I was not the sort of parent who saved every drawing that our boys generated. The refrigerator door was their gallery space. Most of their 'art work' ended up in the recycling bin rather than in acid-free boxes to be saved forever. I'm not sentimental about that sort of thing and luckily our boys are happy not to have to deal with boxes of paper from their past.

Children go through drawing phases. I noticed this with my own boys and now with my grandchildren. At some point, what they draw can be interesting. And by that I mean interesting to someone who is not genetically related to them.

I did save a very few of my own kids' drawings. Some I've even had framed, like this portrait that Jeff drew of Steve. Jeff was 7 at the time and he captured his father perfectly! Even though I'm his mother, I think this is pretty good…

What made me think of children's drawings today is a post found on DesignTAXI. Reddit contributor, Tatsputin, started coloring his kids' drawings! (Side Note: Isn't it amazing how inter-connected we all can be online?!)

Click here to see the post on DesignTAXI, where you can see more of this collaborative artwork.

It's making me look at Jack's current drawings a bit differently…

I'm not particularly fond of coloring, but these could easily be applique patterns! They would also make wonderful embroidery patterns. I'm not sure when I might be able to use this idea myself but if any of you take this idea and run with it, let me know :-). 

FYI: You may have gotten the newsletter I just sent featuring a present idea… mouse pads made with photo transfers. Not a new idea but I had never really noticed them before. We quilters have the tools that make it easy to make them at home (good irons, fusible web, presser sheets, and rotary tools for trimming.) I put up a page with instructions. I've got mouse pads and EQ Printable inkjet fabric sheets online if you don't already have them.

I made mouse pads with photos, but it would also be fun to scan 'artwork' to put on a mouse pad! I'm beginning to wish I needed more than one mouse…

I thought I knew a lot about ironing, but apparently not. I found this recently on a site called Fact and a Photo. 

Here's a quote from Wikipedia (click here to read the full article):

"Extreme Ironing (also called EI) is an extreme sport and a performance art in which people take ironing boards to remote locations and iron items of clothing. According to the Extreme Ironing Bureau, extreme ironing is "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt."^[1]

Part of the attraction and interest the media has shown towards extreme ironing seems to centre on the issue of whether it is really a sport or not. It is widely considered to be tongue-in-cheek.^[2]"

There was an Extreme Ironing World Championship in 2002. Or not :-). 

I suppose my biggest question is what kind of iron is used in extreme ironing? I'm still hunting for the perfect iron…

The other big Thanksgiving event in our family is that Elanor is visiting her Uncle Jeff in NYC—at Thanksgiving! They are doing everything! I look at the pictures and am just amazed—and happy for the three of them.

They went to see the floats (with the balloons inflated but tied down) the night before the Macy’s parade and then they braved the windy cold Thanksgiving morning to go to the parade itself…

They had hot chocolate by the tree at Rockefeller Center…

And they went to the Top of the Rock!

FAO Schwartz, the American Girl store, Central Park… Elanor is enjoying it all! This is a very special Christmas present for her, one that she will never forget :-).

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday! We had a traditional Thanksgiving, which for us always includes a house-related project. We don't have any projects to do at our house so this year we planned to install new windows in our grandkids' bedroom.

After a recent local fire I got extra nervous about the fact that the windows in their bedroom were not openable. When our boys were little we lived in a house with the same problem and we didn't have the money to fix it. We do have the money now.

We've replaced windows at Chris and Lorna's house before. Getting the old windows out is half the battle so, in preparation, Steve took off the aluminum storm windows on Wednesday. I joined him and, luckily, before busting out the first window, we unwrapped the replacement and guess what—it was wrong! All three windows went back to Lowe's and we are now waiting for new ones. Sigh. The Thanksgiving project will be moved closer to Christmas.

However, Thanksgiving just doesn't feel right to us without a project so we came up with a new one. Steve did some promised sheetrock patching in their living room and then went home to prepare the turkey dinner. Chris and I put a back on a leaning bookcase—it no longer leans—and then we spent several hours tidying up their mudroom. That included knocking off the glitery, flaking, ugly popcorns from the ceiling. That's not me in the photo, but you get the idea.

I wore a dust mask, but not a hat or goggles, which would have been a good idea. I didn't use water, but I did use a wide scraper just like that drywall knife. It took almost no effort because no one had ever painted over the popcorns.

TIP: If you have a ceiling with popcorns that you don't like, don't paint it! Scrape the popcorns off. It took less than a half hour for the 7' x 10'-ish room.

Chris decided what to take to Goodwill and what to keep. He decided how to rearrange everything, while I almost successfully didn't make (many) suggestions. It was fun to spend the time together! 

I know why holidays feel like the time for projects to me and to Steve. We would always head home for the holidays and we always took part in projects at my mom and dad's. And once my dad (a project king) died, mom still had things that had to be fixed. I blogged about building her fence at Christmas in 2009… good times, as Jeff would say.

No matter how you are spending this holiday weekend, I hope it includes fun times with those you love :-).

I don't know about you, but my weekend was a blur—a happy, active blur!

I Christmas shopped with a friend in Dallas on Thursday. (Side note: The Container Store is THE place to go for adult stocking stuffers!) The weather turned cold on Friday. The combination of cold weather and shopping put Steve and I both in the mood to decorate for Christmas on Saturday. 

We braved the cold to string lights on the trees out front. I don't think we can be seen from the space station, but it's very festive. 

The stockings are hung…

I made two new stocking holders from rocks, wire, and ribbon. I like rocks better than the kind of stocking holders you can buy, but that's just me. 

I put out the Santas, including Mr. Potatohead Santa. He looks happy next to Darth Tater.

Steve built some new shelf/supports for the North Pole village. I have more pieces but we only put these out. They look better under the white cabinets than they did before the remodel.

Some of these houses are more than 25 yearls old! How did that happen so fast?

There's more in the way of Christmas decorations, lots more. It's like a Christmas-decoration bomb went off in the house! The nearly 30 year old Christmas tree is up, with lights but no ornaments. It's brittle but still looks good. I plan to hang the ornaments on it after Thanksgiving. 

I am feeling a lot more festive now. I hope you are looking forward to the holdays as well!

Lorna and I took Elanor, Jack, and Bear to the Dallas Arboretum yesterday. The weather was perfect, the pumpkins were pretty and the new Children's Adventure Garden was a hit!

I took my 'big' camera especially so that I could take photos of the kids…

There was face painting for the kids. Jack really got into character!

Elanor was a little less into it.

Bear perched on a mushroom, with help from his mom…

But mostly he watched from the stroller…

Amazingly enough, Lorna and I were ready to go before the kids were. They really enjoyed the interactive exhibits and activities in the adventure garden. Even though it's more than an hour away, we'll go back.