Tag Archives: seasons

eleven things on the eleventh

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Family and tagged with , , , ,

11 things on my mind today…

1. Jon Foreman’s Spring is my album of the moment.
Your Love is Strong is the song I play over and over and over.

2.  A trip to Value Village secured the goods I needed to begin yet another craft endeavor – hopefully a simple project, but it has the potential to go awry.
{follow up post to come, hopefully as soon as this weekend!}

3. People watching at Costco always amuses me. Fave quote of the day: “Why did you lie to daddy about biting your arm?”

4. All Luke wants to do is be assisted in standing up.
all.the.time.

5. When he’s not standing up (okay, and sometimes when he is), he’s eating cheerios. I’m pretty sure he would eat an entire box if given the opportunity.

6. Our church has officially been around for 3 years, and our launch team was meeting together even before that. Crazy! It feels like we’ve been together awhile, but 3 years seems to have flown by!

7. When we decided to adopt, we knew we would be open to a baby of any racial background. What I didn’t expect was that our baby would be translucent. Seriously, who knew you could even be more pale than Ian and I?!

Photo Credit: Evantide Photography

8. Did I mention that Luke and I discovered a giant slide at a nearby playground?
I was super pumped, but Luke was very casual about the whole thing. He was more intrigued by the rusty bolt and gravel at the top of the slide. Of course.

9. I’m thankful that we were able to find a rug to go in Lukey’s room! Much better than laminate for a little guy that’s trying to be mobile.

10. Luke is 10 months old. Insane.

11. I can’t stop laughing about this photo. The bunny ears belong to Luke’s older cousin Wes, who is obviously old enough to run away from anyone trying to stick those ears on him.

more light

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Home and tagged with , ,

I have been so surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed “springing ahead” with daylight savings time this year! I love the cozy, winter days and don’t mind the dark evenings. But this year I’m really welcoming the extra light in the later hours. I feel strangely nostalgic and sentimental – the brighter evenings trigger memories of  having Luke last summer, and it makes my heart so happy to remember those early days of falling in love with him.

It also makes me excited for things to come this spring and summer. Baby boy seems to LOVE being outside – in his swing, going for a walk, or inspecting the garden with daddy. I’ve let him play in the hazelnut shell mulch a couple times, and he has been fascinated by them (he’ll actually examine them for a good five minutes before attempting to taste them – that’s a long time for him!).

I’m excited to work in the vegetable garden again, growing yummy sugar snap peas and tons of lettuce.

I’m ready to see our hibernating flowers blossom and bloom again.

I’m looking forward to laundry drying in the breeze.

I am trying to be patient as the weather catches up with the extra light, but it’s not easy.

What about you? Has the added daylight cheered you up?

feeling better

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Family and tagged with ,

After a few days of a bad cold followed by an ear infection in both ears, baby boy is now on the mend. Still not completely back to his happy, content self, but much closer than the clingy, whiny mess that he was over the last few days. You could tell he wasn’t feeling well at all.

And oh my – carrying 21.5 lbs of that boy around all.the.time sure takes its toll. I’m definitely feeling it in a number of muscles. Thankfully he loved snuggling in the Moby wrap, so at least my arms got a break sometimes.

moby wrap

Yep, super flattering photo of both of us. Hey, he was sick and I was sleep-deprived, what can I say, we were making it work.

Did you all have a good Valentines Day? We did – mostly because Luke was feeling a lot better. It was still super low key (we definitely wore our pajama pants the whole evening) but still special. Ian made our traditional v-day meal of steak, fried potatoes and asparagus (okay, normally we do green beans, but we were craving asparagus this time) and Luke happily joined us at the dinner table while we ate.

After dinner, we put Luke down and enjoyed a glass of wine and nanaimo bars (mmm!) while watching Hitch. I forgot how funny that movie is. Also, it just brings back great memories of the first time we saw it. Ian was visiting me in Montana, and the Kalispell drive-in theater was showing a double feature with Hitch and Sahara. We enjoyed Hitch but both of us fell asleep pretty quickly into Sahara – not because we didn’t like it, but it was late and we were tired. We must have been seriously sound asleep, because we woke up to a guy knocking on our window to wake us up. Ian’s reaction still makes me laugh – he popped his seat up, started the car, and we were on our way within seconds. I think it was just the shock of it all, and the fear that maybe we were holding up a line of cars trying to get out. Good times.

