It's Summer Break!!!!

We are all pretty excited to be on summer break. Eight weeks of summer family time, who wouldn't be? If you follow me on Facebook then you've already seen these, pictures, but they are too funny not to share with those of you don't.

Abigail's last day of pre~school was on Thursday. I asked David to snap a few pictures of her on the front step to compare with her first day. Here she is posing on her first day back in September.

David didn't prompt her, this was just her doing what she does. I think I suggested what she could wear and I knew she would get her school uniform shirt that day. Cute right?

Here's Abby on her last day.

There is so much going on here that I want to remember. Let's talk about her outfit first. Abigail gets to choose (within guidelines) what she wears. Her school only required the pre-school students to wear a uniform shirt (the blue one). We require her to wear leggings or shorts if she wants to wear a skirt to school.  What you can't see is that she is wearing black leggings that are tucked into her socks under a grey skirt that is under her rainbow skirt. The grey skirt has carefully been tucked under her rainbow skirt except for a "tail" piece in the back which was equally carefully pulled out to be on top of her rainbow skirt. Next she is wearing a long sleeved blue shirt under her school t-shirt and topped off with her jacket. It was 30 degrees centigrade that day. The poor thing must have been cooking!

Abby grew considerably since September. I mean she looked so tiny and now she looks ready to conquer kindergarten next year. By the way on her last day she said to me "I wish it were fall!" Heaven help us. I told her not to wish away my summer.

I love that Abby marches to her own drum. She is a bit of a contradiction though. As she meticulously prepares how she looks, she worries that someone will laugh at her. How sad that she has already become self conscious? I tell her it doesn't matter what she wears or how she does her hair, she'll always be beautiful. I pray she believes me. I don't think I truly believed that when my mom said it. It's the thing for a mom to say, though, and I will say it as often as it takes! Abby will be required to wear full uniform next year, so I'll miss the colourful creative style, though she will have after school and weekends to express herself. Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-uniform. In actual fact, I love uniforms and I'm glad that she will wear one. 

We loved Abby's teachers this year. Her teacher is my friend and has blessed us so much with her love and support on some quite challenging days this year. Her teacher's assistant will sadly not be there next year, but we were equally blessed by her. I can't say enough good things about these ladies. This year was the pilot year of preschool at The King's School and they did amazing! 

I can't leave out the other half of year end pictures. We were so tickled by Abby's posing on her last day pictures that I asked David to humour me with a few of him. In true David style, he wouldn't be outdone by his girl.

A few mildly funny poses in honour of Abby, then the hilarious t-rex edition....

Oh how I love this man!!!!

We celebrated on Friday after David got home with rainbow cupcakes. Abby and I baked them and then we all sat down to decorate and eat them. Malachi in the middle of eating his said "This is an amazing day!"

Aren't those colours super fun!?

This picture is not touched up or has a filter added, they really are that colour!

We used Clubhouse neon food colouring. It was all the store had in stock and I wouldn't have chosen them, but I'm so glad we tried them, because they turned out so fun!

Micah didn't really decorate his, but he ate it quite happily

"Mmmm! May I have some more?"

It was a good celebration and we have so much more yet to celebrate! It's going to be a great summer!

Checking In

4 days until summer break! We are sooooo ready to have David home and for a new season to begin. Let's catch up and talk about what we're looking forward to.

• Micah celebrated his 2nd birthday. We had a couple of friends over for a very simple backyard barbecue and pool party. I didn't do much for planning as I have a big party to plan for this summer and I think one big planned event is enough. For not having much of a plan, it turned out rather well. I think everyone had a good time.

• I made a mini cake. It was cute and perfect for the birthday boy.

• I painted Micah a t~shirt. His favourite song is "What does the fox say?". I thought the shirt was cute and he always tells what the fox says when you put it on him.

(I'm not sure why this picture is sideways~sorry)

• We bought a small backyard pool for the summer. It's filtered which is nice and deep and large enough for us to climb in with the littles. I think it will be a great thing to have for our summer off at home.

• I made David a shirt for Father's Day. I really enjoy freezer paper stencilling. The final product is so satisfying.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• We have decided against going to Alberta this summer. It wasn't an easy decision, but now that it's made, I'm relieved. I can now go ahead and plan our staycation. 
• We made a summer list~ish. David felt pressure to cross off each item on prior lists and it was never meant to be a "have to do" list, but a "could do" list. I wrote out a bunch of ideas in a pocket notebook for reference if we need ideas on any given day. 
• We have a weekly spot at the Prayer Furnace. The first few weeks were a gong show with the children, but I've come to really enjoy and treasure our times of family prayer. There is something so sweet about hearing your children pray. They have no pre~conceived ideas about how to pray, they just say what they mean and mean what they say. We love to teach them about prayer, but they teach us just as much.

