The Bellabee Apron Pattern

I finally did it. I have finally listed the Bellabee Apron Pattern for sale in the 6Berries Etsy shop. Yay!

I really am this excited to finally have this project complete. You can head on over to Etsy to check out all the info.

I'm going to show you the out takes from my photo shoot with my youngest here, because, well, it's fun and they're simply adorable pictures. If I do say so myself. Although I could have done better with the lighting.

She was very excited about getting to model the apron. She loves hers and couldn't wait to play the mad scientist. Which really is how she uses hers. Sitting at the kitchen table mixing different ingredients to make strange concoctions and calling it science.

And, she insisted on wearing her goggles. You're just not a scientist, mad or otherwise, without proper eye protection.

I think a sibling dropped the lid to the cooler holding the dry ice just as I snapped this. We all got a good laugh from this picture. My silly girl. Shy as can be in person, but always goofing off for the camera. I just love her to bits.

OK, so even she get tired of the camera eventually. Enough with the pictures mom, can't I just play with the colored liquid in the test tubes already.

Well, now that I've made this post feel completely self indulgent with pictures of my cutie pie wearing the apron pattern I'm hoping to sell, I might as well add one last plug. Go check out my shop. :)

Digital Creativity in the (Home) Classroom

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently decided to take some classes from Adobe's Education Exchange. Our first assignment was titled Big and Small and we were asked to use Photoshop to put a small version of ourselves into a picture with a larger version.

Photoshop is my program. I love it and used it for photo editing for years. I am out of practice, however, and the last version I owned is now, over 10 years old. This was a great assignment to help me learn to navigate through the newer versions.

When my son heard me talking about my Big and Small assignment, he excitedly suggested that I make him one of his knights. He loves setting up battles with his action figures. He has even taken photos that play out a stop motion style scene when flipped through quickly. My reasons for taking these courses is to be able to teach my kids, and their friends, to use the programs, so being able to include them in these assignments appealed to me, plus it was a really cool idea, so I went with it.

Our next assignment used Flash. I had never even opened the program before and I got too hung up on creating the artwork which left little time for developing the story. It was fun though, and I was able to show my 12 year old enough to get her started with the program. She has had a lot fun making short animations and I'm so impressed with how much she is learning. This was my animation, the idea for which was decided while doodling with my 6 year old, just before Halloween.

Next up was video, using Premiere Pro. I was very nervous about this lesson. Thinking in terms of video did not come naturally to me, but my kids are fascinated with how movies are made and I knew they would love to help out with this one. Boy was I right. Honestly, I have to give credit for this video to my 12 year old daughter. I wrote some ideas, a rough storyboard, she chucked most of it and added some of her own ideas. Then, she recruited her cousins and little sister to act for her and she video taped all the scenes with my digital camera. I wrote, and she read, the voice over using some feature on my cell phone I didn't realize existed, and then together, late last Monday night, we worked together in Premiere editing, searching for the background music online, and taking photos to fill in where we needed something more. It was so much fun working with her. The assignment was to create a promotional video for your favorite book. This is a family favorite read aloud.


This week we were asked to start a blog, or if we already have one, to write a post about our experience in the class. I have to say that the community that has been created is wonderful and supportive and so much fun. I am having a great time brushing up on programs I haven't used in a while and learning some new ones along with my kids. I hope that these new tools will inspire them in their project work. I am looking forward to the next course, Digital Imaging for Beginners. I suppose I'm not technically a beginner, but the programs have changed a lot in the past 10 years, so I'm sure I'll get a lot out of the course.

A Hard Days Work

So these kids of mine, the same ones who refuse to help with dinner prep or clean up, who throw a fit on cleaning day when asked to do their chores, who have to be reminded a gazillion times to bring their clean and folded or hung laundry to their rooms, these same kids, love yard work. Who knew? (Actually I feel the same way and, I have a feeling that I may have unintentionally instilled in them a severe distaste for all indoor chores at an early age)

We had quite a productive day yesterday. The yard was spring cleaned. all rubbish, toys, bits of wood and anything else was cleaned up and put away. And, the lawn mowed by one very talented, tractor driving, 12 year old. Seriously she was backing up like a pro and mowing flawlessly.

The chicken coop was de-pooped, scrubbed, whitewashed and filled with fresh bedding. My sweet little chicken hugger worked hard and was so happy and exhausted at the end of the day.

We added 3 new little ladies to our flock this spring and they are loving the roomy run after spending their first few weeks inside. Now that the coop is cleaned and the big chickens are starting to accept tolerate them, they will have the choice of sleeping in the coop with the big girls, or in the nesting box they've called home for the past week and a half.

