having fun with polymer clay

This is what started all of the polymer clay fun. I saw the snowman idea on little birdie secrets and had to try it. The snowmen were so fun to make! I did not let the kids help me on these guys. Sorry kids! Mom is having too much fun! Paws off the snowmen- they are mine- all mine!!!! These are s'more snowmen- can you tell? And I'm not telling who is getting them for Christmas and what will come with them.


Alright kids, you can play with the clay now, mommy will share.....

love our 3 year old's rendition of the star and gingerbread man. And was she ever cute while she was working. Very serious job, this making clay Christmas ornaments.

We used wire for the hanger thingie. I got the cheaper clay- craft smart from Michaels. You can get lots of different colors and each little square is $1.25 (we got about $10 worth of clay and made 30 small ornaments). Sculpey, which is better quality is about $2 for a little square. But I found that the craft smart worked really well. We put everything in the oven and they all turned out great- nothing has broken--so far.



Have you ever tried polymer clay? What did you think about it?

Prov. 3:5,6 & coffee; what could be better?!

Steph's Stars

Aren't they adorable??!?!?! I wanted to rush straight up stairs and pull out all of my fabric scraps and make 100 stars! But then I remembered that each time I go to use the sewing machine I come away with it jammed and me crying......

Maybe I can just print out pictures of these stars and hang them on our tree.........?! Or-- paper-- surely there is a patchwork paper star idea out there somewhere.

Good job, Stephanie! (see them at her blog; Jonquils and Ladybugs)

counting down the days

got the Christmas books out!

advent tree

Our birdie tree...and another place to count down

the paper chain- who gets to rip off the link for today?

the corner of my art room has become the wrap station

Merry Christmas from Sadie

art*house 2009...a look back

January: Dave turns 40!!! Great verse to start the year by; Snow in the south!! Button rings.


February::My Valentine; our baby turns 3! Dave's first concert!! Fabric & hearts.


March::Be Still & Know that He is God! We got a puppy!!! (we luv you Sadie :) Work on the master bedroom- Sara tries her hand at subtle colors; decoupaged bench


April:: Easter nests & eggs, Me & Dave; Easter egg diorama; more chalkboard wall in the kitchen...


May:: large ABC's of life canvas; strawberry picking! fabric flower fun; trip to New Jersey & Delaware



June:: More flowers! Sara gets her own art room!!!! The tree shirt; the armoire gets a makeover


July:: Dave & Sara celebrate 10 years of marriage!!! Face painting at the Family Fun Fest!! Dave's abstract; and more chalkboard walls in the kitchen...


August:: Painting in the church nursery; ummmm, yes you guessed it- the last chalkboard wall in the kitchen, first day of school goodies!!! Some more great scripture.


September:: Fetish for the ABC's; finished in the church nursery- my fave letter- U is for umbrella; another version of the same verse, the fall scarf.


October:: Mincy O' Lanterns, punkin patch, funky painted punkins, the love affair with the striped scarf begins.....


November:: Chalkboard mantle....pumpkin cheese ball, mini cornucopia, TURKEY!!!!


Looking back at the photos...here are the art*house top 5 favorites of 2009:

#5- fabric flowers
#4- colorful trees
#3- ABC's
#2- patchwork
#1- drum roll----------let's hear it for chalkboard paint!!!!

OK- so you have to vote now....what is your favorite out of these 5??? Poll is on upper right corner of the blog.

Christmas Mantle

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Wah, wah- I didn't win the Michael's contest....But I have to say the projects that did win were really good. Good for them- I am :( very :( happy for the :( winners.....honest! Thanks for the votes for my advent tree!!!!!!

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We had a good day at church. Our pastor preached about setting your goals for 2010 now- we need to think and pray on it before Jan.1st. I don't have my goals written down yet, but I am thinking and praying on things...I love that focus on getting prepared for the new year and not just waking up on the 1st and having no idea what goals to reach for--or what to do when it comes to quiet time with the Lord. That is my main concern- prepare for that and possibly find a Bible study book to go through. I like having a book that asks questions abut a passage (any suggestions?). Hope you had a good day in church- have a wonderful week!

