Tag Archive | Beading

An Unexpected Date… a Book Review

There are a couple Susan Hatler books that I find read more like a sitting snapshot. An Unexpected Date is one of these . Written as a single chapter it is a lovely window into the budding romance of a single woman who runs a beading establishment for a living.

You get a peek into her life, her motivation and her wish for love and a family. A one sitting piece, An Unexpected Date is a sweet contemporary story that peeks into the start of a romance. Definitely one to read when up as a freebie as you won’t spend much time on it! I would think best seen in an anthology honestly.

Short Story

Short Story

Mid Week Already!

We have gotten the news… my beloved (and relatively new) camera now dubbed Blotchy Screen shall be going on a trip to the Olympus repair centre that may just take 3 weeks! GASP! But fear not, Old Grindy is here to fill the spaces with 8 mega pixel (GASP) pics… oh the horror! No, seriously though, they want us to ship it there and then if it is NOT deemed an issue due to dropping it it will be fixed under warranty. The person on the phone was hopeful so so are we! In the meantime, I took the opportunity to photography the first of my owls to fly the nest… AND his little ladybug chum! 

Ready to fly the nest!

We had another reading morning with everyone picking their own book. Echo is still in a bit of a cranky mood and now Emanuel is runny nosed and slightly miserable. So we added comfy blankets to the mix and curled up on the only bed upstairs big enough to hold six. I figure until we are 100% we will work on our enjoyment of books… so we sit and read as a family and then send those that need to to nap and rest and others to work. 

STORIES!!

Activity of choice – playing Starfall! They have changed their backgrounds to suit the seasons which has everyone absolutely excited about RECHECKING the site out! 

Time for Starfall

I made myself some korker ribbons of the Halloween theme…  We worked on worksheets printed from education.com and had to contact our contact email there to get an answer on a “what it” for a dot-to-dot… the answer, an unexpected one – a TAPIR! I really do enjoy education.com and would highly recommend them if you are looking for a variety of worksheets!

A Tapir!

Today was quite the day for mail! I got my Velcro from the baby store I buy my diapers at… so starting tomorrow I have to start replacing the worn with new… by hand of course! I need to find my stitch ripper it seems. 

Velcro

Trinity’s ribbon came from eBay – Hello Kitty themed of course! I figure she would love a little bow for Christmas with it. And I am sure I will have enough  for a few other little girls!

Ready for Crafting

And then there was the surprise envelope – apparently I have been doing the scanning with nielsen for 2 years now! They sent a lovely pen. We can always use another pen!

New pen!

We also sent Ken out on a special mission – someone on Freecycle had some boardbooks up to about grade 1-2 books they wanted to send along to another family! Well we are ALWAYS all for that. Storytime tomorrow will be all books we have never read before as a family! And Echo inherited a nice pile of boardbooks  to play with. We are always happy to add to our library – new or used.

New books!

 To fill our time there was some play with markers… each child made their own special picture! And for once with minimal marker mess on themselves!

Emanuel's artwork

Trinity's - note the hole in the middle where she over coloured!

Zander's campfire

Gavin's train station

We also did some beading with our new (thanks got Grandma) pony beads. Those are to be tied tomorrow morning by daddy and worn proudly I am sure!

Making necklaces and bracelets

Now to return to the world of crafting, cleaning and hunting for printables online. I have to gather my receipts and tomorrow work on my expense form for our school board, get a bit of shopping in to complete our receipt listing. Oh and then there is the dreaded camera drop off… oh well it is all for the greater good!

Playing with ABC magnets

Libraries, Projects and Ordering Among the Chaos

While the boys have not yet buckled down and agreed to learn how to read they all have found the local library to be a terrific resource… granted more in regards to the children’s computers and the large aquarium but it is a start! We chose to postpone our homeschool activities at home until the afternoon  and packed everyone up in the van to spend the morning there. Games were played on the computers…

Daddy and Emanuel

Daddy and Emanuel

Books were read! Gavin even took a little time and told a story based on the pictures in his sister’s chosen book…

Storytime! (Gavin)

Storytime! (Gavin)

And the ever present fish were watched and remarked upon! I took the opportunity and signed up Trinity for the Time for Twos reading session that starts in November. We figure that whatever the month upcoming holds we will make it a priority. I did a program with Emanuel when he was one at our local library at the time, it was great to have that one thing with just him. I also signed up all 3 boys for the Wacky Winter Tales – a Puppet Show! There is not a whole lot program wise for our age range at this local branch as the area is surrounded by schools but I am hoping next year to go further afield and try some of those library programs specifically FOR homeschoolers.

