October Kids

We read this cute little story (see the end of this post) and then made apple prints with the star inside.

The girls made these creations below at the Family Center on our vacation in Park City.

I was impressed with both of my daughters ability to concentrate and work. In the beginning (to create this purse) I didn't think that my youngest daughter (3) could do it so I was quickly helping as fast as I could so that we could be done and my little boy wouldn't be running around the place anymore. After we finished she wanted to do another one. I tended to O Man while she worked. Her ability to do it amazed me. Those beads are tiny and hard to get in the right spot. She finished a circle all by herself. Then it moved a little and several, if not all, of the beads fell off. She didn't get frustrated (like I would have), she just did it again. She found joy in the process. That is a skill I hope my children acquire. C is well on her way.

And M's monkey was mind blowing. She asked the helper if he had brown beads. She then sorted all of her beads to create the monkey she desired. She began with the eyes and mouth (so cute). Made an orange tail, then did all of the brown part.

One of the kids' fav books is Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham. We've been making green eggs often.

On curious george he uses licorice whips as a measuring tool. My girls were measuring each other by using licorice. C is 15 licorice whips tall.

We made these sandpaper pumpkins. You color on sandpaper with crayon and then iron them onto a piece of cardstock. The desired effect is a pixelated pumpkin. We must not have colored hard enough because it didn't turn out great.

Adapted by C.J.Brown

The Little Red House with No Doors 
and No Windows and a Star Inside.


One fall day a boy named Peter was looking for something to do. His mother was busy baking in the kitchen and couldn't stop to play with him, so she suggested that he try to solve a riddle.

“Peter, “ she said. “Here is the riddle. I want you to find the Little Red House with No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside," his mother said.

Peter had never heard of such a house, and he had no idea where to go to find it.He put on his jacket and went outside.

He started to walk along the street looking at all the houses. All of the houses he passed had doors and windows and none of them seemed like the sort of house that would have a star inside.

Peter saw a little girl playing in the park. He decided to ask her if she knew about the Little Red House with No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside.

The little girl said, "I have never heard of such a house, but maybe my father knows. He is a farmer. He knows how to make the crops grow and when it will rain. Maybe he knows about the Little Red House with No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside."

Peter followed the little girl. They walked down the lane, over the hill and to a small white farmhouse. The girl's father was sitting on the porch.

"Daddy," said the little girl, "This is Peter. He is looking for a Little Red House with No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside. Do you know where he can find it?"

The farmer took off his hat and scratched his head. "I have heard of such a house once, but I never tried to find it. Maybe you should ask Granny. She is very old and very wise. Maybe she can tell you where it is."

Peter set off down the road looking for Granny's cottage. He finally arrived at Granny's gate. The old lady was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch.

"Excuse me, Granny" said Peter, "The farmer told me that you might be able to help me. I am looking for the Little Red House with No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside. Do you know where it is?"

Granny smiled. "I have heard of that house, but I never tried to find it. Perhaps you should ask the Wind. He sees and hears everything."

Peter walked to the top of a high hill and called to the wind. "Excuse me, Wind, do you know where I can find the Little Red House with No Doors and No Windows and a Star Inside?"

"Yes-s-s-s," answered the Wind in it's gusty voice. "I know where that hous-s-s-se is-s-s. Follow me."

Peter followed the wind. It blew him this way and that, over the hill and down the other side. Finally, the wind stopped at an apple orchard. With a sudden gust, the wind shook an apple tree and down fell an apple into Peter’s hands.

The apple was very red. With it's stiff brown stem sticking up like a chimney it did look like a little house with no doors and no windows.

"But what about the star?" asked Peter. "Where is the star?"

Quickly Peter hurried home, running as fast as he could. He ran over the hill, past Grannies house, through the farmer’s fields and into the kitchen where his mother was baking.

“Well, did you solve the riddle?” asked Peter’s mother.

“I’m not sure,” said Peter. This apple is red like a small house, with a brown stem like a chimney and no doors or windows, but I don’t know if there is a star inside?” said Peter.

Peter’s mother took the apple from his hands and with her knife she cut through the center of the apple, and there inside was the answer.

My Scrap Map

I am loving pinterest. I unsubscribed from all blogs in google reader and now just spend my "time wasting time" on pinterest. I found this little lovely on pinterest: The Scrap Map

It's a project that wouldn't leave my brain. I knew I needed to make it.

See Kate Sew created a great tutorial on how to make this. It wasn't a hard project to make. It was a bit time consuming, but not too bad. I think I finished 2 scrap maps (one for my twin sis too) in 3-4 nights after the kids went to bed.

I first went through all of my scrap fabric. I'm shocked at how much I've accumulated in the last couple of years. I owe it to my sister-in-law for owning a fabric shoppe with way too many cute fabric options!

I chose 60 fabric scraps and then slowly but surely cut out each state on the map and decided on a fabric that fit that state. Many of the fabrics I chose based on the people I associate that state with. I chose flowers for TN because my sister-in-law Julee lived there and her family runs a flower farm. I chose the sunny yellow with white polka dots for the oh so beautiful sunny CA, where my husband is from, etc.

Whenever my husband gets a rip or a stain in his nice work shirts, I save them for the fabric. Same goes with the kids' clothes. If it's a cool fabric and the clothes aren't fixable I save the fabric and add it to my stash.

Can you notice a few nice work shirts (pin stripes) in there?

I really love my scrap map! It's now proudly hanging above my desk in our family room.

