Just Call me Martha

Even though Clementine has long given up naps, I still find time to get crafty every now and then. I seem to be suffering from the scrapbooking form of writer's-block but still have a TON of materials stashed away. I've been trying to find new uses for all this stuff.

On one of the decorating mom blogs I love, the writer posted about creating fridge magnets that aren't obnoxious. She listed her materials and I realized I had every single item myself, except for the wooden "coins". I picked those up at JoAnn's using my coupon for under $3.00!

I tweaked the instructions a little bit to suit our color scheme--painted the coins purple and green (using paint I had from the BLOOM canvas in Clem's toy room), hot glued the magnet to the back and used round letter stickers (that I already had AND they matched our colors! Dang, I'm coordinated!!).
Ta-da! 20 minutes later, here's what we had! (Yes, it does bug me that some letters are capital and some are lower case. I'm trying to get over it. This does not seem to bother Clementine one bit and, really, that's all that matters.)

It seems like every single crafter's blog I love has pictures of their decorated fall mantels. Our house doesn't have a fireplace or a mantel, unfortunately, so we decorate the tops of our books shelves. Here's mine for fall.

I spray painted ceramic pumpkins (again, from JoAnn's w/ a coupon!) as every other crafter seems to be doing these days. I'm not super thrilled w/ my results. I must have picked all the pumpkins with nicks and dings. Oh well, I'll get over it.

Then I stacked up some black hard-covered books, set a nest and green ceramic bird I had from Emma's "Love Birds" shower I threw last Spring on top. Then Clementine found a rock out back she thought needed to go up there. I set that next to a mini-house that says "Welcome".

My one splurge is this shadow box I keep on the mantel year round (I change out the inside of it seasonally). It's from Pottery Barn a million years ago. Pottery Barn is not a place I shop at frequently, nor is this a price I comfortably pay for a single item but I've had it for years and it's gotten a lot of use.

Again, scrapbooking items: green textured paper I had in my stash + felt pumpkin stickers + super cute picture of Clementine from her very first trip to the pumpkin patch. Voila!

Treat or Treat

Today we took Clementine Trick or Treating in one of my favorite places: Fairhaven!

We got our little ladybug all ready and hit the streets. We practiced saying Trick or Treat the whole way from our house to Fairhaven but it still came out Treat or Treat!
We got there just as the Trick or Treating event began. Each year all the Fairhaven shops pass out candy or other goodies to all the little ones.


Clem was a little timid about going up to people she doesn't know but this was good practice for her! She had great manners and was so excited about her very own bucket of candy (this is really the first year she knows what candy is)!
As time wore on, more and more people showed up. The sidewalks were crammed so tight we could hardly walk! When the older kids showed up, throwing their gangly elbows in front of the wee ones to get at a tootsie roll, we knew it was time to hit the road. So Clem hitched a ride on daddy's shoulders.
It looks like we were just in time, too! As soon as we started driving she was out like a light--with her candy bucket clutched tightly, of course.

Ladybug Birthday

Stoney Ridge 2010

This year Cam and I decided to visit Stoney Ridge on a week day. We wanted to avoid long lines and visit the pumpkin patch at our own pace. So we took a day off last week and hit the pumpkin patch during a lucky break in the rainy, windy weather!
Clem explored all the rusty old farm equipment,
participated in all the photo opportunities,
played cowgirl,
measured her height,
climbed fences,
and saddled herself a hay horse.

We took a wagon ride through the Christmas tree farm down to the pumpkin patch.
This year we decided we weren't leaving until we found the perfect pumpkin. Clementine's focus on this lasted less than a minute and she was off in the Christmas tree Wonderland, picking dandelions and blowing their puffs every which way.
I finally lured her back over to us with promises of lollipops and wheelbarrow rides.
Even though this picture is out of focus, I love it so much. This picture totally captures their dynamic of loud, rough-housing silliness.
After we found the perfect pumpkin, we headed back up to the farm for pie and ice cream, rope swings and tree-climbin'!


A great day was had by all of us. We lucked out with the weather. Everyone was in good spirits and we found ourselves a great pumpkin to carve for Halloween!

Farm Tour

This girl of ours loves cows. I mean she really really loves them.
Last weekend I found out SUPER last minute (like 3 hours before it ended) that the Skagit Valley Farm Tour was going on. I quick threw this girl in the car and we headed south to Bow. We only made it to one farm before the festival was over but it was a good one!
We made it to a dairy! I had read online that this one would have a petting zoo but it totally exceeded my expectations.
I love doing fun things with this kid but something I love even more is doing FREE fun things with this kid. And the festival was completely free!.
She got to "milk" a synthetic utter (she LOVED it!)
And play with baby goats,
and a newborn calf,
and several stinky, grunting pigs! (She LOVED the pigs' curly tails)
Then waited patiently for our turn to take a ride on the FREE hayride through the cow pasture


and there was a farm dog named Tank who asked for FREE belly rubs.
When we left (with FREE popcorn and ice cream, by the way) I asked Clem what her favorite part of the day was. I expected she'd say the ice cream or the petting zoo but it's what the picture above this just missed that she loved the most: this baby calf tried to eat my sleeve. She laughed and laughed and thought this was so funny!
We will definitely do this again next year, h0pefully with more warning. I learned my lesson on this quick trip to Bow: Croc sandals are not a good idea to wear on the farm.

Before and After: Playroom

The closet under the stairs had become our catch-all room. It was storing so much junk we didn't need. Christmas bows, laptop cases, old files. None of this stuff belonged anywhere really.

A few weeks ago Clementine started opening the door to this room and running in to explore. We figured if we could find a home for all the other junk, this room could become hers. It's in the perfect spot, just off the main room, under the stairs.
The thought of never again stepping on the sharp hoof of a plastic toy pig/horse/cow filled me with wild energy and I knocked this project out in one night.
So everything found a new home (mostly in the garbage) and this is what we ended up with! TA-DA!
Clementine has my old toybox in the back corner of the closet to hold some big stuff, a cushion to sit on and read, her toy bins and mailbox.
I don't know who was more excited, Clementine or me! We let Clementine stay up a bit later than normal bedtime so she could play. When she woke up the next morning the first thing out of her mouth was "TOY ROOM?! Come on Mama!"
This little project is one that's been in the works for awhile, and it probably will go on for much longer. It's a plastic Target shoe organizer that I hung on the back of this door. I got the inspiration from this looking through a teacher catalog that had a similar organizer where students could spend time during their literacy centers practicing letter sounds. Only this company's organizer was over $100.
I bought this organizer for less than $10 and have been gradually filling it up with happy meal type toys and (my favorite!) stuff from the dollar bin at Target. I used some old scrapbooking letter stickers to give each pocket a letter (XYZ share, of course) and then we find stuff to stick in the pockets.
Here you can see Avatar guy in the letter A, a ball in letter B, a cat in letter C...you get the idea. I think this is something that Clementine will grow with as we ad more to it later. Right now she can only reach "/p/ /p/ Pumpkin."
I also hung up some of her art work we recently brought home from preschool
And this canvas thing I made for her ages ago.

I am still toying with the idea (get it??? TOY-ing??) of painting the whole playroom yellow w/ maybe a square of chalkboard paint. I don't know, it's a work in progress!