Crafty Capers

At last!!!  The promised post with all the creative stuff!!!

One of the reasons I love Halloween is the opportunity to make stuff!  This year I made paper mache pumpkins, tin can luminaries  a silhouette for our single front window, and body part cookies.  Let me show you!

Paper mache pumpkins

Okay, I found these on Pinterest and they looked so cute and easy!  Turns out they're really not!  In the end I was happy with the results, but it took a lot more effort than I'd expected.

Here's the basic idea of what to do:  You blow up a balloon with string around it so that it bulges out in a pumpkin shape.  Paper mache a couple of layers.  Ta da!  All done!

Ha!

First of all, getting the string around the balloon took a bit more working out than I'd thought.  I ended up with a slow and careful process of blowing up the balloon, measuring the string around it, letting all the air out, tying the string, half blowing up the balloon and putting the strings around it (while not letting the air out of the balloon), blowing up the balloon a bit more, moving the strings so that they were a bit more even around the balloon, blowing up the balloon some more, moving the strings so they didn't slide around to one side of the balloon, blowing the balloon to bulging point, and finally attempting to tie off the balloon without the strings sliding around or the balloon popping.

It was great fun.

Anyway, I eventually got three done.  Because there's no stores nearby that have paper mache glue, I made the glue from plain flour and water.  I did about three layers of white and one layer of orange tissue paper (using watered down PVA glue so that I didn't end up with white flour glue spots all over the finished product).

I learned that the Little Big Fella really likes to eat flour, even when it's in the form of a glue paste.  Doing this project with a child around is fun but messy.

Oh!  And by the way, if you attempt this, I highly recommend having a nice big end on the string tie point.  Hanging them on the washing line to dry was slightly tricky with my little ones.  They all fell several times and ended up with a few dents.

My pumpkins sat on my buffet for a couple of weeks and I wasn't quite happy with them.  So at about 4pm, before our 6pm departure for the Halloween walk, I decided to paint vines and leaves on them.  Probably not a good time to do it, but I was finally happy with the results.

Pity it was too dark for everyone to see them when they came trick or treating!!!

Tin Can Luminaries

Another Pinterest find, this is just a bunch of tin cans, washed and with the labels removed.  Fill with water and freeze, then punch holes in patterns with a hammer and nail.  If I did these again, I'd draw my designs on with a black marker before freezing the cans.  This time I made do with a pencil, but it really would have been easier the other way.  Let the ice melt and the tins dry, and if you need to, hammer the base back in so that it'll stand up straight.  Spray paint (so they look nice during the day) and pop a candle in.  Ta da!

Window silhouette

Pinterest is definitely my friend for these kinds of things.  I get to find easy and effective ideas, and also be inspired by other peoples' efforts on the not-so-easy stuff.  This one was pretty simple: Draw a shape on cardboard, cut it out, pin it on the sheer curtain.  I had to add an extra step of spray-painting the cardboard because I made mine using two different, light colours and it would have driven me nuts.  And it looks much more effective in black.

Body part cookies

Again, thanks to Pinterest I came across witches finger biscuits.  I didn't look at the recipe though - just used my chocolate chip cookie recipe.  At the last minute the Little Big Fella and I decided to make them green, which meant a lot of really hard mixing to try to get the green to spread evenly through the dough.  Next time, I'd add the colour at the liquid stage!

The other thing I didn't really take into consideration is that my cookie recipe spreads.

So we tried a few more, making them skinnier and they were better.  But I got sick of making fingers so we switched to eyeballs.

In the end we made little bags with a finger and an eyeball for about 50.  I tried to make the "eyeballs" bloodshot, but they just looked like weird starfish on the biscuits.  Luckily they tasted alright though!

So that's my Halloween creativeness done and dusted.  I also tried these spooky eyes, but they weren't as effective as I hoped - the glow sticks didn't glow enough to give the full effect.

I've also been doing a few Christmas cards ready for the upcoming season.  Here's a sneak peek!

So now it's on to Christmas!  Two months of creativity, carols and celebrations!!!  Woo hoo!!!!!!

While the cat's away...

I've had lots of things to tell you all, but I've had no time to tell it!!!

The Big Fella was away fishing for a week.  So, to keep myself from getting sad and lonely, I planned a few things to do.

I've cleaned almost as if I was moving house (we're not, by the way) including exhaust fans (bleuch!) and windows (double bleuch!).

I've woken up my (very sleepy) craft bug.  I think it's the time of year.  Halloween is a little bit of a deal here in our little town, so I've made some paper mache pumpkins, I'm still working on some luminieres made from tin cans, and I need to paint my window silhouettes.  I'm also working on a costume for the school fair/ladies' pink night/Halloween walk.  And all of that gets me excited about Christmas so I've been planning and buying stuff for that too.  But there'll be more about my crafty capers in another post (possibly next week).

