Juicy Bits

210: backyard movie night

Nope.  I don't do anything small.  Can't help it.

I got in my head to do an outdoor movie night to celebrate the start of summer.  First I thought I'd rent the equipment, but then decided I was going to do it more than once (we've already used it 3 times) so it was best to invest in our own.  

Then I had to go for a specific look for the night.  I blame Pinterest.  Truth be told, that's the part I love and I always do details anyway. But I was inspired to do the whole thing by some pictures I found on Pinterest.

Anyway, the look was supposed to be a sort of chic retro on the farm.  Or vineyard.  Or something like that.  I got a bunch of vintage sheets from thrift stores.

This is one of my favs.

And I tried to use a lot of antique looking wood, like the crates and board we used as little tables for drinks etc.  I also put out some flowers and candles.  There were some twinkle lights up on the deck by the food for dim lighting and more ambiance.

My mom has a bunch of nap mats from her preschool days that I sewed pockets in the sheets for, so it was more comfortable.  And I borrowed chairs because in my mind the adults weren't going to be thrilled to lay on the ground.  And there were many, MANY pillows.  Also, my parents have 2 papasan chairs so basically it was like a living room outside.

As for the actual equipment, I bought a projector on Ebay and a receiver/speakers at a yard sale.  The screen I built out of PVC.  Not too difficult.  To give you an idea of scale, the screen is about 14' wide.  The actual material is blackout material meant to line curtains (because it doesn't let light through).  It has a seam down the middle but you can't tell when the movie is playing.  It's attached to the frame by velcro.  

It's somewhat weather proof. It can stay out in the rain but the wind did knock it down.  I can leave up the frame but take down the material, but I am a bit worried the homeowner's association will have a conniption.  If you want more info on how to built your own movie screen, check out backyardtheater.com.  These people are crazy hardcore and it was an awesome resource to help pull it all together.

And of course I had to do snacks.  3 types of popcorn and some classic sweets.  There were bags for the popcorn (regular brown paper bags I printed "fresh popcorn" on myself) and separate one for the GOODIES (so cute!).

Drinks were soda (in glass bottles), beer, water, and orange juice/lemonade served in mason jars.  And boy did we need ice cold drinks that night.  It was HOT!  It was the first night of summer (also the first night after school got out) and I thought we would all melt.  The kids didn't care one bit and ran around before it started.  

Thankfully, it cooled enough after the sun was down that we were reasonably comfortable.  We had a lot of people (mostly families of the kids' friends) and had a blast. Here's how we looked enjoying the show.  We watched Over the Hedge because I thought it particularly appropriate in suburbia. :)  We've also watched How to Train Your Dragon, and one of my all time favorites, Princess Bride.

I used to love going to the Drive-In as a kid so this was great throw-back.  And even though it's not HD or surround sound or anything, there's something that just feels so "real" about the big screen and being outdoors.  It gives me the warm fuzzies.

So what else should I show?  It mostly has to be family movies but maybe we'll do an adult only r-rated night.  I'm thinking classics like Goonies, ET, and of course, Harry Potter.

JT

 

189: Kingdom in da house

Yes, the time has come to blog again.  Over a month is a bit too long, don't you think?  Even with summer as my excuse.

Well, while I've been gone we've checked off quite a few item on that summer to-do list.  Including fireworks, the beach on Cape Cod, and 5 nights of glamping in the beautiful Thousand Islands area of New York.  Great trip.  Beautiful weather (finally, not rained out!), interesting sights, yummy food, and lots of smiles on the kids faces.  This year we tried "hobo eclairs".  Yum!

These pix were taken at the Heritage Museum in Sandwich, MA.  If you are a bit of a hippie mom like me, you MUST visit. They have this new area called Hidden Hollow (below) that it one of the most amazing places for kids I've ever been to.  Everything is wooden and natural (most right from the grounds) and it has art, storytelling, blocks, sand, play house, theater, musical instruments, a tree house, and so much more wholesome goodness for the kids.  It was just MAGICAL and I totally want it in my back yard.

And now Kingdom is hitting the shops.  Woot!

I don't really have a comprehensive list of shops that are carrying it, so if you are one, let me know and I'll add you.  But here are a few places to pick it up:

Hawthorne Threads

Venezie Designs

Sew Mama Sew

You can get the free pattern for the Prairie Glass Squared quilt here.

Before I know it I'll have an advance copy of my book in my hands...eek!

I'd better get back to party prep.  This year, for Theo, it's a puppy party and I've got quite a bit left to do.

JT 

 

188: sweet little piles

I love these sweet little piles.  Oh, if my mess was limited to such beauties.