I can’t believe how fast this month is flying by. Did you know Ash Wednesday is next week? Are any of you celebrating Lent – giving something up or setting aside special time for reflection? I’m thinking through what I’d like to do this year – let me know if you’ve done something in the past that’s been helpful in your walk with Jesus, or what you plan to do this year!

diy valentines decor

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Craftiness and tagged with , , , , , ,

Thank you, Dollar Tree, for having the exact little sparkly hearts I was envisioning.

Happy February! Every year I forget how busy my job is in January. It is always such a relief when February arrives and I can breathe a little easier (figuratively, but also literally – I had a lame cold the last two weeks of January. I’m still relishing Luke sleeping through the night most nights – ticks me off when a cough keeps waking me up!).

So far, February has started out amazing – the weather has been gorgeous (sunshine, nice to see you again!), Luke got to see both of his grandmothers last week, and I’ve gotten in some small crafting projects. I also like being able to slow down and enjoy the small moments, like peeling carrots for Luke’s food while he played next to me in his jumper this morning. Now he’s watching intently as Ian makes some cookies.

Valentine’s Day is only a week away, so I thought I’d post some pics of my super easy DIY decor.

I made this yarn-wrapped wreath a couple years ago when we were still remodeling our house, so it must have been quick. The foam wreath is the more square variety (that they happen to sell at Dollar Tree). I just wrapped her up in yarn, embroidered a little felt heart and called it good.

yarn wrapped jar valentines diy valentines decor

I just threw together this little ensemble. I had the ideas floating around in my head, and this is what emerged. I’d like to add something more to the mason jar… maybe some flowers from a certain special someone? :) I wrapped the mason jar in yarn awhile ago and figured out the rest a few days ago. Fun fact: the “Love never fails” was stenciled with my Tupperware stencils from my childhood.

diy valentines decor yarn wrapped jar heart garlandIt’s fun coming up with seasonal decorations for the half wall between our dining area and the piano room. I put in some simple scrapbook paper into the photo frame, set out some candle holders and hung a heart garland.

yarn wrapped jar felt heart diy valentine decorSo remember these yarn-wrapped jars from Christmas? Yep, took me about 5 minutes to cut out some felt hearts and tie them to the jar with some yarn. I’ve seen lots of mason jars with doilies and paper hearts tied around them on pinterest and other blogs, which is definitely cute, but I didn’t want to have to buy doilies so this worked for me.

yarn heart garland diy valentines decorThis yarn heart garland was inspired by a mini-version that I pinned here. Again, I didn’t want to have to buy supplies (the thinner yarn and smaller crochet hook) so I just used the heart pattern and used some regular yarn I had on hand. Then I used a yarn needle to thread a piece of yarn through the backs of all the hearts. The hearts crochet up super fast – maybe 5-10 minutes? – and so this was a quick, easy project too.

There you have it! Some little valentines crafts to decorate your home, enjoy!

happy 2012 (and holiday recap)

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Family and tagged with , ,

So yeah, I kind of peaced out for awhile after my 12 Days of Crafting series. I never wanted this blog to be a burden, so when I got busy with Christmas and everything, I decided to take a little break. But now it’s 2012, and I’m back!

So Christmas happened. So did my 30th birthday. And my 6th anniversary. It was a busy week.

Probably my favorite part of Christmas this year was doing our advent calendars after dinner every night. I’ve done advent calendars as long as I can remember, and I’ve collected quite a few over the years – ornament ones, lego ones, and animal ones. Each year we choose a few to do, and I was excited to share the tradition with Luke this year.

Even better, Luke LOVED it! He would look over at the calendars during dinner, sometimes staring at them for a while. And as soon as we started doing them, he would get super excited. His favorite was a paper picture one, where each door revealed a phrase telling the story of the birth of Jesus.

We used our living Christmas tree again, which means we only had it up for a week – but it was nice while we had it!