And what else should you do to fill in time without your husband, but hang out with friends???

We've had playdates and craft sessions and buy-at-home parties.  And I had a few of the girls around for an evening on Friday.  No, there'll be no telling!  But I think it's okay to say that none of us has had a late night drinking and laughing with the girls in a while, and it hit us a little hard the next day.

I have to say that I have some brilliant friends, too!  I love that we talk about a wide range of things and we can say some pretty outrageous stuff and not be shot to pieces for it.

And laughing!  Oh my goodness I love laughing!!!

But I often get so caught up in the busy-ness and stress of daily life that I forget to see the funny stuff.  Life shouldn't be so serious!  Keep reminding me about that, okay?

It was my nephew's 5th birthday the other day!  I got to talk to him on the phone and I miss him (and his brother, my sister and brother-in-law) so much!  That's definitely one of the sucky things about living away from family, and friends too.

The school is running a fair this Friday and I've offered to do balloon animals for them.  I was trying to get my juggling skills back in time, but it just hasn't happened.  I think I stress out about it too much and end up throwing the balls all over the place!

I'm excited to do some kid-based stuff again, though.  It's been quite a while!  I'm hoping to get half an hour to practice some of the trickier ones before then.  Or at least jump online and look at a few!  I think my very basic repertoire of a dog/giraffe/monkey/elephant and a sword won't quite cut it.

We're off to the big town 2 hours away tomorrow.  The Big Fella has a specialist appointment for the first time since we moved here.  It's been very exciting lately, because his most recent pathology says that his weight loss and exercise are improving his kidney health, significantly reducing his potential need for intervention.  I just about did a happy dance in the doctor's office when he said that!

While we're over there, we're going to be doing a spot of shopping (hello Spotlight (fabric/craft store) and Bunnings (hardware store)).  Just a tad excited about that one.

Anyway, I need to go finish the dishes and get to bed.  The Big Fella is working tonight so there's a decent possibility that I'll be driving tomorrow.

Okay, side note:  I want to kill my dogs!  Obviously not literally.  But when that stinking cat comes by every, single, night, and they bark like there's no tomorrow every, single, night and it doesn't matter what I do they do it EVERY, SINGLE, NIGHT.  Sheesh.

Right.  Time to post this (sorry, it's been a while and this really hasn't been a very exciting post) and get to bed!

An introvert's paradox

I am an introvert.

And I love hanging out with people.

I love playdates, and girl's nights out, and dinner parties, and BBQs, and events, and movies, and restaurants, and just being with people.

But when things get busy, or tough, or overwhelming, or confusing or whatever, I need time to myself to refresh and regroup.  To re-set myself to take on life and the world.

Which is kind of how I'm feeling at the moment.  Life has been busy these past few weeks.  Full of fun stuff like playdates with water-based jumping castles and slides!

We've been to parties for birthdays and footy finals.  We've spent plenty of awesome time hanging out with friends.  Being the school holidays, the Little Big Fella has been home so we've had a sleepover and friends over.

It's all been absolutely awesome and fun.

And because of all this awesome fun-ness, my normal routines haven't been working for me and my most productive time of day has been filled with other things.  Which leaves me feeling overwhelmed by the mess in my house (particularly the dust!) and the long list of things that need doing that I just don't seem to be getting to!

Which, of course, has me mildly stressing because I'm supposed to start working soon and I'm wondering how that's going to work out.

The Big Fella is about to go off on a Northern fishing adventure for a week.  I'll miss him heaps, but at the same time, I'm kind of looking forward to having the chance to catch up with myself.

It's kind of funny though.  Time by myself, refreshing and re-setting normally includes a whole new bunch of "to-do's".  But because they're often craft or organising, and I can set my own schedule and pace, it works for me.

I'm working on some Halloween paper mache pumpkins, and I have some sewing to do, and a costume to create, and some balloon sculpting to practice...

Hmmm, maybe I need a holiday! ;-D

Turning 4

A couple of days ago my Little Big Fella turned 4.

It's official.

He's now a "big boy" (according to him at the very least).

And because I'm blogging, I get to be the soppy mum for a minute and say I'm so proud of who he's turning out to be.

He's smart and funny and entertaining and fun to be around.  He can be generous and exceptionally loving.  He loves playing with his friends, but is also happy to play alone (lucky really, given that he's an only child!).

He's just as anal as me about things being done "right".  He's very good at demanding to be heard (especially if I'm on the phone or talking to someone else) and he generally knows what he wants.

