All Hallow's Eve..

Our very first jack-o-lanterns!!  I think they came out great!!!  The one on the left is Beatrice's pumpkin (which I carved while she napped), The big one next to it is Ben's and he drew the face and I did the cutting, and the one on the right is Anna's...I helped her with her drawing, but the design was all hers.

Have a good and fun All Hallow's Eve and remember to pray for your faithful departed!

Yarn Along - Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan Blocking

Joining Ginny over at Small Things. Finally finishing up Anna's new cardigan. I swear I take the most terrible pictures, but here is the sweater being blocked. Then I just need to add a few buttons and then it is ready to wear! The yarn was a beautifully hand dyed yarn from my old fiber shop in NY, Woolbearers.  It is beautiful, will match Anna's hair and coloring perfectly, and was so nice to knit with.

I had pulled a book off my shelf a few weeks ago that I have had for a really long time and not read.  The Golden Road by LM Montgomery.  I really enjoyed it, but after reading a few chapters in I realized it was a sequel.  So now I am readying The Story Girl....which I should have read first, but either way nice, light, and enjoyable bed time reading.

Easy Fall Suncatchers

 

We made these easy suncatchers earlier in the week.  All you need are colorful leaves, some clear contact paper, a hole puncher and some yarn (or whatever you want to use to hang them).

We got the leaves from our yard.  The fresher the leaf the better.  In fact some we plucked right off the trees and those worked the best.

I cut large rectangles of contact paper and peeled back just half of it then we stuck leaves to it.  Then I peeled off the rest of the contact paper and folded it over itself the leaves were stuck between the two halves.

Then I punched holes, laced some yarn through and found some sunny windows to put them in.

Our Latest Quietness

 Did the pictures giveaway what we have been busy doing??  That is right...we have been busy with the chickenpox!!  It is going around and we were just one of many families at our church struck down.  Ben got it on labor day and our last pox scabbed over, officially ending our bout about a week or so ago.  Overall it was pretty much a non-event.  You would never know Ben and Anna were sick if you didn't see the spots all over them.  School went on as usual and they played and road bikes and made messes just like any other day.  Just as I assumed that Beatrice had somehow missed it she broke out with the pox.  She had it the worst of the three.  For whatever reason she had pox from the top of her head to her rearend....but nothing on arms or legs which left her with a very dense case of pox on her body.  But other than one day of really being uncomfortable and requiring constant distraction she came through like a trooper as well.  Now I have three happy, healthy, immune kiddies.

Somehow I didn't get a single pic of Anna when she had the pox.  So instead here she is all dressed ready to go to her ballet/tap class.  She is so cute!  And she is even cuter IN her class.  Such a petite little thing listening very intently to her teacher.  It is delicious to watch!  After I took her picture she asked that I also take a picture from the back LOL...so I obliged..

For information about why my children have not received the chickenpox vaccine please check out the information at this site: http://www.cogforlife.org/vaccine-overview/

My Beloved Mud Room!

When we started looking for a new house one of the features I was hoping to have was a mudroom. In our old house the front door opened up right into the living room and so the living room became a total dumping ground. Shoes, jackets, gloves, wet things, bags, mail, etc etc...It drove me NUTS!!!

So, I dreamed of a place where the dirty shoes lives and the jackets could hang and everything could be found when it was needed.

Our new house has a large, enclosed breezeway that attaches the side of the house to the garage. And it wasn't set up as a mudroom but it had plenty of potential to become one!  One side was basically empty space and the other side has our slop sink and the door to the back yard.  In the middle is the side door to our house.

This is the side of the breezeway closest to the front of the house.  The door just to the right of the picture opens to our driveway, the entrance most used to enter our house.  A perfect mudroom spot!!  This is obviously our before picture.  Just a big ole empty space.

And the after!!  I love love love!!!  Cla made a quick trip to Lowes, bought lumber and set to work.  A nice bench to sit and get your shoes on, storage under the bench where each kid has their own crate to keep their shoes in.  Enough hooks to hang the jackets.  And storage above for the currently unneeded boots, scarves, hats, gloves.