Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Double Digits!

My boy... Matthew is 10. Double Digits! Wow! That went by fast!!!

So Creative, Imaginative, Constant, Enthusiastic, Loving, Affectionate, Strong, Smart, Happy, and Loyal.

He began life with us so very tiny, under 5 pounds even though he was born several days "past due"! Now growing so big and strong. Hurtling towards manhood so quickly it makes this mama's head spin, yet thankfully, still such a happy innocent child. Small enough to love dressing up and pretending, mature enough to be logical when problem solving, and always thinking outside the box! Oh my sweet, sweet Matthew!

This was Matthew 10 years ago. See his sweet dimples? He was born with the most perfectly round little head. (Oddly enough, considering the perfect roundness of that head, he was my easiest birth by far!)

Big brother Logan meeting Matthew minutes after he was born... Looking at this picture now, it almost looks like Rodrigo had a harder time at that birth than I did!

And now 10 times around the sun later... Getting so big and see? He still has those adorable little dimples!

We enjoy this kid so much!

Building a toolbox with his Daddy. He is such a hard worker!

Last weekend we had a birthday party for him and had 10 boys (counting our 3) here for a birthday/slumber party! Such noisy fun!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy! We are so very thankful for you and love you so, so much!!!

Seasonal Handmade Exchange Part 2

Yay! Today we received our package from Jen for the Seasonal Handmade Exchange. What fun! There wasn't much light in the house as the sun was already sinking in the sky when we open it, but I still managed to get a few pictures of the items she sent us before it set completely.

In our package we found five sweet little wool heart ornaments made from upcycled felted (fulled) sweaters and stuffed with wool...

And my favorite item... a delicate roving angel. She is so pretty on our Christmas Tree right now!

The boys thought it was such fun getting these things in the mail! I can't wait to participate in another swap sometime soon!

Seasonal Handmade Exchange

I just participated in my very first swap ever! The Seasonal Handmade Exchange hosted by Jen of Sewn Natural Studio and Rae of Morning Sun Rae. The idea was to swap a handmade item for one's nature table crafted from natural materials. Jen turned out to be my swap partner. It was pretty exciting to get paired with someone known all over blogland for her creativity, but a little bit intimidating as well! I had just designed these cute little wooden snow babies complete with a sled to pull each other around (or even to give their favorite snowman a ride!) So, I decided to make those for her, and make another set for us later.

I waited to post pictures of them until she emailed me that she had received them. I wasn't sure how long shipping would take all the way to Canada from here, but it wasn't too bad actually. Aren't they cute? I was pretty happy with how they turned out!

Rodrigo (my husband -for those of you who haven't been reading my blog for long) keeps trying to get me to open up an Etsy shop and sell my little wooden creations, because he thinks they are adorable... that really intimidates me! (The opening the shop part, not that he loves my little wooden toys!) I feel like "What if I devote all of that time and energy and love into making sweet little things and then no one wants them?"

I got as far as signing up, and choosing a shop name... but still haven't listed anything. Someday... maybe...

Recap of the past few weeks

OK, OK. I realize that I just disappeared from blogland for the past few weeks without so much as a by-your-leave or any word of explanation. Honestly I didn't mean to be gone that long... but life happens! It isn't that there was nothing blog worthy happening around these parts, rather there was so much happening that I barely had a chance to sit down, much less time to compose a nice coherent blog post about everything that was happening! While I am making no claims on being coherent, here are a few highlights from the past few weeks. :-)

The Niña and the Pinta (of the "Christopher Columbus discovering the New World" fame) came to town and we got to go on board for a tour with our homeschool group.

We went to the zoo on a beautiful warm and sunny autumn day. Rodrigo had to work so I was alone there with the kids... normally that would not be a big deal, but the zoo here has a free admission day once a year and I think the entire population of the city we live near showed up that day!!! It was a bit overwhelming, so I didn't get many pictures, since I had to keep such a close eye on the kids, I didn't feel comfortable with the camera stuck to my face the whole time!

We found Logan's "Secret Spy I.D. card" from when he was 6 years old... wasn't he a cutie?!? Still is I think!

Family came over one evening for Guatemalan Tamales and Ponche Navideño (Christmas Punch, hot, spiced and heavily laden with fruit!) and a bonfire.

This picture doesn't really do the bonfire justice... it was huge! The flames easily reached 15 feet into the sky!

We have been busy crafting for Christmas! Making gifts and ornaments! These pictures are of one afternoon we spent over at my mom's house working on ornaments.

