Fall Hodge Podge

Crafty me….

I’ve been ready to “make” something for awhile now and the girls were insistent about getting Halloween decorations out of the boxes and up before Halloween came and went this year (go figure) - so this idea popped into my head…

 

I love the way paper crafts look but I don’t have a lot of time and money to spend picking out separate papers and piecing my project all together which is why I LOVE the new Cricut Imagine - it prints paper and cuts it. So all I had to do was pick the color of background for the banners, pick my letter font and color, hit print and there all my pretty papers were! To assemble it I glued my letters to the banners punched holes in the corners for the brass paper fasteners (I wanted it to have a careless hanging look), then I taped wired ribbons to the end and covered that with a Cricut cut pumpkin and – Voila! I thought it looked pretty cute… here are some close ups of the background printing options – love ‘em!

So that’s crafty me…now for the - 

hardworking three…

With the help of a rented lift, Poppa Olsen, and two little girls, Don got all the dead limbs from our backyard trees down before they became lethal with winter snow. I wish I had taken a picture of his arms afterward – between the ga-zillion scratches on his arms and legs, pulled shoulder muscles, two detached nails (one on his hand from a boulder and one on his toe from the doghouse) Don is creating a new meaning to “sacrifice” as he gives up precious time to create a safe and beautiful backyard for his family (it’s more appropriate to say “human” sacrifice at this point don’t you think?!) The girls made us proud with their hard working ethics and made us laugh when the girly-ness in them came out with the occasional squeal when they discovered spiders nest on the limbs they were carrying!

South View   (With extensive help from Kip & Blair bulldozing dirt, tearing up old cement pads, and cutting the trees back.)

Before:                                       After:

 

Center View

Before:                                       After:

North View

Before:                                       After:

We predict will be done with the backyard in…10 years-ish…

And finally…

Bizzie Girl turns 6!!!

Bizzie really wanted an Animal Friend Birthday Party – so we got together friends, masks, games (pin the trunk on the elephant, ring on a string), and cupcakes, turned the music way up, busted out our moves, and par-tayed!

The next day the Olsen’s threw a Pumpkin Party Bonfire and had another cake for her there! Thank you Aunt Heidi!!!

(I’ll take a moment to sneak in a non-birthday picture to commemorate Eli’s first bonfire. He seemed content being snuggled close by numerous of willing admirers…)

And to top off all the birthday mania – the Raymers took us up Hobble Creek Canyon and we celebrated her birthday once more with hotdogs, cupcakes, princess dresses (thank you Grandma Raymer!) and volleyball! Pictures coming soon… Man – turning 6 has never been celebrated more! Happy Birthday Bizzie Girl!!!!

And that’s it for this Hodge Podge Post!