Wall Art continued………

…….trying to not get carried away but totally loving my new found craft!!!!! :)

Been working on the girls room lately, repainted, new bed, new comforters, and LOTS OF ORGANIZING & THROWING STUFF AWAY, put two dressers into one, two closets into one, and eliminated a lot of clutter….. all to get ready for our little guy!!!!! Anywho……. been wondering about the wall above the bunk bed, as it needed something… but hanging anything with weight might brain my child as she sleeps, if it fell. So a wall decal was a perfect solution and my “chandelier project” has only unleashed my creative juices or at least my copy cat juices! ;)

Having fun! 

Another angle…

a couple little hiding friends…. do you see them?

Wall Art…

The nesting phase of pregnancy is in full swing, I am pretty sure my husband wouldn’t see it as a phase as I am constantly changing and rearranging things in our home pregnant or not, but I can definitely sense more of an “urgency” within myself when it comes to all things decorating, organizing, cleaning and de-cluttering!

So on a recent restless browse through ETSTY I found, yet another thing, that sparked that all too common thought in my head….. “ I bet I could make that……” many a disaster has come about with those very words! I am happy to report that this time, I only had a couple frustrating moments and I am overall pleased with the final outcome. So…… not bad. :)

Check out my handmade wall decals…..

Time (they took over an hour each to do) really was the key element in this project otherwise, it was pretty easy. And best of all it was so much cheaper than the pricier ETSY versions. Seven bucks for a huge role of white contact paper and an Exacto knife and ta-da!!!!!!!! 

And I have enough Con Tact paper to make a hundred other wall decals or a least repaper every shelf in our kitchen……. hmmmmm what will I do? I don’t think there is a floor, wall or surface in my house that is safe from me at this point…… what will my hormones tear apart, glue together or reorganize next?

stay tuned……..

Shoes, Glitter, Crafts, Food and Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thank you Lord, for our many blessings…..

Hoping you all had a blessed day! We, true to form, did not take our thanksgiving festivities far from home….. just about 3 blocks away to be exact. We had a fun day with family and had one of the best Thanksgiving meals I have ever been privileged to taste(seriously my mom, dad and aunt out did themselves this year!)

Here are some pictures of our day….

Yesterday, my dad called…. wondering my shoe size. “A little odd….” I thought, not one of his normal questions to ask. But he then told me that he saw some shoes and thought my with being “pregnant and everything” my feet could use something “festive.” So after a few phone calls and a couple hours, he and my mom stopped by with some “BLING” for me and the girls. What a nice little surprise! Notice the sparkly shoes. :)

We went to a nearby park this morning for some quick picture taking. Mostly of the shoes……. ;)

Gotta get a couple shots with the belly in there. Twenty eight weeks and counting!!!!!!!!! February cannot get here fast enough!

 

We went back to the folks house for a great meal…… Here is Dad after carving the turkey and making the most delicious candied yams.  Not only does the man have good taste in foot wear but only REAL men can wear an apron that says this……

The table…..

And more glitter…… this time it wasn’t on our shoes, more like…. all over the place. Instead of saving a Christmas craft I had planned for school time, I decided to take full advantage of the extra hands for helping, the patio at my parents house and the extra free time that holidays seem to provide and do it today. We made sparkly Christmas trees for our mantel. 

The finished products on the piano until we bring out all the Christmas decor tomorrow……..

So, it was a good day.

Where do I begin in conveying our thanks for the blessings that have been showered upon us? I am at a loss for words……

God is good. ALWAYS GOOD!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brass Rubbings,Medieval Lessons & Mc Donalds

Last week we went to THIS....

The London Brass Rubbing Center at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach. We had a great lesson on knights, lords and ladies. We held real armor (which was insanely heavy) and were able to see and hear the history of (the reason we were there) the Brasses.

“Brasses” were engraved with likenesses of Medieval people ( mostly the wealthy and powerful), set in stone slabs, and placed in churches and cathedrals throughout England and Europe as memorials as early as the 13th century. With a kindergartner, we did not come away with all the information that maybe an older child would have. But, when we left Rebekah understood they didn’t have cameras in those days, this is how they would take a picture, so that they could be remembered for generations. A lesson learned.

