...finally during the first week of November...it's starting to look like fall here...
...but we'll probably miss the best week of fall colour here...because we'll be flying out soon to meet up with Our Airman as he has some new helicopter training...and we'll be bringing lots of things for him to carry home...like...a tile saw...drop cloths...knee pads...and all of the Christmas presents...
...we're doing it now...because our flight out is in the morning...and it will be easier for us to retrieve a couple of checked bags on this trip than on the one when we arrive in Alaska in the middle of the night Christmas Eve/Christmas Day...
...so I went to the thrift store specifically to get two BIG suitcases...of a kind of disposable variety as we won't be bringing them back and Our Airman can just re-donate them...I found these two wheeled beauties for $7.80...and that's for BOTH of them...how crazy is that...
...so the first one I packed with all the tools for tiling and painting that we'll be doing while we're there...
...and the slightly larger black one is for all the Christmas presents...and there are a lot of them...
...the girls keep talking about the Flow movie we watched on the porch while they were here in April...and Our Airman said they've watched it at least twice again...so I wanted to make a Flow T-shirt for our Airman...
...you know the drill...cut out a template from freezer paper with an exacto knife and iron it onto the sirt...then spounce the paint onto the template...this one was easy as it was only the one colour...
...and then peel off the template revealing the Flow cat...
...I hung it on the laundry room door...
...to get really good and dry before I wrap it and pack it up...
...and I'd gotten this photo Christmas Tree ornament of a Dog...
...it's not quite the right colour of Dog...so I got out my wood-toned Sharpies and found one about the right colour...
...and just coloured the tan part of this dog to match the actual colour of Dog...and I painted Dog's nose black...it was the dark brown colour...
...and printed Dog on the tag and I needed to paint the collar pink...
...I didn't have quite the right colour of pink so I mixed the blush colour that I had with a hot pink and got about the same colour as the collar she's wearing in the photo...
...it'll require two coats to cover the blue...so while I'm waiting on that to dry...I'm going to paint the little missing parts of grass...I'm guessing these are hand painted by someone in China...so I'm not surpised that spots were missed...I can be extra careful since I'm only doing one...and I'm not being paid per ornament...
...and my green is a perfect match...
...the finished ornament...it's so cute...and it looks a lot like Dog...just the legs need to be shorter...haha...
...and the thrift store was having a huge sale on books...10 for $1...so 10¢ each...I got 20 of them...one for each girlie for each day we'll be there...
...a couple of Christmas books that I wrapped up for Christmas...
...a bunch of easy readers for Big Sissie...
...some old classics...
...and some Ballerina books for our little ballerina...
...and wrapped all those up in non-Christmas paper...so each girlie can open one each day that we're there...
...and I put them into a tote that won't go under the tree...
...I made a bunch of simple nametags...
...sorted all the pressies...
...and started wrapping things up...
...the pile presents kept growing...
...and finally...I wanted to include a couple of sketches...I know I've said before that I don't do enough drawing...it was really fun...
...I finished the shading on both sketches the sheet of paper is there to keep me from smudging the drawing...and then I asked the Man if they were recognizable...and he answered in the affirmative...so I sleeved them with cardboard...and I'll let the kiddos choose a couple of frames for them when we get there...
...are you getting ready for Christmas already?
~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend!
You are so industrious and creative! I’m sure the girls are gonna have a lot of fun with you opening those presents each day. All quite lovely. The portrait you did remind me so much of the ones you did for my boys that are still hanging on my wall to this day. Love, K.
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