the last project of the year - probably

Bella is modeling my last night's done sewing project. One I wanted to make since a little while, but I really had to sneak this one in. I wanted to make this simple apron for myself. I usually do not wear any apron, but there so many beautiful aprons and the simplicity of this one just caught my eye.

Do you see the purple background - that was our main activity the last two or three, four, five, ... including Christmas eve - PAINTING. I sewed the apron while the second layer of the pruple was drying and before we started painting the trim and the doorframes of Chiara's room white. Bella's room is already green now and Soren is happy in his blue room. Right now her carpet is drying before we can move everything back in her room and perhabs can get rid of some of the chaos in the house here that exists in our hallway filled with furniture and toys moved out of the way and by now moved all over the house.

Owl Lover Calendar - free

In 2011 I actually should be all set with calendars right from the start for a change. Even I already have ideas for a calendar a la me for the following year, but that is still in the planning stage, I found an adorable FREE PRINTABLE Owl Lover calender option. You can customize it with choosing with artwork from 30 artist and download your own version. Now I just need to get that file to my printer and can add it to my stack of calendars.

Be aware it's adorable.

the day after

Bella and Chiara can bicker and fight with each other all day long like typical sisters, but still there are times they just don't want to be without each other. But as soon as they get crafty they are unseparately. Last night they picked up one of Chiara's crafts sets from Christmas and started painting all the walls for the wooded horse-stable set. And first thing this morning they got back to it. 

Of course, Soren sees paints he wants to paint, too. So he got busy painting Santas. One got really green in his face, perhabs a sign of too many cookies the day before. One Santa, two Santas got painted by my happy little artist with the paintbrush. I just doubt our kitten was so happy about being painted in red by Soren  and the necessary bath followed.


Happy Holidays

Plans alays change ... als fr the FSI - (no typos - just life)

Last Friday morning I was busy sewing on two of my secret little Christmas projects. I had big plans for sewing all evening, but these did definitely interrupted with picking up a little fellow, we named Antonio.

There was simply no chance to get any sewing done that evening. More playing, hugging, snuggling and making friends. By now the little cutiepie als called 'vicious monster' on occasions is sharing and participating in almost every activity in the house. Right now he is either sitting on Soren's lap or climbing on the table between my notebook or on the sewing machine.

By the ay did yu ever nticed h many ''s and ''s are used in the Englisg language?

That was supposed to say:

By the way did you ever notice how many 'o's and 'w's are used in the English language. Those two keys stopped working yesterday n my keyboard and oh my - it is rough just typing  - I learned that there is a virtual keyboard on the computer.

For all the teachers as gift and for a few special people I made 'Spa Pillows'. There a filled with spelt and can be used as cold and warm therapeutic pillow for all kinds of different aches.

And another picture of the little daredevil of the house who just has to be everywhere in the front row, even if that means climbing up on my pants or jumping onto my shirt to reach his goal.

a little bit of xmas deco - just finished

He is the cutest and most precious mas decoration we have, the puppy we the santa hat comes only second .

Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio always has great idea and projects and these little xmas mini quilts are one of them. I fell in love with her idea and just had to try it out almost right away. Chiara is all excited about them and already plans on more for every season especially Halloween - sure if she helps. And I bet she can do it. This is such an easy project with fusible interfacing backed fabric.

I lined them up on a rough string with small colored clothes pins and they already found their place right above our kitchen table. The picture looks kind of plain but from my view here it fits just right. And most of all I enjoyed making them and that's what counts most.

Me too, please.

 This month I am taking time to sew when I find it and I also have a few more projects planned in time for xmas.  December's Friday Nights Sew In just sounds perfect for a great evening bonding with my sewing machine and getting more on my projects done. The next date is this Friday, Dec 10th and I am in.

One xmas project - done

Throughout the year I thought about it and even once a while made tiny little purchases for my best friend's xmas present, which of course was not needed until the end of the year. That seems so long away, but suddenly december was almost there and I had to decide on how to exactly wrap up the little gifts. So, I thought it would be nice to give her a gift that keeps giving all of the month of december until xmas - an Adventskalendar.

While my mom was visiting from germany and I was done with college for the semester I finally had time to get onto my sewing machine again and used lots of colorful felt and crazy numbers. Soren helped selecting some xmas style buttons to sew on for his godmother's presents and after wrapping 24 little presents up so she can't peek - it was ready. Ready to be be hand delivered to Germany. Just in time for Dec 1st.

