Thanksgiving Card from the Kids

The teacher in me would not give this Mommy an A+ for the creative things I do with my kids. In fact I feel that's an area that I need to work on! But today we did an art project!

Spoiler alert!! Grandparents, look no further!

This little turkey is a card for the grandparents, complete with keepsake handprints. Aww..

I did a little pinning and found this guy. 

Source: jeanneparra.blogspot.com via Ellie on Pinterest

I just so happened to have some round, brown cards on hand. Random, but in my favor!

I used whatever I could find to trace a partial circle for the head and another for the body.
I cut the turkeys out, careful not to cut the fold where the card opens.

I knew I could make the "feathers" out of handprints, so I traced around two sets of the cutest hands on earth.

I used  some red cardstock for more feathers and cut yellow leaf shapes for wings.

And finally my boys got in on the crafting! Well, glueing to be more precise.


We assembled the cards like this:

Just waiting for the glue to dry so we can add googly eyes and a note about how we're thankful for you, Grandmas and Grandpas!


Next time I'll find a project with less cutting for mom and more hands-on fun for the boys! For now we have these super cute keep-sake cards, so I'm happy!


What have you and your kids crafted lately?

Striped Drop-Cloth Curtains

The great room switch of 2011 is almost complete! I'm looking forward to showing how it turned out, but for this week how about a peek at the window in the boys' room? Deal?

So there you can see the John Deere green walls, maps all over (have I mentioned how much I love them?!) and a striped drop cloth window treatment. What you don't see is that I haven't cut-in around the ceiling. Nope. You don't see that at all. Riiiiight...

Here are the easy steps to making your own $10 no-sew window treatment. Ok, $10 is just for the drop cloth. The quart of paint was another $8 or so, but I used it for their closet too, and I have leftovers!

Start by measuring in your window and deciding how wide you want your curtain to be. Cut your (laundered) drop cloth to the right size. My window was wider than the drop cloth, so I cut a piece off the bottom and hot-glued it onto the side. Oh yes, I did!

Measure the width of your stripes and apply painter's tape. I chose 6-inch vertical stripes. 

Paint the wider sections with a small sponge roller. Remove tape while the paint is still wet. 

(The paint will soak through the drop cloth, so if you care about your floors, put something under it! Hmm, maybe a drop cloth?)

This is when you hurriedly rip off the tape, carry the wet cloth to the basement to dry, wipe up the paint that seeped onto the kitchen floor and make supper. 

About a week later, you decide enough is enough and go hang that thing!

The next picture shows my lack of measuring. What I claim is that the drop cloth shrunk when I washed and dried it. Right? Doesn't that happen? I wish I had noticed, because, like I said earlier, I had added a section with hot glue and it worked perfectly. Oh, why didn't I a bigger section?! I might still. You never know around here.

My weapon of choice for this project was a stapler. One of those heavy-duty ones. Yup!

As you can see above, I stapled the bottom of the curtain with the right side facing the window. Then, as you can see below, I gently folded and stapled sections the width I wanted.

For the top section, you can slip the stapler under the curtain and attach the curtain to the wall. I chose to use a small strip of mdf, wrap my curtain around it and nail the whole she-bang to the wall. Works for me!

Sure, it might not be the conventional way to hang a curtain, but I got the look I was going for, it will hang precisely how I left it, and it hides the white blinds perfectly!

Now to just cut-in around the ceiling! 

Do you ever put off the last 10% of a project?

Hate cutting-in? 

Use a stapler to hang curtains?

WW: and a Half!

J No. 1 -- 4 1/2

J No. 2 -- 2 1/2

J No. 3 --  6 months

11-11-11

My house is full of unfinished projects. 


Our bedroom is _this close_ to being done.
The boys' room has 3 more easy things left to do.
I have about 11 other ideas up my sleeves, but life has been busy lately. Sick kidlets, laundry, cooking... 


Oh, and I was contacted about a give-away and I'm so excited about it, but I haven't taken the time to preview and set it up yet! Next week, I promise!


So, because I can, I thought I'd post 11 random things today, in honor of 11-11-11. 


