Thanks Pottery Barn!

The holidays are coming and my mailbox is quickly filling with lovely seasonal catalogs from stores tempting me to spend my precious dollars on silly decorations that are over priced. With that said, there's nothing more I'd love to do than decorate my house like crazy for each season that comes. However, my practical side just can't ever find a reason to rationalize spending the money that this kind of decorating suggests.

While perusing through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog I came across this lovely jewel - A Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar.

Each day has it's own pocket to fill with things you are thankful for. I was in love and dreaming of what a fun tradition this could be with our kids in the future. Then I looked at the price tag and my dreams came crashing back to reality...$70 dollars are you kidding me?
Then it hit me, I could make my own, or attempt anyways. So thank you Pottery Barn, for being soo expensive that I'm forced to be creative!

Hope you enjoy my very first DIY project:

Thanksgiving Countdown Calendar

Supplies:
5-6 different remnants of fall colored fabrics (They sell samples of 1/4 yds of fabric at Joanne's for $1-2)
1/2 yd brown felt
1/2 yd yellow felt
1/4 yd red, green and white felt
Crotchet yarn
1 pointy needle with a large threading hole
Tacky Craft Glue
1 leaf cut-out
Lettering (font size 150 and 200)
Chalk (for tracing)

**Disclaimer, I didn't take photos of every single step so use your imagination****

1. LEAVES: Start with the leaves as you will need these to know how big the top of your tree will be. 30 days of November divided by 5 colors of fabrics = 6 leaves in each color. I layered two colors of fabric to speed up the number of times I had to cut and traced my leaf on to the fabric using a sharpie. Then cut them out.

2. NUMBERS: After cutting out all my leaves, I began on the numbers alternating fabrics as I traced. After cutting out all the numbers I used Fabric Stitch to glue the numbers in the center of the leaves and laid them out to dry.
Here is my chart for how many I needed of each number:
1 (12x)
2 (13x)
3 (4x)
4 (3x)
5 (3x)
6 (3x)
7 (3x)
8 (3x)
9 (3x)
0 (2x)

3. LEAFY PART OF THE TREE
Lay out all the leaves in a random pattern over the golden yellow colored felt. Following the shape of your leaves, cut around the outside row of leaves.

Beginning to cut around the leaves...

...finished "leafy" portion of the tree.

4. TREE TRUNK
Lay out your brown felt, place the "leafy" tree portion over top of the trunk felt. I left about a 4-5 inch "seam" for branches.
Using a piece of light colored chalk draw out the shape of the trunk.
The top of the tree trunk I drew five branches, some of which would eventually overlap on top of the leafy portion of the tree. Even the branches that went under the yellow felt, I left a one inch seam to glue to the leafy portion.

5. TREE BASE
Using your green felt, place the trunk on top and trace the shape. Make the base a few inches wider on either side of the tree base (my picture below doesn't show this fyi.) Cut inside the chalk line about a quarter inch, you will need this allowance for stitching the base to the trunk. After cutting out the base shape, using white crotchet yarn, stitch the base and trunk together (see final picture or lettering picture for an idea of what this look likes.).

6. LEAF POCKETS
(You could do this step before cutting out the trunk, but I chose not to as I didn't know where my branches would lay on top and which leaves would lay on top of the branches.)
Using Tacky glue, fix the leaves to the felt. Make sure not to glue the upper portion of the leaf otherwise you will not have a pocket for your thankfulness notes.

7. LETTERING

For the lettering, I printed off the saying "GIVE THANKS"
in several different sizes of font. Cut out the paper samples, use your trusty sharpie to trace the letter face down on to the felt, and cut out the fabric letters. Then using your Tacky glue, glue them to the trunk.

The next part is optional, since the word THANKS was larger I used my crotchet yarn again to stitch the letters on to the trunk.

8. HANG AND ENJOY
You did it! Now find a lovely place on your wall so when November comes you can start the thankfulness party! This part is still not finished on mine, since the tree is rather floppy, I'm going to find a thin dowling rod to attach to the back of the leafy portion and base on the tree to help with the flop factor. I'm also going to sew on a string at the top to hang the tree from instead of using 2 million tacks.

Dress Up!

Naomi Constance Stroh
9.26.2011

Meet my sweet little niece Naomi. She is one week old today. Last week she was making her debut, an event I had the immense pleasure of being a part of, tears of joy welling in my eyes as I watched my strong, courageous and beautiful sister-in-law bring her into this world. My role is a quiet one, to capture those moments of the birth process that are so inspiring, so tender, so full of emotion. This time around was just as precious as it was when Levi was born. I planned on posting some of those photos, but then today happened...

For her inaugural one week old celebration, Casey decided to introduce Naomi to the wonderful world of dress up. It just so happened to coincide with the newborn photo shoot I was about to engage in - perfect. What is more precious than a tiny naked baby girl with a flower adorning her head and pearls draped across her chest? Nothing, I tell you, nothing is more precious than that.

Tiny sweet Naomi, I so look forward to all things princess and ballet with you in the years to come. What fun it will be to watch you bring a sparkle to this boy filled family. Having grown up amidst all things boy, I will make sure you have an appreciation for fort building, Legos and snakes but make your girlie mark sweet girl for it is priceless and beautiful.

Love,
Tia

Two Pink Lines

Two pink lines showed up on a test five weeks ago!
Being someone with "female issues" thanks to a condition called PCOS, taking pregnancy tests is something I emotionally steal myself against knowing that most likely my body is just being dumb and I am not actually pregnant. So when those two pink lines show up it usually takes a few minutes for it to sink in, this time was no different.

