First Snows and Simple Pleasures

Winter here in the Mid-Atlantic area has been rather hit and miss these past few years. Last year we didn't really have a winter at all (or none that was really discernible) while the year before we were hit with Snow-Maggedon!

Four year old Little Guy has been desperate for snow for quite some time. He was rewarded with some flurries last week, on the first day of Winter, and a couple of inches on Boxing Day, or the day after Christmas Day. He was giddy!

Snow shoveling and sledding in just an inch or two of snow isn't easy, but it was enough to make him happy.

His morning was made up of such simple pleasures ...
Two inches of snow.
Hot chocolate with marshmallows.
Playing with his new wooden marble run.
Robot pajamas.
A tub ... and a shower! (One was to get clean, the other to warm up after playing outside).
Playing with Grandpa D and Grandma S, who are visiting from overseas.
Snuggling under blankets.
Reading his new book (The Tomten, by Astrid Lindgren) again ... and again!
Yogurt for lunch, when the rest of us were stuck with stinky (blue!) cheese.

A happy boy.


What are your favorite Simple Pleasures?  Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you.

A Nature Shelf! {week 4, December 2012}

The last Nature Shelf post of the year!

It wasn't until I put this final Shelf together that it struck me that these three Gnomes look like the Three Kings too! I love the serendipity!


What are doing this week to bring a little bit of Nature into your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

The First Snowflakes of the Season

We love doing crafts as part of any celebration. It is one of the top ways that we celebrate anything, in our home!

For the upcoming winter celebrations this year, we decided to go simple with our paper snowflakes. Easy to make, and The Little Guy had so much fun practicing his scissor skills.

And his looking through little holes skills!

We had originally planned to cut a couple and paste them up directly onto one window. But we got pretty enthusiastic about cutting our snowflakes!

We ended up making enough to cover every window on our downstairs level.

 

Such an easy, fun, low cost, quick little project; I have a feeling we'll be making paper snowflakes for a while!

And what have you been crafting on, to decorate your home. Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Food Waste Friday ... A for Effort, F for Follow Through

I just love The Frugal Girl blog. Really - just love!

Each week (well - most weeks) she blogs about her food waste, a kind of public declaration, aimed to reduce her own food waste. And she invites the rest of us to join her!

After last week's trip up over my veggie bin, I thought the worst was behind me. Apparently not ...

The fresh produce hurts the worst. And the apples in particular; they are my beloved Nittany apples *sob*

I also lost a batch of Breakfast Muffins (aka, my leftover oatmeal muffins). They usually keep for quite a while, but for some reason this batch went moldy really quickly.

And the rice bread was a left over from the time period that we had 12 month old Little Boy on a restricted diet to help with his eczema. He liked it well enough when that was the only bread option, but once he had access to real bread, this loaf was pushed aside.


And how was your food waste this week? Feel free to share here, or on the Frugal Girl blog; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 3, December 2012}

The 'gnomes' have been busy with their everyday lives this past couple of weeks, and got a little behind with keeping up with the Nature Shelf!

I always feel a little guilty for admitting how busy life gets; this blog is supposed to be about living simply. But life with three Little Ones, two working parents and all the busyness of the holiday season, it has been difficult to keep our schedule as Simple as I'd like. Ah well ...

 There have been two additions since I last posted about our Nature Shelf here, with the felt holly and the needle felted mouse.

The Little Guy has been really 'into' mice just recently, so he was thrilled that the gnomes brought a special mouse for the Shelf! He was promptly joined by The Little Guys special mouse toy, Tiptoes (named after Tiptoes Lightly, the lovely fairy in the books by Reg Down).

What have you done to bring a little nature into your home this past couple of weeks? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Upcycling Sunday!

Upcycling, def. the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

Wikipedia.org

I have been on a Freecycling roll this week! This week I tackled some boxes of books; I have always been a book collector, but  I suddenly realized this week, that if I'm not going to read a book again, I don't need to keep it! I know that sounds really obvious, but it just hit me ... and suddenly letting go of books was just so much easier. Some I posted on Freecycle, while others I put onto BookMooch.

I let go of a lot of other items too, but didn't take photos of everything. A couple of things that did get snapped though ...

