Project Redecoration: Paulie's room

As a present for each of the kids this year (their main gift), we decided to redecorate each of their rooms. In the 6 days leading up to Christmas Eve, we managed to tackle all 3 bedrooms (Philip and Finn share a room.) with help from a few family and friends on the days that Paul was working.

We began with Paulie's room. He and Philip spent the week before Christmas with their mother, so we started his room immediate after he left, but while Elizabeth and Finn were still around. They thought that we were just redoing Paulie's room as a present but didn't even guess about their own rooms. 

Paulie's room was the only room in our house that hadn't been repainted at all since we moved into this house. It was the same bland off-white that the entire house was painted when we bought it.

We really couldn't move the furniture around in his room because he has the smallest bedroom in the house and the largest furniture.

Paulie has been asking for years for a green room, and we've put him off because he had a red futon cover. I found a good deal on a brown microsuede futon cover, and we decided to paint his room "Organic Garden", which is kind of an avocado-y color. We also decided to trade his bulky quilt for a Pendleton wool blanket which will keep him warm but isn't as bulky to tuck into the sides of his bed. My best friend helped me out by making his curtains which are Kona Cotton in Cocoa at the top and have a trim of Air Mail 1930's by Clothworks at the bottom. I also made a sham for his bed out of the remnants of both fabrics.

His desk remained largely the same, although we got him a new modern Ikea lamp. (He also got another new Ikea lamp to clamp to the top of his bed for reading at night.) We also framed some stamps from Paul's old collection to match his curtains and hung a license plate map of the US over his speaker shelf.

Finally, Paulie has been obsessed recently with Lord of the Rings, and I found a print on Etsy of the saying, in Elvish, Not All Who Wander Are Lost.

catching up

The weeks leading up to Christmas were filled with sickness and busyness. We tackled the biggest undertaking we've ever attempted in the week before Christmas, which left no time for blogging. I'll show you the results over the next few days. The 2 weeks leading up to Christmas brought a tummy bug that invaded 2 of the kids, canceling plans, and leaving us unable to fulfill many of the advent traditions we've developed over the last few years. It was a practice in letting go, for me anyway. There is always next year.  Christmas Day, and the days following, brought a series of family get-togethers and much love and togetherness. Most of it unphotographed, but all of it priceless.

(The following photograph isn't a great quality shot, but I had to capture the joy when Paulie received a new, much-desired robe and Finn inherited his old one.)

The 12 Days of Christmas for us included not a single partridge in a pear tree, but countless family gatherings, a family wedding to celebrate, 7 states, many thoughtful gifts and warm meals, time with rarely-seen extended family, and finally snow tubing.

seven!

I'm woefully behind in blogging, and I hope you'll indulge me for a few days while I catch up. 

Finn's Christmas birthday this year was a rather low-key affair. His siblings spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with their other parents, but we kept his birthday celebration at the same time, first thing on Christmas morning. I think the consistency of celebrating his birthday first thing in the day helps mitigate the loss that inevitably accompanies a Christmas birthday.

I can't believe my big boy is 7!

We celebrated with apple cider doughnuts in the shape of candy canes. A larger brunch happened with my family later in the morning so we just had a small breakfast to tide us over until brunch.

Finn looks forward to his birthday more than any of the other kids, I think. And he relishes every moment of his special day.

He received several nice birthday presents, including a guitar from my parents.

He also received a much larger Snap Circuits set than the one he's been working with, one that used to be Paulie's when he was Finn's age.

And of course, there were Legos. He spent most of his birthday morning building and playing with Legos. Perfectly fitting for a 7 year old, I think.

Yarn Along

For this week's Yarn Along, I just completed both a book and a knitting project. The knitting is the Star Crossed Cable Beret, which I've knitted twice in the last week. (It's the hat I decided to knit for Elizabeth with the blue yarn from last week's Yarn Along.) I enjoyed knitting it so much, that I decided to use some extra Blue Sky Alpaca suri merino, leftover from my vest, to make another one for a friend. This yarn is soft and scrumptious. I love knitting with it!

I also just finished A Long Walk to Water, which I read about on a teen book list sometime in the last few months. It's a short read, around 100 pages, but quite intense and full of action. I thought I might read it aloud to the kids, but it's really a middle school read. I don't think my younger 2 would handle the intensity and sadness quite yet. I still highly recommend it for middle school and older though.