Opening Christmas presents was an interesting experience for our 6 month old boy. Like most 6 month olds, he is pretty focused on everything going in his mouth. He’s also started letting us know that he’s unhappy when he doesn’t get his way. So gift opening went something like this…

Step 1: Grab package with great excitement.

Step 2: Bring desired corner to mouth and chew.

Step 3: Get mad when mom decides to end chewing and actually help open the gift.

It was an interesting experience – sometimes fun for him, sometimes frustrating.

I realized today that I didn’t take enough photos – I don’t even have any of Luke with my mom or Ian’s dad, sheesh! I blame this partly on the cold that was overtaking my body on Christmas. And my tendency to enjoy the moment over grabbing my camera.

Here are some of my favorites…

Looking at his new book with Opa.

My boys on Christmas morning.

Opening his stocking at Opa and Oma’s house.

Excited to open another stocking with Grandma.

Smiles and cuddles with Great Grandma.

The day after my birthday we left Luke with my parents and headed to Orcas Island for a couple nights to celebrate our anniversary. We were both recovering from colds, so the extra sleep was bliss. This is a dorky (but typical) photo of us on the ferry.

Six years of marriage to this man, and it just keeps getting better.

I can’t believe it’s already 2012. This past year has been quite a year, and I’m so grateful for the ways God has blessed and grown our family. Ian got me a book of Sara Groves’ piano music for my birthday, and I’ve been playing one of my favorite songs, “He’s Always Been Faithful.” It’s a good song to sing at the beginning of a new year. Each year, I feel less certain of what’s ahead, but more sure of God’s faithfulness in our lives. I’m not sure what 2012 will hold, but I’m excited to see how I will grow and be stretched by what’s ahead.

I’ll leave you with one last picture of chubby cuteness – Luke in his first sink bath.

12 days of crafting: amigurumi

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Craftiness and tagged with , , ,

From December 1-12, I’ll be blogging about some of my favorite crafting methods and projects. Hopefully you will be inspired to craft some Christmas gifts or handmade decor for your own home!

Day 9: Amigurumi


Today’s post is for those of you who know how to crochet: if you haven’t tried amirugumi, you should!

I know, amigu…wha? Confession: I almost always have to ask Ian what it’s called, because I just don’t have room in my brain to store that word.

Amigurumi is the Japanese name for cute little crocheted or knitted creatures, animals and dolls, like this little owl:

So cute, right? And guess what: SO easy. Most amigurumi patterns predominantly use the single crochet stitch, and come together super fast! They make great Christmas gifts or additions to gifts – like these little guys I paired with some Frog & Toad books:

I’m not going to go into great detail on these, but here are some of my favorite amirugumi books (I just check them out from the library):

Amigurumi World

Tiny Yarn Animals

Easy Crochet Critters

Super-Super Cute Crochet

And this Free Amigurumi Patterns blog has some great stuff too!

There are tons of books and websites out there, those are just a few that I have used.

I really recommend giving it a try – they really make fun gifts!

In case you missed it:

12 days of crafting – day 1: stenciling

12 days of crafting – day 2: wreath with felt flowers

12 days of crafting – day 3: mosaics

12 days of crafting – day 4: vertical christmas card holder

12 days of crafting – day 5: bottle cap magnets

12 days of crafting – day 6: re-purposed paper ornaments

12 days of crafting – day 7: owl calendar

12 days of crafting – day 8: finger-knitted yarn garland

12 days of crafting: finger-knitted yarn garland

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Craftiness and tagged with , , ,

From December 1-12, I’ll be blogging about some of my favorite crafting methods and projects. Hopefully you will be inspired to craft some Christmas gifts or handmade decor for your own home!

Day 8: Finger-Knitted Yarn Garland

You will need:

  • yarn
  • your fingers

That’s all!

Finger-knitting isn’t all that hard, but it’s probably easiest learned in person… Nevertheless, I took a few photos of the process, so hopefully you can figure it out! I used the 3-finger method; you can also do it with 2 or 4 fingers – the size of the garland will change accordingly!

Step 1: Take the end (tail) of your yarn and hold it between your thumb and hand (I leave about 6 inches in case I need it to hang the garland later). Then weave your yarn under your middle finger, over the ring finger and under your pinky.

