Pink Paper Peppermints - Craft. Create. Celebrate.

Watercolor Chipboard Flowers | 31 Crafty Flowers Day Eleven

Hey Welcome Back! 

It's week 3 of my 31 Crafty Flowers in 31 Days!

Today's flower is a Watercolor Chipboard flower. 

It's super easy and can be used in all kinds of crafts!

Here's what you need to get started:



-Watercolor crayons
-Water & paintbrush
-Chipboard (thin, like cereal box, notepad backing, etc.)
-Sequins (or other embellishments for center) 

Step One

First draw your flower and fill it in with watercolor crayons.  I like to use two contrasting colors for the outline and the fill.  Here I used red and pink.

Step Two

Now dip your brush lightly in the water and blend the color on the petals.

The chipboard will turn dark as you blend, but don't worry this will dry.

Step Three

Next cut your flower out.  It should look something like this:

Step Four

Now it's time to give your flower that distressed look. 

While it's still damp, crumple it up, being careful not to tear the edges.  (Although if you do tear the edges don't worry about it, it will just add to the distressed look.)

Step Five

Unfold your flower and let it dry for 10-15 minutes before adding the sequin center.

Step Six

You can use glue dots to attach the sequins or sew them on with needle and thread.

That's it!  Now you have a gorgeous watercolor chipboard flower. 

These are perfect for scrapbook pages like mine below or:

-journal covers
-mixed media collages
-shadow boxes
-handmade cards

Have fun!

♥ Grace & Peace,

Melissa~
---------------------------------------------------------
"The lampstand was made of hammered gold from its base to the decorative flowers on top, exactly like the pattern the LORD had described to Moses."
-Numbers 8:4

31 Crafty Flowers Day Ten - Childhood Memories of Daisy Chains

Day Ten - Let's back it up and do it again!

(ok these are starting to not make sense...that was from a highschool cheer we used to do!  I may have to quit with the rhyming. Really...don't try to stop me...)

This morning I was noticing my neighbors weeds wildflowers behind their fence and I remembered how when I was a little girl we would sit in the grass giggling and talking and making daisy chains from Clover flowers during recess.  Did you ever do that?

Well I thought that would be a fun crafty flower for today!  It may be a short-lived craft, but the memories will last forever!

So here's what you need to get started:

A Patch of Wildflowers!

Step One

First pick a bunch of pretty wildflowers like clovers, dandelions or these buttercups (is that what these are called?).

 

Step Two

 

Next choose the flowers with the thickest stems. 

How many you need will depend on whether you want to make a crown of flowers, a necklace of flowers or a bracelet of flowers. 

We used to always make bracelets so that's what I've made today. 

You need about 8 flowers for a bracelet.

Step Three

Strip off the leaves & any extra buds of your flowers.

Step Four

Make a little slit in the stem of the first flower with your fingernail if you're a little girl (if you're a grown up you can use an exacto knife, but what fun is that?)

Step Five

Place the end of the second stem through the slit and pull the flower down.

Step Six

Keep adding to your chain by making a slit in each successive flower and feeding the next flower through.

When you get the chain long enough, make a slit in the top of the first flower stem and feed the last flower through it to close the chain.

That's it! You have a pretty flower chain to wear now!

If you have little girls they will probably really love this crafty nature fun, but my boys were more interested in all the little bugs that were crawling out of the flowers I picked!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Don't forget today is the last day to vote (*cough* for me) in the Mommyfest photo contest!

Be sure and leave a comment after you vote for a chance to win a 1lb box of chocolate! Yum!

More flowers on Monday!

Grace & Peace,

♥ Melissa~
-------------------------------------------------------
"And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you..."
-Luke 12:28

m is for the million things she gives me

M is for the million things she gives me
O means only that she's soft to hold
T for the things she tries to teach me
H is for her heart of purest gold
E for her eyes with love light shining
R means right and right she'll always be

Put them all together they spell Mother,
A word that means the world to me.



♥ Melissa-
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.' "
-Proverbs 31:28-29

five mamas

You guys know how much I love a "blog party". 

And I discovered a new one!  It's for Mommies and I think you're gonna have a lot of fun.  There are prizes and special speakers and all kinds of neat stuff! 

So right in the middle of our 31 Crafty Flowers in 31 Days we're gonna join in the Mommyfest party!  Yee-haw! (pretend I didn't just say yee-haw, would ya?)

