Splendid

While I was waiting

I did these last night while I was waiting for it to be time to go pick my mom up at the airport.

Farm

 

 

and I made 3 (one for me, for for Cricket's album, one for Pixie's album) although they each have the same pictures, they have slightly different embellies and some stickers and tags. 

Frida

we went to see the Frida exhibit a few months ago at the the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  What an amazing experience.  Can't wait to see more of her work (hopefully next week???Casa Azul perhaps?? Dave and I are going to Mexico this next weekend----more on that later...)

 

  

My mom is here now.  She's upstairs talking and laughing with my girls.  I can hear them all together in the bathroom. Agh, girls... I'm so happy to have her here.  It's been since May that I've seen her.  We have a lot of things planned. Other than the 7 days Dave and I will be in Mexico (like I said, I'll explain more later, it's half leisure, half biz-ness) we have a short list of activities for the month she's here;

1. Craft jamboree at least 2-3 days a week.  Hopefully she can fix whatever I did to my sewing machine...

2. Statue of Liberty since it's only an hour and a half from my house, we need to do it.

3. Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair, boobies in a tight corset?  My cuppeth floweth over...need I saw more?

 4. Franklin Institute's Pirate exhibitt. The first of it's kind, a traveling exhibit of real Pirate bootie found on the bottom of the ocean.  I've heard it's awesome! 

5. Take mummy to Delaware to see Winterthur Gardens Enchanted Woods where we had Ava's b-day last year.

6. Take a day trip out to Lancaster to interview some Amish folks for a homeschool project McKaylah is doing on diversity. We may even try to stay over at a farm since some offer that. Oh, and hit the rad antique stores out there-you can find some real jems out there!

7. See Valley Forge and Gettysburg reenactments. 

We have some big changes coming up for our family and I feel like I have this to do list to hurry and get done. There is so much to see and do around here, we've already done a ton, but I feel like we need to CRAM in more...

Have a great day!

Forgotten challenges

I just found these this morning and realized they were both forgotten challenges.  The first is from Scrapjacked #36, Cristina Clouse jack.  I had been waiting on pictures from Kodak, and the jack challenge passed. 

Summer Rewind, I used pick felt sheets and cut out shapes, stitched around, etc.

 

From the challenge, Current Events at The Story Matters.  I did mine on the scary economy, in particular the housing crisis.  I can't imagine losing your home, whether you obtained a loan you shouldn't have or because losing a job. 

   

 

Have a nice weekend!

Autumn's new beginnings

I am so happy Autumn is finally here.  It's my favorite season, filled with cooler days which I love, I know soon I'll be able to wear my skirts with tights and knee high boots again. I love how the evenings have a sweet, burnt smell that is only present during the Autumn months. I love the leaves starting to turn red and orange. I love all the pumpkins starting to fill farmer's markets and grocery stores.  Indian corn, with it's orange and brown kernels like miny shiny stones tucked neat into rows.  I love decorating our front porch with hay bales and crimson red mums, warty gourds and big,fat pumpkins, long, lopsided pumpkins, and tiny white Cinderella pumpkins. I love apple picking and apple cider, apple cider donuts and apple pie. Wagon rides, farm visits and picnics set out under a big oak tree, harvest vegetarian chili and cornbread while visiting with friends. Pumpkin creme pasta, pumpkin spice lattes(nonfat, no whip, por favor), pumpkin souffle, butternut or acorn squash soup, rustic breads dipped in homemade tomato sauce or toast with cinnamon apple butter. (Oh, I've already gained 5 pounds just thinking about it...)  New school field trips planned, making new friends, traveling with new friends to new places.  Black eyed susans, zinnias and hollyhocks holding out in their last vain efforts to grace a vase or two for another couple weeks.

We celebrated my husband's birthday Monday with a Harvest Moon/Autumn Equinox bonfire.  We had over our closest friends, I made my for-mentioned harvest veggie chili and cornbread, green salad with HUGE heirloom tomatoes, veggie and chicken sausages, apple and pumpkin pies, carmel apples,hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks, and of course, the warm bonfire out back.  After dinner we had a nice prayer with corn-husks that you write intentions or wishes on.  One side was to let go or get rid of something, the other side, to obtain or gain something. Then you burn them in the bonfire. It was such a nice touch to the Harvest Moon celebration (thanks Sarah for suggesting it and getting the husks!) 

