I am needing a good pick-me-up today, and I’ve found it.

Found via Sugar City Journal last night, this video is making my entire month. Photographer-Mother-Stephanie Rausser photographed her little girl’s trip to Paris with her best friend Coco…her rather perfect handmade rag-doll.

Click here for the darling, darling slide show. Honestly…I think I’m off to go make a Coco Doll for my girls. I made a small version for Addie last year, but this size is perfect!

Watch it and you’ll laugh and cry. Its reminding me to see the way my children see their playthings. And it makes me want to go back to Paris. Really bad. Really, really bad.

P.S. The Paris Print is coming soon! By the end of the week, soon. It’s so sweet. And when I’m done, I’m off to sew one of these:

And then maybe, just maybe, I’ll be off to Paris.

And P.S. There is a super huge giveaway at Design Mom you’ll want to check out today. $200 gift card to the shop, as well as another few hundred dollars in awesome giveaways. But it’s only today, so hurry!

Over the Holiday, Kenneth and I finally got our wall to wall bulletin board up in the studio!

I’ve been tacking (and skotch-taping…shhh!) art to the walls since we moved in, and it’s been rather messy (when you’re working on a book, and you are taping paper up and down and up and down…art gets junked up fast!) I’ve been researching the best and most cost effective way to get a 4 ft. x 12 ft. bulletin board, and after a while of searching, I found it! Homosote.

Homosote is a ‘green’ product made from recycled paper, so it has a pulpy texture to it. You can read more about it here. I used the 440 Sound Barrier stuff. I think you can get cork surface and better looking tackable surfaces from them too, but the more basic board was what I found locally, and I wanted to wrap it in linen anyways. Builders use these boards for a boat load of things, like sound proofing rooms, etc. But I discovered online that tons of designers, artchitects, etc. use it to line walls to make a surface for mounting paper. Bingo! That’s what I needed. It’s super inexpensive ($30-ish for a 4×8 sheet) and thick enough to put tacks through (I got the 1/2 inch thick surface). Cork Board isn’t even that thick, and much more pricey when you want to get an entire walls worth.

(By the way…I’m not advertising or anything…just sharing!)

So, here’s what we did:

1. First, here’s a look at what it looks like. It’s like a perfect blend between cardboard and wood.

2. We needed 2 sheets,  but not all of the second, so we cut it to size. Getting a little weight on there was helpful.

3. I covered the Homosote in linen, and ironed out the folds. Well, the incredibly-wonderful-man did. He irons too! The surface is fine on it’s own, but brown wasn’t what I was really wanted.

4. We laid the Homosote on top of the linen so we could wrap it like a canvas.

5. Staple guns are my friend.

6. When Ken drilled the board to the wall, we used these caps to cover the screws so that only the white cap would show, and not the screw head.

And now, I have a totally usable wall surface for laying out storyboards, colors, design swatches, to-do lists (no…scratch that) and the sort. Being a visual person, I need things in front of me to get the juices going. But not too much…I like clear space too. Can you tell?

You might think the studio is a bit sparce…well it is. But I am in no rush to make it perfect. It will evolve, but can I be honest with you? Life with 3 little children is so full and colorful (and cluttery and messy) that I crave clear white space when I create. It helps me dejunk from the day of noodles on my shirt and stains on the floor. It really does!

Here’s what’s on my board now. Nothing fancy…just what I am thinking about right now.

So. Studio space is coming together. Hooray!

I’ve been wanting to do this advent calendar for years…and I finally get to do it!  This will be our first Christmas home since having children, and I’ve wanted to have this be a family tradition of ours since I saw this idea from a neighbor of mine years back.

Children’s Picture Book Advent Calendar: What is it?

24 Christmas Picture Books, all wrapped up and marked for each day leading up until Christmas. This way, we will be reading one Christmas story a night!

Now don’t panic…getting 24 Christmas Books isn’t as hard as it looks. When you can check out Christmas books from the Library for 3 weeks at a time, it makes it rather simple….you may need to renew one time in there, but it still makes for a lovely tradition! And inexpensive too!

And Book #24……is the Bible, so that lessens the load a bit. But you’d be surprised how many Christmas books you already have.  Really, I am sure you have more than you think you do. I think books on winter can even count too… And don’t forget any Christmas Anthologies with short stories in there too.

