All I Want For Christmas...

...is water, but I already have that.

I recently learned that 4500 moms worry about whether their children will die today because of contaminated water - because 4500 children WILL die EVERY day because of contaminated water.

More facts:

-Right now almost a billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water. That's one in eight of us.

-Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

-Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 YEARS

There is nothing that I need for Christmas, but there is one thing I want. I want everyone to be aware of how little it takes to help save lives. Click on the button below to learn more about how you can help.

I ♥ Scentsy - Giveaway!

I love Scentsy!

Check out the great giveaway at Needle in a Haystack

Holiday Decoration Blast From the Past

Have you ever seen one of these?

Did you ever decorate with one?

Either my mom, or a grandma, or both had one when I was young. When I was searching for ideas for my Baby's First Christmas theme wreath I'm making for the wreath auction at work (which I'd totally welcome suggestions for), I came upon the tutorial for the Baby Food Jar Christmas Tree.

I almost cried.

I hadn't thought about these in a LONG time and it just brought back the memories of the holidays in my past. Things seemed so simple then, probably just because I was a kid and didn't have a clue what was going on around me.

I wish things were that simple now - I suppose they could be if I adopted an "I don't care" attitude but I guess I'm too nice, or a sucker...I haven't decided which yet.

I'm totally going to make one of these trees this year! I need it, I need the idea of it.

Random

I just saw this and I wanted to share this link to one of the coolest "tablecloths" I have ever seen! It is super cute! I want to make one.

I haven't posted in so long. We haven't really been doing much. I've been gone 2 nights/week at fitness classes that I started at the beginning of this month. We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for Dana (Travis' dad), Julia (his dad's wife) and Helen (his dad's mom). We just made this decision today (the Thursday before Thanksgiving) so I've got a lot to do. I'm going shopping today once Calvin wakes up from his nap and some of my things are make ahead (though only one I could actually make this far ahead) so that will help. That also means a lot of cleaning to do!

I want to make some of these for Christmas gifts:

Maybe a HOBO BAG or two!

Someone from work suggested vests for some of the men. Not trendy argyle vests, but more of a flannel, wool lined rugged manly type vest. Anyone have a good tutorial/link/pattern for such a thing? I'm still so stuck on most of the men's gifts.

I also want to make some decorations:

Paver Snowmen

A wreath

So much to do, so little time, ambition, money (oh, if only I had unlimited funds to turn all of my want to dos into have dones).

Happy Halloween

Today when I was wrestling Calvin into his "smedium" Robin shirt, it ripped down the seam so I'm going to have to make some adjustments to it before tomorrow - the boys are going to be Trick-or-Treating at Grandma Records' place!

Confessions

There's a great giveaway at PamperingBeki - I love her jewelry!

I confessed that I've been completely slacking on ALL housework lately. All I've wanted to do with my time is sew, bake, knit, blog, etc!

This week I'll have to put some of that off and get some of my chores done.

Mixed Media Weekend

Travis went hunting last night after work so the boys and I are hanging out around the house. Actually, we kind of have to hang out around the house because Travis had to come back and get my Explorer because his pickup was having issues and he was worried it wouldn't have made it in all the way to, or out of, their hunting camp. I stayed up until 4 am last night working on various projects. It was nice having some alone time. While I really could have put that time to better use (ex. cleaning my neglected house), it was much more fun doing the things I did. Maybe I can clean tomorrow.

I baked Chocolate Scotcheroos for the first time maybe ever. I've had them several times before, but I can't recall a time when I have actually made them. I ♥ them a lot!

Next I dyed my hair because it had been FOREVER since I've done so.

It's not really a whole lot different.

I took a picture of Hunter and myself since it had been too long since our last one and I decided to make a change.

I finished stamping the message on the inside of all of my Christmas cards so they are ready to be signed, sealed and delivered - but not until it's a bit closer to Christmas.

I started and completed my section of 'Jack Frost' - one of the current blankets being worked on by West Coast Oddball Knitters (my section is the top dark part only).

Today, Hunter and I finished painting some wooden Halloween decorations we had gotten awhile back from the craft store.

