complete without a few pictures. So, here you go!

New! Shoes!

Woke up early enough that we had time to put in some curls.