Willow's and Zaydee's Busy Books

 Before we left for Omaha I finished and shipped a couple more orders for the shop.

Willow's mom asked for a light purple/lilac version of the busy book.

And Zaydee's aunt wanted multicolor with pinks and greens.

I hope they both are excited to see them under the Christmas tree this year!

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Homemade Toys = Complete Success

I forgot to mention, but the homemade toys were a complete hit with Audrey. They kept her entertained for a long time, especially the collecting game with the pom poms. My biggest regret was not having another game or two that was new for the return trip.

Definitely give them a try this season if you are doing any sort of traveling. Just be careful with the pom poms, they could be a choking hazard if you aren't looking.

Vacation Recap

Here's a little recap of our trip last week in picture form. Fair warning, there are a lot of pictures.

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is totally and completely amazing! I was blown away by how great it was. We will definitely be making a return trip just for the zoo. Here we are watching the gorillas.

Here is the best photo I got of Audrey and Bryce at the wedding we went to. Major photography fail on my part.

Outside of Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home).  The house was nice, but I thought the grounds were beautiful.

 

 This pictures makes me laugh. By the looks of Bryce you would think it was 30 degrees out and down pouring. It was more like 60 with a little bit of mist... I think Oregon might be a bit of an adjustment for him. Oh and in case you're wondering, here we are outside of James Monroe's home.

Bryce's family. 

A Must Try Recipe: Mexican Chicken Casserole with Charred Tomato Salsa

Source: Cooking Light

This recipe for Mexican Chicken Casserole with Charred Tomato Salsa from Cooking Light completely surpassed all of my expectations. I had leftover chicken that I didn't know what to do with so I decided to give this a try. I made the full recipe but split it between two pans with the intention of freezing one of them. It was so good that that never happened, we cooked the second pan full just a few days after the first one.

A quick note about how I made this dish:

*I had made this recipe for Cafe Rio Chicken from Chef In Training earlier in the week and used the leftover chicken for the casserole. It gave the dish such a great flavor, I would highly recommend it.

*Although I haven't tried it, I'm sure you could substitute turkey for the chicken and use up some of the leftovers from Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are back home after a long travel day yesterday. We were lucky not to have any delays to our flights, but the day still felt never-ending nonetheless.

Now Bryce is back at work, Audrey is sleeping, and I am enjoying a lazy hour or two on the couch before she wakes up. Later Audrey and I will join some friends for Thanksgiving dinner. 

I hope you all have wonderful days full of lots of family, friends and food. 

H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G!

Photo Friday: Our Little Monkey

I've had this great idea for awhile now to give a makeover to our Expedit bookcase. So the other night instead of packing or sewing or doing any one of the many other things I should have been doing I gave it a go.

The "makeover" was a complete and total flop, but on the plus side Audrey thought the empty bookcase pulled away from the wall made for great fun. This might just become my new go-to activity on rainy days.

$2.48 Airplane Toys

We have a lot of flying in our near future. First to Nebraska later today, then to Virginia on Sunday, and back home to California next week. Anyone who has traveled with a toddler knows that keeping them entertained and relatively still for that long will be a challenge. So we came up with a few new (also ridiculously inexpensive and homemade) toys to try to keep little miss Audrey (and all the fellow passengers) happy. 

A Collecting Game

Audrey is fascinated by putting different items into containers and taking them out again so this is perfect and couldn't be more simple. Bryce put holes in the top of a deli container and melted them a little to get rid of any sharp edges. Add a package of pom poms at $1.99 and that is all there is to it. Audrey can push the poms poms through the holes to her little hearts content.

A Stringing Game

I went down to Home Depot and bought two feet of rope for a whopping total of 49 cents. We put a knot in one end and wrapped the other with electrical tape to make it stiff. Add in the blocks we borrowed from her train set and now she has her own stringing game.

It always amazes me how the simplest little things seem to grab her attention, hopefully these will do the same. I'll let you know how it goes.

And don't worry, I'm not completely disillusioned that these two toys are the answer to toddler-airplane happiness. We also have a bag full of toys, books, and food; along with a few new apps on our phones and a computer full of new-to-her movies. Wish us luck.

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The Saturday Seven Party at Positively Splendid
Made by you Monday at Skip To My Lou 
Creative Bloggers Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime
Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog 

Haily's Busy Book

November is proving to be an extremely busy month. Audrey and I have already taken one plane trip out of town and we leave for another one next week. In between trips I'm busily working on getting all of the shop orders finished and mailed. Before we left last week I packaged and shipped Haily's Busy Book. Her mom asked for a pink version so I used many of the same fabrics I used on Audrey's.

I just love the look of the books all packaged and ready to ship.

I have two more books to finish before we leave town again so things may be a little quiet around here for the next few weeks.

Also, I will only be able to make a few more books with a guaranteed Christmas delivery. I would love for you all to get the first chance to purchase one so if you are interested in buying a Busy Book send me an email and I can put up a special listing just for you.

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Saturday Seven Party at Positively Splendid
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