Wreaths, Terrified Visitor and Geode Eggs....

So, how's that for completely random topics?

When I was buying the supplies for my apple green scrambled egg wreath hanging on my front door I promised Ava that I'd make her and Annika wreaths for their doors. It was nice using that as a bribe to shop at Hobby Lobby (otherwise our trips there are filled with whining). So I grabbed several extra bags of 50% off plastic Easter eggs and two small straw wreath forms.

As it turns out those wreath forms weren't the right shape and I was running out of eggs (my front door wreath sucked up a lot more of those eggs than originally anticipated).

BUT I wanted to keep my promise....so I cut out wreath shapes from cardboard and then hot glued the eggs to the cardboard. If I'd had more time I would have painted the cardboard wreaths first.

In the end, it didn't matter as the girls loved them. I hung them up to their bedroom doors using ribbon.

Our terrified visitor this evening...

a STARLING!

Now...how did we get a starling in our house you might ask yourself...well, through our woodstove (& chimney). For some reason birds think the chimney is a great place to hang out and have a party or something. At least this bird was lucky as we got him out alive. (we've even had a blue bird tap on our woodstove from inside...and yes, somewhere we do have a screen we can put up but that's a super dangerous task we don't relish).
Mark tried to calm it down and not grab it immediately. The poor thing was beyond soothe talking.

Up close encounter...the girls got to look at the bird. It does have a rainbow like coloring.
See ya later alligator! The starling flew off...but surprised us (or me anyway) because it just sat in a tree in front of our house and stared at us. It's in the photo...I promise. Thus ending our major excitement for the day!
Now for the Geode Easter eggs....

I found the instructions for these super cool Easter eggs on this blog. I thought they were awesome...especially since Annika keeps claiming she wants to be a scientist when she grows up.
Each color represents a different super-saturated salt solution used (epsom, borax, sea salt and coarse table salt). I had Annika take notes.
Just for kicks...here's my Easter tree the girls helped decorate. I can't not do an Easter tree for Easter! I wish I had pussy willow branches so that I could make the trees like we had when I was growing up in Alaska. Pussy willows and Easter just go together, know what I mean?After a day of weeding the garden....and planting some cool weather seeds (spinach, radish and lettuce)...washing our cars...I think it's time for bed!

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Weekend Adventures: Easter Egg Hunt 2010, Garage Walls, Cookies & More

Ever have one of those weekends where you feel like you need a weekend just to recover from your weekend?!

Well, that pretty much sums up our last weekend! Only in a good way, of course! We tried to cram as much as possible in this weekend as we could.

Like drywalling our garage. And attending a local Easter egg hunt. And making/decorating Easter cookies. And coloring Easter eggs. And.......

First up, the Great Easter Egg Hunt of 2010 (held at our local school). The best part about this "hunt" was seeing all our old and new friends with their children at the "hunt".

Ava was pretty nervous around Mr. Easter Bunny. Can't blame her. But those Tootsie Rolls in his basket soon got her over her fear.
The girls decided they wanted to wear the bunny ears their Oma sent them. I think they're perfect for the occasion!

Look at all those eggs!
Woo hoo! The girls got to trade their plastic eggs for bags of goodies, candy and stuff. A girl's delight!
Annika really wants to find a tree in our forest that she can climb. This is a little oak tree that is in our backyard. It's not quite suited to climbing but then again none of the trees in Bristling Acres is really suited for climbing. It's not called Bristling Acres for nothing!
She managed to get part way up with the help of one of her chairs. Okay...now the garage effort. Now perhaps you might remember the car troubles I posted about last month? No? Sadly, I can't forget. We spent 6-1/2 weeks without our less than six month old car because A MOUSE CHEWED A WIRE (wire harness had to be replaced). Meaning mice were in our garage. Mice=bad. They had found all kinds of ways to get into our garage and destroy stuff.