We even squeezed in a bit of gardening. My two youngest are determined to plant gardens that rival mom's. I'll be working on rototilling a bit more yard for them and helping amend the sandy soil with some compost, but the rest of the work, they have requested, is on them.

Everyone collapsed into bed exhausted, sun kissed and proud of all the work they accomplished.

Living Outside the Comfort Zone

The chicks are ordered, the temporary housing is set up in the basement, the coop plans are being finalized and space being cleared in the garage for its construction.

My girl is giddy with excitement and I, well, I am taking lots of deep, calming breaths and throwing in a few extra tea breaks on the back porch. Following my kids interest forces me to stretch a little every day.

Craft Gift Reveal Part 2

My oldest and my baby girl each had an aunt and decided to work together, which was wonderful for me since they were able to do these crafts together without much help. We searched the internet and my 10 year old decided to try these sugar scrubs from Christine at Great Oak Circle. They chose to make the Vanilla Almond and Peppermint scrubs and, it was easier than baking cookies.

We decided to add some red sugar sprinkles to the peppermint scrub to give it a more pepperminty look. And, I did send a question to Christine about the amounts in the Vanilla Almond scrub. She got back to us right away with a great tip. She advised combining the dry ingredients, then adding the olive oil a little at a time to ensure it doesn't get too oily. I was lucky enough to be asked to test the scrubs, they both smell wonderful and my hands haven't been this soft and smooth in a long time.

Then, they made some lip balm using Renee's tutorial on Fimby. We'll be making more of this as soon as we can find some little tins. I'm pretty sure this will be going into every gift we give this year and we'll need plenty for ourselves too. We all loved it.

The boy had a favorite cousin for the exchange and he had no trouble at all deciding to create a series of  4 books for her. They were titled, Knights and Dragons, Ogres and Dungeons, Knights and Castles and Princesses and Princes, and they read like guides, "These are two knights fighting. They are training for battle school. They will be very, very tough knights and this castle has very, very sharp swords so they might always win the battle." Too cute.

He started writing books this way after watching How to Train Your Dragon and reading the book. I love that he wrote about one of his favorite subjects, but that he put a lot of thought into including things he thought his cousin (a teenage girl) would like too, it wasn't all swords and battles. At one point I heard him exclaim, "I need more glitter for my princess!" and couldn't help but smile. (That's her pet bird dragon that breathes fire and protects her, on her shoulder)

I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed the gifts we made, I know we had fun making them and we all loved the craft gifts we received. What an fun start to the crafting season, there is still so much more to be made in the next few weeks. So, what's on your holiday crafting to-do list?

No Dolls were Injured in the Making of this Post

I can tell by the piles of laundry left unfolded, the stacks of books not returned to the shelves and the baby dolls abandoned and left to fend for themselves, the craft gift making has begun.

It's true, our yearly Thanksgiving craft gift exchange has us abandoning our usual chores in the hopes of finishing just a little earlier this year.

The supplies have been purchased, a few crafts are well under way, some of us have teamed up to work on bigger joint crafts, all in the hopes that this year we wont be putting the finishing touches on our projects as we walk out the door Thanksgiving morning or worse, showing up with a half completed gift with promises of finishing it later (it's happened)

In our house, we craft all year long and for Christmas we usually make at least a few of the gifts we give. So, because some of our gift giving is handmade anyway, we like to take the time for this exchange to try something new.

This year, we are attempting some body care treats and, if all goes well, a few of those will make their way into the Christmas gifts too. And, unable to sway my daughter to something more predictable, caramels. Yikes! I have scheduled some long overdue posts for the next few days so that we can focus on our crafts and I'll be back after Thanksgiving with photos, details and links to the recipes we're using. Enjoy your week, Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends and happy crafting.

Kitchen Table Makeover

The "new" table

Before we moved, our kitchen table was in pretty bad shape. I would do everything I could to hide the mess that it had become and I cringed every evening when I tried to scrape off the mess from the day. Table cloths could only do so much and never stayed put anyway.

Kitchen table before

It is a nice sturdy table from a discount furniture store but, it is basically laminated plywood, so sanding and refinishing was out of the question. And the finish was peeling off in messy flakes creating grooves and gouges in the surface, so we couldn't just paint it either, at least not the top.

Kitchen chairs prepped for paint

Buying a new table was not even close to being in the budget anytime soon, but I just could not take it any longer. I decided we had to do something. I had seen my hubby and brother-in-law build a counter top for a kitchen remodel, and wondered if it would be possible to use the same technique to recover our table top.

