Clothespins oh what to do with them..

Clothes pin ornements.  I bought a pack of wooden clothes pins in the states randomly and used them to make the fairies for the craft party. So what to do with the extra..found on Martha Stewarts website this really fun Santa ornement.  So I gave it a try and I love them and have made two sets for presents this year for dear Karen Teze and my dear friend Alyssa.

This is my first set. My second set was better I think. 

Little Lydia's home ~so different from my own

Our home, our place of residence, where we live. I find it so fascinating to watch my children take in their environment which to me is slightly familiar but mostly  foreign however to them it is home and familiar.  The memories they will have are so different from memories of my child hood.  Their world view will be larger and their perspectives on life and people will have a less constrictions.  

Sweel little Lydi ~good thing that heater isn't hot. :)
Coal heat..oh the smell and fog!

when energy persists..you do what you have to do

Living in our apartment can have it's restricting moments ..but NOT today.
We grabbed Isaac's mattress and some other pillows and released that energy!

!

Fairy fun continued...

Clothepin fairies was the attempt of this Cookies and Craft pary, I threw for autumn's 7th Birthday.  We had a small family party with us and the Harris's where we served the fairy cake and gave our gifts to her. It was relexaed and we could all speak english, this was important to Autty. Autumn didn't want to have to speak Turksih on her Birthday which was an indicator to us that it is still not natural for her and takes effort so we had two parties. However we felt that it was important for her to have her Turksih friends apart of her life and to continue to help her to relate with ease in this culture.  So I threw Autumn and here classmates a Cookie and Craft party and invited all the little girls in her class. There were 11 little girls in her class and 9 came.  Here are a few of the pics. It was a fairy themed party.

Invitations are very uncommon so it was fun to make these and give them out.  The little girls loved them and made Autumn's party an exciting event to look forward to.

I scanned one of the invites and then printed it off and took it to a Kirtasiye  and they laminated it for me.  So the girls each had their own work space placemate.  

Honeslty this was so much fun.  the kids here don't get these kind of hands on projects so it was a real treat to put so much effort knowing they would all love it.  It was also exhausting. There were a total of 11 girls and 6 women.  It took me 3 full days to prepare clean bake etc. Autumn had a grand time and was invited to a classmates birhtday party 3 days later.  Explaining everything in Turkish was by far the most challenging thing and I felt absolutly foolish during the tutorial I gave for the girls as they sat and ate their cookies.  Everyones eyses were on me and there was a moment I felt so foolish and just wanted to sit down however Autumn was beaming and helping me with words here and there and so I pressed on ...maybe someday I will learn this language, but for sure Autumn will. (you are such a brave little girl Autumn)
~me

Fairy Cake and fairy fun

Autumn's 7th birthday just passed and her ideas for cakes were rather grand and interesting. She likes faries right now so I tried my hand at it.  Honestly I felt like it left a bit to be desired, but hey Autumn loved it and she decorated it for the most part which she enjoyed a lot so... I am VERY pleased and grateful to the Lord that I can serve and love on her this way.

Autumn decorated most of the cake save the frosting and hair and a few minor things. I think she did great.

Autumn named her Kate.  Her hands are in the middle of her body holding a wand.  Her hair is my favorite. :)

 Crazy thing about cakes is you make them, they take all day to make and then you eat them usually the same day.  I tried a new chocolate cake recipe and it was great and perfectly moist and a little dense.

Cooking it up in make believe

I love going to the large dumpsters here for cardboard boxes.  This last time I scored again!

I held on to it for a few days and then inspiration hit....

Here are some of the stages.  I used contact paper for all the different parts of the play kitchen.
I added a tall piece of cardboard to the back of the cardboard and secured it with pipe-cleaner. :)

Here is the finished product.

here are the girls playing Restaurant.

We drag the play kitchen in our kitchen sometimes so the girls can work along with me.

I think this time I was giving them dough and toppings to make their own little pizzas.
One of the fun little features I didn't take a picture of is the little hook on the side with kitchen towels we found that we just the perfect size.  They have two hanging up for their own use.

