Holiday Doings and the Bathroom Remodel

Christmas is in full swing.  

I am pretty sure we discuss Santa at least once a day, even pretending that I am he and leave Amelia a gift (one of her toys) wrapped up in a blanket next to her as she pretends to be asleep.  We say "pretend" at least 10 times a day.

Christmas crafts are on going.  

(WARNING:  By reading on some of you (cough cough Donna) may reveal a Christmas gift intended for you. Continue at your own risk).

I do one of these spool wish lists each year. Well I have done 2 so far...but intend there to be lots more and eventually do a spool wish list tree for each year.

I save most of the Christmas and Halloween issues of favorite magazines and then glance thru them during the holidays.  When I spotted this one in an old Martha one, I knew what to do with all the shells we have collected in Homer and Kenai.  Amelia did the pinks and I did the green for her.  I really think hers are better.  She took much longer as she liked to peel the glue from her fingers.

This is one of our salt dough ornaments that Amelia glittered up.  We do need to find a different glue as the glitter easily flakes off.  Will have more on that in a later post.

I did take a quick pic before hanging on the tree of the ornaments given to me by one of my dance students many years ago that I mentioned in a previous post.  A couple needed glue mending over the years, but I sure do love them and eventually our skills in salt dough might escalate to where we could do something similar...we are hoping. :)

A glimpse of our bathroom remodel.  

Going to miss the bird! Not.  I began dismantling the sink when I realized...I need to take pics!  Took all with my iPhone..so not as clear as they could be :P  But you get the point :)

Gutted and tiled.

Then put it back together...almost.

Amelia was overjoyed to get her tub back (the only thing that we kept) as she dislikes showers immensely.  

Of course, when you do a remodel of any sorts, you start thinking of all the other things you can do.  Next will be the upstairs bath that will include a tub and is going to be a much bigger job than this bath.  I need a break for a bit.

Still waiting for a few details to be done including  peg boards for towels and a mirror from Shaker workshop.  Also need to do a bit of trim as I didn't realize I needed to do the door trim to match before we cut the other...get out the stain again.  

Lastly, we are looking for a shaker style cabinet to go between the sink and the toilet for a little bit of storage as we got rid of a gigantic storage vanity.

Will give an update when everything arrives.

Finally...a pic of what I found in Amelia's dollhouse one afternoon.  Reminds me of a Wierbinski Christmas...find your place and don't step on anyone...there are even dogs roaming about :)  Going to miss them dreadfully this holiday, however, so excited to have Amelia at home for the ever so important Christmas morning. 

On a clear day you can see forever...seriously.

It was inevitable and due much to the joyous expression of the smallest one in the family, I couldn't be all that miserable with the onset of an Alaskan winter.  Besides...it's not September nor October...one must be happy about the white stuff or at least pretend it for your 3 year old.  I will change my tune in February...you'll see.

I took the opportunity to take a few festive shots on a glorious winter day. 

I brought her out wrapped in my down coat explaining that I would snatch her up in it once I got a couple photos...she didn't want the jacket and thought freezing her fanny off was quite the fun thing to do...until she really did get cold and demanded hot chocolate. 

Decorating used to take me a day or two, now it takes weeks. I wonder why.

During the day of snowing, we broke out the finger paints.  

Now I have so many paintings I am not sure what I shall do with them all.

With the cold and a high pressure, those of us near the top of Mt. Baldy get to see the billowy clouds that darken those down below.  Lucky us.

Next time...(imagine dramatic music here)...

THE BATHROOM REMODEL 

and 

some ornament making as it is what we do best :)

Great week to you all.

Even with the unFall like weather, Christmas is upon us.

Pie Crust Cookies

I don't know about you, but the best part of any pie is the crust!  So, when I spotted this recipe I knew I couldn't go wrong.

Already had a pie crust in the freezer.  Rolled it out and punched out a few festive shapes, sprinkled sugar and cinnamon and baked for 15 minutes (I just kept an eye on them and when they puffed and turned golden I yanked them out).   Delicious.  Light and Crispy.

We also began a new tradition.  Salt Dough Ornaments.  Each year will be a new design to decorate and give as gifts.