Oooh so nice, no flaking finish

 As it turns we could! I sanded and painted the chairs and legs of the table while my sweet man glued the laminate counter top material right over that ugly tabletop. He added a piece of wood to make a nice edge all around, cut the laminate to fit, and used the router to spiffy it up.

No marker yet has defeated this tabletop

 Now we have a table that comes clean easily and looks so much better. And when the time comes for a new one, this will be an excellent craft table, because nothing the kids put on this table sticks.

Ahoy, Me Hearties!

Have you seen this yet?
Dana Made It and Made by Rae are celebrating the boy this month and boy are there some great projects over there. I'm loving it! This bowtie may be making an appearance this summer at some weddings we will be attending. And oh the pirate love!

Well, in celebration of the month of the boy we have our own boy project in the works here. Pirates are pretty big around these parts right now. Pirate costumes, Pirate books, pirate quilts in the making (sneak peek above, more to come soon), pirate speak, "Belay that swab and get ye to ye room! It needs to be cleaned," and of course pirate treasure maps!

To make ours we opted to print this free coloring page map instead of drawing our own, like mommy wanted. My boy decided it just wasn't authentic looking enough so he wanted to age it a bit. I've done this using coffee before, but as we don't drink coffee in our house, and the only tea we have at the moment is green tea, we decided to give balsamic vinegar a try (his idea). Rip the edges before staining to create the illusion of burnt edges, or you could actually burn the edges if you're feeling daring.

I would not recommend the vinegar if you don't have to. Coffee would work much better, but after a few days, yes days, of drying, the stickiness disappeared and the map was ready for some crickling. Now it looks like a real authentic pirate map don't you think?

All we need now, is some hidden treasure!

Craft Gift Exchange

Every year we do a craft gift exchange with my in-laws. It started years ago as a Christmas gift exchange that my nieces and nephews would be able to participate in. It was moved to Thanksgiving after it was almost voted into extinction because of the added stress it brought to the holiday season. It still adds a bit of stress, but it gives us the opportunity to try out new crafts we've been wanting to do, but haven't found the time for. Like freezer paper stencils.

My husband suggested the kids make t-shirts for their projects, but the thought of dozens of hard to manipulate, little squirt bottles full of puffy paint, sure to be found by the 2 year old, wasn't sounding like all that much fun to me. I remembered seeing freezer paper stencils on a few different crafty blogs and thought it was the perfect time to try it out.

Just a tip, don't try to go over not so thoroughly covered areas with an already washed and still wet spongy brush, mommy messed up robot and made him all fuzzy, better to just let the kids do it by themselves.

A quick trip to the craft store for supplies and then back home to draw pictures. I loved the ideas the kids came up with, a couple of snowmen, a monster, a robot and even some scribblings from the baby who said she was drawing a robot too.

I did all of the cutting with an x-acto knife, this was a bit more difficult than I had remembered it being, but I got it done in an afternoon.

We painted after baby girl fell asleep for her afternoon nap. One of the girls opted for fabric markers so she could get creative with colors without having to spend tons of money on different paints, the results were not as vibrant, but still very cute.

It was far more simple and far less messy than it looks. We rolled and packed the t-shirts in these cute homemade boxes. We just used some scrapbooking card stock made a few cuts, folded the ends and attached with some glue. Very cute and fun! We may be making more of these for Christmas.

Just in Time for Labor Day!

Remember these ruffles? Well, my brother-in-law has become a huge fan of the game Cornhole. He got a set for his birthday last spring and the kids always want to play too. The bags are pretty big and heavy for the littlest ones and they're pretty plain and ugly and manish, so I thought his baby girl needed some of her very own.

Okay, the link for Cornhole, I just had to do it. who would think this silly, fun game would have such an official organization? I had no idea so many took it so seriously. Here's the Wikipedia a little more simple and straight forward for those of you who don't know the game.

Basically it's bean bags (or corn filled bags) tossed into a hole. Our kiddie version, frilly cute bean bags in 3 different shapes to be tossed into a wooded board with matching shapes cut out of it.

The game board was designed and constructed by my amazingly talented and creative husband. You get more points if the hole your bag goes into matches the shape of your bag. The kids were supposed to paint it all cute like a silly face, but, as usual, we ran out of time, we'll get to it eventually.

I Love the way it turned out and it was a big hit with the kids at the birthday party. The board is light enough for most of the kids to move around on their own and my little niece really enjoys playing with her bean bags.

Of course I couldn't stop there, no, as I said before every girl, no matter the age, needs bags and she had to have something to keep all her bean bags together so,

I came up with this bitty bag. I was really happy with how quickly and easily it came together, and the finished product is even cuter than I thought it would be.

It made sweet wrapping too, no paper or boxes needed.