The Itsy Bitsy Spider

This was our craft yesterday. That's my little Abe : )







He made the spider and cut out the rain drops. Life is SOOOO much fun with this one.

(The video quality is pretty poor but we'll probably made some more of these. This was just such fun!)

Solar Powered Night Light

Small mason jar

Lawn solar light

Super glue

I glued the lid to the top portion of the light before I took the above photo. Sorry. I also got super glue everywhere. Messy is my middle name, as they say (or sudden, actually sudden is a more appropriate middle name for me). I did not glue any of my fingers together or to the light though, so all is well. I will definitely purchase the "gel" super glue next time. There is totally a reason they came out with that latter version.   

I made this night light because normally we leave the bathroom light on all night. My son likes light in the hallway as opposed to an actual night light in his room. Our hallway light it much too bright but the bathroom light shining into the hallway is just perfect. I can't put a plug in night light in the hallway because there is not an outlet there. I saw this craft on pinterest and knew instantly that I would try it out. I honestly did not think it would give off that much light but we used it last night and it was perfect. I love this little jar light and he did too!

I had the mason jar on hand already but the actual cost would be 58 cents for the jar. I spent $1.06 on super glue and didn't quite use a quarter of what I bought, that's makes about 26 cents for the super glue. The lawn solar light cost $1.79. This little craft cost a total of $2.63. I don't know the life expectancy of a solar powered lawn light but according to an ENERGY CALCULATOR that I found online, leaving the bathroom light on for about nine hours each night costs us $1.80 per month. If this is anywhere close to accurate I will have recouped the cost of the solar powered night light on our energy bill in less than two months.

If we were using an actual plug in wall night light, the energy calculator says it'd cost about the same as what I spent on this solar powered night light to power that for a year. However you look at it I'm not paying for energy to run this thing. It just needs to be set on a window sill during the day. Living off the grid, Yeah! (Haha) I'm curious to see how long the solar light will last but we'll no longer be turning the bathroom light on at night so as long as it lasts for a month and a half then I'll have officially saved money on this craft. This solar powered night light is awesome! 

We started the paper mache shelves yesterday as seen by the mess above. They will take a good deal of time and I'm pretty certain they are going to be quite lopsided but the small shelving unit is turning out very sturdy and it will serve it's purpose quite well. Additionally, paper mache is always fun and we'll end up with a virtually free shelving unit with a lot of character (I had to pay for the flour to make the paste but the cardboard box we're covering with paper mache came in the mail and I'm using a catalog that also came in the mail as the newspaper).

Average daily spending for 2016: $21.11

Christmas gift crafting almost complete. Hooray!

I chose to make gifts for four of our eight nieces and nephews this year. This post is pre-mature because I have one gift left to go but I'm pretty excited with how the gifts are coming together. We attended a party yesterday, went to my in-laws today, will be going to another party tomorrow and will be going to my brother's on Sunday. These gifts, along with the one I've yet to finish are for Sunday.

I had almost all the materials on hand for these gifts but I cannot tell you how many hours when into each of them. I honestly started to think I would never finish any of them but, hooray, I actually completed three out of the four with two days to spare. If you asked my husband he'd gladly tell you that I'm normally working frantically hours before the gathering to finish all of the gifts I committed to making. Yes, I have horrible procrastination issues.

So, here is the little quilt I posted a few photos of awhile back. It has her name on it and I do hope she will really like it. I think it's adorable. The white block is actually a flower print that I adore. The back is a lilac cordory (also seen in two spots on the front).

This one I think I already posted photos of complete. A smaller baby doll quilt along with a very original (no pattern/ made up as I went) rag doll for my two year old nephew.

And yes, that is a poorly bound young reader chapter book that I wrote for my niece. She's interested in marine biology so I wrote an adventure story about three friends, a starfish, a turtle, and a sergeant major damselfish. (she's also interested in becoming the president) I have tried to write books before (aka, I have a few in the works) but this is the first thing I ever wrote, edited, completed, and then printed and bound (it's sloppy). I'm super proud of this and despite it's MANY flaws I really hope she loves it. The simple fact that I completed it after the many many hours I spent on it makes it probably my favorite gift I've ever given (again, despite the flaws; it's printed crooked, it's bound sloppily, the print is really too large for her age, it should be a bit longer for her reading level, I wanted to put several little sketches in it but almost certainly will not, blah, blah, I love it! (have I mentioned that I'm a perfectionist? haha!)).

