my blog

sock matching quiet book page.

I know I mentioned before how much I love making these quiet book pages, but I honestly can’t even explain how much I seriously am in love with making these. They are so much fun! So I thought today I would share Finn and Grey’s favourite page I’ve made so far. Sock Matching!

IMAGINE OUR LIFE- Pattern and instructions.

I loved the pattern and idea behind this. I added a few extra details like the tide bottle and mesh bag.

The little Tide bottle snaps off and they always make the cutest little gurgle sounds when they “load” the soap into the washing machine.

I only added the mesh bag after we had a couple trial runs with it at Church. I was so afraid the little socks would get lost, so I found these little icing tip bags on clearance at Michaels and just sewed it into the seam on the inside of the book. If flips out of the way when they want to play. I told them it’s the laundry bag. :)

Washing the socks.

And matching them up. I used a really skinny profiled magnet inside each sock to get them to stick together. They were leftover from my scrapbook stash, they have an adhesive back and are super strong. Perfect for this page.

I searched high and low for laundry fabric or fabric with little socks or anything related to laundry with no luck. So I settled on a bright green stripe for my back.

Check out Imagine Our Life for more adorable quiet book patterns. Did I mention they are FREE!?

blogging and me.

This is a post that I have wanted to write for a very long time, but maybe because I’m not the most eloquent of writers, or my thoughts don’t transfer very well to text, I’ve put it off for some time now. But for some reason I really feel like I have to write it, today.

I started this blog for my sister who moved to Australia 8 years ago. I made it as a way to share our pictures, my stories and keep a journal of my life raising my crazy kids. I found sometimes it was the only connection I had to family that lived far away. It was something that I treasured, and LOVED to do.

Slowly over the years I started sharing DIY projects, birthday parties and photography I had done. Much to my surprise people other than family and friends started to read my blog. I loved the idea of sharing my ideas (and quite frankly, the positive comments were a huge ego boost) so more and more of my blog became about sharing tutorials, tips and tricks. I still shared pictures of my kids, stories from vacations and I felt I had a healthy balance between the two things I loved to write and blog about.

As my readers grew and Pinterest started to become more and more popular, my little blog was getting 1000’s of hits a day. At that time in my life I was going through one of the hardest trials I have ever had to face. I was suffering from depression and could barely keep up with the simplest of tasks. I would try to post from time to time to keep up this façade that everything was okay and I was just too busy to blog, when in fact that was the farthest from the truth. If I could lie in bed all day, then certainly I could blog. I just didn’t want to do anything that gave me any sense of accomplishment or joy.

There were times when I would come out of my fog, have good days and I would immerse myself on the internet and especially Pinterest. Occasionally I would stumble across pins of my stuff, it was very exciting. People wanted to pin my stuff! Eventually the questions on how I made this, or where did I get that were pouring in and I couldn’t keep up. Unfortunately the negative comments were flooding in just as fast. People calling me horrible names, saying my stuff wasn’t all that good, tearing me down comment by comment. Some comments I hadn’t even known existed for almost a year because of my depression, sat undiscovered like land mines waiting to attack me. As I read I felt awful. I felt sad. I felt discouraged. But most of all I was disappointed. I just couldn’t imagine taking time out of my day to tell someone, a stranger nonetheless how awful they are.

As someone whose love language is words of affirmation, telling them they suck verbally is just as bad as taking them outside and beating them with a baseball bat. I was emotionally beaten.

All I could think was what a horrible thing this blog had become. What started off as a desperate life line to my sister so very far away had become a source of hurt and pain. I could of course shut it down, turn off the comments, delete it or make it private. (At this point I still don’t know what I plan on doing with my blog.)

Anyways, I guess the whole point I want to make with the long post is to be more aware of others. Just because there is a screen of protection in front of you, doesn’t give you the right to tear another person down. We use the computer as a way to be nasty, insulting and hurtful because we know the possibility of running into them in real life is 1 and a million. We get brave and invincible, never having to suffer consequences for our actions. And the only people that suffer are the ones who are the recipients of your bullying.

