WHATEVER ON THE NEWS!

I mentioned it briefly in an earlier post, but while I was at Craft Weekend, a local news team came and filmed footage of us crafting in action. Check it out!

http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Hundreds-On-Waiting-List-For-Craft-Weekend-In-Newton.html#.UKzxh2eteDI.facebook

I was nervous about being interviewed, so I pretty much dodged the camera man for the few hours he was there, but you can still catch glimpses of me in the background. I'm wearing a black and gray stripped dress :) How fun!

MORE CRAFT WEEKEND.

Over a week later, I think I'm finally coming down from my high of Craft Weekend. It's been fun to share it with you, and see it though the eyes of the other ladies who were there with me. Meg posted about it on her blog today, with lots of fabulous pics. Take a look, if you haven't already. click here.

Picking up from here, I was most excited for Saturday...the big trip to the barn for thrifting and antiquing!

Kimberlee started our day off right with these drool worthy cinnamon rolls. Seriously, I am still craving them!

Our first stop was to an antique store, where I bee lined it right to the quilts. I tend to get overwhelmed in places like this, getting side tracked and completely loosing focus of what it was I came there for. So prior to, I made a small list of things I've been searching for, so I could get right to it and not leave empty handed. I didn't find it all, but I did find many treasures, of course including a few that weren't on my list :)

Next we were off down the road to the infamous barn.

 

It was crazy windy that day, so windy that I truly feared a piece of flapping metal was going to fly off the barn at any given second and take someone out. But it didn't, and we all survived :)

 



This was the back of Kimberlee's van when we were finished. I Instagramed it and one of my friend's husbands thought it was my van, and that all those goodies were coming home to MN. Oh good gracious. Could you imagine?

This was my actual pile.

Saturday evening was back to crafting. We were shown five crafts, then had the rest of night to work away. I was soo tired all I wanted to do was sleep, but somehow I managed to pull off another 1:30am bedtime.

Sunday morning was ours to be lazy. Sleep in, eat another delicious breakfast, finish up any crafts, snap more pictures, and ended with a photo shoot with Meg.

There was so much creativity and uniqueness everywhere...I did my best to bottle it up and take it with me. Warning: photo overload.

Noon rolled around and it was time to say goodbye to all the fabulous people that I didn't nearly have enough time with.

Becky

Meg

I've said it many times in the last week, but I'll say it again. Thank you so much Meg and Kimberlee for such an amazing weekend. You two have an awesome thing going, and I'm so glad I got to share in it. And of course, thanks to my awesome husband, who without him taking over my roll as homemaker, this weekend wouldn't have been possible :)

Happy Thanksgiving week to you! Hope it's delicious!

WHATEVER CRAFT WEEKEND: DAY ONE.

I can't believe this trip has come and gone. It was a dream come true. It's so surreal to think that I've been to the Craft Weekend. It filled me up to the brim, and then some.

I've read Meg's blog for a long time now. Not sure exactly how long, two years maybe? I've always been drawn to her laid back realness (is that a word?). She tells it like it is. I read her words and I feel like she's talking to me. She doesn't sugar coat anything, she shares the good and the not as good. She's always happy and it just rubs off on others. Obviously.

So back sometime last fall, I was talking with my friend,Tiffany, who also enjoys Meg's blog. She told me she put her name in for the craft weekend lottery, and I was like really?! I had drooled over it since the beginning, but never even thought to add my name to the list. Awesome stuff like that just doesn't happen to me. But I listened to how excited Tiffany was about it, so I thought why not give it a try too? I told her that if I ever got picked I would bring her with me, and she better do the same if her name was ever called.

Well lo and behold, we had just gotten back from a weekend at Tiffany's cabin in August, and I came home to find an email from THE Craft Weekend, saying I was chosen! I just about fell over, I was so excited! I called Tiffany right away and probably scared the pants off her as I was rambling so fast and probably didn't make any sense. Several spots were offered to me, so I randomly and frantically gave shout outs to various friends to see who was going to go on this crazy fun adventure with me. In the end, it was myself, Tiffany, and our friend Bethany who hopped aboard.

***
Friday morning we headed out bright and early in my sweet new van. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited to finally have an opportunity to drive it outside of town and get familiar with it. It rode like a dream, and got amazing gas mileage to boot.

We drove for six hours, stopped near Kansas City for lunch and fuel, then pushed on through the last three hours and arrived in Kansas ahead of schedule. It was WINDY, but that didn't stop us from having some fun.

We were given strict instructions to not arrive at the craft house early, so we did a drive by or two before doing a little thrifting on Main Street.

We were greeted warmly by Kimberlee, and let me just say she is the sweetest thing ever. She's a MN gal at heart, so how could we not love her?

We were led upstairs, where I met Meg. I wanted to faint when she gave me a hug. I wasn't nervous, but all the sudden I was. Like holy hot chocolate, it is really her! And I am here, in her house! I wanted to fall over again when I saw that we got to stay in the "yellow" room! Those painted floors are seriously adorable.