I need to go on a diet now!

Surprise inside cake......just wait....


Jenny & I carving Marilou's awesome turkey.


Mary must be giving Marilou pointers on the gravy....yummy gravy...I thought we had leftovers of the gravy and can't find it in the stuffed fridge!!!!

Sadie loves her Miss Mary. Mary takes care of Sadie when we go away.


First fire of the season


Oh my yumminess...pumpkin pie- delicious. Jenny's chocolate chunk pecan pie- heavenly. And the cake was good too if I do say so myself....





See! There is a cream cheese filling inside! Awesome. Here is the recipe (except that I didn't use the coconut, and I changed the name, and added the cherry :). OK, but then when I was at the Kraft website, I found this...yes! that is what we will try next.

It was not all about the food! We had a very nice time with our sweet friends. We have so much to be thankful for!!!

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Guess what?!? The tree is up! The mantle is dressed for Christmas! The mistletoe is hung! The Christmas books have been read all day! The nativity is out! How about you? Did you decorate today or did you shop?

Thank You, God!

Happy-day-before! I am cooking and getting the table ready- the kids and Dave are outside raking leaves, the Christmas music is on....what could be better! Can't wait until tomorrow....




Oh my word- first time for me to make sweet potato casserole- and it looks good just like this. It is real healthy, what it not healthy about a few sweet potatoes with lots of butter and brown sugar?!?!


I love this recipe- especially b/c you can make it up in advance. Here is the recipe for the pumpkin cheeseball.


I don't think there has ever been a Thanksgiving where I have been more thankful. Amazed and thankful. This year has been one of blessings & miracles.


Thank You, God, for Your plan for us. We are amazed by your care for us. Thank You for clearly answering prayers in a big way- Thank You for allowing us to show YOU to our children. Thank you that we are in a position that we certainly do not deserve- we live in a beautiful and cozy home, we have heat and light and water, we have food- more food than we need!!!!! We have warm and colorful clothes :) We have the most adorabledoggie , we have 3 healthy, sweet children!! Thank you for Dave & our marriage. Thank you for our extended family who we love. Thank You for our church. We love our church family and friends. We don't deserve it. We love You and pray that our children will be able to experience this Love and Peace for themselves when they are grown.

I Chronicles 16:34 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

I am especially thankful for my salvation- where would I be without God's gift to me? And without His grace and forgiveness? I have total peace in my life. Even when things don't go the way I think they should- there is always the peace.


I am so thankful for my darling husband, Dave. You are the best! Thanks for putting up with me :) I love ya and I thank God for you every single day. Thank you for being the godly leader in our home- you are a good example to me.




I found these free printable place cards here at lollychops. I cut them out, glued them to a paper circle, then a folded cardstock.

Hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful!

mini cornucopia

Isn't this the cutest little cornucopia?! This idea is from Family Fun, of course :) My fam thought it was quite special.


Oh! And I keep forgetting to tell you about this! Check out this website: Fun 4 The Brain for lots of review games. There are games to help with adding, subtraction, etc. My kids love this.

the last of the fall stuff

Much easier than the wax paper leaves.....introducing contact paper leaves!!!! Just tape a piece of contact paper on the table- sticky side up, stick on leaves and glitter, cover with another piece of contact paper.

Fall cookies!!!! My mom started this tradition- buying us the acorn, leaf, pumpkin, and apple cookie cutters. And this year we added our new Ikea cutters (the circles and squares).



What a mess!!! Not sure if I will be recovered enough from this wonderful *messy* experience in time to make Christmas cookies.



Now we are into Thanksgiving week. Here is the schedule:
Mon- make grocery list
Tues- grocery shop
Wed- cook anything that can be made ahead of time (potato casserole, sweet potato casserole, spice cake, chocolate pie...friends are bringing the turkey and pumpkin pie)
Thurs- cook the rest of the veggies, bake the Pillsbury rolls, put cider in the crock pot, make cranberry punch, start a fire in the fireplace.....

