A Homemaker's Journal: holidays

Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts

Thursday, November 28, 2013

happy thanksgiving

I hope you've had a peaceful holiday

and that the rest of your weekend is excellent as well!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Father's Day art

Backstory:

A couple of years ago

my dad was driving home late at night

when he plowed into a full-grown moose at 70 miles per hour.

Miraculously, he walked away from the wreckage.

Since then we have had some fun

giving him all sorts of moose themed gifts.

It's part joke, but deeper down it's a reminder

that life is short and God is good

and that we should make the most of the time we have.

Here and now:

Last Tuesday

I randomly flipped through a vintage book

that I had stashed for future projects,

and I found a section about moose

which even included a cool moose picture.

Inspiration struck,

and in no time I found myself making the some father's day art

instead of working on laundry. : )

made from layers of

scrapbook papers, vintage book page and moose illustration,

watercolors, my own calligraphy, and thread.

It's not a traditional card,

just a flat piece of art with a not written on the back.

He'll love it, though.

Linking up with the fabulous in the studio group

for the first time in way too long.

Monday, February 18, 2013

valentine mug

My parents got me a really cool set of Pebeo paints

for Christmas last year.

I have been not-patiently waiting to use them

on some blank thrifted cups I had stashed.

A couple of weeks ago

I finally decided to just leave the laundry for a day or two

and get some painting play time in.

One of the mugs I decorated

became Benjamin's Valentine's Day gift.

A simple saying plus a cute penguin couple plus little hearts,

and BAM--I had a gift-worthy cup in my hands.

I neglected to get Benjamin a card this year,

but this mug plus some of his favorite teas

put a smile on his face

when I presented it to him last Thursday.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

preschool and valentines

[first day of preschool]

This month there was an unexpected opening

in one of our local preschools.

One of my friends is on the board of directors

and was able to offer us the opportunity

to start Little Man mid-semester.

He began last Monday
and was so excited,
that it was impossible not to catch his enthusiasm.
We are, however,
facing a bit of a learning curve
as we work on fitting our schedule around it.
Preschool has yet to become part of our routine.
It'll happen.

I was excited that he got to start before Valentine's Day
so that we could make some of the cool valentines
that I have been pinning.

We selected these simple yet unique
guitar lollipops from Zakka Life.
(I'm so, so thankful for the nice people
who provide awesome free printables.)

Little Man was able to do most of the work himself,

cutting and assembling like a pro

with just a little help.

They turned out fantastic!

Sadly, we had a break down in communication,

and in spite of his excitement to share them with his friends,

his awesome valentines came back home again in his backpack.

I almost cried (hey, yesterday was just an emotional day).

But in a quick call to his teacher,

I got the okay to try again Monday,

so it's all good.

I also free-handed some simple valentine hearts

for Little Man's teachers.

He colored some of the details and signed his name.

These did get delivered yesterday. : )

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Handmade Christmas 2012

I love pretty wrapping.

(I even have an entire Pinterest board dedicated

to pretty and clever gift wrap.)

I like to think of the wrapping as an extension of the gift I'm giving.

Of course, I do my share of shoving a present into a gift bag

and topping it with a wad of tissue paper,

but it sure would be nice to make every gift I give a work of art!

This year I was delighted to have a little extra time

to put a little extra care into my gifts.

(I should have realized ahead of time, though,

that sitting on the floor wrapping presents for a couple of hours

is not so smart when you're 36 weeks pregnant.

I was hearing from my back for days afterward.)

For the kids' gifts

I chose a mix of bright paper I bought on clearance a few years ago

and kraft paper I bought this year

after realizing just how much I'm loving

the brown-paper-package thing.

I labeled them with initials cut from scrapbook paper,

and finished the packages with curly ribbon.

(I don't think I will ever outgrow curly ribbon!)

Mum's package was the most labor-intensive,

and is also probably my favorite.

I actually used hot glue for the flowers

which is a minor miracle.

(I still hate hot glue, but nothing else was working, so I caved.)

The guys' (Benjamin and my dad) packages

were a little simpler.

I seriously considered

re-cutting the B to fit inside of the green oval,

but decided it wasn't worth it.

Hey, some artsy battles are not worth fighting with yourself.

Benjamin teases me

"This is keeping it simple?"

What can I say?

The prettiness makes me so happy!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

tree trimming and pumpkin carving

Thanks to my lovely Mum, our house is decorated for Christmas!

I have noooooo motivation to decorate this year,

but Little Man had his heart set on setting up our little tree.

