Last Minute Father’s Day

Is it sad that I’m a little excited/proud to share this post with you? I don’t know about you, but every time Christmas, our anniversary, my husband’s birthday, or Father’s Day rolls around I am wracking my already tired brain for something special/meaningful/cheap/easy/DIY I can give to my hubby. This year, I had the “brilliant” idea to try to make Father’s Day a one week event. I have done little things like got him Airheads, one of his favorite candies, and left it in the car with a note attached that said, “Thanks for putting up with an airhead like me.” I left a package of much needed undershirts for him on the bed to find when he changed after work with a note that said, “thanks for working so hard to keep the shirts on our backs.” Cheesey, I know. But cheesey is good, right? Anyway, I also wanted to make some things for him from the kids. That is when this idea struck me and I am bursting to share it with you. It cost me all of $2 and a half hour to make (and it only took that much time because the girls were painstakingly considering which stickers to put on it). So, Sam and I have been talking for a long time about doing date nights with the girls and scheduling in date nights of our own, and much the same as I scramble for gift ideas, we often can’t think of things to do for our dates, hence this idea.

I started out buying a spiral bound package of index cards, the kind with the fun, neon colors.

You can do this, obviously with plain white ones, but I chose to use the ones with different colors to segregate the different sections for our family.

Green: this was designated for the family dates that would include all of us together.

Yellow: dates for just me and Sam

Orange: For Nora and Daddy

Pink: For Evie and Daddy

So the three of us, the girls and myself, went to work thinking up dates to add to our book. We all thought of things we could do together as a family, then I asked the girls separately if they could do anything with Daddy what they would want to do. We filled the whole book with ideas for each of us to do on our own with Sam as well as a whole section of ideas for things to do as a family.  It was pretty easy peasey! Then, the girls went about putting stickers on each page, because everything is much classier with stickers.

Then to finish it off, I slapped on a cute piece of paper on the front and called it a day!

Here are a few of my favorite things from each section:

Green:

1.Go to the drive-in theater

2.Go to the pet store then get a soft pretzel at the mall

3.Visit someone who needs encouraged

4.Take a thankful walk or have a dance party if it’s raining.

Yellow:

1.Go antiquing and have lunch out

2.Sit on the porch after dark with a hot drink and talk about us

3.Visit a nearby city for the day or weekend.

Orange:

1.Play tag at the park

2.Sing songs in the car

3.Go see some animals at one zany zoo

4.Go buy dress-up at the thrift shop (she is her mother’s daughter!)

Pink:

1. Play Simon Says

2. Color together

3. Climb trees

4. Go and get coffee

I had so much fun listening to the kids’ ideas and can’t wait until we get to do them!

Baby Bede

I recently was told about a precious little boy named Bede.  He is only four months old and was recently diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. I cannot imagine what his family must be going through. Here is a link to the blog his parents have started for him. Meet this little boy and his family with me by clicking on the title and please keep them in your prayers!

A Beautiful Disaster

I have always thought it would be fun to celebrate Christmas in July. I mean, why NOT celebrate Christmas two times a year? After my five-year-old looked at me and said, “I don’t want that one, I want a big one,” when I generously offered her a dum-dum lollipop it occurred to me that maybe we should be celebrating Thanksgiving more than once a year.  So yesterday, I invented “Thanksgiving in May”. Catchy, isn’t it? I have chatted with many of my friends, fellow frazzled mothers of ungrateful children, us all begging each other for the magical answer to getting our children to be thankful. In a society where parents revolve their lives around their children and often children are handed something without expecting to give anything in return (my children being no exception) it seems nearly impossible to teach them to be grateful for what they have.

So, yesterday, I set out, feeling a little smug, I might admit, for inventing this brilliant holiday, sure that it would be a success. I had it all planned out that we would go on a walk armed with our Kodak, ready to snap away at all of the things we had to be thankful for. Sounds like a good plan, right? I am going to show you the pictures, because what the girls wanted to take pictures of were cute. Here’s a start:

Aren’t the pictures cute? In our case, a picture does NOT speak a thousand words. We started on our walk with hope and excitement and ended it with frustration and with me saying, “No more talking.” Followed by a tearful phone call to my best friend. Hmm…I wonder if the pilgrims felt this way the day of their first Thanksgiving….