We threw our bags down, grabbed our cameras, and went off to explore the house and meet the other gals. I seriously didn't know where to turn or look first. Everywhere I looked there was something else to ogle over!

 

 

Each person I met was as sweet as the next, and it was so great to do a little mingling over dinner. Afterwards, we jumped right in to making the famous ruffled aprons, which is no easy feat, let me tell you. It took us all night, and then some. Oh yes, there was also a film crew there. A film crew! The local news station was doing a story on the Craft Weekend, and wanted footage of the crafters in action. I'm sure Meg will share the link when it airs.

I was so busy working on my apron, that I didn't stop to take pics of it taking shape, but I did manage to snag these ones from my friend Becky, who was also there. (Long story, more on that later!)

Meg!

 

Come about midnight, Meg and Kimberlee rescued us from our pins and needles, and whisked us away to the local donut shop.

 



I was sooo tired that for half a second I thought about staying back and crawling into bed instead, but then I realized how ridiculous that was and joined in the fun :)

I finally crashed around 2:30am. It was a looong day. But so awesome.

You've got to put yourself out there, but dreams really do come true.

More to come...

KANSAS OR BUST.

Early tomorrow morning I am leaving for Kansas. Why you ask? I am going to Meg Duerksen's WHATEVER CRAFT WEEKEND! Can you believe it? I hardly can. It's going to be amazing. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can check it out here.

I am going to miss these little people a whole lot.

I haven't even left yet and I've welled up with tears a few times. I haven't been on a girl's weekend since before I was pregnant with Doodey. I have never left him. They will be with Daddy all weekend, so really, it doesn't get much better, but I will still miss them.

I will wear them close to my heart all weekend though.

And, I get to drive my new van all the way there and I am kinda excited to break it in!

 

You can follow me at Craft Weekend, and any time too, on Instagram. My username is littleforalittlewhile.

 

Kansas or bust in t-minus eight hours! Eeek!

FALL WENT FAST.

The kids and I got out for a walk today. We even played at the park. It was awesome. But it made me sad that fall is passing so quickly and our days of playing outside are numbered. I don't like being cold. So I tend not to take my kids outside much in it. Shameful. I really should because what a difference fresh air makes. They were calm tonight. Happy and agreeable and played so nicely. I was hearing yawns before 7pm, and they were ready to get cozy in their beds. Fresh air will do that to you. And Halloween.

So with my babies tucked in snug as bugs in rugs, I'm reflecting on Fall tonight. I hardly blogged any of it, as I've been focusing on sharing our vacation pictures. But tonight's my night to dump them all on here. So enjoy ;)

***
The tree across the street from our house is the most gorgeous one I know. I see it from my windows every day and I love it. It drops its leaves early, and plenty of' em. We like to play in them.

***
Daddy raked up all the leaves in our yard. We didn't even help him. Sorry about that Daddy. I think we intended too, but then it must have been cold or during nap time or something. But he left one pile for the kids to jump in. They loved it.

We only enjoyed them one night, and then it rained for like a week straight. And mom's don't want their kids jumping in soggy, wet leaves, so Daddy scooped 'em up and hauled them to our local yard waste facility.

***
We missed the "fun" weekends at the Pumpkin Patch. You know, the ones full of games and hay wagon rides. But that's okay because we were having our own fun in Florida. We did still did go on just a regular day. It was chilly and we didn't stay long, but the kids had fun running in and out of rows of pumpkins, choosing just the right ones to represent our family.

***
I was so happy to be home for Halloween this year. We'd only taken Nugget out trick-or-treating once before, and I was really excited to reinstate the tradition. We also had some fun, kid-friendly events and parties to go to this year, so the kids had ample opportunity to wear their costumes. Yay!

Let me introduce to you my little Tinkerbell and Peter Pan. I made their costumes this year, and I am so glad I did. I'll admit I wanted to throw in the towel when I saw a Tinkerbell dress on clearance at Target for $15...oh, how much easier it would have been. But I was committed, and I am happy I stuck it out. For my limited costume making skills, I am very pleased with how they turned out!

Among some of our festivities this year were the annual Halloween party put on by our Early Childhood program, and Nugget's preschool party. What fun!

ECFE:

Look! Daddy dressed as a painter....er, wait. Nevermind ;)

Preschool:

 

***
We carved pumpkins this year, like we do every year, but I'm ashamed to admit that none of us were that into it. It's a lot of work, very little of which the kids can do themselves. I think we'll try painting them next year.

*Disclaimer: My girl hates to wear clothes. We're used to it so it doesn't even phase us anymore.

I didn't even take a picture of the final product, or even put candles in them last night. That's how shameful and uncreative we were this year. Boo.

***
And lastly, we ended all this fall fun with trick(and trunk)-or-treating last night. The kids lasted about an hour, just enough time to rake in a good haul and call it a night.

Whew. Maybe Fall didn't go by so fast after all. I guess we did manage to pack it full of fun. On that note, I'm counting my blessings tonight and heading to bed.

Happy Fall, y'all.