One of the first opportunities to win a prize is the "High Five Photo Contest".  You can win a 1lb box of chocolates!!

For a chance to win just head over to the Mommyfest blog on Monday, May 12th and vote for your favorite photo (mine *cough*) or enter a photo of your own (the deadline is tomorrow though so hurry)!  Edited to add:  Go vote here now!

For the photo part of the contest you have to post a picture of "5 somethings" to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Mommyfest.

I thought about somehow taking a picture of the 5 lbs I would probably gain if I won that 1 lb box of chocolate, but then that didn't seem too appetizing, or practical...and plus there would be the whole "taking a picture of *5 lbs of me*" (ewwww) and....yeah...that idea went out the window.

Fortunately (for all concerned) I thought of a better idea. 

I decided a photo of five mommies would be appropriate for the Mommyfest 5th anniversary and also since it's almost Mother's Day, I thought it would be a nice tribute to some of the Mamas in my life.



The top center frame holds an enlarged photobooth photo of my mom and me.

 
On the second row, from left to right is a photo of my paternal grandmother (granny) holding my cousin, my maternal great-grandmother (nannie) holding *my* mama and her brother, me with my little-O and finally my maternal grandmother (nannie dusty) with me.

It's kind of neat seeing those all together like that.  (I had to move them from various places to put them together.)

And it's strange to think how fast time passes.

How quickly you go from being a little girl, to a mama, to a grandma, to a great-grandma and then to a treasured memory. 

Makes me want to go hug my boys.

And you know....eat some chocolate.....heh-heh.

Hope your Mother's Day weekend gets off to a great start!

Grace & Peace,

♥ Melissa~
-------------------------------------------------------
"I worship you, LORD, just as my mother did, and you have rescued me from the chains of death."
-Psalm 116:16 (contemporary english version)

tuesday ten - well ain't she miss betty lightbulb?

ten random thoughts on tuesday {hey, it's actually tuesday}

one

Apparently I don't know what it feels like to smile anymore.

The other day I looked over at hubby *thinking* I was smiling at him. 

He looks back at me,  raises his eyebrows and says, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I say, "...just smiling at you"

"Oh...I think you forgot to smile while you were smiling at me."

Nice. 

two

I leave toast in the toaster a lot.  Does anyone else do that?  In the morning sometimes I'll realize I haven't eaten anything and put some toast in the toaster and then go and try and get something done while it's toasting and *completely* forget about it. 

three

Hours later I'll walk through the kitchen thinking, "Why am I so hungry, I *had* toast earlier", only to see the toast languishing away in the toaster, uneaten. (I really wanted to use the word "languish" there, could you tell?)

four

I recently read this quote by Charles Spurgeon and I just love it.

"You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God's fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts."

five

The other day my blog kind of blew up.  I don't know what happened.  I had to re-do the sidebars and they still aren't exactly back to the way they were.   I took the opportunity to change my profile picture a little bit (up there in the left corner). 

six

The pictures are some self-portraits in the bathroom mirror that I did a year or so ago.  In the spirit of "full disclosure" I have to say that I'm not nearly as cute and energetic looking as that in person.  It's amazing what some colored filters and creative cropping can do.  Suddenly you're ten years younger and thinner.

seven

Every first Wednesday of the month the tornado sirens go off  for the monthly drill.  This normally doesn't bother me all that much, but in April and May it is usually a stormy, cloudy day and then it scares me...just for a second I have flashbacks of being ten years old in the bathtub with a mattress over me (this happens to you as a child at least once every summer if you live in Texas).  And then I remember it's the first Wednesday and I'm ok.

eight

I really should have some "extra" posts ready for when I'm not in the mood to post because there are some days when I am just not feeling  it.

nine

One of the coolest things I've seen online is the website Color in Motion by Columbian designer, Claudia Cortes. I've had it in my bookmarks for at least a couple of years and it never fails to inspire me when I need a little boost.  If you love color, or art, or you're teaching kids about color, or you feel creative or you don't feel creative, but you want to, then you should go and explore this site. 

ten

Though I don't talk about it often I am a *huge* LOST fan.  If you watch the show you know that the character Sawyer always has the funniest nicknames for people. 

ABC now has a "nickname generator" on the site.  You put in some info about yourself and the generator tells you what Sawyer would call you if you were on the island.  Pretty funny.  Mine was "Betty Lightbulb" which I think is quite fitting. 

