Mouse Hunt

Earlier today as I was sitting at my desk I noticed a mouse running straight for me. EEEK!! I'm not terribly scared of them but I definitely don't want one running over my toes and when I searched for him he had disappeared. Okay so one mouse is in the house. Not something to be taken lightly as I really don't want it rummaging through the pantry shelves *grin*. I made a mental note to set a trap for him later that evening and off we went about our errands.

Upon returning home my daughter noticed something running across the stairs in the laundry room and was shouting that there was something black running around behind the potato sack! Of course I thought it must be that pesky little mouse again from earlier and when I picked up the potatoes sure enough a little one scurried away behind the freezer. But it didn't end there. A few minutes there were horrified shouting coming from all ends of the house!

There was a mouse in the bathroom, a mouse in the living room and a mouse by the front door and pandemonium was breaking out as the kids ran wildly around shrieking. What was I going to do?! I didn't have enough traps to set in every room and these little guys didn't appear to really know what they were up to. It was the funniest thing to watch really as they froze like deer in the headlights and scurried back and forth along the walls. Poor things, I think they were just a bunch of young ones.

So I did what any quick thinking mama would do.... I got the vacuum! *grin*. I didn't have a broom to swat them with so I thought maybe I could suck them up, and suck them up I did! LOL. I got every single one of them and even vacuumed the floors :) They're all out in the trash can now tightly locked inside. They can rummage around in there for a day until they relocate to the garbage dump because I definitely don't want them to return!

Hopefully that will be the last of our little mousy visitors but we always seem to get a few field mice throughout the year. A hazard of all the hay and grain nearby for the animals. I think I'll set some more traps though just in case so I don't have to chase them with the vacuum next time *grin*.

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Easter Crafts

1. home made fluffy easter chicks, 2. Egg-cellent Easter Grass, 3. easter eggs, 4. Chicks sandwich

I thought that with this coming weekend being Easter and all that I would share some really great Easter crafts that you can do for yourself or with your kiddies :)

All of the above photos in the mosaic have links to their tutorial pages and below are some more of my favorites that I've ran across so far this year. Have fun crafting!



Super cute Easter Chick bag made with placemats!

Turn an empty oatmeal can or tin into a creative Easter basket :)

Love these fuzzy chenille carrots!



Easter bunny treat bags or party favors made with envelopes

And I've got to make some of these adorable Ballet Bunnies!! So cute :)

Want to join in the fun and share your flickr favorites? Hop on over Easter bunny style to Misty's blog and join in!

~ Rosina

Happy Earth Hour

I hope everyone had fun taking part in this years Earth Hour!!

We had our luminary jars all ready to go and as soon as it was 8:30pm we plunged ourselves into darkness. What a hoot *grin*. We have plenty of power outages throughout the winter but for some reason it's just more fun for the kids when we do it on purpose :)

A blogging friend of mine had mentioned that it would be neat to put the year on our luminaries and make a collection out of them and I thought that was a fantastic idea! So I changed our Earth Hour jar and added '2010' to it :)

I would have loved to see some of the different monuments and cities around the world go dark but for now I will have to settle for watching this years official Earth Hour video :) If you haven't seen it take a moment and check it out, it's really neat to see. Also hop over to the Earth Hour flickr group and see what everyone is sharing from tonight.

If you've blogged about your Earth Hour I know my children would love to see it :)

~ Rosina

Feltastic Bunny Finger Puppets

You can never have to much felt, that's my motto!

A brand new dollar store just opened up nearby which meant that there was going to be an isle overflowing with crafty goodness and I was right :) There were stacks upon stacks of soft & fuzzy felt and at only a quarter a piece which is cheaper than I can usually find it at I loaded up *grin*.

