Button button, who wants to make a button?

Today with Olea out of school, and Gary gone, I had the feeling we needed to do a project together. So with the idea of making buttons for the quiet book, I saw somewhere making buttons with an old film canister and clay. I wasn't in the mood for clay with Zurich today so I pulled out the Shrinky-Dink instead.
I used my Cuttlebug and some circle dies to pre-cut the Shrinky-Dink and 1/8th inch and 1/4 inch hole punchers to cut holes for the buttons.

I got out my beloved box of colored sharpies and Olea, Zurich and I got busy coloring the circles.

The biggest circles started out at an inch and a half. (Nev was napping, besides her and sharpies are not a good mix).

Then we shrunk them. oooohhhh

The kids had a good time sifting them in their hands and looking over them, seeing how it changed during baking, recognizing the ones they did, color changes, etc.

Now what do do with them? I had a quiet book page in mind. I don't know if I will just sew them all on one page and let that be it, or if I will use them as flower centers.... The kids did the fronts and backs of the buttons (differently of course), so it seems a shame to have to pick one side to show.

Quiet book addition

With Gary off hunting I have spent more time in the studio than I normally would. However, recently it's been my sewing room. So here are pictures of the quiet book. These pages are at least 3 or 4 years old. I made them with the idea of longevity, so far things have held up really well and have been well enjoyed.
Front cover (the kids LOVE the clip) my oldest grafittied on the top corner

Pedigree page, pics come in and out of clear plastic pockets and can be stored in the red envelope. The pockets have the individual's names underneath that you can see when the pic isn't in it.

A pocket for the shapes and velcrow places to put them.

Pick the apples and put them in the basket

Lace and tie the shoes

Braid or play with the leather hair, also black ribbon to tie bows

Lift the flaps page with Noah's Ark, I used specialty buttons for the animals and the rainbow (under the cloud)

And here are the NEW pages I mostly completed and added to the book tonight. "Mostly," because I still can't find the bag of stuff I need to laminate. So I did what I could without them. Because of that I changed my idea of what to do with some of the pages.
I ended up doing a Jonah and the whale page. It still needs the right verbiage on the page.

A weaving page, where you weave the strips to make the bed, the pillows are positionable too. My Olea loves patterns so I thought this one would be a fun challenge for her.

Mailbox missing the flag (laminated piece) with two pencil slots, the pink envelope holds paper

Hickory Dickory Dock Clock page. The hands move over a thick clear piece of plastic (the kind people use to protect their wood tables). The pendulum was an afterthought to make it with my jewelry stuff to add a different feel and interest. Mouse and attached ribbon can be stored in the pocket at the base of the clock.

Cut it

Today we had to pick up our county fair stuff, so I tried to coordinate a visit to Aunt Kendra at the Paul Mitchell school so Olea and I could get hair cuts. Thankfully it worked out. I just got a trim since I haven't had anything since I last cut it back in, oh gosh.... um December of 08, wow, that's embarrassing.

Olea had decided that she wanted hers long so it could be like "Hannah Montanah" hair. So we went in under that assumption. Kendra comes to me (I was up front with the babies) and says, "Um, she wants it short." I was totally good with this since Olea and I have major fights over brushing her hair, and I don't want to worry about that for school. I said, "Ya, just do what she wants." (Wooo what liberties I am giving a six year old!) Apparently, she saw a lil gal across from her with a similar cut and decided it was awesome.
The process


Thank goodness for suckers!


BEFORE AFTER

Ohh that Kendra is good! Thanks so much Kendra, and thanks for the suckers, the babies might not have survived. :)

And we got home in time to show the MovingVan estimator around the house. Go to Meet the Teacher, and a neighborhood bbq, and I got to go running. A successful day.

Son, this is becoming a problem

Zurich will help himself to my make-up and then come find me, "I pretty, Mom?"
to which I usually reply, "Son, boys aren't supposed to wear makeup."
How old fashioned of me right?

He needs to see his Father get ready in the morning more huh? However, the fact that he already wakes up at 7 or so is bad enough I don't want him getting up at 5:30 just so he can see how men get ready.

