artsy

here is my attempt at artsy sewing...

it is not as easy as it looks.

i made this very colorful wheel from scraps

of fabric that i had left over from other projects.

the question is: what do i do with it now?

suggestions?

household blessings

it is the season of thanksgiving.

i try to live every day with an attitude of gratitude,

but find that i am especially mindful 

of how much i have to be thankful for.

lately we have been experiencing 

generosity and unexpected gifts.

i already mentioned the pressure cooker.

and the free sewing table.

be we were also able to finally make use of a 

giant solid wood frame that was given to us many years ago.

hubs was given some high-quality self-healing cork.

and he turned it into something beautiful!

i finally got around to unpacking some items from the basement

(packed up last spring when we thought we were moving),

and now these photos and mementos have a new lease on life!

and my favorite new item:

a big dining room table!

a generous new friend let us have 

this beautiful set of a table (with two leaves)

and six big chairs!

our old table was so tiny that the five of us barely fit at it.

this table has room to spare!

we had nine people eating here comfortably.  

nine!

i feel like this new table allows me to 

extend hospitality with a little more ease.

thankfulness is the language of a joyful heart.

applesauce

some of you have heard the saga 

of the apples already.

in september, my father-in-law generously

allowed me to pick about a million apples

and other various fruits from his yard.

they were lovely apples 

and i had every intention of 

turning them into applesauce and 

canning them right away.

then life happened.

fast forward to november 1st.

i had managed to peel, core, and cut the apples,

but ended up sticking the lot in my freezer

due to lack of time and 

a large enough pot to can them in.

then, much to my surprise and delight,

my father-in-law came to the rescue in that respect too!

a lovely pressure cooker/canner arrived in the mail.

and i FINALLY managed to turn all those beautiful apples 

into jars of canned applesauce.

ready for sharing and 

consuming through the winter months!

aren't they beautiful?
i feel SO much better now that it's done!

fall runner

as promised, more projects!

earlier this month moo-moo and i 

picked up some tiny pumpkins.

they were so cute that i was inspired

 to make a table runner!

we stopped by the fabric store on a whim

and i made this that afternoon.

my favorite part?

the cute little pom-poms!

fall with friends

our best friends came for a visit!

with five small kiddos in our tiny house

we needed to burn some energy;

so we grabbed the scooters,

strapped on helmets

and hit the trail!

it was a beautiful, crisp (dry!) fall day

and we found this beautiful gazebo.

perfect for pictures, right?

so, how hard is it to get a good picture of five kids?

almost... 

not bad... 

um... 

we said "happy", not scary... 

eyes closed... 

hysterical!

how about four kids?

okaaaaay... 

at least they're happy!

refueling...

  

now that's cute!

save me from the candy!

here's the damage from halloween.

you make think i'm a super disciplined person

when it comes to food...

and mostly i am.

but candy is my kryptonite.

come over and eat my candy.

please.

bonnets & bloomers

this year i worked smarter...

and had my kids pick their halloween costumes in august!

i told them we needed to get creative and 

use costumes we already had or make them ourselves.

my girls decided they wanted 

to be laura and carrie from

 "little house on the prairie".

while the boy-boy decided to reuse 

his monkey costume and be curious george.

we had a dress that was the girly-girl's inspiration

and a sweet friend lent moo-moo 

her prairie dress and apron.

so all we needed were bonnets 

and a pair of bloomers for the girly-girl.

i made the bonnets from this tutorial.

they were super easy and 

turned out to be really cute!

i made my own pattern for the bloomers 

and added a little lace to the bottom.

here we are at the school for 

"literary character dress-up day".

what do you think?