HIS BANNER OVER ME IS LOVE

This year I decided to take a new approach to how we celebrate Valentine's Day.  I started to think about love, the true meaning of it, and where it comes from.  The answer was suddenly very clear to me, God is love, so we will celebrate God's love for Valentine's Day.  I don't want to set my girls up with unrealistic ideas of what romantic love can do for them, but instead flood them with the knowledge of where real, unfailing, and neverending love comes from.  True love, love that allows them to love others even the people who do not love them back.  Back at Christmas,  Alisa  made a banner with the names of God on it and Susie Harris made this sign that I have been drooling over.  These two women started my brain to thinking and I decided we could make a Valentine's banner with the names of God and verses about his love.  His banner over us is love.

Let me tell you girls how much fun it was to make.  I study my Bible regularly, but had never done a study just on God's unfailing love.  I challenge you to research how many times it is listed in the Bible.

( I love seeing the girls handwriting )

Everyone we know is going to fail us in some way or another, but His love is unfailing and everlasting, doesn't that bring you joy. 

His banner over you is love.

If you would like a beautiful reminder of His love check out Susie's DIY and make yourself a sign, to have as a reminder of his love.  I think this is the greatest piece of art and hope  one day to have one myself,  (that will require some sweet talking to my Sweet Hubby).

You can also see  His Banner Ove Me Is Love, year two

PREVIEW

Well, today has won, most things on my to do list have been added to tomorrow's.  Surprisingly, I am okay with it.  The girls and I have spent more time bonding and less time doing today, and I have enjoyed it.  We try to craft after lunch on Friday's, but I don't think any of us felt like it today.  All of this to say, my mantel is not complete like I thought it would be.  There is always tomorrow, right.  I thought I would go ahead and give you  a glimpse of things to come.

I love this idea and am happy with the way it came out.  I do wish I had a better camera and computer skills, but here is to working with what you have.  I hope to have the whole thing finished this weekend and show you next week.   HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.

Cha Cha

PENGUIN

Big Sister has really gotten into baking, lately.  So much so , that she has signed up to take a class and I am so proud of her.  I think this is a great way for her to express her creative side, and you know around here a creative side is important.  This is her cupcake from her second week.

Didn't she do the best job.  I will be posting all of her creations.  She should complete one every other week, one week is for prep work and the other for assembly.  If you are interested in trying it yourself, it is from the book Hello Cupcake.  I think I may have a future Bakerella on my hands.

Cha Cha  

Valentine's Day Pillow

****updated to add better pictures****



So it is raining again in Georgia today.  For those of you who don't live in Georgia it has rained more in the last five months than it has in the last five years ( I don't know this to be a fact, but it surely seems to be true).  So to keep from going crazy today I decided to go through my fabric stash looking for inspiration.  I found some old burlapish ( I like to make up words) drapes from our last house and some rusty red fabric I had bought on clearance a couple of years ago because it was MY red.   The red made me think of Valentine's, so I started plotting and came up with doing a fluffy heart out of circles of fabric.  I started by cutting the burlap to the size I wanted and then got busy on the circles, it took about 50 circles.  Cutting the circles out was the most time consuming part. 

Then I folded the circles and hand stitched them into a heart shape.

The final product makes me smile...

I love the fact that it blends in with my other decor and doesn't scream  Valentine's Day, in fact I am thinking I may leave it out long after the other decorations are put away.

I plan to work on another one this week that is the same colors, but different design.  I'll share as soon as it is done.  I hope you have found something to make you smile today.

GUILT FREE VALENTINE'S CAKE

Sorry I haven't really posted this week.  I promise I am not on some super duper vacation somewhere, I really am crafting up a storm right here at home.  I will share all that I have been up to sometime in the near future, but for now I thought I could at the very least give you a little taste (hahaha).

So are you ready to set your eyes on the first fat free, calorie free, guilt free Valentine's Day cake you will ever see.

These are her humble beginnings.

She started life as three discarded hat boxes, that had worn out their welcome years ago.  All they needed was a little love, paint, ribbons, and half a gallon of glitter.  Isn't it amazing what some love and bling can do for a girls confidence level.  I think she is too sweet ( the kind that doesn't disturb my hips), and she will be sticking around for the next few months.  I have many great plans for her and you will just have to stick around to see how she continues to show up.  Now if you will excuse me, I have a 1/4 of a gallon of glitter to vaccum up (you really don't want to know).

P.S.  Don't tell my youngest daughter but I went shopping in her personal stash of fake flowers for the top, hopefully she will think this make a good temporary home for them!!!!!!