Forty Five Minutes of Christmas, Week Two

Sunday 12/6
Little Abe and I made this year's Christmas cards. Now I just need to write, address, and mail them all.


Monday 12/7
Created a photo calendar for my Dad with all the family birthdays. These darn things take forever to make!


Tuesday 12/8
Wrote and mailed out Christmas cards.


Wednesday 12/9
Worked on my nephew's rag doll more.

Thursday 12/10
At least 45 minutes writing Christmas cards.
Finished sewing the little rag doll for my nephew.
I think it needs ears though.

Friday 12/11
Worked on my nieces quilt. This could be the end of me. I'm making a very small quilt, like baby doll quilt, and it's taking forever!

Saturday 12/12
Went to a fun Bethlehem village event at my brother's church. There were live animals, people dressed in costumes, fun food, and all kind of neat crafts for the little ones. I think my guy had lots of fun but he is really not a fan of coloring and most of the crafts involved coloring so he kept leaving the craft tables with naked trinkets.

Christmas Cards

Today was a planned no spend day but I ended up spending $14.07 on Christmas card supplies and I went way over my 45 minutes of Christmas. I'm very happy to report that this year's Christmas cards are about half way done and I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out.

I seriously was brainstorming for months what I wanted to do for the cards this year. Finally settling on an idea and seeing it come together is marvelous for me. Yay! I can't imagine anyone likes these silly cards I spend so much time on as much as I do but I hope they do spread some Christmas cheer around the globe. (Little Abe made quite the contribution this year as well)

I'll post a photo of our cards at a later date.

Forty Five Minutes of Christmas, One week done

Last week when I was starting to feel overwhelmed by all the Christmas details I wrote myself a permission slip: I will spend 45 minutes a day on Christmas. Anything that doesn't get accomplished in the 45 minutes doesn't need to be done. Whatever gets accomplished during the 45 minutes of Christmas is perfection. Here's how this week went:
Sunday
I dug out the lights (that are surprisingly almost 20 years old and are still all working) and hung them up around the dining room for the Christmas countdown bags. This took a surprisingly long time. I luckily had saved most of the bags from last year and they were in the bag with the lights (so I didn't have to re-do the numbering) except for bags 1-5 which I seem to remember little Abe ripping apart. I must have put something really neat in those ones last year. So I made new numbers and found bags for 1-5.

Monday
I wrote out all the scriptures for the countdown bags, the "giving" ideas for each bag, and filled and hung each bag. This was a very time consuming chore but the Christmas countdown bags are something I really look forward to and this tradition is really important to me. Last year I scrambled each night to fill the bag for the next morning. Sometimes I forgot and had to sneakily fill the bag before we opened it in the morning. It was added stress last Christmas for me to accomplish this fun new tradition while scrambling each day to remember to fill the bag. I'm very happy to have this Christmas season task now behind me. This was an approximately 45 minutes well spent!

Tuesday
A collection of little things. Probably not 45 minutes. Read some Christmas books with little Abe. Watched a few short Christmas videos on you tube with little Abe. Nice simple stuff today.

Wednesday
Started another Christmas present. Today I went over the 45 minutes. I spent about 2 hours sewing. I guess that makes up for a lighter day on Tuesday.

Thursday

Sewing consumed another two hours of my week. Honestly, I like it. It's thrilling to see the end result. I pick fabrics as I go and I find myself being curious during the entire project about what I will end up with. My kiddo took a SUPER long nap so the two hours of quite alone time working on this Christmas present just flew by.

Friday
I worked on the little quilt some more and then I started another sewing project. My brother had a little rag doll when he was small that he loved. It's name was Green Jeans, had a green checkered shirt, green overalls, and a green hat. I thought I had a photo of it but, no. I've been wanting to recreate Green Jeans for my brother's son who is turning 2 tomorrow. (Jessica, Please DON'T tell James! I'd like him to be surprised.)

