happy thanksgiving

I hope you've had a peaceful holiday

and that the rest of your weekend is excellent as well!

today

 This morning I woke up inexplicably depressed.
Like, you-are-my-child-and-I-love-you-more-than-life-itself-

and-so-I-will-get-up-and-feed-you-breakfast-

but-then-I'm-going-to-go-back-to-bed-

and-pull-the-covers-over-my-head depressed.

And then late morning there was a knock on my door.
Apparently the local fruit stand guy has had to resort

to peddling his wares door to door.
He had some apples that were deeply discounted

because he'd had them for over a week.

Suddenly I realized that the sun was shining

and that at that moment more than anything else in the world

I wanted to make apple butter.

So I bought a quarter of a bushel of apples,

ignored the laundry and dishes,

and made apple butter with Brother instead.

It was perfect.

caramel apples

While we were at the grocery store last week

Little Man requested that we make caramel apples together.

I was happy to agree!

We wasted no time and made a batch

of the gooey, crunchy, autumny goodness

last Monday.

Yum.

travel

The last couple of weeks were a whirl

of spontaneous travel plans,

fighting the flu,

packing and organizing,

and travel.

For the first half of last week we went camping

in Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park.

We left home at 6:40 on Sunday morning

so that we could go to church with friends who live two hours away

before making our way into the park.

I drove the fully-packed van

while Benjamin enjoyed the trip from his motorcycle.

Little Man was fascinated by the geothermal features

and had a million questions and observations

about what we got to see.

Brother was just excited to be in a "bow-ca-no" (volcano).

And Sweet Pea was pretty much unimpressed.

We set up camp near the lovely Lewis Lake

and were relived that the temperatures didn't dip below freezing

(Tent camping in mid-September at almost 8,000 feet elevation

is a risky business.)

The boys slept like little camping pros

even though we were serenaded

by elk bugling all through the night.

(What a crazy-fabulous experience that was!)

The autumn colors in the foreground of the majestic Tetons

were truly spectacular.

Little Man said that his favorite part was

"the beauty all around."

It was by far the best camping trip we've ever had,

and the time we spent as a family was truly refreshing.

We returned home on Tuesday evening

just in time to do a little laundry and pack up again.

My parents watched all three children

while I accompanied Ben to the "big city" of Billings

where he had a work conference while I relaxed.

We left on Wednesday morning

and returned Friday evening.

I didn't take any photos, but the highlights include

going shopping all by myself,

Hobby Lobby,

a massage and pedicure (my first ever!),

Benjamin winning a Kindle Fire,

and fillet mignon.

It was a wonderful, wild week,

but I am quite happy to be home again,

settling into my semblance of routine.

I'm even almost caught up on the laundry.

: )

leaf collages

The third leaf project recently completed in our was was leaf collages. I had planned on making leaf people (something like these) with the boys. However, when push came to shove, I needed something for them to do quietly by themselves while I fixed dinner, so I gave them leaves, paper, and glue sticks and let them make collages virtually unsupervised.

Little Man was so excited when I told him he was going to make a collage. He's been playing a computer game where he gets to make a virtual collage, and being able to make a real, hands-on collage was way better than the game! The collage above was his first one. (See that big leaf? It was the largest one we were able find, and Little Man was excited to display it prominently in several leaf rubbings as well as in this collage.)

This is Little Man's second collage.

I think Brother enjoyed this project even more than Little Man did. In addition to making the lovely leaf collage pictured above, he did some delightful tactile experimentation with large globs of glue that broke off of the glue stick he was using. (You can see one of the glue globs above--it's that purple thing near the middle of the very bottom of the photo.)

This project was perfect for us this year. The boys enjoyed making beautiful art with the leaves they collected, and I was able to get dinner done in good time! As for the glue globs, they lived a short yet prosperous life before being easily cleaned up with a damp cloth.

leaf mobile

The second leafy project I recently completed was

a wax-dipped autumn leaf mobile.

I dipped some of the leaves we collected into melted wax.

(It was parafin not beeswax. Shh...don't tell Martha.)

Then I strung them together

and hung them asymmetrically above my kitchen sink.

They look lovely with my yellow kitchen walls.

(Ahem...uh, why yes, I am a real person.

Those are real dishes untidily heaped in and around my real sink.

And that's my real sink sprayer nozzle thingy to the left of the sink

soaking in real vinegar to remove unfortunately real hard water deposits.

Real crafting takes a real toll on real housework...)

Since these photos were taken

the yellow leaves have turned decidedly brown,

but the red ones are still bright and beautiful.

They sway and turn so gracefully.

I enjoy observing them while I am washing my real dishes.