Here’s a list of a few of mine in there:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

The Polar Express

The 12 Prayers of Christmas

Christmas In the Manger

Christmas is Here

Christmas Day in the Morning

Snowmen at Christmas

A Wish to be a Christmas Tree

God Gave us Christmas

Who is Coming to Our House?

Olive, the Other Reindeer

Oh there are SO many Christmas books that I want to get my hands on….I have so many favorites that I don’t even have own yet! But this year, most of the books in our Advent Calender we DO own (thanks to the need to have a few books for “research” when working on my book) but even still….to the children, these books will be like new since they are all wrapped up.

These books are now in our open bookcase in the basement (thus the really lousy photo…sorry!) But this way, they are in plain visibility. Another good place is the hearth of the fireplace…or in your child’s bedroom.

Anyways…I wanted to share in case anyone needed a good idea for an advent calendar this year. And the best part? It’s either “rented” or a good reason to add to your already established Christmas collection.

Have any of you ever tried this one? It’s a new tradition for us this year, and I think this one is here to stay!

Happy Christmas!

xo

sarah

P.S. And don’t forget! The Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale in the shop ends tonight at midnight!

So the conversation started like this:

IAN: Where do earffworms go in the winter, Mom?

ME: Um, I don’t know. I think they freeze. Or maybe they hibernate. I’ll read about it.

IAN: What do birds eat in the winter then?

ME: Well, they find whatever they can.

IAN: Ok. I’ll start collecting.

1/2 hour later Ian comes to get me with his collection pictured above:

IAN: Look mom. This is for the birds to eat in the winter!

ME: Oh! That’s great! There’s one problem though. Birds don’t eat rocks. Or flower petals. Maybe we can collect something else.

IAN: Like what? How can we feed them mom? The earffworms will freeeee-eeee-eeze (insert hyper shivering child here).

ME: Hey, I know…let’s talk to Dad when he gets home, and maybe we can have a family project to build a bird feeder this weekend. We can go to the store…and…

IAN: Is Dad home yet? I’ll wait on the porch.

4 hours later:

Evidently, Kenneth didn’t even get to come inside the house. While I was getting Ella up from her nap, I came out on the back porch to see this. The man was building before he even had time to put his bag down.

OK. Don’t freak out and send me hate mail. Yes, my almost 5 year old is inches away from a scary blade…of course he was never close to it while it was on. He was in charge of marking the wood. But we’re of the school of thought that if you teach children young, they understand danger and how to act around it. Ian learned how to saute onions on the stove at age three, for instance…attended by an adult of course. But anyways….I have to cover myself because, you know, this is the internet and I’ve been sent hate mail for things like having my 1 year old in point shoes. Anyways…I digress….

So what I thought was going to turn into a fun weekend long project, took exactly an hour. We had scrap fence pieces laying around, and some tools to boot.

It got quite loud…but never boring.

Ken built a little hinged rooftop so we could pour the seed in and out easily. And the large tray would allow multiple birds to eat at the same time. (We have some big birds around here, and the last thing I wanted was to encourage fighting. Can you tell I’m a mom of 3 children under 5?)

And Voila. A simple solution to frozen earthworms.

It took a about 3 days for the birds to figure out it was there, and to come often. Now, we have birds we’ve never even seen before! Namely the really tiny ones that stay hidden. I’m going to have to start learning more about birds now…and it makes me so happy. Ella yells, “Ba! Ba!” and the children have learned to stop talking (yelling) at breakfast when they see the birds in the feeder so they don’t scare them away.

Perfect. I’m starting to feel ready for winter already. We’re keeping the birds happy in our corner of the earth. Or at least we’re keeping the birds close to us so we can feel there is still life when winter erases most of it away. Either way, I’m happy.

I got an email from Mahar Dry goods last week with very sad news. They are closing their doors after 5 wonderful years in business.  And I am very, very depressed.