When I was looking for the link I found a widget, so you don't even have to leave my blog to find out what your Sawyer nickname would be! Yee-haw.  Try it out and tell me in the comments what yours is!

♥ M~
-----------------------------------------------------
"Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you." -Psalm 9:10

tuesday ten - mish mash

ten random thoughts on tuesday {wednesday is the new tuesday}

one

Guess what I'm working on?  My very own Bible Cover!  I found the directions to make my own pattern and let me tell you that was *the* hardest part so far. 

There was much "wailing and gnashing of teeth" if you know what I mean.  I typically don't enjoy measuring and I have learned that sewing is *all about measuring*. 

There are a lot of fractions. (1/4" seam anyone?)

There is measuring

There is actual math.

But I *still* love it!

Look how it looks so far!

More about this tomorrow and what I learned about ironing.

two

O-man is going to Austin on business at the end of the month and we all get to go!  Yippee!  We went last year with him as well and had such a good time. 

We ate lots of yummy mexican food (my favorite - I could eat it every day - forever - I can feel my yankee husband rolling his eyes right now).

They had the coolest lights & chandeliers at this restaurant. El Arroyo, in downtown Austin and the yummiest fajitas you've ever tasted!

We visited the capitol, which is always fun & interesting.

But this time there was a legislative session going on *and*...

...a protest!  Woo-hoo, a homeschool mama & daddy's dream day!

We even chatted with one of the organizers of the protest afterward about their views and why they were protesting.  She was very sweet and explained everything to Teen O (it was kinda over Little O's head) and then we had a family discussion about what we agreed and disagreed with.  The best kind of learning day.

Some pretty flowering cactus (cacti?).

Looking so forward to going to some antique-y, artsy places downtown this year! Hope the weather is better!

three

Teen O came in this morning while I was looking at etsy and asked me if he could have a pet hedgehog.  After talking to him about it for awhile, I turned back around to look at the screen and scrolled down and the next item was a painting of a hedgehog.  Weird, huh?

four

We got some pretty big bottles of bubbles in our Easter baskets around here and the other night we decided try blowing "night bubbles"...So we turned the back porch light on and were surprised by how pretty they were.

These were taken with the flash and the porch light to illuminate them.

When I turned the flash off I got this cool result:

Great conversations about light and capturing it ensued.  Gotta love impromptu homeschooling.

five

There was a very fun/funny game at Chuck E. Cheese the other day when we went for Little O's birthday.  It was a Mario Racing game and it had a little camera on it that snapped the picture of the boys and put them in the characters faces.  Look how cute:

six

I found a cool little tool to help me keep track of work time/computer time/school planning time etc.  It's called "Instant Boss" and you set up the time intervals that you want to work and take a break and little boss comes and yells at you when it's time to get back to work.  It's pretty funny.  It also tracks how much time you've spent working which is nice on some days when you feel you haven't accomplished much.

seven

Another great find is this meal planner from future girl. It's so cute the way it looks and it's set up *totally* the way I think.  I really love it.  Simple but exactly what I needed.  Her blog is pretty cool too - lots of free patterns and tutorials.  She is one talented, creative and crafty lady.

 

eight

Recently on twitter, I heard someone much younger than me call the Scooby-doo that I used to watch
as a kid "the old-awesome-vintage one".  *sigh*

nine

In my quest for what to do with junk mail I found joon - she is a genius and I am so doing this.  Yee-haw!

ten

Since I've been doing the "ten on tuesday" posts I have noticed that the weeks go by at lightening speed these days.  How can it have been a week already??

♥ M~
---------------------------------------------------------
"For God says, 'At just the right time I heard you; on the day of salvation I helped you.'  Indeed the "right time" is now.  Today is the day of salvation."
-2 Corinthians 6:2

you say it's your birthday

New banner for Little O's birthday.  It was really, really hard to make because I was *crying* the whole time...*ugh*...

I thought I'd re-run the Little O pregnancy story today for those who haven't heard it.  We are off to do fun birthday things.

You might need some tissue for this.  I'm just sayin'.

-------------------------

Three of the most agonizing days of my life happened in September of 2002.

O-man and I found out we were pregnant in early August of that year. I was so incredibly happy to be expecting again.

