make your own gratitude branch

Hello friends!  Thanksgiving is just two days away.  Are you ready?  We are staying home for the holiday.  It'll just be our little family around the dinner table this year.  I am cooking our Thanksgiving meal and the Mr. has eagerly agreed to help.  It's going to be delicious.  A piece of my heart is missing my family this holiday season but being far away and on our own gives us a chance to establish our own traditions.  This year, we had a little Family Home Evening that focused on gratitude.  We each took a turn sharing something we are especially grateful for and why.  Then we wrote that one special thing on a cutout of a feather (you can google free feather printables).  One of my kids obviously likes to do fun things outdoors ;)   We strung our feathers up with bakers twine and placed them on a branch I found in our backyard.  The branch sits on the wall over our table, reminding us of all that is good and dear to us.   Afterward, we watched this video.  (This video is good too.)




It's easy to make your own gratitude branch.  You can find other cute ideas here and here.

So what am I grateful for?  Motherhood.  My children mean everything to me and I love them dearly.  I miss them the minute they walk out the door in the morning to go to school and my heart is happy the second they walk in the door after long days in the classroom.  They teach me to be patient, kind and to laugh even when I'm mad.  Being a mom is my chosen career.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

What are you grateful for?

crafting with the kids: finger knitting

We are in the thick of summer.  It seems to me that the few weeks that fall smack dab in the middle of summer vacation are the laziest of them all.  The excitement of no school has worn off and the kids are getting super lazy.  My kids want to watch netflix all. day. long.   Or just play with legos all. day. long. Don't worry, I don't let either of those things happen (hardly ever) ;)



In an effort to teach all of my kids (which range in age from 6 to 14) something new, I pulled out my basket of yarn and taught them finger knitting.  I remember doing this early summer mornings after my mom dropped my sisters & I off at my grandma's home so that she could carpool to work with my grandpa.  It kept us busy for hours upon hours and they were so long we used them as jump ropes.  My two oldest were hooked right away and finger knitted chains that stretched down our hallway.  I even caught them finger knitting for a couple days after that.  Tatum seemed to enjoy it on the first day & Noah gave up all together within the first hour.  You win some, you lose some.



If you are keeping up with my instragram (username: annieandm), you know that we also used yarn one afternoon to make a maze in the hallway for the kids.  Getting to our storage room and the hallway bathroom proved to be a challenge for the Mr. & I, but the kids had a ball climbing over, under and through it.  It was the perfect boredom buster.

Need ideas?  Look here!
Great finger knitting tutorial here: Flax & Twine
Yarn maze examples HERE & HERE

DIY easter basket

Easter is practically here!  While our family focuses on the Savior on Sundays, we are all about the Easter Bunny bringing us goodies on Saturday morning.  Since the Bunny & I are pretty tight, I already know that candy and treats are prepped and ready to go for the big day.  Egg dying happens Friday.  But while getting ready for the festivities, I realized I only have 4 baskets on hand.  The Mr. & I kind of wing it from year to year, using whatever we can scrounge up in the house to use as a basket.  Sometimes we end up just using a bowl.  Well not this year my friends.  I was super inspired by Mer Mag's bunny basket made out of a oatmeal tube and duct tape and wanted to give something like that a try.  You really should click over and check it out - her basket is adorable.

Being that I am on a super tight budget and don't have enough duct tape lying around, I decided to cover an oatmeal tube with scrapbooking paper I already have on hand.  I also pulled out some velvet ribbon to use as a handle and glue strips to hold it all together.  I cut one piece of 12 x 12 paper in half.  While holding one of the pieces on top of the tube, I carefully traced along the top of paper with a pen and then I cut along the pen mark with an exacto knife so that the tube was 6 inches tall (the same height as my paper).  Then I glued one piece of paper down on the tube.  I trimmed the 2nd piece of paper so that it went exactly half way around the tube.  Then I put glue strips on each seam and added my ribbon.  I eyeballed the ears and bow tie, figuring that if my first try looked to crappy, I could trash them and start over.  Luckily, I didn't have to!

Did you make an Easter basket this year?  I'd love to see - leave a link in the comments.

lately

It's late Wednesday evening.  The kids are all finally in bed and I'm sneaking in some blog/netflix time before the Mr. gets home from playing basketball with friends.  I cherish this time to myself - to decompress from the craziness of the day.  It's been a long, but very fulfilling couple of weeks here in the Buis home.  Soccer season began for the boys and they are happy to be playing for the same coaches they had in the fall season.  Hailey's violin playing has gone up a notch and she is really turning into quite the player.  Although getting her to practice is not always easy, she seems to enjoy it once her bow hits those strings.  Tatum is the same fiesty girl she always is.  Last week's challenge was spelling words.  Oh how she hates studying spelling words.  It was certainly a sore spot in our home last week.  I am hoping this week will be leaps and bounds better.  Also, it's March Madness time.  The Mr. is like a kid in a candy store this time of year.



We got hit with one final winter storm over the weekend.  I know so many people don't like the snow, but this is our little family's first real winter and I can't get over how beautiful it is.  Everything is quiet and for a moment life seems to stand still.  The kids appreciate every moment of it, building snowmen till their little fingers are freezing.  After a little hot chocolate, they are ready to cozy up under blankets in the living room to watch a movie.  Willy Wonka is their movie of choice as of late.



