Thank You

A Small Walk Around the Pond

Today was a good day!  It is always a good day when the boys find a frog to hold onto for a bit! 

I do believe this Frog is smiling!

Hey little bother meet Mr. Frog!



Really if you look super close and super carefully you can see some of these in the pond!

Tadpoles

 The hands of little boys love to explore and observe everything they are not afraid to pick up anything!

Look who we found sitting in a pine tree

A Baby Robin

We weren't sure what he was doing all by himself sitting there, but we hope everything was going well for him.  By the end of the afternoon, the boys reported on one of their trips to check on him he wasn't there anymore.  Hope that means could things for the little bird!

Pond Flowers

Who is Crazy enough to make a doll with cotton balls?

If you know me, don't answer............................but look at this how inspiring!

http://dollarstorecrafts.com/2008/11/make-a-waldorf-doll-dollar-store-style/

So after giving this a look, it seemed like a fun challange.  I am not sure though maybe I was just in the dentist chair for too long :)  So I left the dentist and with a few dollars (maybe that is the part that makes it so plausible) stopped by the Dollar Store and grabbed the things that were listed.  Everything but yarn, they didn't have any, not quite the right season.  Not to worry, I have some floating around here.

Okay I improvised a little they didn't really have any onsie that would work, so I got the bib instead, to cut up and turn into shoes (I hope).  And there were no pink tights, but I got pink socks!  And cotton balls?  I am not even sure how to roll a Waldorf Doll head out of wool!  How hard could it be to roll one out of cotton balls?

So having no idea how to do this, I just jumped in!  I don't know, we'll see how it looks in the morning, ummmmmm maybe more cottong balls or maybe not....................

It is a very dense ball of cotton, versus's one little fluffy cotton ball.

Will the doll look anything like these lovely ones?



Starting with the cute Gnome and then traveling around counter clockwise, Gnome is by Pinecone Gnome, next to him is Fi's snuggle bud by Pink Petunia Cottage Dolls, Magic Rainbow Handmade Dolls, Teething Gnome, by Pinecone Gnome and finally Leafala, by Pinecone Gnome.

 Just to give everyone an idea, here are some of our smaller dolls.  I can't decide how my cotton ball head compares to their lovely wool heads.  Once again, just going to have to look at it again in the morning!  I feel maybe a little bigger, but honestly not so much fun unwinding the cotton balls, so I can rewind them as tightly as possible around the bunch!

Enjoy a good laugh at my experiment!

My Sewing Space!

This weekend my dad finished readjusting the wood box cover to fit over my sewing machine, to keep the dust away from her when she is not in use.

He did a great job, thanks Dad!

So today I am working on organizing the little space where my sewing machine and sewing table are, very exciting, for me!  Tomorrow I hope that the doll making supplies that I have been waiting for arrive. And I want to be ready to lay them out and see what goes in to one of these Waldorf inspired dolls.  So excited!

I have, what I would modestly consider some sewing skills.  I always say we won't know what I can do and how it will come out until after.  In highschool I took a wonderful sewing class for all my years in highschool.  It was a clothing class and all we did was make clothes for ourselves, we picked everything at the fabric store and the teacher taught and helped us based on individual projects.  My high light was making my own graduation dress. 

Also have a natural predisposition for sewing, my grandmother both did it and were very talented.  I was lucky to learn some from my one grandmother years ago, before she was gone.  And it is her machine I use now.

Back to getting everything ready, more later.

Twas' The Night Before...............................

............................. a birthday party!  I always find myself excited the night before one of my children's birthday parties.  Celebrating their birthdays always takes me back to the special memories of their arrival into my life!  So especially on the night before their 1st Birthday, I find myself feeling like a child on Christmas Eve! 

So here I am late at night giddy with anticipation of celebrating our youngest tomorrow!

The Birthday Princess is sleeping peacefully, unlike her mother who sits up feeling so happy to have this sweet 1 year old in her life and remembering all the details of her arrival.  All 36 weeks, that is!