I did some more glass etching, in fact I finished the projects I had in mind (and had materials for). I'm trying to think if there are any other gift ideas I could do for anyone on my list. I didn't use the one set of initials I had printed out to somewhat match the first set of glasses I had done...it just wasn't "doing it for me" anymore. I ended up with this instead:

I'm fairly certain the people I'm making these gifts for don't read my blog....if for some reason they do, guess they won't be surprised much on Christmas. Ha! Actually, most of them can be for many different people I know so if you have a 'J' or 'A' for either your first or last initial...it could be you, but maybe not - guess you'll find out in 2 months (can you believe Christmas is only 2 MONTHS away?!)

I was going to stay up awhile again tonight and work on getting my backing for my quilt completed but I'm tired after only sleeping 5 hours last night (though I'm perfectly capable of functioning on that amount) so I think I'm going to call it a night "early" - it's already 11 pm.

Yay for Giveaways

I love visiting Leslie Loves Veggies for all of her great giveaways! Last night, when I was up until 3:30 am working on various crafts, etc (blog to come later) I saw a challenge on a giveaway I had missed. The challenge was to get this giveaway up to 500 entries so there could be 2 winners instead of just the 1. So I entered and guess what...I won! The other winner was entry 493 so it's good we both decided to enter! Maybe my friend Annie's luck is rubbing off on me - hopefully I didn't 'steal' it from her and she (or we both) remain just as lucky! Better go pick out my bracelet!

An Easy Challenge

Some of you may not need to make this type of change, but I do!

I just read a blog post here about how we rarely are in pictures with our own children for whatever reason - mine is usually just because I'm the one who always has the camera but other reasons might be "don't like myself in pictures," weight, no makeup, etc. Do you suppose our kids will ever care about any of those reasons? Do you care about those types of things when you think of your mother? Of course not!

I went back to see when the last pictures of me and my boys were:

Calvin and I on September 21st

(not too long ago)

Hunter and I on August 1st

(way too long ago)

The worst is when I look back at pictures of special occasions; Birthdays, holidays, fun outings/vacations and there is not a single picture of me with my boys. This also goes for pictures of them and my husband as there aren't too many of those either. You can't have those special moments back to snap a picture you may have forgotten about. It makes me sad sometimes when I miss the special ones. This past Mother's Day I made Travis take a few pictures of me and the kids because the year before I had not even thought of it and was upset by it later.

The challenge is to take a photograph with your kids each and every month. That shouldn't be too hard. While we're at it, I need to be sure to get one of the kids and Travis every month, as well as one of Travis and I together (very few of those). I'll plan to post them on the blog, so if you aren't seeing them, remind me to get with the program!!!

Glass Etching

I went over to Becky's on Sunday to do a fun project we've both been wanting to do: etch glass.

First we made our pattern and printed it out. I'm doing initials for Christmas gifts.

Next we traced our pattern onto clear contact paper (you have to do this for each piece you're doing - i.e. you can't reuse one piece of contact paper). You have to do it on the clear side, not the paper backing or your pattern will be backwards!

Place the contact paper on the glass and smooth out any bubbles around your pattern. You don't want etching cream to leak outside of your pattern.

Apply the etching cream. We used this and let it sit twice as long as the directions said - 10 minutes total - because we just didn't like the effect after only 5 minutes. The little 3 oz bottle doesn't seem like much, but we didn't even put a dent in it with our project (I did 4 pilsner glasses and Becky did 4 shot glasses).

Rinse the etching cream off under water and be sure to use gloves! Dry your glasses and admire your work (though it hardly seems like work - it's soooo easy)!

I have at least a set of wine glasses and a set of shot glasses to do still.

OH - the best part! You can get a set of 4 wine glasses or these pilsner glasses at Walmart for less than $5, the shot glasses are less than $3! The etching cream may seem a bit expensive (I think Becky said it was around $10), but if you split the cost with a friend, or even just consider how much you can do with one bottle, it's not really bad at all. I'm thinking of giving the glasses with the recipient's favorite wine, beer, etc.

I Won...!

I won a fun giveaway from this blog: http://chrissiegrace.blogspot.com

I just recently discovered her blog and Esty shop - Chrissie is a fabulous artist!

Thanks, Chrissie!

Sidekick

My Batman now has a sidekick. Well, he always does...now the little sidekick is dressed accordingly!

