I love color

I had the urge to re-do this old end table in our living room. The finish was old and crackly and its top shelf was dry and faded by the sun.

I love how it turned out!

This color (called Lagoon) is so bright and cheery.

Dinner tonight was bright and cheery, too. My girls wanted to make fruit kabobs after seeing a recipe for them in a cookbook we checked out today at the library.

I'm so glad God made color

...and cute little girls.

spring break

My mom, dad and little brother were able to come visit last week for their Spring Break! My dad and little bro worked outside in the yard and trimmed our hedges and roses, and my mom and I stayed busy inside working on several projects, one of which was making mini key lime pie tarts with the Pampered Chef tart pans she brought from home. Seriously, this post should be titled how many pictures of key lime pie can one post? I couldn't help myself. They were just so, so pretty. I jumped up and down squealing after my mom placed a slice of lime on top of the first little tart.


So those are the tarts. :) And they were delicious, by the way! Now for the curtains...

we made these kitchen curtains out of a vintage tablecloth. I love how they turned out! We also made my girls little black ruffled skirts for their school's spring program, because I was so disappointed in the current selection in stores of little girls' skirts.

Then we went paper shopping. We have the best craft store here, Craft Warehouse, and it has the c-u-t-e-s-t paper selection ever. Makes up for the lack of decent little girls' skirts in this town...almost. My mom gave me a few sheets of paper from a pack that she purchased and I was able to make a little banner.

new shirts

I appliqued little cupcake shirts for my girls the other night and hung them in their room so they'd see them first thing the next morning.

Here's the first peep I heard from their room...

"Look! I hope those are for us!"

embroidery 101

Recently, I've been inspired to try embroidery,
thanks to a sweet friend and very creative
Farm Chicks vendor, Courtney.

She's always working on something cute--most likely trying to
stock up her booth for this year's Farm Chicks Show.

At Christa's baby shower, we asked the guests
to decorate onesies for Baby Ella.
I wasn't going to make one, but I couldn't resist all the adorable fabric.
It's like it was calling to me.

Now I think I might understand a crafter's obsession with cute fabric
and why one might justify collecting and possibly hoarding a large stash of quilting fabric.
I think I'm on the verge!
Maybe.

So here's my little creation for Baby Ella.
I'm so thankful that Courtney was there to help me get going.
It was frustrating at first, because I had to start over 3 times.
But now I can't wait to get started on another project!

a happy little party

Several months ago, I spotted tissue paper pom-pom kits in the craft section at Wal-Mart.

I wanted to make a few to decorate for a birthday party, but our Wal-Mart has scaled down its craft section and, sadly, they were all gone.

I searched online and found these super easy instructions to make them.

Seeing them suspended from my kitchen ceiling still makes me happy!

This also makes me happy...

A dear friend brought all of the ingredients to make yummy strawberry trifle.

The pound cake was made from scratch.

And it was real pound cake--she used a whole pound of butter. :)

bruschetta pasta

Last week I racked my brain to think of a meal to bring a friend who recently had a baby. I simmered roma tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic and red onion for about an hour to make a sauce, purchased fettuccine noodles from the refrigerated section of the grocery store and called it Bruschetta Pasta.

I placed the ingredients in this mini burlap sack that I found stashed in my every-growing collection of gift bags. I opened the package of noodles and placed them in a zip-lock bag, added a few cherry tomatoes and extra basil leaves in another zip-lock, and some Romano cheese in another. I used one of my Farm Chicks Labels to write out the instructions and tied it off with some raffia.

I get a little nervous when I cook for other people. I'm always afraid they won't like what I bring over. What meals have you prepared to take over to a friend's house? I could use a few more ideas.

pillowcase shirt

I used this tutorial to make this darling shirt out of a pillowcase.

I've never sewn with elastic thread before, so I faced lots of challenges along the way. Just before giving up, I found this site with great tips on shirring fabric. As it turns out, my length and width settings were off.

a touch of blue

When we moved into our little house 2 years ago, I was so thankful that the previous owner had exposed and refinished the hardwood floors and chose great colors to paint the walls. I fell in love with the green walls in the kitchen...perfect for bright red accents! The living room walls are a pale yellow, which I don't mind, but with our stuff in the room, it just wasn't doing anything for me. I had this idea of removing most of my neutral tones and adding little touches of blue around the room. I had a few things around the house that I brought together--a blue throw, bird eggs, old blue books, and a great poster of the Puget Sound. I really like how it turned out!

I got this 5' x 8' rug on clearance at Pottery Barn a few years ago. It contains so many colors and serves as a great palette. I'm glad I was able to use what I already had to do this little make-over.