; )

leaf rubbings

Remember how I said that we collect lovely leaves during our autumnal meanderings? Well, last Friday we did three leaf projects with the specimens we gathered.

The first project we tackled was making leaf rubbings. Leaf rubbings are super-easy. All you do is arrange leaves vein side up on a piece of paper, place a second piece of paper on top of the leaves, and rub over the leaves with the side of a crayon with the paper peeled off.

Brother was interested and tried to make leaf rubbings, but he didn't quite get it. I made a few leaf rubbings on his paper for him, and then he was quite happy to draw his own designs with crayons and colored pencils.

Little Man, however, really enjoyed the project. He needed help holding the papers steady, but other than that, he had the process down.

I like his unconventional use of colors for autumn leaves.

Of all the leaf rubbings Little Man made, this is my favorite. We had so much fun with this project. I'm already planning to try to make it happen again next year!

leafy meanderings

We have been enjoying

a late, warm autumn here in Montana.

The mornings are nippy-cold;

heavy frost turns our yard into a field of glinting diamonds.

But the afternoons have been clear and warm

with merely a hint of breeze.

It's the type of perfect weather

that results in brilliantly hued leaves.

It is also perfect for taking

meandering yet purposeful walks

on which we collect treasures.

We gather spruce cones, lovely leaves, photos,

and happy memories of time together.

october calendars

Last month I wrote about the August and September calendars I printed for the boys (especially Little Man) to help them count down to special events and learn calendar skills. They went over so well that I decided to make October calendars with them too.

They both colored their pages carefully in characteristic styles. Little Mans is rainbowy meticulous, while Brother's is splashy random. I love them both. : )

scarves

Autumn has arrived with a vengeance in our corner of the world. Golden leaves flame against dripping grey or brilliant blue skies; the breeze is nippy-cool. Sweaters, warm tea, and hot soup are comfortingly welcome. Also welcome are new autumn accessories! Lucky for me, I have two fabulously fun new scarves that I made based on an idea I found on Pinterest.

[Please excuse the headless photo; it was't a good self-timer portrait day.]

My mom and I had a lovely variety of autumn colored yarns between us for making into pretty scarf strands. I got so carried away with all of the exciting textures and colors that I ended up having enough to make two scarves. (I tried them all in one scarf at first and the effect was...well..bulky. So bulky, in fact, that it looked like my scarf was wearing me instead of the other way around!)

Anyway, I ended up making two autumn-colored scarves. I bundled the extra one up with a pretty gift tag and mailed it to my friend Katie who lives in Idaho.

I couldn't stop at just those two scarves, though, and had to use my blue, grey, and white scraps to make a third. This one is even less bulky and is much more like an accessory than a piece of ward-of-the-cold-air gear. I like having the variety. : )

This project was perfect for using up all of those extra little bits of yarn that are too big to throw away but too small to complete a project. Plus I can pick it up and set it down as many times as my interruption-full life demands without losing stitches or needing to find my place again. I can easily foresee more of these chain-stitched scarves in my crafting future.

leaf garland

I love Pintererst. It took me a while to jump on the bandwagon, but now that I'm on, I intend to hang around for a while. It's such a handy way of organizing all those lovely ideas I find that I don't want to forget. I have an entire board dedicated to Autumn projects, and as the days are cooling and the leaves are brightening, I have decided to try to tackle one of my Autumn projects a week.

The first project I decided to work on was one that the boys and I did together. It is a combination of an idea for making colorful autumn leaves with waxed paper, crayon shavings, and a warm iron with an idea for making a mantle decorating leaf garland.

We began by discussing which colors were autumn colors, and then I let Little Man choose which colors we would use from his crayon tin. Then we made lots of crayon shavings with pencil sharpeners. Both of the boys enjoyed it, but making crayon shavings takes a surprising amount of strength, so I ended up doing most of it.

[pointy-sharpened crayon stubs make me smile]

Little Man insisted that the periwinkle and teal colors were autumn colors too. : ) I can see his point; after all, the autumn sky is a brilliant blue.

Then the boys took turns arranging the crayon shavings on the waxed paper. After the crayon shavings were arranged, I ironed the waxed paper-crayon sandwiches between layers of towel and paper napkin, making lovely marbled patterns.

Then I traced and free handed leaf shapes, circles (I thought that periwinkle circles might be a little more appropriate than periwinkle leaves), squares, and even a couple of kites. Little Man, who is becoming quite handy with scissors, helped cut our shapes out.

We made maple leaves.

and oak leaves

And being good westerners, we had to make some aspen leaves too.

Then we strung them all together, draped them on our mantle, and admired the effect. Little Man told me this evening: "I liked finishing that project with you!"

Linking up with Jennifer's Studio Sneak Peek.