• We visited a farm this weekend. The littles got to run free, explore, feed chickens and soak in the outdoors. I often think I've been in the city too long to really enjoy the country, but then I get out of the city and think "my heart remembers this". David came home happier and more relaxed then I've seen him in some time. We need to get out of the city more often.

• I have Loved the last few Saturday mornings. They are slow and close and sweet. I will miss these times with my littles when life gets busier and as they grow.

• I apologize for the duplicate pictures if you've already seen them on instagram. I love my phone and the convenience of taking pictures on the go often leaves our actual camera on the shelf. I do have plans for it this summer though.

• What I'm looking forward to this summer: David being home, our 10th anniversary!!!, backyard play, projects worked on and finished, family coming for a visit (hopefully), celebrating our one year Vanniversary, lots of creative time, party planning and secrets (this blog will be hopping after the party) and whatever adventures we have in store.
• I hope you and yours have a wonderful, adventure filled summer!

Checking In

Thank you all for your kind responses to my last post "Honestly" via Facebook, Blogspot and even text messages. I hope that you never get the wrong picture of my real life based on what I show on social media. I want to be as real on here as I am in real life. I have some things that I've been itching to show you, but have been waiting for an "unreal" moment of tidy shelves etc. If I wait for that to happen, I might not ever show you and so...

• David ingeniously created two work stations for us in our living area when we needed to re-claim our third room from an office/craft room back to a bedroom for Hannah. We have little space to work with and my main concern was how to keep our littles (mostly Micah right now), from wreaking havoc with the computer or my craft supplies. We loved the concept of all in one office cabinets, but we were not loving the price tag that came with them and so, with our limited budget, David came up with an amazing solution. I give you our version of the all-in-one office and the all-in-one craft station!

• The office is a generic pantry type cabinet with a keyboard tray installed and the shelving arranged in such a way as to accommodate the space needs of our computer. The cords are run through the back of the cupboard or behind the shelves. It works quite slick. I found all these cloth bins at the local dollar store and they work quite nicely for all the supplies we need handy.

• David ingeniously made them locking cabinets! My favourite feature! Have you seen these magnetic child locks? Well, by adding some washers to one door in order to interlock the doors and the child lock on the other, these are completely secure from the prying hands of my toddlers.

• My sewing station is mostly to hold and not to work out of, but it's organized in such a way that I know exactly where everything is and I can grab what I need and take it to the kitchen table to work.

• Here's how it looks in my living room. I wanted to clean up my bookshelves and the tops of the cupboards before I blogged about this, but in reality the clutter is pretty much constant these days and so here's my real life.

• I have a few small "stolen" moment sewing projects to share. I whipped up a camera strap and lens cover case for our camera. This was a project that I've been wanting to do since we got our camera (2 Christmases ago).

• I sewed an open wide zipper pouch for my make-up and it's been very handy. Tutorial here.

• I also whipped up this zipper pouch. I was mostly experimenting with the fancy vinyl. It's fun.

• I bought the vinyl for a bag pattern that I have to make. When time permits. David bought me fabric for Mother's day and I'm itching to cut into it. I didn't make my traditional new baby new bag and I think it's time for a new one. 
• I organized a little lunch station in my cupboard. I know that school is almost out for this year, but I'm sure I'll make some picnic lunches before fall when I have more than one box lunch to do a week.

This box has sprinkles, edible eyes, cookie cutters, sandwich cutter, silicone baking cups (I use those as food dividers), Pez dispensers (we're aware that candy is not encouraged, but our summer picnics will include Pez) and toothpicks with washi tape to make flag skewers. Most of these items have been collected over a long time from the dollar store and grocery stores.

The accessories box in the cupboard with the lunch boxes and lunch bag.  Bento inspired lunches do not work if you don't keep them upright, so I need to fix the lunch bag with a handle on top instead of the side. That will do it for now, but I will sew Abby a lunch bag for the fall that allows her to carry her lunch upright.

