I am a Pumpkin ...

We are enjoying our last days of October!

We were so busy picking, rolling, reading and singing about, baking with and re-creating through handwork all things pumpkin, we haven't yet had a chance to actually carve a pumpkin! Sounds like a perfect rainy day activity, doesn't it?!

The Little Guy has been so excited about Halloween; we've been counting down the days for a while now. He and I made his costume together, which we both really enjoyed, and will be spending today in the kitchen baking cookies. We have decided to do a little Treating, along with our Trick and Treating this year, and deliver homemade cookies to our neighbors as we collect a few treats. I'll let you know how it goes!


What is your favorite pumpkin project? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

Cozy Knits

No Nature Shelf update today, I'm afraid. Check back next Monday for the first week of our November Nature Shelf!

Loyal readers may remember me talking about finishing up a couple of long time knitting projects here.

Well, one of them finally captured my attention long enough to get finished ... and here it is. My Mobius Cowl! (The pattern is from The Purl Bee).

Soft, snuggly and so easy to wear. It doesn't come undone, or fall off. I really love it!

I'll even admit that I used cheap-y cheap yarn for this, from my local craft store ... and I still love it!  I can see another one of these making it's way onto my pins in the very near future.

Hooray for knitted loves!

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 keep a box next to my desk in my home office, and each time I find something that can be Freecycled I just pop it into the box. Then when I have a spare couple of minutes, I'll sit down to post a couple of items ... very efficient!!

This week I worked through the box a little more and found new homes for these ...

and these ...

and this ... (with thanks to Baby Girl for the help ;-)

and these ... 

and this ...

I had a major Upcycling project underway this week involving Freecycle and gifted clothing, a broken umbrella, a re-purposed hat, and some old felt! But the project is behind schedule, so you will have to wait until next week to hear more about it I'm afraid. But at least I've now piqued your curiosity!

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

The Most Expensive Birthday Cake in the World

Okay, so the title of this post may be a wee bit of an exaggeration, but only a wee bit!

We live a pretty frugal life here in the SimplyBurbs home, not a whole lot of stuff being bought, and we definitely watch our budget, including our grocery budget. I aim for no more than $75 a week for all five of us, including household and personal items. Some weeks are good, some not so much.

But all that rather went out the window a couple of weeks ago.

The eczema that My Little Boy has had little patches of for the past six months, suddenly got A LOT worse. Worse to the point that we came close to taking him to Urgent Care in the middle of the night because he, and My Good Man and I, were miserable with the scratching and the lack of sleep. It had been a long week.

So, we decided to try putting him on an elimination diet, and we saw instant improvements. Four days later, you would not have recognized our Little Boy for the same miserable baby four nights earlier.

The downside?

No more
   wheat
   gluten
   eggs
   soy
   corn
   dairy
   or nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers etc)

Yikes!

Our plan is to try reintroducing things gradually, and try to narrow down what is causing him issues. But all that is another post.

With their birthday last week, the prospect of baking him and Baby Girl a cake for their first birthday celebration filled me with dread ... no wheat, eggs, dairy etc etc? But friends better versed gave me a couple of recipes that would fit our needs, and the path looked a little clearer.

I decided on this Honey Yogurt Cake from the Nourishing Meals blog, which didn't look too tricky.  Of course what I hadn't factored on was that my baking supplies are geared towards a wheat- , dairy-, egg-eating household.

So I had to buy everything from scratch.  Which was a lot more expensive than I could have possibly imagined.

All in, the ingredients for the cake cost $45.10 (which includes the price of a bag of Peanut M&Ms ... bought to assuage the stress of the whole expensive ingredient buying process - ahem!)

And then I got home and realized that I didn't have vanilla extract, and sent My Good Man back out to the store; another $4.99! (Bringing the total for our homemade, supposed to be inexpensive, cake, to $50.09!!)

But the end result? The cake was good! Good enough that My Good Man went back for seconds and thirds, and the two Little Ones enjoyed it. Success!