I'm enjoying watching him change and grow and discover, and I wonder what kind of a "big boy" he'll be, and what kind of man.

Anyway, enough of the self-gratifying reflections, let's get on to the good stuff!

The night before his birthday, the Big Fella and I blew up a few balloons and hung them in the living area, and I put the present from us and from one set of grandparents on the table.

When he woke up and came to the living area he was stoked by the balloons! Amazing how something so small can be so exciting when you're that young :-)

Then, of course, he saw the presents and was into it!!!  We started with the one from the Big Fella's parents.

Now, the Little Big Fella hasn't made paper planes before, so didn't really understand what his new (BIG) book was about.  The Big Fella just happened to have picked up a foam plane the day before but hadn't put it together or shown the Little Big Fella.  So to give him an idea of what you can do with paper planes, he made up the foam one.

 
Obviously the Little Big Fella had to have a go too :-D  And he LOVED it!  No doubt that book will be regularly referenced in the future!

Well, as much fun as planes are, there was another present to open so we dragged the Little Big Fella back to the table to see what was there.

Insert side story here:
The Little Big Fella has been thoroughly enjoying the few dress-ups that he has over the past few months, so I'd considered buying him another one for his birthday.  But I hadn't gotten around to it.

So last week I was looking at super hero costumes online.  You know, Iron Man, the Green Lantern, Spiderman...  I couldn't decide which one I thought my son would like best, so I decided to get him involved.

I sat him on my lap and we looked through a few pages of boys costumes.  He was quite taken with the Green Lantern... until he saw...

 

Yep, it is!  Darth Vader!  Not a Jedi costume, but Darth Vader.  This is what he chose out of all the superheroes we looked at!!!

Of course, he had to try it on and show himself in the mirror straight away :-D

 

That costume stayed on him almost literally all day!  And most of the next day too!

He wore it when we went to playgroup (and unfortunately accidentally hit one of the kids with his light saber).

He wore it when we got home and for the afternoon.

And he wore it when we went to the park for an Easter event held by our local Lions club.

Suffice to say, he's happy with his birthday present :-)

When we got home from playgroup, the Big Fella had been to the post office and discovered another present for the birthday boy.  This one was from my parents.

It was an Iron Man 3 figure with car and guns and it got an absolute workout! It almost got taken to the park in the afternoon, but thankfully I was able to talk the Little Big Fella out of that one.

The Easter event at the park that afternoon was great fun too.  Funnily enough, the Little Big Fella thought it was his party in the park!  He got to play with his best friend, and plenty of his other friends.  They had sno cones (crushed ice with incredibly sweet coloured syrup) and fairy floss and a little jumping castle!!!  And the Little Big Fella won a prize for the Easter hat he'd made in playgroup that morning!

Talk about a massive day!

Originally I'd planned to have a couple of the Little Big Fella's friends over for a small party, then have a cake at the park for everyone.  But because of playgroup and then the Lions event, I'd decided not to.

But the Little Big Fella kept talking about having his friends at his house for a birthday party, so I decided to go ahead and have one.

Unlike previous parties, I didn't want to spend weeks (months) preparing for it and wanted to make it pretty simple.  So I made a superhero cape for each of the boys, got some cardboard masks, a Spiderman pez dispenser and a bag of teddy biscuits and made that the party bag, intending to give it to each of the boys as they arrived.

As well as the balloons we'd put up the day before, I stuck some streamers around the place and that was it for decoration.

For food I just did a plate of fruit, a bowl of chips (crisps), and some party pies and sausage rolls with sauce.

Well, unfortunately the party with a few friends didn't quite turn out as expected.

The Little Big Fella's best friend went camping first thing on the day of the party.

Another friend woke up with a tummy bug that morning so couldn't come.

The third friend's mum had booked an appointment with the hairdresser so couldn't get to the party.

So only one friend (and his sister) ended up coming.  And they had a great time and the Little Big Fella thought it was awesome!  He even took off his Darth Vader costume and let his friend try it on!!!

It was definitely the most laid back party I've done so far, but apparently it was still a success!  Hip, hip... hooray!!!!!

Oh brother!

Oh my goodness!!!  I have some serious catching up to do here!!!  I have pictures and stories and all sorts to tell.  So I think what I'll do is give you a few today, and hopefully a few more tomorrow and over the next few days.

Why am I bothering to catch up?  Well, because I think you guys are awesome for reading my blog so I want to continue to entertain you.  And because my friends and family who live a long way away say that they like to see and hear what we get up to, so I want to keep letting them into our lives.

So, here we go!

