kirstencan

Year of the Dragon

I really like celebrating Chinese New Year - holidays are just fun, and traditions are good.  Also, I really wanted to celebrate our New Year's Eve and it didn't happen. I thought that this would finally be the year when everyone could stay up, and we could do crackers and bang pots and have fun.  But it just wasn't in the cards this year, so Chinese New Year it is.  Plus, it's the year of the Dragon!  That's my year!  And my daughter's!

Anyway, I picked up a couple of fun new decorations (which was good, since I ended up not having red paper to make lanterns like last time). I don't go all out like for the girl's 8th birthday party, though (I still like that one).

The kids had New Year themed mazes and coloring pages in their boxes for school, along with 'find China on the map/globe' challenges.

They wanted to watch a movie about China, and picked Mulan (Monkey voted for Kung Fu Panda, though).  Our library doesn't have Big Bird in China anymore!  Boo.

We put together a surprise to send to their Boise cousins (don't look, Christy!), including our favorite almond cookie recipe, which Monkey illustrated with ideas of what else they could eat for a feast.  I kinda love it.

Oh, and Panda Express sent me a New Year's education pack, so we sent them coupons, too. :)  It also had a dvd, so we watched a semi-educational commercial. heh.

I was really happy with how the dinner came out.  Chinese is usually Aaron's cooking domain and he's really good at it.  But I tried a new wonton soup recipe (from this book) that turned out super yummy and the baby bok choy made it really pretty.  Spicy soba recipe from this book.  Spring rolls from Costco. ;)  I made too much food, though - so we had leftovers - woo!

I'm glad I finally got those soup spoons, I've been wanting them forever and they make me happy.  Also, the kiddos all got these chopsticks in their stocking.  They love chopsticks and this makes it a tad easier.

Hope the Year of the Dragon is a sweet year for you!

Really Easy Chinese New Year Banner

We are celebrating Chinese New Year today, and I just wanted to show you this quick banner I made this morning.

I used a couple of packs of Lai See envelopes, some baker's twine and a glue stick (you can use tape).

Then I sealed the envelopes over the twine and hung it up.

I know, this is almost too easy to talk about, but I think it turned out cute.

Chinese New Year goes on for fifteen days, so you still have time to celebrate!  And if you didn't know how to decorate... well now you do!

Back soon with the rest of our celebration!  Now I'm off to bake almond cookies - yum!

Kinda Random

Monkey was sick last week.  Oh, yeah, I told you. 

Well, it wasn't a 12 or 24 hr bug as I had expected.  In fact it took a whole week to kick this weird virus.  Not fun.  My little monkey usually doesn't sit still much, but he spent most of the week on his Couch Bed, and feverish:

Poor buddy.  Thank goodness for:

                    Convenient dr's offices.

                    Downloading free demos for the PS3.

                    Netflix.

                    Awesome Nana-made quilts to snuggle in.

It was a long week.  And I'm afraid he got used to the excellent service (begging him to eat ice cream for lunch and as many video games as he could handle) and this week he wasn't in the mood to be back to normal.  As in, he'd write  'No Skool' on our whiteboard. 

He doesn't see the irony.

 

In other news, this cool girl posted about camelcamelcamel, and I tried it out this week.  It's a price checker on Amazon.   Good stuff if you shop ahead/shop amazon frequently, both of which I do.  Just today I got an email saying that this thing I was looking at ($70 usually) was down to $50 today.   I also looked up this snap circuit set I was thinking of getting someone for their birthday, and by checking the camel site, I found that it is at a rock bottom price right now.  Excellent.  This is a great resource.

 

I designed my...13th? Shutterfly photo book.  When they give me a free book deal or a great coupon code, I take it.  So far I've done 6 photo 'yearbooks' which we give to the grandparents for Christmas.  I've been trying to order extra copies of those when they go on sale, so that someday the kids will all have their own set.  I've done a cousin book, two books for Monkey, one Legoland one for Thomas, a mini beach book and now 3 big beach books.  I think that's 14, actually.  I love those books and my kids go through them all the time.

