Holiday Happenings

Hoping that everyone enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. I know we did. We were surrounded by family, friends, good food and joy. We hosted our annual Christmas party, which is always a great time. Santa even made an appearance. Wyatt had no problems telling Santa what was on his list but Sage had to ponder for a bit...

Christmas Eve and Christmas was spent with my parents, brothers and sister-in-law. It was great to be all together. As always it is so fun to see the delight on the kids faces as they open their presents.

 

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!

 

Christmas Crafting

I didn't make too many hand made gifts this year because I was too busy working at the Farm Kitchen and juggling all the other things that happen around the holidays.  But I did make one that was a hit: the ipad pillow. These were super quick and easy to sew up. Stuffing them with rice took longer than the actual sewing part. They are super handy for hands-free ipad use. I like to use mine in the kitchen while following a recipe. I hope they will be enjoyed by all recipients!

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Thoughts

I know Thanksgiving is over and most people have moved on to Christmas but I wanted to take a moment to share my Thanksgiving thoughts. First, our family went down to my parents and were joined by my brothers and sister-in-law and also my aunt, uncle, cousins and spouses from California. It was so lovely for all of us to be together. We don't usually get to see our extended family on holidays and it was a treat!

The Family

Second, I wanted to share what I'm Thankful for this year. While I'm always thankful for my family, this year I am especially thankful for the example that they have set in marriage. I am glad that I have had such great role models to look up to - my parents, aunts and uncles. Marriage isn't always easy, but it's worth it to try hard to make it work and that is what I've seen and that is what I strive for.

The weekend was awesome - lots of family time, lots of fun, lots of good food. 

Some of the highlights included:

The bearded boys: In order from most to least.

Cousin Hugs

Thanksgiving Dinner for 17!

Dessert

Family walks, runs and chats

Playing in the leaves

Giant leaf piles

These silly kids

Play time

Racing with the big boys

Birthday Brothers

Girls gingerbread house

Boys gingerbread house

Family

This silly bunch

The Honey Cowl + New Hair

This Honey Cowl just came off my needles and I didn't wait to wear it. It's so lovely and soft! The yarn is Madelinetosh Rios from my local yarn shop that just closed. Boo. The pattern is the honey cowl - it's free - start making one today, you won't regret it. My husband happily obliged and took some photos of me wearing it today while we played in the Olympics.

Honey Cowl

Oh - and about the hair. It's a new color for me and I'm loving it! I've always wanted to put some red in my hair and I've always been too scared - until now. 

View from the top!

We have a tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving in the Olympics every year. Since we will be visiting my parents for Thanksgiving this year and I work every weekend up until Christmas we decided to get it today. I'm so happy we did. It was a gorgeous day in the mountains. We had blue skies with just a dusting of snow on the ground (Wyatt was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more snow). The kids had a great time and so did the adults!

Eating Snow!

Licking the snow from her fingers!

Purple Sparkly Bimaa

Happy Friday! Remember a while back when I said I was going to make a Bimaa Sweater for Sage? Well it's done.

This was seriously one of the easiest things I've sewn in a while. It took a bit to figure out what direction the cowl part needed to be to attach to the sweater but after that it was done. I sewed a size 5T for Sage so it wouldn't be too tight and she could wear a t-shirt underneath in case it was a little itchy. I love the way it turned out. Now I'm just wondering when I can get the pattern in my size???

 Back view

I found this knit in the clearance section at JoAnns. It's really stretchy and has some tiny silver sparkles in it. I can't wait to make a few more of these. This pattern is awesome. It has the option for a hood or shawl neck instead of a cowl. I have some neutral knit fabric that I might try next. I thought it would be fun to stencil something fun on the front. Stay tuned...

Perfect for playing hide-and-seek!

Wyatt's Room Re-Do

This re-do is seriously overdue. It all came to a head last week when I found myself super frustrated with Wyatt for not cleaning his room. It was then that I realized that he didn't have any good options on where to put all of that stuff that young boys collect. I needed to do something to help him and his disaster of a room. So when he left for the weekend to go hunting with Daddy I headed straight to IKEA with all the measurements I needed (SO glad I thought of this before I left the house!). Wyatt's room has this awkward little cubby/nook and I found a tall bookshelf that fills the space perfectly. All of his books fit on it plus most of his stuffed animals (that he refuses to minimize). I did away with his side table and moved his bed next to the new bookshelf where I put his lamp.

Before: Middle of re-arranging, excuse the mess!

Before: The awkward cubby

Before: The awkward cubby with too small shelf.

After: The nook with new bookshelf.

The other new addition was a desk. A school boy needs a desk. I've been casually looking around since the summer for a small child size desk. I thought maybe I could find one at a garage sale and update it for him but I never found anything that great for the right price. This new desk matches the bookshelf and it's the perfect size for a young child. Also - it has a magnetic white board hutch that fits on top of the desk. This gives just a little more storage, plus trophy display area, and it's perfect for the kid who likes to display his art/signs/warnings/notes all over the wall. Now he has a specific place for that.

After: New desk!

After: Desk

The room re-do wouldn't be complete with out a little DIY. And by little, I really do mean little (as long as you exclude the hours it took to assemble the furniture solo). I glued some of Wyatt's toy dinosaurs to some magnets and - Voila! Cute and functional for the boy. Less than 5 minutes.

DIY dino magnets

I've got a few things left to finish - like bolting that tall shelf to the wall and adding a little over head light to the top. But the other DIY I'm hoping to complete soon is a upholstered headboard. I already have the fabric - some camo Wyatt picked out a while ago (shocking, right?). Now I just need the hubby to cut me a piece of wood and I'll be ready to start.

I always struggle with putting things on the wall. I like to have artwork/ pictures up but I feel like I'm too picky and so I just do nothing. What do you think should go on the walls in here?

Big Girl Bed & More

I've been sitting on this project for a while now and finally got it done. I feel like Sage's room is complete...for now. I found a head board and foot board at a local thrift shop but it didn't have any rails. Thankfully I have a super handy father-in-law who is always willing to help me with my projects. He mad a simple frame that we then screwed to the headboard and foot board. This is after I painted it all white, which is really what took me so long to finish this! Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures of the bed but I do have before pictures of Sage's room. Here goes:

Sage's Room Before

After: New Bed

There are a lot of things in Sage's room that I DIY'ed over the last few years and just never blogged about. So here is a little breakdown:

The paper butterfly banner is leftover from her last birthday party. I punched out a pile of paper butterflies and sewed them all together.

 The dollhouse was Sage's 3rd birthday present from her dad and I. It was built using Anna White's plans, modified to be a bit smaller. Dennis did most of the building and I did most of the painting.

This little side table was a thrift store score that I painted red.

Thrift store embroidery hoops filled with some of my favorite fabrics.

A super simple ribbon to hold all her hair bows.

I love how fun and bright her room is with the pink, red and turquoise!