Our crew... right now.

 Oh hi ~ here we all are posing amidst the shrubbery.

So, I wanted to get some new pictures of our crew in our favourite season.

 And as you may have noticed... update the corner family shot here on the blog ----->

I guess not much has changed from the summer shot.. other than my fire-engine red hair (now a washed out flop of bleached/dark roots mess...about-to-be-dyed-ebony!). Oh, and the fact that Hudson is wearing clothes (he had just blasted out his diaper/shirt before the summer picture was taken!). Fun times, I tell you.

 Once again, daughter Azriel decides to prank the photo-shoot and barge in on Ben and I's snuggle time.

Pretty much sums up our life.

We just keep laughing through it all.

I love this shot.

It perfectly depicts what I feel for my guy.

Not to steam up your screens with all my mushing on about him... but that scruffy, bearded, rarely-catch-him-smiling-on-camera man is all kinds of wonderful to us.

And right now, well, he's only been up baking since 3am... and he's currently prepping a meal for tomorrow (to help me around the house).. and it's 9pm!

Yeah.

I'm a lucky lady.

Wait.. why am I writing this? The kids are both asleep... and we're actually awake together!

Gotta go.

Mel ;o)

 

Colours of gratitude.

 Well wasn't that a beauty weekend?

That bright, blue-eyed Autumn was showing off all her colours.

While this wee brown-eyed ball of cuteness was melting my heart.

Our cousin's new pup had a coat like caramel cashmere, such a sweet snuggler

 Feasting, hiking, family visiting.. check.

 Daughter being all piles of craziness and cute... check.

 Son being a chunk of smiles with all the relatives.. check.  

(I'm loving this shot of my Dad with my son).

Camera fogging up from rushing it indoors... while capturing this daddy-daughter snuggle...

yep.

Hope you and yours had a wonderful weekend too.

Mel ;o)

colour me: thank.full.

Ok, so I'm a bit excited here.  It's the long weekend.  Thanksgiving weekend to be exact.

Family feasts.

Country drives.

Glowing leaves.

Snuggling kiddos.

Husband holding.

Tea sipping.

Wine bibbing.

Ham spitting.

Wood hiking.

God praising.

~

Just a whole darn lot to be super duper thankful for.

And to start off the fun today?  I get to teach 'art appreciation' to a room full of home.schooled kids.  Yee-haw.

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Canadians.

The rest of you turkeys, ok, you can be thankful too.

See you on the flip side friends,

Mel ;o)

mini-sized me...

 

 My husband and I have a running joke in our home... whenever one of the kids is being particularly spastic... we'll remark: "you know that's your side coming out in them"!

It's quite a funny/frightening thing really, watching these lil' individuals start mimicking and mirroring your own behaviour.

I find that whole debate of nature vs. nurture fascinating.

I always wonder how much of what kids are 'born with' gets displayed vs. what they learn.

Truth be told, it's pretty clear that my girl is just a mini-sized me right now: 

 I see her silly faces and realise I'm making them too.

While her personality, vocabulary and expressions are getting more hilarious each day.

Though she still knows how to work a massive-meltdown in 0-60 seconds (that's all her... Ben and I don't have meltdowns...much).

Her and I are delighted by a lot of the same things:

snuggling. sugar. exploring trails. painting. music/dancing. family. chocolate.

Other traits we share:

If it's hot out.. the first place we sweat is on our nose (yep, like a healthy puppy).

We both have smelly feet.

A shared impish nature.

 A desire to 'know the plan' for the day (Azi always says: "Who are we going to visit today, mama?").

We also act shy/overwhelmed in new social settings.. but soon get comfortable and start bossing everyone around.

....

 Seriously, this has got to be one of the craziest experiences in life.

Birthing a new humanoid into the world.. and day by day... watching them unfold as completely unique/wild/wonderful persons!

Gosh, I hope we don't screw her up too badly.

I mean, kids really inspire us to get our act together.

You want to model all the best traits you can muster for them to aspire to/beyond.  