I'm really not a felt hoarder.... honestly I swear I'm not! LOL. No I definitely had a legitimate reason. I'm making these super cute bunny finger puppets as Easter gifts for the kids :) I just finished cutting out all of the rabbits out of the felt and have one half sewn so far but when they're finished they'll all have little pom pom tails and embroidered faces. I haven't decided who's getting them yet or if maybe I'll just hide them among the flowers for our Easter hunt. Either way they're going to be cute :)

Are you making any special gifts for Easter this year? I'd love to see what you're up to :)

~ Rosina

Earth Hour ~ Luminary Jars

With earth hour happening this Saturday, March 27th at 8:30pm I thought that it would be fun to do something special with the kids as we get ready to join the rest of the globe by shutting off our lights for one hour :)

So we decided that the perfect way to celebrate would be to make luminary jars with an earth hour theme :) We brainstormed and came up with a couple of perfect ideas. An earth inside a heart because we need to show our love for the earth, a light bulb with the earth inside to symbolize the purpose of earth hour by turning out the lights and a plain jar that we completely blacked out with paint and only the words 'earth hour' unpainted so that when we light it on Saturday the name will glow brightly in the dark :)



This is such an easy craft and who doesn't just love to finger paint with glue?!

Armed with colored tissue and crepe paper, empty glass jars with their labels removed and a big bottle of white glue we got started. I would recommend getting each child to pick out what colors they're going to use and tear them into chunks before starting to glue to minimize the amount of paper that may get stuck to their fingers *grin*. After that let them go hog wild! LOL.

This has to be the easiest craft and perfect for all ages. Even the littlest hands can slap paper onto glue :) My four year old created this lovely red luminary and he was so enthused that he even glued and papered the underside of his glass jar *grin*.

We've set them aside to let them fully dry and are now anxiously awaiting Saturday evening so that we can light little candles inside the jars and watch them glow in the dark :)

You've still got time to make some to! Have fun and don't forget to turn off the lights :)

~ Rosina

Cheesy Onion Bread ~ Recipe

You just have to try this bread!! It is so delicious and they are fantastic for open faced sandwiches, dipping in soup or toasting with garlic butter on top :) They never last long around here so that is definitely a good sign that they are well loved *grin*.

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 4 cups freshly ground 'spring red' hard wheat berries or you can substitute whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp wheat gluten (not needed if you use store bought whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried parsley flakes
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese, seperated
  

Start by combining your warm water, yeast and honey and let sit for 10 minutes to activate the yeast. While your yeast is sitting you can finely chop and fry the onion in the oil until the onion is soft and transparent. Once your onion is cooked add the onions to your yeast mixture and add the flour, mustard, spices and ½ a cup of the cheddar cheese. You need to reserve the extra ¼ cup for the top of your loaves :)

If you are using an electric mixer you will want to let it knead your dough for about 5 minutes. If you are strong arming it *grin* and kneading by hand then you will want to work your dough for about 8 minutes as you're going to need a little more muscle power to get the same effect as the mixer :) When finished place your dough in a greased bowl, cover it and let it rise in a nice warm spot until the dough has doubled.

When your dough has risen enough you can turn it out onto a lightly greased counter top. I like to spray mine with a touch of Pam and then you can easily work with your dough, it won't stick to the counter and you won't have to add any extra flour which will toughen your dough if you accidentally add to much :)

Punch your dough down and divide it into two equal halves. You will then want to take each half and roll it out out into a long snake shape and place each roll into your greased french bread pans or a regular cookie sheet will work to if you don't have a french bread pan :) No worries!

Using a sharp knife slice some diagonal lines on the top of each loaf and and then sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of cheese on top.Now for the final rise. Cover your loaves once more and set them in a warm spot to double in size again. As soon as they are finished rising bake them at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 25 minutes until they are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap on them.

Enjoy!

~ Rosina

Coming Together Nicely

I thought that I would share an update on how L's little hexagon dolly quilt is coming along. I think I'm actually going to get it finished in time for Easter and have time to spare! There's only a handful of them left to sew together and then it's on to the binding, backing and so on :)

I'm actually amazed at how well all of the little hexagons fit together. I was slightly terrified that if any of them were off in size at all that it would throw the entire thing off but it's quite forgiving! I've had a few that are a couple of millimeters to long or short on one side or the other but they just sort of work in to the next hexagon without any fussing. So if you were thinking of tackling one similar to this I say go for it! *grin*

L's been eyeing up my craft bag as I've been whisking it in and out of cupboards, under fabric piles and skulking in shadows with it to catch little moments to sew on it during the day. LOL. She knows that I'm up to something but can't figure out what :)

It did get her excited about doing some fabric pictures and she put together this one using some of my scraps. She spent the morning cutting out shapes and stitching them on to the fabric until she had a story to go along with it. So cute! I think I'm going to have to get some more hoops for her or we could just switch out the fabric every time she wants to do a new one because she's already cutting out pieces for a new one :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ 39 Squares Stitch Along

1. 3, 2. 8, 3. 4, 4. 10

I couldn't help myself but make a mosaic entirely comprised of freestyle embroidery by Amy from Inspireco. They are freaking amazing and I just had to share them with you :)

In celebration of her birthday this month she had decided to do a birthday sampler with one tiny little postage sized square for each year of life and she has even started a special blog called '39 Squares' where you can join and stitch along with her while creating your own sampler.

