Crackerbox

"Mr Gary is so talented"

These are the words I have heard from my children quite a lot this week. Mr Gary is a superhero around here.  He built the tree  house.

 

I think he was successful. We checked out this book from the library and Leighton and Gary used it to design our tree house.  During construction, Gary thought we should make it a little bigger than we had planned and so we told him to do whatever he thought would be best. He was right, I am glad it is a little bigger, but we are a little concerned about the neighborhood association.  Hopefully they will like it.

Tomorrow Helena's friend is coming over to play with her in it. It is the first time she has ever had someone come home with us after school.  She is pretty excited. This little play date has been a good motivator for good behavior. I have never seen her go to bed so agreeably.

Good Night and have a great Wednesday!!!!

My New Skirt

I have been admiring this skirt at Boden.
Since it seemed like something I could do on my own, I thought I would give it a try and save $108.
Mine is a little different. But I like it all the same.

The pattern is from my favorite Sew Everything Workshop book. I used a fine wale cord and the appliques are cut from a shirt I got on clearance at Target. Here is a little detail.

This is my second time using this pattern and I am sure it won't be the last. It is simple to make and the possibilities for embellishment are endless. 

Have a great day!!!!!!

The Treehouse

There is a lot of excitement in the air around here. There is a little girl turning 7 years old on Friday and she thinks she might be getting a tree house.  She has spent a little time thinking about it. Here is the evidence. A series of books all about a girl and her tree house.

This one is about the treehouse getting electricity.

#4 and #5 in the series have a similar theme. A new chair for the treehouse and paint for the tree house.

 

Here is my little author busy at work.

 

And in case you were wondering what she is eating. It is lettuce. The child has never let it pass her lips before, but we grew some in the backyard and now she is eating it.

 

Yes, we grew lettuce and then I served it on a paper plate with ranch dressing. I am not sure exactly what that says about me. Oh well, my kids ate lettuce.

And in totally unrelated news, we are enjoying being outside.  And we are also enjoying  playing UNO.  Here are a few pictures of my card sharks.

 

Well that is it for now. Maybe I will have some photos of a treehouse to share by the end of the week. Time will tell.

Have a great night.

Artist Trading Cards

I joined my first swap ever. I have wanted to do some artist trading cards for awhile but was too chicken to dive in and get started. So I signed up at swap bot and joined a swap for newbies. The theme was flowers.  I received my card from Michelle this week.  It is very pretty, I can tell she spent a lot of time on the details and it is lovely.

Here is my offering. I wanted to do a mini little quilt. I had a few setbacks, but I like the overall finished product.


I really hope Michelle is happy and doesn't feel like she got the short end of the stick.  I am going to send it off tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  We may possibly head out to the Civil War Reenactment going on here this weekend. However the $20 per person admission fee might hold us back. This may be a one on one activity for Helena and  a parent. I am afraid the little ones might get scared with all the loud sounds. Helena really wants to see a canon go off, so maybe this will be her lucky weekend.

Fall

It is starting to look and feel a little like fall. What a gorgeous color palette.
My acorn collectors have been working overtime. Here is just a sampling of their collection.
Have a great night.

Getting Dark...

Darker

 

Darker..

 

Darker....

 

And here is one using the flash.

Weekend

We went to Fort Myers this weekend. Helena's birthday is coming up and we did a little celebrating.
Here is Helena dressed up like a chicken and doing the chicken dance. I think this is designed to humiliate people on their birthday, but I think she liked it. Little girl had a hard time keeping those cups in her mouth with those two front teeth missing.  I think these will make excellent future blackmail photos.  I love my girl and she loves her some crablegs.  Which is why we were at Joe's Crab Shack.  Whenever she requests crablegs we tell her you have to wait until your birthday.
 

We also had a little party on Saturday at my Grandma's house. All the cousins came and it was much fun. There was swimming and pizza and cake. A perfect recipe for a fun birthday.

This picture is out of order but since there are not too many pictures of me in existence and it is one where I only look partially weird. (as opposed to most of the pictures where I look completely freaky). I thought I would share. Thanks to my guest photographer Aunt April.

Helena's actual birthday is in a couple of weeks and we are working on building her a tree house. Not sure how it will work out, but we have a book and a contractor, so I have high hopes. (don't get the wrong idea, the contractor is a friend)

I hope everyone had a great weekend and it continues all week.

Welcome Baby Scarlett

My Cousin and his beautiful wife welcomed a new daughter this week. Scarlett Hope is her name and she is a beauty.  This baby blanket and onesie are headed her way.

On the home front, Helena rode the bus for the first time ever yesterday.

She liked it.

Happy Labor Day

Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day.

Can you find the Ladybug?

Have a great week.