The Adventskalendar turned out a lot bigger in size as I planned, but it need to fit to what was supposed to go inside. And Karin found a place for it.

NOT on today's to-do-list

It looked like a great start of the week - me being uo before 6 am Monday morning, even the first load of laundry was already running a couple minutes after getting up, the kitchen picked up within minutes and the girls are actually getting ready for the school bus peacefully while Soren still snoozes away. No fits yet, no yelling until the daughters of the house leave for the bus and Brynne sneakes out. Usually our puppy is pretty good - okay, that might be stretching the truth, but overall she is getting better at listening outside and not to run off in case Soren let's her out of the fence. She just runs inside. But this morning it was still dark and she ran like a lighting barking at the girls. No big deal, she loves them and they can hold on her until I get there. However that thought was lost when Brynne discovered Vincenzo, the cat of the house and his favorite opponent in the daily cat and dog fights,  and chased after him. Vincenzo stopped and I got my turn trying to catch the puppy, who went the opposite wat all arounf the property. Finally I caught her at the other end and walked through the backyard back and I hear from the bus stop "Good Job, Mami!" Thanks I could have skipped this morning exercise in the dark, especially from that little puppy who is laying lazy next to me, belly side up, wanted to be pat.

Dog, do you want to know something - Chasing you in the darkeness of the morning around the property is for sure NOT on today's to-do-list.

Can we still call this the start of a good week?

a little bit of everything ...

... is happening here in a not so quiet house. My bakers in training times three are working hard with Oma on the first Christmas cookies of the year. They are prepping the cough dough, rolling, shaping and cutting out cookies. They are busy glazing them with egg yolk and discussing which sprinkles go on top. It already smells good in the house.

In between the first Christmas present is getting finished. Soren is enjoying having his hands my containers of buttons and spilling them onto the table. He helps choosing the buttons we need for our present. The last button is sewed on and we only need to wrap it in lots of paper.

After some more work in the house from laundry to cleaning, to cooking and playing, I might get the chance to check out my little treasure I found a few days ago. Miguel was so nice to part with it after collecting lots of antiques and I need to check it out how well it still works. It is beautiful nevertheless.

Therapy, my way ...

just as the three words already mentioned it - therapy - something that is truly required on some days. I can offer my own psychological evaluation in a mini version backed up with page numbers if I dig my book back out, but the offered solutions and therapy suggestions covered in the book are not the same as I am using.

Mine is creative. Simple.

I didn't say cheap. I am not paying for a trained professional but supplies might be pricy depending on the type of creativity you will get addicted through therapy. But you can also be creative when looking for supplies and simply use what you have on hand. I digged in my stack of fabric and finally staretd sewing again. With no real plan. Just cutting up fabric. Patching it together. Perfectionism set aside until recovery.

The little crazy cricket square block was one of the first this morning.

By the evening, with a few breaks in between because some things in life just have to be done nevertheless. - Anybody volunteering to write an argument/persuasion paper? Just asking. - there were a couple more blocks turned into little quilted pillowcases. There are still waiting for the their inlay to be turned into spa warming pillows, but let's take one step at a time.

Especially now EVERYBODY who set foot in our house today, also used the sewing machine age three to unlimited (I am prohibited to mention the real age.) There are literally cat fights over the little sewing machine, besides the cat using the big one by stepping on the foot pedal and sewing its own stitches - luckily there were not my hands close.

One more luckily - this littlest one does not know YET that the steppeing on the footpedal is an essential part of using a sewing machine. He sews. If youle him nonstop. Until the day before toda he only pressed my buttons, but after watching yesterday and this morning his sisters closely, there is no more stopping.

Oma is stepping on the foot pedal here, but he does EVERYTHING ELSE. Isn't it crazy.

After she took the foot of the pedal he moved the machine back to the little table to see if he could get it work again. LOL.

semplicemente giallo

Life is complicated. Most of the time. At least it appears like it. It always feels like there are always stones thrown in your way to make you stumble. Eventually you figure out a way, but it takes faith and strength and conquering life step by step. Still with every step you keep adding on more to life instead of making in simpler. Simpler in treasuring what you already have. Simpler in enjoying the simple things in life. I love modern life. What the heck would I do without it. However, it is not everything. Taking a or two step back sometimes might gives us more as just keeping on running faster and faster to more.

