Monday, November 29, 2010

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving






If the only prayer you ever say

in your entire life is thank you,

it will be enough.

-- Meister Eckhard


Happy Thanksgiving!

PS Photo by Blue Lily Photography....more to come soon!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Lovely Owls

Now that I have every other day off from work, I spend a lot of time with Little Miss. Lately, she is really into "Arts N' Crafts"(as she refers to it). Yes, finally, someone to share in Mommy's fun; I really couldn't be more excited about it. Every now and then E will sit and do a craft, but he would much rather run around the house and make weapons out of whatever he can find or play video games...yuck! Not us girls; Little Miss and I can sit all day and create! The other day we cleaned out my craft closet and she created on the floor in the middle of the chaos.

I found these wooden owl puppets from last year, we colored them with markers and then added feathers. It was a quick, fun project for both of us! I think they turned out Lovely....






Speaking of Lovely, once again, I'm linking up with Heather at Blessed Little Nest for Life Made Lovely Mondays. Go check it out!

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“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

— Mary Lou Cook

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Gift Tags

I'm not big on giving birthday cards to kids. They're so expensive now and what kid really wants to read and open a card, unless you send it in the mail? Sorry, but it's true. Lately, I've been creating tags using the theme of the party. This is really quick and easy to do using Picasa's collage feature.

1. Search for images on Google.
2. Import the images into Picasa.
3. Click on the image and choose collage.
4. Choose size; I generally do a 4 x 6, but smaller would be the usual size of a tag.
5. Choose a background color
6. Add text.
7. Print .
8. Adhere to some cardstock and add a ribbon to tie onto the package.

For more detailed directions on how to use the collage feature in Picasa, check out this post.

Here are some of the recent "tags" I created in Picasa.

You can make them simple (if you're in a hurry).
Or if you can add more detail.





They are really great with cardstock and ribbon, but, of course, I failed to take a picture of the finished product...sorry! Kids love to see their party theme on their birthday package, especially when it's personalized.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Vroooom...

That's how I feel about this week and really about life in general. It's just speeding by while I try to grasp it tightly and enjoy the moments. It doesn't help when Christmas music starts being played the day after Halloween. Wednesday will be mine and Victor's 14th wedding anniversary. Are you kidding me??? 14 years! In ten more years, I'll have been with him longer than I was without him. CRAZY!


I think it's been almost a week since I picked up my camera; that's pretty much unheard of around here! I better try to make up for that today.

Today we are putting the finishing touches on our Operation Christmas Child boxes and seeing just how much we can really stuff into a shoe box...you'd be surprised. I think we'll deliver them either later today or tomorrow. The kids still have to make cards to put inside.


And since I was on the subject of rushing life...why not get in the holiday spirit by checking out some of last year's Christmas pictures?















Today is National Adoption Day . "National Adoption Day is a national day of celebration of adoptive families and an opportunity for courts to open their doors and finalize the adoptions of children from foster care. Since 2000, more than 30,000 children have had their adoptions finalized on National Adoption Day. This year on November 20, families, adoption advocates, policymakers, judges and volunteers will come together and celebrate adoption in communities large and small all across the nation.and with that being said, I will close this post with a few quotes."(taken from http://www.nationaladoptionday.org/ ) Happy Adoption Day to all those who "officially" become families today!

"The greatest experience, the one which shakes a soul with hopes and fears, the results of which are never ending, and incidentally, the one which pays the biggest dividends, is to be found in the adoption of children."
-Anonymous

Monday, November 15, 2010

Trash Picking...end result

A while back I posted this. I am happy to say, the project is now complete.






After lots of sanding and a few coats of red spray paint, here is the end result.

It was actually E that helped me to come up with the idea to glue cork squares to the side of the desk, because he wanted to be able to hang things on it and of course, I wanted it to look "cute" at the same time...this is the solution.


The key holes and the handles were also covered in the yucky brown paint, I just sanded those down with the sander. I like how the result is a brushed silver look. I also sanded all the edges of the desk, including to the drawers, to make it look older and warn.



Old maps (donated by my mom and dad) sit under the glass top. Yes, the glass top came with the desk!

I put together a quick pencil holder using a frosting container and scrapbook papers. We also lined each drawer with scrapbook paper too...I forgot to photograph those...

