advents for kei

kei asked about advent calendar ideas, so i found a few that i thought were awesome! check out these from whip up - i especially love the string of stockings (#10), the string of envelopes (#24), the sewn pockets one (#16), but my absolute favorite is the 'snowing presents' advent calendar (#4) - LOVE it! maybe for next year? we'll just have to see. i've also seen advent calendars that use favor boxes or jars - just add your numbers and daily surprises! the jar advent was especially clever, i thought, since you could vary the size of the jar to accommodate the day's treat - small for a slip of paper, or large for the ingredients of a recipe or craft project. i made this one this year, using plastic bead jars and magnets:

not bad, eh? oh, and don't forget the ol' standby: the advent paper chain! hope this sparks your ideas!

christmas in collages

merry christmas!!!
we have been busy bees and lazy bees - just enjoying our time together this christmas.
hope you like our christmas in collage form (it would've added years to my life to upload each of these pix individually - thank you, picasa!)
anyhoo, on with the show!
here we are, enjoying the christmas lights and giant nativity at opryland:

and here's a miscellaneous collage - kalei's informal christmas piano recital, cookies for santa, the kids on our trip to deliver goodies to friends and neighbors, our gingerbread village, and our ornament addition this year: birdhouses (going with the idea that we stayed 'home' this year):

christmas eve, we upheld the navalta tradition of acting out the nativity story. we had a thoughtful mary, a reverent wise man, and a very curious and enthusiastic shepherd:

christmas morning! ever since we moved to kentucky, we have kept the tree gift-less until christmas morning - it helps keep little fingers from 'accidentally' opening gifts early and also adds a little 'ka-pow!!' to these guys' anticipation. here they are anticipating (kawelo's a little groggy - we had to actually wake him up - next year, he'll lead the charge, i'm sure):

followed with their delight of actually finding something under the tree!

(yes!! santa forgave our last-minute naughtiness!)
we hope you all had a wonderful and magical christmas!

p.s. if you were counting, i used 'christmas' 10 times - 11 if you include this sentence - yay, me!

an ode to awesomeness

a haiku:

josh and kim proved to
rule the 'game on' diet so
challengers beware!

we recently participated in the 'game on' diet with mom, dad, josh, & kim. it was a totally different mindset about eating over four (long) weeks. josh & kim are the supreme winners and we bow humbly at their self-control and dedication. you guys are awesome - and have inspired some truly awe-inspiring haikus over the last four weeks - who knew haikus were so fun?!

in fact, i feel a haiku coming on:

who will invent a
sugar that sweetens and slims?
please help us, science!

and there's a whole lot more where that came from! congrats, josh & kim!

christmas snippets

since we're not going anywhere for christmas this year (mom & dad said they would come and ferry us to florida, but have yet to set up the arrangements - hmmmmm.... what is this telling me?), i have been trying to add a little christmas cheer to as many rooms as possible. so far, i have scattered happy little vignettes in the kitchen, playroom, and living room. (i might go and try to find some more tinsel trees after christmas, so that next year the kids can actually have trees in their rooms! i love tinsel trees!!!! my christmas wish is to have a 6 1/2 ft. silver tinsel or white tree. that, and world peace. don't make me choose between them.) anyhoo, here are some pix of our seasonal bits. next week, when the kids are off of school, we're going to break out the glitter! oh, yeah! we'll be rocking the stars and snowflakes - can't wait!

koa quotes

koa: i think i smell a dirty diaper....

koa (a few minutes later): i do smell a dirty diaper! will somebody change it, please? (koa covers his mouth and nose.) i can't breathe!

ah, mr. dramatic. funny, though, that neither koa nor kalei are ever willing to actually change the diaper - they just want someone else to do it - quickly! (true confessions: since james & i have a slightly higher stink tolerance than the kids, we'll borrow from their 'selective hearing' and pretend not to hear them or to not know what they're talking about when they're begging us to change kawelo's diaper! it's a hoot!)

scrappy burlap wreath

wow! my very first official tutorial! and it turned out cute - double bonus! okay, okay, on with the info. remember when i linked to this wreath? well, that crafty lady never published a tutorial, so here's mine! it's not exactly like hers, but pretty darn close. i started with a metal florist's wreath about 16" in diameter:

and 2 yards of 48" wide burlap (you can probably make this with 1 yard - i used the leftovers to make bows and garlands for the entry-way trees that flank the doorway where this wreath is hanging). i cut 1" strips from the burlap until i had 24 1" x 48" strips. then, i cut each strip to get four 12" strips. so, mathwise, i now had 96 1" x 12" strips.
(side note: burlap is very messy! muy! molto! tres? is that right for french? just know that you will have tons of little, tiny fibers and some bigger fibers resulting from cutting and then tying the burlap strips. i did this project in the bathroom for easy cleanup.)

before tying the strips, i added a wire loop to my wire wreath. you could also use ribbon or twine or something for this. mine's not that pretty, but it will be covered up by the strips, so no worries.

start tying on the strips! i used a regular ol' square knot, and staggered the knots so they could scrunch up a bit more.

1/3 of the way there!

oops! i forgot to take a picture of the wreath with the strips all finished, but, trust me, it was awesome. :) i used 95 of the 96 strips - my tied-on strips were closely bunched but not super-tightly packed. fortunately, the strips are easy to cut if you discover that you need more.
on to the embellishments!
i originally had planned to make yo-yo flowers to sew onto the wreath, but i found some strips of red cloth in my scrap box and made these flowers instead. i'm very pleased with them - they have a raw look to them that i thought matched the wreath perfectly. i started with a strip of red fabric at least 12" long and uniform in width (if your strip is wider, i might use a longer piece) and stitched (with a long thread) along one of the long sides:

pull firmly on your thread and the stitches with bunch together like so:
(p.s. don't cut the thread!)

it's okay for the flower to circle around and overlap itself - this makes it fuller and assures that you won't have any gappiness. then, using the long end of the thread, sew the flower to the wreath, securing it with a button in the center. you can use varying widths to have a nice selection of unique flowers, and maybe add a few leaves:

hmmmmm..... still needs something. it definitely needs one more leaf.
for each leaf, i cut a 2 1/2" x 6" strip in green, and then cut it diagonally, like this:

i machine-stitched the pieces back together like so:

and pressed it open:

then i stitched and bunched them the same as the flowers, and they end up being more of a 'leaf' shape. attach with buttons, and voila!

bellisima!
and cheap, too! the burlap and wreath form cost about $6, and then i had the fabric and buttons already, so that was no additional cost - yahoo! if you want to make this, but don't have the fabric scraps or buttons, let me know and i can send you some.
happy holidays!

guess who fits in a suitcase!

we went up to my grandma's house for thanksgiving and got to see 77.3% of the flora side of the family - woohoo! it was so great to see everyone! then, we spent black friday in indy - double woohoo! kim & i braved the sales and made it through unscathed with several fabulous purchases. the kids had such a great time seeing their cousins and re-meeting great-aunts and -uncles and..... 2nd cousins? .....cousins twice removed? whatever you call it, they had a super fun time. and they are primed and ready to travel! kawelo can even fit inside a carry-on suitcase - would he make it through security? are we going to find out? (probably not, but i thought it was a hilarious picture.)
happy belated thanksgiving, all!
we're thankful for you!