Thankful Tree

Bursting with gratitude?

Got a hefty stash of felt handy?

Well here's the tutorial for you.

I must give credit where it's due - I get (*cough* steal *cough*) lots of ideas from Pottery Barn Kids. Eli loves to play in there, and while he plays, I get inspired. That's where the idea for the Thankful Tree was planted, as well as the Paper Bird Mobile. I don't take photos (the fella scolded me for that one) I just look and let the ideas ruminate for a while until they bust their way out via my fingertips. To begin, sew four sheets of green felt together like so:
(That beige sheet should be green, but I only had three green sheets).

Then cut it into a bushy/tree shape por exemplo:
Now, because my sheets weren't all the same color, I decided to felt in some green roving to mask the different shades. You can skip this step if you have enough green sheets of felt.
Make some branches and a trunk out of brown felt:
Voila.

Then cut out a buncha leaves out of fall colored felt. Add numbers for the dates of the month. I sewed my numbers with a very tight wide zig zag stitch. But you could cut numbers of out felt and stitch them on by hand or machine (don't worry about the edges - felt doesn't fray - love the stuff!).
Then stitch the leaves on, leaving the center portion of the leaf, and the top wedge un-stitched, so that you'll have a little pocket into which you can tuck a note of thanks.
Because November's been a busy month, I just got this finished today, so the boys and I played Gratitude Catch-Up at dinner tonight. Dizzy totally gets it. Right out the gate - he's thankful for his family (melt). Then he's thankful for us one by one (including me, with a little goading - "How about the one who made the tree?")

Then he exclaimed, "The next one's for Luca and Inara!" - his besties. Heart...warmed.

We were thankful for his school, teacher and class buddies...our yummy food, especially when prepared by Daddy, and being so healthy. And now we're caught up.

The plan is to continue discussing gratitude and write something we're thankful for each of the remaining days in November. I even plan to take this with us on our travels.

Gratitude abounds...

Reunited and it feels so good.

My weekend at Sunny's was sooooo lovely and I took full advantage of all that lounge time. I relished not being needed. I savored not changing diapers or wiping noses.

But I missed them something fierce. There is nothing better than rising up the escalators from the terminal train and seeing Dizzy's sweet smile and arms full of flowers saying, "Hi Mommy! You came back!"

Yum. Me.

So I've been eating up some boy time since I got back.

Poor Baby A. He was sick and pitiful while I was gone. He's made it clear I should never go again. He's still a little puny, but hopefully on the mend.





Absence has made our hearts even fonder. Imagine that.

Shiny and New

I have been renewed.

I spent four restorative days with my Lady Lobster - the beautiful and talented, Sunny B.

We shopped and ate, visited, played, slept, lounged, watched Friends and movies, pedicured, made-over, talked and laughed, talked and laughed. And lounged some more.

She is magic. And if it turns out I can only get away on my own once every three years from now until forever, it's good to know that a solid three days at Sunny's Spa will make me brand new.

I reunited with all my fellas last night. There's just nothing sweeter.



Betty got a day at the spa too. I've never seen her look so good. And she got the weekend off.

Look out world, we're sure to be a force.

Trick or Treat!

Halloween night brought us a beautiful sunset fit for a lovely evening of soliciting free stuff from strangers. We joined some friends at their house in the burbs, had a spooky dinner and set off for tricks and treats!
Can you dig it?


They got the hang of it pretty quick.

Our crowd broke up pretty quickly. There were about 15 kids and their parent's in our group, so going all together was a bit ridiculous. Ironically, the racecar group was the slowest. I love how they're all doing their own thing in this shot.


Turtle crossing.



Nice trick.


A grand time was had by all.

Next year - smaller costume.

A few Halloween Gems

A few glimpses of pre-Halloween fun. A full trick or treating report tomorrow.

Holiday Sale Recap

Today's little sale has come and passed. If not for the last half hour, I would have called it a bust. But there was a blast of customers toward the end that made the day. I met some lovely folks and made a little spending cash for my trip.

Oh - Did I not mention? I'm going on a trip tomorrow. I am so excited I might weep. I'm going on my first solo trip in over three years - since before I had kids. After the fall we've had (no pun intended), Mama needs a vacation. So the fella's mom arrived today to help with the boys while I'm away. I'm getting on a plane tomorrow and heading east to stay with my lady lobster, Sunny B. We will talk, lounge, eat, shop, laze, read, watch friends, make-over, pedicure, rest, and laugh, laugh, laugh.

I can't even imagine how restored I will be upon my return. I mean, just going through airport security on my own will be like a vacation.

As fate would have it, little A has developed a horrible whoop of a cough this evening and has woken twice since being put down with the most pitiful hack you ever heard. This does not bode well. But I'm praying for a speedy recovery. I need to get on that plane...

Buried

I've been heartily engrossed in preparing for the first of two holiday sales I'm doing this month. It's tomorrow at Dizzle's preschool. If you're in town and you're not a crazy stalker, and want to know when and where, leave me a comment and I'll get you the deets.

It's funny thinking back on when I did lots of shows and sales - big time ones. This one is small potatoes, but it hasn't even happened yet and I'm pretty pooped. I can't believe I used to prepare and show up at shows with tub upon tub of pottery. How exhausting! I carried my whole inventory tonight by myself in one tub. What a nice change of pace.

Here are a few new goodies I whipped up for the sale. See something you need? Just leave me a comment. They're not up on etsy yet. I have an etsy shop remodel planned for December, so it's been a little neglected lately.











Fun Fun Fun.