This was my friend, Emily's idea. We found this map of the Puget Sound awhile back in a little town called La Conner. She has one just like it that her dad cut into pieces and backed with foam board. I thought this was a great idea! However, when I got it home, it was much too long to fit above my mantel and I didn't have any spare walls besides. I tucked it away for future use.

The other night, I wondered if the map would fit above the fireplace if I trimmed off the top and bottom edges...it did! I backed it with foam board and, instead of fastening it to the wall, I just leaned it up against the wall.

Here are a few things I gathered from around the house.

I love walking into my living room now. It feels so bright, so fresh!

time for lilacs

last year's blooms

Who doesn't love the smell of lilacs in bloom? My lilac bushes are starting to wake from their long winter's nap. This means that my poor kids have to do a lilac craft. ;)

For our Friday Preschool class this morning, we'll make these paper lilacs using purple paint, straws, green pipe cleaners, green construction paper and white tag board.

You can probably figure this out by looking at my terribly dark photo (sorry). We'll use straws to dab the paint onto the white tag board, which, surprisingly takes awhile. I always love it when kids' crafts last longer than 5 minutes. Sometimes it takes me a very long time to prepare these crafts for my kids and then they finish lickedy-split!

Here are a couple of fun books that feature our very lovely lilac flower.

In Bunny's Noisy Book, I'll have the kids make the sounds that Bunny hears or makes. In Little Green, I'll have the kids use their fingers to imitate what Little Green, the hummingbird, does in the book (flying high and low, zipping, darting, starting, stopping, looping, etc.).

Valentine Mice

For someone who can't stand mice, I sure do a lot crafty things with them. These mice are made of folded paper hearts...simple! You can find the instructions to make these here. For the tails, I used rick rack instead of lollipops.

Groundhog Day Fun

Happy Groundhog Day! My kids are always excited to wake up on February 2, because we make our predictions about Mr. Groundhog the night before.

Before breakfast, I get the computer all geared up so we can watch the news clip from Punxsutawney, PA. The kids are always so excited to see the "real" Mr. Groundhog. :)

All set for breakfast!

Here's a little Groundhog Day snack for the littles. Hide a Hershey Kiss in a bowl of yogurt, topped with green sprinkles.

They'll love finding Mr. Groundhog hiding in their bowls!

Mommy...What can I doooooooo?

My kids haven't been able to play outside since Thanksgiving because of a nasty storm that hit the Pacific Northwest. I've been trying to keep them busy indoors. Yesterday we ventured out and had doughnuts. It's amazing what a little trip like that can do. I think it was refreshing for all of us!

I've been looking for things to do with the kids indoors. I've had my eye on these fun projects:

• Make a couple of Story Time Baskets
• Make Felt Play Food and Felt Valentine Cookies
• Prepare Storybook Muffin Tins for the littles to enjoy at lunchtime.

Weathering the Storm

"In the bleak midwinter, frost and wind made moan,

earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow..."

~In the Bleak Midwinter

The Northwest has been hit pretty hard with recent snowstorms. We've been trying to keep the kids busy here inside. Little ones can only play out in the snow for so long, you know! Here are a couple of things we've done in order to weather the storm:

There's something wonderful about a boy and his dad setting up the electric train to go 'round the Christmas tree.

The kids enjoyed making this Nativity scene out of a paper grocery bag.

What do you like to do when the weather keeps you inside?

Week 4

Here's what we'll be doing next week to celebrate the Christmas season:

Sunday: Light the Angel candle on our Advent log, read "The Eighth Day of Christmas" from the book, The Real 12 Days of Christmas and attend our church's Christmas play

Monday: Read "The Ninth Day" from The Real 12 Days of Christmas and make angels with the kids' footprints and handprints

Tuesday: Read "The Tenth Day" from The Real 12 Days of Christmas, read about the wise men giving gifts to Jesus, make gifts-in-a-jar to pass out to our neighbors, go caroling in the neighborhood and pass out the gifts we made. I love this quote from Lisa Whelchel's book The ADVENTure of Christmas, regarding the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh..."Who would give such strange gifts to a baby? Wise men would."