Step 2: Weave the yarn over your pinky, under your ring finger, and over your middle finger.

Step 3: Now take the yarn and wrap it under all three fingers and back over the top of all three.

Step 4: Hanging onto the yarn behind your hand, you’ll go back to your pinky and bring the bottom loop up over the top one, and completely over your finger. Do the same with the next two fingers. In the photo above, the pinky is done, the ring finger is in process, and the middle finger has yet to be done.

Now just repeat steps 3 and 4!

After 6 or 7 rounds, take a look at the chain forming behind your hand. It will probably look a little funky, like this:

Let go of the tail and bring it behind your hand. Give it a good tug so that the stitches even out and look more like this:

Now you don’t have to hold onto the tail, so that makes it a little easier. Just keep knitting away…

…until you have the length you want! To finish it off, cut the yarn and bring it through the three loops your fingers were in, and pull tight.

Those garlands took about a half hour each. I love this method of making garlands – no tools required!

If you need more instruction, you can always search youtube for how-to videos. Happy finger-knitting!

 

In case you missed it:

12 days of crafting – day 1: stenciling

12 days of crafting – day 2: wreath with felt flowers

12 days of crafting – day 3: mosaics

12 days of crafting – day 4: vertical christmas card holder

12 days of crafting – day 5: bottle cap magnets

12 days of crafting – day 6: re-purposed paper ornaments

12 days of crafting – day 7: owl calendar

12 days of crafting: re-purposed paper ornaments

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Craftiness and tagged with , , , ,


From December 1-12, I’ll be blogging about some of my favorite crafting methods and projects. Hopefully you will be inspired to craft some Christmas gifts or handmade decor for your own home!

Day 6: Re-Purposed Paper Ornaments

These paper ornaments are a quick and fun way to re-purpose Christmas cards!

You will need:

  • old Christmas cards or other cardstock
  • scissors or paper cutter
  • embroidery floss
  • needle

Trim the card to the section you want to use for your ornament. Then cut it into 1/2 inch vertical strips, make sure to keep them in order:

Stack the strips and use your needle to poke a hole through the top and bottoms of the strips – about 1/8 inch from the top/bottom. Depending on how thick the paper is, you can probably do a few at a time:

Once you have them all pre-poked, re-stack them and thread your embroidery floss. Knot the end and sew through the fronts of the bottom of the strips. Then tie another knot on the other side, so the bottoms are held tight:

Then sew through the backside of the top holes and pull them tight so that you get an arch shape. Once you get the shape you want (you can go for a ball shape, or a little tighter makes it kinda squat looking), tie a knot on the front side of the top holes:

Leave a length of embroidery floss so you can hang it. Then just fan out the strips:

And there you have it, a paper ornament to hang on your tree or anywhere else that you want to add some festive fun. I like these because they have kind of an old-fashioned handmade home look to them. Happy crafting!

In case you missed it:

12 days of crafting – day 1: stenciling

12 days of crafting – day 2: wreath with felt flowers

12 days of crafting – day 3: mosaics

12 days of crafting – day 4: vertical christmas card holder

12 days of crafting – day 5: bottle cap magnets

12 days of crafting: vertical christmas card holder

Posted by Sara Korina at LittleTidbitsOfJoy in Craftiness and tagged with , , ,

From December 1-12, I’ll be blogging about some of my favorite crafting methods and projects. Hopefully you will be inspired to craft some Christmas gifts or handmade decor for your own home!

Day 4: Vertical Christmas Card Holder

Remember the ribbon and felt flowers I used to make this wreath? Well, I used the extra ribbon to create hanging Christmas card holders. I cut the length I wanted and tacked the top and bottom to the wall. Then I used some extra ribbon to create bows at the top (I put the top tack right through them, underneath the center), and added a few felt flowers here and there (I just hand-sewed them with a couple quick stitches).

We use mini clothespins to attach the cards. I think this year I might need to make another one, as they got rather crowded last year!

In case you missed it:

12 days of crafting – day 1: stenciling

12 days of crafting – day 2: wreath with felt flowers

12 days of crafting – day 3: mosaics