fire station pumpkins

Here's another reason why we like Boise:  Fire Station Pumpkins.

The firemen of a local fire station planted a pumpkin patch behind their fire house.  Now that it is harvest time, the pumpkin patch is open to all.  You park your car, stomp around the patch and find the perfect pumpkin.

Or two.

Or three.

Or, in our case, five...not including the minis.

All pumpkins are on the donation/honor system.  All monies go to the Fallen Firefighter Fund.

Yesterday, two of my three kids and I stopped to bring home some lovely orange pumpkins.

The best part of the morning was the impromptu tour of the inside of the fire house and fire trucks.  As we were dropping off our donations, a kind firefighter asked us if we wanted to come in and check things out.

Of course we did!

We were able to see the inside of the station, the rooms where they stay, the radios and computers, and the most important part - the trucks.  My five year old and two year old were in awe.

Such a fun surprise.  So that, coupled with the genius idea of a pumpkin patch behind the fire station, is just one more reason why we think Boise is pretty darn great.

no hands

"Above all, try something."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

running based giveaway

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Ashley over at Redonkulous Runner.  She was in the middle of putting together a great giveaway package on her blog, all to benefit St. Jude hospital.  She will be participating in an upcoming marathon that benefits the hospital, and all proceeds from the giveaway will go directly to the hospital.

Of course I wanted to be a part of it!  Something that combines running and benefits others - right up my alley.

Her giveaway just went live!  Go check it out, check out her blog, check out all the fabulous running-based items, and while you're there - enter to win!  All donations will go toward St. Jude hospital, so you just can't lose.  Plan and simple.

{Some of the loot.  Great cards!}

  

{More loot.  Love this print!}

{One of my 'run' pillows from my shop.}

Good luck, Ashley!

pumpkins five ways

On my way home from taking kids to school this morning, I noticed that fall decorations were beginning to grace the neighborhood homes.  It's always fun to decorate for this time of year.  I need to pull down my fall/Halloween box in the garage and see how I can spruce up the place.

Meanwhile, what do you think of these fabric, or paper, covered pumpkins?  A little modge podge can do wonders on our favorite squash.

{From Country Living website.}

{Also from Country Living website.}

Or, what about these gold tack-covered pumpkins?  A little glitz and glamour.  

{From Madigan Made.}

I'm always a fan of chalkboard paint, aren't you?  Why didn't I think of this?  I'm definitely going to try this out this year.

{From Zakka Life.}

The next time you're at a craft store, pick up one of their carve-able pumpkins and bling it up!  No carving, no mess.  Just some fun Halloween decorations.

{Via Pinterest.}

Feeling inspired to decorate yet for Fall?!

doorstops & bookends

A couple of weeks ago I was finally fed up with my laundry room door not staying open.  It would slowly creep forward, getting in the way of laundry baskets that were overflowing with clean clothes and the like.  Ideally, I would love to have one of those cool vintage iron doorstops to place in my laundry room. Since none were readily at my fingertips, I needed to figure out something else to hold it open.  Problems, I tell you.

After a quick think-through, I realized that one of the bigger sized river rocks in our backyard would be perfect.  But, a little ugly...and hard.

With a little hot glue and yarn - ta da!  A doorstop!  I love the texture and design that the yarn adds.  Now my laundry room door stays open perfectly.

Perfectly enough for me to see all the laundry that needs to be folded and put away.

 {Working it's magic on my laundry room floor.}

Another area that I've been working on is organizing the girls' room trying to combine the interests, toys and books of a seven year old and a two year old.  Not an easy task, I tell you.  One of the spots we needed some help with was the big bookshelf that holds loads of books.  It is open-sided, so the books had a tendency to fall off and onto the ground.  We needed some bookends.

Taking the same idea from the yarn doorstop, I decided to cover up more rocks and turn them into bookends.  Perfect!

{Holding together some favorite books.}

I love quick and easy projects that use supplies I already have on hand.  

Rock. 

Yarn.  

Hot glue. 

Done. 

Fall Spruce Up

When the air gets crisp in the morning and the leaves begin to hint at changing colors, I always want to dig in and get things straightened up and squared away for the fast approaching fall and winter season.  One of the biggest spaces that needs some TLC in our home is my wee studio.

I love that it has a glass door that I can close to  keep the clutter at bay.  However, it is desperately time to sort, clean, and organize.  For me, a clean space is much-needed in order to design and create.  If I've got a mess in front of me, it zaps and overwhelms any creativity. I have so many ideas bopping around in my head, that I definitely need this space to be cleaned so I can get started!

I am so thankful for my space, but it is teeny-tiny.  So, I always have my eye out for sweet studio spaces to be inspired by.

{I love this studio from Little Pincushion Studio}

{Great backyard studio!  From The Adventures of Tartanscot}

{Look at that organization and color.  Amazing!  From Everything Etsy}

{I envy the light in this painting studio.  My studio is void of windows, and I daily think about adding skylights...something, anything for natural light!  Image from via Pinterest}

{The amazing Anna Maria Horner's studio space. Perfect.}

Alright, I'm inspired.  Is there a studio space that you desire?  Where do you create?  Kitchen table, closet, garage?  

egg paint

 One of my summer goals to do with my kids are art projects.  I hope to expose them to a variety of mediums and allow them the freedom to create their own masterpieces.  My original intent is to do two projects a week with my big kids (ages seven and five) while their little sister takes a nap.  So far, during this first week of summer, I've managed to do one.  Time to step it up!

This first one was a lot of fun.  They got to learn a little about the Italian artist, Giotto, and the process that many artists had to go through to create their own paint.  We talked about how easy it is for us today to go to the store and pick out what kind of paint and what color of paint we want.  Artists in the past had to use berries, minerals and even bugs (my 5 year old son especially liked this fact) to create their paints.

We collected our colored sidewalk chalk and went to work making our own paint.  They used rocks to pound and grind down the chalk into a fine powder.  Through this they realized how hard it was to create paint and how precious it was back then.  

After the chalk was ground into a powder, we separated out an egg yolk, mixed it with a little water and then stirred a few drops of the egg mixture into each color of powdered chalk.

They got straight away to working on their masterpieces.  I loved seeing how each of them went about it.  My five year old immediately dipped his brush in and began on a truck.  My seven year old daughter on the other hand, had to think about it for a bit, and then got a pencil and sketched her work first before she began painting.

The end result!  One of the fun facts they learned about painting with egg tempura is that Giotto's works have lasted over 700 years - maybe Q.'s truck will be around that long.