 

Hopefully we actually get some snow this weekend - it's been a ridiculously mild winter.  Unfortunately it's the weekend that Aaron has to take some scouts on a Klondike campout.  Well, they'll Be Prepared.  I just worry about the roads.

Have a great weekend!

 

Don't get cocky.

So I was reading a blog post by a friend of mine about a Less Than Ideal awful trip to the grocery store with her four young kids in tow.  Aw, poor Lindsay, that sounds not fun at all.  I counted my blessings.  Going to the store used to be THE WORST THING for us.  Awful.  Taking both boys anywhere was horrible when they were younger.  Poor Thomas would have sensory issues + motion sickness from the cart.  Let him out of the cart and he'd run away or lay down and not get up.  In the cart again, he'd hit his brother.  Plus grab anything he could reach.  Not. Fun.

Either Aaron or I did the grocery shopping solo for years.

Anyway, back to counting my blessings.   I don't have to take the kids to the store anymore!  It has changed my life to have a responsible babysitter in our family.   Often, I ask if anyone wants to come to the store with me to keep me company because they're FUN at the store now.   Monkey usually wants to come because he thinks there'll be samples, like the free cookies at the bakery.  He LOVES Costco. ;)  I can even take all of them if we're out and about and they STAY WITH ME.  And are perfect angels compared to a few years ago.

I'm glad that we're done with that outing=craziness part of our life.

So, after reading Lindsay's post, I headed to the store (mind you, the same store) to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy and do some grocery shopping.  Monkey came with and got his cookie.  I had most of the shopping done.

And then he threw up.  All over the floor.  And then into his coat, because I had to try and catch it in something.  It was the really smelly kind.  ICK.  AND he had insisted on wearing his crocs instead of his sneakers and so he slipped in it and got his pants all messy.  EW.

Poor buddy.  It was embarassing and smelly and messy and he felt miserable.  But I had TWO things left on my list and that prescription to pick up and we were right near all of that so (after notifying an employee) I hurried through it (I'm not mean, it took five minutes, I swear).

Now he's in a steamy shower and his coat is in the washer and I'm chuckling to myself.

Don't get cocky.  Kids are completely unpredictable no matter what age they are.  Apparently I needed to be taken down a notch or two.

No photos this post.  I'm sure you're grateful.

On Photography

You all know I love taking photos, right?  Whether you like mine or not (and whether I've been putting effort into the photos on here lately or not) I hope that's been made clear. ;)

So, I don't talk about it a ton here, in part because of face/privacy issues, and I have yet to set up a photography blog or portfolio, but I've been doing some portraits for people.  Just some, here and there, like senior photos, babies, (ballet posters), a few families and most recently engagements.

And bridals.

And a wedding.

Whaaa?  Yeah (this is where my daughter would say "I know, right?!").  I did the engagements and bridals as a gift/trade for a really sweet neighbor.  And it turned out that they were in great need of a photographer for the wedding day.    I tried to say no, but that didn't work, so I just had to give it my best shot.  Literally.

Actually, I was still trying to say no when another sweet neighbor offered to come and shoot with me.  That made all the difference!

I think we pulled it off nicely.

Shooting with a friend was awesome.  First off, she rode with me, so I had someone to chat with on the way up.  And that calmed my nerves.  Because, oh yeah, I was nervous.   Also, just practical stuff worked well,  like we shot from different angles, with different cameras and lenses, so we got a lot of different stuff at the same time.  Which was kind of awesome and didn't take as long.  Also, if the bride's bouquet was blocking her face in my shot, it wasn't in my friends, so that rocked. 

