i’m linking up the last 2 weeks of my phone pics with jeannett!  i’m thepleatedpoppy on instagram if you want to follow!

 we’ve been getting a little bit of rain here, off and on.  some days, it feels good to be a “yes” mom, so we went for a walk in the rain around the hood.

 well, technically it was a splash in the rain, not so much a walk.

 and more puddles were in si’s boots than were on the ground!

 after canceling our family pics last week due to a sick girl, we rescheduled and needed to do a quick makeover on ourselves, so gracie and i tried out the no-heat curls again.  the 3 hours i gave it wasn’t quite enough (i forgot to do it the night before), so my 20 year old curling iron had to step in.  note to self: get a new curling iron.

 sean snapped this pic, but we just got the real ones back from cameron and i love them!!!  i can’t wait to share them soon!

 i have introduced my kids to the cosby show.  they are loving it.  i am loving it!

 i needed a ton of paper chains for a project (see down below) so enlisted the help of child laborers.

 the kids were getting in the christmas spirit early, so silas and gracie made these adorable little christmas trees!

 thank you costco for the $10 gingerbread house.  pre-assembled.  1 hour of happy kids.

 i listed some tree skirts in the shop last week and they sold on black friday.  i have more ready to go in the shop right now, but i haven’t had any sunshine to photograph products in…

 a bunch of our family came into town for thanksgiving and we decided to buck the local turkey trot and start our own donut dash!  it involved running 1/2 a block, and walking the rest of the way downtown ;)

when it came time to carve the turkey, i made the boys watch the classic cosby episode where cliff teaches his son to carve the turkey, all while speaking like julia child.

 dinner for 18, thanks to my yard for cuttings and my sister-in-law for cute paper accessories!

 i love my family.  love.

 silas is so lucky to have a cousin just a few months apart from him.  too bad he lives 5 hours away.  boo.  we spent the day after thanksgiving eating yummy cinnamon rolls in pismo, followed by a walk on the beach…

which lead to 3 generations of my family climbing a rock wall!

a week off of school meant i had a little extra time to play, so i finalized all my fabric choices for the girls new quilts.

 sean got a little stir crazy in the house on the long weekend, so we borrowed some kayaks and paddled around the bay in avila on quite possibly the most beautiful day in the history of ever.

 as soon as we got back from the beach i got right to christmas decorating!  i picked up these antlers last week at ruby rose and then added them to a board i painted up all pretty in coral and gold.

 i am totally opposed to buying tons of christmas decorates every year.  for the past few years, i have done pretty good.  i don’t think i bought anything last year and the year before i got some ornaments in the dollar section at target.  but i was tired of doing the same thing every year, so i had to think long and hard about how i could do things differently.  sometimes pushing myself is a good thing for my creativity.

 did you hear my yarn ball wreath that i made a couple years ago was featured on abc’s “the chew”?  so fun!

 just for the holidays, try this.  it is so yummy!

 although i wasn’t actually on tv, it was pretty weird seeing my face on it!  by the way, i did find myself talking to the tv, telling the people what they were doing wrong!

 black friday and cyber monday made for a busy week for me!  thanks to all of you who supported my shop last week!

 my parents are here this week so that means we are getting projects done!  after running errands and meetings, i switched into my paint clothes, then back into my regular clothes for picking up the kids.

and the weird stretched out pictures?  not sure what’s happening there.  anyone have a good suggestion they use for a free collage app?

 i got my new charm bracelet in the mail!  i can’t wait to get my new charm each month!

 i found this beautiful picnic basket on my doorstep.  i have no idea where it came from!

 all that child labor last week paid off!  we had so much fun decorating the office of the kids’ school and transforming it into a winter wonderland!

i have a crazy busy week coming up:  school, meetings, new products, and the stitch market – eeeeeek!