The fun thing about this crazy play kitchen is that it is easy to transport because it is so light, also because it is contact paper messes and water wipe off with little to no damage to the cardboard.  The cardboard box is durable so I think this will last us awhile. It is rather large but it fits in the girl's room nicely so no real complaints about that. At least it is not one of those huge plastic things..i just don't like those at all. It took 3 Saturdays to finish. I usually worked on it while the younger ones to naps so a few hours every Saturday.  Autumn helped quite a bit and David helped me secure the back and put in the bottom shelf.  It was fun to make and only cost about 20 lira ($14), mostly the cost was for the contact paper.

My conclusion is a love cardboard boxes, even if all my Turkish neighbors think I am crazy getting it from the large overflowing garbage dumpster. ;)

Funky pumpkins

Canned pumpkin is not available here but there are pumpkins, though the first year I didn't recognize them as pumpkins.  It is usaully sold cut up in chunks and the inside is a lighter orange and the outside is green or other colors.  This year for the first time I bought a full pumpkin instead of just a few chunks and this evening I cut it up and pureed it and am ready for pumpkin pie, bars, bread and pumpkin butter. :)

Funky pumpkin- 6 kilos

So strange really the things that used to seem so difficult have become easy.



I think it is 10 cups worth.



DIY cowboy & princess horses

This is one of the more recent creations that Autumn, Lydia and I have done.  (David always adds his help too)

This first one is a stick horse because Autumn is very much into cowboys right now and I was wanting to encourage her in it so we created these.  However you will see that Lydia's stick horse was well needing some more'fluff' in order to cater to the princess that would be riding, so we found some red socks and pretty lace. :)  It only took us one afternoon to put it all together.  I bought nothing only used things that were around the house already to make them.  Oh I didn't have yarn so a few days later I finished the mane for the horses.

Well done Autty and Lydia.  It was fun seeing it come together so simply. I love your personalities.

All it took was socks, yarn, felt, buttons, ribbon and some kind of wood pole.

Success

Well after starting this quilted pillow case over 6 months ago I have finally finished it.  It has been ready to be sewn into a pillow case with all it's pieces for months I just wasn't sure how to put it together. Thanks to Consuelo's 3 minutes demonstration I picked it up today, retrieved my sewing machine (which is one of my most sweetest gifts from David) and finished it in 30 minutes. :) Yippee now a little color and a little piece of my own handy work in my living room.



Here is my little pieces of work




The back of the pillow is where my learnig curve was but I learned and so success.



My goal is to make a quilted pillow for Autumn and Lydia.  I have decided that a blanket is past my ability and patience right now, so I thought a quilted pillow case for their beds would be perfect.  I would love to make them for Christmas gifts.  The problem is not enough material, I brought some fun squares back from the States this time around but I just don't feel like I have the material that I would like for both of their personalities.  Maybe I should go to the pazar and buy some different bed sheets or I could go through their old clothes and pick out shirts or dresses that they really liked and use pieces from those. However I would really feel funny cutting up a bunch of nice clothing that others could use for a pillow case.  Well we shall see what I do -  I will pray for God to provide ideas for getting the perfect material for these little gifts that I want to make and give. ( I sound like Karma Rasico which so makes me smile (she prays about everything, even cardboard boxes)- you are a great example.) ~



cakes



These are all the fun cakes I have made to date. I started with Autumn's castle cake when she was three and now for each birthday I let the kids choose what they would like their cake to be. Everything has been within reach so far, we will see how it goes as the get older and their ideas grander.  . These are nothing extra special except for the fact that they were made with lots of love and delight for my kids. Lydia seems to have had a animal theme over her short 4 year life. Isaac has yet to have his own designer cake. I look forward to his 3 yr old b-day to make something for him. I am sure we will all give our opinions David, the girls, Isaac and me.



Autumn's 6 yr. old Purse (canta) cake



  

Autumn's 5 yr. old Flower cake

Autumn's 3 yr. old  Castle cake
This was my first attempt to make a fun cake,
Autumn was in her princess stage
and so she was the inspiration.





Little Lydia's 1st birthday a Bunny cake



Lydia's 2 yr. old Lamby cake

in honor of her little lamby



Lydia's 3 yr. old Bear cake



 

Lydia's 4 yr. old Pig cake
This is my most recent cake May 2010

 

A cake I made for our dear friend Malachi





 

This is a cake I made for a baby shower
Baby block cake