"The Teepee Lady" {adoption fundraising}

Maybe you are wondering where I have been???
Well- I have been making things like a mad woman!

You see, a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving Ashley from Unglued asked me if I would be interested in making a bunch of teepees to sell in the new holiday pop-up shop they would be opening on Black Friday.  She extended the offer that she gives us on the other crafts I sell at their other shop:  100% of the sales would go directly to our adoption fund- they would not keep a cut.  This is very generous and has since been a HUGE blessing to our family.  Why?  Because everything is selling REALLY WELL!!  And so to keep up, I spend every spare minute making teepees, fort kits, scarves, and scrappy bunting! :)  Here are some pictures of what I've been making:

 

The second week I tried something new- doll sized teepees!  They turned out so cute.  My dear friend Wendy offered to crochet mini afghans for them- look how beautiful they are!

Here are the other VERY popular items... fort kits!
I can barely keep up making them- and I get why... they are the perfect present.  It's a gift of imagination, adventure, and hours of fun.  What kid doesn't love a fort??

I've got some Christmas scrappy garland for sale there too! 

And here are some of the scarves I'm selling- flannel infinity, and I also have some super soft double-looped knit infinity scarves also(aztec print!).

 

We have made MANY, MANY trips to home improvement stores for lumber and bamboo to keep up with the teepee sales.  Each time John says:  this has to be more than we will need!  And then we always end up going back in a few days!  :)

Here are some pictures of the kid-size teepees set up at the pop-up shop:  Unglued's Very Merry Market

Each teepee comes with a vintage afghan and a string of coordinating scrappy bunting.

Oh, and I am now known around Fargo as The Teepee Lady- ha!

Here's the whole store:  (the teepees take up the entire back end!)

Isn't it gorgeous?? If you have not visited this shop yet- do it!  They have the cutest things for sale in there and many fun events every week!  The holiday pop-up shop (Unglued's Very Merry Market) is at 102 Broadway in downtown Fargo(right across from the HoDo) and it's amazing!

Here are the scrappy garlands I sell at the original Unglued.  And next to them is one of the chandelier hoops I sell there too.

And my vintage book page hoops- I think these are my favorite!

A VERY special thank you to John's mom for all of the thrift store trips she has been making to find me all of these hoops for my crafts!  Amazing!  I keep getting boxes of them and thank goodness!  Because I couldn't make this stuff without them.  Paying full price just wasn't an option for us!  

Thank you so much Donna!

Ok, well- now you know why there haven't been any posts in awhile!  Between this, homeschooling the kids, trying to decorate for the holidays, and everything else, I haven't had a spare second!

I will try and post the Halloween pics, ect. soon.

Also, no new adoption news... still just waiting to be matched.  It could take up to 8 months from our LID so all there is to do is just wait!  It is disappointing and frustrating when months go by without being matched with our daughter but staying busy is helping and also we know in our hearts that it will all play out in the way it is meant to.  And she is surely worth the wait!

Thank you for all of your continued prayers and support during these past months- we appreciate it more than we can ever express in words. 

And to all the customers who have bought any of my items- 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!  

Mid Autumn Moon Festival

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sept. 25th we got together with the families we have met in town that have also adopted from China.  Every year they get together to celebrate the Mid Autumn Moon Festival(we were a week late but not a big deal!) and this year we were so happy and grateful to be included in the festivities!  The kids had a blast- we had a delicious meal, moon pies, craft time-the kids made their own Chinese lanterns, and then they all went on a lantern parade around the block.  It was really something seeing all of the kids together on the parade- there were 12 kids between all of us there- running around with glowing lanterns.  They loved it and the parents loved watching them.

pinewood derby races {cub scouts} 2013

It was time once again for the annual cub scout pinewood derby races... and this year Mary Beth decided she was going to make a car too and race it in the bonus round at the end(for all of the siblings and residents at the VA hospital).

Here's the boys waiting with excitement for the fun to begin!

 

 

 

The line-up.

 

Jeffrey's won several races but for some reason(we don't quite understand why) he didn't make it to the finals.  Maybe there was something not right, a mix up?  Who knows.  John didn't question it and Jeffrey seemed ok so we just let it ride...

 

 

Mickey's was really fast too considering he barely cut anything off and was entering it for looks only.
He won a prize- the category?  "Closest to the Kit"  hahaha....

 

 

there goes MB's! 

Her's did really good too- we think it came in 4th overall in her division.

This nice man's car won 1st place and he was so happy!

 

He said he won last year too.  With the same car. :)  He keeps all his ribbons in a ziploc with his car.
I hope he enters again next year!!

oatmeal, chickpea cookies, and homemade playdough {today}

this is what we eat almost every weekday morning:
oatmeal, a tiny tish of organic cane sugar, frozen organic berries, ground flax seed, nuts, and assorted other fruits- yummy!

We found some phonics games I made when I was a para in a LD room a million years ago before I had kids.  They were all Snoopy themed of course!

Jeffrey worked on his mammoth dig today.  He got it from my parents for his birthday but has been saving it because he wanted it to last longer. :)

We needed to give our neighbors a baked good thank you gift for watching Boo while we were in Minneapolis this past weekend so MB and I made some chickpea/oatmeal cookies.  They're really good- from Jerry Seinfeld's wife's cookbook(came out several years ago).  The kids are intrigued that there are chickpeas in it.  All it does is make the cookies puffy and moist... oh and adds protein too!

 

MB thought is was pretty fun using an "ice cream scoop" for the dough-
I told her it was a cookie scoop.  Do you have one of those?
It's from Pampered Chef and it's a dream for forming perfect cookie dough balls- plus the you don't have to use your finger to get it off the spoon.

Then we decided to make a big batch of homemade playdough- all the kids helped... until it got too hard to stir and then I had to take over- boy did my arm get a workout!
I don't remember which recipe we used but there are a million out there...

 

Mickey kneaded it for us and then they each got two blobs and could choose what color they wanted to make it.  I had a whole bunch of sugar-free kool-aid packets sitting around(I was going to try to dye wool with it but never did) so they used those to make them smell good and look good.

 

They played playdough the whole rest of the afternoon.
Good cheap fun! :) 

 

 

I love listening to Jeffrey practice his piano(keyboard)- he's getting so good.
It was a productive, fun day today- my favorite!