I let go this half roll of rug tape, that I've been holding on to, just in case, for years ...

 ... and a bag of baby socks. (Isn't it amazing to compare newborn socks with whatever your Little Ones are wearing now? It doesn't seem possible that they have grown that  much that  fast!)

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned my plan to donate, regift, sell or throw away 2013 items in the year 2013; I started a little early and decided to let go of 168 items in the month of December (168 is 2012 divided by 12!) As of right now I have let go of 166 items! Which I'm pretty proud of myself with. I was surprised at how easy it was actually, and I think I am definitely feeling inspired to get cracking on my 2013 items for 2013 (yes! - I think I'm going to give myself a little bit of a head start, because I'm on such a roll here!)

So who is going to join me? 2013 items?! I know it sounds like a lot ... but I found that once I decided that I would rather have the space and time that just owning and organizing all that stuff requires, the mindset was really easy.

So what did you Upcycle this week? Are you planning to join the 2013 Goal? Feel free to leave a comment; I'd love to hear from you!

Food Waste Friday, with a Big Bump Down to Earth ...

I just love The Frugal Girl blog. Really - just love!

Each week (well - most weeks) she blogs about her food waste, a kind of public declaration, aimed to reduce her own food waste. And she invites the rest of us to join her!

Last week I was thrilled to announce that I had had a zero food waste week; I may even have been a little smug about reporting this.

Of course, this week I'm being brought back down to earth with a big bump.

I opened up my veggie bin, the one where I store things long term, and found moldy sweet potatoes, and something really yucky at the very bottom of the bin, that I think used to be a pepper. Hmm ... and of course, as soon as I saw those, I realized that they were probably there last week too, back when I was feeling all smug. *sigh*

(I just couldn't face taking a picture of the food item previously known as a pepper; it was really ucky).

 Also on the waste list is a bowl of yogurt, that has been in and out of the fridge a few too many times, and uncovered to boot.

And how was your food waste this week? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Window Star Love

We are just loving window stars in our home right now ... and how could you not?!

These are made from kite paper, which is transparent and much hardier than tissue paper, and they just look so lovely.

 

These have quickly become one of our favorite ways to decorate our home; inexpensive, and quick and relatively easy to make, I learned how to make these with the help of the book Window Stars, by Thomas Berger. 

A Tale of Advent Woe

So, one of the things that I really wanted to accomplish with this blog, is to give a little glimpse into our home and family, and show that it isn't all rainbows and roses.

Yes! - we have lovely, inspiring times, where everything flows beautifully, and all is perfect, but truly, those times are rare.

There are other blogs out there, that portray that perfect life, with a lovely home, that is always spick and span, where the children are engaged in beautiful crafts, and eating fabulous homemade meals. Those blogs are lovely, and I enjoy a number of them. But that isn't us.

See, as much as I like to read those blogs, I often find myself playing the 'why can't I' game after reading them.

Why can't I keep my home looking like that?

Why aren't my Little Ones perfectly behaved like theirs?

Why don't my handwork project looks as beautiful as that?

And here's the thing. I'm going to guess that the stories and the photos in those blogs only show the slice of clean house that they want you to see. That not all the crafts are lovely, that not all the meals are nutritious and lovingly prepared. I have to remind myself of this, as I take a peak into these blogger's 'perfect' lives.

And, so on to my tale of Advent!

I had this idea of celebrating the four weeks of Advent, and what a lovely thing it could be. We are already doing a Candlelight Night each Sunday, so this seemed perfect. That we would recognize Advent, talk about the season, and get out the birthday ring with some special Advent decorations, adding a couple each week. It sounded perfect in my head.

Last Sunday was the first day of Advent, and it didn't go quite as planned.

The Little Ones were hungry and cranky, so all three were weepy and short-tempered. Dinner wasn't the lovely meal I had planned, but fast food, which wasn't all that good. The table hadn't been cleared, so we still had leftover crumbs from lunch and the day's projects all over it. I couldn't find the Birthday Ring, or the special ornaments, until halfway through the meal. And then I remembered that I didn't have any of the special beeswax candles for the ring anyway; I had forgotten to buy them. So I found a half burned candle, and used that but it looked a little wonky.