Having people actually want to use me as a photographer has been interesting.  If I had to pick a career (besides homeschooling mom, which I love), I'd definitely pick photographer (or art teacher...).  I have SO much to learn, I don't feel like a pro, but it's fun 'playing' pro.  If I were to make a go at really being a photographer, I'd have to be better about what I charge people.  And that's hard, especially when most of my 'clients' have been neighbors.  And I love my neighbors.  But it takes a lot of time to shoot and edit photos.  And time is what I don't have a ton of.  I think I could maybe try and grow a small business at this point, but I really don't have the time to.  And that's okay, my time needs to be with my family right now.  So what do I do about that?    Okay, I'll take your photos, just don't tell anyone who did them?  Because I can't say no all the time. 

Also, photography has been a great way for me to serve others while doing something that I love.  I've volunteered and taken shots for families in our neighborhood who are taking care of foster babies, which was fun and rewarding. 

So I've been thinking tons about photography lately.  I was thinking of maybe upgrading my camera but it really suits my needs right now.  I am drooling over a new portrait lens, though.  I have that old school 50mm, but it's super fiddly and I don't think I'd be great at manual focus in portraits.  Kids move too fast.  And I can't find my adaptor ring for it (where?!).  So I'd really like a new 50mm, and the one I'm looking at is supposed to be nice.  End of babbling.

My sidekick, sporting it's new camera strap and camera bag (Christmas presents - yay!).

Handmade gifts

So, guess how many gifts I made for my children's Christmas this year! 

Are you ready?

ZERO.  Edit:  One (duh).

But I did manage a couple little cute gifties for the nieces and nephew.

I used this awesome idea from Lil Blue Boo to make a wooden matching game.

The transfer method uses a laser printout and some natural orange cleaner.  I was pretty sick of the smell of the cleaner by the end, but it worked!

A few are smudged, but I'm pretty happy with it.  And it opens up all kinds of other ideas...

For my 1yo niece, I dyed some playsilks.  Having done it a few times before, it wasn't too hard. 

As a bonus, I discovered that after you dye these is the perfect time to clean your microwave!  Seriously, you are spending minutes microwaving water + vinegar + koolaid (citric acid!).  So there you go.

My daughter made her a better present, though.  Last time she was at our house, she loved one of my daughter's dolls (this one).  So the girl decided to make a Black Apple doll for her cousin.  Grandma helped her, so I had nothing to do with it, even.

It was appreciated, which made my girl happy.

How did you do in the handmade gift department this year?

Mid-Holiday

We are enjoying our Christmas vacation with Aaron home, so I'm just popping in to say hi! 

Our living room still looks like Christmas morning somehow, even though I've filled our recycle bin.  It's fun to have all the toys out so they play  near us and together, but I'm gettin a bit tired of tripping over the legos.

We had an amazing Christmas, we were all so spoiled and recieved such thoughtful gifts.  Here is our book stack (here's last years).

Between us we got 35 books this year!  Crazy stuff.  Those who gifted books for the girl were way proud to find ones she hadn't read!  That is getting extremely difficult.

And they're sitting on my new quilt from my MIL!  King-sized, people.  Insanely gorgeous and awesome.  And warm.

Basically we've been reading, playing video games, and building.  Lots of building. 

It's good stuff.  Back soon.

Little Gifts

This year's teacher gifts were done at the very last minute.  Each and every one of them.  "Oh, you have dance in half an hour?  Better get a couple gifts made up really fast!"  Ditto with other dance teachers and piano.  Heh.

I've done tissue holders for teachers before, but I'm pretty sure not for any of the teachers we gave to this year.  Packaged with anti-bac gel and a Christmas card.  Simple.

Neighbor gifts were a reusable grocery bag.

Aaron thought these gifts were weird, and that our neighbors already think we're weird anyway (hanging our laundry to dry, manual/electric lawn mowers, walking...).  But I went with it anyway, sticking a simple card (couldn't think of anything really clever) in the bags.  I found the bags at a grocery store, having scouted out ones that don't have a store logo on them.  Conveniently, these also snap shut, which I like, and our neighbors liked them.