I am the oldest of four.  I love my siblings and, although we had our fair share of fights as we were growing up, we've always been friends as well.

At the start of the month we had the pleasure of having my brother stay with us.  He lives two states away - about 24 hours drive.  So it was awesome to see him.

He'd flown up and was staying with my sister in our old town, then caught the train to here.  The train was supposed to arrive at 2am but due to the heavy rains and a couple of trains breaking down he didn't get here until 6:30am (or something like that).

Sunrise while waiting for the my brother's train to arrive.

Unfortunately, we were all sick while he was here :(  We had head and chest colds so we ended up spending most of our time reading and watching movies and attempting to sleep.

But we also played some board games, did the shopping and just spent time talking.  And we were really quite happy with that!

The last day of his visit with us was my brother's birthday, so I attempted my first ever sponge cake!  Mum used to make sponges for our birthdays every year so it was fun to recreate the tradition.

The cake turned out great!  It was light and fluffy and delicious!  But I'd forgotten that Mum used to cut the cake in half horizontally, then put the jam and cream in the middle and ice the top.  The recipe makes two cakes though, so I put the jam and cream on the bottom cake (by the way, we'd bought low fat cream.  Turns out you can't whip low fat cream!  So I just poured it over the bottom layer and let it soak in a bit, then put the jam over that), then put the other cake on top of it and iced it.

The Little Big Fella decided he wanted us to put red icing on top.  Well, that icing just wouldn't turn red!!!  So after about half a bottle of red food colouring, I ended up adding some yellow to make it orange-ish.

Okay, fine!  It's pink!

So after a pretty quiet couple of days, it was time for my little bro to go.  The exciting thing is that I'll be seeing him in July when we go to the P!nk concert with my youngest sister!!!!  Woo hoo!!!!

About to say goodbye as the sun sets on the day and our visit.

Our next new adventure for the year actually happened in February!  We went to our first Race Day!

Last year the Big Fella was living here in the quarters and went with one of his classmates.  He called me up telling me how much fun he was having and that we should definitely go next year.

Well, this year he was working so I had to take the Little Big Fella instead :-D  They cater to kids and had a few rides and bits and pieces.  Initially the Little Big Fella was NOT interested!  The slide looked too big and he just wanted to be near me.

That didn't last too long!

And once he'd been on the slide, he had to go on the horses, then the rocket, then the jumping castle.  He had a ball!

Being new to races, I didn't realise there would only be 5 races for the whole afternoon.  But once the races started, the Little Big Fella and I got up to the fence and cheered everyone on, not caring a bit who won!  It was good fun!

There were heaps of people there too, including some of the Little Big Fella's friends, so we had a lovely afternoon.

The funny thing was when the police turned up and drove through the carpark.  Everyone who could see them kind of stopped what they were doing and watched them.  Then once the police left, it was as if someone had turned the music back on or something!

Hmmm, what else have we been up to?

Okay, one more for today.

This is one of our Rhode Island red chicken's eggs.  She lays her eggs in the dog house.  If I don't collect the egg very quickly after she vacates the dog house, the dog retaliates for being kicked out of her house by cracking (and sometimes eating) the egg.

At least the other chicken lays her eggs in the chicken house!

Is Christmas just for kids?

I was wrapping Christmas presents tonight and considering Christmas in general.  The thought occurred to me that Christmas is very much a celebration for children.  Everything is so exciting for them.  There's changes in routine and food, and, of course, the presents!

But is Christmas just for kids?

I don't think so!  I love Christmas!  I love the lights and decorations, the food and festivities, and the general atmosphere of celebration and goodwill.

But I have to admit that having a nearly-four-year-old is making this Christmas season particularly enjoyable so far :-D

We've had a lot of fun cooking together, putting up the Christmas tree, and looking at Christmas lights.  Every morning we've opened up our little advent calendar and counted how many days have passed, looking at how close we're getting to Christmas day.

And the Big Fella and I have thoroughly enjoyed buying presents for the Little Big Fella, and a couple for each other too :-)

One of my family Christmas traditions is to wrap presents on Christmas Eve while watching the Christmas Carols on TV.  Each person would disappear into a bedroom and wrap the presents they were giving then bring them out and put them under the tree and continue enjoying the Carols.

Well, this year we've been invited to our next-door neighbour's place for a BBQ dinner/party on Christmas Eve so I had to wrap the presents tonight!

Dilemma!!! 

I thought, "I'll watch a Christmas movie while I'm wrapping!"

Ha!

Would you believe it's Sunday night, two nights before Christmas and there wasn't a single Christmas movie on???  I even jumped online and checked the TV guide and discovered there will only be about 3 over the next two days!!!