This is where I could have become really discouraged. But instead, I just sat down and laughed. I should have known really, that with all the busyness in our lives that the notion of this lovely candlelit evening talking about the significance of Advent was over-reaching.

But it's okay! Really! Life is messy, and chaotic, and even more so with Little Ones.

And of course, the joy of Advent? We get three more weeks to get it 'right'! I'll keep you posted :-)


Have you been doing anything special to celebrate Advent in your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Food Waste Friday ... And An Advent Blessing

 

I just love The Frugal Girl blog. Really - just love!

Each week (well - most weeks) she blogs about her food waste, a kind of public declaration, aimed to reduce her own food waste. ,

Here's the funny thing about Food Waste Friday ... when you know that its coming, you try really hard not waste anything. So I have a zero waste week.

Nothing!

Which is good for my fridge and pocketbook, but doesn't make a particularly exciting blog post.

So, rather than leave you with that, here's a picture of our Blessing Board! Every couple of weeks, I change out the blessing on our chalkboard, and we recite it before our evening meal. A nice little ritual :-)

More on Advent another day (ours so far has been ... interesting, and unexpected!)

How was your food waste this week? Feel free to share here, or at Simply Being Mom (where Food Waste Friday is being hosted this week!); I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 1, December 2012}

One of my original intents with posting about our Nature shelf, was to show that a Nature Table/Shelf could be done without a lot of time, money or talent; a little glimpse into the life of a 'real' family, with 'real' obstacles and constraints.

And this being real life,  I fell asleep on Sunday night, the night I switch out the Shelf and write up the blog post, and then forgot to do it on Monday too. So there you go!

This month's shelf is brightened with a lovely window star, made from kite paper. I really love making and decorating our home with these.


And what are you doing this month to bring a little nature into your home? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Upcycling Sunday!

*Sorry this is getting out to you a little later than usual; I had technical issues, aka I forgot to press the 'publish' button. Oops!

Upcycling, def. the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

Wikipedia.org

Maybe it's the colder weather keeping us indoors more, or maybe the fact that we are getting the house ready for guests in a couple of weeks, but I have suddenly been hit by a bit of a de-cluttering bug.

I've been toying with the idea of becoming more minimalist for a while. Our small home feels so much smaller with lots of 'stuff' in it.

I always like to find other people who are doing the smae thing as me, so I was excited to find a group on Diaper Swappers who have given themselves a challenge; 2012 in 2012 - that is re-gifting, donating, selling or throwing away 2012 items in the year 2012. Joining a little late, I signed up for the mini-challenge of 168 items in the month of December. (2012 items equals 168 items each month!)

I love a challenge!

One day in, and I am already 63 items down, leaving only 105 more items to pass on to reach the challenge. (I was lucky enough to be able to Freecycle most of these items, but some just had to go in the trash ... old tea bags from 2002 and dried out markers are two examples).

I won't bore you with pictures of all 63 items, but here a couple of highlights!

 

So, yes! - this is all kid's stuff. But, going through it and getting stuff out of the house feels so good :-)

How about you? What did you Upcycle this week? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Food Waste Friday

I just love The Frugal Girl blog. Really - just love!

Each week (well - most weeks) she blogs about her food waste, a kind of public declaration, aimed to reduce her own food waste.

Which is totally frugal, and Simple. Waste less, buy less!

So, I kept track of my own food waste over the course of the last week or so ... not awful, but not great either.

Fresh green beans and basil were the first to go. The green beans in particular made me sad ... they were the last of the produce from our amazing CSA, and they just got forgotten at the back of the fridge.

Homemade pumpkin pie filling which just spent an extra day in the fridge, and was looking a little slimy - uck.

 

Apple slices ... that were just a little too dry from their extra time in the fridge.

 

And lastly, the last pieces of a loaf of homemade bread. This loaf was mysteriously not good; it didn't rise properly, and didn't bake very well ... so it wasn't a huge loss. I think we were all silently hoping it would go bad, so we wouldn't have to subject ourselves to it any longer :-)


And how about you? How was your food waste this week? Feel free to share here, or over at The Frugal Girl Blog!