Also, now here's kind of the sad part, look in the photo below and you'll see that the dogs have an enclosure in the garage (it leads to the big dog yard). Well, we have a super old dog. Super duper old Mr. Super Pooper. He's our 14-1/2 year old lab who in spite of his age seems very happy about life. The problem? He poops EVERYWHERE! When he's eating, sleeping, etc. Just imagine what that enclosure was like and how the garage smelled and what the dust in the garage was made of (and oh YES, everything in the garage was COATED with a layer of DUST).

Change=good.

So, in honor of the mice and the dogs we dry walled most of the garage this past weekend. Let me just saying that heaving up 5/8" dry wall = PAIN.

Before....(with dog enclosure; not going to show you the really nasty stuff)
It's a start!WOW! Doesn't that look different?
Some how all that stuff has to fit back in the garage.... (most of it will be on shelves and hooks that were taken down in order to dry wall the garage). Lovely sight, no? LOL!

The backwall finished (unused drywall are leaning against the wall behind that shelf; oh my...were those heavy to move!). Now we'll need to tape and mud (least favorite part of the project) and paint. I think I'll paint the doors turquoise. What do you think? Mark only wants white walls- or as he put it, "any color as long as it's white". I think we'll end up putting the dog enclosure back up and we also intend to put in a concrete patio out the dog door to cut down on dust.
We've had one consistent request from Ava these past few weeks...to fly a kite. She got her wish this weekend!.....

And boy, the wind was really helping us.
Ava nearly getting blown away while holding the kite. Okay, perhaps the wind wasn't that strong.
A bird? A plane? No....our kite! (our old Christmas tree in the foreground)
EASTER COOKIES!!!!!!!

I love making treats. I've got a bad sweet tooth that gets me into trouble. (I should find it and have it pulled!) I really wanted to make decorated sugar cookies for Easter but I've yet to find a great sugar cookie recipe. I Googled "great tasting sugar cookie recipe" and I found these on Simply Recipes. I used the first cookie recipe they posted. By the way, I've made several recipes from that site and have yet to be disappointed. Hi, my name is Astrid and I'm a Recipe Junkie. There, I said it. I really can't help myself. But, these really were the best sugar cookies I've ever made. I subbed almond extract for the vanilla. Yum!
Then I used the frosting recipe from MomsWhoThink website (plus they've got the same cookie recipe posted...so that means it has to be good, right?) AND they've got helpful hints for baking those cookies. I added raspberry flavoring instead of vanilla to my frosting. Oh so good. Truly. I wish I didn't have a sweet tooth.At least the girls and I had fun decorating our cookies in rather obnoxious -err- fun colors!
My Easter Bunny cookies.

Please excuse me...I think I need to eat a cookie. And then jog 3 miles. Or 10. :)

Whew...and now I think I'll go to sleep for the entire week. (Oh, how I wish!!!!)

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Tasty Tuesday.

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Spring Fever Hits Our Home

Don't know about you but I'm ready to change out some of my winter home decor (things with deep, rich colors) to lighter & spunkier stuff....

Hence my urgent need to create a wreath for my front door.

I call this little number Scrambled Egg Wreath in Apple Green. I saw a cute wreath done up with plastic eggs and I thought I could make something similar. Only it didn't quite work the way I thought it should have. (big gaps between eggs; should have used a skinnier wreath form) I just hot glued plastic eggs to a straw wreath form in way to cover most of the wreath. Next time I think I would cover the straw wreath first with fabric (burlap?) instead of gluing the eggs directly to the plastic wrapped wreath.

So, what would to do?

Spray paint, of course!

I painted the entire thing apple green in hopes of hiding all the obvious mistakes. I hung it up late last night and this morning I realized that it still needed something...so I threw a couple of fake flowers at it in hopes of rescuing it. (Fortunately the straw wreath form and the countless bags of plastic eggs were super cheap. Next time: use spray paint made for plastic!) It's definitely Impressionistic art....better seen from afar than up close!

Spring decor item number 2: Fake pears in an old enamel bowl beside greening twigs. I find this color combo rather soothing to look at. Nothing quite like fake fruit to whet your appetite! LOL!

