Strawberries everywhere!

Hello,

   It is fruit season here at the Luczak-Lombera home! I usually have mostly vegetables and a crap load of herbs growing but at this time of year, in southern California, I focus on fruit.

  About two months ago I noticed the strawberries I attempted to grow last year, which did not grow very well, started to sprout up all over the place! My family loves them and can take a 1lb of them out in one sitting. Strawberries and apples are the only fruit my WHOLE  family likes. The only problem I have with that is buying organic strawberries from the grocery store or at the farmers market is so expensive! So I was so excited when I saw them growing again and I hoped to get a few strawberries this time. Well it turns out they took over most of my very small garden area and I ended up with about 10 strawberries a day and that is just what the bugs didn't eat.

  This week I decided to take my garden back and transfer part of the strawberries to a planter and pull the rest. 

 

 

This worked out great and gave me space to plant more fruit! Oooh maybe I will try watermelon this year... or another type of berry. Stay tuned!  

 

 

Until next time!

 

Magan

Teacher Appreciation Gift

Hello!

  My son's last day of preschool is tomorrow. My emotions about this have been all over the place but mostly I am excited because he gets to give his teacher the gift we made her. I really like his teacher and I am sure she is going to get a lot of flowers and fancy lotions from the other parents so I wanted to give her something homemade.

  Last week I was on Pinterest and saw all of these ideas for Teacher gifts. I had no idea people really  did this kind of thing (in my defense this is my oldest child's first year of school) but I was excited to give his teacher something since she helped my son so much throughout the year.  Once I decided the gift was going to be homemade I started to look for ideas. I couldn't find anything I liked so I decided to stare at all of my craft supplies and start brainstorming. Well after doing that off and on for two days I finally decided what I was going to do...

 

 

 

...Crochet Flower Pens! I wanted something I could make and his teacher could use. Plus this way I could make a pen for each of the assistant teachers... which were also so great to my son. I already had a ton of yarn so I just picked the three colors I wanted to use and made two crochet flowers, three yarn pom poms, and a crochet leaf for each. I bought a pack of pens for a couple dollars and used my hot glue gun to attach everything. After I made them I knew I had to make something to put them in, this is the part my son helped with.

 







 

 

 

 

 

I purchased a clay pot / saucer at the hardware store and already had white acrylic paint. My son helped me paint the pot and he wrote his name on the back in pencil, which I went over in a black sharpie marker after, and I added the "2014". I then painted the phrase "Thank you for helping me grow" (this was meaningful to me since my son was having speech issues and she did wonders for his development). I knew I needed something to help the pens stand up straight so I cut a circle out of cardboard (large enough to fit about an inch or two from the top) and put five holes in the center. This worked great to keep the pens upright but I didn't want the cardboard to be visible so I added some brown yard to look like dirt. This whole project only took me two hours! I love how it came out and I cant wait to give it to his teacher!

 

 

Until next time!

 

 

Magan 

 

 

 

Mother's Day

Hello,

   Happy Mother's Day! I wouldn't say this is my favorite holiday but it is a very close second. Unlike other days that are directed towards me, like my birthday or Valentine's Day, I  feel like I earned this day!  I use this holiday to get out of doing mom stuff... which I know is ironic. I lay on the couch, watch a non-animated movie,  tell my husband "but it's my day can't you change her diaper?" and all is right with the world for 24hrs.

   What made this day even better? Well a few things, first I got to write on my blog while both kids are awake. Second are the gifts I received from my kids and husband. Third is having my son, who is old enough now to understand what this day is, tell me "Happy Mother's Day".

   The gifts I received from my husband are a few of my guilty pleasures. He teases me so much about them that I was surprised he allowed himself to be seen buying them and is fine with them being in the house!
 
   My first gift was BBC's Sherlock season 1.

    I am borderline obsessed with this show. My husband bought me season 2 for Christmas and season 3 for Valentines day even thought he knows that I have a slight crush on Sherlock... that is a good man right there. Anyway I could go on for hours about how good this show is, and I probably will in another post, but for now I will just say that with my season 1 Mother's Day gift he has completed my Sherlock Blu-ray collection. Yay!

   My second gift was the six Jane Austen novels.