And it was easy to make! Double yay!

Will we be making it again? For sure! (and especially now that I have all the ingredients!) Would we make it by choice, if we didn't have any food restrictions to cook for? Hmmm, maybe! It really was pretty good!

Do you have diet restrictions in your house, or foods you just prefer to avoid? Any favorite 'go to' recipes? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

A Birthday Ring

Over the weekend we had a little celebration for the two Little Ones' first birthday! A couple of gifts, a cake (more on that later in the week!) and a Birthday Ring.

This is a newer tradition for us, but already a firm favorite. A simply wooden ring, beeswax candles (ahh! - they smell so good!), and small wooden figures. I picked out the little cat to represent baby Girl, and the seal pup for My Little Boy. The 4 year old Little Guy decorated the rest of the ring, and there it was! Beautiful.


We let the candles burn while we sang happy birthday, and ate cake, and then re-lit them for dinner; then we packed it back up again, and tucked it away ready for the next celebration.


What do you do in your home to mark special occasions? Do you have particular songs or ornaments for particular times of the year?  Please feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 4, October 2012}

What every Nature Shelf needs! A Pumpkin Gnome!

And I'm pleased to let you all know that my anxiety around making this little gnomie was significantly less than expected - yay!


What are you doing this week to being a little bit of nature into your home? What is on your Nature Table this month?  Feel free to share in the comments below; 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 had high hopes for my Upcycling adventures this week, but my week ended up getting much, much more hectic than I anticipated ... but we still had some things that left the nest, so to speak!

I loved this little trench coat ... about 8 years ago. Back when I had a  job I could dress up for, and a pre-Mama figure to go with it. Chatting with one of my neighbors the other day, I realized she had the job, and the figure, so she should have the cute little coat to go with it! She was thrilled with it, and I had that warm, glowey, feel-good feeling :-)

I gave away a couple of books on BookMooch.com. (If you're not familiar with Book Mooch, go check it out! It's a great way to give and receive books, at no cost but a little shipping. I'm a huge fan!)
(No photos here I'm afraid :-(



And what about you? What are you Upcycling this week?

1. Please enter the direct link to your Upcycling Sunday blog post in the Linky tool below. If you don’t have a blog but still have something to share, feel free to add it to the comments.
2. Be sure to come back and read others links.
3. Check back next week to link up again!

A Breakfast Routine

But, first a little housekeeping! I'll be changing the blog schedule a little, posting four times a week, but don't worry - I'll still be here!

And now back to the post ...



I love routine and rhythm.

Really, really love!

I found the best way for us to avoid the breakfast time negotiations on what to eat, is to have a Breakfast Schedule.

 

"Let's go see what's for Breakfast today!" ... and we look on the list, and there it is.

It's hard to argue with the list! ;-)

What are your favorite breakfasts with Little Ones? How do you make your morning routine and rhythm just that little bit easier? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

Happy Birthday Little Ones!

One year ago today, we welcomed you on your Birth Day...

Baby Girl on the left, and My Little Boy on the right, about eight hours old

 ... and today, we celebrate your first birthday!

My Little Boy on the left, and Baby Girl on the right, taken when they eleven months old

Happy Birthday Little Ones!

Don't Blink ...

 ... or you'll miss it!

Okay - this isn't the most exciting shot, but the expanse of carpet in our living room, with nothing hindering the view, not a toy, a book, a shoe or a sippy cup, was just too unusual a sight to pass up ;-)

Thrifty Finds

One of my biggest dislikes is spending money in ways that could have been easily avoided with a little more fore thought. Last season's clothes for the three Little Ones was a perfect example. I totally missed the local consignment sales, and I never seemed to make it to the local thrift stores when they had any decent children's items in, until I had left it too late. Inevitable,  the warmer weather was upon us, and I ended up buying brand new items for all three kids. Ugh ...

So this season I vowed to be more organized.

I did an inventory of the clothes I already had for them; sweaters and pants for The Little Guy, hand me downs for My Little Boy, and hardly anything for Baby Girl.

