Eva is taking a multi media art class at school and a few weeks ago the class headed to Goodwill to pick an article of clothing they could decorate to make a piece of wearable art. This is Eva’s version of a “straw” skirt. I loved it.

The best part of the homemade dollhouse  project was that it was made in our art studio. Paul built it for me when we got married. It was a place for me to do my writing and seaweed art, but also a free space for the children to invent, create and make messes. We work on art projects, make candles, sew, have my Just Imaginate craft classes. It’s a fun room. When we lived at our old house, my girls had a play house that their father had built for them. They missed it terribly. This special room is for all of us and I love enjoying it with them. The photos below are of our studio.

art studio entrance

art studio interior

another view

Last week the kids had a four day weekend because of the semester break. Sophia had her wisdom teeth out on Friday, but was feeling well enough by Saturday to spend the rest of the weekend working on a homemade dollhouse. She came out to my studio (where I write this blog, among many other things) and told me that since she didn’t have any homework, she wanted to tackle a project she always wanted to do and that was to make a dollhouse out of card board boxes. She worked on it the rest of the weekend, enlisting the aid of her two sisters to help her. It was amazing what they came up with. They built, decorated and furnished the entire house all with found objects. The made bookcases filled with books, lampshades out of sewing thimbles and shower curtain rods out of bead wire. Everything was in miniature and it was a masterpiece. Here are some photos of their homemade doll house.

Eva is in 8th grade and she and her friends have been playing soccer with each other (and coached by the same coaches)  on the same soccer team since kindergarten. This year is probably the last year they will play together since next year the team in their age category becomes Under 19 and is co-ed. Since most of the girls don’t want to do that, they will mostly likely discontinue playing. They’ll be in high school and probably pursue other interests. Saturday was the last game and we had the final party at our house. I made my usual soccer cake, which has become a tradition. Eva and her friends jumped on the trampoline, sat by the outdoor fireplace and reminisced over old times. It is truly the end of an era.I got a little choked up.

Here is a great program I just heard about that I want to share with you.—

With the holiday season fast approaching, many good people are getting ready to do the good work of helping families and communities in need. VolunteerSpot — a free online planning tool — has joined with the Arbor Day Foundation to make participating in this season’s service activities easier than ever.

Whether it’s class parents planning food drives or nonprofits and congregations preparing for community meals, toy drives and charity bazaars, VolunteerSpot’s free online sign-up tool makes it easy for any group to sign up and coordinate volunteers. And in this tough economic climate, volunteering will play an even more crucial role in ensuring a brighter season for struggling families and communities.

“I think most people want to give back, especially this time of year. VolunteerSpot has been very helpful in coordinating volunteers for our Backpacks of Food program.” Said Pastor Brad O’Brien of Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.  Backpacks of Food is a hunger intervention partnership between the church and local elementary school where volunteers fill children’s backpacks with food for the weekend so they can eat healthy while they aren’t at school. Its volunteers are among the more than 100,000 people using VolunteerSpot across the country.

About the Giving Tree Giveaway

As part of this effort to promote holiday volunteering, Arbor Day Foundation and VolunteerSpot are teaming up for a Giving Tree Giveaway.  Plan any local holiday service activity on VolunteerSpot, and the Arbor Day Foundation will plant a tree in your name in a fire-damaged national forest. “The trees we plant will be lasting symbol of service to generations to come,” said Kevin Sander, director of corporate partnerships for the Arbor Day Foundation.

“Giving to others is the true spirit of the holidays, but in this economy, one of the most important things we can all give is service,” said Karen Bantuveris, VolunteerSpot founder and CEO. “VolunteerSpot wants service to be easier – which is why we created our online tools – and this holiday season we want service to have a double benefit by giving back to our nation through replanting our national forests.”

To get a tree planted, register a new account at VolunteerSpot and plan a holiday service activity. Just add the word “TREE” where we ask what type of group you organize, and be sure to invite at least four volunteers. Once completed, VolunteerSpot and the Arbor Day Foundation will plant a tree in your group’s name in fire-damaged national forests. Happy holidays from VolunteerSpot and Arbor Day Foundation!

Please visit VolunteerSpot’s website to learn more about the Giving Tree Giveaway and see examples of holiday service ideas: http://www.VolunteerSpot.com/ebooks/GivingTree .