Wednesday: Light the Christ candle on our Advent log, read "The Eleventh Day" from The Real 12 Days of Christmas, do our homemade-gift family gift exchange (more on this later), and place Baby Jesus in the straw-filled manger under our Christmas tree

Thursday: Each child will receive an invitation to a special Christmas dinner, which will be lit by all 5 of the candles on our Advent log and we'll read about the final day, "The Twelfth Day of Christmas" from The Real 12 Days of Christmas

Week 3

Here's what we'll be doing next week to celebrate the Christmas season:

Sunday: Begin reading The Real 12 Days of Christmas ("The First Day of Christmas"), and light the Shepherd's candle on our Advent log

Monday: Read "The Second Day" in The Real 12 Days of Christmas, read about the legend of the candy cane, and make candy cane reindeer

Tuesday: Read "The Third Day" in The Real 12 Days of Christmas, read about the star that the wise men followed and make glitter star ornaments

Wednesday: Read "The Fourth Day" in The Real 12 Days of Christmas and read The Tiny Star

Thursday: Read "The Fifth Day" in The Real 12 Days of Christmas, read about the shepherds in the Christmas story, pray for a missionary family, and make sheep with cotton balls

Friday: Read "The Sixth Day" in The Real 12 Days of Christmas and drive around to look at Christmas lights

Saturday: Read "The Seventh Day" in The Real 12 Days of Christmas and bake Christmas cookies

Week 2

Here's what we'll be doing next week to celebrate the Christmas season:

Sunday: Begin What God Wants for Christmas by opening the first gift box, and light the Bethlehem candle on our Advent log.

Monday: Open the second box of What God Wants for Christmas, and make ice cream cone Christmas trees

Tuesday: Open the third box of What God Wants for Christmas, and read A Little House Christmas

Wednesday: Open the fourth box of What God Wants for Christmas, talk about the true story of Santa Claus from Lisa Whelchel's book The ADVENTure of Christmas and hang our stockings

Thursday: Open the fifth box of What God Wants for Christmas, watch Santa Claus is Coming to Town while drinking hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows :)

Friday: Open the sixth box of What God Wants for Christmas, make snowflakes to hang in the window and watch Frosty the Snowman

Saturday: Open the seventh box of What God Wants for Christmas, and make gingerbread houses out of Graham crackers, frosting and candy (here's another fun site for ideas)

Happy December!

I'm very excited to begin daily Christmas activities with my children. Every night after dinner, one of my kids will remove a slip of paper from our Advent garland and we'll do the activity written on that slip of paper. This week I'm focusing on Christmas trees. You can click on anything in red for the links.

Monday: Make candles out of toilet paper tubes to display in the window (this is to go along with lighting the first candle on our Advent log).

Tuesday: Read The Pine Tree Parable

Wednesday: Make apple cinnamon ornaments

Thursday: Make green Corn Flake Wreaths

Friday: Read The Three Trees

Saturday: Watch The Three Trees

In keeping with the theme Preparing Him Room, this year I've decided to leave the manger of our Nativity scene empty until Christmas Eve. I've cut small strands of raffia to use as hay. Each of my children will place one strand of hay in Baby Jesus' manger every night before bed. On Christmas Eve we'll place Baby Jesus into His nice, soft bed.

Much Better!

I didn't think it was possible! I went through this cabinet today and organized all of my craft supplies. It looks like I tossed a bunch of stuff, but I didn't! I moved a few puzzles over to the kids' bookshelf, and I took the four unopened packages of Crayola art kits and hid them away for Christmas gifts. My kids received these last year, but I don't think they'll even notice! As I was organizing my supplies, a wave of inspiration came over me. I thought of a few crafty projects to do with my kids for Christmas.

So, there you have it...organization, inspiration and a little bit of Christmas shopping done in one afternoon!

Making My Home a Haven

I've decided to join Monica from The Homespun Heart in tidying up areas of my home to make it a haven for my family. Her challenge this week: Making Your Home a Haven. For me, a haven suggests peace and quiet, but I have four very young children, ages 3, 3, 4 and 5. One way I'm able to have peace in my home is by keeping their little hands busy.

Take a peek into my craft cabinet! This is ever so humbling for me. It's quite obvious that I just stuff things back into this cabinet when I'm through with them. My goal today is start organizing the mess this afternoon.

*edit* If you've arrived here from The Homespun Heart, please click here to see the final results!

Our Little Pumpkin Patch

We made these squatty little pumpkins this morning in our preschool co-op.

To make these little fellows, paint the bottom two-thirds of a small brown lunch bag orange. In order to make the paint spread quickly, I watered down my paint and used a wide-tipped sponge brush. Let paint dry.

Stuff paper bag with paper or recycled plastic bags. Twist the bag closed to make the stem. Secure it with a green pipe cleaner. Curl the pipe cleaner by rolling the ends around a pencil.

If you want to make jack-o-lanterns, have your kids paint or color faces onto their pumpkins before stuffing their bags.