Fish!!

Fish!!

After my myriad of family calls last night I figured it was about time I put pen to paper and wrote a letter to my grandma who has moved back to Saskatchewan after the death of her second husband in June of this year. It has been ages since I have written a letter and I forgot how much I enjoyed the simple activity. The boys were very interested in the letters I was using as I always write in cursive. Zander has decided that when he is a little bit bigger HE is going to learn to write like that too! I am glad… any interest at all is TERRIFIC.

Cursive!

Cursive!

For our afternoon of schooling we really kept it rather simple (the boys have MUCH better attention span in the morning but going to the library in the afternoon is difficult to plan with the differing lengths of nap/quiet time). I started the twins off with working further on their large beading project. I think Gavin’s tree is considerably harder than the sled for Zander. I also miscalculated in using the Ikea peg board for Zander’s so he has to move his sled blades up a count which is a bit confusing but they are coming along. We are hoping to complete tomorrow as I told them they can’t move onto another project until they finish the first!

Once Emanuel was up and awake we did our letter for the Fall/Autumn lapbooks – L is for Leaf… Gavin got very creative with the colouring of his letters! Emanuel just wanted to colour the top and not bother with tracing letters so we left it at that.

Gavin's L

Gavin's L

Our big craft project of the day is a favourite for this family – finger and thumbprint insects! We used the Stampin’ Up ink pads that a friend who is now in California lent me and baby wipes to get the worst of the ink off their hands and let them go at it, then later they draw in the rest of the insect. We also had some jelly fish, cats and other rather creative critters come to life.

Inking Up (Zander left)

Inking Up (Zander left)

Finished Bugs

Finished Bugs

Ken spoiled me a little today – more beads! So now I can complete my first 3D Halloween piece!

Pumpkins in the Window!

Pumpkins in the Window!

I have actually been very busy beading since I am still waiting on my patterns – tops, advent pieces, my box… so much fun! And so many new gift ideas!!!

Sorry Such a Fuzzy Picture!

Sorry Such a Fuzzy Picture!

The tutu now has the satin ribbon wrapped waist. I am going to start affixing the small black pom poms tomorrow with some fabric glue. I am not sure how many I will use but it should end up being rather cute. I am very happy with how this one has gone, and the waist looks nice and smooth.

Wrapped Waist

Wrapped Waist

It was a crazy baking night for me, two loaves of bread in the breadmaker, oatmeal applesauce cookies AND a double batch of the sugar… I figured I would use of the excess apples in the fridge and make some more applesauce as well… so definitely and evening full of the smells of baking!

Tomorrow I am hoping on researching making my own french fries. I have not made them for freezing before so it will definitely be a bit of an adventure! Add to that the URGENT need to tidy and reorganize the homeschooling stuff… an ongoing ever present thing but this time we are going to put the dvd’s in the basement (since we watch them so infrequently) and pack up MORE of my paperbacks so we have more room on the bookshelves. Someday I am going to get another shelf in the house! I was told about one on Freecycle but with the house in the disorder it is I really did not want to bring more furniture in. As it is I still need to organize enough to put the stuff we got from the Reuse Centre away properly. After this week and our photo session on the 20th I will have to add card making to the list of Christmas projects! Makes your head spin when you actually sit and think of it or write a list…something I REALLY need to do right away!

Hopefully after tonight I will over whelmed with sewing projects to get done! So keep an eye on the blog…

Sticking Around With Her Sticky Rice!

Sticking Around With Her Sticky Rice!




This entry was posted on 14/10/2009, in Uncategorized. 3 Comments