Collection of my Tea bag holders

Hi. I'm still here in the States. Going from here to there...meanwhile drinking tea along the way. :)
(I'm missing my Turkish breakfast to go with all these cups of tea.)

I have decided to collect all these fun tea bag holders and put them on my very boring day planner. Yes a itty bitty DIY project for my day planner. Can't help but share the little things that make me smile.

 I would eventually like to collect enough tea bag holders to cover a full canvas. I will call it my 'collection of tea' my very own art piece. :) But until then I will just start here...
I'm still working on it, here is a picture.

I will mod podge these little guys either straight onto my planner or onto another surface and then to my day planner. We shall see what I do. 

I have found some new teas that I really enjoy and this is a great way to remember them. 

A few of these tea bag holders are from a sweet tea away with Dave. 

Maybe I should start collecting really good chocolate wrappers... tea and chocolate. ahhh

However beginning a collection of chocolate wrappers could be dangerous. ;)

 Today I am desiring to walk out my faith in my daily attitude and words.

~ far from my west corner

Becky

iyi aksamlar herkes. 

Pom pom ice cream shop

Here she is all ready to serve at our play ice cream shop. Nothing like ice cream at 9 in the a.m. :)

Foam comes, colorful twisted pipe cleaners for straws and candy, ice cream scoopers 

and

 some pom pom sprinkles. 

I used a plastic container and poked holes in the top and put in little pom poms.

and then of course...

all sizes of pom poms for ice cream scooping fun. :)

Here are a few more pics of our ice cream shop that lasted for a full week in our living room. The kids played with this daily and it was a fun thing to do and keep the kids occupied on those hot days and while I was packing for our trip to the States!!!

Here are the DIY foam ice creme cones. 

I Used a piece of foam, a black marker and a glue gun to make these.

Hope you have enjoyed and found a bit of inspiration in our "pom pom ice cream shop".

It is easy, inexpensive and you can find most things in your house.  

We are still in the States, thus my minimal posting these days. Today was our little guys birthday, 4 years old  and wow was it fun celebrating with family. 2 Grandmas, Grandpa, Cousin and Aunt, all came and loved on our little guy with us. What a gift to get to enjoy family. 

~Missing my little west corner a bit today but torn by all the joy of being here with family,

Becky

6 year old up-cycle ;)

I loved that my 6 year old grabbed her down and out shoes and decided to fix 'em up.  

This was during one of our felt frenzy days. :) Truly this little thing really made me smile. 

You may ask didn't the felt get all dirty?  Didn't it fall off?  Yep and yep and just to let you know she wore them everywhere, dirty felt and all. :) 

The shoes are now permanently retired but they had a fun extended little life for a bit, don't you think?

Well off I go...we are now in the U.S., Michigan to be exact.  Yes, I am jumping countries and so my posting will not be quite as frequent, hopefully once a week. I am also starting the Slice of Life Project I talked about in this post. It begins tomorrow and I am  excited to see what I learn. :)

ok off I go to enjoy my family here in the North,
Becky

Felt frenzy bookmarks

Just one of those felt frenzy moments 

where I was suppose to be working on my soon to be little nieces blanket and I just started playing and ended up with some felty/fabric bookmarks. 

Here are some pics of my soon to be nieces blanket I am still working on.

(if you remember it was to match the felt tree pillow I made.)

Sorry this  has not been ironed out so it doesn't look quite as nice. 

Also I am going to have to finish everything but the tree trunks because I can not find the right color of felt. I will be returning to the States this summer so I will be able to pick it up there and finish it...hopefully just in time for the new little one who is due the end of July.

My dear friend gave me some of her fabric and this piece with the trees was apart of the stash she gave me. Isn't it perfect for the back? I am so grateful because I wasn't sure what I was going to use to bring it all together. (I love and miss you friend.)

Well I could say that was all of the felt frenzy but it was not... the kids and I had a felt frenzy day just a bit ago and resulted in some pretty fun headbands, little pouches and even my 6 year old up-cycling her little white shoes with felt embellishments. :) 

Yes I so think my 6 year olds upcylce project deserves it own post. Along with the other creations they came up with. So stay tuned... for felt frenzy #2 ;)

Using what I have in my little west corner...this time it was it was felt and fabric. :)

Becky

Homemade abacuses

I am in the process of teaching and my little guy is in the process of learning his numbers. 

Here was a fun hands on idea. 

What we used:

If you don't have all the items you could use: 

Popsicle sticks, skewers cut and small noodles. 

Here are our homemade abacuses. It is a great math manipulative. 

While learning numbers here we have also done a number train and a number snake which my little guy has really liked also. 

Here is the link for the number snake: Snake and Numbers

Learning and teaching...In my west corner,

Becky

Cultural jems ~ Teyze

The Story

The bus was crowded, the aisle so full there was no room for your feet. We, my daughter and I, squeezed on and stepped (tripped) over the luggage in the aisle. We were heading to Istanbul and had gotten on a service bus to take us to the bus station just outside of town. I was not concerned, this to shall pass was my thought. I have found myself (with and without my kiddos) in this sort of  crowed situation before, I was just wanting my 8 year old to have a firm hold on the bar beside her so she didn't fall. There wasn't enough room for me to be close because the aisle was so packed with lugguge our feet didn't fit next to each other. We stopped let on more passengers and had to inch our way up the aisle a bit more to make room. My daughter was now standing in a place that had no good place to hold on, before I could help her, Teyze (sweet Teyze) who was sitting down, grabbed her and drew her close and held on to her for the rest of the 15 minute ride.   Definition of Teyze: Maternal Aunt, Older lady in society

In Turkey this is so common, children are well looked after and so many look after other people's children with no thought of their own inconvenience. I am certain that was the same for Teyze, she did what was natural to her.

When you live in a different culture it can be easy to see the negatives...the irritations and to speak about them and then forget all the jems and all the precious things. I want my heart to be set on the positives on the little jems that shine out from time to time, I just need to keep my eyes open.

A thought that struck me the other day was, I am sure Christ saw and spoke the positives while on earth, even though I am certain He saw all the negatives. Christ is not negative, he is positive.

My gem for the day is Teyze and all the Teyzes who remind me to consider others and make me grateful for some of those 'inconviences' that keep me keen to others needs and wants and not just my own.

Sometimes you might have to dig a bit to find the jem ;) but they are there,  just slightly hiding beneath the service. Happy jem seeking where you are.


In my west corner... finding jems where I am.
Becky

Our 'ordinary day keepsake book'

An ordinary day turned into a keepsake.

This book is about one of our days... it was just another day, now it is a keepsake and a day we will remember. :) I love it when ordinary days get highlighted. 

I love the illustrations the girls drew in this book because they are of our little western town here in Turkey and there are certain landmarks and places we visit that the girls remembered and put in the pics. :)

The idea started because we were out of drawing paper...so I went and grabbed some white fabric and cut it into squares. I gave the kids some sharpies and our "Ordinary day Keepsake book" was born.  

Come and take a look and read about our day. 

*Isaac 'designed' the cover of the book. 

*Lydia wrote and sewed on the title. 

*Lydia and Autumn told the story, mommy wrote it. (just they way they told it, so there are some grammar issues. :))

*Lydia and Autty were the fab illustrators. :) 

*Mommy sewed the book together. (2 months after the writing of it ;))

We have all sat together and read this book several times and the kids have looked at it a bunch on there own. It was a great project to do with my kids.  Maybe we will do another someday...

~Remembering and storying the ordinary days that make up our together moments. 

In our little west corner,

Becky