Mahar Dry Goods was one of the first online shops that actually got me excited about opening my ETSY shop. Robert has stocked exclusively handmade, unique, modern yet vintage children’s goods. It always made me so happy to go browse through his shop, and just this year, Mahar Dry Goods picked up some of our family trees and paper dolls. But, as I very well know, keeping a shop up is a lot of work. It looks all clean and neat on the screen, but there are a lot of things that go into the business of keeping up a business. Especially when you are a one-person start-up.  And so I am so sad to see Robert’s shop close it’s doors. It makes me think of all the handmade-make-it-happen-with-your-boot-straps-businesses out there, and all the love and heart that goes into starting something like this. There are rough times for sure! And though I am shocked and very sad to see his shop close down, I also know that it makes me want to support handmade even more.  So many of us are making it happen with little or no outside help, and yet have wonderful, amazing, inspired products that need to be out there.

So, I have to mention at least a positive that is happening with all this: Mahar Dry Goods will be open through the holiday season, and with the closeout, there is plenty, plenty on sale that you’ll want to get your hands on for Christmas.

So, this is my “support handmade” cheer. Go check out his shop. Do shop handmade this season. Do click on my sponsor column to the right. Go and browse ETSY before hitting the mall. Think of how you can be supporting a young mother who wants to stay at home with her children, and  so opened a shop selling personalized paper dolls. Shop handmade, please.   Right now, I am wearing a cowl from Tickled Pink Knits, and it makes me so happy to be wearing something I know someone made with their own hands…and that I’m helping them keep their love of knitting alive. So, are you shopping handmade this Season? I am.

I’m  getting off my soap box now. But I’m off to Christmas shop here.

Do you remember this post from way back when? Gosh, it was like two years ago…so Addie and Ian were only 2 and 3 years old. I had all this art that my babies had made (finger painting art to be exact) and I didn’t know what to do with it. I’d read blog post after blog post on how to store your kids art, digitize it, etc. But I wanted to USE their art, but didn’t know how. SO I came up with this ART GALLERY idea. I drew up stencils and traced them onto their finger painting art, and cut them out. Then we framed them, hung them on the wall, and had an instant art gallery of my kids work. Every time people came to visit, they always commented on our Gallery wall. It was so fun to look at! And since then, it’s become the most downloaded post on my blog (maybe cause I don’t have that much to download….working on that!)

But, I bring this up, because Chicago’s local news station did a demo of how to make your own ART GALLERY with your children’s art, and they used my blog post and templates for the demo! (Sorry folks…I couldn’t figure out how to embed the video, but you can watch the clip if you click here. The demo is the second half of the program at the 2:31 mark).

It was kinda surreal to watch someone half way across the country share with local Chicago viewers, something that I came up with with on a whim while two toddlers crawled all over me on a normal wednesday morning….and I just thought, “Hey, this would be fun to blog about.” It just made me realize that the normal things that we do each day can help inspire someone else to find more enjoyment in their daily living. That’s what I love about blogging. To me, cutting out animals onto finger-painted paper was just another thing to do on a quiet wednesday morning. And it was! Not that spectacular. But to someone else, that’s an idea that they might not have ever had if they didn’t go read about it. And so I guess it makes me happy to think that somewhere in Chicago there’s another mother cutting out finger-painted paper, while her toddlers climb lovingly all over her, to create a little art gallery from her own children’s precious fingers. It really made me think about how far reaching the little things we do each day can be.  I love how this world turns. And I love sharing in the turning.

To find the templates to make your own, click here.

Happy Monday friends!

There are few things like Fall weather to crank me into cozy food making. I’ve mentioned before my husband’s crazy gifts in the kitchen, right? He’s one of those “make it different every time” kind of cooks, that never needs a recipe, nor writes a recipe.  The end of that is in sight. I have officially persuaded him to write some of his creations down, and I’ve used my blog as a motivation. He actually kinda-sorta started his own blog. But it’s not motivation enough. But since eating is very much a part of my creative process, I figured this was a perfect opportunity to share with you what makes me get into the creative mood. My husband’s cooking…which I actually love being a part of. We’re two of a kind in the kitchen…well, 5 of a kind. Cooking is very much a family affair.

This recipe is actually a mutual creation. I think I figured it out first, and then he tried it, and it has since become a weekend movie night tradition. This isn’t like Micorwave Kettle corn. I actually loathe the stuff. This is the perfect mix between regular popcorn and caramel corn. Yummy.

Now on to the recipe from our guest this week, my husband Kenneth: Say Hi!

Homemade Kettle Corn

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegtable oil

1/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup unpopped popcorn kernals

salt to taste.

