we are keeping very busy being outside. depsite the recent raindrops, we've had some great weather days and have been enjoying some play and outside yardwork. we're FINALLY getting to the front door area that i can't stand. i hope to have before and after pictures eventually, but the work we're doing is minimal since i have big plans to add a big country front porch eventually.

i've been doing a bit of sewing. remember how i got into sewing just a year ago with these fun pants (that's three diffferent links) for our trip to the beach? i found a great tutorial online (thanks to polka dot creations) for bandana pants and i just had to try them out for rowan and sawyer. here is the finished product:

here's a fun little project that rowan, sawyer, and i did over the past week. homemade (washable!) placemats!

i found this project idea in amanda soule's the creative family and it turned out to be ideal for rainy summer days (of which we've had plenty over the past few weeks, along with those few days in the 90s). we were goign to do it when ramona was visiting, but were having too much fun outside! instead we made one for her after she left and we'll send it to her.

our friends just bought a new house, so to help make it a home for their 1- and 2-year-old boys, we made them their own placemats for their kitchen table. the material is canvas and i just bought a cheap canvas drop cloth from lowes for $9. i'll probably get several placemats out of the amount of canvas the drop cloth provides. it's inexpensive (much more so than buying it by the yard at a fabric store) and i love the feel of the canvas for the finished placemat.

you need a sewing machine to finish, but if your kids like to color or paint, this is an ideal proejct. we used fabric markers, but you can use fabric or acrylic paint as well. i'll venture into that when i have the patience and energy for a big clean up! :)

kenny and i are hosting thanksgiving this year. i am very excited about this as i've only hosted the big turkey meal a few times in my short life, so i'm not jaded about how much work it involves. yet.

the majority of my remaining november daily blogs will be about preparations for the big day. this means that if you are coming (and you know who you are) there should be no surprises when you get here. you'll know the meals you'll be eating, the rooms you'll be staying in, the projects i have planned for our kids.  those of you who aren't coming (and that makes the majority of you, my blog readers) can join in on the fun online. i might even get to post "during" and "after" pictures..

so...be prepared for lists and menus, shopping excursion stories, craft-project-trials, and pictures of preparations in the coming days. i might even share a family recipe or two!

by the way, this week, my brother andrew and his wife and one of my InRealLife friends both had babies. andrew and laura had a second daughter, named astrid millay and serina and jason had their third, a son (they have two daughters), named asher jase. a lovely fall week to birth a baby! and i never did announce the birth just over a month ago, of our new niece, jada. she lives all the way in seattle and i'm going to bug her parents (ahem...wayne!) for more pictures since she's all of 5 weeks old now and we've only seen birth pictures! i'm so impatient.

to add to the baby excitement, two of our friends have announced new pregnancies to us this week! it's an exciting time to be birthing and growing babies. except for me...this post is not a foreshadowing nor does it in any way mean that we are pregnant. i'm just really excited for my family and friends!!!

i leave you with one more halloween picture of the only one that would smile for the camera! after looking at this photo, i am not surprised that he is mistaken for a girl more often than not. must.cut.his.hair. :)

on one of my first visits to kenny's parents' home (when we were dating or engaged...i can't remember which), i remember spotting something hanging on their basement wall that caught my eye. when i asked kenny about it, he told me it was an embroidered version of a painting he did when he was about 5 years old. his grandmother recreated one of his paintings with yarn. i fell in love with the idea and tucked it in the back of my mind.

a year or so ago, kenny's mom gave him a thick envelope filled with paintings and report cards, drawings and notes that he had done as s child. i think he was ready to throw it out, but being the nostaligc type, i opened it and examined each picture, read each note that he had written to his parents or grandparents, and put the envelope on a shelf so he couldn't throw it away. why throw away such treasures?

it wasn't until early this summer that i put two and two together and realized that in that envelope was the original "kenny smith painting" that his grandmother reproduced. and i'm now honored to have both!

tonight, i got to spend time alone pouring over patterns and materials, floss and frames...all by myself! sadly, we only have joann's and michael's, but i am determined to find onlines sources for cheap but lovely materials.

i am starting small, but planning BIG. when i returned from my shopping, kenny and i were chatting about how i can make the boys' halloween costumes this year (!!!). so i asked rowan what he wanted to be for halloween...bad idea. because now, he thinks halloween is tomorrow. or in "two sleeps or four?"

however, we have some big time creative challenges ahead of us as sawyer has announced that he wants to be...the SKY for halloween.

love that. though i am a bit fearful that i'll fail at his concept of what the sky would look like worn by a 3-year-old.

i just can't get enough of the sewing machine! rowan's $.25 pants:

sawyer's pants are already cut out...i'll sew them up tonight!

it started so innocently. i never owned a sewing machine until i married kenny. kenny built amazing costumes for a few shows and actors in his theatre day, so it was only natural that he owned a machine. it began collecting dust when he met me since i took up all of his time. then a dear friend of mine in our previous church gave me her portable (not built-into-a-table) sewing machine when her eyesight started going. we are owners of two really cool, really old machines.

fast forward to 2004, when i start to blog and read blogs. the bloggers that i read tend to be crafters, into earth-keeping, getting-back-to-simplicity, homemakers, and foodies. i've been inspired over the years to do more of what i love: cook, mend, grow (plants and humans!), and use my hands to make things. by choice, i like needlework. then i remembered these two old machines in our basement: untouched, except for a santa costume at christmas for a "pagaent-with-a-santa" we did at church. on monday, i brought up the portable one after finally realizing i could possibly throw together a pair of pants from an old tshirt...like this pattern that serina posted at her blog. except we donated all of our old tshirts when we moved.

then i remembered that old, ugly t-shirt that kenny will not get rid of. i had to beg (BEG!) my husband for his favorite old t-shirt. it's one that has sentimental value to both of us, but it's just so ugly. he was wearing it the first time i laid eyes on him:
i asked him yesterday, "did you think you were all hot and hip in that tie-dyed, striped shirt?" and he answered, "did you think i was?" i just laughed and walked away. look at those holes! i was relieved when he told me i could use it, and it brought me much joy tearing into it with scissors.

our lovely machine:

a view of the (CUTE!) back: