I miss you all and I miss blogging, but I feel a return to our regularly scheduled programming is coming soon. Really soon.
Today is the last day of school. (Wheew!) And Saturday the Daisies bridge up to Brownies. If I can get through all of that…we are set.
And I’ll be back. I promise.
You really are not going to believe this. Kimberly picked SYMBOL as our theme for the week and said she had “something in mind.” I did not.
But I started thinking about symbols in my life…and realized that my favorite symbols remind me that I was put on this Earth to be a Mom to two amazing girls. And I wear those symbols proudly on my favorite necklace, every single day.
And then Kimberly’s symbol is a form of a necklace, too? It is almost too surreal. I promise you absolutely NO consulting was done. No cheating. No peeking. I shot my necklace after lunch so I could shoot in natural light for a change, and Kimberly sent me hers first. We are so in-sync it is frightening.
And I have a feeling I know what her necklace symbolizes, too. Pop over there and offer her 75 hugs! She deserves it.
Hi there, crafty peeps! Hope you had a productive and creative week. It has been a wee bit busy over here. Obviously there is a direct correlation with the amount of chaos in our life and the amount of blogging I do. Right now I am barely squeaking any blogging in, if you couldn’t tell.
Anywho….I do have some goodies to share.
Another little clutch, I think I’ve almost got them figured out. This springy green one (look at THIS green, JB!) is for my lovely friend Julie’s birthday.
I kind of feel like the proportions are off a little, but it fits an iPhone (speaking of which, did you SEE the new iPhone? Mama likes.) a lippystick and some cash – so I think it works.
Also I have been having fun with oilcloth and the cool chalkboard fabric – a little re-usable shopping bag.
And a lunchbag, too! I think that chalkboard stuff might come in handy on a few dozen projects I would like to try.
And a quick sneak of the other “chalkboard” obsession I currently have. Just a tease…
…the rest of the playroom/craftroom redo will be unveiled (hopefully!) next week. Until then…
Once again my fantastic partner shot outside the box and came up with her very clever shot for Signs. (Do you remember your sign language alphabet?)
I went with the sign that posts our countdown and the sign of good things to come. June 12th…our official start of summer!
This week’s trip of J’s has been especially hard on me. I don’t know if it is because he is halfway around the world (Switzerland & Germany) and it is harder to talk to him, or if I’m just feeling mopey, or what. But I had a very rough time on Sunday when he left. And I’m never one to get freaked out about airplane travel. I just figure “eh, if God thinks it is my time – then so be it.” But for some reason this plane ride of J’s has had me very antsy.
And then?
I open up my email yesterday morning and he had sent me this…
I kid you not, I have just stopped getting teary eyed about it and feel composed enough to put it up for you all to see, too. But fair warning, it will make you CRY, and quite possibly sob like I did. But it is so well done, and so very beautiful.
Leave Me from Daros Films on Vimeo.
Raaawwwrrr!
I warned you it would be a whole lotta lions around here this week. Our bucket of 19 lion heads ready for dress rehearsal on Thursday. Well, almost ready…they just all need some velcro to hold them together.
They actually weren’t too bad to put together, but the lion mane “fur” makes a huge mess…
So I am happy to have the manes behind me.
I finally got a project that Em’s teacher had asked me to do months ago. She has two Cat in the Hats that go home with the students for a weekend trip and they needed some sort of traveling bag. Now the Cats can travel in style…
I have some birthday gifts I want to finish up this week, and J. left yesterday for the week. So you know what that means! We are onto our next room project. J. will not be so surprised when he comes home this time, though. He helped me move furniture and he even picked the paint color. So stay tuned for our playroom/craftroom transformation. I’m very excited about this one.
Were you crafty over the long weekend?
I have been meaning to put up a plea for my lovely sister for weeks now. She is walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-day walk for Cancer this coming August. And she needs our help. She needs to raise a lot of money…$2300 to be exact! She is about a quarter of the way there, and as much as I’d love to just donate enough to cover her, it just isn’t in the budget.
