Camping Prep

Well, it's less than 48 hours until we hit the road for our 

Heitmanek Reunion Camp Out.

I have 4,087 more trips to make out to the trailer, so I'm doing what any sane person would do:

Blogging.

And crafting.

Just wanted to quickly share the camp shirts I made for the little girls:

I made these for the big girls 7 years ago {insert bug-eyed emoji}!

You can see HERE

And now, off to the trailer!

Happy Summer!!!

Countdown to Christmas 2015 ~ Days 6-10

Whew! 

This December is busier than any other I can remember!

We've been decorating:
{Our own tree, as well as others :) }  

 

 

 

Crafting:
 

 

 

Miss Tay made a sled ornament, while the other girls chose to work on sewing projects.
 

 

 

 We've been out and about, running so many errands, that we've had to pick up  a couple of treats along the way:

{Starbucks Cake Pops are the girls' favorites}
 

 

We went to watch the Peanuts Movie.

 

 

We had other errands to run that day, so we stayed in town ALL.DAY.LONG.
Good thing we were prepared with books and snacks to keep us busy in the car while we waited for the movie to start.

 

 

Miss Tay loves our theater.

 

 

 

 

 Super comfy recliners and buttery popcorn?
What's not to love??

What's keeping you busy? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girls Days {AKA: When Dad is Away}

Well, it's May.

And around these parts, that means Bear Hunting Season.  Our year is pretty much broken up into hunting seasons:  Bear in the Spring, Elk in late Summer, and in the Fall . . . Well, the Fall is just one big collection of hunting seasons for Deer and Elk!

But, back to May. 
Jeremy almost always leaves sometime in May to go hunting for Bear.
And he did just that last week.

So, us girly girls were left to fend for ourselves, and what did we do?
All sorts of girly things, of course! {We try to dial down the girly just a liiiiiiiitle when poor Daddy is home, so when he's gone, we let loose}. 

 

There were sleep-outs in the living room.
{Even kitty joined us}. 

 

 

 

 

 There were pancake breakfasts in the morning.

 

 

 

 There was Barbie sewing going on.
Let me just take a minute to say that if you find a cute Barbie evening gown craft at your local craft store, and you think, "Hey, I'm no seamstress {at.all.}, but it is a KID'S craft, surely I can help pull this off" ... if that's what you're thinking, well, you're wrong.  You can't pull it off.  Just trying to save you the frustration and guilt right now.

 

 

 

 There was also some cooking classes being recorded :)

Makenna got a video camera for Christmas.  She loves to take video, and Sierra loves to be in front of the video.  It's a match made in Heaven! 

They were making up all sorts of recipes, and sharing craft ideas on their own little {pretend} YouTube channel!

 

 

 

 And there was even a little real crafting that took place for a Tea party that we attended yesterday.

 

 

I can't wait to share those photos, because we had So.Much.Fun!  We've decided that attending teas is our new, favorite pastime:

Getting to
dress up: Check
drink tea: Check
eat yummy sweets: Check
spend time with some of the most lovely ladies: Checkity Check Check!

And I am delighted to say that I even devoted some time to PHOTO ORGANIZATION!!!  I love photography so much.  And one of my favorite things to do is document our daily lives.  But my photo folders on my computer are out of control.  Completely.  When you take as many photos as I do {sometimes hundreds and hundreds a month!}, the editing, and organization can get away from you.  I think I do a fairly good job of keeping up with photos for the girls.  Each year, on each of their birthdays, I put together a photo book for each one.  But, these are books that they will {don't cry. don't cry.} take with them when they go. These are not photo books for ME.  So I am slowly, but surely trying to organize all of my photos from the last, oh, 8 or 9 years {I did manage to scrapbook up until Sierra was four, and Kenners was about 2, so I've got those whopping four years covered}.  And get them into books for myself.  I encourage you to do the same.  I know we love social media for sharing photos.  We have our phones, so we can take our precious photographs everywhere we go, with ease.  But printing those photographs.  Having something tangible as a memory.  Do it.  Even if it means starting right now, and slowly, slowly, working your way backward.  Or just start and move forward.  But, do it.  It will be so important, one day, for your children, and grandchildren to have access to these memories.  It's important now. 