Love. Faith. Hospitality. Creativity. Sincerity. Character.

It's such a sacred stewardship to be entrusted with the care of these young souls.

There I go, getting overwhelmed again... with love for these kiddos in our nest.

I'm such a sucker for them.

---------------------

Anyway, it's Small Style day ~ where I link up with other mamas and their cuties.

As usual Azriel's crazy-colourful outfit is all thrifted/second hand (Old Navy mainly).. plus that wee scarf I cut to size (Hurley).

---------------------

Rainbow bright's mama,

Mel ;o)

Shop the Nest: Neck.Lace (last of their kind)...

Today is the day to shop the nest again!

I was just going through some of my jewellery inventory and discovered I have only two of my unique neck.lace lovelies left here.

----------------------

(You may recall how I used up the rest of this special lace for a custom wedding order last year).

 This one is a favourite of mine. 

I love how the delicate blooms trail up the side of the neckline.

The chain is a milky silver tone with a lobster clasp at the back.

$30 (FREE shipping).

This reminds me of a lotus flower... or angel wings.. what do you see?

A small crystalline jewel is nestled in the centre.

A milky silver chain with lobster clasp hovers it gently over your collarbone.

$30 (FREE shipping).

 -----------------------------

**Once these sell.. that's the last of their kind!  So please get your order in quickly if you do have your heart set on one of them: needleandnestdesign@live.com.** 

Creatively yours,

Mel ;o)

colour me: in autumn's treasures...

Every season marks a new collection for our daughter.

sticks

mushrooms

flowers

...and now...

fallen leaves in all their glowing glory.

Recently I decided to make a little expedition/field trip/nature journal for her.

Grabbing an old "How to draw Trees" book I had, we wandered around our in-law's property looking for different leaves (bonus points if they actually matched the trees sketched in the book already!).

Azriel's delight in collecting leaves is equalled only be her enthusiasm to drench everything in glue... as she was contentedly slopping leaves onto the various pages.

My delight was to sit back, sip coffee.. and watch as the glowing embers of summer nestled down into Autumn's embrace.

....

And seriously, I don't know where that girl gets all her ridiculous faces from...
She's unbeleafable! 
(Yes, that was lame, but I needed to fill my cheesy humour quota today).
....
What fall activities do you love doing with your family?
Happy harvesting of fun memories!

Mel ;o)

D.I.Y: fabric ring...

 Hello lovelies.  Here's another 'super.fast.stupid.easy' project for you to create in 10-15 minutes!  You could call it the "scrap-happy" ring if you like.

 Supplies Needed:

* A circle of vinyl (cut just larger than a quarter).

* An old ring that fits you (or a 'backing ring' from craft/jewellery store)

* A couple small strips of fabric scraps.

* Bonus: a few decor pieces to attach.

 Flip your vinyl circle upside down.

Twist the fabric scrap into the centre of that circle and start 'zig-zag' sewing it while you continue to turn the vinyl (creating a spiral of twisted fabric).  You can keep adding different coloured fabric to each coiled layer as you sew.. just go slow.

 Now that you've created a fabric rosette, it's time to decide how/if you want to accessorise it:

1) I liked the simplicity of it just as it was sewn.. but wanted a bit more 'depth'.

2) I set the blue button on it.. but decided it would look like a strange eye.

3) I threw a wee doily on it, and some shell coins from an old earring... but felt it looked too cluttered.

4) So, in the end, I opted to just attach the shell coins for a little bit of 'jingle'.

 Now that we've decided on the final look of our ring... grab some embroidery thread and stitch through the vinyl and around your ring a number of times.

(Note: if you don't want to see all that stitching underneath, you could just hot glue another smooth disc of vinyl to the bottom of your sewn one).

Easy peasey.

A fun textile statement piece for your enjoyment.

~

Want to see another cool ring d.i.y that really rocks?  Hop on over to Lauren's blog A Perfect Pear and check this one out.

~

Happy crafting, friends!

Mel ;o)