Guest Post - Visiting a craft fair.

Editor's note: This is the second guest post I've had on my blog. The first one is here. I can't believe it's been two years! We went to a craft fair this morning and Hannah wanted to take some pictures herself 'so that I can write a blog.' Then she told me what to write for each picture. Enjoy!

My mom gave us some money when we went to a craft fair today. It was kind of fun. I got some earrings. One of them was for my sister, but they were too pretty, so I kept them. She got a doll crib that she loved.

I took this picture because I thought the white purse was pretty. I bought two purses. They were almost a dollar each. They had a tiny chocolate bar in them. I got them because I thought they were the right size for my Nettie doll but they weren't. They were the right size for her hair, though, so I made her a hairdo with two purses. I should have gotten a picture of that.


These socks were there too. I tried to get a picture of the rainbow colored ones, but the camera must have deleted it. Those were my favorite. I wanted to get them for Aunt Ria's baby, but I didn't have enough money.

The sun must have been in the candy dish for it to look so blurry. This candy was at a jewelry table. I wanted some jewelry, but the candy was free, so I got a piece of candy instead. It wasn't very good.

These are pictures of a dollhouse that was there. I really liked it a LOT but my mom said it was too expensive. (Editor's note: It was $595. Just sayin'.) I like the tiny door and the window in this picture.


This picture is too dark, but I like being able to see that old man in the window. It makes me think that I caught a glimpse of an old snowman walking by.

The wallpaper in this house was good. We only have white walls in our house. I want pink walls in my room. And a pink ceiling. And a pink floor. So this picture is to show my dad what I want in my room.


The lady had fake snow surrounding the house. You can see it in this picture. It was pretty cool.

The windows were so pretty. the brown roof is pretty too. The lady should have put snow on it.

This would be my bedroom if I lived here. Then I could come out the window and walk on the roof.


Isn't the snowman's hat funny? And his tiny eyes make me laugh. He looks like he's squinting.

The plants hanging on the porch were really pretty, but they don't make much sense. She has snow on the ground, after all. Who has plants hanging outside in the winter? All of our plants here are dead. She should have bird feeders up.



This is a movie I took. The snowman is running around on the porch yelling at the little snow kids running around. I think they're throwing snowballs at him. I'm frustrated that you can't hear my voice. I was talking quietly because people were listening to me, but now you can't hear me.


This is a picture I took when we got home. It's too fuzzy, but it's cool if you squinch your eyes up a bit. I stood some of my horses on top of each other and they look like the Crazy Bremen Town Musician Horses. I have more horses but they kept falling over, so I just got this one.

Now I'm going to read Calvin and Hobbes with my mom. My Aunt Ria let us borrow her Humblecidal Cycle Jungle Cat (Editor's Note: That'd be Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat) book. She has thirty-eleven Calvin and Hobbes books and they make me laugh SO hard.

Tiny changes.

I always thought it would be the big, noticeable things with my kids that would mark the time passing for me. You know, birthdays, lost teeth, school starting.

It certainly is the big things that make me notice the time passing with my friends and family. She lost her tooth? Can you believe you have a seven year old? She's old enough to be in school already?

But with my children, the big things haven't fazed me yet. It's the little things that make me pause, startle, and sometimes tear up a little bit.

Like the moment a few months ago when I took Hannah to get some new shoes. There was a small selection and the only choices she had in the kind of shoe we were going for (fancy shoes) were sparkly Disney labeled shoes or sweet, grown-up ballet shoes. Now I really dislike branded clothing, but for half a second I caught myself hoping that she'd pick the glittery shoes and stay so young just a bit longer. She chose the ballet shoes. I was very happy about it, once the decision was made, but for me it marked the ending of a period in her life.

And there was the moment a few weeks ago when I realized that my three year old was running to the bathroom with her pants pulled up. Not something *you'd* notice if you were visiting, but for me, it was a big deal. See, I've been trying to convince her for six months that when she realizes that she needs to go to the bathroom so bad, it would be more efficient to run to the bathroom and *then* pull down her pants instead of immediately pulling them down to her ankles and running to the bathroom (at full speed, no less) like that.