 

As I mentioned, I've been sewing up a storm with my serger.  These little strip piles are the result of several scrappy dresses and tops I've made for the kids.

 

In other news, inspired by some beautiful ones around the blogsphere, I decided to make a big summer to-do list.  Fun to keep us from getting bored or letting the whole summer pass without event.  It is, of course, much longer than this.  We've already checked off at least half a dozen items, though I'm not sure we'll do every single one.

What's on your list this summer?

JT

166: autumn revisited

I feel like I'll probably post these same kind of pictures every year.  Fall is just so photogenic and most years we'll probably hit the pumpkin patch hayride.

This year it was abnormally warm.  We were sweating.  And they were out of apple cider doughnuts.  Poo.

But it was beautiful and much fun was had.  Only got a few small pumpkins.  I don't think we'll be carving any this year...

We did also fit in a quick weekend trip to Cape Cod.  My childhood home has been sold, so I don't know how much we'll go back anymore.  It's a very bizarre feeling.  This was the first summer since like age 2 that I didn't go once.

Luckily we had a sunny brisk fall day to enjoy the beach a little.  Totally invigorating and we'd go a lot more often if it didn't involve 6+ hours of driving.

Well, despite the fact that it's only the 28th of October, both kid's halloween costumes are totally complete. (And even a quickie for me).  Parties and parades were early this year, so it wasn't exactly by choice, but I do feel relieved to be able to just enjoy the weekend.

I'll be back soon with some pictures of those to share.

JT

144: baking at my house

We've been doing quite a bit of it lately.  See, we hosted a Cookies and Milk party for a bunch of our friends the day before Valentine's day.  Was it just an excuse so I could bake an absolute TON of cookies?  Who can say?

Of course there will be a post on the whole party forthcoming soon, but here's a little behind-the-scenes look at the baking.  First, yes we made plenty of delicious cookies like these:

Those are Double Butterscotch.  Yum.

 

And every time I tried to bake all week, the kiddos happily offered to "help".  Theo's repeated phrase was: "It's all about I want to taste it".  But one evening to give me a little break from all the tasting, I had the brilliant idea to let them go all out playing in the flour.  

 

Messy, but cars racing through flour were a perfect distraction.  :)

 

And here's a little peek at the pretty pictures from the party.  Those Chocolate Chip cookies make my mouth water just looking at the pic.  Sigh.  Why can't someone discover that eating an almost entirely cookie diet is good for your health and weight?  I can attest: it is not.

JT

142: peaches and cream party part two: the day

And now on to the events of the day.

First came set-up.  It was a total scramble since I had so little time.  It was definitely a treat to have the party on a farm, but I will hesitate to have another away from home because it took so much advance planning.

You can see the tent area we had.  It was really nice that it was a separate fenced area since the farm was crowded that day.

I mentioned we were so lucky to have a nice sunny day, but, man, it was windy.  Everything had to be tightly secured down.

When the guests first arrive the could feed the animals carrots or do some coloring of farm pictures.  Guess how much coloring was done?

Next it was time to go peach-picking.  While waiting for the hay ride, there was much silliness and some rousing games of ring-around-the-rosy.  Then we loaded onto the hay wagon and enjoyed a scenic ride around the farm.

There was a little instruction on which peaches were ripe and we were dropped off in the peach groves and got to roam about filling our little baskets.  With a little help from the moms and dads, the kids had a great time.

 

 

We had a little wait until the hayride came back to get us, so the kids did a little tree climbing...

 

Then we headed back to the tent for food and treats.
 
 
 
 There were a variety of sandwiches, fruit kebobs, and snacking stuff.

 

The yellow jackets turned out to be a huge problem.  They were everywhere.  We couldn't put out the food until the last second and they swarmed the sweet stuff.  I had planned on peach lemonade in a big punch bowl, but we quickly had to nix that idea because they would go crazy for it for sure.  Luckily, I had back-up juice boxes.  The idea of the bees eating the food didn't gross me out (you can see the little holes they ate in the candy below) but I was worried one of the kids would get stung because they're so aggressive.  We lucked out and no one did.  Had I thought of it ahead I would have brought sugar-water traps to put out and lure them away from us...

 

Candles were hard to keep lit...

But we pretened.

The cupcakes had little versions of cakeballs like the cake pops I made based on Bakerella's apple design.  The pops were adorable, but seriously time consuming.  Luckily my baking sister was in town to help me out.