So please remember that the writers behind these blog posts are people too. With real life feelings. And don’t use the lame excuse of saying, well they put it out there on the internet therefore they leave themselves open to criticism. Just stop and think, maybe that girl didn’t know Pinterest would exist one day, maybe she had no idea the snowball affect her blog would have, and maybe, just maybe she started this all because she wanted to share with her sister just how much she loves her.

grey’s 4th birthday.

There are benefits to working at Michaels, for example when the Superbowl stuff goes clearance at 80% off and you happen to buy it all at a ridiculous low price; figuring I’ve got 3 boys one of them will be thrilled with a football party at some point. All the decor cost me less than $20.

I re-used Hunter’s Mario Party Astro Turf place mats. Whoohoo! I love recycling party decor.

We always let the kids pick what they want for their birthday dinner, and we’ve had some very unusual picks over the years. Well, since Grey really only likes a handful of foods, I wasn’t surprised when he picked hotdogs and Kraft Dinner for supper.

Grey chose to open presents before cake, so we started off with the gifts.

Want to hear a funny story… this will tell you how much I know about football which is exactly zero. I couldn't find football themed wrapping paper anywhere, and had to settle for this green stuff I found at the dollar store. I wanted to jazz it up a bit and so I did some doodles and words on the paper. So I wrote down the letter “S” because I was going to write “SCORE” but then I realized this wasn’t hockey. Thankfully Darren was there to help me come up with another word with the letter S in it. First Down. Genius honey!

A ball was the only thing Grey asked for. He even told his Primary teacher that he wanted a ball for his birthday.

Happy Birthday Grey!

robot quiet book.

For the past year I’ve been busy sewing quiet book pages for my little guys and to be completely honest, I am hooked. Like seriously addicted to making these adorable little felt pages.

I remember when I was 12 years old I used to babysit for a family in our ward and at the end of the night when it wasn’t too late, the mom would show me all her quiet book pages she had been working on. Colourful shapes, buttons, snaps and my very favourite one, a farm page. I honestly remember thinking at the very moment in her dining room, that one day I would make a quiet book just like hers, they were truly so beautiful. So 20 years later my wish finally came true.

Now before I show you, I cannot stress enough that these are not my patterns or my ideas. I stumbled across this awesome girl on Pinterest and have been a loyal stalker since. Imagine Our Life.

100% of the credit goes directly to her creative genius.

I do however finish my pages a little different from hers. I like to find coordinating fabrics to line the back of each of my pages. Then I serge the edges. I’m still working on a way to make them into a book.

The robot page has to be one of my favourite, especially since it has a couple really COOL elements to it.

There are inter-changeable pieces that snap onto the robot’s body. You can mix his arms, legs and heads.

I love the little wheelie feet piece. I used buttons from my Mom’s old button tin that we used to play with all the time when we were kids. So some of those buttons could be older than I am. ♥ that.

Now, the coolest part of this quiet book page. It lights up.

How awesome is that?!!

With the push of a button, his little heart and ears light up.

Using all sorts of high tech sewing, conductive threads, LED lights and batteries. She goes into complete and VERY awesome detailed instructions on her blog. (And I’m totally kidding about it being high tech, it’s really quite simple once you get the concept)

I even made a little video showing you the 3 different heads and how they light up. It’s pretty hard to film and play at the same time, but you get the idea. :)

Robot Quiet Book

I’ve probably got 10 pages either completed, or almost complete. When I get the time I will definitely post them here for you to see. ♥

Check out Stephanie’s blog if you get the chance, she is fantastic!

Imagine Our Life

hunter.

I have some pretty amazing kids, and I am certain that I don’t tell them enough just how great they are. (I should probably work on that, hmmm…) Anyways, today while I was cleaning up I came across a story that Hunter had written for a Cubs project entitled, “The Magic Mouse”. As I started reading, I couldn’t believe how good it was. He loves to read and clearly has a talent for writing. (Well, his mother thinks so)

Before I get to the story, my super talented awesome child is also very active in lots of extracurricular activities. He participates in weekly Cub meetings and he joined the track team and ran his first race in October.