Oh, and the moment yesterday when I was chasing my 18 month old around the house, tickling him and he was giggling that hysterical happy-baby-giggle so hard and I startled a big boy laugh out of him. He didn't understand why I stopped chasing him and it took me a second to understand it myself.

Changes that are small are the sweetest and most telling.

Sometimes they're not so sweet, though. I turned 32 this year and didn't even notice. Age is just a number and all that. I'm enjoying my thirties more than any other stage in my life. And then yesterday a kinda hot guy in his early twenties almost ran into me in the store. He said "Excuse me, ma'am." Did you get that? He said "Excuse me, ma'am." I think that at this point I should call him 'a nice young man' instead of 'a kinda hot guy.' *sigh*

It's the little things.

Advent Obsession.

I adore advent calendars, so when I saw this little beauty at a thrift store, I grabbed it.

We had to fix it up a bit - paint a few little wooden balls and glue them on.

It was hard to part with, but it was purchased with another home in mind. We have my brother's name for our present exchange this year, so the girl's and I filled it up and sent it on its way.

We printed out a list of about eighteen fun Christmas activities, cut them into squares and stuffed them in different days.

We didn't do all 24 days because my brother's family is Christian, so we figured they'd want to add some of their own activities in. We added some fun stuff like candy canes and hot chocolate mix and popcorn to help them with activities we'd suggested.

We made and wrapped the easiest and cutest little ornaments.

The pattern says to use stiff felt. Since we didn't have any, we used foam sheets.

One foam sheet made about five little ornaments, so don't be surprised if you're one of Hannah's 'best friends in the world' and get an ornament in the mail. *cough*Ashley*cough*

And so the season begins.

Felt Car Playmat to take along.

I'm not an original crafter. I'm no good at thinking up new and ingenious crafts that will take your breath away. I'm good at looking at ingenious crafts and getting my breath taken away, and I'm good at taking crafts I see and tweaking them to fit my style and needs. That's how this one was born.

This was born from two different crafts I saw online - a tiny fabric tic-tac-toe board to carry in your purse and a monstrously huge construction toy playmat.

This one is about 12 inches around - I used the largest mixing bowl I had to draw the circle on some white felt. Then I added some felt and embellished it.

Apple tree field.

Corn field. (Not a field of lily pads like my husband thought. Where on earth would you find a field of lily pads?)


A pond with cattails, boat, and waves. No lily pads.

Sheep in a field. Went a bit french knot crazy here. Also, they're not really clear - my husband thought they were bushes. Also, my sister couldn't tell what they were - she didn't even get bushes from it, she didn't have any idea *what* they were.

Motorcycle track. A road was taken out here and this substituted at my husband's request.

Ainsley's favorite thing is the flower filled turnaround in the center, Hannah's favorite part is the apple trees. Gray likes running over the sheep.

Then I backed it with some fabric from my stash, finished the edges with bias tape and bias tape loops and threaded a bias tape drawstring through it.

If I had had the tools, I may have finished the edges with bias tape and then put grommets in and threaded a drawstring through those.

All finished with 3 little cars from our toy box.

Ready to throw in the purse.

Perfect for any place - like gymnastics class - where you need some longer distractions.

Do you want your own library?

This site will not be good for you. And their fiction books (except for their kid's fiction books - Boo.) are 50% off for the next few days.

It's a site that sells books at closeout prices - sometimes, if you hit a good sale, for pennies. The problem hits when shipping is added. If you've spent $100 (don't judge) on books and gotten 61 books for that amount of money, you're feeling pretty smart - until shipping for those 61 heavy books hits. *gulp* (still, $133 for 61 books isn't bad - especially when they're quality books)

So, here's the point of this post. BookCloseouts.com is having a Free Shipping Sale. From now until the end of December, you get free shipping if you live in the US (including Hawaii and Alaska) or Canada.

Catch-up - one for the archives.