The last months were extremely stressful and there was absoluely no time for anything. My head was stuck in school books or writing papers. Even the rare trip to the park with the kids and the dog was in the company of my papers to keep on studying while the kids roamed around and climbed andenjoyed the beautiful weather outside. I am not done, I still have more papers, more exams due and more to come, but I finally can see and do something else for right now, too. My sewing machine was tested after getting overhauled and runs so smoothly. Now I just need time.

However, I found the time to try out something new and the house smelled very intense lemony last night after peeling lots of lemons. It smelled so good. The girls came up one by one to figure out where this aroma came from. I started making Limoncello. The bright yellow color of the lemons was already so appealing and the flavor is just amazing that it just had to cheer you up. In a couple days we can check on our started Limoncello and hopefully add the second part to sample it soon and bring a touch of sunny Sicily in our home.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

After almost two months hardly taking any pictures I was snapping away Saturday afternoon and watching the kids enjoying the Halloween activities with their friends. I could post them all like I did in the album on facebook, but this one here is enough. Friends - little and big ones.

Just a Card

A play card with a picture that's all it is.

It is a card from an old game with have since years. A game that was collecting dust in the garage, because nobody paid attention to it until tonight. Tonight Soren discovered it and opened the box. Pulled out all the sparkling cards and wanted to play. One round, two rounds, and he was begging for another one. It's amazing  to see how happy a simple game can make a little boy.

The kids are back in school ...

 ... and loving it. The girls are excited about their teachers and seeing their friends back in school.

The week only had two days for them, just enough time to meet everybody, to get to see most of everything and already be off again for the weekend.

Soren mastered his first days of pre-k and has a great teacher, too, not forgetting the fantatstic Mrs. Fox who already had Bella and Chiara 3 years in pre-k. So he is in good hands. He has a bunch of little brothers from Chiara's friends in his class so I am sure they will keep the teachers on their toes.

Let's hope next week brings lots of more "The best day ever!" from those crazy kids.

The Soldier's Show on Ft. Hood

On Thursday while driving through poste to get to the lake I got reminded by the signs posted that I promised Bella that I take them to the Soldier's Show the week following the Sesamestreet program. Sesametreet was cute, but really only for little ones and she was quite bored there. The Soldier's Show was supposed to be musical 'Entertainment from Soldiers for Soldiers and Families'. I wasn't sure if it was okay for their ages yet, but I thought, perhabs I should check it out and being told it was family friendly, okay I intended on keeping my promised. Except my mind is like Swiss cheese and I keep forgetting everthing and by the time we got to go go it was the last day the show was going on. But we made it. Just on time when the lights went out and trying to find seats in the pitch black dark with three kids in tow who want to go in three different directions.

But the girls were already happy when the music started with the favorite songs which usually blasting out of the radio all the time and didn't mind to hear some classics, too. Soren had a hard time to keep his butt on the chair, how can you with music playing, so he got to see some really really close.

Overall, the is a unisome decision made if both shows should come back to Ft. Hood we skip Sesamestreet, but will try to see these Soldiers again. Well done. We enjoyed the show.

One LAZY day - naja

You can try to call that way. The day was a day with no appointments. No important errands that had to be done. So we decided to take a whole day off to go to the lake and were hoping that it wouldn't be packed there like at the beginning off the summer.

So, two moms packed five kids, two ice boxes filled with food, drinks, snacks, towels, sunscreens, airmatress, floaties, sand toys, goggles, .... and lots of noise in the van in the morning and all fit in. Including the noise and the gettting into each other hair and we got on the road. It's a pretty short road trip, just through the the town, and through the whole post and another 10 miles and how often did we hear "ARE WE THERE YET?"

They hardly could wait to get their feet into the sand and to let their toes to touch the water. The kids had a blast. the two little ones just as the big ones. Barely to get out of the water. The swam, the floated, the dived. The swallowed some extra water - tja, can't be helped when you have to sing in the water. And the dug in the MUD. Yes, you get the mud bath for free there. And with out kids even applied and not just on your arms and legs also in your face and in your hair.

All of them love rock collections. Especially the ones from deep in the water and as bigger as better. I think we managed to come home with NO rocks this time, but who knows if we had a secret smuggler in the midle of us or not.