Although I am mostly happy with the end result, I do think I would do some things differently next time..the major being that I would use regular latex paint...the shiny red spray paint was difficult to get to look even...
E loves his new big boy desk, although it is mostly a home for his Legos...I cleared them all off to take these photos.

I'm linking up with Heather at Blessed Little Nest for Life Made Lovely Monday Go check out all the great entries.

"Do you think it is only a little thing to possess a house from which lovely things can be seen?"

-Saint Teresa

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Happy Saturday!

The weather was beautiful today; Victor (and I for a little while) got rid of most of the leaves. I'm quite certain that we win the record for the most leaves in one yard!
I took the kids to Slater Park the other day for a quick photo op in front of "the doors"...my favorite thing about these photos is the reflection in the windows (and the subjects of course, but that goes without saying).








The kids and I are putting together shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Check out Meg's blog for the link. That's where I was inspired to do something (and use funky colors for my font). Maybe you can do something for this great cause too!

"There is no happiness in having or in getting,

but only in giving."

-Henry Drummond

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Halloween Treat Bag DIY

Here's my "official" how-to...

Make a bag, a simple rectangular shaped bag with wide grosgrain ribbon, long enough to wear the bag as a "messenger bag". This allows the kids to carry the bags on their own from house to house. Both my kids carried their bags for the entire Halloween experience.


Next, I found an image on the computer (actually, E picked it out). I printed it on iron-on transfer paper and then followed the directions to iron it onto the bag. Easy, easy!

It's not the best design and there are definitely things to improve ....a vertical image that takes up more space...added details, etc... however, it served its purpose and when waiting until the day of Halloween, you make do...

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Monday...

So here it is....Monday again! I'm linking up with Heather today at Blessed Little Nest for Life Made Lovely Monday and here's what is making my life lovely today as it does every other day...taking pictures of my kids, pretty much my favorite pastime, kind of an obsession at times. But with these two faces, how can you resist?


I also have a thing for quotes and with it being National Adoption Month, I thought I'd leave you with a "lovely" quote from the book Truly Yours; thoughts on the Miracle of Adoption by Laura Dail

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage." -Lao-Tzu

Don't forget to check out Heather's blog; it's one of my favorite places to visit on a daily basis.


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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Random Thursday

Yes, I know, Halloween is over, but I have leftovers...pictures that is. Thank goodness the candy is gone...we did this. E can't eat most of it, so why not trade it in?


Here are the leftovers.....

Avozinha with the kids... she had already taken her teeth out...very cute if you ask me. E was not seeing the cuteness; he was actually a bit afraid to go near her. You should have seen him trying to kiss her

See his nervous face checking out the situation?

We made our annual trip to Memere's house. This year we were able to get a photo with all five kids. Mem would be sad if we didn't stop by.
Check out the personalities in this photo.

...and another silly face...
Here's the bag I made E for his Halloween Treats.
I'll do a short how-to in the days ahead...you know, for next year.

...and just because, I can't get enough of this picture!

So much for random....

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween Goodness Around the House

Yes, I realize Halloween just went by, but I never got around to taking photos before the big event. As I was putting everything away today, I decided to take some pictures first. Here's what we had around our house this Halloween.

Found the bat idea here .







Little Miss drew the flower in pencil, I outlined it with a sharpie and she painted it with water colors. It has the rickrack on it so it can be hung, but I decided to lean it instead. It is done on a 5x7 canvas.







E painted this pumpkin 2 years ago when he was hospitalized for his asthma attack. I framed it and take it out every fall.



More bats...


The kids made these using Martha Stewart kits I bought at Christmas Tree Shop for less than $2.00 each. They're puppets, but I displayed them on small jars.


Pumpkins made from scrap wood I found in the garage. Little Miss and I mixed red and yellow paint to make a perfect shade of orange. After they were dry we glittered them up with fine orange glitter (another Martha Stewart Christmas Tree Shop purchase.)



Little Miss' own creation....stuck with Glue stick to the wall...it's not coming off anytime soon.



More pumpkins....



A bat E made in preschool that comes out every year. I hear they are trying to do away with the cardboard toilet paper rolls...what will we use for all those preschool art projects?



A pumpkin made with Cousin Chrissy when she babysat the kids one night.



More Cousin Chrissy crafts! She's the best!




...and the loot from E's bag after a long night of trick or treating. We donated it today at the dentist office. They were giving the kids $1.00 per pound of candy. Little Miss and E each had 4 lbs. The dentist office sends the candy overseas to troops.