He also is a member of the Lego Robotics team at school. He had to work really hard to keep his grades, attend all the meetings and of course stay out of trouble to keep on the team. After months of working together to build a super robot for their competition this past weekend, he was so excited to go and show off all their hard work.

Here he is proudly showing off his “Bricks for Brains” team shirt. Unfortunately, he got sick right before his team was to compete and had to come home early, but we are still proud of him nonetheless.

He also sits on his school student council. He helps with fundraisers and organizing activities for the kids at his school.

Hunter really is such a kind hearted child. He is always helping me when I ask, and seems to just know when I’ve reached my highest level of stress and tries to help me before I even ask. He is a good friend and just has a sweet disposition to him. He is extremely smart and enjoys reading, solving brain puzzles and playing on the computer. He is just a perfect addition to our family.

Alright, so if you’ve stuck around long enough, here is his story. Thanks for listening to me brag about my wonderful first born. ♥

 

The Magic Mouse- by Hunter Workman

Once upon a time there was a little mouse. He had a horrible life! He lived in an extremely small hole in the wall, he barely survived because of the mouse traps everywhere, and he was right on the verge of death because of the food supply! Then one day he had had enough! He packed up his things (that took about 10 seconds) and he left!

He looked at a hole that was really big, had no mousetraps, but barley had enough food for him to live. He looked at a hole that was just the right size, had just only 3 mouse traps that were from the last owner ( lying dead in the corner if you’re wondering) and enough food to survive. He thought to himself “I think this is the best house I’m going to get” so he moved in and went to bed.

That night he was visited by a magic mouse angel who had seen his life and picked him because he was the poorest of the other mouse that he had seen. He said “I’ll grant you one wish, but if you don’t like it, you can take it back”. The little mouse said that he would like to think about it so the angel gave him until tomorrow night then he had to give his wish. The little mouse thanked the angel and bid him a farewell. The next night the angel came back and said “what is your wish” the little mouse asked for a better house with better food and no mouse traps at all and none from the owners. The angel granted his wish and then “bang”!!!!!! The little mouse was in the big house with everything he had asked for! He was so happy! He went and ate and ate and ate. He ate until he was stuffed. He went to bed and had an awesome dream.

The next morning he saw his stuff was in the house and unpacked. Man that angel was awesome. He went and ate breakfast. He went and explored the house. He found a whole bunch of awesome things like a hot tub, TV room with an awesome couch, a window, and stuff like that. He had lived there for at least a week and he was getting pretty fat, but he didn’t care. He had lived there for at least a month and he wasn’t doing any better, in fact it was getting out of hand. He could barely move around the house, his bed was too small for him, and he didn’t even fit in the hot tub! He realized maybe that he did have too many things.

The next night he called for the angel and asked for his wish to be undone. The angel saw him and realized why. The angel undid his wish and he got moved back to his old house. First thing the mouse did was work out. He had a lot to catch up on.

The End

finn’s monster mash.

What better way to celebrate our little monster turning 2, than with a monster themed party. I kept it very simple and was thrilled with the results. Enjoy!

Paper mouths from: HERE

Monster Party inspiration from: HERE

Google eye frame from: HERE

Monster shirt from Target

lily’s 7th.

I ended up having to work on Lily’s actual birthday, so we made some fun donut pancakes in the morning and gave her a couple gifts to help get her through the weekend until the Monday when we were going to celebrate.

I had asked her a few times what kind of party she wanted, but being the laid back kind of girl she is, she really didn’t care what it was. So I decided on an ice cream party!

I made the ice cream cones using this tutorial from pinterest. For the most part I kept it the same, just used different sized balls and didn’t measure the fabric, just guestimated.

The birthday streamers were gathered and stitched together using the sewing machine and those cheap $1 paper streamers. Really simple but quite time consuming.

