peace sign part 2..

the kiddos & i made a sign with one of my favorite quotes a few months back.  but, i hated my writing.  so, i spray painted it black, thinking i would use letter stickers & then have my munchkins paint it to make it look kinda like the subway art style.  that didn't work either.

here is the finished product.

i still hate my hand writing, but love the barely visible peace sign in the back & love my kiddos love & peace hand prints at the botttom (you may have to use your imagination on that one!). 


i still have 2 small paintings/signs i want to make for dear friends for christmas with a saying that is so fitting for our firiendships. 

"a friend is someone who knows the song in your heart & can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

&“ friends are those who lift you up when your heart's wings forget how to fly.”

these 2 friends have helped me through more than i can ever repay & they can ever imagine.  i thank god for their friendships multiple times a day. 

& of course, another inspirational quote i wanna put in our home:

 People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

our aunt donna has this in a frame in her home & i treasure reading it every time i see it.   

hope everyone has a blessed weekend!! xoxo - me

our grumble box

2 weeks ago, our pastor gave a sermon on Phillipians 2:14:   Do all things without complaining. 

so, our goal for that week was for a complaint free week.  the kiddos didn't get the message..  monday was whine, whine, whine.  about everything & anything.  it was wearing me down. 

that night, when we went to read from our Little Visits With God book (damaw & siblings' old book),

the story we turned to was the grumble box.  amazing how things work out that way.  i'm sure you can guess the story.  a family of complainers... the mom (i like that) suggests they ought not grrumble all the time.  God says "Do all things without mummering."  she talked about how God wanted them to be cheerful people & to do what is right & good.  she suggested they make a box with a slot in the top & whoever grumbled had to put a penny in the box at that time. 

perfect story for us.  the kiddos couldn't wait to make a box. 

we finally did. 

& here it is. 

(the bottom of it has happy people & a happy dinosaur  drawn by the kiddos)

the kiddos got into their piggy banks right away to make up for lost time.  i need to put quite a few pennies in it this week, i'm afraid too.   but, we've got it out & are working on it!

peace be with you

on the computer late one night, i came across a quote which "got me".  i had to put it up on our wall to remember. 

i love the handmade art, so the kiddos & i went to work painting a canvas.  they mixed some lovely shades of green, silver and white together & i added a faint peace sign to it after all their work was done.

next came the words.  i wish i had asked to borrow cousin's cricut, but instead decided to go at it with a marker & my hand.  i was trying to go for the pharmacy font, but didn't turn out so well free hand.  my words letters are quite imperfect, but hey so are we.  someday, we may have a repaint & a redo with the cricut, but we'll see. 

the back was decorated by my favorite artists, benj & grace. 

they worked quite hard on writing their names & tracing body parts. 

i love the back as much as the front!

peace!

our family rules

last year, i came across this project to make & display your family rules.  well, i've been wanting to do it ever since.  i let the kiddos help me, so our paper is quite bubbly & not so straight, but it has their loving touches in it.  the paper is a bit busy too, but they picked it out. here it is: 

gotta go get big ben from preschool! 

pocket full of sunshine

miss gracie has had a rough morning. momma woke her up early to take papaw to the eye doctor & she wasn't happy. i thought just because i woke her up. oh no- almost to pap's (about an hour away), she started getting sick. it was a loong drive back to our home. we had to stop several times for the poor gal to dump out the puke bucket & clean her up. she is a trooper though & didn't fuss much.


when we got home, big brother helped her recover by bringing her a wet rag. such a sweetie. we've had a cartoon filled day this afternoon & she is feeling much better. & her lunch has stayed down. i'm so glad!


on the way to recovery!

today, she's sporting one of her "pocket shirts" i made for her to carry around her little treasures. she loves itty bitty stuffed animals & having a place to put 1 or 2 now. her "pocket shirts" are her clothing of choice anymore.



big brother & sister smiling for the camera

our snow pinata party

i had found a pinata kit at tuesday morning for $3 & thought my kiddos would enjoy making it. what an undertaking!!
well, we started it wednesday evening & completed the fun tonight.
wednesday didn't quite go as planned.


we got all the pieces for the dino cut out & taped to the balloon. as we were placing the newspaper strips, the balloon popped. this happened not once, but twice. we all lost interest by that point.

yesterday, the kiddos found another balloon & we blew it up for round 3.


due to my frustration with the popping, i decided to go for a ball pinata instead of the dinosaur (it seemed to pop where the pieces we had cut out for the dino were attached to the balloon). making a ball much easier!

we got the newspaper & tissue paper all glued on & let it dry overnight.

today, we painted the ball after playing in the snow. i just let the kiddos go to town with whatever color they chose. quite colorful!


this evening we popped the balloon & filled it with candy.


tonight, we broke the bad boy to pieces.


go, gracie, go!


ben can be a bit intimidating holding a bat in his hand!!



ahh, candy time (leftover from ben's birthday party pinata) the best part!!


next time, i will tie a string to the balloon prior to using the paper strips so i have a way of hanging up our creation. we made do with a broom stick.
the kiddos had a fun time doing this & i think we will go a ball pinata route for the next pinata party!

