Carving Pumpkins

Fall Carnival

This is the face that woke me up this morning.

Parker's school put on their annual Fall Carnival last night, and he was so incredibly excited to go. He is easily lured by the prospect of winning any kind of prize, no matter how small or how plastic :) He and Levi both played lots of games, and luckily everyone was a winner no matter what. We came home with a little bag full of treats and two tired boys. I can't believe we have to do Halloween again in another four days!!

Painting!

Levi loves to paint! I got him a set of bigger paint brushes at Michaels yesterday, and they seemed to work great for him. Now he just needs some jumbo sheets of paper to paint on! He kept telling me that this particular painting that you see in the photo was of our house and a star :) I'm even starting to feel kind of fondly about the paint marks on our dining room table--they seem ever more endearing to me these days. 

P.S. Levi is getting really good at smiling and saying "cheese!" for the camera these days...I'm sure he'll become jaded in another year or two ;)

Autumn Apples

Okay, so I might have gotten a little stump-happy with my still life photos in the back yard yesterday :) We grew some nice, big Fuji apples on our tree this year, and I seem to have managed to pick them at about the right time for once. Our tree has three varieties of apples, all of which mature at different times of the year so that we can have a constant rotation of apples, rather than just harvesting a ton all at once; the Fuji is the "late season" variety.

Dreaming Big

Okay, so in the scheme of things, this isn't really that big of a "dream"...but when it comes to my crafting daydreams, this is a big one--and the biggest stack of fabric I've ordered at once yet! I've been dreaming for a long time about making a queen-size quilt for our bed; I spent hours at night scrutinizing fabric online (Etsy.com is my go-to site for wasting time on the computer), trying to get a feel for what I might want this quilt to look like. I've found a handful of quilting blogs that I check regularly and that inspire me to try new things and teach me how to do them. One of the blogs that I like the most led me to this fabric line, and I loved it right away. I can't wait to get going on some blocks--I'll post some photos once I get some done! I'll probably settle into this project for a while, considering that I still have to finish Levi's quilt and the picnic quilt I started in the summer :) That's okay, though--I've been working on cleaning up the office, and have a much better sewing space arranged (no more sewing machine at the kitchen table and ironing board in the living room), so I can easily just come and go and work a little bit at a time. 

This Year's Pumpkins

This year we decided to just make things easy and get our pumpkins at the local corner market instead of doing the whole pumpkin patch thing. We hooked the wagon up behind my bike to transport them home, and had fun riding our bikes through the neighborhood to pick up some pumpkins, avocados, and beverages :) 

Finally!

I have to apologize for there not being any photos of adorable children in this post, but I just have to share this pillow cover that I made! I'm so happy that I've finally quilted something! I think Jared was starting to get pretty wary of all of the projects that I keep starting and haven't finished yet...and all of the fabric that I dream about buying for more projects that will get started and will take a long time to finish. I suddenly got inspired by some fabric that I got that I love, and found two more pieces that went together just perfectly. I finally made something really simple and fast, and was able to finally try out "quilting" for the first time on our machine, after spending a lot of time thinking about it and wondering about it and collecting the supplies that I need. I know that there are things about the quilting on this finished product that weren't done "right," but all I know and care about is that I love it! I'm pretty sure that Jared has also been a little wary about the projects that I'm going to be filling up the house with, since "quilting" often brings to mind lace doilies and Victorian style bed and breakfasts...this probably is a bit too girly for his liking, but I secretly love the old-fashioned/vintage/retro style...it's fun to have something kind of girly around for a change! I am moving on to trying to finish Levi's quilt in time for his birthday, and while I think I will get it done on time, it's kind of shaping up to be a little "wonky"...I'm just hoping that this will add to its homemade charm :)

Body Art

I realized that Levi was in quite the state of decoration the other day: tattoos on his arms, paint on his tummy, and stickers on his legs. He was so happy! He loves putting on/having tattoos--he gets sad when they get wet in the tub, and heaven forbid if they should actually wash off! He was quite a sight with signs of fun times up and down his body :) He's sitting in my lap as I write this, and looking at the photo, and is asking over and over for "more tattoos"!

Smoothie

Picnic at Quail

We definitely need to get ourselves to Quail more often these days! I don't know why it's been so long since we've been there...I recently packed us up a picnic after Parker's short day at school and we spent a nice few hours in the children's garden. Levi loved the train set that they have, since he's pretty into trains right now. And Parker is still happy to play there, so it's just the perfect outing for all of us--easy, entertaining, relaxing, and outdoors :) Now I just need to make a point to take Levi there in the morning when Parker is at school so he can take advantage of the crafts that they have set up.