First of all, this post is taking much longer to write than it should because my hands are constantly going to the bowl of kettle corn next to me instead of typing.  One of the many reasons I have not been very good about writing down recipies is it’s too hard to write and eat at the same time.  But, as Sarah said this popcorn has become a tradition at our house and I’m confident that with a little practice it will become a staple to every movie watching experience in your home too.

1) Heat a 1/4 cup of oil over medium heat in a large pot with a wide base.  Make sure the pot had a tight fitting lid or you’ll have caramel shrapnel all over your kitchen (not to mention neck).  It’s best to use a pot with a thick bottom so the heat is more even.  Be sure to use vegtable oil or some other oil with a high smoking point.  Don’t use olive oil or butter, they will burn.  As a rule.  If the oil is smoking, its too HOT!

2)  Toss a couple of kernels into the oil and put the lid on.  Listen until you hear them pop and you’ll know the oil is ready.  Add the rest of the kernels to the oil and shake the pot to make sure the kernels are sitting in an even single layer.  Wait about 30 seconds then evenly sprinkle the sugar over the top of the kernels and give the pot another shake.  If the kernels start popping while you are applying the sugar, dump the rest of the sugar in quickly and CLOSE THE LID!  You’re about to get boiling oil exploding all over you.  It is VERY important that from here on out you open the lid away from you and only open it as little as possible.

3)  Depending on the temperature of your oil you’ll have about a minute before the kernals start popping.  I usually reduce my heat at this point to between medium and medium low.  For the first minute or so just giving the pot a good shake will keep the kernals from burning.  And once the popping starts, you’ll want to shake the pot frequently back and forth every 10 seconds or so.  The actual technique of the shaking will vary depending on your pot and the stove you use…but with practice you’ll get the feel for it.  As the popping starts to slow I like to slip in some large cooking chopsticks under the lid and give it a stir.  You could use the handle of a long wooden spoon.  Don’t use anything plastic.  The oil is super hot and will melt it!  Good-bye favorite spatula: I will forever mourn you:(

4)  As the popping starts to wind down I stir the popcorn and check the bottom to see if I’ve got most of the kernels popped.  If not, back on th heat it goes.  If it looks mostly done I take it off the heat and give it a sprinkling of salt.  I like to use kosher salt because I find its a bit sweeter and softer than iodized salt.  The popcorn will stick together a bit, but as you stir it will cools and break apart.  Pour it in a bowl and watch it disapear before your movies opening credits finish rolling.

Trouble shooting:

1)  My popcorn burns:  Your oil is too hot and you need to stir the kernels on the bottom a little bit more.

2)  The corn won’t pop or is small when it pops:  Your corn is old.  Popcorn has to have a certain internal humidity to work.  If it’s old, throw it out and get some fresh stuff from the store.

3)  Everyone ate it when I was washing the pot: Hey! You’ve got a clean pot -make more!!!!

Enjoy, and I promise more yummy dishes will be following this holiday seasons.

Kenneth

UPDATE: Over Christmas, we got this handy piece of equipment. No hassle…no burning….no concerns about hot oil. It makes homemade kettle corn in 5 minutes!

This is a repost from last year, but I loved our framed pictures so much, I’m posting it again in case you can use the idea!

Happy Halloween Decorating!

Spooky portraits: so fun to make with the kids.

How we made them: On one particularly sick day, we laid around the house making spooky faces in the camera. The kids sat with me at the computer while I made them ready for printing. I had originally thought of framing them in these frames from IKEA, but since we were all too sick to get out, I drew a frame into photoshop inspired from the IKEA one I love, inserted the photos, and printed the whole thing out! Voila. Instant framed decor for Halloween!

**Other ideas if you don’t have a printer:

1. Purchase some mix and match frames from a local thrift store and paint them black
2. Swap out some already hung frames on your wall, and fill them with spooky faced for just this month
3. Trace out a simple frame on poster paper and have your children help you paint it black

And since we had more than enough spooky photos of the kids, I printed out the extras, and we had fun coloring in spooky embellishments in marker and crayon…like pirate eye patches, cat ears and sharp teeth. It’s like dress ups without the mess on the floor!

Halloween floral arrangement: Hardly floral! We spray painted some dead branches from outside, adorned with glittered butterflies and black crows (which I did purchase earlier in the month). The spray paint was a hit…and even though the kids just watched me, they wanted to turn everything in the house black after watching the transformation. Good thing we ran out of spray paint!