Oh do I want to do this to *grin*. All I need is to get my hands on some linen and I can start! Check out the flickr group that she has set up for all of the other ladies to share their squares on as they stitch along :) So fun!

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

~ Rosina

Mysterious Mushroom & Giveaway Link

I think that I've spent way to much time watching and reading Alice in Wonderland with the children lately! When I spotted this mysteriously beautiful mushroom that had sprouted up in the potted primrose flower I couldn't help but wonder what it might feel like to be ultra miniature like Alice and have it towering over my head!

Oh boy do I have one heck of an imagination *grin*.

I have no idea what kind it is but it has the most intriguing edges around the cap. Not quite scalloped, more pointed with white pointed tips. I'd love to know what it is if you happen to know :)

Since I'm on the topic of the mysterious marvels of nature I wanted to share a little giveaway that I learned about on Natural Papa's blog. He is giving away a copy of Dirt! The Movie.

Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth's climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth.Yet most humans ignore, abuse, and destroy our most precious living natural resource.Consider the results of such behavior: mass starvation, drought, floods, and global warming, and wars. {via Dirt the Movie}

I don't think that any of us actually think about the dirt beneath us quite as much as we should and this movie is going to shine the spotlight on it and bring it to the forefront of our attention! To find out more about the giveaway and to watch a short trailer on the movie head over to Natural Papa and leave a comment about why you think dirt is so important :)

~ Rosina

1 Hex, 2, Hex, 13 Hex?

I just love my little rainbow of hexagons :)
So colorful yet so confusing *grin*. I can definitely understand now why I needed to number each of them before starting to sew them together! I had packed them with in the truck today when we headed into town but quickly realized that I couldn't just pull them out one by one to stitch them together and to top it all off I had actually forgotten which way I had arranged them the other day on the table for the finished look. Apparently I'm suffering from short term memory loss these days :)

My little pattern indicated that I was definitely not to sew them all together in a straight line but in a zig zagging sort of pattern. So number 1 was stitched to number 2 and then number 13 was attached to number 2. I'm just whip stitching them with a bright green thread because I thought that it would look fun since some of the stitching is going to end up showing a bit on the front side anyways. I've got 5 together so far and I'm going to do a few more tonight and then I'll show you how I'm progressing again :) I must say it's a fun little project!

~ Rosina

Jumper Pleats

I pulled out the pieces to L's jumper this afternoon so that I could get a little more work done on it. I had mentioned a while back that I was going to attempt to place some contrasting fabric inside the pleats and today was the day.

I must admit I was a little scared when I started hacking up the front skirt panel into pieces *grin*. With the original pattern folded and refolded into the size I though it should be I removed 2 portions of the corduroy and then sewed in the contrasting pink fabric. I just LOVE the two colors together :)

One down and two more to go! The backside has another 2 pleats to replace and then it should be smooth sailing. That is until I get to the zipper. Can you imagine that there was no zipper that matched the turquoise fabric? Well actually I'm not surprised at all as we have very limited choices in my neck of the woods so I've got an invisible zipper in cream that they assured me would be the solution. Hmm, we'll see. I'm not so convinced because if any portion of the cream colored zipper shows it's definitely going to stick out :(

~ Rosina

Tinting Flower Petals

We're finally moving out of our winter hibernation mode and getting involved in some of the homeschool activities that are happening around us :) Usually during winter I hesitate to sign up for any outings since we live in the sticks *grin* nearly an hours drive away from the nearest city and the roads are completely unpredictable to navigate but with the complete absence of any snow this year we're ready to get out and about!