Stay tuned.  I will be back soon with some tips for organizing.  And to outline what works for me.

 

 Until then,

 

 

 

Christmas Bazaar

 My big girls and I have been busily crafting for their first ever Christmas Bazaar!

It was held last weekend, and it was such fun!

We made gift tags . . .
 

 Hot Cocoa Packets, Snowmen Candy Bars, Jewelry, Hair Clips,
 

Little Post-It Note Holders . . . {I found this idea on my friend, Heidi's blog, and she got the tutorial HERE ~ Seriously CUTE and easy!!}

 

Baby Blankets, Scarves, Bath Salts, and lots o' other goodies!

Sierra and I did a mock set up at home before the big day :)
 

And then . . . the BIG DAY!
I was chasing the littles while the big girls held down the table ;)
 

And then . . . the unthinkable . . . we found out that someone was selling BUNNIES!
 

 

 

 We begged the Daddy for one, but it is not to be.  Which is okay {we're kind of holding out for a kitten, anyway!}

Y'all, Thanksgiving is in TWO days.  Then Countdown to Christmas is just around the corner! 
Holy smokes, time's a flyin'!  Whatcha been up to? 

 

 

 

 

 

Projects!

So, turns out a blog break isn't all bad. The girls and I have been enjoying some beautiful, sunshiney weather {finally!!}, and since Jeremy is off hunting, we've had a little extra time for . . .

Projects!

Oh how I've missed projects. We've been so busy lately ~ moving and organizing and getting settled; finishing up our school year; preparing for a new baby; and all sorts of other odds and ends, that we just haven't had much craft time. But the last couple of days we made the time.

A sneak peak:

For her birthday, Makenna received an American Girl sleeping bag for her doll. Sierra's been wanting one ever since. So the other day we were at the fabric store, and I picked up some super snuggly {and cute} minky with thoughts of just making a sleeping bag myself. I'm not a seamstress. At all. I love making baby blankets and bibs, little burpies, and even some appliqued onesies, but I don't do zippers or anything crazy like that ;) But I attempted it anyway, and we thought it turned out pretty cute! I even stamped a little silver tag that reads: Meg, {her doll's name is Meagan}, and attached it to the zipper.

I've also been making little headbands and photo props in anticipation of our new little one's first pictures! Can you tell we're a liiiiiiitle excited about her arrival?

Kam decided she like this one, and put it on for awhile ;)

I love these colors.

And a tiny little basket that she can snuggle inside for picture day :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's what we've been up to. How about y'all?

Spring Happenings

It doesn't really feel like Spring.

{It's been hovering between 40 and 50 degrees for-EVER!}

But because I see a liiiiiitle blue sky poking through the clouds, and because I'm longing for some warmer days, I thought it was time for us to start acting like it's Spring. Hey, you never know, maybe Mother Nature will follow suit?

Yesterday, after homeschool, the girls decorated their cork board. Complete with bunnies, flowers, and calepitters.

We try to dress up this board each month with a new bible verse and some sort of craft that ties in to the monthly theme. I think the girls did such a great, Springy job! And they had a ball doing it. Seriously, if you're looking for something to keep the kids busy, this definitely worked for my girls. They were cutting, pasting, and designing for a couple of hours! {We won't talk about the kind of trouble Kam got into during that time. Think LOTS of glue stick fun}. And our left over flowers and bunnies will be used for some Springy Easter cards.

~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~

Other things that have been keeping us busy?

I know it's a bit early, but we couldn't help but get a dresser ready for little Miss.