My brother actually hates green now (for sports team reasons) so I've started to recreate Green Jeans in colors that my brother loves (for sports team reasons). The fabric in this "Green Jeans" is from the little quilt I made for my nephew so he'll have a little doll to go with his quilt. I spent WAY longer than two hours on this. I didn't have a pattern and was trying to recreate this little guy from memory. I hope it at least reminds my brother of his little Green Jeans.  Wish me luck on the head because this could end up really cute or it could go terrible South, quickly.

Saturday
Today has just begun. I'm feeling pretty motivated to get the quilt and Green Jeans done so I'll work on both of them more today, probably. We're also going to the Jingle Bell parade downtown this evening. So today will be filled with Christmasy things.

This week's forty five minutes of Christmas was a total success. I do feel like I need to get on top of the Christmas cards but I didn't have that sinking feeling I often have of needing to get 100 things accomplished all at once all day every day. I committed to spending 45 minutes a day on Christmas things and I did. Done. Plus, I'm pretty excited about the gifts I'm giving this year. I had all the fabric, stuffing, and thread I've needed thus far. So I haven't had to spend any money on materials for the gifts I'm making. I think I'm going to buy a fabric pen for Green Jean's face. I seem to remember the original Green Jeans having a drawn on face.

On top of the 45 minutes of activities listed above little Abe and I have been reading Christmas books, opening a countdown bag each morning, and doing a really neat interactive Advent Calendar online that a VERY kind friend sent to us. This has been a really great Christmas season already!

Let's get Christmas started!

I have terrible procrastination issues. I always have. This year however, and yes I am doing a happy dance right now, I have TWO very time consuming Christmas presents finished BEFORE Thanksgiving. 

This one I was scrambling to get done by Thanksgiving and I actually did it. I really didn't think I was going to get it done but I did. It's just a tiny little quilt for my nephew, about the size of a large pillow. I've made one for each of his three sisters so this year he'll be getting his own. The back is the cloud print fabric. It's sloppy (because I can't use a sewing machine to save my life) but I love it!

Now onto the next gift!

(The other gift I have finished I'm choosing to keep a secret because I'm really proud of it and the recipients mom reads the blog so I'm keeping it under wraps)

This Week's Christmas Craft

I apologize. I am being completely facetious with that title. I've already seen people on facebook complaining about Christmas merchandise being stocked in the stores. I know that there are a great deal of people who get really flustered by the mention of Christmas before Thanksgiving. I am not trying to tease you folks.

The little guy and I did inadvertently end up doing a Christmas craft this week but I promise it was unintentional. And while I personally have never been a fan of seeing Christmas merchandise on the shelves during the beginning of October I feel a little differently about it this year as I have been working on getting my Christmas gifts all planned out since sometime last month.

I wanted to do a craft this week with little Abe. I've done this craft before while I worked in a learning based day care years ago and I really liked it back then. I went upstairs to find my stock pile of tissue paper (which I'm now wondering if I disposed of when I did the basement clean up). All I could find were various types of Christmas tissue paper that I'd saved from gifts I've been given at Christmas. And a few new sheets of red, green, and white as well. "Hmm, I already planned on doing this with him, well, I guess we're just going to have to do it in Christmas colors now."

This is the simplest craft ever. But my little guy did end up struggling with it. First he and I tore some tissue paper into square-ish pieces. I put a little elmer's glue into a dish. I'm talking like 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon little. Then I added probably two tablespoons of water. I really watered it down a lot. I stirred the water and glue up and then we painted one side of the torn tissue paper with the glue water. As soon as the tissue square is covered in glue water you press it to the side of the jar. Once the jar was completely covered I went over the whole jar with a layer of glue water. And done. After it was dry I set a candle in it and we got to see our lovely craft glow. The specks you see on ours are because we had a few sheets of tissue paper with glitter in the paper.

Little Abe was having a difficult time "painting" the squares of tissue with the glue water. His tissue kept tearing and balling up. I think he was just using too much force which is completely understandable for a three year old. I felt badly that he struggled with our fun craft so once the jar was done I randomly pulled an old pizza box off the table (that I'd completely meant to throw out that very morning) and told him that he could paint sticky water all over the box and decorate it with all the torn paper that he'd like. While I personally am not as fond of how visually stunning the pizza box covered in tissue looks compared with the jar holding a lit candle he really enjoyed painting the box, sticking tissue all over it, and then doing it again, and again, and again. The only problem is that now he thinks we're going to be keeping an old pizza box covered in tissue paper. Oops.

Sunflower Art

Yesterday we harvested the seeds from the sunflower. If I'd waited much longer the squirrels would have eaten them all.

Little Abe and I sat on the kitchen floor for at least 10 minutes removing each one. We both had red colored sunflower sap (thats the only thing I can think to call it) on the tips of our fingers. What an oddly entertaining activity. I couldn't believe how stunningly beautiful the head was after the seeds were all removed. Sunflowers are truly amazing all the way through, from height to strength, to the roughness and thickness of their leaves, the beauty once they open and rapidly they go from a lovely first opened bloom to an enormous seed filled circle.

The seeds are all lying out on a cookie sheet now. Today we put the empty head of the flower to use by painting with it. Little Abe just painted different colors on it with a paint brush. He pressed it down after each color. It was a good deal of fun until he started to notice the bees flying around (remember, he got stung one week ago). After that we called it quits. I rather like the way the little pressings turned out though.

Spending rundown today: Well it was inevitable; I was going to have to buy the dog food sooner or later: $25.43. I also had a strange sort of shopping trip in which I purchased specific ingredients in order to make recipes with the tomatoes: $29.02. I needed heavy whipping cream and chicken stock for the soup, more flour to make pizza crust again, some cheese for sandwiches and pizza, meat for making meatballs to go on spaghetti, and a few other food items.

My budget for the month is $436 which leaves $131.26

Average daily spending for 2015: $17.96
(the above average considers the following two days as no spends)

Trip to the Library

My little buddy and I have read 100 books in the past 20 days. That means we were able to go to the library for him to get his "100 books read" sticker and a prize as a part of the "1000 books before kindergarten" program. I accidentally referred to the reward that goes along with the sticker as a treat. So when the librarian handed us a box of books that he was able to choose from for his reward he wanted to know when he would be getting his "treat" too. He was pretty adamant about that treat which according to him is specifically something delicious and not necessarily a neat reward.

We checked out a handful of new books for us to read together and I actually took a few extra minutes to find a few books for myself. I can honestly say that reading is one of the many things I now neglect upon having a child/ being a mom and I swore I would never stop reading (and other things) once I had children. I'm pretty happy to have a few new books in the house now.

One of the books I picked up is a title that a very dear friend has been suggesting I read for awhile now. I'm a few chapters in and although it's a book I would never be drawn to myself I'm really quite enjoying it. The one line I've jotted down thus far though is:

Completely true! Made me laugh and I seldom think about food this way. Oh yeah, the book is "The Body Book: The law of hunger, the science of strength, and other ways to love your amazing body" by Cameron Diaz. Yes, Pieliekamais I'm finally reading it :))))

For the kiddo we checked out several books about being brave. He's working on memorizing the Bible verse this week (let's see if I can do this without looking it up), Joshua 1:9 Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (yep, I did it) We're going to do a few crafts surrounding bravery this week and so we've checked out a few books about bravery too. The one I like the most is Sheila Rae, the Brave. He was thoroughly intrigued through the whole book and when we finished reading it he said that he "really liked that one," with the little excited tremble that he's known to do when he's overflowing with happy. He also had an opportunity to do a bravery challenge at the library. I told him that he did not need to talk to the librarian if he did not want to but that it would be very brave if he stood beside me and did not hide behind mommy's back. He tackled the feat with absolute courage and did not hide behind me at all. He even handed his own books to the other librarian when we checked out. Progress is progress :)

After the library outing I took him to Tim Hortons to get a treat (a donut and milk). I had my treat at the library though. There was a birds nest in the parking garage and a momma robin was sitting on her egg(s). I noticed the empty nest last time we were there and I took little Abe over to look at it. But this time he spotted it and pointed out that there was a bird in it now. We watched the momma sitting there for a little while. Nature is so incredible! He says to me, "can you say good spying?" (He tells me what to say, A LOT). I congratulated him for noticing the momma in the nest. That is the kind of thing that is truly a treat for me.