One of the nearby museums is running a program geared specifically for homeschool kids and L is finally old enough at 6 to participate so she's completely thrilled :) Today they learned all about plants and their parts by drawing and labeling a flower, explored what was growing at a nearby park and then coming back to the museum and planting different seeds that they had found at the park.

It's so cute! She has two little paper cups filled with dirt and in one is what looks like a maple tree seed pod and in the other is a mystery seed which her teacher thinks is a zinnia :) I sure hope that something sprouts up for her! *grin*.

They're second little activity was learning about how flowers drink through their capillary action so they filled little ziploc baggies with brightly colored water and then placed a zinnia inside. Now we wait and watch the flower drink up the dyed water and see the tips of the flower petals change colors as they take in the dye :)

Thankfully the little baggies made it home without upsetting in the car! Although we did have a minor spill at home on the windowsill when green food coloring dripped all down my nice white wall. ACK! Luckily I spotted it right away before it dried on and stained. Needless to say our flowers are safely in glass jars now *grin*.

Can't wait to see what project they do next time :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Take Two

1. Rosina du Gui Nel, 2. rosina, 3. 01 Puppe Rosina, 4. Lauris Elms Dame Joan & Rosina Sunday 5th Nov 2005

I completely forgot that Mitsy had given us a challenge for this weeks flickr favorites so you'll have to excuse the over abundance of mosaics today as this is my second in a row! *grin*.

The challenge was to create a mosaic of photos that showed who I am. It didn't have to be actual photos of myself and I thought it would be interesting to search for photos with my name, Rosina. I've got to say that apparently my name tells me a lot about myself!

So here is a little bit about me to go with each of the photos I chose.

1. I'm a Sagittarius, an Archer, a water horse. I love horses and have owned them in the past. I like to spend time watching from afar, not quite the social butterfly I would like to be :)

2. I went to nursing school... fresh out of high school at 17. I've always loved those starched white caps. The photo actually reminds me a lot of myself.

3. I'm a crafter. A day without being creative is torture!

4. I'm a mother, a daughter and a sister :)

Bisous de Rosina ;), originally uploaded by jacaranda4.

So now that you know a little bit more about me I'm coming to stick my nose around your flickr self portrait *grin*. You can check out the first mosaic I made today here if you like to :)

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Hex Mania

1. Hexagon Quilt , 2. Grandmother's Flower Garden, 3. hexagons, 4. hexitis macro

I'm having a serious case of hexagon envy! *grin*. I thought that I would oogle some of the other hex projects happening on flickr and came across so many beautiful quilts. Oh my! So colorful and so many variations :) I also stumbled across a really interesting tutorial on how to do an invisible ladder stitch for binding quilts. I just might have to try this out :)

I've finished ironing all of my little hexagons for L's little dolly quilt and I ended up cutting out four new ones in a solid green linen that I had so that I can do a little freehand embroidery on them. I'm not sure if I will stitch her initials or little flowers or what yet but now that I've added them I've got the option to make it a little more personalized for her :)

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

Daylight Savings Time Warp

Anyone else get caught off guard by the time change today?
I had totally forgotten all about it until hubby came to wake me up and tell me that he had somehow mysteriously lost an hour between getting out of bed and making coffee! LOL.

I must say that I was so happy to see that it was still daylight tonight at 7pm though. The darkness is finally receding. I think that the birds are even more chipper! They're flocking the bird feeder in droves and tweeting up a storm lately :)

We'll have to see just how chipper I feel in the morning though. I've got company coming early and I'm still running on the pre daylight savings so of course I'm not feeling tired enough to sleep yet *grin*. Maybe I should put it to good use and find a place to stash all of the piles of fabric that are out and about!

What do you think... Maybe if I put a long tablecloth on the dining room table I can stash it under there. LOL. Wish me luck :)

~ Rosina

Hexagon Quilt

Okay so I know I said that I was going to be working on the dress I'm making for my daughter, but somehow I got distracted. I came across the cutest pattern for a hexagon quilt and now I'm making it *grin*. Wait though I've got a good excuse! It's top secret so it's a good thing she doesn't read my blog but I'm going to make it doll sized as an Easter present for L :) She's going to love it!

I've never made a paper pieced quilt before and of course the directions are quite vague but I'm pretty good at improv :) So right out of the starting gate I'm already breaking the pattern rules LOL.

