Hat Couture

 She's lovely.

Let's wrap this up

Ok, fine, I confess! 

We procrastinated the gingerbread houses this year. 

So we're doing it before all the Christmas decorations disappear. And just to make up for it, we're going OLD SCHOOL and finally making our own gingerbread dough. 

 

Mine: 

Megan's:

Laney's: 

Anna's:

Everly's (more is more):

Once the sprinkles were swept up and the countertop has been scraped with a razor blade...we settled down into gentler pursuits. 

Three puzzles in two days. 

The Christmas purge is near!

Ghetto Barbie

Some kids have the Barbie Dream House.

But the lucky kids build their's out of scrap wood....it's way more fun.

This has the added bonus of freeing up funds for the new hospital wing. These ladies are in dire need.

Toothpick crutches don't pay for themselves.

High Fashion

The girls are feverishly producing one-of-a-kind clothing for their barbies. There is felt and hot glue EVERYWHERE.  The messes have reached unprecedented proportions. 

I keep finding these adorable little miniature accessories all over. They melt my heart!

Barbie-size sheet music....charming!

An itty bitty box of chocolates...precious!

Little toilet filled with melted chocolate......oh. Oh no.

No no no.

Summer Bucket List: Thrift store upcycle

Its so hot outside. 

Too hot for any of our outdoor bucket list items to be anything more than pure misery.

So we decided it's the perfect time to make a trip to Savers and look for treasures....with potential.

We settled on these:

I bought a couple extra, you never know if there will be friend around that wants to get in on the fun. Or maybe one gets mysteriously dropped and shatters into a million pieces along with the hopes and dreams of your 7 year old daughter...you know, something like that.

We got right down to business.

Laney chose this sad little brown bird. She knew she'd find reliable information in Grandma Kathleen's bird book. 

And....TRANSFORMATION!

The other's finished and hustled off before I could get pictures of their final product. Eventually I will track them down and add photos....

This was a fun activity! Kind of pricey, even from a thrift store...I may keep my eyes out this year for next summer's candidates.

Thrifty crafters

I always want to do this...but I never do.

Except last year!! I remembered to go in after Easter and buy up some craft kits at a super discounted price.

Yeah, me!

So now we have something to entertain ourselves with for the entire afternoon.


Everly got to work on a bunny puppet.

My favorite thing about these kits are the lengthy instructions.

Aaand....the masterpieces!

Turkey's Choice

I am over the moon for this creative game Anna made ...

My favorite part is that you can play the entire game from your spot on the couch. It's perfection.

And I can't say enough about these little turkeys and their fall sweater collection.

I've got the bug

Yesterday the idea of decorating for Halloween made me want to crawl back into bed. Forever.

Today I am feeling like we might need more miniature skulls. 

I made these seriously awesome spell books out of old novels I found at the thriftstore....

One of them is actually a cool old book about Revelations, it has all these creepy drawings and graphs that really give off a magical spell vibe. Also, I might get struck by lightening.

And if that weren't enough, I discovered that making apothecary jars is super addicting. 

I originally only planned to make enough for one little spot on the bookshelf....but then I couldn't stop...

I think it's time for a fog machine.

And I have one year to convince my kids that making a hanging spider web body is not totally terrifying.

So far it's a big fat NO from Megan, but Anna is all in.

Summer Bucket List: Upcycle Flip-Flops

This was fun! The flip flops were a dollar at Old Navy (I was watching that sale like a hawk!)  The fabric was a few bucks and we just ripped it up into strips. 

The girls did the rest! 

They wanted to perfect photo of their handiwork....nope, can't see your feet, ladies!

That's a few feet, and probably good for your abs....

That's super cute...but we are missing your smiles!

Got it!