Last weekend's work

I do not often post about our wedding business on this blog. I usually reserve it for the business one. Truthfully I have always felt a little conflicted with being in the event design arena and having principles completely being against waste and excessive consumption. Ten years ago I would have never dreamed I would  'do' weddings. I actually viewed all the bridal magazines with distain and still to this day think that most of  'the biz' is all hype. That being said, there is something wonderful about creating magic for the families on these special moments. I feel that we are really serving them and allowing wonder in their lives even for just a few hours.

 

The building that we transformed this weekend was a basic gym with a stage. This was one of the more perfect ceilings. It takes us about 8 to 10 hours to cover and hang.

We also created a lounge area for guest to relax away from the food tables and enjoy conversation away from the loud music of the dance floor.

One of my favorite projects for this event was creating these giant ribbon boards. Each one was 2x6' and were hinged to stand. It took me several hours to create them and position but they looked fantastic as entryway decor.

Now we have tons of laundry and wedding stuff everywhere to take care of and Lydia asked tonight when we are getting back to 'real school'. She definitely keeps me on task.

 I am looking forward to this week of focusing on gratitude and appreciation. This year has had lots of challenges, lots of blessings and lots of ordinary miracles. I am so amazed by the grace that is present in our lives.

gift idea #1

 I am creating the "details" for a wedding that we are doing this next weekend. The more I made these the more I fell in love with this idea. This is not my original idea! I have seen it done alot with stickers and rub-ons. I needed to match the wedding decor for the reception and so I used patterned paper.

First I purchase hand sanitizer and lotion from the dollar store and removed the labels. Then I printed off the words in a black text box with white lettering. A little cutting, gluing and adding of ribbon and voila' a wonderful presentation of necessary things for the season.

I love this so much I am going to make some for those people that are on my list for the little gifts. One might place in a basket with a nice candle and it looks like it came from those fancy cute stores downtown.

To the woods!

On Tuesday I had reached a point where the house was too small for all the energy that was swirling around. "To the woods!" I shouted. I gathered apples, cucumbers, crackers, cheese and water and we jumped into our van.

Once there we smelled the trees. They smell like chocolate and vanilla you know. Really they do!

We went rock climbing on huge rocks!

We noticed that a tree we have loved for years is actually a petrified griffen's claw

And we even did some drumming! Although I am sad that the camera did not pick up the incredible reverberation that was coming from underneath the rock they were on.

Then after we all were feeling much more balanced we returned went back down from the mountain, home to daddy and our normal everyday activities. It was a really great afternoon!

little happy things

Since June we have been participating in Bountiful Baskets. It's a buying club for fruits and veggies that is very worth the money. For $16.50 we get about $40 to $50 worth of produce. It's every other week and the kids just love wondering what we will get next. A few weeks ago there were persimmons that are just now ripe. We even had guava last time. It is a little bit of an adventure but we have never been disappointed.

It makes me happy to have lots of yummys available to create good meals.

My next happy thing for today is handcrafted Christmas presents. I am working on this cute little guy. I have to get some hair for him before I fully sew on his cap but I am loving him already. I took this picture with it on because he is a little scary without it.

The weather has been so warm that it has been really hard to get into that crafting for Christmas feeling. The clock is starting to tick away though and I am thinking that I am going to need to create some extra time here and there. These two things made me really happy today, I am trying to take my friend Tammy's lead and find things that really bring me joy each day. Oh and I think my bed and sleep are the best happy things right now!

Just an afternoon

Panda Express food

Swinging

Wonderful Daddy

Contemplation

library books about trolls

Sidewalk Timelines

Sculpture reading

Simply an easy beautiful afternoon

QOTD

Irv to Georgia: " Why do you keep looking for obstacles rather than looking for magic?"
from the movie My Life in Ruins

gnome bowls!

These are just so cute! Wouldn't it be fun to eat with gnomes each day. They also have a pitcher and cups etc... I believe the words are French and they are yellow and they are here . Happy Monday!

For the Grandmas

Spider man and Glamour Diva

neither of which are anything of these children's reality but hey that's what

Halloween is all about!

Day of the Dead Preparations

We have been spending some time learning about Dia de los Muertos. One of our activities has been to create our happy skeletons. Each one of the kids received a skull mug and we brought out the Sharpie markers to create.

I picked the mugs up at the dollar store and the kids thought this was so much fun. We discussed how we would create our altar area and each element of what we will place on it. It will be a work in progress for the rest of the week.

