satin flowers

Yesterday, I finally posted the ric rac flowers. Well, here are some satin flowers I've been playing around with since the end of school last year. I only remember how long it's been because this was one of the crafts that I worked on while waiting to pick Bee up from kindergarten.  

There are lots of tutorials out there for them, but they are just different sized circles cut from satin and the edges are heat sealed with a lighter.  They are stacked and glued and decorated in the centers.  These all have hair clips glued to the backs.

 On a side note, I ended up wearing the yellow flower from this post in my hair to church on Sunday.

I must have taken 25 pictures in the mirror and still couldn't get one that showed it well.  It was only slightly less dorky than trying to photograph myself outside. 

ric rac flower

I mentioned some ric rac flowers that I've been making up, but wanted to shared pictures of all of them and a few other goodies I found.

Here's the tutorial I used from Craftiness is Not an Option.  The ric rac is basically hand sewn around a circle of felt. A pin is attached to the back and a little something is glued to the middle.

Look at these fun goodies I found at a local fair trade shop.  It's going out of business and everything is on clearance.  I guess it's not such a fair trade anymore.  These cute handmade pins were 50 cents each.  They'll look cute on sweaters this winter.  I think I'll go back this week without the kids and pick up a few items for Christmas presents.

unattended

This week has been a shuffle of activity here. Getting ready for school and this weird compulsive need I had this week to bake and cook and can and freeze things. I feel like Caroline Ingalls when Mary was going off to school. I feel like there is so much sewing and cooking to do and it's just Bee going to first grade.

The kids have spent some extra time this week just playing together.  They don't even want me to play, it's just them.  I'm trying to let them just do that.  Lou will miss her so much when she's gone all day at school.  So, they've been down the hall playing and I've been in the kitchen 'nesting.'

Leaving my kids unattended is a messy choice.   Both rooms can get like this in about 15 minutes!  Lucky they clean up in just a few minutes too.

healthy lunchbox- homemade cheese crackers

So somehow Bee went and grew up and is off to first grade in a few days.  This will be her first year to stay at school all day and she's mostly excited about lunch.  I'm looking to put together some healthy options for her and have bunches made up and ready to go.  I've been saving this homemade cheese cracker recipe that I found in an 1978 Ladies Home Journal.  I'm a hoarder like that.

Slightly adapted cheese cracker recipe:

2 c. (8oz) shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. butter

3 T water

Cream butter and cheese until smooth.  I used a pastry blender.  Combine salt and flour and add to creamed mixture.  Slowly add water to get a nice consistency, just enough to let the mix stick together.  Blend well.  Roll out 'dough' to about 1/8 inch thick.  Cut into desired shaped (use little cookie cutters or cut into squares).  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.  This makes about 13 kid sized servings, at least using our little cookie cutters.

The verdict:  They are good.  I don't like store bought cheese crackers so much, but these are pretty decent.  Bee and Lou (and daddy) ate as many as they could get their hands on and the rest have been divided up and ready for lunches.

some harvest

Just a short tonight,  because I'm going to go down the basement and dig through my teacher boxes of files.   I'm going up to my sisters in about 10 days and I want to take her lots of files of goodies.  The teacher that was in her classroom before her tried to go 'paperless' and left no files behind.  She did leave a mess in the closets though.

We are having fun picking from the garden each day.  Here are two different day's pickings.

yard sale- close to home

I wasn't going to yard sale this weekend, but I got up on Friday morning to go on an early run an noticed that the street was full of cars.  Upon further investigation (peeking through the curtains) I discovered my next door neighbor and the house next to them were having large yard sales.  Shopping tends to be better than running, so I shopped.  When the kids woke up, we shopped again.  When hubby finished weed eating, we shopped again. 

Because they were neighbors and friends, they sent us home with an armful of clothes for the kids for free which apparently went right into the laundry before being washed.  The second trip and $3  brought home this rug for Bee's room. 