Our street traditionally does little gifts for everyone else on the street, but our neighborhood is super tight, so other friends in the 'hood got cards.  I was going to print gocco ones this year again, but decided on Costco ones instead - in part because it's so cheap to get so many, and I can give out as many as I like.

Oh, and we finally made the paper mache lanterns I've been wanting to do for years!  They were really cute to give out gifts with at night.  The kids had fun with that.

The other day we headed to a new Asian market nearby.  I was hoping for little cute stuff, but Aaron was hoping for mabutofu.  I won.  It's all gift stuff and restaurant supply.  It's like a big ol' Daiso, folks.  I was in heaven.  In fact, I might go back today.  Since we were there, we had the kiddos pick out their sib gifts to each other, and now we have a bunch of oddly-wrapped little packages under around our tree.  With super cute stuff inside.

Another little gift this year that deserves to be mentioned, so I remember it for next year:  I stuck some ribbon, jingle bells, and a gift tag on a Toblerone candy bar and stuck it in our mailbox.  "To Our Mail-lady".  She always waves to me since we're often out and about, and delivers many packages to us.  I peeked out when I heard the mail truck coming and saw her pick up the candy - she got the biggest smile on her face!  And then gave our house a big thumbs up out her window as she drove away.  Loved it.

Now to finish up/wrap the bigger gifts!  Are you done yet?

All is calm... sometimes.

I've been wanting to put up cut-out song lyrics since I saw this post.  But it just won't work in our space, sadly.  The idea is so awesome, though, it's stuck with me.

Then I saw (and immediately pinned) this glitter-letter garland and just knew I had the perfect place for it:  Over the big red canvas!

Except I didn't want to do the glitter/glue messy thing.  Then I heard of glittered cardstock, which I thought would be perfect.  Except what I could find of it only came in multi-colored packs and I wanted all the same (white, silver, or gold) and it wasn't nearly as glittery as I thought.

After checking out several other options, I found some glittered craft felt.  The really stiff felt.

Anyway, I did it.  And I love it.

I went to print the template from the original idea, but it's way small.  I wanted something bigger, so I just picked a chunky sans serif font (impact) and printed out my own.

After cutting them out, I hot glued the letters to baker's twine.

The felt will hold up better in storage than paper would have, so I can get it out next year!

And I call the below picture "All is silly and dark".

He won't ever stay still when my camera is out!

O Christmas Tree

So my kids weren't on board with the smaller tree idea.  Until we got one.  Then it was declared 'cute' and 'sweet' and 'a baby tree!' and all is well.

We got a 4' tree, set it in it's stand on a LACK table from IKEA, and even used our same tree skirt, just letting it hang.

I quite like the effect, and think it works better for our space.  It's the first time we've ever had a tree in our big front window!

From the outside it looks like a bigger tree anyway.

Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments are tucked in with my vintage wooden and Swedish straw ones.

And a couple of hexbugs...

We even got all of our favorite ornaments on.  I was worried about that.

This was the second year that I decided to skip the gold bead garland, but then added it later - it just needed something.  But it really needs RED garland.  Maybe next year.

I was looking at an older picture of our living room at Christmas time (edit:  here's an even older one!), and was shocked how much it's changed over the past few years.  Where we used to hang a wreath quilt we now have big portraits of the kiddos, which I don't want to take down for the holidays, so we put the quilt up over the school cubbies (down with you, paper tree!).

We have our sweater stockings, which I still love.  In part because they hang like stockings in old book illustrations instead of all stiff and facing front and perfect. In fact, I even turned them some for this photo so they weren't all sideways like usual.

Our mantel is now decked with a lighted garland and (breakable! We can do that now!) vintage ornaments.

Also nutcrackers, candles, bells, and photos of my babies on their first Christmas.

The view at night.  Cozy.  Especially with our Christmas quilt and pillows.

Yup, I'm not missing a bigger tree at all.  I do, however, wish it were a small alpine tree like we've gotten the past couple of years.  I am missing that.

But I can't complain.

Have you ever considered doing something quite different with your tree?  It's hard to break tradition!