When we got home from our adventure we decided upon some good outdoor time before reading our books. So we started putting together and painting a box house. He was less interested by it than I thought he'd be but that's probably because I chose to do the activity after a morning of running around. I'll see if he's into it after nap time. FYI, I drive a VERY small car. How I got that thing home from work... I don't even really know. It was a bit like Mary Poppins magical bag if you ask me!

Sorry for the long and random post. I haven't been posting much lately and I just wanted to take a moment in between reading and my kiddo napping to drop a hello. So, hi everyone! I hope you're all enjoying this fabulous summer. I'm trying to stay a little ways away from the computer and spend lots of time out of doors. So far so good! I have not tallied or added up the spending for, gee, at least a week and I'm afraid I might have lost a few days due to my negligence. I'll get at it soon though! I promise-ish 

TV Time Tracker (Super frugal version)

I feel like my child watches a lot of TV. He only watches educational little kid shows (when he's with me) and he generally plays with his toys while watching TV but still. My husband grew up in a household where the TV was always on. When I was a kid my brother's and I were ALWAYS outside but towards the end of my days at home with my mom and siblings the TV was always on and someone was always watching it. I prefer the TV be off more often than not. None the less it feels like the TV is always blabbing away in the background at our house.

Many years ago a friend of mine showed me how her boys had to earn screen time. She used Popsicle sticks and cups. Her boys were school age and if I remember correctly the Popsicle sticks were assigned different time limits, maybe 5 minutes for some of them, and 10 or 15 minutes on others. Since my little buddy is getting bigger, comprehending SO much now, and I am a bit concerned about how much the television is on here I decided to finally (I've been meaning to do this for awhile) put into use the idea she gave me years back.

I am a huge proponent of re-using jars. Thus the empty pizza sauce jar came into play; peeled off the label, gave it a washing, and now we have a TV Time jar.

I don't remember the last time we ate Popsicles so we don't have any sticks lying around that can be re-purposed. I did price a bag of craft sticks at the store. There was one with something like 100 sticks in it for $2.99. Nah, too much. This spring when I was pruning the bushes out back I actually kept a bundle of sticks I'd trimmed that were nice and straight thinking I could maybe use them for something crafty in the future. I trimmed one of these sticks that had since dried out nicely into six equal parts and then spray painted them with a can of yellow paint I had. And there you have it, a FREE TV Time Tracker; my favorite kind of craft. I may spray paint the word's TV TIME onto the jar but for now my mission is accomplished.

We've used the TV time tracker for two days. Right now each stick is allotted 30 minutes of TV time. 30 minutes amounts to two little kid episodes. He has to take a stick out of the jar and give it to me when he wants to watch TV. Then I start the timer (I've had a timer specifically for him for a long time now; we use it mostly for time outs or if we say, "okay, only 15 more minutes until..."). When the timer goes off then we turn the TV off or he has to give me another stick and then I start the timer again. When the sticks are all gone then we're done watching the television for the day.

There are a few really great things about this simple tool. It helps him better learn to prioritize and make choices. It's a great way for me to keep track of how much TV he's watched/ how much the TV has been on during a day. It's a visual way for him to recognize that, say there's one more stick left in the jar, there's only a small amount of TV time left so once it's been used the TV will not go back on today. I have had this idea in the back of my mind since years before ever having a child so I'm pretty excited to have finally brought it out. 

We've started simple with a few sticks being in the jar at the beginning of the day and each stick holding the same allotment of time. As time goes on I almost certainly will have him earn sticks and I will probably give them different allotments of time (much smaller than 30 minutes) as well as adding, oh heaven forbid, video game time. (Maybe when he's 25 he can start playing video games)

Now please, don't get in your into your imaginations that I'm a super structured mom (I'd love to be actually). I'm not. I mean sometimes we eat dinner at 3:30 and sometimes we eat dinner at 8:30. We'll do five crafts in a week and then won't do another for three weeks. I've been an artist with an artistic personality all of my life and structure is, well, it falls pretty far off my radar. But things like this little trick are a great way for me to get structure into our lives and teach my son a few really simple but valuable lessons along the way.

The really great news, (mind you after only two days) is that the TV thus far has not been on nearly as much as I'd thought. He's only used three sticks each day, and one thus far today.