• Random story: We've been teaching Abigail about using words instead of physical force (i.e. ask your brother for the toy back, rather than grabbing it). Well, Abby misunderstood or misheard what I said, so now she says things like, "I'm sorry for using musical force, Mommy."
• Hairstyling has been fun these last few weeks. I do Abby's hair and sometimes she plays with mine. Well, we've put together a little hair dressing kit and in it is a small pair of scissors for cutting out her tiny hair elastics. You can imagine where this is going. Well, I'm sending an email at the computer, holding Hannah in one arm and Abby is doing my hair. Suddenly I hear that sickening sound of hair being cut right behind me. Thankfully is was only a tiny piece of my hair, but boy did she get an earful! It was not my best mommy moment for sure. What is it with children and scissors and hair?! Really, I should've know better.

Honestly

I have a friend who does crafts with her children everyday, another who plays with her children (I mean drinks fake tea and sells pretend goods) all the time and another who has her children at the park every possible minute the weather allows. Can I be honest? I admire these women and I feel like such a lousy mom in comparison to them. Comparison. A dangerous thing we do. I am created differently than anyone else so, I'm not sure why I expect to be like anyone else. I struggle to accept me for who I am. I don't like kid's crafts or pretend or playgrounds. I do those things to the extent I can before I go crazy, but it's a process and I am working on it. I saw an art project on Pinterest that I knew I needed to try. I "know" who I am in my head, but my heart has a hard time always believing the truth about who I am... in Christ Jesus. That's the identity I want to focus on. Not the identity I have as a mom or wife or daughter or sister or friend or the identity I think I should live up to. I can stand tall because of who I really am. So, here is who I am:

This process what a bit tedious and the results are not as visually exciting as I had hoped. I am not an artist in the drawing sense, but it was a fun medium to try and it's a great visual reminder. The instructions I found said to use an ink pad to imprint your thumb on the middle of a blank paper. You then scan the picture and enlarge it until it's the full size of the page. Then using a light table or a window, trace the lines for your text. Easy peasy, right? Well, getting a clear imprint that I could enlarge to that size was tricky. I ended up photographing the print for a clearer image and then I monkeyed around with it in my photo program to get a darker image to trace. It wasn't perfect, but it got the job done. I traced roughly with pencil and wrote in the words. I basically copied a couple of printables I found on Pinterest. It took a good portion of the afternoon, but I soaked in each sentence as I wrote it down. It's a start, a way to get the head to the heart.

There are other things that have been on my heart lately, too. I am a creative being. That's one of the reason I blog. I love doing creative thing and I often find there isn't enough time to express that creativity in the daily grind of life. By the time I find time to sit down and create, it isn't a whole lot of time and it is always in sacrifice of other things. (I don't "do it all". I often neglect dishes or other housework in order to craft. I have also sacrificed time I could be spending with my David after the littles are in bed, or *gasp* ignore, to some extent, my littles for a half an interrupted hour at a time.) Those times sometimes feel "stolen" and rushed and not nearly as enjoyable as I'd like them to be. How to find balance is a challenge. I don't want my children to be tasks that I need to get through until I can do other things. Honestly, I've felt that. I'm trying not to focus on the guilt that comes with those feelings, but to recognize them and turn them over to God for Him to help me sort them out.

Do you want to know something cool?! God is teaching me something new for this season I am in. This season of little personal time and a lot of tasks that need my daily attention. His soft direction is guiding me to find the ways I can use the creativity, that He's put inside of me, in the ordinary and everyday tasks. For example, the daily task of doing Abby's hair. I discovered that I like to try new hairstyles in her hair. Abby likes to watch Youtube videos with me as we research new ways to do her hair. I don't like to do kids crafts, but I like to do Abby's hair. Her gratitude after each new hairstyle makes me want to cry. We've found something to do together that we both enjoy and can spend special time just the two of us, everyday. Abby has even begun to play around doing my hair and we can extend that time even longer. Dishes can still wait!

I am inspired by Princes Hairstyles, but often just play around with the basics to create new styles.

This was a revelation to me! I can turn the mundane into creative time. Do you want to know what I'm starting to be excited about now? Making my littles' their school lunches. Me!? I hated making lunches growing up to the point that I quit making lunches and just ate apples that my classmates didn't want. I've stumbled upon Bento box inspired lunches. This certainly isn't new, but I'm loving the possibilities. Cheese animals... just because! I'm sorry moms, if your child is in Abby's class this fall and wants lunches like hers and you're thinking "Aint nobody got time for that!" I'm making time for that and for other ridiculous things that I never thought I'd do. It's only that I want to enjoy my children and not just endure the preschool years until I can do a "real" job. The truth is, this is my real job and I want to do a good job of it. If I am created to create, then I can create to benefit my family and to the glory of God. By the way, I did an amateurish version of a bento box lunch for Abby this week and she was thrilled. It made me feel great blessing her with something so simple.