Mum very patiently lugged all of the boxes up from the basement,

supervised the chaos that ensued,

and even strung my lights and fragile ornaments

safely from the curtain rod like I did a few years ago.

It looks so nice now.

I regret being all Scroogey. : )

(Many, many thanks, Mum.)

And then the next day my dad carved the boys' pumpkins with them.

(Yes, the ones we purchased in October.)

I truly intended to carve pumpkins with the boys,
well, in October or November,
but it just didn't happen.
What can I say?
Some things I'm on top of, others...not so much.

Since the pumpkins were carved so late,

the guys opted for Christmassy designs instead of faces.

So fun, right?

Our holiday mantle/hearth is all ready for the winter festivities!

(And just in case you were wondering,

the fireplace isn't functional,

so there's no fire danger from all the stuff we have around it,

and the terrarium to the right contains hermit crabs.)

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

frugal Cars themed party

When both of the boys enthusiastically insisted that what they really wanted was a Disney Cars themed birthday party, I heaved a heavy sigh. I'm not against branded characters, but I do dislike the over-the-top craziness often exhibited at Character Parties. Not to mention that anything with Lightning McQueen on it is likely to be at least twice as expensive as an equivalent Generic Race Car product.

After some careful thinking and planning, I was able to come up with a party that satisfied not only my frugality and preference for simple celebrations as well as the boys' love for Lighting McQueen, Mater, and the rest. Here's what we did.

I used the generic Paint program on our computer to enlarge a racing checkers image I found online. I centered and printed the checkers and used my embellished paper to make these little favor boxes. (Free printable box template found here.) I customized them further by adding Cars stickers, and then filled them with sheets of stickers for our young guests.

We used another free printable that does not seem to be available anymore for the invitations. They were cute, featuring Mater inviting you to a "tow-tally awesome party" or Lightning McQueen urging you to "race on over."

The cake was carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I added still more racing checkers and some red frosting, and finished the decorations with a few clean Cars figurines and candles. (No, no one was turning fifty-three, it was simply a joint party for a five-year-old and a three-year-old, and I didn't have enough space to spread out the candles.) I bought some Cars napkins to accent our red desert plates, and that was all!

The boys were both very pleased. Everyone who we invited actually came to the party (a huge first for us as we usually have a very sad success rate with party attendees), and I think they even all had fun!

Friday, August 3, 2012

simple owl birthday party

I like owls.

(Well, some owls; some of them are downright creepy.)

And I don't want a full blown owl collection.

So I thought that choosing an owl theme

for Sweet Pea's first birthday party

would be the perfect time

to showcase my affection for owls in a fairly disposable way.

We celebrated last weekend

(a little early)

so that both sets of grandparents could be present!

owl invitations

The wings open to display the details.

(from a free printable with six possible color variations!)

sealed with some owl stickers I already had

easy owl cupcakes

(There were only three brown M&M's in the bag I bought,

so we had to get creative.)

some simple favors:

owl stickers, a lollipop, and a couple of blowouts

(such an awful name, but they're fun, quiet, and inexpensive)

packaged in wildly colored owl treat bags

(Hey, they dressed up for the party!)

Fun was had by all,

and I only stressed a little bit.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Benjamin's birthday

Yesterday was Benjmin's 30th birthday.

And aside from the fact that last week he bought a motorcyle

(and a bunch of safety gear)

as his new commuter vehicle,

we celebrated simply and quietly as a family.

In the morning I loaded up Little Man, Brother, and Sweet Pea

and we surprised him at work.

We brought handmade cards from the boys

(and a store bought card from me--hey, a girl can't do everything),

a couple of small gifts,

and the boys' favorite part: a mylar balloon.

In the evening I made his choice of dinner:

Island Chicken with Avocado Mango Salsa and Coconut Rice

Then we had spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

decorated by Brother

and Little Man.

Happy birthday again, Love.

Looking forward to another year together. <3

Thursday, February 16, 2012

free form

I had all sorts of nifty ideas for valentines to make with the boys pinned this year. However, when push came to shove, it just didn't happen. We've been battling colds (nothing too horrible, just sore throats and body aches that we just can't seem to shake), and we had several appointments last week which interrupts the flow of our days.

The boys had been wanting to paint for a while, so I cut sheets of 8 1/2 by 11 inch cardstock into four pieces, and let the boys paint their own, free form valentines (aka mini-masterpieces) to mail to our loved ones. I have to say that it was a brilliant idea. The boys were thrilled to paint, I didn't have to work as hard, and all the recipients were happy.