Apparently I was supposed to be using loose paper hexagon pieces that you then baste onto the fabric but I'm totally not into all that basting so I broke out the freezer paper which is instant sticky paper when you iron it onto fabric!

I've got all 39 of my little hexagons cut and their freezer paper centers affixed and I'm just finishing up ironing all of the seams down and to make sure that I don't accidentally iron to far over the paper I've been ironing with my cardboard tracer inside. It's working out beautifully but I'm quite thankful that I'm not making a queen sized quilt top or anything with these little guys! I'd be ironing and clipping forever :)

~ Rosina

Pictures Around The Farm ~ Spring Has Sprung

Just when I thought that we would escape any form of winter this year it went and tried to snow today! Thankfully it was only a dusting of snow and the rain & wind quickly swept it away but it is icy cold out there and it's threatening all of the signs of spring that are popping up everywhere :)

I've been sewing up bundles of my reusable cloth snack & sandwich bags for the last couple of days to fill the larger orders that came in earlier this week and I always find that when you know you have to do it you can think of a million other things that need doing *grin*. So now that I got the last of them shipped off today I can't wait to tackle the new spring dress I'm working on for my daughter!

It's a really cute jumper pattern but I'm adding in a couple of pleats to both the front and backside of it and sewing in a bright contrasting fabric inside the pleats. It's a challenge as I've never done it before but I've bot my pleats measured out and figured how much fabric I'm going to need for my contrast colors and it has been calling my name :)

Besides dreaming of sewing projects I've been planning my new raised bed that hubby is going to make for me and a new potato bed that I want to create :) The tomato seeds are in need of planting and by the end of the month I'll be able to get my broccoli started and soon after plant the peas outdoors. Time is moving swiftly!

We found the rhubarb in the above photo is starting to poke through the mulch again and all of the plum & apple trees are coming out in leaves already. If the snow and frozen weather holds off a little while longer we just might have a bumper crop of fruit this year as there a tons of bees buzzing around just itching to get some pollinating done *grin*.

I just love this last photo :) My son was fixing his bike the other day and the darn cat just wouldn't leave him alone. Nothing like a furry helper getting in the way!

What's sprouting and blooming around your home right now?

~ Rosina

Modern Organic Fabrics ~ Giveaway

I just found out about another fantastic fabric giveaway and I had to share it with you all :)

Modern Organic Fabrics is one of my favorite shops to visit on Etsy and she has just opened up her own independent fabric shop featuring all organic fabrics which is awesome!! The more organic choices available to everyone the better and she's got some of my favorites like Cloud 9 and the new Circa 50 line that is due out anytime now.

So to celebrate the opening of her new shop she is giving away a $50 gift certificate! Now that's pretty sweet and it's open internationally which is perfect for those of us not located in the US :)

All you need to do is visit her new shop and then visit thelongthread.com and leave a comment sharing what your favorite thing in the shop is and your in! Just make sure you do it by this Sunday March 14th.

Just in case Sunday rolls around and you and I aren't the lucky winner of the gift certificate, I thought that I'd share a couple other places in Canada where you can find Organic fabrics online :)

Plum Project (awesome customer service & fast shipping)
Pink Panda Fabrics (always free shipping in Canada)
Tonic Living (love shopping here)

I'd love to know where you find your organic fabrics so leave me a comment and let me know :)

~ Rosina

Egg-cellent Easter Grass

With Easter coming up on us at lightning speed I thought that it would be fun to share an Easter project that the kids and I do every year. We make Egg-cellent Easter grass with egg shells that we save for our composter :)
Plus it's a super easy way to bring a little bit of the outdoors in!

There are two ways to get a good egg shell for planting in. You can use either hard boiled eggs or raw eggs but you must make sure that your egg shell is going to be deep enough to hold a substantial amount of soil. So the trick is to crack them really close to the top of the shell leaving a nice deep cavity for planting in. Give the shells a quick rinse and you are ready to move on to the next step of filling them with your potting soil. Using an all purpose potting soil fill a bowl with it and mix in a really generous amount of water so that it is good and wet, not just damp.

With your shells all set up in your egg carton to keep them upright start to spoon in little bits of potting soil at a time until they are about a centimeter from the top of the shell.