The ice cream toppings and the awesome stand my dad made for me.

He cut holes that fit the snow cone cups perfectly. My mom painted it and then I used glass drawer knobs with pony beads to help build up the platform. Turned out pretty cute, even though I’m pretty sure the paint was still wet when the party started. (You’re not a Coates if don’t procrastinate)

Cake pop ice cream cones.

The gumballs were our “cherry” on top since we’re not fond of fake cherries around here.

Chocolate cake with pink buttercream frosting and a chocolate ganache “melted cone”.

  

I ordered these little individual ice cream containers from Garnish. They held the perfect amount for an individual serving. I wanted to decorate the cups, but just ran out of time.

We did presents first, cause when you’re 7 that’s really the most important part.

The kids always look forward to a birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa Workman.

Lily and Grandma Coates. (They were down visiting for a couple weeks, and lucky us got to be here for Lily’s birthday)

The onto the ice cream bar!

Last but not least, the piñata! My kids LOVE, LOVE piñatas.

Happy Birthday Lily!

perler beads.

We LOVE perler beads at our house. The little girls (and me!) are always busting them out to make quick creations here and there. Well of course the little boys don’t quite understand why they can’t play too. Which usually leads to tears from both sides of camp.

So when I found these adorable little kid friendly perler beads I knew they would be perfect for the boys.

Grey was so excited he walked around with the box for an hour telling everybody, “look at MY perler beans” (as he calls them)

We got work right away making the puppy.

And then little brother was like, hey are you crafting without me.

Well don’t let me stop you, just here to observe.

I’d show you the finished puppy but I didn’t iron it for him because he likes to make them over and over again and doesn’t care so much for the finished product.

Just thought I’d share.

ava’s 9th.

We always have so much going on in the months of May and June. We have 3 birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, end of school parties and planning for Canada Day too. Often by the time we get to Ava’s birthday at the end of June I’m exhausted. This year she requested a friend party, and the rule is if you do a friend one, the family one is simple and sweet. So this year it was exactly that.

I actually had to work on her birthday so we did things a little differently this year. I had everything set up and ready to go when she got home from school. We opened presents and ate cake in the afternoon, which felt weird. But who doesn’t like dessert before dinner.

I made a really simple banner by ripping fabric into strips and just tying it on some string.

The loot!

Her koala bear stuffy was lonely for some Australian company, so we got a kangaroo to be her friend.

Now onto my favourite part, the cake.

I looooooove cake!

I made the candle, well not literally but it used to look like this:

I scraped off the red coloring around the edges and colored it purple with a sharpie marker. Then I randomly glued buttons, sequins, beads and any other random stuff I had lying around. I filled in the bare spaces with sliver glitter and voila! Custom candle.

And this was Grey after he ate the candle.

No seriously I’m not kidding he ate the entire bottom off the candle.

Her friend party was celebrated at Michaels, and it was so much fun. I’ll post pictures from that soon!

first and last.

I was all prepared this year and finally did something I had wanted to do for the last couple of years.

Last day of school pictures.

I LOVE comparison pictures. It can show you just how far you’ve come and how much further you may have to go. It shows grow, change and maturity. Really cool stuff to document.

You may think I have it easy since my kids have blue eyes and they just pop and are so bright in pictures. Well let me tell you, people with blue eyes (not me) are way more sensitive to light, so when we head outside, I almost always have an eye squinter, tears and looking down pictures to deal with. Hunter is particularly bad, his eyes are so, so sensitive to light.

Unfortunately this little bugger doesn’t get his own back to/last day of school picture for another year.

Sigh.

I also made some teacher gifts this year. They were really, cheap to make too, I think they were about $5 for two of them.

I painted some clay pots (all supplies from where else, Michaels!!) with black chalk board paint, and the rim yellow. Marked out a ruler and drew the lines with a sharpie marker. The plants are from Home Depot and that’s it.

From Pinterest: Source