Day 9 Blogtoberfest - Ready for Halloween

The Halloween decorations are up! A friend stopped by yesterday and as she peered through the front door into the rest of the house she commented "you really do Halloween, don't you?"

We don't, really. If we lived in the US what we do would be considered pretty mild, but here in Australia Halloween is still not the norm, so that makes us unusual:)

I suppose we have my American roots to thank for that. It's one of several American "holidays" I celebrate/commemorate in some way with the children to help them stay connected to their American heritage:)

And hey, next to Christmas, it probably has the best decorations.These are just a few of ours. There is something in every room in the house. Some of it bought, some of it found, some of it made. The best part, of course, is that the kids love it:)

Do you celebrate Halloween in any way? Cyndy

PS PicMonkey has LOTS of fun Halloween themed photo editing tools this year. And I mean LOTS, so if Halloween (or just spooky, creepy) is your kind of thing, be sure to check them out. Pin It

My Creative Space

This week the children are on school holiday. I can't believe how fast the term went! I think littlest going to kinder was the accelerator - there was so much more to do and more of a schedule for me.

In contrast to the craziness of term one, so far the school holiday has been about doing nothing. Yes, that is right, NOTHING. Nothing scheduled, no where we have to be and I am loving it!

I am, however, using this time to plan birthdays. Littlest and middle are both April babies. Middle wants a craft party (hmm, wonder where she gets that from:) and littlest wants a princess party. I have middle's birthday gifts all sorted, but do have some work to do for littlest. My plan had been a doll's house, but with only two weeks to go not sure that is going to happen. I do have some new clothes for Miss Polly in process and I think there might be a winter skirt or two that gets done.

And then there is Easter. Usually I am quite prepared, but this year it has snuck up on me. Sadly, I haven't been able to find any white eggs so no egg dying:( We also make Easter cookies, but we probably won't do until Easter Monday. I haven't even put up the Easter decorations! Yes, I really am slacking! Today, today I promise:)

In anticipation of putting up the Easter decorations today I made an Easter bunting from vintage children's books last night.

Over the last couple of weeks I picked up a few Little Golden Books featuring bunnies with the idea of making an Easter bunting from them (I don't think I paid more than fifty cents for a book).

It was pretty simply; I pulled out the pages with nice pictures, traced the bunting shape on them and cut them out.

I then folded the top of each flag over paper twine and glued them down to string them together.

It's bunnies, not Easter per se, but I think it will add a little Easter flair to the house:)

I hope you are getting lots done in your creative space this week or you can visit Our Creative Spaces to get inspiration from others:) Happy Easter, Cyndy Pin It

My Creative Space

I know it's the third week of term 1 but we are still settling into the school year routine in our household. Littlest's kinder schedule has been a bit truncated (to help them settle in I guess). It has made things are a little hectic as her schedule has been inconsistent. But next week she starts her full schedule so that should all change. It will also mean almost 12 child free hours a week for me - not that I am counting or anything:)

Despite the inconsistencies, this week I have been working on some items for a market coming up next month. As it's just before Easter I thought I would create some more of the  Easter finger puppets that are in my Madeit shop. They include a bunny, a chick and of course, since we live in Australia, an Easter bilby:) So lots of cutting felt and embroidering sweet little faces. Just sewing them together is left to do; hopefully I will get to that this weekend.

Hope you are settling in if you have children back at school/kinder and getting some child free time to get more things done in your creative space:) Check out more at Our Creative Spaces this week. Cyndy Pin It

A Little Moment: Happy Valentine's Day

One of our family traditions/rituals on holidays is making themed frosted sugar cookies. I have an obscene number of cookie cutters, many are general, but I also have them for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving, 4th of July (yes we, do American holidays too:) and of course Valentine's Day.

On Sunday middle and I made the cookie dough and yesterday after school each of the children rolled and cut their cookies.

Today after school we are icing and decorating. An edible Valentine:) Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones! Cyndy Pin It

Happy New Year!

