Cats. Hmmmm…

01 Friday Nov 2013

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Let me tell you about my late night/early morning. You’re allowed to laugh, I don’t mind. I would do it if this was your story, after all.

So. 2am this morning my phone rang. Never a good thing right? It gets worse.

“Hi. This is Constable So-and-so (it was 2am people, forgive for not getting his name!) from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.”

Yes. 2am and a call from the cops. On Halloween. Trust me when I say that woke me up.

“Do you own a cat called Ella?”

Ella

Seriously. We discovered that nice Mr. Cop was just around the corner so he kindly put her in his car and brought her home. The things Darrell said as went down to the door are not suitable to write here, trust me.

We figure this is just training for a few years time when we have teenagers. If this is any indication, we’re in trouble. Please start praying for us now.

Bats and pumpkins and mess – oh my!

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That

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Crafts, Halloween

On Monday we made our last Halloween decorations – we are now officially walking into and through creepy crawlies as we go through the house!

The first was pretty straightforward – pumpkins!

They were easy and pretty much mess-free. I simply painted glue onto a paper plate, cut orange tissue into squares and told them to cover all the white. I then gave them three triangles, a mouth, and a green stem and they glued them on. That’s it!

The next craft was a little messier – we painted. My biggest tip when painting is this: go naked.

Now, to be honest, the kiddies weren’t exactly naked, they just took their shirts off to keep them reasonably clean. I have a very cute painting picture but I’ll save that for the parents only!

I told them we were going to paint bats (I already had eyes, fangs, and wings cut out of black paper) and they immediately piped up with the colours they wanted to use – no black mentioned! So we ended up with red, green, and blue:

Cute, hey? After they painted and glued on eyes, I drew a mouth and they glued on fangs and added some bling to the eyes. Then they helped me staple on the wings.

My house (and I hope all of their houses) looks very festive now but I do have one problem – they’re already asking about Christmas!

Such cute feet…

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That

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Crafts, footprint ghosts, memento luxe ink

… shouldn’t be scary!

Yesterday was another art day here and it seems Halloween has its claws in me. We did stamped feet – one of the kiddies faves – and turned them into ghosts!

footprint ghosts

I used Memento Luxe ink in Wedding Dress and it stamped perfectly plus wiped off skin like a dream; a quick swipe with a baby wipe and the mess was gone. Genius!

Each child picked their own set of letter stickers and stuck on the eyes, mouth, and “boo!” alphas. I added the “halloween” once everything else was done.

To make this a keepsake, we framed them so they could take them home and keep them for next year (“That’s really, really far away!”) <— hahaha!

footprint ghosts - gabe

Aren’t they cute? Super easy, simpler than the ghosts from last week even, and an awesome tradition for each year. It’s an easy and devastating way to see how much they’ve grown! 🙂

Creative Leftover Halloween Candy Recipes (wholesalecostumeclub.com)
Spooky-Cute Ghost Boxes (funbunfitness.com)

Boo!

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, Kid's Crafts, This & That, Tutorials

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ghost craft, Halloween

We had a bit of Halloween fun around here yesterday. Molly was home from school because of a PD Day for the teachers and I needed something fun and easy to do that would satisfy the age range I have around here during the day.

I went with ghosts.

Super simple and I had all the stuff on hand, or rather, I made it up based on what I had on hand!

Styrofoam cups, black permanent marker, string, white tissue paper, glue stick, and a wooden skewer to poke holes.

First, we drew faces:

Then I poked a hole in the top of each cup:

I tied a knot in the string and poked it through the hole from the inside out (with some “help”):

Glue stick around the inside edge:

And the kiddies stuck on the strips of tissue:

Aren’t they fun?

The kiddies had a blast making them:

Next up…. pumpkins? Or footprint ghosts? Any suggestions?

Currently… | September 2013

01 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Currently..., Family

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Currently...

listening: to whatever Darrell has on his iPod – it’s on in the kitchen every morning

eating: still enjoying kale salad and daily ice cream (we are still getting the ice cream truck on occasion)!

drinking: mostly water and wine

wearing: crop pants and tanks – summer temps are lingering!

feeling: pretty good – the kids here are great & Molly is liking school

weather: typical September – good temps, a fair amount of rain

watching: premieres: The Voice, X Factor, Glee, Masterchef Jr.

reading: not much – enjoying crossword puzzles again before bed

wanting: less drama over homework – it’s a fight every night

needing: a way to deal with 6-year-old attitude and sauciness

thinking: about fall classes, the retreat, and a trip to Ottawa for me and Gabe!

enjoying: designing new classes and playing with fun products

wondering: how the next Yearlong Class will look – some ideas are spinning

wishing: this amazing fall weather would stay all year – I’d give up summer if I could have no snow!

Gabe and his funny sayings…

13 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by Sara in Family

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G and his funny sayings...

The kiddies and I are spending the weekend at the cabin with friends. While eating supper, Gabe leaned in on the table and got all of our attention:

“Hey guys, I got a secret to tell you.”

We all stopped talking, looked at him and he said, “Fart gun!”

Oh, the joys of a four year old boy!

Molly and her funny sayings…

16 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in Family

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Family, M and her funny sayings...

The other day I asked the kiddies if they wanted grilled cheese sandwiches or cheesy bread for supper (it was one of those days) and cheesy bread won the day.

Darrell then asked, “How do you make cheesy bread?” Well, Molly and I looked at him like he was crazy – how is it that he doesn’t know cheesy bread after all this time? I gave him the basic explanation – cheese on bread toasted in the oven. Molly got a little more creative:

1. take out the bread (hers is gluten free and in the freezer)

2. make the bread warm (in the microwave)

3. cut the cheese (things almost went horribly wrong here as Darrell started to grate the cheese – Molly was not impressed, her instructions were very specific; that’s a block, it’s not grated!)

4. make the bread warm again (on a baking sheet in the oven, this time.)

As Darrell went through each step he received a check mark and then at the end when he completed his task very well, he got the giant smiley face and check mark.

I’m sure I could have been more helpful during this process but watching him stumble through as Molly coached him was way too entertaining!

Molly & Gabe and their funny sayings…

13 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in Family

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kids

So earlier today Gabe came up to me asking to hear “baby king.”

Huh?

I was at a loss unless he brought forth the DVD Uncle Greg sent – One Shoe Blues with B.B. King!

Haha! I’m sure that legend isn’t called “baby” very often!

On another note, the first time we played the DVD Molly piped up and said, “I can play that too.”

“Oh really?” I said, “Where did you learn that?”

“Well, ” she said, “I watched that man and now I can do it too!”

Watch out B.B. apparently I have a prodigy here!

You Make me Happy…

16 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, ScrapBook

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Amy Tangerine, Scrapbook Layout

Another LO from the Paperie retreat last month. With this one I wanted to use the Capture stitching templates from Amy Tangerine and my sparkly floss. It was a perfect combo for the sun and cloud design!

I had these pics of Molly and Gabe coming home from my neighbour’s house that I knew had to make it on a LO at some point and they seemed to work well with the patterned paper I had and the stitching I wanted to do.

I love how the glitter thread turned out!

And the wording on the patterned paper was perfect, it was exactly right for these photos – I popped up the main one to help it stand out:

A simple but fun one, the stitching and thread added a bit of something special to keep it from being too dull and flat while the patterned paper helped to ground the photos. And of course, I had to add a little stamping to the top left and bottom right corners – I tried to leave those corners empty but I think it’s beyond me, that’s definitely my calling card these days!