teeshirts to tiedye for

ben was growing out of his tiedyed shirts, so it was time for a new batch. this year, i let them have free reign to color them all by themselves. (a very hard thing for me to do, knowing the color wouldn't be reaching into all the little nooks and crannies, but oh well).
i put rubberbands on several white tees & let the kids go to down. we had left over dye from joann's summer clearance last year. this stuff rocks. you just squirt it on; no ash dye to mess with, no pretreatment involved, you just get to squirting.
gracie's favorite canvas, was once again, herself (& me)

ben worked so hard on each shirt.

here is his favorite shirt. viola!

gracie thought this one was the best to relax on after all the hard artistry.

summertime

i found a new favorite blog... tatertots & jello. she has lots of fun stories, things that motivate moms like me & just seems like a super cool momma.

she inspired me to try & make our own version of her summer signs. here are hers, beautiful aren't they???

for our version, we used some scrapbooking paper & just colored in the letters. i then glued the letters & let the kiddos go to town with glitter. i think they didn't turn out half bad for a non crafter & 2 kiddos. we have the letters up with all our summertime stuff. things from daddio's trip to key west, from our engagement trip to the dominican, some of ben's crafts from vbs & random other items.

some up close shots...

if you have time, check out her blog. she has really inspired me. even to get jillian michaels 30 day shred. (i haven't gotten it out of the package yet though...)

my mother's day present

check out the beautiful necklace made just for me by my sweet goddaughter, darby. i feel pretty special because she only made me one, not her mom or grandmas or aunts. it has lots of funky fun beads on it - i love it! miss g does too thanks darby for such a pretty present! i love you!


& here is gracie in her pillowcase dress. of course, she's holding her best friend, blue.

making faces & ugly blankies

my kiddos are quite animated. beano has been making this one face a long time now. when he's embarrassed, angry, shy; it's the same silly face.
i asked him not to make the face because it wasn't nice. he said it was, it was a daddy face. so there you go.

here's the fleece blanket i made out material i had just sitting. i had this brilliant idea of making everyone homemade pants for christmas. it's now middle of january. so, i decided to make a blanket. it is very soft & comfy cozy, as beano likes to say. i bet the whole family will fit under it. beano's only complaint was that there isn't enough lightening mcqueen on it. here's beano enjoying the warmth (making the face).

it's going to be good for playing mothra around the house for daddio! (after bath, the kids like to put on their hooded towels & fly around the house. i scream "eek, a bug, a moth!" and swat at them.)
poor kid fell down while trying to take off his shirt & hit our bed frame. he has a big owie under his eye. good thing he's tough like his daddy!

have a great weekend!

gettin crafty with it

oh, the craft bug has bitten me. but i have so many symptoms i don't know what to do. i want to sew, crochet (don't know how), make photo jewelry (mediocre)play with pictures, paint, make gracie some more pillowcase dresses & applique ben some shirt.... i started cutting out my grandma's old material for a comforter i want to make. well, i decided it was taking too long
so, i made the kiddos each a pillow. easy enough.
and i made myself a purse out of a place mat, ribbon and some material i had cut out. the inside of the purse has 3 pockets sewn in (i was thinking!). i can't wait to carry it. i love the print!

cecee's room

cecee's room is overflowing with handmade love! we went with what started out as a shabby chic sort of look & it's evolved a bit. it's full of hand-me downs & crafts made by family, friends & myself.

i found this cross stich in a drawer at my papaw's house. my friend karen suggested putting it in an embroidery hoop. i added some material to make a ruffle around it. it turned out better than i thought!

her changing table was in my room as a baby. it's an old piece from my great grandparents & we had it refinished. it's a bit cluttered right now, but definately does the job.

the tissue box cover (one of my favorite things in her room!) was my baby dress.
daddio, beano & i painted the pictures above her changing table. can you guess who painted which?
her namaw made rugs for her room, which i just love. you can see her little chair in the corner. cecee loves to sit in it & look through her books.

above her crib (which neither child has ever slept in), are some awesome vintage nursery rhyme plaques my friend karen gave us. i painted the letters for her name

her bookcase is filled with books & "vintage" items that are dear to my heart. there are pictures of all her grandparents as children hanging up, which i love to look at & compare my kiddos to. the girl & gnome prints to the sides of the bookcase are from this etsy seller, mulitple personality. she has a girl with gnome doll i just love!


my friend karen made her this tree picture, which it too cute!


i used some of my grandma's old dresses as a mat for some pictures. her dresses were so worn, you could see through them! i love having pieces of her in the room. there's a picture of her in one frame as a teen, she was a hottie!


here's a rag wreath out of my grandma's old materials (she was quite the seamstress). it looks much better in person; here it just looks like a bunch of rags.
my first sewing attempt were some "creatures" a while back & they are scattered all around the home. here's one that has found his way onto the glider.

latest addition to her room is a set of pictures from a photo session at gray photography. we love him. he is the most talented man. i can't say enough about his pictures. my framing doesn't do the pictures justice. they didn't quite fit in the frames i bought, so i have to figure out a better way to display them.

beano's room is not so full of my craftiness, he still has some wall space. before he was born, we painted pictures for his room. he has a dinosaur / cars motif going on right now. we(i) wasn't too sure about what to name him, so i painted letters to spell out jacob, ben & kaden. as soon as we got home, i made daddio hang up the letters. a bit silly i know.