I have been working on many of handmade gifts for my loved ones, I'll try to take some nice pictures of those to share with you all tomorrow when the sun is shining again. But some of my favorite things that I have been working on I can't share here... those are gifts for family members that read my blog, and I don't want to spoil the surprise! So you'll just have to wait until after Christmas to see pictures of those!

Warm and Wonderful Gifts in the Mail!

Yesterday there was a box waiting for us in the mail with "New Zealand Post" printed on it! What a fun surprise! It was packed full of adorable gifts for us from dear Marie of Softearth's World. I began following her blog right about the time I first started my own blog. She is a very talented wool needle felting artist with an Etsy Shop full of beautiful needle felted treasures! (If anyone is looking for something beautiful, natural and handmade to give as Christmas Gifts, be sure to check her shop!)



She is having a giveaway on her blog this month for a beautiful Nativity Scene. So be sure to go over there and leave her a comment so you can have a chance at winning!

You should have heard the boys' excitement as we opened the box. Speculating as to what it could be inside... all the way from New Zealand! That phrase was repeated about 50 times, while Ethan had to get a map and look and see just how far this package had come to make it's way to our home.

The boys loved these sweet Toadstool Babies! She sent us 4 of them, so now each of the children has one! Aren't they adorable?! They are on our nature shelf right now, and will probably stay there for a long time. :-)

We also discovered this pretty little snow white bird, and a tiny wee baby nestled in a soft little cradle of her own. Ethan said he would let Claire play with the baby as soon as she's a bit bigger... And the bird he informed me will have to "nest" in our Christmas tree, "so we can remember the nice little lady from New Zealand who sent us all of this fun stuff!" as he put it.

Marie also included several lovely photos and postcards of her work. My favorite one of those is this print of the Nativity scene she created.

Thank you Marie, for sharing such lovely gifts with our family! We will enjoy them for many years!

P.S. Everybody make sure you do go to Softearth's World and sign up for her giveaway! It is such fun to get things from far off places in the mail! 

WIP Wednesday ~ more handmade presents

I just wanted to share the sweet little needle felted terrarium I made for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I found this adorable apothecary jar one evening when Rodrigo and I were out on a date and knew as soon as I saw it, what I wanted to use it for! I finished it up last night... what do you think?

The boys and I dyed all of the wool using Kool-aid and food coloring... I love how many of the colors turned out mottled looking with different shades running all through the wool. It made for lovely moss and rocks!

I decided to make my terrarium look "realistic" (well, if of course you can consider a tiny wee rabbit inside a terrarium realistic!) So I added dirt under the moss, as well as several wool stones.

The following is the project I spent all of my free time working on today:  A little cape for Claire out of the same fabric as the one I am making for me. The closer I got to finishing it the bigger it seemed. I don't have much experience sewing for baby girls, and the patterns have different sizes than I am used to seeing for baby's clothing... The pattern was for toddler's sizes 1/2, (one half), 1, 2, and 3. I was assuming by the measurements on the back of the pattern that 1/2 was equal to a 6 month size, and size 1 was a 12 month size. Here is the cape nearly finished, it still lacks the closures ... Since Claire is nearly a year old (!) and wears a size 12 months clothes I used the size 1 toddler's pattern.

And here is the cape being modeled by Ethan who is 7 years old!!! It's huge!

There is no way my poor little Claire is going to be able to wear this any time in the next 2 years (or possibly more!) I really can't figure out how this happened! The size 1/2 wasn't that much smaller (maybe an half an inch shorter, or so.) They don't make patterns in size one tenth.... so now what?  At least it went together quickly, during both of her naps today! And someday she'll be big enough to wear it...

Spontaneity

Last week(on Thursday), we where sitting around our kitchen table having lunch. Rodrigo had the day off and we had just found out that he'd have off the next day as well. Why don't we take the family and go to the beach, he asked....  Hmmm.... why not indeed?!?! So we threw some clothes and food in the van and we where off!

We went to the beach in South Carolina. It was lovely! The days where warm and the evenings cool. The water still held enough of summer's warmth for the boys to spend hours playing in the waves. 

When they started feeling cold they joined us in the sand to warm up and play for a while in the sunshine.

 
                     
 

Logan and Rodrigo went to the salt marsh and explored for hours. They collected all sorts of interesting creatures from the tidal flats.

Sometimes the best things happen when you don't have a plan!