I bought this table for  $5 to be used as a little phone stand in the basement.  I will need to cut the legs down a few inches, it's so tall.  I plan to paint it, but don't think I'll find the motivation until Bee is back in school next week.

I also snagged up this  trunk/coffee table piece.  It's large and has two hinged pieces on the top.  It can hold a lot; a whole person, as Bee noted.  It looks ok in this photo, but it needs sanded or painted or something. There are some kid drawings on the top.   I plan to paint this when I paint the phone stand.  All the hinges and hardware will have to come off, so I'm even less motivated.  I thought it would be nice in the basement but now think it might be too large.  I paid $10 for it, so I can always paint it up and  put it on craigs list if needed. 

The kids and I have been eying this hand pointers at the teacher store, but not for $8 or so that they want.  My sister picked one up this week (to use in her brand new 1st grade classroom!) at hobby lobby for $5 or so.  The book fair that comes to school one week a year sells them too and we are always tempted.  We paid only 10 cents for this one!  I guess it was worth the wait.  Then just yesterday, we saw the same ones at dollar tree for $1. 

While I'm on the subject, sort of.  My oldest younger sister just got her first job!  she's had lots of jobs, but this is her first classroom!    She will be teaching first grade in the school where she student taught last fall and worked last spring as an aide.  I think I'm just as excited as she is.  Ok, probably not, but it's close.  School starts in two weeks or so and today is the first day she gets to get in her classroom.  It's going to be a busy time for her!

birthday interview

I had planned to have this post back in July, but that's just how things go sometimes.  Each year at the kid's birthdays, I've done a birthday interview.  This is the first year that I've asked them to help me fill it out.  Here are a few old ones, although not all the pictures turned out well.  Most are scrapbooked and the flash is bright against the protective sheet.

Hannah at 1, must have not gotten photographed, but we do have it.

Each age has mostly the same questions; weight, height, number of teeth, favorite foods, favorite show, favorite animal, favorite book, favorite songs, favorite toys, best friends, favorite activities favorite songs , dislikes, etc.   Many change for the age:  body parts they can name, favorite website, counting, words spoken, words written, reading, teeth lost, etc.

I also add a list of special things they did that year and some things they are looking forward to.  For three years Bee's said she was looking forward to staying dry at night!

I started doing this because I didn't keep a regular 'baby book' with places for dates and this type of information.  I just scrapbooked (past tense, I'm over a year behind now!).

It's fun looking back at their favorite things.  Some things never change.  I think Lou has listed hotdogs as a favorite food since year 1.  That's quality parenting, feeding your 1 year old a hotdog.  Guilty.  Here's Lou's from this year.  He helped a little. He doesn't like homework or chores.  nice.

Bee helped a lot with hers this year. Can you believe she doesn't like watermelon.  Maybe she's asked the raccoons to come and eat ours from the garden!

jam again- news on pectin

This isn't exactly a recent batch of strawberry jam. Back from the first of July I guess. These aren't berries we picked either.  That you can tell for sure.  These are from the grocery.  All of our picked berries have already been jammed or frozen... or crashed on the floor.

side note:  I picked up this sink strainer for a few bucks the other day and it's already proved to be a great tool for canning.

The real point of this post and the most exciting news all month has been the new jars of pectin.  No more double sided directions from the box!  The folks over a Ball wised up and are trying to make home canning look easy.  The directions for this are on the back of the bottle.  Easy peasy.  Also a smart move, they have made the directions so that you don't have to make a huge batch.  You can make as little as two jars of jam and just measure out the amount of pectin needed.  It comes in regular amount of sugar needed or low sugar, which I've been using this year.

Jam made easier.

Since I'm making more jam and jelly this year than I did last year, I had to pick up some new small jars.   Look how cute these are.  They are only 4 oz, so I ended up with bunches of these tiny guys filled with strawberry jam.

Bee takes her lunch to school this year and had become a vegetarian over the summer so I'm looking forward to making lots of PBJs.