The bulk of our homeschooling today was based around the book The Mitten – we used the Jan Brett version with its terrific illustrations that I posted an image of last night. We did a worksheet that dealt with matching and counting mittens (you were also supposed to colour them according to instructions but the boys chose to be much more creative). We used the mitten form from the EnchantedLearning website but found the animals that matched Jan Brett’s version. The mittens were printed onto coloured cardstock and then punched so the boys could thread yanr to “sew” the mittens like the Baba did (which is funny since the boys call Ken’s DAD Baba). Then to insure that we have an abbreviated version of the story for the boys to look back at in their Winter Lapbooks I found a sight word version. Emanuel’s interest waxed and waned but the twins worked right on through and had a blast. Trinity loved sitting through the story and Ken was in the thick of the mitten creating. Since I came up with The Mitten it is Ken’t turn to find a book for next week! I figure it would be a fun way to spend December!

Story Time (Gavin yellow)

Assembling the Mittens (Zander blue)

The commission is going along swimmingly! Though the pattern is a bit difficult to follow as is as Ken related each colour symbol to the colour it is representing – so they do blend wonderfully as I stitch and TOO WELL on the paper! It was nice to be working on it last night and be able to SHOW Fydo some of it as I went. This whole working on commission things is rather fun! So hopefully these 3 I have started with will just be the first of many! No pictures since it is too close to recognizable but AFTER it is delivered…

The next pattern for the site – Chibi Dragon is also coming along smashingly… the first of two – pink is really shaping up to be everything I had hoped! I have high hopes for the green version.

Dragon-esque

Tonight Ken and I are making meatballs (from our previous recipe on the blog) and Strawberry Devonshire Tarts. Oh, and some lovely simple truffles out of a magazine. I will be sure to share the last two recipes tomorrow! Tomorrow is ALSO gingerbread with Chris and Chris AND the 25th anniversary of the local thread store. So we will definitely keep busy!

Working on Our Imaginations Every Day!

Thursday has just zipped by! The boys spent their morning beading bent wires into wonderful things – candycanes, wreaths and each of the twins made the pieces to be made into angels. Even Emanuel is getting the idea of a pattern with the beads down. They were very willing to spend almost the whole morning hard at work!

Proud Crafters! (Gavin left)

Tomorrow I am planning on reading a version of the Ukrainian tale – The Mitten and doing a bunch of the activities and worksheets I found on the Enchanted Learning website. Not too too much but we are going to have the mitten and the animals and such to put into their Winter Lapbooks.

The Mitten

Tonight is the guys’ gaming night and they have taken over my livingroom so my tv is out of commission which actually works in my favour. I am hard at work on my next commission that NEEDS to be done by next week. It doesn’t look like much but I am excited about it. The recipient and his wife (Fydo and the Mrs.) actually signed off on the design before I even started it. Which is different than the previous. It is nice to know they are happy with the concept.

A Beginning

It is hard to believe that the week is almost over. Tomorrow will be a day of prep work for me, the tree has  to be put together (we are decorating on Saturday), our Christmas stuff has to be figured out for lapbooking… I finally have some envelopes so I can get out my egroup (Multiples) Christmas cards soon but the pictures are still a no go… why can’t I seem to get my hands on AFFORDABLE wallet sized prints???? Grrr! But at least I am getting things done and I HAVE made a decent list of everything that needs to be done – it is a little daunting but it IS made!

Oh and the Cupcake pattern is slated to be uploaded TOMORROW! So check back! Now back to sewing!

Ken Hard at Work With His Pint Sized Supervisor!

...and of Course Gaming Dudes!

Well we did an amazing job of making a day way too busy today… due to a very lucky find on some necessities we had enough money to do a November treat for the family! We headed over to The Mall and had a nice late lunch/snack. We stopped at T&T and got Trinity raison buns and then to the food court for Taco Bell for the menfolk and my favourite fast food Chinese for me! I had to replace a compact of pressed powder that was pretty much empty before Trinity dumped the tiny bit that remained last night (the only make up I really wear on a regular basis)… we also stopped at Michaels with our 50% off coupon (good only for today) and picked up more Perler beads… I got the pirate set this time to get the monkey and dolphin pegboards. I am really hoping we can mange to bang out the last of the needed ornaments using these and the tri-corner beads.

Checking out the Fish in Front of T&T (Zander right)

Trinity got extra spoiled with her first sip of pop (Dr. Pepper – she hated it – thank goodness even that sip of sugared drink is going to hurt her bum tomorrow) and a bite of my noodles. She was so proud of herself.

Proud Little Baby Girl (Gavin red)

Stitching wise I finished up my cupcake. I am rather proud of my first attempt designing with beads. What I like about this one is it would be a simple thing to change the colour of the icing and “sprinkles”… hopefully other people find it just as cute! The next project is Chibi Dragon – well the next that will be posted for sale… I am doing two versions – one in a pink theme and the other green.

Sprinkles Anyone?

Last night and tonight I have spent some time wrapping presents… there is still WAY too much to be done and so little time to be done it in! The amount of actual finishes I need to get onto is a little mind boggling right now. I wish I had either extra hours in the day or a willing volunteer!

Christmas in November! (Gavin red)