I then made a point to make time to go to a couple of local consignment stores on a weekly basis (using gift vouchers I bought through one of those online deal sites, no less!)

And then filled in the blanks with a visit to a big consignment sale a week or so ago.

Three children, fully clothed head to toe for under $120? Yes please!

My proudest finds for the season were shoes and boots, all found at either consignment stores or consignment sales. All three now have winter footwear, and the prices were pennies compared to the cost brand new.

And? They're cute/smart/warm! Double yay!


What have been your best thrifty finds just recently? How do you like to save money on your family's wardrobe? Feel free to leave a comment; I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 3, October 2012}

One of the reasons I first wanted to share my Nature Shelf here, was to show that it doesn't have to be fancy or amazingly creative, or too expensive or time consuming. I really wanted to show that it could be easily done, and by someone who has all of six weeks experience!

So, here is what I've learned so far!

That it can take an inordinate amount of time, and energy, and money ... if you want it to.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that the animal to be added this week, should be a squirrel (the third week of the Nature Table should represent the animal kingdom). We have lots of busy, busy squirrels running around and preparing for the cold weather here, so it seemed perfect.

I started to look at sewing patterns, and then knitting patterns ... which looked way to complicated.

Then I decided I would buy a beautiful wooden squirrel ... and after a small amount of research found that the really beautiful wooden squirrels were really more than I wanted to pay.

And I got myself in a bit of a tizzy over finding the perfect squirrel for the shelf, really just a tizzy.

It was at that stage that reality, finally, thankfully, set in ... our Nature Shelf is supposed to be fun! A simple representation of our seasonal environment. And that, really, The Little Guy was going to be delighted with it, regardless of whether I pulled a little wooden figure out of his toy box, or spent hours painstakingly knitting a squirrel.

It was a big moment for me, and one that I'm still allowing to sink in. Time and money does not always equal satisfaction.

So, all of this is a rather long winded way of saying that for this week's Nature Shelf, I used a couple of wooden toys from The Little Guy's farm set, and a wooden squirrel from our Spiel Und Holz Birthday Ring (we'll be celebrating a birthday here in the SimplyBurbs home later this week, so be sure to check back soon if you're interested in seeing pictures of the Birthday Ring in action!)


What do you have on your Nature Table this week? What are you doing to bring a little bit of Nature into your home? Feel free to share in the comments below; 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

Definitely a lighter upcycling week this week.

I sold a book on an online homeschooling group.

I had a random little collection of baby boy clothes that found a new home through Freecycle, as well as a platter and this cute spatula. (As soon as I realized that I was probably never going to use the spatula myself, because it was too cute, I let it go. Function over form is ruling our home at the moment!)

And what about you? What are you Upcycling this week?

1. Please enter the direct link to your Upcycling Sunday blog post in the Linky tool below. If you don’t have a blog but still have something to share, feel free to add it to the comments.
2. Be sure to come back and read others links.
3. Check back next week to link up again!

Batter Up ... for Dinner!

I once read an interview with a famous, and very well respected, actress (the name of whom is completely escaping me - apologies!) who said that one of the things that helped make her a successful parent was serving breakfast for dinner one night a week ... and not feeling guilty about it!

Well, I love this on both levels; an easy meal, and rejecting any possible guilt? Really, love it!

So, breakfast for dinner is pretty much a staple in our cozy little home, and on a recent evening at the end of a long and hectic day, I changed up our plans at the last minute, threw out the idea of a cooked from scratch meal ... and made pancakes!

 

Yum!

I had buttermilk left over from the last time I made butter, here, so buttermilk pancakes it was. 'Scrambly' eggs and cut up fruit on the side ... and hey presto, a super quick and easy dinner ... and no guilt for Mama! 

What is your favorite quick and easy meal? Feel free to share in comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

A Play Day

Just recently we had a 'home day', a day for me to catch up with the house a little, and for the children to just take some time to hang out at home, without being ferried around in the car, or be tied to a schedule.

