isolated.

preparations

I have most of my decorations up now, although decorating for Christmas is more of a process than an event for me. I enjoy going through my boxes of ornaments and putting them up a few at a time...savoring the memories that come with them. My front door wreath from the past few years had gotten pretty stale. Seriously, it was really dull. So, I freshened up a grapevine wreath (made from our own grapevines) with odds and ends from my Christmas boxes, and I think the end result is pretty! What do you think?
We put up a sticker nativity scene for YaYa. It's actually an advent calendar (from Oriental Trading), and it has big numbered star stickers for each day. I helped her place baby Jesus, Joseph and Mary and then let her put the rest of the stickers wherever she wanted. We had a similar calendar last year, and it was so cool for me to see how her reasoning skills are developing (for the most part, the wisemen aren't in the sky upsidedown this year). She put all of the jars together and all of the birds together. Then, she wanted to make sure that the animals all had a bucket of water, and most people ended up holding a sheep. The calendar is underneath our actual nativity set, so I hope that it gives her lots of creative play as she starts to gain an understanding about this very special baby.
So, I love snowflakes! They're everywhere in our house this year, and I've even gotten out some of my all-time favorites! I love cutting snowflakes...I think it's a gift of mine, passed down to me by my mom. The ones hanging on the window below are favorites of mine, exploring all sorts of shapes and forms. Although it's not pictured below, I've even cut a Hanukkah snowflake before, complete with Star of David, menorah, and dreidel...I'll have to show you in my next post!
What shape/object/theme would you like to see in a snowflake? I'm always looking for new ideas and inspiration!

Chair,

crafty gifts and other goings on.

Where did November go? Can it really be the 20th already?

Although I have been a bad blogger lately, I have gotten lots of crafty things done, including: 2 sets of beanbags, another hedgehog, some new illustrations, a memory game for YaYa, and this owl (for a good laugh, see my first post here):

Hooty Hoot Hoo! I love this guy...I whipped him up while watching a very exciting Colts game last weekend with the hubby. His body is the arm of a thrifted, felted sweater; his ears the cuff. Oh, how I do hate my wood paneling, though (as pictured behind Mr. Owl). I would love to see this room painted, but I'm afraid it's too full of our life (2 computer desks, 2 dog cages, a dining room table and misc. toys) to ever be emptied and painted. Ah well, I am way too thankful for everything that I DO have to get stuck on that. :)

And here is the memory game I made for YaYa for Christmas. Hubby had been given boxes full of old science textbooks to e-bay or get rid of as he liked (still sitting in garage), so I took two books that were the same and cut out matching pictures from each, pasted them on cardstock & laminated them. There are 16 sets of cards in the deck, but we'll probably only play with 5 or 6 sets to start. It's a gift that can grow as YaYa does!

On Monday, YaYa and I broke into her very first pomegranate. Pomegranates have always been such a magical fruit to me, and I wanted to share that magic with my little one. When I was young, my parents had an Indian friend, Om, who would bring us over exotic fruits to try, including mangos, pomegranates & starfruit. Twenty-some years ago, these fruits weren't available in the grocery stores like they are now. Pomegranates were so amazing to me, with their hundreds of sparkling red jewels inside!! I think that's why I like these garnets so well now, they remind me of the pom jewels. Anyways, YaYa was as impressed and amazed as I had hoped she would be, and gobbled up the pretty little jewels until she was covered from head to toe with the purple juice!!

mmm...I love seeing those chubby little fingers reaching into a bowl of such beautiful fruit!

Till next time...

Chair,

Hav

shhh...it's a birthday surprise!

Two close-ups:

And here's the whole thing:

It's a birthday banner for my beautiful sis-in-law, and I wanted to do something different than the usual "happy birthday". I thought that "oh happy day" was fun, cheerful, and could be used on multiple occasions! The triangles are made of black corregated plastic (left overs from a work project). I punched holes in the top using a regular hole punch (oww!! my hand still hurts!) and strung them together with hemp. I decorated with cardstock & freehand-cut letters, and finished off with my favorite touch, a jingle bell on the point of each triangle. Oh, it makes the most wonderful tinkling sound!! I can't wait to take it her her party tomorrow, along with these:

I scanned in some little sketches, added color & words in Photoshop, and printed off a set of notecards on beautiful linen cardstock. Hehe - I really love these, and I hope she will, too!

Chair,

hedgehog fever!

Yes, hedgehog fever has taken over our house. Francis has now been joined by two friends, Bernard & Flower. I love how different they all turned out and how they each have a personality! (I really am starting to go crazy!) YaYa loves the hedgehogs as well, except for Bernard. She wants nothing to do with him. She thinks that his little ties are spines that are going to prick her, and she'll only pick him up by his nose, but does NOT want to play with him. Poor Bernard (don't tell: he's my favorite). But YaYa loves being tickled by Francis, and finds all kinds of places to hide her so Mommy can't find her. And all three of them love munching on the pumpkin (pictured with Bernard). But enough about their exploits...

Katie over at matsutake featured Francis in her blog today!! I feel so honored to be included in the craftiness of this amazing lady, even though my skills don't even come close to hers! Katie started the hedgehog frenzy, and I'm more than happy to jump on that bandwagon!

Before I close for the night, I've got to show you my little chickie YaYa. She had so much fun getting candy, and stayed warm in this wonderful hand-me-down costume from our friend Lisa. I just want to gobble her up!!