Leaf Bunting

I posted a little sneak peak to this bunting here last week; it was my oh-so last minute decorating project for our Thanksgiving celebration.

 And thank goodness it was oh-so easy as well!

A couple of scraps of felt leftover from another project (Autumn Gnomes, I think), some ribbon left over from making bath towel loops, a little embroidery thread ... and that was it! And not too tricky either.

I feel like a got this project finished just in time too; Jack Frost and Winter suddenly seem to have made their first appearances here in the Mid-Atlantic area, and leaf bunting is feeling very autumnal!


What are you crafting on this week? Feel free to share in the comments; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 4, November 2012}

The last week in November!

We added some sweet autumnal Gnomes to this week's Shelf, keeping our Fairy Turkey company.

What are you doing to bring nature or the seasons into your home? I'd love to hear from you; feel free to share!

Thanksgiving Comes Again!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Slow Down Kind of Day

Life has been particularly busy over this past couple of weeks, too much for this Simple loving mama.

We are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving later this week, and I am taking this opportunity to slow down.

A simple meal with family, a long walk in the blustery cold, playing silly games with my silly Little Ones and catching up on some down time are on my schedule for the next couple of days.

My only rush is to finish a craft project that I have been thinking about for a while, and now I would like to have it completed for Thanksgiving. So tea and crafting are on the books for this morning!

Hoping you , too, have the chance to slow down a little this week.

A Nature Shelf! {week 3, November 2012}

With Thanksgiving coming up this week, and this being the third week of the month (the week that you add something representing the animal kingdom), it just had to be a turkey!

I had grand plans to knit a little turkey, and found a pattern that seemed easy enough (I used this pattern from Valley Yarns) but my knitted turkey was not turning out to be as easy as I had hoped. (I should add that this pattern called for work on double pins, a first for me, and one that I obviously need to practice when I have more time and less pressure!)

So yesterday evening I sat down with my trusty bag of wool roving and my felting needles, and made this little guy; I think he looks like a Turkey Fairy, with his lovely wispy tail feathers!

I used this tutorial for the needle felted turkey, and it was so easy to make. I'm looking forward to The Little Guy's reaction and hearing what he names him :-)


What are you adding to your Nature Table this week? Are you planning to decorate your dining table (Thanksgiving or otherwise!) with something representing nature? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Upcycling Sunday, or A Nose Book?

Upcycling, def. the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

Wikipedia.org

A Nose Book? Read on!

I've seen these little cloth handkerchief books for the past couple of years, and been intrigued to make some for my family. But, I got all caught up in finding the perfect fabric, the perfect pattern. And then, thank goodness, the humor of the situation struck me ...  that they were to be used for mopping up noses! They didn't have to be perfect. It occurred to me that receiving blankets (those super soft, flannel blankets with a thousand different uses when you have a baby) would make the perfect Upcycled fabric for my handkerchief books.

So, with that in mind, I sorted through my stash of receiving blankets, found two whose pattern and color complemented each other, and cut them into rectangles. 

I was very rough with my cutting, but each rectangle measured approximately 7 by 4 inches.

Then taking a piece from each fabric I pinned them together, and stitched around the edges. (I used a rounded zig zag stitch). 

 At this stage they still looked pretty rough, but it's okay. Once all of the pieces had been paired up and stitched, I then went back and trimmed the excess fabric away. They instantly looked much better! Phew!

Then, taking two of your new double thickness and trimmed pieces, I lay one on top of the other, with like touching like fabric. Giving them a fold will allow you to gauge where the mid-line is, before you stitch straight down the middle of the pieces, forming a 'book' with four leaves.

And there you have it! So easy, so simple, and such a great way to Upcycle all those receiving blankets!

These have already been in constant rotation, and are the just-right size for tucking in pockets. And an added perk? - they gave The Little Guy an opportunity to join me in a sewing project!

As soon as The Little Guy saw these, he renamed them Nose Books ... which we just thought was hilarious! And the name stuck!

  And what about you? What are you Upcycling this week? Feel free to share in the comments; I'd love to hear from you!