I was shattered!  Actually, I'm still not really over it and I'm seriously considering hiring a handful of them, even if I end up watching them all by myself :-D

I did watch "The Holiday" the other night and one of the lines I love is when Kate Winslet's character takes the old man to his award/recognition night.  He presents her with a corsage and says that he hopes it's not too corny.  She responds with, "I like corny.  I'm looking for corny in my life".

That's totally me at Christmas!  I love the pathetically corny Christmas movies, and the ridiculous music!  I'm looking for corny in my life!!!!

Anyway, there's only one more full day until Christmas and I think I'm nearly as excited as my Little Big Fella.

Well, maybe not quite.

The wonder of Christmas lights

This is not my house.

I'd kind of like it to be, but it's not.

This is my house.

The first picture is my next-door neighbour's house.  Pretty cool, isn't it?  And what I love the most about it (and Christmas lights in general), is the feeling of special-ness that all those lights create.

I remember, when I was much younger, I'd sneak out at night time, after everyone else was asleep, and just sit next to the Christmas tree and bask in the glow.  Sounds kind of lame when I write it like that.  But Christmas lights really evoke a sense of wonder in me.

My husband, the Big Fella, does not share my sentiment.  In fact, he's rather bah humbug about Christmas in general.  Yesterday he was catching up on some sleep so the Little Big Fella and I watched "Jingle All the Way".  Tacky movie, I know, but it was Christmas-y and I enjoyed it.

I guess I'm just a big softie who still wishes that there was such a thing as magic.

Anyway, this year is only the beginning of our Christmas light/yard decorations!  And while we may be the poor, sad little house of Christmas lights this year,

if my plans for next year come off we might just be the talk of the town!!!

Isn't this supposed to be fun?

I've had a rather... hormonal couple of days.  Unfortunately it combined with lack of sleep, a bit of hot weather, a 3 and a half year old who has a bit of an attitude, and a husband who's been working hard and wants to relax (fair enough really!).  I guess what I'm trying to say is, my poor Fellas have had to put up with one cranky woman this week!

In the midst of this cranky storm I've been trying to do some Christmas preparation because of the strong possibility of heading back to our old town for a week or two to help out my sister, who's just had an operation (nothing major - just no heavy lifting, driving etc).

A couple of evenings ago I decided to try to put up our new outdoor lights.  I LOVE Christmas lights and this is the first time we've had any, other than on the Christmas tree.  So I went out in the late afternoon shade and the Little Big Fella decided to "help" me.  Out comes Mrs Moody and ruins it for everyone!  There was cranking and growling and frustration when things didn't go right.

The next day we decided to bake some Christmas cookies.  The Little Big Fella and I have cooked a bit together and normally it works out pretty well.  But not this time!  This time I was using a new recipe, the kitchen wasn't set up to make it easy and the Little Big Fella's propensity to ignore instructions caused it to be way more stressful than fun.

And I thought to myself, "isn't this supposed to be fun?  Isn't the idea of doing these Christmas-y things supposed to be building our relationship and giving him wonderful memories?"  And I felt like Christmas this year was ruined before it had even begun.

Thankfully I didn't write this post on that day!  It would have been morbid and depressing and whingey and complaint-filled.  Bleuch!

But the next day the hormone storm passed and we decided to put up the Christmas tree together.  Last year the Little Big Fella and his older cousin did all the decorating of our tree (well, up to as high as they could reach anyway!) and we had a really fun time.  Thankfully this year still had some of that joy :-)

We found the Christmas tree in the back shed, and the boxes of decorations.  I put the tree together and then the lights on it then we both put the "balls" on, while listening to Michael Bublé crooning some of my favourite Christmas carols.

The Little Big Fella decided he should "swim" under the tree and find the presents!  (Such amazing imagination!)  Most of the "presents" were lights for the tree :-D

Oh!  And while I was putting the tree together, I heard a voice behind me.

"Guess who I am!"

I turn around to this:

"I'm Santa!"

"No I'm not!  I'm (the Little Big Fella)!"

Unlike last year, the decorations were put over the whole tree, but the Little Big Fella just couldn't get the idea of each branch having a bauble, so some missed out while others got several :-)

The finished product!  Lovely and bright and full.  It's at the front window so people going past might see it, and it's also at the end of the hallway so I see it as I'm going down there from the other end of the house.  It makes me smile :-)

I just realised today that I haven't got anything to put in our little advent calendar yet and I think I'd like to do it because, as well as working on our numbers, it helps to build the excitement for Christmas and means I (hopefully) won't be asked every. single. day. if it's Christmas yet :-D