    Happy birthday Bear!

 

burning corn-husks wishes...

Then Tuesday our homeschool group started a monthly program at Morgan Log House. What a cool place! We'll be doing activities "designed to familiarize students with the life of a child in the eighteenth century. Students learn about the life of their 18th century counterparts by attempting some typical children’s activities of the time period." Activities such candle making, colonial medicine, wool dying, open-hearth cooking, blacksmithing, colonial clothes-making, farming, etc.  After a lovely tour of the house the activity for the day was butter making.  The kids loved it, even mine who'd made butter in the same fashion before.

makin' buttaa

 

  this open hearth was at least five feet tall and six feet wide at the opening, but about 12 feet high inside.  Amazing, I'd LOVE to have one of these in my house. Perhaps not totally energy efficient with a drafty flue, but still, awesome to have!

the talk about chamber pots, the kids all giggled and expressed happiness for modern toilets.

don't prick your finger

 

showing wool combing

Today we had a field trip to Solebury Orchards.  This place looks like a scene from a movie.  What a beautiful farm!

Pixie and her BF

Solebury Orchard front house and store

The lecture for our homeschool group. We learned about the life cycle of an apple and how an apple orchard runs all year long. 

the star from the seeds, plus look carefully at the pale shadow from the apple blossom petals that were once there-stamped around the star opening. Magical!

 the wagon ride out to the orchards

 Ready to be picked.

There are over 27 varieties of apples at Solebury Orchards. They also have pumpkins starting next week, pick it yourself flowers, raspberries, strawberries and more when it's in season.  They have 76 occupied acres there, full of produce.

  pose #4,389,121 for mom....

 oh, delish cider!

And I won a DVD from The Little Traveler's.  For my "Passport Dinner" to China we did a couple months ago, the owner of The Little Traveler's contacted me about joining her Flickr group labeled "Global activities, crafts and celebrations," so I did, and I won, check it out! We picked Japan as our Little Travelers DVD. Thanks Little Travelers!

Have a great week and autumn blessings to you!

Scrapjacked and Urban Out

Here's the latest layouts I've done.

For scrapjacked, their newest challenge;

here's theirs-

and mine, The Big Friendly Giant Ava

   

 

And this one, I was invited by my friends Ana and Krystal who design for Free People to a benefit thrown by Urban Outfitters and Free People.  They had skate board demos and a bounce house, dancing, cocktails.  Super fun! Sarah and I danced until sufficiently sweaty.  It was a   blast!

    

Have a great day!

Photobooth Friday

I recently joined this group, Photobooth Friday on Flickr. I've always loved the nostalgia with a photobooth picture. Here's the girls, our manny Matty, and me.

My friend Sarah and her fam came over last night for dinner and so we could scrap together. These are what I did.

My favorite place to eat

J.G Posada sticker, velvet ribbon and lace, K and Co. twinkle gold letters, felt border/frame, and more

Pardon My French

 

 

Passport to China

 

 

We do every couple months a passport dinner to another country.  This time we had studied China for a week, learned some phrases, it's geography and cultures, watched a documentary, etc. This night we adorned the dining room with decorations I had from a Chinese New Year party I'd thrown. We got dressed up and made homemade won tons, egg rolls, brown rice and sesame chicken. Our friend Eva stayed over for the fun.

Camping in the Poconos

 

Here's Ava and her BF Ruby making brownies, and a mess...

 

Have a great weekend!

another week of escuela

We started our new homeschool curriculum's last week. With the usual reading, writing and math, we have added a daily science, history and social studies lesson.  Some days it's just discussion, other days it's writing or drawing pictures, while others it's experiments or field trips. We still will do our art appreciation once a week since we all enjoy it.  We came back to Frida Kahlo this day.  McKaylah and Ava love the dramatic history associated with her, as well as the her art which they find beautiful and colorful and at the same time, disturbing and mysterious.  

