ormolu

Advent calendar

I know it's early yet (or at least I'm trying to convince myself of that so that I can believe that I still have plenty of time before the holidays, lol). But. If you're up to the task and want to get a jump on some Christmas gifts and/or decor, here's a fast and easy Advent Calendar project that I stole from Martha Stewart. ;)

(Also, please don't tell my in-laws, mom or husband's grandma about this, okay? Thanks!)

I started with the handy hanging collage dealio. (I've seen these at Amazon, too, but don't have personal experience with those.) Note, this one comes with seven panels of four...which is one too many if you're doing an Advent Calendar. I just cut off that bottom panel. Easy peasy. (I'm thinking I'll use parts of it for something else...the plastic is actually pretty sturdy, heavier than I'd expected.) Also, I ended up with one of the colored tops instead of white (which was sold out) but just covered it with some cardstock. I'm thinking felt or other fabric would be nice, too, and am already planning additional variations for the three other calendars I'm making. (They have another option at the store I found these at online...with a space for a strip of captioning or whatever beneath each horizontal photo instead. I was thinking that strips of Ormolu's O Holy Night paper chain might look lovely there...or experiences you want to incorporate into your holiday month.)

So. The idea here is that each slot has a covered photo that gets revealed as the month progresses. I made simple "covers" using kraft cardstock, Merrymaker Number Tags, and Blank Filing Tabs. I kept things rather random instead of starting at the top like Martha...figured that as you reveal the photos it would be more visually interesting this way. I also attached the numbers and tabs randomly. The tabs will help in removing the cover each day, and I kept things simple deliberately so as not to detract from the photos as they're revealed. (For future calendars that I make, I'm thinking that the Merrymaker Advent Package Tags or Merrymaker Flappers might be fun, too!)

I then enlisted help to collect pictures of each of my husband's grandma's great-grandkids. As luck would have it, she has 12 right now...so two pictures of each kiddo. :) I tweaked the photos, running a soft and faded action on each of them so they'd coordinate better and also adding the child's name and age. Popped the photos behind the covers and called it good. Viola! 

For my own version, I'm debating using Christmas pictures over the years or just going with photos from this year. What do you think?

- Amanda

 PRODUCTS USED

Week in the Life | Saturday & Sunday

Good morning drink...

and breakfast. 

Coloring with mom again. 

Zucchini with marinara for lunch. 

SUNDAY: 

Reiley reading from her bible. 

Messy lunch. 

Stealing his dad's hard hat and walking around the house with it. 

On our way to grandma and grandpa's to eat dinner. 

(I think I have some more photos on my phone and small camera from this weekend- but still haven't uploaded. I am busy focusing on orders so I will do it when it is ready to come together) 

Such is life. 

I think next time I do this...and I just might end up doing it sooner than later- I will have a better feel for it. I felt slightly unorganized this week because of multiple delays in shop things and so my main focus was on that all week long. I don't know that I will make a specific " Week in the Life' album from these pictures- or instead I had a thought this morning to just add this all into my Project Life album and so one week is a bit more detailed than the rest. Overall I really enjoyed carrying my camera around all week with me and felt challenged to take photos I wouldn't normally take and especially take them in different contexts. 

Week in the Life | Thursday & Friday

Playing some more catch up-so there will be some multiple days here... 

For Thursday I think I have more photos on my phone and smaller camera but I haven't uploaded those yet. 

Cleaning...

Getting ready...

Jude coloring on his sister's big pad of paper...

FRIDAY: 

Typical. 

This was gone by the end of the day thanks to two little kids. 

Leftover tortilla soup for lunch. 

Hanging outside. 

Reiley took this of the neighbors sunflowers that peek over into our yard. 

Lots of green beans from our garden. 

Jude found my phone on a chair and decided to make a call...

and then to do some texting I guess. 

We just got a new bed so I am gradually buying bedding for it- trying to figure out what I want. 

Packing up some tags. 

Hanging out with dad before bed. 

Week in the Life | Wednesday

Wednesday: Reiley spent the night at a friends on Tuesday night and then was playing with her nearly all day outside and at her house so I did not end up seeing much of her throughout the day. Her friend's dad, picked up a truck from another town and later on Tuesday they heard cheeping out of it and discovered a nest of newly hatched baby birds. I talked to Reiley a bit about the birds and how it probably would be best to take them to a rehabiliation center so they stood a good chance of making it- although, ultimately they are not ours. Although it took some deep conversation for a while she finally agreed that had she found them she would bring them somewhere- but only under the stipilation that she would get to visit until they were released. I did manage to take a few photos of them though. Midday I also got sidetracked by small ants in our kitchen (yuck!) and spent a lot of time cleaning that up. No fun. Jude picked a jalapeno while I was taking photos of them and I made him bring it in and give it to Justin. He tried to take a bite of it and I told him, "No, that is hot" to which he immediately took a deep breath and blew on it. 

I was kinda bummed I got sidetracked midday and stopped taking photos because of the ants...of course I was also bummed about the ants. 

Week in the Life | Tuesday

Kinda slow posting all this so I am doing two posts back to back to make up for it and get caught up.

Tuesday was kinda busy. I had a lot to do but I made a good effort to take photos and even handed the camera to Reiley occasionally to take some photos. Reiley took the top one of Jude at my feet. He is there quite often so I like that she grabbed the camera real quick to take the photo.

Week in the Life | Monday

Monday: Jude slept in a little and woke up at 7:00 (yay!); we headed straight for the kitchen and ate breakfast. Traditional high five to dad goodbye. After breakfast we clean up the house a bit and get into the shower to get ready for our day. Reiley wakes up around this time- we usually head downstairs and the kids play while I kinda get what I need to do organized for the day, answer emails and get orders ready to go for the post office. 10:00: we head outside to play for a little bit. Check up on the chickens and make sure they have food and water. 11:00: I head inside and start making lunch- Reiley plays outside with Jude for a few minutes (I can see them in the backyard from the kitchen window). Call them in for lunch- I cooked a few corns (we just pulled our very first corns Sunday) and Jude ate his on the cob- it was too cute! 12:00: Jude down for a nap and Reiley starts her reading. I head down to work, photograph new items for new release and start editing. 2:00: Jude up from his nap (a little earlier than usual). We head out to run errands (I totally forgot my camera at this point- oh well). Grocery store, post office, printers and home. 4:00: Reiley and Jude play while I get dinner going. 5:30: Justin home and we eat dinner. 6:00: Clean up and head outside to water garden. Reiley has a huge interest in getting a camera lately so she asks if she can borrow my camera and take photos around the yard. She took nearly 100 photos. Some of them are really awesome- like the corn photo above :) 7:00: head inside, Jude falls asleep so I put him to bed. Justin and I watch a movie while I get some work done. Reiley joins us a little later and by 10:00 we are all in bed :) 

My thoughts: It's tough to remember to take a camera while running errands and even though I have my phone it's not really in my mind yet to take a photo in the grocery store or post office. Not too worried though because I know I will be back in those places later this week so I will try again then. Tuesday went much smoother though and I was able to take more photos and was more thoughtful with my approach. 

Weekend | Moving out the Chickens

This past weekend we moved the girls outside to their coop. Justin finished up the coop Sunday and they had their first night outside. We were actually pretty nervous about it-but they did great!

We let them kinda explore the yard while we were out there. They loved eating up all of the little bugs...and I say let them eat bugs!

Apparently I did not get a finished photo of their coop- I will have to do that. But they have a nice little shady run and a little ramp to go up to their sleeping and nesting quarters. They haven't quite figured out the ramp...this morning I found them all standing right at the edge of it kinda just waiting for someone to bring them down. 

Jude just gets a kick out of them. He runs right over to look at them each time we go outside. He is very gentle with them and usually just pets them with one finger. 

He also likes to herd them. All Saturday and Sunday he followed them around the yard trying to get them to go here...or there. 

Each time he kinda squats down, moves his hands in front of him and kinda makes a little noise to get them going. 

All that chicken herding can make a little guy tired. 

Chickens

Last year my mother told me her neighbor (behind her) got chickens. I was totally intrigued by the idea of having chickens...even though I am not much of a pet person. I mean, we have a dog...but that is the only type of pet I have ever had besides a kitten once as a little girl- but the kitten was totally mean and because of that I named it Psycho...and vowed I would never get a kitten again.

But back to chickens- 

My parent's neighbor's little girl is in Reiley's class. So I talked to her mom a bit last year about the chickens while waiting to pick up Reiley and she explained it was just something fun they were doing and they collect their eggs and how they are pretty easy to take care of and clean up after. She had also asked me if it bothered my parents at all to which I replied- no, not at all. My mom actually said she liked hearing their little noises (no rooster noises- just hens) and she liked hearing the kids yell, "Here chickens!" in the morning when they were feeding them. 

So several months went by and then a few weeks ago we were driving and talking about pets and Justin said, "We should get chickens" and I was like "YES we should!"

And then for like three weeks I bugged him non-stop and he regretted ever suggesting it. Reiley, quite surprisingly, we had to convince. She was like, "Why would we get chickens?" It didn't take much to convince her though and by the end of the night she was also bugging Justin about getting chickens. 

So, last weekend I suggested we go to the store just to look. Just to look. Kinda get an idea of what we would be getting ourselves into. I mean, it would require building a coop, extra cleaning and probably more than we are aware of at this point. 

We looked at some pictures of chicken coops online and found one that would be fairly simple to make (speaking of course from my perspective of not needing to make it.) But Justin- he is pretty awesome about making these sort of things so I have complete faith in him. 

Then this weekend we went to buy. 

Reiley picked out two Barred Rock Pullets and one Buff Orpington Pullet. She picked out one Buff Orpington because it was her favorite. She wanted it to stand out. 

We named them after little old ladies. Seemed fitting. We have a Nellie, Elsie and a Verna. Nellie is the yellow chick. We had other names picked out but Reiley was having a hard time keeping it all straight. Even last night she was like, "I love you...what's your name again?" 

