bummer

I just got back from the fabric store a little bit ago.  I bought something like 26 yards of Christmas fabric for two craft parties I am trowing this month.  We will be making fabric covered wreaths (a quick search on Pinterest will give you all sorts of inspiration for these wreaths).  Next I get to cut all this fabric into 2 inch strips and press them in half :)

So, here is the bummer... over the weekend I made up a sample wreath and was planning to sit down tonight and make some more flowers to put on it, but, long story short, the wreath got dropped one to many times pre-decorating and when is slipped out of my hands this afternoon and hit the wood floors this happened :(

So,  now I've got to get another wreath and start all over.  Well, at least I am getting some good practice at wreath wrapping :)

freeze paper stencil

Regan and I finally tried a freeze paper stencil this week.  Regan wanted a shirt to wear to gymnastics.  She designed it, I cut and ironed, and she painted.  Turned out super cute and now all the kids want to make their own shirts (not "I heart gymnastics" shirts. I asked to just to be sure)

There are plenty of tutorial for how to do a freeze paper stencil so I won't bore you with the details.  We did use glitter puffy paint, but brushed it on with a sponge brush.

our family's initials

I have had these letter for at least a year, knowing I wanted to decorate them and hang them, but not knowing exactly how I wanted to do it.  And then one day last week it just came to me.  I used twine, ribbon, scrapbook paper, pages from a book, maps and paint for the letters, and embellished with buttons, felt and crocheted flowers, butterflies and birds.   We had an old crib (that does not meet today's safety standards) in the attic, so I pulled out the mattress support, attached the letters with fishing wire and hot glue, and hung it on the wall in our living room.  I would show you a picture of the whole wall so you could get a better idea of how it works in the room, except the room is such a mess I can't bring myself to post a picture online!  I may or may not add more embellishments to it over time, but for now I am happy with how it turned out.

nesting?

I have a long list of things I need or want to get done in the next few days and weeks before the baby comes, but I seem to be pretty poor at prioritizing them.  I often find myself sitting at the craft table and working on a project instead of attending to the more urgent needs like making a grocery list for our shopping day tomorrow, washing and folding clothes, doing our end of year testing with the kids or making room for another crib and the pile of baby clothes I sorted and washed a few weeks ago (wow, that was a long sentence!).  I think this is what nesting with ADD looks like- I've got the list of things to do and the drive to get them done, I just go about it in a totally scatterer brained and unorganized way!

Anyway, here is one of my random projects I've been working on. 

They are number tags for the nursery at church.  The bracelet with a number on it goes with the parents and another matching number gets clipped onto the child's diaper bag.

Now I am off to make that grocery list, hopefully I can stay focused and get it done!  Wish me luck!

sneak peek

This is just a little sneak peek at what I have been working on this week. 

I am really excited to see the finished product- crossing my fingers that it is all going to work out as well as I hope :)  I'll be back with more pictures as soon as I finish!  Right now I think I am going to go take a quick nap- we spent 3 hours at the pool with friends this morning and now everyone is playing quietly in their rooms for a bit... perfect time to grab a few winks :)

easter crafting

There was lots of behind the scenes crafting going on this Easter.  Regan put together Easter baskets for her dad and me- this owl purse was one of the many handmade goodies in those baskets.

I decoupaged this box for Regan- She has been admiring a hand painted jewelry box similar to this that was given to me as a wedding present for awhile now.  It was lots of fun to make.

I made Easter dresses for the girls... well,  dresses for Regan and Tallulah and a skirt for Addie.
(The dresses are the Mary sash dress and the Tallulah halter dress from Girl's World and the skirt is Dana's Market Skirt.)  I tried to get a picture of them wearing their outfits yesterday, but Addie would have non of it...

as I matter of fact I think this is the only picture I got with her in it, facing the camera, and not screaming!

The other big sewing project was new hooded towels for all the kids.  You can see Addie did not want to participate in this picture either, that orange towel between Tallulah and Regan is hers.

I've been enjoying all the crafting and sewing going on around here the last few weeks.  It always feels good to be doing something creative on a regular basis!

easter place cards

I made place cards and holders last night for our Easter dinner on Sunday. 

I found these printable place cards online and then drew the flowers and birdies, cut them out and glued them onto the cards.  (I used my growing collection of Copic markers to color the flowers and birdies... love my Copics!)