Advantage #1 to homeschooling: snuggling in mommy's bed to read for your 45 minutes

 

Advantage #2: no homework because you complete all your work by 2:00. Then your other homeschooling buddies can come over to play all afternoon.

Advantage #3: more field trips.  Spontaneous and planned... 

   

sunflower seed (tiny) and plum seed(big) 

cut-your-own flowers at Maple Acre Farms

   

we're studying sunflowers these last few days.  Luckily there's a sunflower/zinnia/daisy/marigold pick-it-yourself farm about 20 minutes from our front door. We just picked up and went when I found it on the net.

...and McKaylah started her science studies of ecology.  She has been reading about life within habitats (such as oceans, grasslands, forests and deserts) as well as human impact within those environments.  She made a diorama, she picked oceans (of course, so much more exciting...) and I think it turned out pretty good.

 

Ava is still considered preschool as she missed the cut-off date for kindy, but that's fine as she's still loving just playing a lot . She does some ABC's and 123's, mostly through games, songs and hands-on activities.  She loves cooking, and likes to make breadstick letters and numbers. She's also starting a preschool program one afternoon a week, a mostly nature education program, but with songs, books and playtime. 

here Ava has pretended to have her own blog.  She drew a computer screen and taped a photo-strip from us at the photobooth the other day, and used a multiplication game as a keyboard. She proudly beamed that she had a blog now, too, like mommy...not sure whether I think this is cute or tragically pathetic...

The girls are also taking nature education classes twice a month through local places, an art class once a week and McKaylah is doing Musical Theater again.  We're happy Autumn is just around the corner, too. We're looking forward to pumpkin patch and apple orchard visits, apple cider donuts and soon Halloween. What do you think, should we go as the 3 Fridas?

Can't think of a title...

Look what I got this weekend...

I'm lovin' it already.  The feel of it, the look of it. The features. The possiblities. The high powered, high flutein' buttons! I still need to read the owner's manual.  I want to take Karen Russell's photography class.  I need to learn how to use it...

And I made this in the dark of the night...

 

Pixie's ladybug birthday party last week.  What a fun party.  I can't believe she's 5.  Up until just recently she had this "baby" smell when you kissed her.  Kind of like that puppy smell, but human (that's good).  Her little plump cheeks still had this mushy goodness you could almost eat up.  She's starting to lose that.  I remember McKaylah lost that cheek yumminess earlier, like 3, but McKaylah is an old soul, with agendas and a schedule to follow.  She didn't have time to cuddle like Ava did. Don't get me wrong, McKaylah is super affectionate and at times still is clingy, but with those skinny, boney elbows and knees, Miss Boney Butt herself can't usually SIT still long enough for a nice settled-in snuggle. I would NEVER tell McKaylah that, or want to make her feel like she not snuggle-soft or snuggle-worthy, because she's wonderful and bright and lovely to lay around and read with, tell secrets, share information, etc.  But I'm just saying Ava has a certain something that makes her feel like you want to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze her 100 times to release another "whiff" of her baby-smell goodness. Do I sound weird? O' well...  

 

This is not my favorite layout, a little underdone for me. But my parents had come to visit and I'd taken them to the Liberty Bell and I wanted to scrap these. I did 3 of them (ya know, one for each of our albums).  

It rained here like a small hurricane yesterday.  So I stayed in and I scrapbooked and embroidered. I  made brownies and salad dressing.  I watched Frida.  Then I left and I got soaked on the way to the store. It was literally like a river down my street. I love the rain though, and we needed it here.  It has been unusually dry for the northeast.  I had on my knee high wellies and walked with abandon through the rivers in the street and parking lot, felt so good. Everyone else was tip-toeing, as if that keeps your feet less wet.  Well, it may, and I'm sure I'd had done the same. Yet, I sloshed right through...

My little garden was happy to be showered upon. I love the way it smells after a good rain.  Today there is a breeze that hints Autumn will be coming soon.  I LOVE Autumn, we're old friends. It's my favorite season by far.

Have a dandy week!