Joyfully Weary

I'm a little late posting these photos. It's been a busy week...mostly, for happy reasons. We had an out-of-state friend stay with us a couple nights which led to an evening full of good wine and good conversation. We also had some unhappy busyness - sick and teething kids up at all hours of the night. Mini Man has been begging for the last couple years to make our house scary for Halloween. We debated for awhile; we don't want to glorify death or evil. After having some conversations with each other and with the kids, we decided we would decorate with natural scary things like spiders, bats, etc. Jeremy and I are also huge fans of stories and mythology so we figured we could also incorporate some of the "scarier" characters from our favorite books. The big spider on top of roof is suppose to be Aragog. We have plans to add a little bit each year...he needs some fur and some glow-in-the-dark eyes.  This year Big Buddy dressed...

I've been wanting to add some art to our "guitar wall" for awhile. I also knew I wanted to use some pages from our hymnals. I like the look of sheet music and have been pleased with how it's turned out in other crafts ( here & here ). I originally thought about trying to recreate these flowers .  Which I still may do someday, but since time if very precious right now I decided to go with windmills instead. They add some fun texture but are easy and quick; all 5 took about an hour to put together.  Supplies: old hymnal, scissors, glue stick, super glue, and coins/buttons Step 1: each windmill requires five hymnal sheets, rip them out and then trim to desired size. For the larger windmills I trimmed about 1/2" off the edges. For the smaller windmills I trimmed about 2" off the edges.  Step 2: accordion fold all of your sheets. My folds were about 1/2" wide. If you end up with extra at the end just trim it off.  Step 3:...

I spotted numbered steps on Pinterest awhile ago and quickly put the idea on my summer to do list. I figured it'd be a pretty easy and inexpensive project to complete since I could buy house numbers at our local hardware store for just a few dollars. But then Jeremy's work got a new laser cutter, which made me think a bit bigger - words! Jeremy and I tossed back and forth a few ideas and then one morning I read over Galatians 5:22-23  and decided the fruits of the Spirit were perfect. Not only would it add the whimsy I was hoping for but it would be a daily reminder of the way in which the Spirit of God wants us to live our lives. Jeremy used the laser cutter to cut the words out of chip board and then I used a couple different cans of spray paint (black, bronze, & gold) to achieve the antiqued gold finish we wanted. Since the chip board is fairly light weight we were able to us 3M strips to hold them in place. They've been up for about a week now w...

Canvas word art has become one of my new favorite crafts. It's easy and fairly inexpensive.  So far I've tried two different variations and have plans to mix it up again to make a St Patrick's day sign.   The first variation was a series of Christmas gifts for some of our family this past year.  They were a huge hit, and the idea could also be used to make mother/father/grandparents day gifts.  supplies: canvas, acrylic paint, vinyl letters, and a foam brush, also not pictured: ruler and pencil to help line up letters We used the vinyl letters to spell out words/phrases that reminded us of specific family members and then used one color for each child to make hand prints. big buddy  mini man little lady  By the time we got around to making a canvas for husbandie's parents, we decided to mix it up a little bit and had the boys help us create an acrostic poem using their "names". *their canvases where actually old a...

Today is our last Christmas celebration and my boys can't wait to open more toys. But this poses a problem - they (the toys) will all need a home. Which is why I thought I'd share my favorite craft discovery of 2011 - taking old boxes and turning them in to pretty, storage containers. I found this brilliant idea on my friend Katie's blog . Katie has a wonderful, and more calculated, tutorial (check it out here ) on how to make these with hot glue.  However, calculations and hot glue have never been my friends, so I guesstimate and use mod podge. supplies: diaper box with flaps removed (i put a coat of white paint on my box so the logo wouldn't be visible under the burlap) fabric, scissors,  mod podge, foam brush, & brayer (not neccessary but helpful) I don't use exact measurements for the fabric but instead lay the box on top of the fabric and cut out a rough cross shape making sure there is a least an extra inch of fabric on each side. I tr...