Tina had the great idea of bringing all the ingredients to make "sunshine smores" and the kids loved the idea. It was messy, but there's enough water for clean up.

At the end we even decided to check out the slide and the car wash before heading home.

That's a way to enjoy summer minus the sunburn.

A dip and a splash

That's a quick snap picture from soren in the kiddie pool splashing when I took the camera once. I don't really get the chance to take pictures ay the pool because Soren can't sit still for more as a second when he is at the pool and always  is about to fall in the pool of you don't hold tight onto him or feed him a snack. So the safest spot is in the pool with him, but  even this big life vest or his arm floaties did not keep our big guy above water so I had 47 pounds hanging on my neck and bouncing of me when he was not on the waterslide.

Yesterday while the girls were non stop sliding Soren finally figured out that he can float and swim with his arm floaties by himself and if he closes his mouth and stops shrieking he won't even drink the pool water neither. He did awesome. And he had such a blast, si we easily could skip the kiddie pool.

One HOT Saturday in Texas

Do you know something blue, something red, something yellow, something orange, all big and fuzzy?

I can name the Cookie Monster, by now also Elmo and Big Bird and that only after seeing three Sesamestreet shows. I never favorite the show as a kid, so somehow we never really have it running on TV very often here neither. But  somehow we went to see a show in Austin before Soren was part of my threesome and since then Sesamestreet came now the second time to Ft. Hood for a small show and we got to see them for free yesterday. The pricewas leaving the house in the HEAT and leaving the air conditioning. It is hot here. And standing in line is crazy. Some people were smart and just brought umbrellas and you saw them popping up in all colors.

                           

After our outing Soren and Chiara found a "hopper" (Soren) named "Grassi" (Chiara) which was right away adopted as pet. You have to be warned in our yard NOTHING is SAFE. No bug or rollipolli from Soren, no grasshopper from Chiara, no cat from the catbird - oh man that is truly entertaining watching them chasing the cats - no flipflop from the dog - SO BEWARE.

Do you want to see the BIGGEST hopper ever from close up? Come closer.

Soren was not really good sports sporting his new t-shirt extra large, not even with his popsicle. But, well, that's life. At least he likes his new t-shirt which we got finished last minute for our little Saturday outing and finallt he at least tried to say his name. Usually when I aske him who he is, he says ' BOY'. We already uograded from 'BABY' to 'BOY'. Perhaps we until school start he will say Soren. Stubborn stinker.

Now of course I have two more request for shirt with names - the sisters. We made one for Neva for her birthday and also put the same applique of her name on a small jeans purse. It is quite easy and I love how it turned out for Soren. It just took me forever to get started and then to make up my mond what type of font I wanted to use. Next step is to give my machine a overhaul as soon as possible, it seriously needs to be serviced again. 

Guck Mal

                         

Do you really need too many words to follow these pictures of Soren and one of his little bitty bike trips?

He is still stopping for hundreds of reasons, the bug on the side, the rock on the road, the airplane landing, ... not mentioning him  stearing into his sisters and not stopping, but luckily he is not that fast yet with his little balance bike. He still always has time to make a silly face and  his faszination with mailboxes did not decrease. These pictures were taken one evening last month. Yesterday morning him and Chiara were circling our mailbox in the driveway going always happily one more around and around.

 

Three drown little rats and a soaked puppy ...

How much fun is it to garden in the rain?

Everytime there is a drop of rain falling from the sky, I have two girls coming running and begging "Can we put our bathing suits on and run in the rain?"

Today by the time we opened the door we saw that it had rained during the night, it was not extremely hot yet, so all four of us put old clothes and the kids and puppy played and helped in the yard and testing our driveway. It was sprinkling in between, but compared to the times when the sun burns down that felt like heaven.

We spread our first ready compost in the yard mixed with some more topsoil and discovered that the small honeysuckle plant along the fence line already has its first orange blooms soon to open. By then in stared raining. Soren and Chiara used the little play house as shelter and started stetting it up with floor mats and filling the "fridge" with drinks.

By the time the were ready to come inside I had three drown little rats and a soaked puppy who is crazy about water and even tries to take a bath in his tiny water bowl. Hopefully she had enough of splashing for the day, too.

By now it is pouring like buckets outside and that's perfectly fine with me. At least we do not have to water the yard today.