If I am honest, August was a hard month for me. Back in the spring I had gone to a women's retreat with our church where I felt the Lord challenge me to finally let go of the worry of having more children. The phrase that kept coming to mind was "It is finished" and I felt so at peace with the future of our family knowing that God was in control. Then I missed a period, then I had a six week long period, then my body was crazy, then I thought I was pregnant and three tests came out negative, then the doubts crept back in. So August was a month filled with tears, with anxious dreams and fitful nights, with daily battles to keep my head above water and trust in all that God had spoken to my heart a few months prior. It was a long month and I often felt torn as I wrestled with questioning the promises I had been given.

At the very end of August I started feeling hungry, waking up in the middle of the night to eat handfuls of almonds, and waiting all day long for dinner to come so I could finally feel full. A quiet hope built in me that I was pregnant but I pushed it off thinking it was too good to be true. On September 7th, two pink lines showed up and relief washed over me, I wasn't crazy I was pregnant!

Three weeks later I walked in to the doctors office excited to see the tiny little dot that was our baby. I told my health saga to the nurse practitioner warning her I was pretty confident that I was only 6 weeks along, not 11 like my last period date suggested. She was gracious and supportive saying that we'd just change the due date once she was able to measure the size of the baby on the ultrasound. What popped up on the screen was a little gummy bear NOT a tiny blueberry sized baby, with kicking arm and leg nubbins. I was in awe watching it bounce around on the screen. After a few clicks of the mouse the nurse practitioner chuckled and said, "Well you're definitely farther along than six weeks, you're actually 10 1/2 weeks!" I could not believe it, and as I looked back at everything I went through emotionally in August it made sense, I was pregnant the whole time!



With that said, I am grateful for the month of struggle I went through because I needed to wrestle and question all that I did with the Lord. Now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is powerful to heal and faithful to provide regardless of my wandering heart. But besides that, I'm also grateful I skipped out on almost 5 weeks of being pregnant...every woman should get to have that experience it's exhilarating! I'm also glad I'm not crazy, my pants were starting to feel tight and when I stepped on the scale at the doctors office I had gained three pounds. "Three pounds in six weeks and tight pants already, I know you show earlier with your second but I'm doomed" I thought to myself. Thankfully it was all just because I was farther along than I thought.

A New Skill

Owen has learned a new skill - the art of blowing on things. He first caught on to this new found effect when I stumbled across a field of dandylion puffs while at a rest stop on our long drive home from the cabin. He of course found it hilarious every time the puff of seeds flew gracefully in the air. This last week while out on one of our daily strolls down the street, we discovered our very own patch of dandylion puffs. With no hesitation Owen quickly grabbed one in his chubby hand, yanked, and brought the puff to his mouth to blow on. Unfortunately, between the yanking and pulling the puff ball was pretty much decimated before it ever reached his eager puffed out cheeks. I quickly snatched him up, headed to our yard with a few carefully selected puff balls, grabbed my camera and snapped away as his hand again at puffing away. He was in heaven...till he discovered that the seeds stuck to his lips!

Just because....

....sometimes we need to look at things from a different perspective.

Story Time

One of the perks of being the only nephew at this point is the bounty of laps upon which to sit and read books. Owen loves to read and took advantage of both Aunt Theresa and Uncle Joseph for multiple story time sessions.

For Aunt Julie - Dirt and rocks

Owen and I would like to dedicate this post to Josh's Aunt Julie. Aunt Julie is one of those people who lives too far away and every time we see her it is not long enough to soak up all that is wonderful about her. She is quick to laugh with a brilliant mind and an incredible gift for teaching. I am amazed by the insight of her questions and the fact that she always leaves you with the feeling that you are never far from her mind even when the months go by. So Aunt Julie, this ones for you. Thank you for being one of my biggest blog fans and for caring so much about us! We love you!



For Labor Day weekend we treked across the North Cascades with my brother Elias, his wife Theresa and my brother Joseph, to one of our favorite spots on earth, our tiny little cabin in the woods. This is the first time that we've been over to Mazama since Owen started walking. I was so excited to see him begin to discover the many wonderful things the cabin has to offer, knowing full well that he would be in heaven. Lets just say he was covered from head to toe in dirt for three straight days and would probably still be sitting in the dirt if we'd let him. Honestly, I was tempted to take the same pictures every day just to chronicle the fact that the outfit may have changed but the activity did not. After eating breakfast we'd put Owen in his "play clothes" and head outside with his trusty orange shovel in hand. After setting him on the ground, he would take one maybe two steps before his tiny tush would be heading towards the ground. The rest was history, he barely moved from his location, content to heap dusty dirt, pine cones, and rocks upon his legs, shoes and head.

The other favorite daily activity of our four day weekend was trips to the river to throw rocks. I wish that I had some pictures from my brothers camera of our evening re-enacting one of our favorite childhood activities- throwing boulders off the bridge and watching the huge splash that ensued. Owen was mesmerized by the effect his rock throwing had from the bridge.
Most afternoons and evenings were more low key, sitting on the banks of the river throwing pebbles into the icy waters or watching the "big boys" skip smooth stones across the river. Owen's rock throwing routine is much the same as his digging in the dirt routine: shovel in hand, take a few steps, sit down, and don't move for the next hour. It's honestly amazing to me sometimes how focused he can be when doing something he loves.

It was such a joy to see the cabin through Owens eyes for the first time. I look forward to the years ahead as he discovers "lizard rock," ant hills, fishing with Daddy, and the magical world of imagination and adventure the forest holds.