To be honest my kids were the youngest there, and I took them more out of my own curiosity. This year of homeschooling is all about seeing what is out there and available and I am sure many events and things we do this year we will revisit in future years and, at that time, we will be able to put more background work in before we go and then retain more when we leave. We are exploring this new ground we have ventured onto. 

so here are some pictures of our day of time travel……

 

Sorry for the blurriness of the picture…… The girls trying to lift the armor.

Now for the “activity” that brought us here….. Brass Rubbing.

They had almost 200 brasses there, some almost life size. The originals were life size but we, of course, only saw remakes. I tried to find the most simple of all the brasses for our girls to use……

Final outcome…..

And it has kind of become our field- trip- tradition for the girls and I to go to McDonalds on our way home from our outing. They don’t seem to mind it. ;)

Here they are with their first ever Mc Donalds apple pie. I actually only think I have maybe had 1 in my lifetime. The girls each had change in their pockets (from who knows where) and kept asking if they could pay for something. Well after counting Anna’s 58 cents and Rebekah’s 64 cents, 50 cent apple pies was our only choice. I am pretty sure it was an ok option. :)

A good day! 

what we do…..

Well, it wasn’t my intention to make this blog “homeschooling” themed…. but alas it is our life. We are loving it and as we get more into our daily routine of living and learning it is becoming harder and harder to find other things to blog about cause, really….. this is what we do….. 

here are a few of our projects over the last two weeks that were picture worthy….

Here are the girls making use of the box from our new coffee table. Over the course of a couple hours the box was a house, a boat, a concession stand, an oven, a cave, a tent, a tunnel and of course…. just a box.

We made our Thanksgiving center piece, which quickly became a decoration for the top of our piano as Miss Anna (also known as “the collector” in our house) took a liking to grabbing handfuls of leaves and putting them in random places….. mostly all over the floor.

And this project was very exciting for me….. I have had a minor sewing project that has been on my mind to get done for a long time, I kept putting it off because every time I get all the stuff out I then have to find something to distract my little “magnets”, and then a light bulb went on in my head….. (I am a little slow, I know),” how about teaching them how to sew!” Yes, I handed a 5 year old and a 2 year old a needle. And guess what… I was the only one to poke myself! We started simple, with ZERO expectations…. and we made something that somewhat resembles pillows! I was  proud of myself for not interfering with their handiwork, and even more proud of my girls for their diligence and excitement over their final product . They were thrilled! We are on the fourth book of the “Little House” series and this was one of those projects that just brought the words to life. Rebekah kept saying….. “ok, now that I have sewn a pillow, we should make a quilt like Laura’s Ma made!” Ummmmm…….. slow down there kiddo. Maybe one day we will get there.  

 So, that is what the Nelson girls have been up to. 

Oh, and in case you are wondering…. these projects were all on different days, it would seem that ballet outfits are our “school uniforms.”

Happy Candy Day!

hope you all had a good day yesterday, in what ever way you chose to spend it……

so ,of course, the girls said a unanimous “NO” to re-wearing the “handmade” ;) angel costumes they wore last week, in favor of pulling out, what else but, princess dresses from their dress up box.

So Sleeping Beauty and Tinkerbelle got ready for their night out….

  The first and only house they “trick or treated” at….. Hey, this house was handing out $10 bills AND candy, we pretty much could stop after this…. ;)

(for those of you not catching the humor, this is my parents house and they didn’t hand out money to every kid, just the cutest princesses in town) ;) And not all trick or treaters, while welcomed with a smile, were greeted with the same enthusiasm….;)

To quote the sleeping princess herself “sweepin booty” didn’t make it to the ball without falling “asweep”.

playing games at our church “Harvest Party”

Mommy and daddy did their part and worked the pumpkin toss booth….. my lower back is still reminding me of my time in said booth…..

yes, Grandpa and Grandma got them cotton candy, because poor children didn’t have enough candy….. :(

in the puppy petting zoo….

AND HERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS…….. this could be the one and ONLY thing Anna is afraid of……. not that I blame her….

His smaller relative, didn’t seem to bother her.

We finished the night off with drivin thru The Hat and going back to my parents, and then a somewhat early bed time.

Sleeping = the best use of our extra hour. :)

now for the serious task of removing candy from our house….. I have volunteered to take care of that ;)