I'm loving the leaf buds popping out on the high bush cranberry twigs I cut (they weren't leafing out when I trimmed the shrub). They're an excellent reminder that spring really is on its way!Spring decor item number 3: I had a jar of fake deep red peonies and poppies in a brown jug...and I swapped them out for these pretty flowers (also fake but nicer fakes). Do you see the flowers in the embroidered piece in the background? Strange coincidence that the new flower arrangement has similar flowers. Weird, huh? No, I don't feel like spray painting that green lamp. I'm sure many bloggers would have done so already but I like the uniqueness of it. It's kind of ...sort of..well, I'm not sure how to describe it.
Look-y! Narcissus are popping up!
The toadstool fairy rings using the aluminum toadstools the girls painted this past weekend. They most definitely add whimsical cheer to my empty looking garden (but oh...it's NOT empty!). My bleeding hearts are coming up in the background.

Annika's pretty rainbow mushroom.

Pink Fluff happily bouncing away....she looks more like cotton candy than a little girl. Okay, that's not true.
Do you change out home decor with the change of the seasons?

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My Little Crafters....

{Hi!}

Both girls have rediscovered that they love painting. Although we've had mostly glorious Spring-y weather we did have that dreaded white stuff (you can call it snow if you like) on Saturday so we spent the day indoors.

Once again I managed to get the photos uploaded...backwards. Sigh. You'd think I'd know better by now.

The girls brought out this cute garden kit they got from Grandma and Grandpa at Christmas. They first painted all the rocks and toadstool mushrooms and anything else that needed painting. After we let those dry we filled it with dirt, planted the seeds, and arranged all the cute rocks, house, gnome in the planter (all that came with the kit). There are tiny seedlings popping up already!

The girls are painting the aluminum foil toadstool mushrooms I made using plastic eggs as the base....go see these instructions at Filth Wizardry on how to make them. Tooooo cute! I promise to take photos of the finished toadstools tomorrow. Okay. I won't promise but I'll try. I had stuck them in my window boxes but I don't think they really stand out in them so I have to find a new place for them. Perhaps Ava and I will create a Fairy Circle. Perhaps you've figured out that I have a thing for toadstools. Blame it on the 70's! (or not)
The girls wanted to only paint rainbows on the toadstools. I can't blame them. I do so love rainbows. Which is probably why I have six of these pretty bowls from Anthropologie in ROYGBIV (okay..I'm missing a color) in my kitchen cabinet. :)


Ava created this wonderful painting all by herself a few weeks ago. She started using a paint brush but then decided to use her hands. Much more fun anyway.
This is the start of her painting. Kind of looks like The Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle) to me. I do LOVE Ikea's roll of art paper.
The contemplative artist at work. Shhhh...don't disturb her! Just kidding!What will we create next? Oh...I guess we should work on coloring Easter eggs!!!

Have fun crafting!

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Riding Bikes in Sleepers.

Don't you ride your bike while wearing a sleeper?????

No???

Ava looks pretty happy and content to me...

She was wearing a dress and pants earlier in the day but as soon as we came home she zipped up and changed into her only sleeper that fits her. I kind of hate the sleeper as it's difficult for her to go the bathroom with it on. BUT she just LOVES it. I guess you could say we have a love-hate relationship with sleepers.

Annika really wants to learn how to ride her bike but she doesn't want to listen to any suggestions. So, I'm trying to let her figure it out on her own. She even asked if she could take biking lessons. LOL! Why oh why is it that she thinks she can learn more from someone else?

Did you notice in the photos...all the snow is GONE! It just vanished. POOF! Now my crocuses are blooming and the narcissus and tulips are poking up their heads. I wish I could believe that spring is now here but it's wayyyy to early for spring to arrive in these parts. We're enjoying and taking advantage of these early spring days by being outside as much as possible. The temperature and the sunshine are very welcome after the cold, harsh winter. I am day dreaming about my garden and all the changes I'd love to make over the summer. Wouldn't it be lovely to walk under some wooden arches going to the house? I can envision it lit up at night with fairy lights. And covered with some flowering vines....Hmmmm.... I'm also envisioning painting the "shutters" some other color....haven't made up my mind as to which color though.

What are your garden plans this summer?

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