Bats in the doorway: Oh these took minutes…and cost near to nothing..but they really look great as they hang in our entry way. Something about the silhouette factor. These were made with construction paper and string we had on hand.

If you have any fun links of kid-friendly Halloween fun, do share!

Happy Spooking!

I can’t believe we are starting to think about Halloween here. Well, maybe I feel like I should be thinking about Halloween with how long it takes me to get costumes done.  I mean, every year I think valiant thoughts like, “This Halloween, I’m going to make my kid’s costumes!” And then I realize I have to start so far in advance to make sure that they get done. But, what to do about the last minute requests like, “Oh, I really don’t want to be a skeleton! I wanted to be a dragon!” And then my weeks of planning and sewing are in vain. Well, at least in my mind. I haven’t yet actually sewed one…I always end up procrastinating or thinking that my kids will keep changing their minds, and so we end up making last minute trips to the store. And I vow to not do that again!

So while I sit and stew over this dilemma that happens every year (do I make the costumes or let the children pick them out at the store), enjoy these cute pictures of Halloween past. Notice: no Sponge Bobs, Bloody Vampires or Hannah Montanas. Kinda wishing I could whip up something as wonderful as that European clown in a cone hat. Kinda darling.

What do you do for Halloween? Hand sewn? Online purchase? Cardboard box and taped toiletpaper rolls? Do share. I’m a bit terrified of procrastinating again!

Tomorrow is the first day of school for Addie and Ian. Addie is starting Kindergarten, and to be honest, I can’t tell if I am completely freaked out, desperately sad or in complete denial that I have a child old enough for public school. But underneath all that, I am actually excited to see my baby moving up in the world.  But mostly  because she is really excited about moving up in the world. She’s been talking about it all summer, and has been losing sleep over what her teacher will look like, where her class will be and what friends she’ll meet. There has been the typical nervousness too, and so to make things extra special we decided to put on a fancy schmancy “Before School Dinner.” I got the idea from Nie Nie’s  blog post 2 years ago, and I thought it was such a great way to get everyone involved in the celebration of starting a new school year. And with Ian starting pre-school as well, it seemed the perfect timing.

So Saturday night I sat them down to help me plan.

Me: For your back to school dinner, Dad and I are going to make you your favorite dinner. You can pick whatever you want! What’ll it be?

I’m thinking they’ll pick like homemade pizza, chocolate cake or mac and cheese. Something they actually eat 100% of the time.

Ian: (without hesitation) Green eggs and ham!

Me: (wondering if I even could figure out how to make it) Are you sure? What about homemade meatballs, or hamburgers? Maybe fancy cut french fries?

Addie and Ian: Green eggs and Ham!!!!!

But then I got to thinking: That’s actually kind of a brilliant idea for a back to school dinner! You know, school really is about just learning to try new things, reading good books and have fun in the process. Perfect! A (very loosely) themed Dr. Suess dinner.

So, considering we put it together in about an hour, there wasn’t anything too elaborate here. But it was a lot of fun.

The kids came up with the menu for the most part. I added in this theme, which we’ll keep trying to memorize through the school year.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Our kitchen is all very white at the moment…and nice clean slate for when I can start decorating…but this garland from Bonne Nouvelle gave just the perfect color splash.

But the real triumph, was the green eggs and ham. I know, I know. They look very…um….not pretty. But since when were green eggs and ham supposed to look appetizing? Ken made Mont Saint Michelle style eggs (think puffy omelette’s with German pancake flavor) and added green food coloring. And the ham was topped with a green brown-sugar glaze. They were delicious and to be perfectly honest, they were a hit.

And of course, there was real food for the adults. Fresh garden veggies….delicious.

We spent a bit of time letting them each tell the table what they were most excited about and what they thought they were going to learn this year. We even had an after dinner ball complete with capes and wooden stick horses for escorts. Letting the kids pick the party events was such a blast.

But all in all, it was the first of what will be a very fun tradition for the kids. It put me in the right mood too, considering that I’m most likely going to cry my way home from taking Addie to her first day. There is something about those “firsts” that is that interesting mix of wonderful and meloncholy. I guess that is where the word “sentimental” fits best.