BUT…I racked my brain and have come up with something I can do. For you…my fantastic blog readers, I will send a crafty treat your way if you donate to her trek. Pop over there, dig into your pockets, donate, and then come back and leave a comment!
For a $25 donation I will send you a personalized coffee cozy or water bottle cozy like these. But…for a $50 donation I will send you your choice of a lickety-split bag, a kidlet, or a pillowcase dress (if you have a little girl).
It feels like every few months I find out someone I know is battling some form of breast cancer. Thankfully my mom, Grandma M., and my friend Vic have beaten it. But last year over 40,000 women died from breast cancer in the United States alone and we need to find a cure so that our girls, and their girls, don’t have to worry about it.
So please, if you can, sponsor my sister in her 60-mile walk. And remember, every little bit helps. Thanks!
I’m sitting here this evening filled with a whole lot of gratitude.
I’m grateful for good mommy friends and kid-free nights out that are full of laughs.
I’m grateful for friends who invite us into their home to share good food and conversations.
I’m grateful for my husband who works so very hard for our family, even traveling on holidays.
(I’m grateful – for his sake – that he at least gets a first class seat on his 14-hour plane ride tonight.)
I’m grateful for the men and women who fight for us and allow me to spend time
with my three favorite monkeys in a country that is safe and free.
Happy Memorial Day. I hope you take a moment to count your blessings, too.
When my fearless partner chose smoke as our theme this week I was thinking, “Oh fun! Good challenge!”
And then…(yes, there is always an excuse) I kinda left it to the last minute. VERY last minute. As in – J. had to throw the girls in bed so I could run out and try to take some photos in the fading light. And then…I made J. make a fire because I wasn’t sure I even got a wisp of smoke in any of my candle shots. Finally I sent this one on to K., and then opened her fabulous shot!
How cool is her perfect curl of smoke? And now, with them side by side, I really, really like our dipy this week. I love how the purples play off one another and how her smoke looks like it is escaping from my candle. I really am pleased with it.
Make sure to stop over to Megan’s for other dipys this fine Thursday, too!
I totally spaced on CT last week. I may have been painting, or cutting out some lion costumes, or just running around like a crazy woman. Who really knows! All I do know is that Tuesday came and went and I didn’t have anything to put up there for you all. This week it is all about practical projects and getting things crossed off of my to-do list.
And I can show the bathroom this week. First let me refresh your memory of the girls’ totally 60’s bathroom. (Excuse the horrid photo – it was the only one I could find, but you get the general idea, yeah?)
Mmmm…pretty, eh? Can you blame me for my wallpaper-tearing-down fit? Remarkably, the wallpaper was easy to come down but it came down and left bare plaster walls. So I primed it and had every intention of putting a nice, pale yellow on the walls. But once the primer was on, the white just looked so nice and clean. So I went with a warm, yellow-ish white. And, now – I smile every single time I walk into that bathroom.
I swapped out the white photo frames for black ones and shot some new bath photos last night for the other wall, too.
Now I’m on the search for some cute vintage tea towels to make little half curtains for the windows. Stay tuned on that one.
I have a baby shower today, so I put together some burp cloths. My friend doesn’t know the sex of the baby yet, so it was all kinds of green for the cloths. And I found the softest, light-green chenille for the back of them.
And I attempted another little project that I’ve wanted to do for awhile…but I finally had to shelf it this afternoon. It is kinda a big fat FAIL. For now at least, until I can re-work it and hopefully make it work.
They are supposed to be these little A-B-C stacking blocks, but the cubes are a little lopsided and I’m having lumpy issues. However, I did re-purpose the little birdy that was supposed to go on the B cube and made a baby card instead.
And I helped Ad’s teacher by zig-zagging little handprint projects. I’m not really sure what they are doing with them, but Addie was so very proud that Mommy was doing something for HER class for a change. She also, ah…ahem…helped me.
Now we are back to our regularly scheduled programming…and cutting out lion manes. Fair warning – next week will be all lions and hopefully 19 completed lion heads. Don’t say you weren’t warned.