Crafts we've done that I want to save. This one's for the archives, so feel free to skip over.

Pop bottle butterflies (and dragons). Found here via Mountain Pulse.

Not great for littles. We did this when my cousin's kids were here and they had a lot of fun, so I'd say it's good for seven years old on up.



I'm definitely saving this one for when they're older.




Classic pasta pictures.

Cleaned out the pantry and found pasta I haven't used for years. I was more comfortable having the girls do art with it then testing it in the kitchen. So lucky we have enough money to make that decision.

Ains got frustrated fast and just told me where she wanted me to put the glue and she dumped the pasta.







Magazine Christmas Trees

Hannah picked the livestock equipment magazine over the hunting magazine because "Hunting's not my style, Mother. What kind of a girl do you think I am?"


Hannah's went to Daddy's work, Ains' is in their room.

The past few days ...

have been spent reconnecting with cousins over balloon tying (how I missed a picture of the enormous 'pet shop' that resulted from this, I'll never know), reading,

and ornament making.

There was then last trampoline jumping of the season,

and searching in the mountains for the perfect Christmas tree.



We'll have our tree up earlier than usual this year, but I'm ok with that. I'm ready to start listening to Christmas music and watching Love Actually once a day until the season is over. Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, and Emma Thompson .... it doesn't get *any* better than that.

Dr. Dropo

A few weeks ago, Matt took the girls to a restaurant where a local college student was earning money by folding balloons for kids. Both girls came home with a kitty. Hannah stuck hers on a dresser where it would be safe ...

but talked Ains into letting her 'see how yours works'. Then Ains had a snake and Hannah was hooked.

The next time we went to town, we checked out "Dr. Dropo's Balloon Sculpturing" from the library and bought a big ol' bag of balloons and a pump (I am not signing up to blow up all of those balloons, thank you very much).

When we got home, we went to work.

Hannah wanted to make her daddy a dog. She worked and worked at it, and after seven minutes of frustration - we were still working the kinks out - she told her daddy "I think you get a worm."

But then it clicked, and she had it.

Her first balloon animal.

I was having to hold the twists for her while she made the next twists in the chain, but she was following the pictures herself and doing all of the work.

Then it was a squirrel.

Then a swan.

We got stuck on swans for awhile.

By then, all I was doing was blowing up and tying off the balloons.

Then she made her sister a giraffe - which was well-received the next morning.

And the easiest of all - swords.

These were also *very* well received by her little brother the next morning, but I don't have a picture of that. If a child moves even slightly while I'm taking a picture, it's blurry, and folks, that kid holding a balloon sword was moving more than slightly. He had his sisters on the run.

It's been a week now, and Hannah's used up the first bag of balloons and is working through her second. She's made flowers, fish, planes, lots of swords, variations on different four legged animals, and wants to do a parrot on a swing next. Ainsley made a collar for a cat. We had to have a talk about that one. Cygnus has learned that balloons pop if you bite them - as did Grayson. Mother has learned that a popping balloon isn't the end of the world (my leaning six inches away while she twisted the balloons was a never-ending source of hilarity for Hannah until I learned that). Father has learned to relax about finding balloon creatures everywhere and Hannah has learned to work with a trash can beside her for popped balloons.

And, thankfully, Hannah has Dr. Dropo to learn from - because I couldn't do more than a fish when we started.

All she wants for Christmas.

Hannah's been wanting to lose her 'two front teeth' before Christmas so that she can sing "All I want for Christmas" more authentically.

This meant that she was extra excited this morning when this happened -

It's not one of the top teeth, but it'll do.

She spent thirty minutes with Seymour Skinless learning more about her teeth. We love Seymour.

Then we made a pillow for her tooth to sit in while it waited for the tooth fairy.

She sang "All I want for Christmas" the whole time.

Now she's asleep and the tooth fairy's already come, collected the tooth and the note that she left, and left a note, a bit o' money, and an extra special present (it *is* the first tooth, after all) by her toothbrush.

The tooth fairy's very excited to see how she likes it tomorrow morning.