Sunday Update

First of all I want to share our balloon launch! I have followed C Jane and Nie Nie's blogs for a long time. Their's are the sort of blog that are fun to visit whether you know them or not. Their love of live and sense of humor is sure to brighten my day. On Aug 16 Nie and her husband Christian were in an awful airplane accident you can read about here. So to show our love and support, and I guess a visual version of our prayers, people all over the world let balloons off with their wishes for Nie and Christian's recovery and family attached yesterday.

Matthew was off with Dad so Brittany was my launcher. I have to say I have thought a lot about how grateful I am for my happy, healthy family since Nie's accident. Hopefully I am being a nicer mom too, just because I can.

Matthew and his dad were off at the Good Guys car show yesterday.

William said the theme of their day was hunting for "woodies"

Don't you love the colors?!

Apparently root beer in hand is a requirement. They had loads of fun!

It was a lovely, sort of lazy day. Brittany and I played with sculpey clay and watched Enchanted. Then the kids and the dad watch Mythbusters (their new favorite) and washed cars! Yeah, mine was really dirty!

So now these are all ready to go. Well, the backpacks anyhow! Tomorrow we will have a first grader and a fourth grader. I can't believe it! Good thing that little guy in the middle is staying with me so I don't get too sad!

P.S. Brittany just lost another tooth and wanted me to post it for the relatives! Cute isn't she? We are thinking of getting her baby food soon though, not many left!

Shop Update

Finally finished! Well, all six girls are now finished and in the Shop! There ought to be at least a dozen of them for all the whining I have done lately. I am happy with them though.




I did decide to send a little kitty I made from painted muslin with each of them so they won't have to travel alone. There were actually seven but one is going to a swap so I won't show her yet.






I got a few of these brooches in the shop too. I love when my spaciness (like forgetting to poke holes in the clay before I bake it!) results in something I like. More often it results in frustrations and mess!


Everybody have a great last weekend of summer!

Three Little Witches!

Well, I did it! I finally finished some of the witchy girls. I sort of stalled out on this project, not an unusual problem for me. But these three are finished, unless I decide to give everyone a kitty which I might. I have three more to finish, hopefully tonight. I think I will have a little shop update tomorrow. I am going to try and get them listed by 1 pm but it will probably take all day long. I will post a picture in the morning so if you see anyone you would like to give a home leave me a comment or email and I will save myself listing it!

I am quite happy with these little girls. They are my smaller size. They measure about 11" with their hats on. This little one has a purple crinoline slip to match her hair and stockings.
This little Miss is taking her pretty kitty trick or treating. It is hard to tell but her hair is a really soft green.

This little witchy-poo likes a darker green for her hair. Oh, and rick rack trimmed dresses!

There will be fairy brooches in the shop too ( what happens when you forget to make the holes in the pendants? You get to make brooches!). I am so happy some of my necklaces are already on their way to some of my favorite bloggy friends! They sure are fun to make and those fairy images are just absolutely me. Thanks for all the lovely comment you all leave, it is so much more fun to make these funny creations when you have somewhere to show and tell!

Fairies in the Shop!

I finished some more fairies today and put them in the shop. I am really enjoying them!

I made a couple of bluebirds for the shop too. I find I have worn mine a lot. Amazing what goes with blue!

More Jewelry

Those poor little witches wonder if they will ever be done! I keep getting distracted. I am obsessed with pretty necklaces I guess. There was a tutorial on Make and take yesterday that I was thrilled to see. I always wondered what they put on those scrabble tile necklaces I see on etsy to make the hard little dome. Well the mystery was solved and now I am hooked! This is my favorite I made last night/today.
I like the little ladybug too. I have been gluing like crazy this afternoon and will have a bunch of the cutest little fairies ever for the shop tomorrow I hope. I like these necklaces because they are light. As cute as heavier necklaces are they make me feel like I am strangling!

So these too are in the shop today, hoping to be joined by fairies tomorrow and witches by the end of the week.

Oh and this is the fun stuff I have been playing with and the tutorial is here if you want to try too! Oh, and they are giving away a cute pendant too.

Sunday Update-Fort Bragg California!

Warning: This post is long and full of pictures! You may also require a trip to the beach after viewing!


We took off on one last little exploring expedition this weekend. William took Friday off and we set off before the crack of dawn up the coast. Our destination was Fort Bragg and Mendicino. It was really beautiful and a lot cooler than home! Of course the kids wanted the beach first.


Matthew and Brittany had rock chucking contests. We think Matthew was punishing the ocean for some reason, he had to yell every time he threw one.

Matthew also created "homemade sea" in his lunch baggy. Neat huh? Unfortunately had to be left behind.


Joshua spent a lot of time singing and talking to the rocks. He was happy here for a really long time!



Then the fog started to roll in. We learned from experience this area has a lot of fog in the morning and evening. Who is that handsome guy emerging from the fog?
Which is why this was an important, but really pretty structure. We walked the half mile out see the lighthouse.





The kids tried to make friends with this squirrel. He was frighteningly friendly too!


We got to the station just in time to see the Skunk train too. (called the Skunk train because of the smell when it used to run in the old days). Our first real steam train up this close. Thomas must have been a lot noisier than he is portrayed!



Mendicino was a gorgeous little village. East of Eden was filmed there and so was a lot of Murder She Wrote. I want to see East of Eden now.





Everywhere you turned there were gorgeous buildings and gardens.



I loved this sculpture on top of a church there. I think it was an angel with a young girl. It took us a minute to realize the bird on the angel's head is a real seagull!

I wish we had time to see this stained glass from the inside.



We came home through part of the redwood forests. Those trees really are big and this wasn't even the portion where the "giant" redwoods live.

Oh, before we left Mendicino we found this portion of the largest redwood harvested in the area. Big isn't it? It was over 1000 years old!