Chair,

Hav

francis the hedgehog

I introduce to you Francis the Hedgehog:

I made her tonight, inspired by the genius (yet simple enough for someone like me) pattern & tutorial at matsutake. How fun! Hubby and I sat and watched "House" for 2 hours while I dug up my needle, thread & bag of scrap lace and went to work. It's been years since I've sewn, and it really was theraputic. The only problem is that I may be a little hedgehog obsessed now.

Chair,
Hav

babda

During prayer time tonight:

Mommy: Thank you God for...
YaYa: Babda
Mommy: Babda?
YaYa: Babda bi-doo
Mommy: Bob the Builder?
Yaya: (shakes head vigorously) Bob da Bi-doo!!
Mommy: Yes, thank you God for Bob the Builder.

it's in the oven

Oh, have I been in a baking mood the past few days! And to give you an idea of how big of a deal this is, I probably only bake 4 or 5 times a year! So...a run-down of what's been in my oven in the past 48 hours:

• 2 apple cakes
• 1 turkey pot pie
• a pumpkin's worth of spiced pumpkin seeds
• a batch of cranberry white chocolate chip cookies (thanks to my dear friend kelly for the recipe!)

Yum! What a feast of fall flavors! It surely does help my baking that I've been home about half of this week (since I worked the whole sleepless weekend!)

The best thing about the cranberry white chocolate cookies is that the cranberries pop in your mouth when you bite into them! The miniature taste explosions are just wonderful!!

And to top it all off, these creepy creatures have taken up residence in my computer corner:

So even though this day is dreary, I'm soaking up my precious time with YaYa. We're heading to the pet store now to pet some puppies.

Chair,

Hav

monday in pictures

Oh how I love my Mondays!

Spending time with my beautiful girl...
Enjoying the last days of playing outside...

Getting plenty of puppy love...
And watching YaYa help daddy mow for the first time. She always says, "Mow mow daddy, mow mow daddy." Today daddy invited her to help. She was thrilled! She kept looking over at me with a look that said, "Mommy! Aren't you proud of me? I'm helping!"

What a sweet day.

Chair,
Hav

sleepless nights

I don't think a twenty month old is much work anymore.
That's not true. She's a lot of work, but not compared to...
TEN FORTH GRADE GIRLS!!

I work in Children's Ministries at a church (work, as in, it's my full-time job). This weekend was our Fall Mini Camp for 3rd-5th graders. I got the 4th grade girls...all ten of them. I've done this 5 years in a row, but it REALLY whipped me this year. How can 9 and 10-year-olds stay up until 4am, even with me (tired, grumpy, sneezy) reprimanding them every ten minutes? Seriously, I could NOT stay up that late when I was nine. I was the one who would fall asleep while the other girls watched NKOTB videos. And then they froze my underwear. I think I'm too old for this overnight stuff anymore...but maybe I always have been.

Needless to say, I'm excited for a day off tomorrow. My wonderful neighbor lent me her copy of Hello, Cupcake!, and I hope to try my hand at one of these fun creations sometime soon (maybe tomorrow, but the house is a disaster!)

I'm praying for a full night's sleep tonight...to wake up feeling refreshed! May all of you experience that as well.

Chair,
Hav

more felted owls

I am a hypocrite. All I can think about is making a cute little felted owl to perch on a branch in my daughter's room. And while I'm at it, does anyone have a simple recipe for a good bread? This fall weather has me ready to try my hand at baking my first loaf. Thoughts of the scent of freshly baked bread keep swirling through my head. That, along with the image of cutting through the crusty shell into the soft goodness. (Stop it, Hav, this is not helping!)

I made a delicious apple cake tonight from the spoils of yesterday's trip to the orchard. My inspiration came from maya*made, and you can find her post and recipe here. She's absolutely right...doubling the recipe is a must. YaYa & hubby & I gobbled it up. And I wanted to throw in one more picture from the orchard. This one's my fav.
So, about my salutation, "Chair". It all started in middle school with my friends Laura & Elizabeth. We were all in French together, and when we learned that the French for chair is silla, we couldn't resist. Instead of saying "See ya!", we would tell each other "chair!" It became our official sign-off, and so remains mine today. Here's to middle school...awkward bodies, poofy perms & ginormous glasses. I don't miss you at all.

Chair,
Hav

No felted owls

I'm a little intimidated. No, a lot intimidated.
I read other people's blogs, although "stalk" might be a better word.
But this is my first post. After internally blogging all my activities & thoughts for weeks, I decided that they needed to be let out. So here goes...

I will not be talking about handmade felted owls in this blog. Nor will I discuss my favorite artisan bread recipe. (Confession: I have never made a loaf of bread.) No offense if you love &/or make felted owls and bread! I enviously gobble up others' blogs of these subjects, I just have too much going on right now. I guess I lied...I've already spent a paragraph talking about something I wasn't going to talk about. Ah, get used to it!

I took my 20 month old to the apple orchard for the first time today. What fun! She gleefully ran up and down the rows of trees, clutching the first apple that we picked. She wouldn't let go of that thing for anything, even after it got rubbed in the dirt a few times. She finally got tired of her half eaten apple on the drive home.
We stopped for treats on the way home.


Picked up a sugar cookie with sprinkles for YaYa, and carrot cake for my hubby & me.
We had dessert first tonight.

Chair (I'll explain later),
Hav