Thanks Apron Goddesses

So I just got a little free time to check out some of my favorite blogs,  and guess what?  I stopped over at Apron Goddesses and to my surprise she was spotlighting ME.  I am so honored.  If you haven't been to her blog and you even kind of like aprons go there FAST, and  if you are visiting by way of her site thanks for coming by.  You are always Welcome here, grap a cup of coffee, kick off your shoes, find your comfy chair and Sit Relax and Read.  Please feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourselves.

Tea Towel and a Business?

It was one of those perfect rainy days.  The kind that is just too cold and wet to go anywhere so the girls and I huddled around the family room doing some crafts.   I have seen cute tea towels all over the place the last few years,  My oldest daughter even made some for Christmas gifts a few years ago,  I have been wanting to try my hand at making some.  This is my first creation.

  I have some more patterns brewing around in my head, and hopefully will have time in the next week to get started on them.  I was wondering what all you smart and savvy ladies thought about me selling tea towels ( not this pattern) on Etsy or something like it?  Does anyone have an Etsy business and have words of wisdom to share.  I am also looking for some one to do a custom blog design for me,  any suggestions?

Thanks,

WHAT DO YOU DECORATE AROUND

What is that important thing in your or your loved ones life that you decorate around?  Is it the overstuffed recliner, the childhood trophy, the autographed baseball, the doll your great aunt gave you?  We all have something floating around our house that we would never go out and purchase today to go into our house, but because it is meaningful you somehow make it work.  We have this and her name is Angel, she is the cutest little fake white bird you have ever seen, she even has a house of her own.

  I don't make a habit out of pretending she is real and needs a real home, but My Youngest Daughter does.  So there is my dilemma, she can't just be a display piece artfully arranged.  She has to be believable, well as believable as a bird with a clip for feet can be.  So I decided to make the best out of it.  My Youngest got her first lesson in spray painting (totally a homeschool class).

                                      ( Yes, that is snow in the background, we are hard core)

  She sprayed and sprayed, mostly her hand.  I finally rescued her and took over to finish up.  While we were at it we painted some old candlesticks to go in her room. 

And here she is in her new home that is believable enough for my daughter and cute enough to be art in her new room.

 Look Angel even get designer paper to line her cage.

The candlesticks are now a nice addition also.

So with a little spray paint on some old pieces my daughter now has some new decor.

Phase two down, up next adding a little color to the bedding.

You can read about her wall mural
and our recycled shoe boxes

Crafting for My Youngest Daughters Room

I have been itching to finish up some details in My Youngest Daughter's Room, since posting the first pictures.  Why is that you look at a room and think everything looks nice until you see a picture of it.  That is what happened to me after I posted the first pictures.  I knew I still had a few things to do, but I had no idea how flat it would look once photographed. Well, I learned my lesson from now on I will be taking pictures first and then deciding if I like a room.  So the first phase is to finish up her shelves.  I was happy with the art and the few thing that we had on them, but knew we needed more storage boxes ( she is the kid who collects everything ).  So I looked around the house and found one pretty blue box with a handle that would look great as is.  But I needed more, this required a trip to the recently cleaned out storage room.  I hit the jackpot, I had forgotten about three nesting boxes that have already been used several different places but were currently in retirement.  I also found two sturdy shoe boxes.

After a quick gathering of scrapbook paper and Mod Podge I was ready to begin.

I started by cutting the paper to fit the height of the box sides.  Applied the Mod Podge and attached the paper.

Wrapping the paper around the corners to make sure it was all covered.

These are the nesting boxes, They started life as 4th of july decorations in red white and blue, I repainted them  light blue last year to use in the kitchen before the remodel.  Here is what they look like today.

The blue box that was perfect already and the shoe boxes turned out great also.

Now she has plenty of room for every card she has ever gotten, rocks, plastic dogs, bouncy balls, sea shells, fake flowers, ribbons and so on and so on.

After watching me, she wanted in on the action.  I cut out two C's out of cardboard and one out of scrapbook paper.

I stacked the two cardboard ones on top of one another and taped them together, so It would be thicker.

Next, I taped over the edges so you wouldn't see the cardboard.

Finally, she got her hands on it.

She painted the whole thing with pink craft paint.  Notice that holding your tongue just right helps get the job done.

After all the paint was dry she COVERED it with Mod Podge and place the paper C on top.  We added a flower from her collection and a ribbon and it was good to go.

She loves it and is very proud of herself.

Next up will be spray paint transformations.