So, Pinterest might have new function for my creative researching these days. Maybe less sewing tutorials and more lunch ideas or hair ideas or whatever other ways I can make the mundane extraordinary!


P.S. In case you're wondering, I am not giving up on finding time to do my favourite creative things, like sewing, I am just finding ways to be creative in more ways and more often.

P.P.S If you follow me on Instagram, that's where you can see the hair-do's and box lunches (in the fall).

Baby Crafting

I didn't do much sewing during my pregnancy with Hannah, but I like to make something for my babies. Hannah spits up a lot and most of her bibs are hand me downs or they are super big on her yet, so I made some ridiculously cute bibs. Tutorial and pattern here.

 The tutorial had no measurements for the pleating and I'm not super happy with the spacing, but if I didn't say anything, I'd be one of the few to notice.

I like to no fuss option of using lace instead of the pleating, cute and quick.

 Of course, it's super easy and fast to do no embellishments.

A little reverse appliqué is cute, too.

Before Christmas I wanted to crochet myself a hat. I found a pattern I liked and when I didn't have the proper size hook or yarn to make the gauge requirements, I decided I would practise using what I had and I figured it might fit Abby or Hannah. Sure enough it looks awfully cute on my Hannah. I ended trying one for me later and it was a big fail. Oh well.

Spring is here!

Hello! I hope you are all well and finally enjoying spring, wherever you are. Today the sun is shining and the window is open letting in a delicious spring breeze. What a relief! I have a bit of crafty goodness to share today.

In honour of spring and the hope of it's coming, I redecorated my tree. Apple blossoms and butterflies seemed like a nice and spring~y thing to decorate with.

Behind the tree you'll see my new wall art. I simply cut out letters out of foam board and painted them with acrylic paint. You can't tell in the picture, but the "o" is metallic teal and quite lovely.

I have had fun over the last few days preparing a few packages for my prayer partner in Romania. My friend's parents are missionaries in Romania and have connected some of us gals to pray with a lady in Romania. We were invited to send little gifts to our prayer partners and since our missionaries are coming to Canada this month I put together three packages (to be staggered in their delivery) to send to my prayer partner. I don't know anything about her except her name and what she looks like. I do have a nice picture of her and a list of suggested things to pray for her. Many of the families are poor and in need of consistent jobs, firewood and food. These are basic needs that we take so much for granted.

I wondered what my friend would like. I wanted to give her pretty and useful gifts that aren't frivolous, but might make her feel special for having received them. Here's what I came up with:

The first thing I thought that would be pretty and practical was an apron. I sewed this one up with the waist straps adjusting the neck strap - super handy and cute. Then I thought, I could sew up a little zipper pouch to put it in and fill with little goodies. The picture below shows some of what I put in, but in the end it contained the apron, chocolate, a broach, 4 different flavours of tea, a letter with pictures of my family in it and a felt banner of butterflies and hearts. I used google translate to help me with the letter. I wrote it out by hand in English and then Romanian, sentence by sentence. 

The second package I worked on came with a sudden inspiration. A sewing kit is useful and could be made pretty. I've made these little potholder bags before. They're super handy and a quick project.
I then had fun filling it with supplies. (click to enlarge the picture) I filled two little baggies with buttons. One in rainbow colours and one in black and white. I filled another little baggie with rainbow coloured hair elastics, I use these to sew with all the time. I printed out some cute thread bobbins and wound some thread onto them.  I put in scissors, a stitch ripper, tailors chalk, zippers, lace and ribbon.

I also made a needle book, found the idea on Pinterest (of course) and it's genius!

The last package has a bunch of pretty little things. If it had a commercial wrapper on it, I covered it or replaced it with pretty paper and used google translate to label them. I whipped up another zipper pouch (why use wrapping paper when you can put it in something useful and cute?) and it contains 4 more teas, 2 packages of lifesavers, lip balm, hand lotion, bobby pins for her hair, a little note and a mini bar of my favourite bar soap.

"For your hair"

 

Don't they look cute?

 Abigail has also been getting her craft on. It started with a special picture for Grandma Ang on her birthday.

Abby didn't want Grandpa to feel left out though, so she made this...

"tell Grandpa that it isn't meant to be paper underwear with rhinoceros teeth, but it's meant to be a castle."

Now you know!