Today is a new day and a new year. Brand new, just waiting to be lived...with confetti:) Here's hoping that you and yours have a wonderful year ahead of you :) Cyndy Pin It

My Place and Yours - Christmas Special

This is a hard one for me. As someone who grew up in the northern hemisphere (the United States) Christmas is about cold, snow, a fire in the fireplace, hot chocolate and tacky Christmas lights all over your house. Hot, sunny and going to the beach just doesn't seem right:)

That said I have (kinda) adjusted and besides Christmas in our house is all about the children. No designer colours or decorations, just lots of stuff made by the kids, picked out by the kids, given to the kids, was mine when I was a kid:)

This year we actually have two Christmas trees. One is fake (got it for $12 the first Christmas we spent here) and one is real. This is our first real tree because I am a bit of a Christmas tree snob. It's not that I like perfectly manicured Christmas trees, because I don't. In our house, we used to go out to the Christmas tree farm and cut our own. It was usually wider than it was tall:) It's more that I like a certain kind of Christmas tree (Douglass fir) and it appears they don't grow them here in Australia or if they do they cost a bazillion dollars. But this one was free, just the right price for me to overcome my snobbishness:)

Christmas is also about memories. I love it when we are decorating the tree and the children shout out, that ones mine, or I got that from ____, or ask me about a decoration that predates them. When I was in my mid 30's my mother decided (without telling us children) to move to a themed tree. That meant all the decorations we had made as children, had been given etc... that didn't meet the theme were tossed. My sister and I about had a heart attack, because even at our "mature" age we still loved the memories that all these things represented.

And finally Christmas is about traditions. It's about putting up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving (yes even here:), making Christmas cookies, writing a  letter and visiting Santa, watching Its a Wonderful Life at least once, and getting up at the crack of dawn on Christmas day to open your presents from Santa no matter how old you are:)

Merry Christmas from my family to yours and you can check out more Christmas specials here! Cyndy Pin It

A Little Moment - Giving Thanks

As soon as I open my mouth people know there is something a little bit different about me. You see, I am an American living in Australia and the moment you hear me talk my accent gives it away (this will never be a problem for my children:). A question I often get is what I miss about home. The chaos of living with 3 young children doesn't give one much time to miss things, but when I do it's usually the silly little things like an ingredient for cooking, or a word.

But then there are the times of year when I really do miss home. Not surprisingly these are the big holidays, both for the rituals/traditions tied to them and of course, for the family and friends.

One of the biggest holidays in the states is coming up this week - Thanksgiving. The fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving has its roots in the early settling of what is now the US by the pilgrims and their celebrations of the good harvest. During the civil war Abraham Lincoln created the official public holiday, to help heal a nation at war.

Today Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate family and friends and to take stock and count your blessings. While only a 4 day weekend, for many this is a bigger family time than Christmas. For me it was about traveling to Ohio to my paternal grandmother's and spending time with my very large extended family (my father is one of 10), seeing Aunts, Uncles and cousins of all ages.

As an American living overseas it has been important to me that my children not only learn and experience their Australian heritage, but to understand their American heritage as well. Our first couple of Thanksgivings here we celebrated alone, but it just didn't seem right to me (why do all that fabulous cooking especially when young children won't eat it), so a number of years ago I decided to make Thanksgiving our big social event of the year. To invite our friends to share in our company, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie, and to bring their whole family and a dish to share.

It has become an event I look forward to; this year we had about 45 friends (over half were children) attend our Thanksgiving "extravaganza". We were blessed with perfect weather (which is important both for cooking - the oven is on for about 2 solid days - and where we hold the event - outside, as our house is not large), the food was fabulous and the friends were merry. It made being away from home this time of year that little bit easier:)

So happy Thanksgiving to my family and friends in the States - I miss you terribly and for those of you down under, thanks for coming and sharing in my tradition, and helping me not to miss home so much:) Cyndy

PS We saved one whole pumpkin pie for ourselves - yes, even the children now love pumpkin pie:) Pin It

My Creative Space

It seems incongruous to me that spring is here and I am thinking about Christmas! Having grown up in the northern hemisphere, Christmas for me means cold and snowy (yes, it was a white Christmas where I grew up:). So while the combination of summer and Christmas feels a bit strange to me, and I have let go of a few things (sorry roast turkey) I have a found a way to mix some of my northern hemisphere traditions with traditions here.

One of the things I definitely haven't let go of is decorating our house. I love having a Christmas tree and decorations everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I really mean EVERYWHERE; you will find decorations in every room of our house:) I recently found some Christmas fabric at Spotlight that features cockatoos, kangaroos and koalas that I couldn't resist. This week I have been working on some Christmas buntings using the fabric. I think they are quite fun and help bring my two Christmas worlds together!

Are you already planning for Christmas? Whether you are or not, I hope you are getting lots done in your creative space this week. You can visit here to see more lovely spaces. Cyndy Pin It

Happy 4th of July

Independence. Freedom. Democracy. Over 230 years ago the United States of America became a country. We made cupcakes in our house to celebrate (technically it is a birthday:). Hope you are having a wonderful 4th of July wherever you are. Cyndy Pin It