What I pictured happening on this walk was an opportunity to point out to my girls all of the beauty in the ordinary-how all of creation magnifies God’s name and glory; how a sparrow in a tree can remind us of our worth in God’s eyes; how a simple flower is arrayed in greater glory than a princess in fine, silk dresses. I wanted them to see the world around us is full of things to be thankful for and take joy in.  What actually happened on this walk? My one daughter, the one who complained about the lollipop, complained about the long walk, the weather, her sister….etc, etc, etc, etc, etc….My other daughter spent the entire time trying to control me, her sister, the walk, the animals we saw on the walk, and refused to partake in our mission at all. She would speed up just enough to pass me and her sister, then slow down and walk a foot in front of us to control the speed in which we were talking and the path we were taking. She blatantly and stubbornly refused to acknowledge a single thing there was to be thankful for.

I admit, quite humbly, that I pictured this post before we set out on the walk one that I could write with pride and a sense of triumph. I wanted to be able to say that this was a successful journey, not only physically, but much more importantly spiritually.  This would be a new traditional for my family-not just a yearly one, but even weekly and eventually daily, so that we can get into the habit of seeing the beauty in all that is around us. It is so easy to see the things that discourage us, the things we don’t have, but I have found that when I stop to count my blessings, they far outweigh anything I am lacking.

After I talked with my friend yesterday she said, “Maybe thankfulness isn’t something that can be forced, but something that is taught by example. Something that your kids will catch by seeing your thankfulness.” What wisdom.  I have often heard that the remedy for a critical spirit is a thankful heart.  As a mom, I am sooooo ashamed to admit the times when I am way too critical of my children and my husband, feeling like it is my job to “fix” them rather than pointing out to them, and I think sometimes more importantly to myself, all the qualities and gifts God has given them.

So I began my own journey, after the girls were tucked away for their naps, and snapped a few things that I am thankful for. God is a romantic, and every day He woos me with His grace, love, and creation. For this, I am truly thankful.

Cancer Quilts

I am going to do a shameless plug right now for my Etsy shop, but it is for a good cause. Most of the orders I get in my shop are for custom quilts. Because I spend so much time communicating back and forth with my clients to make their quilt exactly what they want, I have developed some very good relationships and true friendships with a number of my clients. In September, I met Tiffany who was ordering a quilt for her niece who was about to have a baby. During the course of our conversations back and forth, I learned that Tiff had spent the last 15 months in the hospital and was dying from cancer that had spread to every part of her body.  I want to take another message sometime to tell you more about Tiff because I have never met such a special, inspiring person in my entire life.

I specialize in signature quilts, mostly for wedding and baby showers in lieu of a guestbook, but around Thanksgiving I sent Tiff a cancer quilt to snuggle up with during chemo treatments and for people to sign to encourage her as she battles cancer.  I have heard that they call her “Linus” because she takes it with her everywhere and is very protective of it, making sure it never gets dirty. That makes me smile. She is so special that every inch of it is covered with signatures, Bible verses and words of encouragement to remind her of how loved she is. Since then, her health has declined considerably and at this point the doctors are trying to keep her as comfortable as possible.

In my life, I have seen so many people battle cancer and have lost loved ones to it myself.  When I was nine, I lost my grandfather to cancer.  He was only 59 and my hero, and twenty-three years later, I miss him so. Also, a little over three years ago, I lost my mother-in-law, Ruth, to cancer at the age of 56. She was an amazing woman as well and spent the last two years of her life using her illness as a huge ministry to lead others to Christ.  She truly knew what it meant, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” In the last few months of her life she talked so much about heaven and couldn’t wait to meet her Savior face to face.

I have started offering cancer quilts in my shop because this is such a special thing to me. If you cannot afford the price I have listed, I am more than happy to work with what you feel you can afford. I am also willing to do donations. Also, I portion of what I make from these quilts will go to a cancer research center that is based where I just moved from in Erie, PA.

Cancer has touched so many of our lives that I really want to be able to encourage those who are going through this to help support them and their families as they face such a difficult time.

Drab to Fab: A Desk Make Over

This is Desk. She is from Pennsylvania and she loves sitting in the corner, holding pictures and acting as a drop-off center from time to time of loose change and keys.  In her spare time she acts as a buffet for dinner parties. She is here with us today because she needs a make-over.  She is ready to shed her dull lackluster brown facade and step into something a little more bold and lively. Let’s welcome her, shall we….?