For the card holders I dug into that stash of wooden spools my mom brought me last month.  I used floral wire from the dollar tree and wrapped it around a marker two times, twisted it, stuck the ends through the spool and  tapped them to the bottom to secure the wire.

These were pretty simple to make and I LOVE how they turned out!

weekend crafting

We had a fun day of crafting on Saturday.  Tallulah and I spent the morning making these peg people for a craft swap that she and Regan were doing.

And Regan made this house for Tallulah's Lala Loopsy minis

I spent the afternoon making some progress of tutor gifts for our CC co-op.  5 done, 5 to go! 

lalaloopsy house

Regan is going to a birthday party this week and one of the things the birthday girl asked for was a mini Lalaloopsy doll.  We were lucky to be able to get two of the last ones on sale at Target (yeah for Christmas sales)!

Before we left we decided to check out the dollar section and see what other fun little things we could throw in the bag.  Regan found this stable (Sorry no before pictures, imagine it unpainted wood and just the slates- no solid walls.) and said "Mom, can I get this and make it into a Lalaloopsy house?"

So, with a little paint, Mod Podge, cardboard, and scrapbook paper we transformed the stable into the perfect Lalaloopsy house!

Hopefully Pepper and Peanut Lalaloopsy will be happy in their new home :)

moving on from the lemonade stand

Regan, my little entrepreneur, has been wanting make and sell something on Etsy for awhile now.  She sees me sewing and doing craft shows and wants to join in, but at 10, her sewing skills are not quite what they need to be to market her craft, so we went looking for something that she could make and sell and this is what we came up with...

I love these little Resin flowers and Regan had fun picking out all the colors she liked.

There are so many designs and colors to choose from, Regan started out with 3 different designs and figures if she does well, next order we will try some different flowers.

She has post earrings, a few dangling earring, child size hair pins and regular hair pins.

These roses were thrown in by the Etsy seller and we both really love them.  They will definitely be in the next order, as well as some Dahlias.

We are going to take these to our upcoming craft shows first and if there are any left I will post them in my Etsy shop.

*Sorry the pictures are not that great, it has been dark and gloomy here all week :(

the little white schoolhouse model basin

Growing up in Maryland I had friends who lived out near the David Taylor Research Center in Potomac. It was a place where the Navy tested boats (and I guess they still do? It had a different name now). Anyway, the kids wanted to make a boat the other day. They chose all the supplies and came up with a plan, I helped a wee bit with actually putting together of the sail, but they did most of the work and planning.

That night when dad got home from work they took it into the bathroom to test it out- they even set up the fan to simulate wind! They were pretty excited and proud when it actually worked!

Here we all are crammed into the teeny bathroom watching the boat in action!
This is just one of the reasons why I love homeschooling my kids :)

rainbow!

Update: I fixed the link to Meg's page, I guess I forgot to check the link before I hit publish! Sorry!

Before I had even finished reading Meg's post I was already gathering supplies to make our own crayon canvas. It was really easy and a super fast project (see Meg's blog for the details of "how to"). We all love how it turned out and now I am just trying to decide on the best place to hang it :)

yesterday

While the kids painted in the kitchen...
I did a little painting of my own. We won't talk about how long I have had that can of paint and how long I have been planning to paint those lamps... or the fact that I also have plans to paint the bed frame too but it will probably take me another who knows how long to get that job done... Well, I guess we did talk about it then, didn't we? Oops :)
I still need new lamp shades for these, the current shades at 10+ years old, faded yellow, plastic cracking, "decorated" by children... you get the point. I already know what shades I want, just waiting for an extra few dollars to spend on them.

The kids painting was way more interesting then mine. They found these broken "palace pieces" (as they call them) in someone's trash pile in the neighborhood. I love it when they create their own art projects! This is Regan's
Max's
Tallulah's
Micah threw his "palace piece" away last week, so he painted this bird house instead.

decoupage crazy

The kids have gone decoupage crazy. It started with this box...

And them the madness spread.

These are just the beginning, I am not sure how many more have been made.
It is pretty simple and fun. All you need is a box, some tissue or colored paper, and Mod Podge. You can also add glitter or other random elements to your box (see the horse in second photo).