Meg vs. The Backyard: Cleaned up!

A friend of mine does some landscaping/yard cleaning on the side. I knew that with the baby, exams, and the bathroom still out of commission, we weren't going to get to it any time soon, so we contracted it to my friend. We basically told them to clear everything to the ground so we can rototill. Here is the result:

Clearly we need to make a trip to the dump before we can get to tilling.

The yard looks SO much bigger! We have a lot of work to do, but I am excited. I can envision letting my kids play here without wondering what animals are in the bushes (there really was a raccoon one evening, and we have tons of squirrels). Hurrah!

Meg vs. Myself: Weekly Goals November 5-10

Toward the end of last week Mr. Newborn was napping really well, and I just about caught up on the housework and did some baking, and I thought, "Wow, I think I can start working on house goals again." Then the last couple of days he is Mr. I-Want-To-Nurse-And-Be-Held-And-Not-Nap and we are not getting so much done around here... So I am going to go ahead and set some goals, but keep them flexible, and not assign them to particular days. You never know how a day might go around here.

November 5-10
*Seal the grout on the new bathroom tile.
*Do two Thanksgiving activities with the boys.
*Re-fill the green waste bin.
*Get gas for the lawnmower and mow the lawn (or make the hubs do it).
*Install the new toilet seat in the front bathroom.

Here we go!

Meg vs. Halloween: Big Tee to Totoro (or any animal!)

I meant to post this before Halloween, but you know how those things go. In true Japanese form, my kiddos love the movie My Neighbor Totoro . If you haven't seen it, you should! It is so so very cute and fun. A timeless classic.

I thought that a Totoro costume would be easy to pull off, and Big Brother already had this Totoro Hat, so I got to work. Big brother was going to be the big grey Totoro, Little Brother would be his little blue friend, and Baby Brother would be a Soot Sprite. Little Brother's costume was the most difficult, because there was no pre-made hat to buy, and I had a hard time finding any plain blue clothing in his size. Finally I came across this boys' XL tee at Wal-Mart, and figured I could work with it.

I wanted it to be a bit big, since I wouldn't have matching pants and the character is kind of round. So I grabbed a hoodie to use for my pattern.

First I cut new, shorter sleeves from the old sleeves.

Next, I folded the hoodie and the shirt in half, laid the hoodie down, and cut around it.

 I laid it all out to make sure the sleeves would fit the curve for the arm holes.

Then I sewed the sleeves back to the shirt, sewed up the sides, and hemmed the bottom.

I had this band from the bottom hem, out of which I cut my hat.

With some felt and a few extra tee shirt scraps, I appliqued on the little Totoro's eyes, nose, and tummy, and I was done! It really was a quick project, and you could easily do any number of animals the same way.

My little fellows were happy with the results! (Even if I did make the hat too small; my kids have really big heads.)

Happy Halloween! On to Thanksgiving fun, then Christmas! Eek!

Meg vs. Decor: Giveaway on Everything for the Love!

My amazing friend Emily just opened an Etsy shop, Little Boston Print Shoppe, selling her super fun prints. She is giving away three of these pillow covers to a lucky winner over at Everything for the Love, so pop over and check it out! I hope I win! And if not, I hope you win =)

Meg vs. Halloween: Gingerbread Mummies!

My friend Kelly and I got together on Monday to make some gingerbread mummies to share with our neighbors. I saw a few variations of this idea on Pinterest, and we couldn't resist trying it out. We each had a fussy baby in tow, so I didn't get many pictures, and in 4 1/2 hours we still hadn't finished. But by the next morning I had them all wrapped up and ready to go.

Here's big brother getting in on the rolling and cutting. I actually liked the cookies he did; they had missing and stretched body parts, which really was perfect for the theme.

I let the boys go to town on their cookies with some canned frosting and sprinkles, which kept them occupied for a while.

Meanwhile, we churned out the rest of our mummies, with white royal icing embalming and red sprinkle eyes.

 I think these have to be the easiest decorating job I've done with royal icing! Here is one of big brother's cut-outs. I love how it came out!

We used two different recipes for the two batches, since we have some friends that can't have dairy and wanted some of the cookies to be butter-free. The first is my favorite recipe from Sue over at Munchkin Munchies. These are the ones I have made the last few years at Christmas, and I could eat a whole batch myself.

The second is this recipe for Nauvoo Gingerbread from AllRecipes.com. It calls for lard (this recipe is old school!) but I used shortening and they came out really lovely and soft. They are very mild, so good if you have littles like mine that might be averse to a stronger gingerbread. Otherwise you might want to up the spice content to suit your tastes.

And you can also find the royal icing recipe over at Munchkin Munchies. It is perfect! (The sugar cookie recipe is my favorite too; Sue is the best).

Here they are all packaged up and ready to go. I was going to add some cutesy ribbon, but this was as far as I got.

And with the leftover icing and some chocolate chips I whipped up some googly eyes for future use.

It took me two full days to recover from the cookie mess, but it gave me a good excuse to go out and meet my neighbors after a whole year of living here!

Meg vs. Halloween: Easy Felt Bat Garland

Halloween is the first major holiday since my birthday, so I had to start out right if I am going to meet my goal of decorating for all of them. But I wanted to do it (1) without spending much if any money, and (2) without accruing bulky items that we will have to store or move later. So when I saw this bat garland on Pinterest, I knew it would be perfect!

I ordered a whole pile of felt for a felt board project I am hoping to get started on (on sale for $3 a yard at JoAnn.com!), and I had black thread already, so all I needed was to print out this template from Country Living and grab my scissors and sewing machine! Without all of the inevitable interruptions from my three little guys, I would guess that this is about a one-hour project, depending on how crazy you go cutting out bats. I cut out twenty bats, then ran them through the sewing machine one after the other to connect them all together.

We hung it out on the porch, and with our pumpkins I think it looks every-so-slightly festive. It also reminded me how much we still need to do on the house (cracks, peeling paint, fake bricks falling off...). But hey, I kept with my goal! And just maybe I'll make something more with the kiddos in the next week. We like to be last-minute around here.

I like that this garland is reusable but takes up almost no storage space, so we will have a start on our decorating next year! But these beauties won't last that long...

 Just the right sizes for my three munchkins. Stay tuned for a couple more Halloween posts before the big day! Then perhaps I'll get a more timely start on Christmas!

Meg vs. The Toddlers: "Spooky Bath"

Now that I have three boys three and under, the evening can get a bit overwhelming, particularly if my husband is busy and I am home alone. Saturday night he was off studying for a Monday morning exam, all the kids needed baths, and of course it was the witching hour for the baby. So in the spirit of the Halloween season, I told Big Brother and Little Brother they could have a spooky bath, which really meant that I threw some glow bracelets in the tub and turned off the lights. They loved it! They stayed in the bath tub for over an hour, which was lovely because I cleaned the bathroom and gave Baby Brother his bath while they were in one contained place. Beautiful.

I couldn't capture any good pictures in the dark, but these were impressive enough for my toddlers, who love seeing pictures of themselves and the things they do:

Spooky!