Copper

Lydia is studying our state of Arizona. Today we explored copper. It is one of the 5 C's of our amazing state.

We played with pennies and tried to make them brand-new!

I received a roll of copper flashing a couple of years ago for Christmas and really haven't known what to do with it. It came out for today's project. We made these great butterflies with the copper. They are really pretty and we might use the copper to make some ornaments later.

Tonight after the littles fell asleep, I started working on filling up our new advent calendar that I made. Each date has a note telling us an activity, verse, book, or other idea to do each day. Some days are already spoken for such as evenings with parties. The other ones have special Christmas and Hanukah traditions for our family to do. I still need to finish the top portion but I am thinking that it will be a progression through the month. I am getting excited to begin creating the magic!

Tomato Mushroom Bisque

In our quaint streets of downtown there is a delight for the senses in the many supreme eateries. At Prescott Brewing Company they have a soup, a tomato-mushroom bisque that is like eating liquid pizza only much better. It is so good that you just ahhhh in surprise about how your tastebuds are happy just eating it. Michael and I wanted to try to re-create it at home for the family. We didn't do it justice but we made a delight of our own. Baby bella mushrooms, celery, onions sauteed in real butter was our start. Then a couple of large cans of crushed tomatoes, tons of seasonings and parmesan cheese plus some more liquid and we had yum! It was a welcome option from leftover turkey and stuffing. Served with some sourdough bread, it was a perfect meal on a chilly evening.

Thanksgiving 2009

As we were getting things ready for our family's Thanksgiving meal, Chaiya was yelling something out the door at Quayde about what Dad wanted. My heart was so filled with gratitude for the man that has become their dad and is there for them every single day. Michael is so patient and good. He puts up with this crazy household and all of our quirks. I am just so thankful for the little things of an ordinary day that he is here for.

This is one of our silly little felt turkeys that are everywhere. Several years back I had to make more than 15 of these little guys in less than a week for a church dinner. We still have quite a few of them and they grace our table. We just stuck with a very traditional dinner this year.

Shawna, Mario and their two boys were our only guests. It was very strange not to have a houseful of people and it was so mellow that all we did was this....

Look at the ads in the newspaper that Shawna brought. Since we are NOT black Friday people, our entertainment was watching all the littles and search through the paper for things that other people are going crazy for.

It was a very mellow Thanksgiving. I came away from our day thinking that we need to start new traditions and activities. The past years celebrations have always been with alot of my family and since almost everyone is in Alaska now things have changed. Hope everyone had a joyful day filled with love!!!

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!