Each mug definitely turned out to be a reflection of each child's personality.

The dollar store also had two white skull vases left. Believe it or not, it was quite hard to find Halloween type items as the whole store is mostly Christmas stuff already.

I had so much fun doing this. I know it probably sounds so weird but this was amazingly joyful. It was so much fun coloring these skulls and making them happy looking.

Michael spent about two hours decorating his. That man needs more artistic outlets in his life.

We are making our altar for my Grandma Ruby who happen to die on Halloween. Personally I think she died on Halloween on purpose just to have a good laugh. She would have had so much fun with all of this too. We just have some pictures of her throughout her life and some playing cards because she loved to play solitaire. I will put some of the foods that  have memories connected to her there also. I have letters that she wrote to me when I was in the USAF that we will read on the 1st. I am looking forward to sharing all my memories with my children who did not get to know her very well. I don't know if this will be a festival that we will create together yearly yet but we really are enjoying it this year.

Autumn

The earth has shifted and the shadows and sunlight are in different places in my kitchen now. October has always been a time of emotional shifts and re-balance soul and spirit for me. We haven't done any grand thing, just normal stuff like laundry, vaccuming and all the everyday tasks that quietly yell at you if you have not attended to them. It has become soup season and stay under the covers season. Some days are crisp and some think that they should still be summer. The children want to play outside and I want them to experience all of the remaining warmth but I have conflicts as I need them to be inside to do school work. The balance of all of this is to pull our school work to the front yard table but the falling leaves dance around us in each breath of wind and we are distracted. The joys of living in Northern Arizona are that we have this perfect balance of seasons. Each taking it's turn to bless our spirits with just enough but not too much. Each season comes with just enough chill, enough snow, enough blooming and enough heat. As Autumn is showing all her marvel; I start to work inward, learning as I grow older that I can be just enough for all that is needed.

Abraham~Hicks ♥ Get Happy !

On a YouTube binge. Watch, listen and laugh.

Love is Energy.... Pass it forward !

Just a reminder of how much power we do have to create happiness for ourselves and others!

BACON

Photo credit: Truestarhealth.com

There is this little fear I have. Just a small one that resides at the very back of my mind. It is that somehow I might really be crazy. Crazy, like certifiable, so crazy that they would need to put me away in a mental institution. Although I do have a super cape hanging in the front closet and one of my amazing super powers is that I have a super sensitive nose. I can smell all kinds of scents (good and bad) that others do not even notice. I don't think that qualifies me as crazy yet.

Last night at 3:27 am I was up taking care of Lydia's medical needs and I smelled fried bacon. I walked through the whole house and sure enough there was a fried bacon smell everywhere. In the kitchen there was no evidence of anyone frying bacon. The thing is we don't eat bacon. Our meals in this home are probably 90% vegan/vegetarian. I do not even buy bacon, not real bacon anyway.

I woke up Michael, got him straight out of bed. I told him I thought that this was it, I am going to have to be committed. He arose and surveyed the house, came back and said yes, there was a bacon smell.

This morning he denies everything! Michael says he doesn't remember getting out of bed or the understandable explaination he gave me.

There WAS bacon in our house about a week and half ago. Quayde went on a camping trip and Michael had purchased bacon for him to take. Quayde still had some left when he returned. Apparently, this remaining bacon was cooked and eaten at a time where I was down in Phoenix. Last week the temperatures were still in the high 80's and 90's and they used the air conditioner. Michael's theory is that somehow bacon grease must have gotten in the filter and when we commenced using our heater for the first time last night the smell came from it. Of course he remembers none of this, this morning.

I hope they make straight jackets in cool colors.

Rain barrels!

On Saturday, my sweet husband called from work and told me to get down there right away. In the parking lot was a 'green' display and Coca-Cola was giving away their barrels for FREE! They are trying to reduce the plastic in the land fills and authorized the local guys to distribute them. They also gave us a list of supplies and a packet with instructions on how to build a rain barrel. I am really excited to get these in place and have them for our garden next year. In our quest to ever become more self-sufficient, these barrels are such a blessing. On the side of the barrels it had a warning sign and after reading it, I really wouldn't advise anyone to drink the real thing.

Michaelmas

The end of September and Michaelmas indicates the start of the magic season around our home. It becomes a time where the weather begins to get cooler (well...we are still waiting on that one) and we start to turn inward.