The forest really did seem magical. There is something about sunlight coming through all those leaves that makes it seem like fairies really could live there!

Wow, I guess we really did do a lot in two days!

Birdie Bling

So I am really close to being finished with the witch dolls. All they need are hats, but in typical Michelle fashion I got distracted yesterday. Actually I found myself getting grumpy and in need of a little creative outlet to make me a nicer mom. Not enough time to work on the witches so I worked on these little guys. I have had them in my head for awhile, it is nice they finally made it out! The birds are made of sculpey clay, painted and then crackled. You can't really see the crackle in the pictures though. I wanted to try playing with copper colored metals and I really like the blue with the copper color. Only problem is now I need matching earrings!

I thought the black might be fun around Halloween too. We are off to our last swimming lesson and to find out who next year's teachers will be. Finger crossed they are good ones!

These guys kept me up way too late last night!

I just couldn't stop watching! And then I remembered I get Olympic induced anxiety stomach aches so it was fun to see these guys do so well. It breaks my heart when somebody makes a mistake! These guys were amazing, and hey, I got to finish all the witchy legs while I watched! We are so excited to see the girls tonight!

Oh, and thanks for liking the little witch girls, this is the point I start to get burnt out on them. Elise, you really made me laugh, they do look like the house landed on them from The Wizard of Oz! There should be about six finished ones I hope.

Workin' on Witches!

I am trying so hard to get my little witchy girls done! I was silly really to even start them with the kids still home from school because I can only work on them in little bits. But they are coming. Three girls got new shoes and stockings today.

And I think these little dresses may be having a party of their own! Don't they look like they are dancing?

Hopefully sometime next week they will all get together with some gingham girls!

Sunday Update

So what have we done this week? It is hard to remember after the Olympic Opening ceremony the other night. I can't ever remember being so visually blown away by and Olympic Opening ceremony before. And I am from Utah so I have a natural bias for the 2002 Olympics! It is funny to me how into the Olympics my family is. We are really not a very sports oriented family. We usually watch the Superbowl just for the commericals. But the Olympics are different. I think it is the great spirit they bring.




The whole thing was just so amazingly gorgeous I could just sit and watch the video run all day.

It was on way too late here for my kids so Brittany planted herself in front of the computer Saturday morning and didn't budge for about two hours. She sat there with her map of the world through the whole parade of nations finding each country as they came in.

She and I agreed that our favorite part of the Artistic portion was the "pretty ladies"

I just kept being amazed, just the numbers of people involved in each performance! I would love to just hang the whole thing on my wall and look at it all the time if I could! Isn't the spirit the Olympics brings amazing? Such a great feeling of world-wide family. My friend Circe says it so much better than I. You really should read her post on the Olympics here. Keep in mind she has a beautiful daughter adopted from China.

Oh yeah, we have had swimming lessons this week. Brittany and Matthew have made such great progress! This is a big deal, they have not always been big fans of sticking the old face in the water.

Brittany is

great under water now!

And that little head just poking out of the water is Matthew. Such a great week of swimming I am actually looking forward to one more!

Now let's go back to watching the Olympics!

What do you do in the Summertime

So we are getting to the dregs as far as fun ideas of things to do with kids goes around here. Two more weeks until school starts and we seem to have done it all. So yesterday we tried something new. On someone's blog (sorry, can't remember who!) I saw an idea for fabric collage with kids. Basically you let you kids use your scrap bag to make a collage. This was my basic idea but I had a box of fabric crayons I picked up on clearance I let the kids use too. Matthew went crazy with them! He was knocking out masterpiece after masterpiece!


I think this is my favorite.

Love this one too. He has done about five now, I am going to encourage him to do one more and then I think I will use them for squares of a little tv quilt I will make for his birthday in September. Won't that be cute?


Brittany stayed more true to my original idea. She used the fabric crayons to draw one of my favorite subjects, cherries and then used bits to create a frame. She isn't quite done. I have to think of something really good for this creation too.

So we sat around, kids stitching and drawing and me stuffing witches whiel we watched the Amazing Panda Adventure in preparation for the Olympics. A really good afternoon. But don't get me wrong, school starting will be fun too!

Miss Brittany's new dress

Here is Brittany's new dress! I love this pattern, it is so fast and easy. I love this dress and the fact that my nine year old wanted it and loves it! I want to make as many of these kind of dresses as I can before stuff your mom made you becomes completely uncool! I really do like how light and pretty it turned out although we could apparently use a slip!

Oh yeah, and it twirls like a dream!

P.S. Thanks for the kind words about my new little witches! That was a truly pathetic picture but the actual girls are coming along nicely!

Vintage sheet swap!

My friend Gail is hosting another vintage sheet swap! I participated in Elizabeth' s last month and it was so great I signed up for this one too. So if you want to trade some fun project fabric sign up here! Today is the last day!

Sneak Peak!

Here is a little sneak peak! I am starting to work on some new dolls. Witches for Halloween. But my girls wanted to be brightly colored witches so we have been dying hair and doing their makeup like crazy this afternoon! I started out planning to do about four, somehow it turned into nine. We'll see how many make it to the final stages. Funny how that always happens to me. I am hoping to finish them sometime next week and get them in the shop. Right now they look like a fun bunch of heads!

Have a Cookie!

This is just a little quickie post, I am spending the day getting ready for a dinner for the ladies at church (Enrichment night for my LDS friends) so I am a bit crazy. But my pizelle cookies for tonight looked so cute on the plate I had to snap their picture. This has become the standard of good food around here. My husband says you know we are getting something good to eat if I pull out the camera before it is served! Sad but true! So go ahead, have one of these yummy, crispy cookies. I have had more than a couple, they are so addicting!