1. My No. 2 decided to measure himself on the wall where we mark the boys' height. Think he's cheating a little?

2. Little Mr. No. 1 wants to show you his new room!

3. This room is very close to being done! I looooove the maps! They really helped tone down the John-Deere-just-threw-up-all-over vibe that was going on. 

4. Sweetheart No. 3 is a little under the weather. Which is a weird term, cuz the weather's great since this week's snow is gone. Anyway, he was a little runny-of-the-nose earlier when I took this picture, but now he has a slight fever too. I don't know if he caught No. 1's cold from last week, or if it's the tooth he's cutting. 

5. That's right, my baby will be 6 months old next week, weighs over 20 lbs and is cutting his first tooth. He's wearing 12-month clothing and is pushing the weight-limit on his infant car seat. (Any advise on what to do with the car seat? He needs to be rear-facing for 6 more months, but he's almost too big for it!) 

Besides being a big boy, little Mr. 3 is pleasantly adorable and perfectly normal. He loves tummy time, baby cereal, mashed sweet potatoes, being around his brothers and watching Daddy. Baby is a compass and Daddy is north!

6. We went to town today. Not TOWN town, just our little town. Wanna see what a rural town looks like? Don't blink!

Yes, that's the main road approaching Small Town, USA. We were following a pick-up hauling an auger. You know, the thing that gets the grain from the trailers into the grain bin. Duh. (No, I didn't know that 3 years ago.)

Here's a quiet street in town. And below is City Hall. It's a room on the side of the volunteer fire department.

7. This is our Public Library. Isn't it cute? 

The children's section is where the town's preschool is held. My boys love going to the library because they like books and trains! See?

8. How about a peek at our property? Ok, good. 

Funny how 3 years later it still looks like 'before' shots! There's our barn out back, and our scraggy trees. If you look closely you'll see the line of willows my husband planted the first year. You won't see a fence that used to be there, but that's about it. These things take time, but lemme tell you, we have PLANS!

9. Wouldn't the front of the house look great with an addition? For a dining room and a sunporch, of course. Yeah, well, that's not going to happen, but we might do a patio. And definitely a garage. New siding and a new roof are coming soon, and of course, landscaping!

10. I got these boots from Target for my birthday. (Thanks Mom & In-Laws!) I love them! Super comfortable, great with jeans or a dress. They'll be perfect for winter. So fun!

11. Happy Veteran's Day! My brother is in the armed forces, my Dad was drafted during Vietnam and served a year, though thankfully never went to Vietnam. Both of my Grandpas were in WWII, one of whom is still alive and kicking. Thank you to the men in my family and yours who have helped keep America free!

Image via Flagline.com

Wordless Wednesday: First Snow

Mashed Sweet Potatoes for Baby

Hi! Baby Ashes here. I want to tell you how Mommy makes one of my favorite things to eat!

Mashed sweet potatoes!

They're so good, I ate a big bowl of them! Mommy says they're really good for me too.

According to this website, sweet potatoes are "low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6 and Potassium, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Manganese." They are also easy to grow in our garden and easy to cook.

Sweet potatoes are naturally sweet so even babies like me love them!

Start with raw sweet potatoes. Give the skins a good scrub under running water.

Pop them in a 400-degree oven on a foil-lined tray to minimize clean-up, then go play with your baby for awhile.

That's me!

After an hour ... or two for huge sweet potatoes, your house should smell yummy and the skins on the spuds should be loose. Like this:

Take the potatoes out of the oven and let them cool for awhile.

I think that means more time with Baby!!!

When they're cool enough too handle, slice potatoes in half and scoop out the good stuff.

That means I get to eat them soon!

Add some salt and a tablespoon or two of butter--this is a serving size bowl. Oh, Mommy took my portion out before adding the butter.

Just mash it up and the most delicious sweet potatoes ever are ready to eat!

Well, Mommy likes to make things look pretty.

What? Do I have something on my face?

I hope you love these mashed sweet potatoes as much as I do!

~Baby Ashes standing in for