    I had no idea who Jane Austen was just a few months ago and then I saw Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" and I was hooked. I like to read the book before I see any film adaptation but I had no idea "Sense and Sensibility" was a book! I am embarrassed to say that since she is such a famous author and I love to read. I will post more about the books as I read them.

  My third gift was a paper flower made by my son in his preschool class.

  This was my favorite gift! He was so excited when I picked him up from school on Friday. He hands me something wrapped in tissue paper and tells me "mom I made this for you but you can't open it until Mother's Day" . Yesterday was the longest day of my life! I wanted to open it sooo bad and my son kept reminding me I couldn't open until Mothers' Day. Well when I finally opened it (first thing when I woke up) I cried like a baby and hugged him so much that I am pretty sure I freaked him out. I know I will be getting school made Mother's Day gifts from my kids for many years but since this is my very first one I am framing it... my husband can tease me all he wants and I am sure he will once I tell him.

Again "Happy Mother's Day"!


Until next time!

Magan

Sophia's 2nd Birthday Party

Hello!

 Last weekend was my daughter's 2nd birthday party. I had been planning this party for over four months. Now I know that sounds crazy but she's my youngest, my only daughter, and (I am almost positive) my last child so this helped to justify the excessive planning... a bit.
 
  So the theme was "Fairies". I picked this theme for the simple reason of dressing my daughter up as a fairy. I had no idea I would get so many strange looks from my family and friends but I assume most people expect character themes for kids parties. Anyway after the date and theme were set I started the decoration planning. I was determined to make as many of the decorations as possible. I spent hours on Pintrest getting ideas and then hours on Youtube learning how to make everything.

  The next step was to start making! Since this is my favorite part,  and also the hardest part because I have two kids under the age of four,  I dedicated two months to this process.  I took a trip to the local craft  stores and dollar stores any chance I could. I also cleaned out a corner of my kitchen as a designated "craft corner". When my son was in school or my daughter was asleep I would paint, crochet, cut, glue, assemble, etc. Unfortunately my "craft corner" spilled into the rest of the kitchen by the end and I had tulle and tissue pom poms hanging from the celling fan.

  By April I was handling all loose ends and trying to relax before the big day because I always get super nervous. All those kids running around hyped up on cupcakes and juice and hoping the little ones don't have a melt down (especially the birthday girl) is stressful! Thank goodness my husband is the opposite of me and doesn't get nervous about anything so he keeps me calm... or calmer I should say.

  Then the day arrives and it was perfect! All that planning paid off and all of my hard work paid off too! I am going to take next year off though and take her to Disneyland.




Tulle fairy wands for my daughters 2nd Birthday Party. After I master the art of "tulle pom pom making" all I did was decide on the size and break out the hot glue gun.



Homemade Play-Doh for my daughters 2nd Birthday. I made it completely edible since she still puts everything in her mouth.



Sign for my daughters 2nd Birthday. I made it out of six pieces of stock paper tapped together. I added "happy 2nd birthday" using sticker letters and "Sophia" using painted wooded letters. The last touch was foam fairy stickers.



Tree and Birdhouse centerpiece for my daughters 2nd Birthday Party. I bought a white wire tree and wrapped it in twine. I painted a little birdhouse and filled a mason jar with moss to hold the tree. I made a small crochet flower and crochet pom pom out of yarn to give it a little something extra.



Dress I made for my daughters 2nd Birthday party. I crocheted the top using granny squares and added straps. I attached one piece of tulle at a time to make the tutu skirt and added a crochet belt with a flower to hide where the tulle and yarn meet (it wasn't very attractive but didn't look horrible without a belt).



Tulle pom pom cupcake toppers for my daughters 2nd Birthday Party. I used the same process I used to make the Tulle fairy wands but on a smaller scale.



Felt Flower cupcake Toppers for my daughters 2nd Birthday Party. I have to admit I bought the felt flowers and added the sticks... I haven't mastered felt yet. I did paint those mushrooms in the back ground though!



Play-Doh Favors for my daughters 2nd Birthday Party. I made the play-doh in my kitchen. I bought the little 2" containers at the dollar store (10 for a dollar) and purchased the personalized stickers on Etsy.



Gift and Favor table at my daughters 2nd Birthday Party.



Dessert Table at my daughters 2nd Birthday Party.

Until next time!

Magan