Quiet book

Back in the day I made a quiet book for my first baby. I made it with expansion in mind. It currently has a pedigree chart type page where they insert pictures of ancestors in little plastic pockets. A girl whose hair you can braid (leather strips for hair), shoes to lace and tie, a flap lift page with Noah's ark, and a shape matching page, and an apple tree picking page with a bucket pocket. The kids love it. Over the years I have had ideas for more pages, but haven't gotten around to it.

But the other day I started working on an expansion page for the quiet book, because I had an urge.
I find that my fabric markers I had have all dried out. I guess it has been three years or more. grrr

Olea requested a mailbox page. Other than the flag on the box the rest of the page is sewn.
And with Olea who will soon need to learn time, and Zurich who loves clocks in mind, I made a clock page. Feeling all smart about how it turned out, except for the verbiage (because of the marker situation).

I need to find the pieces I pre-made, but haven't yet laminated. I can't so far. I have plans for a Golden plates page and a closures page. I also need to print out new pictures for the pedigree and get them laminated, since we have two more children since I first made it. Olea's picture could also use an update.

I should probably share pictures, but I need to go feed children now.

So instead, I will share what I did take pictures of: what the two older kids did while I worked on said quiet book page.

Painting.

The realization that Zurich is old enough to do this without it being a major stress to me is very exciting. He painted his train (left over from conference weekend) and then I pulled out a mini canvas, that I had plans for... but needed something else for him to paint (his other trains were in the room with the sleeping baby). His end result over two days painting on the same canvas is pretty cool. Zurich's on the left, Olea's on the right.


Then Zurich's black one, which we will let him work on some more, and Olea's bumblebee (the canvases had pre-drawn images on them, Olea chose to follow hers. The painting below is one that Olea painted, that was pretty cool, then she painted on it again, and I was kinda disappointed because she over did it, she should have let me know she needed a new canvas. I need to buy more canvases.

How can I get so stressed with finger paints, but acrylic paints are not such a big deal? weird.

County Fair

I had been warned. However, I was still shocked at the size of it. It was TINY. It was like an 1/8th of the county fair I grew up with.

With all that has been going on I wasn't very prepared. But Olea had her painting from the Freedom Fest all framed and ready to go so I took that down and some photos and tatting I had.
Apparently, I'm not a great photographer (knew that) but I'm good at Tatting and Olea is a fab painter (knew that :) ).
So Monday we get to go pick up our prize money and ribbons. Fun.

Kiddies liked the small selection of animals too. Nev would say "woah" at every new pig pen and she really wanted the bunnies and guinea pigs.

Last night was dollar night, so all rides were just one ticket, "just one" dollar. It worked out since any more and it wouldn't have been worth it. The kids all had a good time, the weather was kinda crappy, but there were no lines so that is always nice. :)

Milk wars

I laughed so hard. Parenting is hilarious. For the record it was the little gal's cup. Zurich gets devastated so easily lately.

Gary's first directed post

I was reading blogs tonight. Since I haven't been on the computer very much at all since the appy. Gary said, "here is something that you need to put on the blog," and read me this quote from the book he is reading. 

"Before you criticize someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. Then when you start criticizing him you are a mile away and he's got to run after you in his socks." Lee Child Gone Tomorrow.

It made me laugh, and it made sense so I grant his wish.

Mutilated Monkey bread

I had a loaf of Monkey bread defrosting on the counter to give to a friend. Came downstairs after putting Nev down for her morning nap and found that Zurich had tried to cut into it. Thus mutilating the top of the bread, rendering it only edible to us. So I now add making bread to the day's TO DO's.

The kid said he was done eating. So why did he feel the need to eat the bread right after breakfast?

Tie-Dye

This weekend we had Grandparents here and we made tie-dye t-shirts. I did mine and Nev's last so we had lots of dye left. For interest sake, 100 percent cotton shirts turned out the brightest. It takes 24 hours for them to cure so we took pictures of them today to send to Grandma so she could see how they turned out.

Olea told Gary how to pose in this one.