It shouldn't surprise me, being that this is our fourth girl, but we seriously have SO many baby girl clothes. I think we're set. For the first few months anyway. After that we have a conflict in seasons. Our newest princess will be a Summer baby, and Kam and Kenners are Winter babies. And I just don't have much left over from when Sierra was a baby.

And finally, you see what was on display smack.dab. in front of the grocery check out?

As if my girls wouldn't have been able to spot it from a mile away. They talked me into it. They're quite persistent, you know.

Busy, Busy Bees

Whew! Where have I been??

I was afraid that when my sister and her littles left we would be bored out of our minds. Not knowing what to do with ourselves. How would we keep busy, I wondered. Yeah. I shouldn't have worried. We've definitely kept busy.

I will have more house updates soon. So, tune in. Or don't, if you're sick of hearing about it ;) Framing is officially finished, and now we're on to a little plumbing and windows. Woo hoo!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little bit on what's been keeping us busy . . .

This one here. She pretty much keeps me runnin' all.day.long.

Can you say, hand FULL? We're smack dab in the middle of the "screeching at the top of our lungs phase". Is this a phase? I can't recall going through it quite so badly with my other two. Pair super loud with demanding, and you've got Kam ;) Thank goodness she's adorable.

~~~~~~~~~

We've been gearing up for the 4th. We don't actually have many plans, but my girls love an excuse to get dolled up. Who doesn't?

So, you guessed it, spa day. Sierra and Makenna both have red, white, & blue nails. Kam had half of them done, but she kept smudging hers, so we called it quits after our fourth attempt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news . . . we've been crafting!

I kinda had to. I couldn't make a camp shirt for just one.

{If you'd like step by step pictures/tutorial for this, click here}

Sierra's is on the left, Makenna's is on the right. They chose their colors and helped me apply them.

FYI ~ wool felt is so much easier to work with than the oil cloth I used on Kam's shirt.

And after making Sierra's wool felt embellished tank top, you know Kenners was asking for one. So . . . this was her request. A ladybug. 'Cuz we call her Bug ;)

~~~~~~~~~~

So, that's it. We're getting ready to put on a movie and eat some ice cream. It's girls night, you know. Jeremy is at work. Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!!

I'll just make it myself then

I was just "talking" to my blog friend, Heather, about a disease we both have. The I can make that myself for less disease. The kicker: we really can't make it ourselves, but we think we can. Either that, or we just don't have time to make it ourselves.

Anyway.

Sometimes, sometimes, we really can make it ourselves . . .

Take this adorable t-shirt, for example. A couple of months ago, when all of our cutesie Spring catalogs arrived, we found this among all the other sweetness that is the Mini Boden catalog. My girls love this tee. They each wanted one for our annual family reunion camp-out. Oh alright, so Kam didn't actually tell me she wanted one, but I know for a fact that Sierra and Makenna did. The problem: the price. This child's top is $28. If you do the math that comes to a total of $84 PLUS shipping for my three girls.

That's when I heard that voice: Hey, you can make that yourself.

I found some tees at Old Navy for less than $5 each. Even better, find a tee that you already own. Shirts with a small {or even large} stain work great to applique!

I didn't care for the pocket on Kam's tee, so I used a seam ripper to take it off.

I got out my fabric scraps, and liked the polka dots on this sage green oil cloth. {Bonus: oil cloth wipes down easily. Score for my little messy Bessie!} A little bit of wool felt came in handy for the hitch and tire/wheel.

I used Steam-A-Seam 2 Fusible webbing to apply the applique. I love this stuff!

Remove backing . . .

adhere to "camper" . . .

Add more details ~ a window, a door . . .

Find the perfect spot on your tee . . .

Permanently adhere with an iron. I turned my tee inside out and used a high heat setting. Press down for 20 seconds or so all over the applique to ensure a good "stick".

And voila! Your very own tee {for like, 1/6th the cost!}

Now I just gotta find the time to make the other two :)

~~~~~~~~~~

Check out lots of crafty goodness at Jen's!