Today our festivities were held in our traditional retreat up at Groom Creek. In past years the focus has been on more of the deeper spiritual with the olders. Now we are shifting again to the littles and began with a cute story of a dragon with a cold. Maliea chose to read it, she thought she would be perfect because her nose is a little congested today. We had songs and discussions but nothing really deep this year. Last year we had acted everything out. The littles just wanted to run around today so things were a great deal more fluid.

Our dragon bread ended up looking like a large snake because I forgot to put wings on him. OH was he tasty though!!! I used my sweet roll dough and layered apricot preserves inside. His scales were dried apricots, some came off during the baking. Everyone wanted more and more and they insisted next year we have a savory one as well. Quayde and Chaiya say we should do one for each child.

Of course there were blackberries!

I am not quite sure what this little game was, they were all having a marvelous time marching around hanging on to each other.

We then went hunting for Fall. I found one tree with a few leaves that have changed.

This is a big change from last year. There is no trace of the splashes of red running through the wild herbs. The wind has whispered in this evening slowly bringing in some darkening clouds. Autumn is on its way.

What we've been up to

September has been a very very long month for our family. We've had too many hospital visits, too many surgeries and too many doctors. Here's a little of what else we've been doing to try to have fun and focus on normal.

Lydia learning with stones and math gnomes

Quayde discovering through 3D geometry

Nature walks at Lynx Lake

Blueberry Thayne!

This kid absolutely loves blueberrys and can eat tons of them at once.

Good food at PF Changs

Nature table play

Snuggling on the sofa together

Making eagle masks which kind of look like an emu

Some eagles are bigger than Lydia

Crafting with friends

Enjoying beauty that was sent to Chaiya by Grammy Misty

Quayde has completely recovered. Chaiya will have her stiches removed on Wednesday. Lydia has a sleep study at PCH on the 1st.  Michael had a birthday in the middle of everything which wasn't one of our fabulous celebrations. He received a few gifts and lots of hugs and kisses. I hope that he knows that we love and cherish him though. We are looking forward to an amazing Autumn that will be full of grace and ease.

Seasons Round Exchange

Have you noticed all the fabulous items in my new header picture? Well, we just finished participating in the Seasons Round Exchange. It was so fullfilling to create nature table things for another family. Our exchange family sent the amazing doll, book, felted acorns, gnome and nature items that you see above for us. It was so exciting to open a surprise package.

Now great minds or creative hands think alike. We made a doll for them also! It was so funny when we opened our package because we never expected to get back a great doll. The truth is we fell in love with the one we sent and were a little sad to send her off.

We are so thrilled that Lynn and her daughter Iris will enjoy our Harvest Hana.

This exchange was the first we have ever done and I will say that as soon as October 1st is here will we be signing up again. The next theme is light. I am already thinking up ideas. There is a link to the side of my blog if you want to go check things out. There is even a flicker group to see what everyone exchanged. I so enjoy making things for others. This really is a great way to have fresh things for your nature tables and a great way to get new ideas too.

Shifts

I have place a couple of cups of wheat through the grinder. The boys have requested blueberry/lemon scones for breakfast. Our morning is beginning.
The sunlight is streaming through our prism hanging in the kitchen window and I am watching an ant crawl across the dancing rainbows on the dirty tile floor. The star pattern has shifted about 3 feet from where it fell in early August.
The sunlight no longer pierces my early morning dreams at 5:00 am and no longer makes its patterns through my blinds.
The past two long months have developed into a major but subtle shift for our family. Like the patterns of the rainbows on my kitchen floor there is still much joy. It is just now in different places.
I have still not come to terms with the fact that there will be no more babies. After a miscarriage a year and a half ago; I knew ,yet couldn't settle my heart on, the fact that it was enough just to have five amazing children. It might take awhile longer to be okay with all of this.
I am shifting into mid-life.
Yesterday I was visiting with a sweet older lady who will be 80 in February. She said the time has gone so very fast and she doesn't know how she got to be this old. Lu has had the "same" last two months that we have had. Surgeries and surprise hospital visits have graced her life also. We share a bond knowing how fragile life is every single day. It is a gift.
Lydia chopped off 4 to 5 inches of her hair here and there. As I lay next to her in bed and inquired of the reason she felt she needed to alter her style, she cried that she just wants to be a regular girl.
We are all changing the gears, shifting into a new season, trying to find our way and make it all work again.
The wheat is ground and the blueberry scones are now out of the oven. The ant has made it's way across the floor and back. Our day is beginning. We will have singing and verses, geometry and painting and life will go on as we learn to be like that rainbow on the floor.