homemade jellyfish by Autumn

Pop bottle jellyfish. ~My daughter has a craft she wanted to share with you. Enjoy. 

Hi. I'm Autumn (this is my mom's blog) and I wanted to let you guys see this project so that you can make it too.

Here are the pictures of how to do it.

You would need these things. Hole puncher, yarn, googly eyes,
scissors, rubberband, plastic bottle and glue

This is Autumn (me).  We have cut off the bottom part of the bottle
and then we punched holes and put the yarn through the holes. 
Next I glued my googly eyes on.

and here is the Jellyfish.

We put a rubber band at the top and
it made it bounce like a jelly fish. :)

Here are the two jelly fish looking at eachother. :) :)

I hope you do it.  Thanks for lettting me put this on your blog Mommy.

Autumn

Homemade fairies

Transforming Polly Pockets ..into FAIRIES :)  And with the help of a blog called http://www.filthwizardry.com/ we made them their own little dwellings too. (by the way filth wizardry is my blogging/crafting hero, her projects are amazing) The dwellings are from fabric softener containers.  The fairies not only had their own homes but built in air fresheners, I couldn't get they fabric softener smell out for the life of me. :)

Blogging the oldies #4 :

These little wings are pretty simple just used cardboard or card stock and decorated them
 then we used pipe cleaners to attach wings to the arms.  

They lasted long enough to get some fun hours in and then the polly's
wings were taken and they went from being fairies to ordinary polly's again. :)

I may take a break from this series (blogging the oldies) for a bit and move on to some of the

 new things we have been up too. :)   All for now. ~ Off I go to miraculousness clean house and make dinner in a single bound. 

Turkish Breakfast ~

Turkish Breakfast.  I have posted two different series of pics can you find the theme? :)

Every Saturday morning we have a family breakfast together, which includes a leisurely Turkish breakfast we eat at around 10:00 am.  Then we usually do something fun, play a game or go somewhere and if we stay home kids are allowed to stay in pj's until noon. (that was my idea and lots of times I am right along with them.) he he

So the picture below is a typical Turkish breakfast minus the boiled egg.  David goes to the bread store in the morning and comes back with something hot straight out of the oven either simit (which is pictured below) or a poacha.

 I love Turkish breakfast and look forward to Saturday mornings to drink tea, eat fresh food and enjoy my family. In Turkey, breakfast is a leisurlly time and no one is in a hurry and the tea brews and you sit and enjoy each other.

Turkish black tea, green and black olives, sheep cheese, feta cheese, cucs and tomatoes.
 Plus a warm simit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

BOREK :  The following is a series of pictures about a pastry item here called Borek.
It is also a breakfast item or for tea.  However, if you eat Borek black Turkish tea is a requirement. :)

For borek you baste the yufka with olive oil, egg and milk and then stuff it.
I always do feta cheese and parsley. It is our favorite and we eat it for Breakfast and dinner. :)

It is a very thin and so the Borek is flaky. It is made with yufka. 

There is so many ways to make Borek.  It comes in all different shapes and sizes.
Some with cheese, some with meat and some with potatoes. :)



~Yes the theme here is tea and feta cheese with some kind of warm pastry. 
I would like to have the above pic for lunch today but I have no yufka. :)

a song to warm your day

My colorful sister-n-law sent me this song and a wonderful smile came to my lips and a little sun shone in. 
Click on the link and enjoy, snap your fingers and browse the blog. ;)
Nikki Yanovsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB4gbpBPPqE

 delighted by a small thing..

DIY cardboard dollhouse

Blogging the oldies #3 ~ Polly Pocket DIYcardboard dollhouse.

These boxes were from Ikea. (there is an Ikea in Istanbul!!) I think they had ceiling lights in them. I saved them for some time and then inspiration hit.  I painted and prepared the doll houses with some wall paint we had from the past and then gave them to the girls and we worked on decorating the outside and the inside together.

We made these houses and furniture in April of 2009 and they have lasted for over a good year and a half and my girls have played with them ALOT.  For Christmas this year we made a wood doll house from scrap wood ~ a more permanent home for their Polly pockets. ;)

Here are the beds. I let the girls pick out the fabric they liked and I sewed it around the sponge to make a cozy bed and then cut out a piece that matched for the blanket.  I wish I would have taken more pics of the furniture pieces. 

                      Here is a video of the finished product and a little tour of the Polly pocket homes.

The furniture is simple - tea boxes, egg carton for lights, match boxes, cut out pictures from magazines etc. The kitchen floor is scrapbook paper cut in squares and then glued in.

I have a few more 'blogging the oldies' about Polly pockets that I want to post.  I really like Polly pockets.  They are small and easy to store, innocent and they are affordable here and they last.  My desire is to keep the 'little' in my little girls and some of the toys out there go against that goal, however I think Pollies work for us.

I looked up different sites online when I was making our doll-houses and so I hope this gives someone else some fun inspiration.~

Ok enough about that~

DIY building blocks for Isaac

Blogging the oldies #2  
These are milk and juice cartons.  We have that 'long life' milk and it all comes in the same size containers soo... we saved up a few and Alyssa my dear friend saved up a few for me and tada we could begin.

I cut out the spout and then rinsed each one, let them dry and then stuffed them not too tight with newspaper and then contact papered them.  I think if I could have found a brick kind of contact paper that would have been fun but I found what I found and am happy that contact paper is so inexpensive. 

This pic makes me happy.  It is such a reward for me to see my kids use what I created.

We made these about a year ago and they are still in good condition and in Isaac's room, which he plays with from time to time.

This picture was taken this week. I caught the kids in action with the building blocks. 

Nothing too exciting but one of those projects that are simple and it was one of the beginning projects here in my little west corner that I started using what I had. ~

Pop up window praying

Well as a mom I find that I have conversations through out the day with God, kind of like the pop up window that shows up for comments.  I click on prayer and up pops the box and I comment this and that to the Lord and ask this or that.  It is a constant dialog through out the day of asking for help and saying thank you.  I love this, however recently I was talking with my friends Consuelo and Alyssa and we were talking about how it seems to be harder now to be still and take time to wait on God and to listen to his voice.  I have recently thought about how I am missing out on the deeper more intimate side of my Lord.  I love that He is always with me and that I can abide in him through out the day. It seems that even my quiet times in the mornings I have been practicing pop up window praying.  I think as a mom my mind is constantly moving from one thing to the next from one child to the next, from one prayer point to the next and being alone and holding still is hard for me just like it is for my little Isaac. :) I feel like I need to relearn the art of being still and listening. ~


Be still my soul, be still and listen for your Saviors voice.


~ me over here in the west corner