This was really the perfect play day, because I had just recently received one of those HUGE boxes from an online retailer. The minute I announced I was going to empty it, The Little Guy, who is four years old, was waiting impatiently to take ownership of the box.

It's a boat ... and a castle .... and an airplane ... and a rocketship ... !

From there it was a short step to getting out the pop-up tents, and playsilks, laundry baskets and cushions.

At one point I overheard The Little Guy telling his two little siblings, "Let's find alllllll the junk in the house, and put it in our tents", which I think they made a valiant effort to do! *sigh*

Of course, the close of this story is this ...

Flattened cardboard boxes and tents, toys everywhere and no kids to be seen!


What are your Little One's favorite ways to have simple Play Days? Do you have particular toys or household items that you put out to inspire and encourage imaginative play? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

Unplugged Mama

I was so excited to read about Simple Kid's 31 Days of Unplugged Play, and eager to follow along and let the Little Ones play; no light up battery operated toys, no television, no gimmicks or what-have-you, just good ol' playing.

Until I realized, that we already do all of those things.

And then, horror of horrors, I realized that the one who needed to become 'unplugged' was me!

That the only one who turns on the TV (after bedtime!) is me ... or My Good Man, but this post is about me, not him :-)

That the lure of the computer and the internet can be a little too seductive, some days.

That while I could be spending more time completely engaged with my Little Ones, they are putting up with me just answering one last email, checking out one more blog.

Ouch.

And then, the second wave of horror; I'm not only showing my children how I want to spend my time, but also what is important to me.

It's just so easy to get pulled into the computer, and I don't have any magical answers. But this sudden realization is a little horrifying to me.

So ... here's me, closing the lid of my laptop, putting away my smart phone, turning off the talk radio and spending more time with the Little Ones playing, tickling, singing, dancing and laughing.

(At least until after bedtime ;-)


How unplugged are you? How do you self-monitor your computer, TV and smart phone use?

Function Over Form

It's so interesting to see how our little home has changed over the past couple of years. Just over the past five years it has seen several incarnations, from the home of a young (-ish!) married couple, to parents to one, and now parents to three!

We have been on a bit of quest more recently to make our home as functional as possible, this small space that we live in. Some of that means taking a lot of 'stuff' out, which I talk about more here.

And part of this process has been about letting go of form and embracing function, accepting that our house won't necessarily look pretty right now, but it will certainly be more user friendly, and will make life just that little bit simpler!

And with two very mobile Little Ones, Baby Girl and My Little Boy, climbing on and pulling out all manner of things, this means that we have been doing some extreme child proofing ...

Attaching the trash and recycling cans in our kitchen with bungee cord.

like this!

Vacuum left permanently plugged in (with a safety cover!) in our dining room.

And this!

Definitely not pretty, but certainly functional!


What have you done in your home to bring in function over form? And is it helping to make your life simpler? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

Goodnight Bags

A week or so ago I started making night bags for each of the two Little Ones here. These are really simple cloth bags to keep pajamas, bedtime books and loveys in, and then at bedtime all the Little One's things are right there in their night bag; it really helps streamline the night time process for us.

I've had making these night bags on my 'to-do' list for months; but over the weekend I suddenly found myself with a little extra time; My Good Man was out with The Little Guy, and the babies were napping! So, out came the sewing machine, and I finally got around to whizzing these simple little bags up.

Easy peasy ... and they look adorable!


Do you have any sewing projects you are planning to do, or have recently finished? Feel free to share in the comments' I'd love to hear from you!

A Nature Shelf! {week 2, October 2012}

Pumpkins just exude happiness, don't you think!

Of course, for the October Nature Shelf, we could hardly do something other than pumpkins to represent the plant world, could we?!

These little beauties were found at our local CSA farm; The Little Guy was so excited to bring home these mini pumpkins.


What do you have on your Nature Table this week? what are you doing to bring a little bit of Nature into your home? Feel free to share in the comments below; 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

A good week for Upcycling!