How about you- thanksgiving at home, or are you going somewhere?

Happy Saturday!

I am staying strong!!! No Christmas decorations here until after Thanksgiving!!! Even though we did go and see the Christmas parade today and we have been listening to Christmas music. We are going to have one last week of fall and Thanksgiving before we get out all of that stuff.

So much to be thankful for! We need to get decorating our thankful tree!!! Here is last years:

everyone writes what they are thankful for on the leaves.

There is just a ton of cute Thanksgiving crafts and food at Family Fun right now.

Here is a post that I did 2 years ago.....thought it still holds true today....

What I Love about Fall................

Pumpkins,Gourds,&Squash

Little Girl tights in every pattern and color!
(this is where I usually hang the boy's artwork...but I took it down just so I could get this picture....isn't it funny that I cannot find the time to even clean my house, but I can hang up little tights and take pictures from every angle?!?!?)
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OK, so admit it- who has the Christmas tree up yet?!?!?

Using Scripture to Teach Your Children

First off- thanks so much for going to see my advent tree and for voting!!!!! I can't wait to see who wins.
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We had a baby shower last Saturday for a friend at church. Another friend gave a little talk- advice to the new mom-to-be. It was so encouraging and convicting! Thanks Carmela, for sharing your wisdom with us. The part that really got me was to use scripture when talking to your children. Instead of harping or nagging about this and that- to read scripture that will cut to the heart of your child- The Word has power!!!!

That reminds me of a chart that Mom Mincy got for me: Wise Words for Moms by Ginger Plowman.

















It has a list of behaviors--questions to ask your child--a verse of reproof--a verse of encouragement--and additional verses for that behavior. For example, lets pick one that I need to use daily for my kids:

Child's Behavior:
Aggravating, stirring up strife

Heart Probing: (questions to ask them)
1. Are you purposing in your heart to promote peace, or are you stirring up trouble?
2. How can you show love and pursue peace in this situation?

Reproof
One of the seven things God hates is one who stirs up trouble among his brothers. Proverbs 6:19

Encouragement
God gives joy to those who promote peace. Proverbs 12:20

I am so inspired and convicted to memorize these verses- and to remember to open the Bible and lovingly read these verses to the kids when they are having trouble obeying. I think the key here is to make this a positive time to get in the Word and share with your children the answers to life's problems. We don't want to hit them over the head with it. I can just picture myself on a bad day yelling the verses--- :( and this would defeat the purpose. But I really feel like when we take the time to sit with our kids and pray with them and share scripture, that these "moments" can turn into positive teaching moments instead of times of anger and frustration for all.

I just sound like I have it all together, right?!?!? I DO NOT! And Dave is laughing as he reads this now, I can imagine, because he knows that half of the time I react in a negative way when the kids are fighting! I get as mad as they are.

God can help us in those moments- help us to remember how to respond-- in LOVE! (I would think that if we renew our minds daily in these verses, that we would be quicker to respond in the right way instead of the wrong). And Carmela's point was not just to use scripture in the times of discipline, but in times when your child is asking questions- like what if your child came to you and said that she wanted to go to the mission field- your answer could be..."go and be strong and of good courage...be not afraid for the Lord will be with you!!!" (now that is a good answer!)

I am going to start memorizing these verses. Anyone want to join me? You can get one of these charts from Amazon for $4.00.

I love my kids- I am so blessed- they are sweet and precious. I don't want their only memories of their mom to be of a crazy lady running around the house yelling at them!

Please Help Me!!!! {Advent Calendar Project}

Michaels is having a handmade contest. Since Dave says I have the contest gene- I had! to! enter! (I have been trying for 20 years to think of a joke to send to the Readers Digest to collect the $400)

Michaels is picking 2 winners every week until the middle of Dec. Winners get $100 to spend at Michaels. Then they will pick 2 grand prize winners who will get to go to NYC to see a Martha Stewart show plus $250.