Right now they are being taken care of in our house while they are little. We have them set up in the second bathroom so we can wash our hands really good (and sanitize) after touching them. By the time they are 4-6 weeks they will be ready to go outside into the coop. We've read up a lot on taking care of them and really we are not the type of people to just go out and buy pets (normally) so this was a huge deal for us. 

I was a little nervous about it- no doubt. And Justin reminded me last night they won't be this cute for long. But that's okay- because then we will have eggs and that is pretty cool. I have a lot of reading up to do about eggs now. 

I wasn't actually totally aware that it was as popular of a thing as it is to have 'backyard chickens' until last night when I was sending my sister photos and she said, "Cool- a lot of the girls I work with have chickens too."

Made me feel a little bit better and a little less nervous. Kinda more like it's the norm...

Except it's not. But luckily we have great neighbors so I am pretty sure they will be okay with it. 

This Weekend

 

Little Man started walking and got some new shoes. He is so into shoes right now. Perfect timing. We spent Sunday visiting with our parents and Jude got to show off his new skills. 

Reiley colored all weekend in this book. She bought this a while back at Joann Fabrics and she loves it. Highly recommend for little girls around her age (she is 10).

She uses her Prismacolors she got for Christmas a couple of years ago. Not many ten year olds have a set of Prismacolors (they are pricey- but get them on sale or with a coupon) but she wanted some like her mama. I've had mine since I was 13 and was taking art classes after school. They are the best coloring pencils and I took good care of them because I knew they were expensive. She takes good care of hers too. She recently started taking some art classes on the weekends and her teacher showed her how to color and shade with them. 

I found this store online. Love everything in it. 

I curled my hair. Haven't done that in like...14 months. 

I overheard Reiley tell Jude as he was giving her a hugs, "Have I ever told you that your eyes are so beautiful?" 

I couldn't help but smile at this little 'Robot Jude' Reiley colored for me. He sits on my ledge in my workroom. 

I was busy with orders. Thank you all who ordered, visited and became a friend. I truly am grateful for all of the kind words I heard over the weekend regarding the new items. Working on getting these orders out as soon as possible. Totally ran out of buttons- which I didn't expect. I have some more on their way and plan on getting them out the end of this week or beginning of next week. 

Had some fun looking through Creative Team applications. Serious talented people. They make me want to make something. I do hope some more people will apply. I am thinking I would like to offer some guest designer spots as well if I have interest- so if you would be interested in that please let me know. 

I hope this week to get some photos up of my Project Life. I am still plugging away at it- although these last few weeks have not had as much stuff in them as previous weeks. But that is okay. Such is life. 

 

Update on release

I had wanted to get all of the new items up today or Monday...but I got set back. 

First, I ordered some more paper earlier this week thinking I would get it by the end of this week which would be perfect. (Although I have ordered all of the new items I am running out of other things so I wanted to be well stocked.) When I received an email on Wednesday I assumed that meant it was on it's way...come to find out yesterday when I actually open up and read the email it is on back order for 3 weeks. Eeek!

I went back and forth emailing customer service trying to come up with an alternative and found out the mill is actually out of the paper. I try to keep a somewhat low inventory of product- just because it takes up room and I don't have a lot of room and also I like to see what sells before ordering more. Especially with new products. So- for some of the new items I have a certain amount on hand and then after that goes I have a small amount of paper to print off of but I will have to see what sells first so I use it wisely (I worked out an arrangement with my printer to purchase my own paper- they are very nice to let me do so). Anyway, then I will have a couple of weeks before I can order any more. Big let down for me but I tried a few other resources -although I thought it would be a stretch and everyone is out- and I just have to wait a few weeks. 

Then my daughter has been coughing for a several weeks-not really complaining about it so I figured she was doing okay and it was maybe left over from a cold. It wasn't until we were watching a video of Jude's birthday which was 5 weeks ago and heard her coughing in the background and thought- wow, she's been coughing this whole time. I had called the nurse line at her doctors once and they suggested a few things but nothing has really helped.  Yesterday she said she wasn't feeling good so I took her to the doctor this morning. They put her on some antibiotics and hopefully she will start feeling better. It was a lot of running around today as I originally was told I could take her to school and shortly after she called saying to come pick her up. She's pretty tough- but when I picked her up she was crying :(

All of this has kinda slowed me down with getting all the products up and ready. With that I think I will likely end up just releasing everything next weekend when I have a giveaway on Ali's blog. It will probably work out for the best so I am sure I have everything ready to ship and can keep track of inventory better. 

I did manage to start working on a newsletter but since it's my first time it is a slower process than I thought since it is my first one and some of the formatting went off and now I have to switch info on it. So I will work on that soon so I can get it out next week before the new items launch and everyone who is signed up can see some sneak peeks of the items. They are really fun and I can't wait to get them up. I also have something fun planned for the release which I am excited about. 

Hope everyone understands. I am going to go take care of my little girl now and hope that she gets some rest and feels better soon. Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Easter :)