Girls Shopping Trip Bags

I made these Chevron Striped Muslin Bags for several special ladies. I wanted to make them each something special for our much anticipated Girls Getaway Weekend. We had some fun shopping trips planned so I thought I'd make them each a shopping bag.

My oldest (4) was really eyeing the skeleton bag. I might have to make her one too :)

I added a simple Rosette to each bag made from scrap fabrics.

It was very simple to make these bags:

I bought the muslin bags from Hobby Lobby. I like muslin much more than the thick canvas bags! And their pretty inexpensive to buy.

I created a chevron stripe by graphing it out on paper.

Then I created a freezer paper stencil (1 for each bag, so 9 total). If you're new to freezer paper stenciling, it's super easy. Dana Made it has a few great tutorials on how to get started.

I made sure to put a piece of long paper in the bag so that the paint didn't seep through to the other side.
Add some fabric paint. Once you paint it, you can then remove the freezer paper. It's best to remove the paper while the paint is still slightly wet.

Girls Craft Camp

I enjoy doing crafts with kids. My good friend has a daughter who is 8 and I wanted to do a little craft camp class for her and some friends. So each Friday for about a month I had 6 girls for a couple of hours working on art projects. My oldest enjoyed having the girls come over for crafts. The younger two stayed napping each week. My oldest acts super goofy when they come over...which equals LOTS of excitement for her.

Here are some of the projects we did together.

Freezer Paper Stenciled shirts. They each chose their image. I cut it out. They painted it. They each loved their shirts!

These really neat black glue and watercolor resist paintings. You make black puffy paint and then the next week the girls used watercolors. I forgot to take a picture of most of them, but they all turned out beautifully.

Corn Syrup Paintings. These are really neat when dried. It creates a glossy raised painting.

I found freezing them helped them to harden quicker!

The classic Shrinky Dinks! These were a huge hit.

And we painted Prayer Rocks (to place on their pillow at night as a reminder to pray. I gave them a poem to go along with them.)

These hot rock paintings were probably the biggest hit. They were fun. You just place rocks in the oven on a baking sheet. Take them off and use crayons to paint on them.

School Bus Cookie

In celebration of my oldest daughter's first time to school we made school bus sugar cookies. They had lots of fun creating their own cookies. And it was fun to have friends join us.

Cookie idea found at Pillsubury

Astronaut Helmet For Sis

My oldest is a little obsessed with costumes right now. She had high hopes of finding an astronaut costume. We luckily found one on the cheap and now she needs a helmet to go along with it. We are making it from paper mache and hoping it works...

either way it's made for a fun project to do a little at a time.

Messy projects are right up our little boy's alley. He loves making messes at this age. hehe.

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

I don't think I ever made freshly squeezed orange juice. We bought a big box of oranges from our food co-op and juiced a lot of them. I think we had fresh orange juice on Saturday mornings for quite a few weeks.

My youngest daughter especially enjoyed squeezing the oranges and lemons for lemonade. And my son enjoyed making a mess :)

Other Projects from July-August

Very random...some little projects completed. I've got to take pictures of other projects and then I'll add them.

I created this collage for Melodie in photoshop. I framed it for her as a gift along with a picture I took of her completing one of her Marathons. The collage lists all of the places she's ran half and full marathons. She's incredible!

Turned this old picture into a chalk board. It's pretty big!

Added black pom-pom trim to the nursery lamp. Love the "pop" of black. It goes well with the Mary Poppins art.

Sailing the Ocean Blue

My oldest really wanted to build this sail boat as shown on frugal family fun blog. I showed it to her and she immediately wanted to make it. We got the easle and drew the sun, birds, ocean, etc. Then we made oars with golf clubs, cut out cardboard and duct tape. We made looking glasses (binoculars) out old wrapping paper tubes. They had fun pretending to sail the ocean blue.

Learning New Homemaking Skillz

This summer has been such a blast. I hate to see it go. Some of the fun has been learning new homemaking skills. That sounds cheesy, but there are few things I love more than creating things for my family and friends, and our home.

Here are a few new things I learned this summer, that I loved making!

My husbands favorite pie is cherry pie. Not the kind you buy in a box at the grocery store, but real cherry pie.

My friend Rachael brought over lots of cherries and a pitter and we spent the afternoon with our kids pitting and dehydrating cherries. Then I made a cherry pie from scratch. It was DELISH!

I even tried braiding my homemade pie crust. Ya, I definitely need more practice! The thing in the middle is supposed to be a cherry decoration. haha.

I told Rach that I really want to start collecting pretty cake plates. She found this at the D.I. for me. It's gorgeous. The cloak has flowers etched into the side of the glass. And it's tall enough to fit a 3-4 layer cake inside. LOVE IT!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I also made jam for the first time by myself. I used the sure jell that calls for less sugar. Woa baby it's still a lot of sugar. I want to plant blackberry and raspberry bushes next year. Can't wait for raspberry jam! My favorite.

Dried apricots. I used to love eating these in Ukraine. I didn't love mine as much. I'm hoping to learn more about dehydrating food!

And last, but not least....the cake I made for Tom W. (you'd really have to know Tom W. to understand this cake). My dad was laughing until he was crying. I LOVE when dad does that. It was quite the hoot and so much fun to make. I was cracking up the whole time. I just drew on the body with a straight tip, and used a grass tip for the hair. The hostess snowballs added the perfect touch. Oh and don't forget the chocolate chips.