Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Ready for Spring!

  This has been a very long and cold Winter and Spring fever has hit me hard!  I was looking for some cute spring decor ideas and found some cute stuff to inspire me.
I love these decoupodged eggs from Pottery Barn!



This is also a cute and simple idea from Pottery Barn


I have always wanted to do blocks similar to this. I found this one

I think these tea cups make beautiful spring mini vases.

I want to make a spring wreath similar to Paula's Valentines one, but I am going to use a round styrofoam wreath instead.  I am going to go to the dollar store today and I hope that they have some left.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines Day Breakfast

We have a tradition every year on Valentines Day to make pink heart pancakes.  Here are our Valentines Pancakes we made today :-)


Paula, by the way when we were on the phone the other day remember when I told you I found Danielle in the Bathroom sink.  I could not resist taking a  picture of it :-)

Thursday, February 11, 2010

It's Valentines!

I've been wanting to make a Valentine's Day wreath and bought all the stuff at the end of January but then haven't had the time or the motivation to do it until this week. I saw THIS cute 'wreath' and thought I would make my own take on it. So, here it is!




I can't say that I'm totally in love with it, but it didn't turn out too bad. I bought a round peice of styrofoam at Michael's and cut it into a heart shape. Then, I just poked holes, added a dab of hot glue, and put the flowers in.



I bought these foam heart boxes to give to my kids on Valentine's Day full of goodies and notes. Tuesday we had a snow day and the kids were able to stay home all day. When the afternoon hit, they were a little restless and didn't want to go outside. I decided to pull out the boxes and let each child decorate their own. I thought they turned out cute and I plan to use them year after year, just like Christmas stockings!




I got the idea for these yummy lollipop cookies HERE. We've had so much fun with these and they were a hit at Benjamin's preschool party today. I'm excited for Hannah and Levi to share them with their classes tomorrow. They really aren't that hard to make.



And last but not least, here are the kids' Valentine's they are passing out this year. I LOVE them so much. Everyone at Ben's school today couldn't stop talking about them. They are so unique and clever and I really wish I had come up with the idea, but alas, I once again copied my awesome sister! Check out her earlier post HERE. She was kind enough to take my emailed pictures, put them into her digital scrapbooking software, and send them a Walmart near me so I could pick them up and finish them. I am totally investing in some digital scrapbooking software!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Science Fair boards

    I was up very late last night helping kids get their Science Fair boards ready for today.  We were all delirious and moody by the end, but some how we made it through! I am to the point where I dred this time of year and the whole science fair thing. And after it is all over I have a hard time knowing what to do with the board, but today Tip Junkie featured  great idea from Amanda's Blog Raising tomorrows men   She made a homework station out of a science fair board.  I love the idea! 

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Valentine wood art

My brother is an amazing graphic artist and a bunch of other stuff!  Anyway he helped me with my Nativity puzzles this year on his scroll saw and he decided to play around with some designs he could cut out for Christmas gifts for all of his crafty sisters!( There are six kids in our family and he is the one and only boy).  I have already shown you the family one he gave me for Christmas ( have not gotten to that one yet), but with it being close to Valentines day he let me take home and do some magic to one of his Love designs.  I could not decide what to do first with this blank canvas, but I soon realized what I wanted to do after seeing some pretty floral paper.

Here it is unfinished. (the bottom stand is removable).

 I painted the whole thing Antique White traced out the love word on the floral paper and cut it out and Mod podged it to the word Love and traced out the heart and made that a nice deep burgandy and Mod podged that on also.  Actually this time I collage podged.  I am trying out a new product similar to Mod podge. It is thinner and does not show the brush marks as much as mod podge does and it is less smelly.


Once the collage podge dried I got an exacto knife and cut out all of the empty spaces in the letters and heart.


Last I sanded around everything with an emery board (my favorite sanding tool)  and went over all of it with some wood stain to give it an antiqued look.


Here is the finished project!  I think it turned out nice if I say so my self.  I hope my brother likes what I did with it!
Here are some of his other designs he has come up with so far. 


Saturday, February 6, 2010

A Valentine Stitchery

This is one of three stitichery designs that I designed last January, but never was able to stitch it because of a demanding baby.  Luckily I was able to stitch this one a few days ago.    I know it is still wrinkled and has a wet spot in the middle because I was trying to smooth out the wrinkles by spraying it with water before I took the picture.,  I wish that I could show it completed. I mean the stitchery is completed, but I can't decide if I should frame it, make it into a pillow etc. and I was afraid that Valentines day would be past before I decided so I thought that I better just post it in case I did not get to it.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Miss Spitfire

I don't know if anyone noticed that I added a new book for February!  It is called Miss Spitfire.It is the Helen Keller story from her teacher Ann Sullivans perspective.  I loved this book and it gave me much more of an appreciation of Ann and her role to the Helen Keller story.  There are also really neat pics at the back of the book that I had never seen before of Helen and Ann.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Awesome blog!

Hey this is Paula, I ran across a really fun blog that I thought I would share with the rest of you. It is http://betterafter.blogspot.com/ It has really inspired me to stop passing up some things at the thrift store or yard sales that I think are too outdated or worn. I'm excited to go find something to redo! Actually, now that I think about it, I have a few things in my house I need to redo already. I'm going to add them to my growing list of crafty things to accomplish! I promise to post pics. Here is a picture of a little cabinet I redid not long ago, but unfortunately I don't have a 'before' picture because, as usual, I forgot to take one! But, just imagine it as a raw wood peice because that's what it was. :) I needed something smallish in my 'powder room' downstairs to store toilet paper and towels, but couldn't find anything for less than $100. I finally found this little cabinet at Michaels one day, used my 40% off coupon, brought it home and got to work! I love it when that happens!


Elegant Valentines Wreaths

My sister Paula and I were talking the other day about all the wreaths out there that are being made for Valentines day this year.  We have seen a lot of cute ones! Some with felt, cup cake liners, fabric, burlap, etc.  We had both talked about how nice silk flowers  or roses might look .  I searched the net and found some beautiful wreaths!








I can't wait to incorporate some of these ideas and come up with my own Wreath.
Share with me some of your own Valentine Wreath ideas!