You can see my entry here (I gave you a small glimpse of it in the above picture). Can you do me a HUGE favor?!?!?! Click over there to see the entire project- and if you like it, click on the fifth snowman at the bottom of the picture- (click the 5th snowman to give a 5 star rating). It is really easy!!!!

I promise, if I win I will buy some goodies at Michaels and do a giveaway.......I promise!!!!!

new

gobble!

**tuRKey Day at the *art house!!**

Meet "Mr. Plump the Turkey"

Mr. Striped Turkey

"Feathered Fellow"

Who knew it would be so fun to glue noodles onto turkey feathers??? Kept her occupied for quite awhile!
We learned how to draw a turkey from art projects for kids. The kids drew the turkey with pencil- traced with a sharpie, then painted with coffee. The kids were a little shocked that we weren't going to make these turkeys colorful! We are only going to paint them brown, Mom?!?!? We sprinkled salt on the wet coffee to add texture.

Check out this list of turkey crafts at the crafty crow.

::from the car window:: {& paper flowers}

On the way....fields of cotton- the kids wanted to get out and pick it.


Our first glimpse of Philly


a lime green house


inside the car- paper flower shop!

8 hours of driving can go by very fast if you have paper, scissors, and glue........

The flowers: they're magnets.................

Amish Country

Lunch at Dienner's. THE best food ever. Thanks for the recommendation, Mom. It was soooo good. Fresh, home-made everything. The place was so clean! I loved every bit of it. Almost everyone who worked there was Amish or Mennonite. We had ham and chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh beans and corn, salad, fresh rolls, coconut cream pie, shoo fly pie (made with molasses and brown sugar- yum!), chocolate applesauce cake (so moist), and my fave- apple butter. Have you ever had apple butter? It is made from apples, apple cider, and cinnamon- it is a spread that you can put on bread- I like it on toast with peanut butter.

We have to go back! I heard they have the most delicious breakfast buffet.....

Here with the coconut cream pie.

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This is the Sight & Sound Theatre. 5 thumbs up from the Mincy fam. It is a large theater where they put on Christian productions/musicals. We saw The Miracle of Christmas. They have live animals on the stage (and 2 side stages). The singing was incredible- the set and costumes beautiful. I was brought to tears several times. Our kids loved it. I would very highly recommend this for you and your family. It was a little pricey and we almost didn't do it, but we have wanted to for so long and the kids will remember it forever. We are definitely not regretting it.
They are starting a production of Joseph in 2010.

Downtown Philly

legodelphia

Carmen's FamousCheesesteaks!!!

We were planning on going to Geno's for the cheesesteaks, but we were in Reading Terminal (an indoor market) at lunch time and Carmen's looked so good we thought we'd try it. They were awesome!!! Dave got his with cheese whiz and I with provolone....mine was better :) He says his was better...We give Carmen's a *****5 star rating!!

The FranklinInstitute(children's science and history museum)

Dave finding out that his body is made up of 30 cups of blood....

Dave & Aunt Barbara- we love staying with Aunt Barbara :)

I hardly got any pictures at the churches where we had the concerts....I feel so sad that I got none of the pastors & families that we met. Everyone was so nice- the concerts went well. Thank the Lord we had a good trip and the weather was great until the day we drove home. We left last Thurs, and drove home yesterday in the rain.

Tomorrow's post: Lancaster, PA- Amish country and Sight & Sound.

another *healthy* recipe

applefritters
They look disgusting in this picture- but they were soooooo good. Oh and also, you are supposed to core the apple and cut into rings so that they will look like nice round donuts. We don't have a corer- so the apples ended up in chunks- but they still tasted yummy!!!!

1 egg
2/3 c. milk
1 t. oil
1 c. flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 t. baking powder
dash salt
5 large tart apples
1-1/2 c. oil
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon

beat egg, milk & oil. Combine flour, sugar, baking pwdr, and salt: stir into egg mixture until smooth. Batter will be thick. Peel, core, & cut apples into 1/2 inch rings. Heat oil in a pot. Dip rings into batter, fry a few at a time until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Combine sugar & cinnamon; sprinkle over hot fritters. Serve warm. yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm