Fun With Fabric

A friend of mine recently had her first baby. The theme of her daughter's nursery is Dick and Jane. I love me some Dick and Jane, the girl has good taste. So I decided to make her a gift that she could use for nursery decor and had a function too. Enter this memo/photo board and barette holder.

I took an 11x14 frame that I bought on clearance at Jo-Jo's (Joann's), and used it for the photo board. Lots of cork, fabric, ribbon and hot glue threw togther made the above result.

For a cute little tie in for her daughter, I used pink buttons.

I also used some flat glass marbles to make a few matching push pins.

The barette holder above is the same fabric stretched over an old canvas, then adorned with ribbon and buttons.

Easy to clip barettes directly to the ribbons for fun and functional storage. No digging around in a box, drawer, bowl, etc.

I love the vintage feel to both projects. I am a sucker for all things vintage right now. I really am.

So, are you dying to know how to make your own? Click on the vintage "You Tube" TV on the right sidebar and you'll be directed to my You Tube channel. I have video tutorials for each project. There are a few (okay...maybe more than a few) installments for each project, so make sure you watch them all. Then get to crafting something!

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be linking up my latest creations.

Thoughts on Thankfulness

I know to be "thankful in all things", but treat it more as a sweeping "thank you" than as a intimate, intentional, specific thank you for the multiple, easily overlooked and daily things that God puts in front of me each and every moment of each and every day. I can honestly say that I do have moments where I am thankful for little things, but a continual, regular state of thanksgiving for all things? No, not even close. I'm too busy nit-picking out what I am not thankful for instead of wrapping up the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the mundane and the glorious. I am expending WaY too much energy trying to extract out what I don't like instead of taking it for the whole, entire gift that God places before me.

For me personally I think that gratitude forces me to look at the good, the happy, the realness of something. When I'm not grateful, I am really negative for the most part and tend to pull out things that are sad, depressing, angering or frustrating to me. I then tend to dwell on those things, ruminate on how they make me feel. When I'm not grateful, I am very self-involved and selfish, and I tend to look at things through the "me" filter. How does it make me feel? How does it affect me? What can I do to change it? How can I make it go away?

By being grateful for things, and especially if I focus on the small, simple and real ways that God shows me His love for me (my kids laughter, my purring kitty wanting to sit on my lap, the unsolicited "I love you" from my hubby), how can I not be taken aback by the sheer volume of His love? If I focus on all of it, how can I not focus on any of it? If I can look at the blessings for the simplicity of what they are instead of waiting for the knock me over the side of my head "miracles", how can I not feel anything by abject love and pure devotion for my Heavenly Father? He delights in using the everyday to delight me, not just the pull out all the stops fireworks show once a year. He wants me to delight in the small of each opportunity of thankfulness, for that is a way to have open communication and communion with Him.

Bunny Cake and Silly Faces

The other day we had a chance to do one of our fun Easter traditions, make our famous, "Bunny Cake". This year we even did things a bit differently, and made it GFCF. It turned out great!

We used jelly beans and salt water taffy from Trader Joes and some cake decorations my Mom picked up awhile ago. To make the "whiskers", we just stuck white toothpicks in a piece of salt water taffy. The rest is pretty self explanitory. Cute, no?

The kids and I had a lot of fun, and it's fun to carry on traditions. My grandma, or "Nanny" as I called her used to make these cakes for us grandkids. Once she passed away, they stopped, but I'm happy to start up the tradition again with my own kids.

What family traditions do you do with your family for Easter?

Linking up our pictures at "Embrace the Camera", click here to see more!:

Change is a Comin'

So, it's been awhile, huh? I've not been around blog land much the past month or so. My last post had me lamenting on my unmotivated and uninspired attitude. Kinda not feeling the whole, "Spring Cleaning" bug that many of us usually get this time of year. Guess what? I'm feeling it now, big time. Wanna know why???? 'Cause last week I came home to find this pinned to our front door. Seems the landlord has stopped paying mortgage, and "our" home is being auctioned off at the end of the month. We've lived here almost nine years. Occupational hazard of renting though, we all know this can happen. So, as you can imagine, I've been purging and gutting rooms. I've been cleaning closets and dumping drawers. Boxes are being packed up with things no longer needed. It is amazing how much can be crammed into a 725 sq foot space. How much we amass, how much excess we truly live with.

Here is just a small sampling of the garage sale pile in our garage. We had one last weekend, made $97. Having another one on Sunday. I've added much more since last weekend. I'm sure I'll have a few more before we leave.

We don't know how long we'll be here, whether or not we'll be leaving once the house sells or if we'll stay. We can be given 60-90 days depending on what the buyer wants to do. No matter what though, we'll have some time to work with.

As to the amount of crafting and such, I don't know how much of that I'll be doing. I'm thinking it's going to be put on hold for awhile. At least until we get a better idea of what is going on.

I am totally at peace with the situation. No matter what, God provides and we'll be fine. It's just a humble reminder on a few levels. Most of us have more in excess than many people have as their bare necessities. Also that just because we don't want to do something doesn't mean that we don't have to do it.

So, on to what may be the next season for our family.