The presents from her mother and father and 3 brothers (they each picked out a gift to giver her) are wrapped and waiting in the living room. 





Homemade and Hand decorated cake is all ready for her to taste!

All the Pink party plates, cups, napkins and decorations are waiting to deocrate the house.  Announcing the festivities of the 1st year celebration!

Her Party Dresses are all hung and waiting to help her to look her best for the day!  Hold up!  Wait a minute!  Did I say Dresses?  Yes, Ummmmmm I did.  I think 3 dresses should get us through the day?  Okay so mommy is just way to good of a shopper!  First we have the formal party dress, she will greet guest in this dress and stay in it for a bit, maybe the first hour or a little more.  Then there will be her main dress for the day.  And 3rd the cake eating dress!  Can't have her getting one of her super fancy dresses all messy, so a girl's got to have a dress for eating cake right?

Her sweet spring sweater dress, the main dress for the day!

Okay well here is to hoping now that I have shared my silly excitement, that maybe I can get a wee bit of sleep before it is time to get up and start celebrating!

My Favorite Things!

And little people!  I think my friends that know me, know I am a happy person.  I take great joy in what makes me happy!  And what makes me happy first and for most are my 4 precious children.



3 Boys

One

Two

and Three

 

 and one little Fairy Pixie Princess

And yes, this guy here makes me very happy for all the sassy Irish in him!

I also have a fondness for Chaos and Fur, meet are current furry family members

Benny, he has been with us for 8 of his 9 years, he is Trevor's boy and he is a very good dog, stupid but good!

And our Pug Girl Maggy!  

Messy but sweet I even like the birds, they chirp a lot and I like that.  Lubert (blue)  and Feisty (yellow, she's a girl and he's a boy)

Off to make some dinner and get all those boys out the door for cubscouts!  Maybe tonight I will get to go around that crochet circle that will become the head to a doll someday!

Crochet

I have started blankets before and finished none, I have read books and instructions and made stitches up!  But finally I have some quality time with our dear friend Beverly!  And she got me on my way, so here is hope to I don't forget what I learned before I complete my first project.

This is my crochet teacher Beverly, she is cuddling Fi one of her favorite things to do when we all get together.

 

TinkerBell Doll made by Beverly



So here we have Beverly's doll, hope mine will look half as good!  The instructions and the yarn for the body.  If you look at the insturctions you can see how mcuh I have to re-write it into words I can understand!

 

The top of her head, how long is this going to take?  I will keep you posted, not sure what I will do with her when she is done, a couple of ideas of gone through my mind so we'll see.

The Boys give the near by Pond a clean up

Even though we are in good old suberbia we are lucky to have natural wonders around us!  One of the boys favorite spots is a little pond at the end of our street.  It of course has frogs, the tadpoles will be everywhere soon.  A pair of ducks hang out there and Trevor has reported that the ducklings have hatched.

So yesterday afternoon we took a few moments to go pick up any trash we could find, the boys like to do this throughout the summer.

Aidan was very hard at work, he doesn't want any of the baby ducklings to get hurt on anything plastic or the tadpoles.

Oooops Aidan fell in a bit and came out with Green arm hairs!

Boys always need a red wagon

                                                                                   a pic of the water looks like the boys are doing a
                                                                                                     good job              

                   That little black spot is snail!

 








Mrs. and Mr. Duck

And there it is not a full bag of garbage, but pretty hefty, I hope it stays clean for a bit.

Spring Time in the Garden

Liam likes to visit all the plants and ask me 100 questions about them

Mmmmmm the smell of a Magnolia Blossom

The Magnolia Tree and Weeping Cherry always take of the front of the house at this tie of year!

I do wish  the Magnolia Blossoms could be with us all summer!

Yellow Tulips

 These Pink Tulips did not want to cooperate with the picture, they are such a soft subtle shade.

Bleeding Hearts one of my very favorite Spring time perenials

The last Daffodil in bloom

Another very good smell in Liam's book.

Into a vase on the Nature display!