Last week when the kids had off from school for Veteran’s Day, I took them bowling at the Santa Cruz  Boardwalk Bowl, a formerly skanky joint with pervs hanging out in the bar, that it is now under new management, has been completely remodeled and is finally what it should be:  a fun, happenin’ place to take your family. Even though the snack bar still serves  greasy pizza and nachos with fake cheese,  it also offers healthy alternatives like garden salads topped with roasted chicken and Napa Valley wines.  In addition, the scoring system is completely computerized, which is a godsend to someone like me who never quite understood how you could bowl a  300 game  when you only have the opportunity to knock down 10 pins 10 times. Doesn’t that add up to 100 points? (Please don’t try to explain it to me. Others have tried and failed.) Read the rest of this entry »

Aside from being a busy mom and stepmom, I am also a nature artist. Here is a photo of my seaweed art. If you would like to purchase my seaweed art cards on Etsy click here.

Everywhere I go in my house, even in my car, I can look down at any given moment and see an orthodontic rubber band. You know those little 1/4 inch bands that most kids with braces have to wear at some point? With five kids in braces, we have a lot of those things lying around. Each time I find one, I can’t help but be reminded of the cost of raising five kids. Some people get excited when they pay off their student loans or their mortgage, I danced a jig of joy when I made my last orthodontist payment. Now to pay for college, car insurance, weddings… That’s another story. The kids are starting to get jobs to help pay the way a bit, and we are all doing our part to trim expenses as much as possible. Here are some strategies I have used lately that have helped cut a chunk off of our monthly budget.

First, I only shop at Marshalls. I took the kids there when we were in New Jersey this summer and we could not believe the deals. All the girls got stylin’ gladiator sandals for under $10. Cheryl found an O’Neill bathing suit for $7 and Sophia scored an American Eagle wool pea coat for $24. I told the kids, “From now on, that is where we will shop.” No more over priced mall designer stores. After all, why pay more when you can pay less?

Secondly, I canceled the house keeper. It killed me to do it, but I just could not justify the expense anymore. Now I pay the kids a small amount of chore money to clean their rooms and bathrooms and pick up the rest of the house, which is something they should have been doing all along.  I had justified the expense in the past because I was working full time and the kids were so busy with sports and homework. Now, we set aside two Saturdays a month to give the house a thorough cleaning and the money we save can go into a vacation account or toward some  other house hold expense.

Cook from scratch. If the kids want cookies they can make them themselves. Ditto for pizza and other snacks. Here are some recipe ideas from my Just Imaginate blog.

Make gifts and cards. This holiday season I plan to make as many as possible. I am starting now so that I have plenty of time.  Here are some homemade gift ideas also from my Just Imaginate blog.

Cooking/baking and making crafts  is a wonderful way to spend time together as a family. It is entertaining. It’s relaxing and it teaches kids the value of saving money.

I don’t usually describe food as fun, but recently I tried Bear Naked granola and I loved it. ( I would just like to interject here that I am not a paid endorser of the product, and I didn’t get freebies to try it either. I just liked it and want to share it with you.)  My kids were asking me to make them yogurt, fruit and  granola parfaits so I picked up some Bear Naked granola and some Stonyfield yogurt and on the inside lid of the yogurt I found this recipe for granola cupcakes. I have made them twice. The first time with The Heavenly Chocolate granola and the second time with The Vanilla Almond Crunch granola.  The added granola makes for a very interesting and fun texture. My family loved them. For the recipe visit my kids’s craft blog: Just Imaginate.

I have a new blog called Just Imaginate, that I just launched that is dedicated to super fun crafts and activities for children.

When my children were small they were always coming to me and asking, “Mommy, can we do a project?” Since I was determined to raise my kids to be self-directed and creative without a dependency on TV to be entertained, I was more than happy to comply with their requests. One day when my oldest daughter Sophia was about four, she was working on an ”invention” and someone asked her how she came up with the idea for it and she replied, “I just imaginate.”  This blog is a compilation of all those fun years we spent together imagining, creating and “imaginating”.

Please check out Just Imaginate. Bookmark it. Forward it to your friends and send me all your suggestions, questions and contributions.