Once you have your egg shells filled with soil you can take your grass or wheat seeds and place a solid layer of them inside the egg shell so that they completely cover up the potting soil. The last step is to cover them again with just enough wet potting soil to cover the seeds. You don't want to put to much on or it will take longer for the grass shoots to come through. Place your eggs right in the egg carton in a spot where it is guaranteed to be warm all of the time and in a couple of days the grass will start to sprout up. Your children are going to love watching them grow! If you want to prolong the life of your grass you can give it a little trim every couple of days as well :)

Aren't they just the cutest things ever?!
Have fun creating some unique plant stands for them to! The above ones we created by twisting copper wiring around to make a little cup holder and then fashioned some chick look alike feet *grin*. You could make paper cup holders, use your favorite ceramic ones from breakfast or just leave them in the egg carton to :)

Have fun growing some of your own egg-cellent Easter grass and we'd love to see your egg cup creations :)

~ Rosina

Flickr Favorites ~ Crewel

1. felted stone covered in french knots, 2. crewel embroidery, 3. crewel embroidery, 4. Crewel: 26

I love thick & chunky crewel embroidery. It's just so delicious looking *grin* Definitely something that I would love to be able to devote more time to.

Say It With Stitches, originally uploaded by Artdoodads.etsy.

As I was searching for embroidery photos I came across this pattern book for the most adorable children's embroidery patterns. I wonder if I can find this at the library or on ebay. I could definitely have some fun with it :)

How about you, any crewel or other embroidery books that are your favorites right now?

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

~ Rosina

He's Famous!

My stitched White Rabbit is on the move *grin*. I just found him on One Pretty Thing's flickr friends roundup this weekend :) If you haven't visited her blog before make sure you check it out. It has links to some of the best crafts online and most of them have tutorials or downloads for you to use! Endless crafty fun *grin*.

~ Rosina

Seed Saturday Finds

Well we hit the Courtenay Seedy Saturday this weekend along with hundreds of others! I thought being about 10 minutes early would give us sufficient time to find a parking place and amble over to the line but boy was I wrong. There was already two lines stretching for a good long ways in both directions along the building and we really had to hustle to beat the crowd coming behind us *grin*.

What a success!! It was fantastic to see so many people out :) The building was jammed full of seed tables, garden products, flowers and more. My main focus was to search out the seed potatoes and do it quickly because they never seem to be around for long with that many bodies roaming around LOL. So I quickly moved from table to table searching for the little nuggets and finally found some old favorites picking up a couple packages of 'Red Chieftans' and 'Sieglinde' which is an heirloom german variety that is super delicious :)

Among the sale tables were some really great displays as well. The above table was all about Mission Hill Farm's hazelnut trees and they had this great big bowl of hazelnuts to try. Of course the children all wanted to try one.

Who wouldn't when you got to crack your nut using this fun wooden nut cracker. I bet that if there had been some of these little gems for sale they would've sold them. I know I would have bought one!

The Comox Valley Exhibition (Fall Fair) committee always has a table every year where they hand out seeds to the children and this year they got a package of red romaine lettuce that sounds like it's going to be delicious and saved me buying lettuce *grin*. I picked up some Italian pole beans that are prolific producers of tender purple pods named 'Triumfo Violetta' from the Salt Spring Seeds table, old english shelling peas from Two Wings Farm and a package of 'Fava' beans that I'm going to experiment with and grow for dried beans. Should be fun!

The perfect end to the day was surprising everyone with a trip the the movie theater to watch the new Alice in Wonderland!! My daughter had brought our new Cheshire cat along with us that Jill had sent so I thought it would be fun to take a photo of him on his way to watch the movie with us *grin*.

My oldest two children loved the movie which was a mix of animation & real people and true to Tim Burton's style, a little on the dark side. It didn't quite catch the attention of my youngest and I must say that I was a little disappointed myself. I think that I was hoping that it would follow more along the original story of Alice in Wonderland but this is of Alice as a grown woman and how she must restore the crown to the White Queen and it just didn't grab me. I have such fond memories of watching the original and all the warm & fuzzy feelings that went along with it that I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one but definitely glad we went to see it :)

Let me know what you think of it, maybe I'm the only one that is stuck in the past with the happy mad hatter's tea party *grin*.

~ Rosina