I've been so overwhelmed by the day to day that I haven't been up to blogging.  Sometimes it is good to take a break to clear my head.  But my mind never stops going and I have a long list of things to chat with you all about very soon.  And of course there are craft tutorials & more sunday style posts squished onto the list too.  In fact, I've declared the entire day tomorrow as a craft day.  I plan to leave the dishes in the sink & laundry in piles.  I'm craving crafting.  Spring is all about new beginnings and fresh ideas.  I have a feeling this spring is going to be amazing.  More like, I need it to be amazing.  I am going to make it amazing.   Period.  The end.  (That's what I say when I really mean what I say.)

christmastime around the house

Christmas has slowly but surely made its way into our little brick rental home this year.  I have been keeping my little hands busy glittering up reindeer, wrapping wreaths with fuzzy yarn, and cutting felt to my hearts desire to spruce up our cozy living room space.  Christmas cards from dear friends and family are trickling in.  I wish this month would never end.



The kids are anxious for winter break to officially begin. We drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies almost every night. They make their wishes known and jot them down on pieces of paper and leave them in a special spot for Santa to take with him Christmas Eve. Oh to be a kid again.

November checklist

The month of November is well underway. What special plans do you have for this month?

 xo,
--Anna

DIY//pom pom garland

My front window needed a little sprucing up for this Thanksgiving month, so I put my yarn stash to good use and made a pom pom garland.  Here's the how-to:

1.  Gather supplies: yarn of choice & scissors



2.  Cut one long piece of string (about 10 inches long) and set aside.  You will need this later.
3.  Hold up three fingers vertically and wrap yarn over the top two fingers and then behind the bottom (third) finger.



4.  Holding fingers slightly apart, begin wrapping yarn around all three fingers.  If you wrap too tight, the yarn will cut off your circulation.  I go around with the yarn about 80 times.



5.  Carefully slide the yarn off your fingers, being careful to keep the shape of the yarn, and set it on top of the piece of string you cut in step #2.



6.  Tie the string around the center of the yarn and pull it as tight as you can when making your knot.



7.  Trim the ends of the string and then being cutting the loops in half.  There are layers of loops, so be sure to trim a little at a time (starting on the outer layer first) until all the layers have been cut and it looks somewhat like a ball.

8.  Very carefully, fluff the yarn ball with your fingers and then trim any edges that look too long.



9.  Tie each pom pom to a string and hang up where everyone can see it :)



I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and that your Monday has been lovely.
Tomorrow is voting day.  Eeep!

xo,
--Anna
PS - Did you make some pom poms? I wanna see! Share a link in the comments.

DIY//spooky branches

Hello Friends.  October is almost over.  We don't go all out with Halloween decor, but I do try to add a few pieces here and there that will work for Halloween, Thanksgiving & Fall in general.  That's what happens when you must pinch your pennies.

You may have noticed the white branches sneeking into my post yesterday.  I had just enough white spray paint left over from a previous project (to be shown at a future date) to freshen up some branches the boys found in the backyard.  Some of the branches took to the paint better than others, but I love the outcome.  It makes the display more interesting to look at and gives it a worn and weathered look that I love so much.  I picked up a new black vase from Target to set them in.  It was a fun and easy project - definitely something I want to try on a much larger scale in the future.


Have a lovely day, --Anna

witch hat//vintage style

While on the hunt at Michaels for crafting supplies, I spotted a paper mache witch's hat in an aisle display and knew it had to come home with me.  I filled up my cart with a few goodies to pretty it up (pretty papers, glitter, pom pom ribbon, and antique mat mod modge) and got right to work.  In keeping with our taste for Halloween decor, I gave the hat a vintage look and adore how it came out.  For now, it sits on our sideboard, which we use as a tv stand and to house all our movies.  It creates a cute holiday vignette off to the side.

I love vintage Halloween decor.  I gush over it every time I see it.  How about you??

We are prepping costumes tonight.  Our kids will transform into pirates, a ladybug and a punk rocker on Saturday night for a trunk-or-treat.  A trip to the dollar store for swords, JoAnns for fabric and felt, and the thrift store for an 80's era outfit are on the to-do list.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can find the right supplies tonight!

xo,
--Anna

a little valentine

Tatum shared these quick & easy love notes with her classmates on Friday.  We both fell in love with the package of mini notebooks in the $1 section of Target and knew we could come up with something sweet for her valentine party at school.  We whipped these cuties up in less than an hour, she busy signing her name in red pencil while I madly stamped 4 cards at a time.  We set them out to dry overnight & I snapped a quick pic before she left for school the next morning.  Lesson learned: never wait till the last minute because we could have made these days earlier and I could have taken the pic during the day in natural light (just the way I like to).  Anyhoo, Valentine's Day is tomorrow.  Are you ready??

xo,
--anna

folded hearts

I admit that I have no Valentine decor.  I know what you're thinking - what the what?!  Uh yeah, you heard me.  Zilch.  Oh wait, I did buy a small plastic plate with cute owls on it at Target 3 years ago.  But that's it.  So what am I to do?  Make something!  First on my list are these fun origami hearts.






I checked out a fun origami book from my local library, grabbed some scrapbook paper from my stash (note to self: I really need to start scrapbooking again), and got folding.  My first attempt ended up in the trash but got the hang of it enough to produce 3 more hearts in 10 minutes time.  I'm excited to spread a little love this month!  How about you?

xo,
--anna

school craftiness

I always look forward to this time of year.  My fridge is guaranteed to be decorated with some cute school crafts.  Tot is in first grade and seems to come home with some sort of craftiness every other day.  Today, it was a snowman.  And in true Tot style, every inch of that paper is embellished with little crayon drawings.  Hearts and stars are her favorite "extra", along with the word "love".   She's pretty sweet.

I plan on keeping this cute project for a bit before throwing  sneaking it into the trash when she's not around.  I know, shame on me.  But let's face it, flat art projects are much easier to fit in a manila folder at the end of the year.  

So how about you - do you keep every little art project your kids bring home or do you enjoy them for a while before disposing of them?  Do tell.

--Anna