I love nothing more than a good makeover story. When we bought this house two months ago, I fell head-over-heels for the character it oozed from every nook and cranny. It is an old Victorian home, a restoration itself, and the people who set about restoring her to her original glory really kept true to her Victorian roots. All of the dark, mahogany woodwork has been kept untouched and the dark wood floors are spread throughout our main floor. I adore it! The only setback is, with so much dark wood things can look a little drab.  After spending months trying to paint our other home in preparation to sell it, the last thing I wanted to do was to pick up another roller and start on this one, as least not for a few months. In comes this desk. It is old and even missing a support section that connect the two legs, but I have always loved the character of this desk. She has served our family well over the years, but she has not aged well. She needed a face-lift. 

Like all of my other tutorials, this is cheap and easy. And, I got what I needed from The Dollar Tree. 

Supplies:

1.Pretty contact paper (they always have this pattern at the Dollar Tree, no matter what store I have gone to).

2.Latex paint

3.Medium sandpaper

4.Metallic spray paint

I started off by removing the hardware on the drawers and spraying them with silver metallic spray paint and set them aside to dry.  Then I cut the contact paper to fit the size of the drawer. This only took one roll of the paper to cover them all. A dollar! Score!

Then I painted it with the latex paint. It only took about two layers of paint. Since I love the “distressed” look, I went through the process of carefully rubbing off some of the paint on the corners and edges to age it a little bit.

And, there you have it! It took me only about and hour and a half, beginning to end. Not bad. Not bad at all. 

Cheap and Chic

 

I have four birthdays coming up in the next week for my family and friends. FOUR! I have been scrambling the last few weeks to try to come up with cheap, fun, and personal gifts for all of those on my list. So, of course I have been scrounging around on Pinterest, trying to find cute, easy gifts to make or buy. I found some cute things like DIY coasters and candle holders, but they lacked pizzazz! Then I saw these really pretty ribbon necklaces and as soon as I saw them I knew I could make them without a tutorial (yeah, I’m THAT good and I’m sure you probably are, too). These necklaces only cost me $3 and ten minutes to make. Yep! THREE DOLLARS and TEN MINUTES. And I found all of the supplies I needed at, where else, the Dollar Tree.

Supplies:

1.Spool of satin ribbon of your choice.

2.Silk Flower

3. Button (optional). The ones I used were ones I already had

4.Large plastic beads

5.Glue gun

Again, this is so simple, I’m sure anyone could figure out how to do this themselves, but humor me. First, I cut out my ribbon about as long as I wanted it to be to hang around my neck as well as some extra to be able to tie it in the back. I won’t give you a specific length because everyone will have their own preference regarding that. Then, I started stringing the beads on using a larger embroidery needle. This took a little patience and some elbow grease to string them on. I found it was easier to string if you just put the corner of the ribbon through the eye of the needle rather than the whole ribbon.

I strung eleven on altogether. Then I took a silk flower and pulled off the stem and middle of it and hot glued a sparkly button onto the middle of it. Bam! Glam! Then I glued the flower onto the ribbon, pulling one bead to the side so it was. And, there you have it. It seriously took me all of ten minutes to make each one of these. One for my sister and one for my best friend.

 

 

Picture This

I have always loved painting murals and have often dreamed about making a career out of it. I have done enough thus far that I have an extensive portfolio, though little to show for it since most of my work has been done “for a good cause” and not for any real money.  But, it’s good experience none-the-less and it’s really therapeutic for me, so I’m probably saving money in the long run! I’m painting instead of paying someone to sit on their couch and tell them my list of woes. Anyway, I wanted to share a project I am working on now for our church nursery and I admit this is mostly for the benefit of my mom (hi mom!) who was trying to look at these via my phone and couldn’t see them very well. It’s not the Sistine Chapel….but, I hope you enjoy it just the same.

I was inspired by the “Sheep in a Jeep” books by Nancy Shaw and illustrated by Margot Apple. She has a whole series of these books and they are some of my favorites to read to my girls, not only because they are simple and not too long, but they are clever and the illustrations are hilariously adorable! So, I had this big idea to do “sheep in a park” and have imagined all of the ways I can portray them having a tea party, playing checkers, feeding the pigeons, taking walks, kids doing hopscotch….My imagination has gone wild with all of the things I could do, considering the room I am working in is rather large. Here are two that I have started thus far:

My goal is to always make my scenes look like snapshots of photos.

I hope I have succeeded! There will be more to come soon….