Monday, May 16, 2011

Random fun and creativity

It seems the whole family has been having bursts of creativity:

These are little bags I sewed to sell at the Untrepreneurial fair at the upcoming Life is Good conference (can't wait!). The original purpose is that they can be sewn onto people's conference bags, so that it becomes a little handy tote (like this) that you can keep in your purse/backpack. But I realized that they can also be used as a little bag to put a gift in, or keep safe a special treasure. The photo isn't the best, as most of these are still inside out (serged thread ends still need to be sewn in), but the girls helped me pick out the fabrics, and I must say, they are really cute!


Vivian had a friend over to play the other day and Sabine asked if they wanted to play Twister. I thought "hmmm...we don't own Twister" but (thankfully) kept quiet, and Sabine proceeded to make a twister board out of fabric and books, then the spinner (pictured) out of cardboard and wood.


As you may know...we live in the Pacific NW...and we get our fair share of...the wet stuff. Bret found a container suitable for making into a rain barrel (except that it was clear-ish plastic, which lets in UV rays, or something like that) so he painted it brown. The white circle will be artistically designed later (it looks like a giant bottle of peroxide, no?). When Bret told the girls he was making a rain barrel, they heard BRAIN barrel...so there it is, our barrel of brains.


The orginal slice and bake cookie - one of the things I remember my mom baking when we were growing up. They are Belgian Ice Box cookies, see recipe at the bottom right hand side of the blog - under "What We're Eating".


The girls received a present of two matching Pixie dolls from our friends Kristin, Al and Acacia in Wyoming. They've been busy here in Portland...climbing trees...


...and babysitting at night.


The girls have been making good use of the hand rings from IKEA.


Apparently the doJump lessons are working.
Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 13, 2011

Bird festival, upcoming stuff

Link
The other day while I was volunteering (and drooling at all the cool stuff) at Crafty Wonderland, Bret took the girls to a Bird Festival in Portland. The girls got to see several birds, climb trees and get their faces painted.

I heart Portland. Always fun stuff going on.

Also getting so very excited for the upcoming Life is Good conference. This will be our 5th year attending! I went to look for some photos, but apparently we are usually having so much fun that we don't remember to take pictures! Will try to remedy that this time. It is truly one of the highlights of our year.

In other news, we are getting ready to have our main floor bathroom remodeled. This is the last "big" project inside the house (still lots of "little" stuff to do...all in good time)...more pictures and details to emerge soon. Bret already did some demo to prepare for it: removing a tiny closet that will be replaced with a big one, and also re-hung the bathroom door. It's nice to get to do some of the work ourselves (that is, the "ourselves" that means Bret).

I've joined a bookclub here, which I'm very happy about. It's one of the things I really missed about Wyoming (hello any Bluestockings who might read this!). We had a fantastic meeting last night and voted on a year's worth of books (thanks, Nancy Pearl) using the method here. I'm lucky to have landed in a place with so many new fantastic women friends!
Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 6, 2011

Shameless plea...

We've entered a Rejuvenation contest for our kitchen remodel (we used several of their lights, and drawer pulls)...the grand prize for the people's vote is a $1,000 which we would LOVE! Since the kitchen is done, we're now working on the bathroom...call us crazy.

Here is the link to the contest.

You can quickly find our entry by doing a "find in page" search for the word "Carolyn" -- or look for this photo:



Thanks!