Christmas sewing

Many years ago, when Elizabeth was my only child, I made her a Christmas pillowcase with Peanuts Christmas comic strips running across the fabric. Every year it gets packed up with the Christmas decorations and brought back out in early December when she happily adds it to her bed. A few years ago, the boys started asking why they didn't have Christmas pillowcases. (No reason, other than my LONG crafting list at this time of year.) When I stumbled across a sale at Fabric.com on Christmas prints, I decided to bite the bullet and make the boys Christmas pillowcases too.

As I started to make Finn's, I realized that the yard of Grinch fabric I bought wasn't oriented correctly to make an entire pillowcase. Henry's Grinch fabric had the same problem. Fortunately, they share a room and both fabrics had the Grinch! I simply combined the two as a border and solved my problem.

I chose Paulie's fabric from the Peanuts line. I tried to pick a fabric that was a bit more subtle so that as he moves further into teenagehood he might not be embarrassed to use it. Then, of course, I worried that he might think his too boring. Fortunately, he seemed to like it. (You never know how teenagers are going to react to these things!) Now of course, Elizabeth wants to know why she's the only one in the house who didn't get a new Christmas pillowcase. (See! Teenagers! They are so hard to figure out!)

She might not be getting a new pillowcase for Christmas, but I did start working on a sham to match the quilt she's receiving for Christmas. I think ultimately she'll enjoy this more anyway.

Once her sham is finished, I'll only have ONE thing left on my Christmas sewing list. The light at the end of the tunnel!

::right now::

::making merry::

::folding new stars for the windows::

::reading Christmas books::

::decorating our tree with memories::

::decking the bedroom mini trees::

::cooking orange-scented playdough::

::playing with paper Santa dolls::

handmaking decorations

When my sister-in-law was here over the Thanksgiving holidays, she pointed out an adorable bottle cap snowman craft she saw on Pinterest. We gathered the supplies, some from the Michaels craft department (a necessity for the bottle caps unless you start saving them NOW for next year's crafting), others from my stash, then we set the kids to work painting and drawing. Of course, my children being their charmingly creative selves, we didn't end up with a single normal snowman among them. (Or maybe Elizabeth's were; I can't seem to find them right now.) But we do have upside-down snowmen, very long snowmen, and snowmen with heads on both ends. It's all about the process, right? They are quite festive, if non-traditional.

The knitted cork trees that I began a few weeks ago multiplied successfully, and in addition, Paulie made several origami Christmas trees from a tutorial I found for him. We decided that some of the smaller ones looked cute with the knitted trees. Finn had his own ideas and decided to add snow drifts around our trees. Now Paulie is scheming for a way to add white to the tops of his trees to complete the look.

I love the creativity that seems to naturally burst forth this time of year. It makes the long, sometimes dreary, days indoors seem that much lovelier.

If there are any holiday decoration tutorials that your family has enjoyed, please pass them along!

Yarn Along

For Yarn Along this week, I'm not actually in progress on any knits. (Shocking, I know.) I do have this skein of Malabrigo that I will hopefully wind into a ball today because I have one Christmas hat (for Elizabeth) left to knit. On December 1, I started reading Letters From Father Christmas aloud to the kids, per Paulie's request. He's been on a Tolkien kick since the summer. We are thoroughly enjoying the letters and illustrations so far. The kids were amazed the first time Father Christmas mentioned all of the European countries he was visiting. "What about America?!" they chorused.

Over the last 2 weeks, I've mostly worked on knitting these Christmas ornaments.  Each year we give the kids a new ornament. This year I hemmed and hawed over what I wanted to give them. Usually they get a handmade or locally made ornament. 

I decided this year to use the pattern from Handknit Holidays and made sweater balls out of leftover yarn from hats I've made them in the past. I also made 9 from a skein of Järbo Raggi Multi yarn. I kept a few and have already gifted several of them. They make such festive little ornaments. Hooray for another quick knit!

Thanksgiving

I realize it's odd to title this post Thanksgiving when the photos are full of Christmas trees and gifts. We just came off of a week full of family. (My parents are in from the Philippines, and my brother's family came down from the Philadelphia area.) As is often the case when we have family in town, I barely have time for any photos, much less time to post to my blog. Over the days we spent with extended family we celebrated Thanksgiving, celebrated Christmas with my brother's family, put up 2 Christmas trees, played games until late in the evening, and spent a day at my Grandmother's house (with aunts, uncles, and cousins). Although I have few photos to show for it, I have a heart full of love and gratitude for the time we spent together. I'm always amazed and thankful for the interaction between my kids and my brother's kids. Those cousins love each other to pieces and enjoy playing together in a way that makes my heart smile.