A mother of a student of mine used to make these each year as gifts to teachers.  Hers were very ornate, with colored dough and extensive details.  I will post a picture of the ones I still proudly display on our Christmas tree when we break open the ornament boxes.  

Ours are a bit more Alaskan, rustic and simple. Heehee.  I will try more creative elements next year.

One part salt, four parts flour and one and a half parts hot water.  Knead for 10 minutes and you are done with the dough.  Eh..don't eat it or you will be like Amelia and say EEEKKKK!   She much rather have my buttery Pate Brise dough that I used for the cookies.

Stay tuned on what our little creative minds come up with to decorate these babies!

Lastly, and I dare not say this as there surely is a magic spell upon us...apart from the 6 inches of snow that we had in September, which I might add didn't count in Anchorage's record books as it only happened to us mountain folks, we have had no snow since then.  

It has been glorious.  

And besides having a virus sweep thru the house, we have been taking full advantage of it.

Amelia saw this coat while shopping and said "OH MOM...PLEASE!!!"  Luckily, it was on sale :)  She wears it around the house too.  It is still chilly enough to sport our hat, but warm enough to break out the badminton rackets...if only to direct traffic.

Now that the grasses, cow parsnip and brush are gone or at least mashed down, we have returned to our woods in our side yard where we have found a tree fort.  We are careful to keep an eye out for bear and moose as it would be hard to run to the house.  With this nice weather the bears are still up.   Lots of horses to ride and we even managed some hot cocoa while sitting on a branch.  It's a great spot for adventure.

I think she likes the coat as Lucy from the Narnia movies wears a similar one.  She is a great fan of Miss Lucy.

And Yes, Virgina...Christmas at the Guisinger home has begun...more on that next time!

Halloween Adventures

Our first stop for Halloween fun was the Eagle River Nature Center for their Halloween Walk.  It was a gorgeous Fall day and it certainly lived up to all expectations!  

We hadn't been back since our last Knee Hi Class In September and Amelia was thrilled to see the instructors Ms. Doris and Ms. Ute greet her at the door!  She introduced her dad and like always we were early...so she showed him around.

Then the walk began!  

It was the same trail we did time and time again with different stations to go to:  Raven's Beaks, Bats, Owl Droppings (yes you heard me correctly), tracking footprints, Witches Tree and more poop identification with Scat Headquarters where they gave out Scat cookies!

On the Way we saw a wolf approach (if you can make that out in the first pic), Ms. Ute and her daughter were at the tracking station and we got to dissect a real owl pellet filled with little bones and hair at the Yurt ... how exciting.  They did say they buy them and are sanitized, but Rob said lets toss that :)

She was having a great time.

With her scat cookie in hand, we headed to the Witchs Hollow.  This is the same hollow tree she finally ended up going in toward the end of the Knee Hi program, but today...she wasn't going anywhere near the witch!

Luckily, her best bud, Kayla the Kangaroo, showed up! 

Kayla and her are dance buddies who are like glue at dance class...literally holding hands and chit chatting thru the entire 45 minutes each week.  They wore costumes to dance on Wed. too where Kayla was a dinosaur this time.  

After a bit of hobnobbing and a lift from Dad we headed back to the center where they gave out books and a great snack.  What a great place.  Classes start back in May and we will surely be there!

The Art of  

Pumpkin Carving....

Quite the artist.

And extremely silly.

We let her open the Halloween goodies we had for her too, so she could enjoy them before the holiday was over.

It was time to Trick or Treat!

A couple shots before we left.

Off we go!

And....if you didn't notice...NO SNOW!  

Mom couldn't have been happier :)

Last year she was scared to death of everything , this year she was bound to fill up her basket even if it meant ringing the door bell twice when they didn't answer the first time!

  

At last ... SUCCESS!

She even asked me to stay back at one point "I can do it myself".  Wow.

Of course, that doesn't mean to hold your own bag ... that is what Dad is for.  That bag was quite heavy by the time we were done with the 15 or so houses we went to,

Until, she said...."I'm tired".  

It was time to go home and spread out the loot.

Her first piece...Reeses of course!

Happy Halloween! 

Next week:  we have had a glorious couple days and since this post is rather long, I'll save those shots for next time including our new hideout...the tree fort. :)