Winter Fun

Today we went out on a mountain in Vermont for a ski and snowboarding event. None of us ski or snowboard but we had fun tubing. Nature Girl has always been a bit hesitant when it comes to sledding, even down our little hills at home. Needless to say she wasn't sure about the tubing hill. It was pretty big and those tubes go REALLY fast! We talked her into going and she had a great time! While we were on the mountain Nature Girl got to have her picture taken with the Yeti. She thought it was great!
I enjoyed the fresh air but the 5 minute walk from the car to the tubing hill reminded me why I don't ski or participate in outdoor winter sports . . . . it's way to cold!!!

Look Who's 6!

Look who turned 6! Here she is in her new 6 tee shirt.

Nature Girl celebrated her 6th birthday with a surprise party at Build A Bear. She had a great time and made a new puppy, which she named Pup. Everyone had fun and they all left with a new stuffed friend. One of my nephews told me he loved his dalmatian so much that it almost made him cry. I thought that was so sweet!

Happy Birthday Nature Girl!

Cheap Hot Mamas Apron Swap

Val over at Yarnigras hosted the Cheap Hot Mamas Apron Swap. The idea was to create an apron without spending any money. This is what I received from Madelyn. She made matching aprons for Nature Girl and I. I just love mother daughter aprons!!! So does Nature Girl! She refused to take hers off for the picture. She begrudgingly let me photograph the stickers and necklace making kits but informed me that she was not taking off her apron!


Madelyn made our aprons to be reversible. This is my favorite way to make aprons, as it's a two for one, so what's not to love. This is one of the sides. Notice the chocolate frosting on Nature Girl's sleeve? She helped frost birthday cupcakes before school Friday morning. The worst part is I didn't know she had frosting on her sleeve and sent her to school like that!


This is the reverse side. I can't decide which side I like the best. I love red, black and white together so it's hard to decide. I just love both sides! Thank you Madelyn!!! We love our aprons, they're perfect for us! And thank you for the goodies too!


This is the apron I finished to send to my partner. It's from a Tea Party Apron pattern by the apron lady. I didn't even cheat as I used fabric from my stash and the pattern was purchased with a gift certificate so I didn't spend any money. Hopefully my partner will like the apron. I had fun sewing and I think my sewing machine was happy to see me again!

Snow Day

This week we had a much needed snow day! Nature Girl and I had a great day. We hung out a home and enjoyed our time together. We baked fresh bread for lunch, made outrageous cookie bars and holiday pretzel twists. And for once I didn't do even one little bit of school work for a day! It was wonderful!
While we did bake on our snow day my sewing machine is still lonely as we haven't spent any time together in months. I did get to help Beth from Weepereas with her baby shoe tutorial a while back. I had a great time working on the tutorial even though I didn't get to do any sewing. Tutorials are the best. It's like combining teaching, lesson plans and crafts . . . what a great combination. I had fun working on it! You have to check out Beth's Etsy shop. She has some amazing things in her shop. I just love her fabric choices! While you're there check out the baby shoe tutorial she has for sale. Maybe you'll even find some last minute Christmas gifts.

There are Witches in the Air

Nature Girl has had fun decorating the house for Halloween. We have window clings on all of the glass doors and Halloween decorations and trinkets all over the house. She loves her holidays! This is a little witch she drew. I just love her art work! I stumbled on this one in a pile of papers on the table. I knew immediately what it was, a witch flying on her broomstick. Isn't it a cute little witch?

Speaking of witches. We received our Witches swap package last week. It's this amazing Halloween pocket made by Melinda. She is an artist with fabric! To read more about it or to see some of the other items sent and received in the swap check here.

Swap Fun

I joined the Witches Cupboard Swap hosted by Yarnigras. Nature Girl and I had fun this morning starting our items for the witches cupboard. We used these old canning jars I salvaged from an auction last year. I got a whole box for 50 cents. We found tiny skulls, stretchy rats, sticky eyeballs mixed with stones, skeleton hands to fill the jars. We also found a little black crow and a styrofoam skull to add to the cupboard. This is turning out to be so much fun! Nature Girl wants to make her own witch's cupboard in her bedroom for Halloween. She has a tiny skull, a stretchy rat and a black crow to use as a start. Once the witches cupboard swap package arrives I know I'll be sharing some of those items too. She's already asking to pull out all the Halloween decorations. I think we'll wait another week. I have another idea up my sleeve for the Witches Cupboard Swap. I just need time to make it but alas it's Sunday night and my school work calls.

This is Nature Girl with the package she mailed off in the Little People Back to School Swap. Her partner loves music so we went with a musical theme. We included a CD by a local artist Ben Rudnick and Friends. It's a great kids album. You can check it out here.

Here's another view of the package. We included a book, a clown whistle, directions for making your own instruments, an elephant plush because you need a friend to share your music with and a pumpkin bag with a few goodies for our partners mom.


This is the package Nature Girl received. She received shells, pencils, colored pencils, mini notebooks and a set of 6 card games. She's had lots of fun with her goodies. Thank you Zoey!

As you can see swap mail makes Nature Girl happy! She loves it when a packages arrive! Here she is hugging the box.

Halloween Swap

Now that school is in session I'm excited about fall. I can't wait to make pumpkin dip and decorate the house with fall foliage and pumpkins. I like the sweet and prim side of Halloween. None of the scary, bloody stuff for me. Nature Girl doesn't like scary either. She's trying to decided between a Velma(from Scooby Doo) costume or a girl super hero costume. I haven't come up with a good idea for me yet. My school does a Literacy day on Halloween so your costume must come from a character in a book. Since Haloween is still a long way off I have time to decide.
In anticipation of Halloween I joined the Witches Cupboard Swap over at my friend Yarnigras blog We were asked what kind of Halloween things we like. I listed sweet Halloween stuff. Then I found this Halloween personality quiz. As you can see my Halloween personality is a candy corn. Sweet like me, ha, ha! (Are you laughing Robyn?)

You Are Candy Corn

Your Halloween personality is whimsical, colorful, and creative. You see Halloween as a time to get your creative juices flowing. Each year, Halloween can't start soon enough for you. You tend to go all out for Halloween. You decorate like crazy and always dress up.

What Halloween Treat Are You?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!