The ice cream was another snafu.  We rented an ice cream cart and I called ahead to reserve the dry ice and they said don't worry just come by and get it that morning.  Well, I went by and they were out!  And no on else was open on Sunday.  So we had to make do by keeping the ice cream in the farm's freezer then just using regular ice.  It was pretty melty.  That was me trying to be relaxed about the details and I learned I'm just better off obsessing and forcing them to take a reservation.

After the food, the kids got to enjoy all the activities.  The farm was having it's fall festival and we bought wrist bands for all the guests.  That meant as much hayriding, tractor "train" riding, pony riding, hay pile climbing, bouncy house jumping, and corn kingdom playing as they wanted.  Theo would have ridden around on that "train" all day if we'd let him.  And Aurora loved the ponies.

 

 


 Then we just let the party peter out.  We took down the decorations and packed up, but a bunch of the families stayed as long as they wanted.

My two kids were totally exhausted but very happy by the time we got home.  (So was I, now that I think of it...)

JT

 All photos are by Christianne Ebel.
 

133: merry christmas

Since the season is in full swing, I'm going to disappear for a bit.  Hiding out with the family and just enjoying some relaxing time.

But I wanted to wish you all well and leave you with some holiday pix from my family.

 My mom and I took Aurora to NYC for the first time this year.  It was a totally magical day.  We had a carriage ride, saw the tree in Rockefeller Center, had "tea" at the Carlye (with the best hot cocoa ever), and shopped at American Girl and FAO Schwarz.  

 I can't even begin to describe how amazing it was to see it all through a 5-year-old's eyes.  She was so appreciative and excited.

We took the kids to see santa.  The actual pictures we bought were so green the kids looked like aliens!

 Aurora did a little dance dressed as a present.

 

And finally, my tree.  I mentioned before it would be a woodland theme.  

 It's just a small tree...about 4 feet.  I didn't get a chance to make all the ornaments I planned, but I think I'll do the same theme in a year or two and finish it then.  I wanted to make everything handmade, but the straw "star" and heart ornaments are from IKEA and I thought they fit nicely.  

 To carry the colors through I added some green and aqua beads to the basic red strands and painted some of the "berries" on the star.  Next time around I'll make a custom tree skirt.

We gathered all our little woodland friends around underneath it.  Very cute.

  

So everyone have a great new year and I'll talk to you soon...

JT

127: construction party part 2: the events

Today is the basic events of the big day.  If you missed the first post with all the design details, find it here.

It was a simple theme that lent itself to some obvious, but entertaining activities, and one awesome treat.

Of course the day started with set-up.  Most of the prep was done well ahead of time, but we weren’t sure of the weather, so didn’t know if we could manage outdoors or not.

 

We lucked out.  The rain held off for long enough, and it wasn’t excruciatingly hot as it had been the week before.

There were various activities for the kids to enjoy all day.  No real planned games or anything since he was only turning 2.

There were construction pictures to color.

 

A sand table with lots of trucks etc.

 

We brought the “roller coaster” outside and that was a big hit.

 

Then we got the main event.  A visit from “Bob” himself!  What a treat.  We were able to hire a local landscaper (friend of a friend)  to come with his backhoe loader for a few hours.

 

He was even down with giving the kids rides up and down the driveway and letting them drive.

 

Can you tell Theo was just a little bit excited?

 

It was his equivalent of heaven.  I was totally a rockstar mom that day.

 Seriously after the party, as I put him down for his nap and asked him what he did at the party.  He gets this ridiculous grin on his face and closes his eyes and sighs, “I drove bob the builder”.  2 year-old’s life = complete.

Everybody got a turn to ride if they wanted.  

And, of course, some photo ops with the family.

 

Then we had lunch.  On the menu was: bagel pizzas, veggies and dip, pretzels and chips and fruit salad.

 

There were construction cupcakes.

    

Everyone found them yummy.

 

And even tool-shaped cookies (yes I made them, with much cursing involved late at night) that Theo enjoyed playing with while eating.

 

Then everyone pretty much just hung around for a while and we called it an afternoon.

What a fabulous day and a lucky boy!

JT

68: busy little beans

This one’s for the moms out there.  Unless you’re child-free but really into playing with beans.  :)

 Have you tried this?

Basically it’s an indoor sandbox, except easier to clean up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not EASY to clean up…there are beans all over the kitchen.  But, it is so good for hours of entertainment.  It amazes me how long they’ll keep busy just pouring and dumping etc.

I’m not exaggerating.  Aurora literally filled the front of her dress with beans and then dumped it out again for an entire hour straight…

This is the first time we’ve taken them out with Theo.  I don’t recommend using them with really little kids.   Or for that matter, if your child is prone to eating everything, dumping stuff all over the place, or sticking things in various orifices, stay away.

If not, enjoy!

JT