Paperback Fruit

pumpkin, eggplant (purple), green apple, red apple, pear.

I love to craft with old, discarded books. I wanted an apple for my back to school mantle and decided to make one from an old book. I never finished that in time for that mantle (which I took down around the first day of autumn) but decided instead to make a bunch of fruit and use them for a harvest/fall-themed mantle. Photos of my latest mantle are coming soon.

I followed a great tutorial for making shaped books at this blog. One tip is that the book has to be at least 100 pages. If you are wondering where the books came from, most were found at the used section of my public library, for 25 cents a piece!


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Melty Beads - Not Just For Kids

It's been a tough week. There was a shooting at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where I worked in the mid 1990s and where my brother in law currently works. Then yesterday there was a shooting at a high school not far north of us. So, here is some harmless crafty goodness to forget all the darkness in the world. At least for a while.

Last weekend I was looking for crafts or activities for my youngest son. He really enjoys making things. I found a bunch of Minecreaft themed creations using Perler beads. I showed him the ideas and he got to work. We spent a quiet Saturday morning together. I sorted the beads by colour and he created. Here are SOME of his creations.

He gave all of the other ones away to friends at school. Later, I decided to get in on the fun and make some. Here are some more of my creations:

Top row: Professor Bunsen Honeydew from the Muppets, Beaker from the Muppets.
Bottom row: Minions from Despicable Me movie.

This is such a simple craft. You line the up the beads on a board and then iron them for a few seconds when you are done. lining up the beads is a bit like counted cross stitch. There are hundreds of pattern ideas if you search Google images or Pinterest, using "hama beads", "perler beads" or "melty beads."

The finished creations can be made into key chains, necklaces or fridge magnets. I think this would be a great activity for young kids learning to count. Small, simple designs, that is.



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Amaize-ing Washington

My boys love corn mazes. On a sunny afternoon on a day off from school, we finally made it to a corn maze. This year we chose The Farm at Swan's Trail in Snohomish.

After a fun bumpy hay ride, the boys went through the maze together, alone. I bought a latte and waited for them. That turned out to be a bad decision on my part. They got separated after I told them to STAY TOGETHER! My oldest son exited the corn maze, alone! After some anxiety, the lost little brother was found. Eye roll. The maze is pretty incredible. It is in the shape of Washington state and the paths are the highways such as 101, 90, etc.

If you go to The Farm, they also have lots of animals to pet including pot bellied pigs which are pretty cute.

They also have a jumping pillow which is like a giant trampoline but raised off the ground. We didn't have enough time for that since A had soccer practice later. They have espresso and baked goods as well.

After the maze and the hay ride, we went to the pumpkin patch and the boys posed by the scarecrow.

Then it was time for the traditional pose by the pumpkins.

We picked out 2 pumpkins and my big strong boys pushed the wheelbarrow for me. I may be mourning the loss of my boys' littleness but it is pretty nice to have them take care of carting and lifting pumpkins into the car.

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Fun in the Sun at Bob's Corn

This past Sunday afternoon was beautiful and there wasn't a Seahawks game scheduled, so I said, let's go to a farm! I chose Bob's Corn because we have never been to it before. I expected a MUCH smaller place so I was pleasantly surprised at all the facilities. Corn maze, hay rides, playground, pumpkin patch, a red barn, lots of food choices, farm animals, and an apple cannon. More about that later. They also had their own apples and corn for sale. My favourite feature was the apple cinnamon donuts. Yum!

We had hoped to go in the corn maze but the price  is 8 dollars a person. Wow! That would be pretty pricey for a family of four! We chose the much more affordable and wild apple cannon. You get 10 apples (ammunition) for 10 dollars. We all took a turn and we quite successful in hitting the targets.

 We let the boys use my camera to take our photo. They did a great job!

One fun fact. The employees' name tags all had something (underneath their name) to indicate how they were related to Bob, such as "Bob's Friend's Son." The boys had fun making up relationships to Bob on the way home. Another fun memory is stopping on the road for a sign that said "Little Girl's Pumpkin Patch." A young girl was selling pumpkins and gourds she had grown herself. She had some amazing pumpkins. Sadly, we had spent all our cash so we could only buy a dried corn stalk from her.

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One Thousand Gifts #464 to #476

464.  my son's perseverance with Scouting.

465. walking with friends during the day. I've gone three times since school started.

466. the timing of my surgery was just right. I had originally hoped it could be scheduled for the last week of August but I realize now that having two weeks to recover before school started was very necessary.

467. my youngest son's creativity - making Lego "still lifes"

468. a friend from church (a physical therapist) who came to my house twice to do some gentle massage on my scar to help it heal.

469. my younger son singing along to the songs on the Christian music station.

470. the Indian Summer we've been having. I've been soaking up the Vitamin D before the rainy season hits.

471.  I now have a car pool for two days a week. This is cutting down on the amount of driving I do.

472. watching hummingbirds outside my kitchen window.

473. every soccer game so far this season has been on a warm sunny day.

474. good news on my recent blood test. For more info, see:
my CaringBridge page

475.  my oldest son enjoyed the middle school retreat and they had excellent weather for it.

476. a compliment from a man at our church as to how well my son could speak to him and answer his questions about our summer vacation.

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