I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the details (hem the arms, etc) because he'll only wear it for a short while and I doubt it will get passed on to anyone else. I found the green turtleneck shirt at Walmart along with a remnant of red fabric and I already had some black and yellow so it was a cheap project (the way I like it). I just made the red part as a separate shirt, sleeveless. It's a bit snug! I've never made clothing before (as you can probably tell) and I was not thinking when I was sewing the red to the black (which is what the back is) so I had to work at it longer than probably necessary. All in all, I probably finished it in about an hour. Then I made a little cape that I just need to add some velcro to along with some to the shirt so it can just velcro on. I did get velcro today so Hunter's cape is complete, and we got him some black sweats...now he just really wants a belt.

I'll post pictures of the boys in their costumes after Halloween, don't want to ruin the surprise of cuteness for anyone (does that sound a bit conceited? Sorry, hopefully you get what I mean).

Na, na, na, na, na....

Hunter wants to be Batman for Halloween, he already has a mask and I thought I could make a cape to help keep things on the cheaper side. We went and got fabric today, then after I got home I found this tutorial. I wish I would have found it before I went, and I would have made it double sided, just for future use. Oh well, luckily I had some yellow fabric on hand and some heat 'n' bond for the emblem (it was going to be just plain, but it's so much cuter with the emblem). I finished it in only about 2 hours, including finding the right pattern (which I ended up just improvising), cutting out both fabrics (the satin on top and cotton on inside), applying emblem, etc. Now I just need to get some velcro to add to the 'ties' part!

Wordless Wednesday - Bathtime

And We're Back in Business!

I can't make these pictures any bigger (or maybe I can...I just don't know how).   Maybe because they were taken on my phone, then uploaded on facebook, then copied to my desktop from there and uploaded to blogger.  

Here are all of my quilt squares cut out and ready to be pieced together.  Don't you just love the fabrics?  It's going to be hard to give this away, especially being my first quilt and all. 

After I did that, I just had to get the layout done.  So here are the squares pinned to a sheet hanging in front of my windows.  

I have all of the rows sewn together and 3 of them are all sewn together (does that make sense?).  So pretty much I just have to sew the other 3 rows on and my quilt top is complete!!  I'll take pictures after that.  I've kind of lost momentum on it this week, just have been overly tired or something.  I hope to have it all done tonight though so I can start working on a couple of other special projects over the weekend!

Happy Birthday, Calvin!

(Cake by Aunt Robin)

Calvin turned a year old yesterday, but I didn't get my post done in time.  I'll just share some pictures from his Birthday party that was on Sunday.  Of course, leading up to and since that day, the weather has been beautiful - but since I scheduled his party outside, at a park, it was pretty windy and chilly that day (because that's how things work in our life).  We still had a great time and thank all of our family and friends who came to help us celebrate!  I can't believe it's been a year - the first year with Calvin seems to have gone by twice as fast as Hunter's first year....I guess just because now I'm trying to keep up with 2!

Ashleigh and Matt were in town so they (along with Tanner) came over to see the boys.  

Calvin had just woken up from a nap and he was not sure what was going on:

On the way to the park:
Hunter and Calvin waiting for our guests to arrive:
The cupcakes I made: 

*Cherry Chip cake with Vanilla frosting (orange) and a cherry on top

*Chocolate Fudge cake with Peppermint frosting (green) and chocolate chips on top

Homemade frosting adapted from this yummy recipe
Calvin didn't dig into his cake too much so we had to help him a little.  

He liked the cake part much better than frosting (doesn't get that from me):
Hunter, Brooklyn and McKade enjoying their cupcakes:

Uncle Burbs helped Calvin open all his great gifts:
This looks like one all the kids would like:
At least when it's windy you can fly a kite:

It's 1 a.m. and I'm Up....

Working on my QUILT!!

I got all of my strips sewn together and cut out and I was so anxious to lay it out that I've been working on that the last half hour!  So excited!  I'll post pictures soon - tomorrow maybe.  I do believe it's going to be a beauty - I can't like it too much, it's a gift!

I didn't get my sewing machine working yet, but my darling friend, Annie lent me one of hers.  If she hadn't, I'm sure my motivation to work on the quilt would be nearly extinct.

Veggies or Cookies?

Yummy giveaway at Leslie Loves Veggies!

Enjoy your day!

My husband is hunting, Hunter is a bit stuffy and Calvin is teething.  I'm hoping for a good day despite all of that!

Remembering