This was the view from my kitchen window on Christmas eve. We left out a few trees at the end of our property so that we could enjoy this view.


This was the view from my back door on Christmas eve. We left off the deck so that we could enjoy this view. :)

Christmas Time!

It's hard to do a blog regularly, isn't it? I don't know how people post every day. I don't know how people post every week. Obviously I don't even get how to post once a month. It is getting a little easier to remember how to do this, so maybe....

I'm a little late in getting this post out by Christmas, but at least it's still December. :) I had a great time trying fun stuff from all the great blogs out there. Do you recognize any of the projects? I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!

Happy Fall!

Isn't this time of year great? It's so colorful right now. The temperature is pleasant. I've also been finding some great ideas for fall decorating and food. I'm new to blog land and I can't believe how much fun stuff is out there. It's hard not to become addicted.

Anyway, about six months ago, I took down the grapevine garland I had on top of my kitchen cabinets. They were just about to be sent to a thrift store, when I came across this great tutorial for making grapevine pumpkins. ( http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/09/grapevine-pumpkin.html ) There were a few scratches involved, and I used two garlands in my pumpkin, but I LOVE the finished product. If you have any grapevine garland laying around, this is a great project.

Have a happy fall day!

Birthday Party

My kids get four friend birthday parties. This is what my mom did and I'm glad because when you have six kids they usually come around every year. Anyway, we have them when they turn four, eight, twelve and sixteen. So far they've been really fun, and we have lots of fun planning them together.

My youngest just turned four and wanted a farm party. At first she wanted a princess party, but being the sister of three brothers, she decided that the boys she invited wouldn't appreciate a princess party so much. I'm not sure how she came up with a farm party theme, but it was fun. Here are a few pictures of the invitations we came up with.

She also wanted a pig cake with two butterfly bows. I was kinda rushed at the end, so four gumdrop fruit slices is what we used for the butterfly bows. My girl picked out the gumdrops and seemed happy with it. She wanted to play pin the tail on the donkey, but we changed it to pin the nose on the pink pig. (I think she liked the pig stuff because it was pink.)

Inside the brown party favor bags we had little buckets with farm stickers, farm animals, dollar store stuff and candy.

The little shirt she is wearing is something I made from two bandannas. I didn't have a pattern, so I'm happy with how it turned out. I think she looks so cute too. She was really sweet to her 10 guests and we had a lot of fun.

Next year we have two parties. Wish me luck.

I finally found time to use my Cricut. Yeah!

I'm busy doing home school, and to help me keep my sanity, (uphill battle) I like to pull out the Cricut and do a project once in awhile. I made a little wooden...something. I drew a bird and then had some scrap wood from job sites that I used for this project. I've been using the Cricut to cut out words, but I use the back ground instead of the letters. I don't think it's necessarily easier or faster, but it shows more of the cute paper.

I also did this for cards ( a wedding and a baby just in case you can't tell what I'm doing). I think they turned out kinda cute.

These are tags I cut out of scrap lumber. I went to job sites and asked if I could have the scraps. The construction guys looked at me a little weird because it's their garbage pile, but, free wood is free wood.

What have I done?

What should a home schooling mom of six do for fun? I've decided to try blogging. Now I am asking myself, "What have I done?" I'm not nearly as technical as my 14 year old, and I don't know when I'm going to post all of the fun ideas I have in my head. Anyway, I hope that you'll stop by soon and see what's up at the Rooster Coop.