Casner Family Blog

 Yesterday we set out to make more terrariums. We have now made a total of five, and I think that will be all for awhile. For our containers, we just used jars I have around the house. The only items we purchased were the soil and the activated charcoal. The moss and plants are from our yard. We will see how they survive. Hannah and Luke will keeping track in their nature journals. We found a book at the library called “Terrariums,” which helped prepare us for the fun.

  

 

Making the terrariums didn’t take long, so there was also time for some silliness…

 

 

 

 

I have had the secret wish of making the children new clothes for Easter. I have started the process, but this week I went by a local store that sells fabric. Sometimes if I have enough time, I can find some vintage pieces hidden between the quilting fabrics. And, sometimes they are marked for 50 cents a yard… 

  

 

 

 

   

 

I’m a bit late posting my three photos this week, but my camera is fine and I am so glad to be posting photos! Something happened to my card reader? (A huge thank you to Matheau for helping find the problem and giving me your card reader.) I cheated a bit, with the loss of my photos from last week, plus sick days, there were no photos. Sooo,  these are from this week.

Photo 1: A visit to the park.   

Photo 2: Working on our first terrariums. Lots of fun. We will hopefully work on two more tomorrow.

Photo 3: Lizzie talking to Mrs. Penny on the phone. (Thanking her for the delicious homemade brownies she dropped by.) 

 

I always love seeing what everyone else is reading, so here are some of my recent reads.  I’ll start with some of the most recent finds. Just in case you are wondering, if I can find the books I am looking for at the library, I check them out first. Although, sometimes I think I actually end up purchasing more books this way because some that I am not sure about-I love!!   The first two are from Susan Cropper.   

    

 Pretty Knits is just that-pretty. The projects are beautiful. Some of the bags are awesome and when I get the nerve, there is an empire waisted top designed from Debbie Bliss that I would love to try.  And my new favorite,  Vintage Crochet.

   

      

 I am currently am crocheting a bag with a mix of two of these patterns with some yarn from Hobbledehoy.Vintage Crochet has two patterns from Alicia Paulson. Beautiful!And the last one for today, it’s not a crafting book, but it is a great read. Rob Bell, if you haven’t  heard of him before, maybe you have heard of Nooma. If not, check out some of the short video clips.  

   

  

Or as I like to call him, King Mac.  Mac rarely raises his voice to meow, instead, he will patiently sit by the door and wait for us to let him out.  

I am sorry for the lack of posts, first I was sick, then we took our mini-vacation. And since then I have found out I am having camera/flash card issues. All of my photos are gone from last week. I still have no resolution, so I have been trying to decide how to post this week. Hopefully I will have photos again by the end of the week.  I have been enjoying several new books over the last few weeks. I think I will post about some of my favorites this week.  

 Week four of the Six One Way project. 

1. One of Hannah’s handmade valentine cards.
2. A fairy princess in our living room.
3. Valentine boxes.

Even though I am with the almost all of the time, they seem to grow right in front of me, sometimes without me seeing it. Not just taller (Although they are all getting taller.) and eating more food -two pizzas do not feed the six of us any more. But doing greater things. Luke is reading real books, not just the “Mat and Sam” and “Dots for Sally” readers, but books with compound words and exclamation and question marks – real stories. Hannah’s spelling words include convenience, experience and magnificent. Lizzie can almost do a front walkover. Besides that, Lizzie not only dresses herself everyday, but does it like six times a day!  

    

Allison decorates her Valentine’s box exactly how she wants it. And then goes and writes all the cards for her classmates by herself!  

  

Seasons in life come and go, and some times it takes looking through last month’s, or even the past week’s photos, to remind me just how quickly our lives change.   

The yarn arrived Friday. I finished Matheau’s hat Friday evening. He likes it, I like it, and I am so glad. I could have done a happy dance when I took it off the needles.  I ended up using Mission Falls wool on size 6 circular needles. I loved the yarn-I will be using more of it in the future.   Wednesday Matheau spoke at a Valentine’s Banquet. Mrs. Wheeler brought chocolate covered “oreo balls”. She gave me the recipe and I made some Thursday evening. I covered them in melted white chocolate chips instead  of the semi-sweet chips. They are filled with oreos and cream cheese. Recipe:8 oz. soft cream cheese mixed with 1 bag of crushed oreos. Form into balls and refrigerate for 1 hour. Melt the chocolate chips, roll the balls in the melted chocolate. Refrigerate.  

Special Valentine’s gifts. Even though we started working on these gifts before February, I have had a horrible time getting them wrapped up and to the post office. The idea was one I found several months ago, I just have been waiting for the right amount of patience to help four kids get them completed. I decided Valentine’s was a great time to give it a go.         

In other news, I had placed an order for some stitcheries from Wee Wonderfuls. Well, they arrived and they are beautiful. Most of them are to be gifts, but I can’t wait to stitch some up myself.

 From top to bottom, left to right:

• I made the Valentine’s for Allison to handout at her preschool Valentine party. I first saw the idea for the handmade Valentine’s at the Purl Bee. She used fabric underneath her hearts. I still have some of my stash of scrapbook paper from last February, so I used that instead. (Papers are Basic Grey and Bazill).  The cards are only 3 in.x 4 in. I need to photograph the inside, Allison even tried out some little ’scrollies’ on some of her letters. She did a super job writing out everyone’s name and signing them. 
• Second photo: This hat is for Matheau. I had hoped to make it for him for Christmas. I ordered the yarn, but due to other Christmas presents that filled my time and the fact that when the yarn arrived, it was the wrong color, it did not even get onto my needles. So I ordered another color and brand of yarn, along with  a pattern to help me. This time the colors were perfect!  However the pattern did not work up like what we had in mind. I don’t think it would have fit anyone’s head. It would not even have worked as a bowl if I would have felted it. So, I took the hat apart and ordered a new pattern. After several rows, I realized part of the problem was with the yarn was too soft. So, I ordered again and came up with my own pattern. (Only because I have been reading Elizabeth Zimmerman.)  I began the hat on Thursday afternoon and  thought I would finish the hat by Monday afternoon… only to run out of yarn. So it would be wonderful if the yarn could arrive tomorrow and I could finish Matheau’s hat by Valentine’s Day.
• Onto the third photo, homemade marshmallows. Allison and I made these last week for snack. They were yummy. The recipe is from none other then Martha. I am going to hopefully try to make some more tomorrow.
• Last photo: Granny squares. One day, there will hopefully be enough of them to cover our bed.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I don’t know where last week went?