Weekend To-dos

1. Plant watermelon seeds out back.
2. Tidy up the yard. DONE
3. Really clean up the kitchen.
4. Mail out one friendly hello.
5. Start starfish pillow. DONE
6. Finish starfish pillow. DONE
7. Bake something... bread, pretzels, something fun and yummy but maybe not super sugary. DONE
8. Catch up and keep up on daily Bible reading (trying to read through the Chronological Bible in six months).
9. Clear off the buffet and dining room table (much bigger job then it sounds, sadly).
10. Weather permitting, GET OUTSIDE BUNCHES! We spent a TON of time outside during April, not so much in May however and we need to get out there more again. DONE
11. Look through June's budget and set spending goals. DONE

Bonus
   12.  Tackle my bedroom closet; ooh, scaaaary!

7. Bake something

I finished number seven tonight. I was thinking of baking bread or pretzels but I strayed from the plan and started looking up donut recipes. I settled on THIS ONE for baked strawberry donuts BUT I don't have a donut pan so I ended up making mini strawberry glazed muffins in my mini muffin tin with the donut recipe.

I think this recipe turned out really well but I tweaked it quite a bit and I don't see how this mini muffin is anything like a donut at all. Maybe the non-resemblance is just because of the muffin shape but I tried to convince myself this was a donut hole and still no, totally muffin. It's a rather moist yet airy muffin and again I really liked the way they turned out but no resemblance to a donut.

In case anyone cares my tweaks were: coconut oil in place of the butter, apple butter syrup in place of the maple syrup, also apple butter syrup in place of the vanilla in the glaze and I added a little cinnamon to the glaze. I also halved the glaze portion of the recipe because 3 cups of powdered sugar seemed absurd to me for the amount of mini muffins I ended up with (one full mini muffin pan worth). Also, these glazed strawberry mini muffins are perfection topped with a fresh raspberry. 

5. & 6. Start and Finish starfish pillow

I'm not totally happy with how my almost entire days worth of work Saturday (or half a day at least) turned out BUT it's FINALLY done! I am happy about that. Side note: I can't use a sewing machine. Apparently I don't know how. Every time I've ever tried I end up spending more time monkeying with the machine then what I do actually sewing so I always sew by hand. I like sewing by hand anyhow but it sure takes more time.

I made a plain white insert for this so that the cover could be more easily washed/ thrown into a washing machine (instead of just making a solid decorative pillow) and this little project is the first time I've ever made a pattern or used a pattern for anything (except for a pair of pants I started to make for my sister once and never finished). But the insert is just a bit too small or the cover is just a bit too big so that the finished work of art is a bit more wrinkly than I'd envisioned. I purposefully made the cover just the tiniest big bigger because I thought if the cover and insert were the exact same size then it would be too snug. Sigh.

Well, I marked 6 out of 11 things off my weekend to-do list. I'll wrap up a few more tomorrow. Over half done isn't bad for me.

Pinata Time

If you're not terrified of messes (like Sue) and have never made a pinata before I highly suggest gathering up some newspaper, flour, water, and a balloon and giving it a try. Little Abe and I made one together last year around this same time so I guess you could call this our annual pinata making time. The process takes several steps but it's so inexpensive and tons of fun, especially sensory wise for little ones.

1.) Inflate a balloon. You can tie it to a hanger or string it up somewhere in your house. Ideally it needs to be hung somewhere.

2.) Cut some newspaper into strips. You probably want to keep the strips under 2 inches wide and about half the length of a full page of newspaper.

3.) Mix up some flour and water (a little goes a pretty long way). I do not ever measure but I think one part flour to two parts water is probably a safe ratio. It really doesn't matter that much if the paste is a bit thick or if it's a bit watery but you're ideally going for a pancake batter consistency, maybe a tiny bit thicker than that.

4.) Completely cover one strip at a time in paste. I always wipe excess paste off each piece of paper by placing the strip in between two fingers and running the excess off. You really just want both sides of the paper wet. Of course the little guy isn't quite as thorough in his paste application. Layer the balloon with one layer of overlapping strips. This isn't rocket science but if you let layers dry in between layering on more wet pasty paper you'll get a better result. Once your pinata has three or four layers of strips it should be pretty well set. You can put as many layers as you'd like overall though.

