wise craft

there's no room for more decor around here...

How do you like the holiday model train display we put up?

Kidding, this is the Seattle Center House holiday model train display, snapped when I was walking around with Andy and Alicia on Saturday. The weather was cold and sunny in the best way, and around midday I took off on my own for a romp through Urban Craft Uprising at Seattle Center. It was really busy this year, I hope it was a good show for the vendors. I'll have to show you what I got, I chose carefully and *love* what I came home with.

Ian loved that train display when he was a toddler, we he could spend hours running around the plexi glass wall, chasing the trains when they came past. (Only slightly related, my kids also thought the Space Needle was the tallest building in the world when they were toddlers. Never mind that there were buildings only blocks away that we clearly bigger and taller. This one was tall, weird, and alone. That was enough for them.)

(Ian's small tree, taken by Ian)

The rest of the weekend was spent decking up the house. We clearly have too many decorations, and I'm not quite sure what to do about that. I swear we're this close to letting Gracie have her own tree! Its a bit nutty. But our big, real main tree looks really nice, and I will overlook the fact that Peter decided to chainsaw the trunk of the tree in the living room while I was gone (long story, he fessed up later, afraid the kids would tell me).

Up next, the official household Christmas mix, thanks to you guys and Meg.

Christmas is saved! We've got good music to listen to!

the workshop

Peter brought home this German weather house the other day and I think its my favorite of all I have.

If having three of something means you have a collection, I am most definitely covered on the weather houses and cuckoo clocks...

We are officially in gift-making mode here, so there's not much to show. But there's music! Thanks to your holiday recommendations on the last post (be sure to check out the comment section).

And new handmade ornaments made by friends waiting to go on the tree, and beautiful, cozy scarves from friends to wear around my neck (thank you Martha!)

And lastly,

Urban Craft Uprising is this weekend in Seattle. Alicia is signing copies of her book on Saturday, and then I'm stealing her away.

Have a great Friday!

covered, for now

I got the bulk of the scrap bags and fabric remnant orders shipped out today. Thank you again to all who placed orders, I hope you can use it all. If you order a scrap bag of home dec weight fabrics, you may have a swatch of this fabric in your bag. I scored this fabric on ebay a few months ago and last weekend I decided to recover the seat of our counter chairs with it. We've had this solid red pleather fabric on them for a few years now. I would have loved something nicer, prettier, but it didn't make sense to have fabric covers when the kids were using everything around them for a napkin (not an exaggeration). They are old enough now to understand our idle threat (Peter can be credited with thinking this one up) that if you wipe your hands on it, you have to sleep with it- it worked like a charm.

This is just my kind of project. It is so easy to recover a seat with a staple gun, I would give directions but you already know how to do this, right? Just pop the seat off, pull off the old fabric and staples, then staple the new fabric on (tauntly). These don't feel like kid chairs anymore, and they will hopefully stay clean and neat for a while.

I was told by the kids today that we need to put some Christmas up around the house. I guess its tough when your mom gets sidetracked by things like recovering chair seats for no real reason.

I need a good Christmas music mix, have you guys found any you can recommend? Amy posted a fantastic list of good music that I'm working my way through. That list was timely, I was growing really tired of what was on my Ipod. But I have been loving Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, and Throw Me The Statue. With a little old Joe Jackson thrown in (anybody heard his newest one?)

advent day one

Happy first day of Advent...

The first day of the advent season almost caught me empty-handed this year. Long time readers of this blog may remember the eariler forms of advent calendars around here, like this. I started this calendar last year, and it was in nearly complete last year. I took it out last month and spent an afternoon stitching up the remaining flaps to go over the pockets (for each day once its over), and then spent yesterday filling its pockets. There is still more stitching to be done, but its turned into an ongoing project. Truth be told, several of the items don't actually fit in these pockets, its a fun challenge to find as many as I can that do. Today, the kids reached into the "1" pocket for two teensy dragon erasers. Here's a few of the other things they will be getting, most from our local toy store, Top Ten...

-pens with multi-colored ink
-little japanese erasers
-Martha's flip book (genius)
-glow-in-the-dark paints
-geode rocks to break open (yes, we will be the family flinging rocks onto the pavement outside at 6:00 am on that day- trying to break the rocks open)
-tiny calculators
-decorate-your-own-rulers (clear pockets running through the center of each one to decorate)
-little plastic cats that look like Gracie
-a drive to see the Christmas lights (in pjs, with stuffies, of course!)
-Stained Glass coloring books from Dover
-Christmas Eve- new pjs
-decorate gingerbread houses
-watch a Christmas movie before bed
-Pick out and decorate our Christmas tree (we also put small trees in each of the kid's rooms that serve as nightlights for the month, so they'll decorate those too)

I tried to time activity toys and trips during those exciting yet open days of winter break from school, leading up to Christmas. Things like blank "make your own" story/comic books, cookies to bake and decorate will be good for those days.  Let's hope it all makes sense.

Can you tell I really get into advent calendars?

If you are looking for good advent ideas, or just fun holiday kid craft ideas, check out Kids Craft Weekly's holiday book. I've referred to this downloadable pdf so many times, for my kids and for my Girl Scout troop. So worth the small amount of money it costs ($5).

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Thank you for all who purchased fabric from the shop today! I will be working on those packages diligently tomorrow and hope to ship them all out by Wednesday at the very latest.

Oh! Thanks for the fake wreath love. Its growing on me!