Pandas for Kaela

Kaela joined Jill's panda swap this summer....the idea was to send things that were black and white...and include at least 1 panda item and 1 thing that was handmade...

Here is what she did for her partner...inside the basket was a nail polish kit...


a close up of a panda I made for the swap...


and of the bookmark Kaela made...




And here is what she got in return....



Kaela was tickled with these.....she even shared with her brother

What a fun summer swap for kids!

Ironcraft #32

This week's challenge has to do with summer. Now there are lots of things that have to do with summer....but the VERY first thing I thought of was "frog skin rugs."

WEIRD...I KNOW...But when you live in the south, you see lots of frogs and lots of toads.
Big toads, little toads...tree frogs, water frogs....the list goes on.

Inevitably, you see a lot of DEAD frogs too...many the victim of crossing a street.

So, my creation for this week's challenge is this little ditty:

Barnaby Toad

Barnaby Toad
Was crossing the road
A crown upon his head
One little slip, one little trip
And he knew he would be dead...

Barnaby Toad
While crossing the road
Tried to catch a bug
With a frown, he landed down
And turned into a toad skin rug!

Poor, poor Barnaby...we see a lot of them after the rain...

Mosaic Monday

The kids went back to school today........and the house is so quiet. Storm clouds are hanging over the house with lots of thunder booming...but no rain. Sort of fits how I feel.

I always get sad when school starts back up again. I truly love having the kids home with me. I know it won't be long before they grow up and move on with their own lives. As for school, I start back to work next week...just have some meetings and planning to do this week.

Today is mosaic Monday and I thought I'd show this old planter I did.
I think it was the second or third thing I did. It has held many plants over the years... the mosaic adds a barrier which helps keep moisture in...

These purple oxalis were in pot that broke so I moved them here....and they are happy. You can see one regular green oxalis poking its little head up....must have been a volunteer!

Ducks & Tigers...

Last Thursday Kaela wanted some sewing time. She cracks me up.
Instead of picking some super easy project, she chose to make this little duck from nosy nest.

She did a good job given she has only sewn a couple of other things.


Since ducky was a toy drop, she chose to keep it simple.
We dropped ducky in the nursery rhyme section of our local library right at closing Friday night.


Hopefully someone found ducky during story time Saturday morning.

Kaela hasn't been doing much artwork over the summer....but when she decides to she can whip stuff up in just minutes....like this tiger.

Sorry for the bad lighting....even outside, I couldn't get a good photo.

she made it for her binder....school starts tomorrow here and the tiger is the school mascot. If you want to see the full post on her art blog, go here....I have a close up of the tiger there too.

busy busy...

While Dean and Matt were at WOC this past weekend, Kaela and I stayed home.
I think he was worried I would be bored......

But first....a fun photo....
while I packed for Dean, Suki thought she'd tag along...

saying goodbye....


I got some crafting done.....
My sister Page and SIL Jane both wanted a plastic bag holder thingy I make.


so I made them one...


and I made a catnip mouse for someone in Mobile...


then I finally got to can something.
Kerry sent me a little canning kit (thanks again Kerry!) but then I couldn't find rhubarb for Dean.

Lucky for me, my neighbor had some pears she doesn't eat so she let me pick some. I got just enough to try out my dad's recipe...they went from this:



to this in about 3 hours. They are wonderful over ice cream.....and biscuits and pancakes!


Then, our friends from Fort Worth came through to stay the night on their way to Destin.
Kaela helped me clean house and make potato leek soup and home made bread. We enjoyed our company so much I forgot to get the camera :-(

Saturday, they took off for Destin so Kaela and I went shopping.

Kaela loves to go to the mall and shop. I HATE it.....probably because I worked retail for over 20 years. I really really hate shopping now...but I saved up a bunch of errands just for us to do together.

Kaela was thrilled with all the running and going...... we got some fur baby supplies, we looked for school clothes (which we couldn't find...) and bought some new shoes.
Then we ate lunch and got a birthday present for a friend.
Then we drove to Mandeville to get the school clothes we couldn't find in Slidell.
Happily, we found them first thing...so we grabbed them and were outta there!

Even Kaela was exhausted by then so we just picked up salads for dinner and went home.

Before bed we watched one of our favorite movies.....


Girl time is fun....but tiring!

Weekend of the Cross

Dean and Matt went on a 4 day youth oriented mission called Weekend of the Cross. You can read about WOC here.
Dean went as a chaperon/work leader so they could do some boy stuff together.

Churches from all over the region went to Mandeville, LA to help repair houses for families in need. Dean's group worked somewhere in Hammond but they had groups working all over.

Dean took lots of photos of his work group but since I don't know all the kids, I'll just show a few....

When they got there, a band was playing ...everyone said they are awesome. The name of the band is "Heaven's to Betsy."




they all worked hard...it was soooo hot.








but each night after worship service they got to play hard too.....







apparently, they were well fed...



Everyone came home exhausted....but happy they helped those in need....and eager for next year's WOC!

Mosaic Monday

Here is another "potter person".....this guy was one of my favorites.

I named him Mr. Fu.