We gave a bag of fireworks to a neighbor who was going to a big family celebration. (They *really* enjoyed them, which made me oh-so-happy! We've been saving them for an occasion for ages, so giving them away to help celebrate someone else's special occasion felt really good!)

Two kennels went to a friend of ours who has a new kitten (we had three kitty crates, and three kitties; now we just have our one cat, Puffin Muffin, with us, so we only need the one crate).

Before ...

 ... and after!

Some gift bags went to a new home through Freecycle. (No photo ... they went so quickly!)

I made a new (longer) door snake to replace a store bought (much shorter!) So the shorter one went out to a Freecycler.

Two stacks of magazines went out on Freecycle as well.

I also sold a homeschooling book through an online group.

The Little Ones have suddenly decided that they're done with baby food, so the pouches of purees went to our local homeless shelter.

But really, the big Upcycle this week were the three huge bags of baby clothes that I took to a consignment sale yesterday. I marked all of my items to be donated if they don't sell, so it's really a triple whammy; I move some things out of the house, I may make some money from the venture and other people get the benefit of the donated items - it's all good!

And what about you? What are you Upcycling this week?

1. Please enter the direct link to your Upcycling Sunday blog post in the Linky tool below. If you don’t have a blog but still have something to share, feel free to add it to the comments.
2. Be sure to come back and read others links.
3. Check back next week to link up again!

Suncatcher Bunting

I'm not the most crafty person, but I saw this project on The Artful Parent blog and just thought they were so beautiful, and lovely, and relatively easy to make ... and a great way to use up a few of the dozens and dozens of crayons that we seem to have accumulated. My four year old Little Guy and I made these on a recent rainy morning.

I didn't take any pictures of the process (although, to be honest, the photos and directions on The Artful Parent are eminently better than anything I could have done!)

But I did take these pictures of the finished bunting, and I just love them! Honestly, the trickiest part was attaching the ribbon to hang it all up (and I think that speaks more to my sewing skills than anything else!)


What craft projects are you working on with your Little Ones? What blogs inspire your handwork or craft projects? Feel free to share in the comments, adding a link back to your blog about recent projects if you wish; I'd love to hear from you!

October's Here Again!

Ah - October!

Time for pumpkins and baking, digging out scarves and coats, raking leaves and blustery walks. And it is, indeed, golden!

What does October mean to you? What are you doing to bring a little bit of October-ness into your lives?

Buttery Goodness *

     * For those not in the know, buttery goodness is a bit of a family joke. My Good Man was trying to cajole my then three year old into eating just one more bite of a meal, and exclaimed "It's full of buttery goodness!", upon which said son took the bite of food, and proceeded to ask "Is it full of buttery goodness?" with each subsequent meal, for at least a week or two! And it just stuck!

Making butter is just about the simplest thing you can do in the kitchen, but really impressive and so much fun for the little ones to do.

You'll need some heavy cream, a jar with a tight fitting lid and a couple of marbles. (The marbles are optional, but definitely add to the fun factor!)

Put your cream into the jar, making sure not to fill it all the way (I find about half too two thirds is plenty full).

Add your marbles and put the lid on, making sure it's tightly crewed on.

Then shake it!

Yep - that's it! Sometimes it's done in just a couple of minutes, and other times it can take a while. But just keep shaking.

If you added marbles to your jar, you'll be able to hear them clanking around as you shake. And then, suddenly you won't be able to hear them anymore, as the cream gets thicker. And then all of sudden, usually just when you think that this may not be working, you can hear the marbles again, and you realize that you have a jar with a large lump of butter in it, swimming in buttermilk.

Drain off the buttermilk (and save it for pancakes or biscuits - yum!) and there you have it - a lump of freshly made butter!

I like to add some flavorings to mine, depending on how I might use it. Sometimes it will just be a little salt, but you can also add a little vanilla, allspice or honey, if you want a sweet butter - double yum!

Nothing quite like fresh bread from the oven, served with homemade butter.


What is your favorite oh-so-simple recipe? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!