honored

My oldest daughter's 4th grade class took me by surprise the other day. Last week was the end of school (yes, I'm a little late with this post), and like most of you, it's a scramble with teacher gifts, class parties, and deciding what to do with the massive amounts of projects that come home in that last week! Well, in the midst of the chaos, Pumpkin's class put together something pretty special for their volunteer Art Docent (aka: me).


They made watercolor pictures that incorporated their initials and tied it together to make a book. They also gave me pretty flowers and a few chocolate bars that are long gone. :)


I was totally blown away. Their such a thoughtful group of kids and they got so much pleasure out of watching someone receive something they had made. It truly was an honored moment for me.



The kids and I had fun working on gifts for their teachers, too! We decided to make reading caddies for their teachers. The girls made theirs completely on their own and I made the one for Worker's preschool teacher (unfortunately I forgot to take a photo!)




I also had fun making a tangy tomatillo salsa. Hubby was pretty excited that it hadn't all been given away!



Lastly, there were group gifts from the class to their teacher. I wasn't sure whether I would be able to pull all this together and was quite doubtful up to the last minute. Being the art docent for my daughters' classrooms, I have an opportunity to have the kids create something as a group that would be near impossible outside of school. Given that, I decided to make my final lessons of the year into something we could give to their teachers in appreciation.

For Sunshine's class, the kids made watercolor apples which I mounted on mat board and framed.





For Pumpkin's class, the kids watercolored small squares of paper with their names already on them and then, when dry, wrote something encouraging to their teacher. I decoupaged a small box and labeled it the Encouragement Box.





It was very fun doing all these projects, however, I discovered that all my normal downtime (you know, 5-10 min. sitting time, max!) was being taken up by these other activities. They were very fulfilling activities, but I definitely needed a break! And as my husband noted, what's going to happen next year? (I think I'm beginning to get a reputation at school - good or bad??)

more cuties

Our two blue cochins arrived the other day and, boy, did they cause quite a ruckus in the box! Our biggest chicks turned into well, for lack of a better word, chickens! They were trying to get as far away as possible from these little fuzzy newcomers. It was pretty funny to see. I kept checking in on them throughout the day to make sure no one turned on these little gals.

Introducing..... Speck



and Snips



Now they're all great friends and sleep in one big huddle.

chicken fever!

As promised, after Spring Break, we got more chickens. The original plan was to get four more so we'd have a total of eight. That's a lot of eggs, considering that we get four every day right now! However, get a gal who can hardly resist all those cute little peeping furballs in a room with close to 600 new chicks, and she's bound to get a couple extra! So Worker Boy and I picked up 5 the first time (the girls were quite bummed that they had to be at school!), and then I special ordered 3 more which should be coming in this week! We'll have a grand total of 12 chickens, which is our maximum for space.

Now to introduce our five little girlies:


Starla is our biggest chick. She's an Araucana and she's the dominant one of the bunch. I think green eggs are pretty cool, too.


Sunshine is our Buff Orpington and is pretty mellow overall. (I know, Sunshine is also my nickname for our middle child!)


Snowy is a Silkie Bantam, and I can hardly wait to see her plumage when she's grown! Gavin loved her so much, he wanted to get another one, so I ordered a buff-colored Silkie.


Brownie is our other Araucana and is almost as bossy as Starla.


Our added extra this time around is Midge. She's quite tiny but doesn't allow herself to be pushed around too much. She's showing that she's quite capable of holding her own! I found out she's a Mille Fleur d'Uccle Bantam and will be quite beautiful. I also love her feathers on her feet.

www.mypetchicken.com has been a great resource for us, and has pictures of all the breeds.

Yes, we've named them all. I know there are those who think livestock shouldn't be named, but we keep them as pets, not as future food! Of course, the eggs are a great benefit. However, clearly I was going more for the appearance this time as the bantam eggs are pretty small and infrequent.

I can hardly wait for our next three - more photos to come!

Where has the time gone?

It's so funny how there can be a few weeks' time where I find time to do a lot of crafting and blogging, and then suddenly those windows of time get sucked up by a whole variety of other things. That's how my last two weeks have gone - it's been pretty crazy.

The next couple of weeks coming up aren't going to be any better either! Since we've done all the finishwork in our addition backwards (i.e. running out of money, just wanting to move in, taking shortcuts), we're just now finally getting to the putting up of all the trimwork. And now it's time to paint it all! Plus we never finished cutting in some of the paint in a lot of areas. As we walked around with our painter and friend, we kept adding more stuff, "Oh, yeah, and over here..." So while the kids and I are in Los Angeles for a week visiting Grammy and Boppa over Spring Break, the painters will be trying to get everything done in five days! That means that we need to move most of the furniture to the middle of each room and also completely gutting our master bedroom and closet because right after the painters finish we're getting carpet in because there's NO WAY I'm moving furniture again! Ever. (famous last words, I know)

There've been a lot of fun things intermixed with all this extra stuff too. Sunshine started softball for the first time and she's going to play catcher - she loves it! Pumpkin just started track last week and her coach says she'll be a great long distance runner. Worker is getting ready for Kindergarten Roundup and can hardly wait for T-ball next year.

I haven't sewn a single stitch since the Sewing Day Sarah and I had together two weeks ago! But here's what I did accomplish that day....

A drawstring backpack for Worker Boy


A small purse based on the one I made for myself a little while ago and a matching skirt using the Lazy Days Skirt Pattern from Oliver + S. This one is for Sunshine Girl.


And here's Pumpkin Girl's skirt and purse.


On hold for now is the smock apron for myself as well as a summery shirt. As Nadine says (and I love this saying), "It'll get done when I get to it."

Check back in a few weeks and I'll be happy to report and display a more finished house! I can hardly wait to be on the other side!

even a cold can't stop me!

A little of this...



and some of this....



and hopefully a lot of this....



and then I can still do this....



I WILL NOT let a stuffy nose and a cough prevent me from getting to be crafty tomorrow! I've got everything all set to go and I just plan to ignore these symptoms. Go away yucky nose and yucky throat! I'm counting on the endorphines that will be released when I start sewing to miraculously make me well - that makes sense, right? Anyhow, I can hardly wait for tomorrow!