If you want to add shape to your pinata (other than a round balloon) you can tape crumpled up pieces of newspaper to the paper mached balloon once it has two layers of dried strips. Then just add two more layers over top of the shape you've created (let one dry before adding another). You can pop the balloon when you're all done and you should totally cut a hole in your creation, fill it with treats, hang it somewhere and break it open with a bat or stick. I know, all that work just to smash it to bits... it's tradition.

This marks one more thing off my weekend to-do list and it was fun. We're quite proud of our paper alligator.

Average daily spending for 2015: $18.04

No spend day 45 today.

Dandelions and an Earthquake

Since we don't get earthquakes (virtually ever) and since I've never experienced an earthquake I feel it notable to mention that we had the second largest ever recorded earthquake for our state today. It was very mild and we are 80 miles from where it hit (I don't know earthquake terminology so I hope that's proper) but the house shook for several seconds and boy was it creepy. Neither myself nor (obviously) my kiddo, or anyone else around here who felt it for that matter knew what it was until everyone on social media began posting about it. That was kind of a neat added aspect to the thing. Little Abe honestly thought a giant was walking past our house shaking the ground. He looked out the window to see if he could see it.

After the earthquake (its so strange typing that) we went outside to collect dandelions from the yard. I stumbled upon a dandelion salve recipe HERE and I intend to try it out. We haven't put down a grass fertilizer or any weed killer for a few years so our dandelions should be pretty healthy (that's hilarious right? Talking about healthy dandelions?). I purchased grape seed oil today to infuse the dandelions in oil and I'll have to buy coconut oil later but it was pretty neat picking dandelions from the yard to use for a really practical and neat purpose. I hope this stuff turns our great because I'm pretty excited about it. There is also beeswax in the recipe I'm following (yes I've substituted grape seed oil for olive oil) but it just so happens I know a bee keeper so she'll be getting me the 2oz. of beeswax. I don't think I'll be buying an essential oil for fragrance since the dandelions are good enough for me. We'll wait till we cross that bridge anyhow.

Average daily spending for 2015: $18.15

15 / 60

I'm a bit behind on the Christmas card making but I think it's coming along well. My cards have slightly evolved. I'm really enjoying making them even if I may be spending an absurd amount of time doing so. Every new card I make is my favorite yet. That helps keep me motivated. I have about three versions now that I really like. This is one of the three.

I'm using buttons from my Grandmother's button tin that I've had in my basement for several years now. So I've included a little note on the back of each card letting people know that my Grandmother has had a part in this year's holiday greeting.

At present I'm using old buttons, a stock pile of thread and scrap booking paper, I have at least 15 blank white cards and envelopes and I've purchased 50 more for only $9.99. Each card this Christmas should end up costing me about 70 cents and that includes the postage stamp. I think I've done quite well. I'm not factoring in the postage for the buttons that will be traveling to the UK, Sweden, and the Philippines so that might boost the average a few cents per card. Still, that's a lot cheaper than buying boxed cards at the store. Yay!

Along the same lines, I've sent out only one Thanksgiving note thus far but I'll be getting more out this week. AND I've received one Thanksgiving card this year :) It absolutely made my day and it traveled quite far to reach me, it crossed an ocean in fact and was sent by someone who doesn't even celebrate Thanksgiving. How absolutely delighted I am! Thank-you my friend :-)

Thanksgiving Tree Craft (Part 2)

The leaves are dried and pressed.
Today I taped a few pages of newspaper together and let my son paint them white.
After the paint dried I outlined a tree on the paper and cut it out.
Now the tree is hanging on the dining room wall.
We'll add one leaf every day until Thanksgiving with something written on it that we're thankful for.

This will probably be a Thanksgiving tradition for us for many years to come. Today we added two leaves. I asked little Abe what he was thankful for and he said, "mommy." Awe, melt my heart. I wrote his name on the second leaf because I didn't want to be up there without him.

Sparked by a fellow blogger's comment: Do you have any Thanksgiving holiday traditions?

Please comment if you do. It's a rather intriguing question since the Thanksgiving holiday can just be considered a big meal to those outside the US.

Let the Holidays Begin

I dug out a neat little tin of buttons from my Grandmother's sewing table (one of the few things I inherited from her) and started making Christmas cards today. I'm an enormous procrastinator so I'm going to attempt the slow and steady method for the holidays this year. I figure if I make one or two cards a day I should have enough made by sending them out time. I LOVE Christmas cards! I try and send a different kind each year. Last year I sent out my stock pile of old cards that gathered up over the years. Normally I try and take a neat Christmasy photo and make a card out of it. This year I'm going to attempt making these button ones. These are my first two so I'm hoping they'll get cuter as I go along.

Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts going at the same time; those books in the background are pressing the leaves we gathered yesterday. Now I'm off to work. Hooray.

*A good friend of mine just published a blog post about updating the address book now so that you'll be ready come Christmas time. Great suggestion and a big part of my inspiration to start making my cards this year.

Thanksgiving Tree Craft (Part One)

Today we went for a walk and collected fallen leaves. It was fun noticing all the different colors and leaves that had fallen from all different types of trees.

Right now our leaves are drying in the basement. We'll press them on wax paper once they're dry. We're going to make a thanksgiving tree out of newpaper that I'll hang on the wall. Everyday leading up to thanksgiving we'll add a leaf to the tree with something we're thankful for written on it. We will read all of our leaves each day and think about the things we're thankful for. 

I'm pretty sure I have everything I need around the house to do this entire craft. Free is always the best!

Pinata Day

We busted open the Pinata today and I spent what feels like a ton of money on nothing.

I had to pick up some candy to put inside the pinata because I forgot to get it yesterday. Little Abe and I went to his cousin's house for the festivities. I stopped at a "convenience" store because the parking lot at the grocery store was filled to the brim and there was no way I was going in there today (on a holiday weekend) with that many people shopping. Sometimes time does cost money and they call it a convenience store for a reason... convenience comes with a charge. Haha, I bought mostly clearance candy though. Total: $5.95 and the kiddos had a blast!

On the way home from pinata time my child freaked out and I flew through the drive thru at McDonalds to get him apple juice. It was naptime after a very fun morning and someone forgot to bring his fire (pacifier). The juice helped a lot but it cost me $5.38 for a kids meal, and a coke for me, and I hadn't planned on spending any money today. That brings today's cost to $11.33. Every minute of today was worth the $11.33 but it's weird how you can plan so diligently to spend NOTHING and then end up spending so much.

Que sera sera! Today was so much fun!!!

We actually started a pinata with the girls of their very own before we revealed that we'd brought ours along full of candy. It was a very fun, VERY messy activity for all the kids. And then so much excitement upon finding out they didn't have to wait for all 4 or 5 steps (takes a few days) for theirs to be finished before they could break one open. Now on to yard work. Oooh, there's a strawberry in my itty bitty garden that's recently developed a little pink hue. I believe I'm way too excited about it but still, seemed news worthy to me.

Average daily spending for May: $19.53

We've a week left of May. I'd like to finish with the daily spending average under $19 a day. Should be do-able. I just need to focus and plan.

A Little Newspaper, Flour, and Paint

Little Abe and I started making a paper mache pinata (a little bit too last minute) in anticipation of the two birthday parties this weekend. I thought we might be able to bring it to one of the parties but it was still drying.

This craft was so much fun!!! Granted there were many steps: three layers of paper (drying in between each time), the painting (two rounds), gluing on the eyes and drawing on the rest of the face. Our third round of flour and water and newspaper was a bit rocky (he stuck his foot in the paste and smeared it all over my pants) but the rest of the process was just great. I'm genuinely amazed at the loads of fun you can have for ZERO dollars. Okay, I do intend to purchase some candy or little trinkets to put inside the thing and we'll break it open with cousins or friends but the craft itself was all done with stuff around the house.

I asked him what we should name the little fellow and he suggested that we call it "daddy." He doesn't know that we're going to smash it with a bat (he won't be sentimental about that. he loves smashing things) so I told him that name wasn't quite right. I don't feel right about smashing "daddy" with a bat. For now the little creature remains nameless but I'm pretty proud of our creation. Most of the painting, tons of the paper macheing, and the mouth were all done by my little two year old!!!

FUN!!!!!