I immediately started picking out sweet little baby outfits and looking through baby name books with hubby. We had to do so clandestinely because we hadn’t told anyone yet, not even Teen-O (who was then pre-teen-O). It was such a special time, I loved that we had this little secret treasure just between us.

Six weeks later we made the announcement to family and friends and had scheduled our first appointment with the doctor.

We arrived at the office early Monday morning on September 23^rd. We were thrilled to find out that she would be doing a sonogram.

Human fetus at six weeks after conception.

While I knew not to expect more than a tiny blip on the screen, it still meant seeing the reality of the little life we’d already fallen head over heels in love with and just the thought of it gave me butterflies.

I remember lying on the table, hubby holding my hand and smiling down at me, the doctor adjusting the machine and making small talk…

And then the tone of her voice changed slightly, and she began to ask more pointed questions about how I had been feeling.

and then she was just quiet…studying the monitor…

and then she stopped,

and reached over

and turned the monitor off

and began to tell us

that we had lost our baby.

I don’t recall her exact words; it was all a blur of emotion…first absolute denial…

I told her she was wrong,

I had taken three pregnancy tests

I was having morning sickness

and every other symptom that comes with early pregnancy.

As I was explaining all this she reached into a drawer and pulled out a black & white pamphlet that had been photocopied so many times the text was starting to disintegrate. There was a sad couple on the front and a title that included the word “miscarriage”.

I felt my face get flush, hot tears stung my eyes and I heard the doctor’s voice as if she was at the end of a long tunnel…

telling me the symptoms were most likely from residual hormones

telling me it wasn’t my fault,

these things happen,

we could try again right away…

There are really no words to describe the next three days. The anguish of beginning to call friends and family to tell them we’d lost the baby. The devastation of packing away the tiny outfits we’d already purchased and the baby name books I’d circled names in. The grief and sorrow of losing someone we loved with all our hearts though we’d never even met.

On Wednesday morning the nurse called and said she wanted me to go to the hospital immediately. Based on some lab results they had reason to be concerned that instead of a miscarriage I may have had an Ectopic pregnancy. This is when the fertilized egg settles in the fallopian tube. There is no chance of survival for the baby in this situation and the possibility of hemorrhaging and death for the mother.

We arrived at the hospital, pre-teen O in tow and began filling out mountains of paperwork as we waited for the next available sonogram technician to call me in.

While we were waiting we received a phone call from a local florist letting us know that they had a flower delivery and asking when a convenient delivery time would be. My boss had sent a sympathy bouquet.

Finally my name was called. We had decided that since our little boy was with us, hubby would stay in the waiting room with him.

O-man squeezed my hand and gave me a sad but reassuring smile and I walked into the back room ready to hear the worst.

I lay on the table staring up at the ceiling while the technician began adjusting knobs and asking me questions. I was biting my tongue to try to keep myself from crying and wishing that my husband was in the room with me when suddenly she said,

“Ok, everything looks good here, your baby is about….

After the word baby I didn’t hear much. I think she was telling me how many centimeters he was or something…all I could hear was my heart pounding in my chest.

And then I began to sob, loud, guttural, elated sobbing…and somehow between the sobs I managed to say, “the baby?…there’s a baby?” and freaked the poor technician completely out.

She started saying, “Are you ok? I’m so sorry; I thought you knew you were pregnant. I’m so sorry.”

It took a few minutes for us both to calm down and me to explain the story to her, that I thought I’d lost my baby and that she had just told me the most wonderful, amazing news of my life.

She turned the screen toward me and let me see that glorious little blip.

Then we were both laughing and crying and she said, “Oh I should go get your husband and son!” She brought them in and slipped out of the room quietly while I told them the miraculous news.

I will never forget that moment, telling them I had seen the little blip we had so desperately wanted to see a few days earlier…crying and laughing and crying again.

Before we left the hospital, that sweet, sweet technician came back into the room and gave me what looked like a small x-ray. It was a copy of the sonogram.

They had run out of the paper that it was normally printed on, but she wanted me to have it so she printed it on x-ray film.

Here it is:

 

We found out that apparently no one had informed her why she was doing this sonogram; she wasn’t even looking for an ectopic pregnancy, just a healthy baby, and she found him.

She said given the baby’s position it would have been impossible for the doctor to see him with the equipment she had.

All the way home we were both on the cell phones calling those we had told the bad news that it was good news after all (and being so thankful that we hadn't even told everyone yet).

Shortly after we arrived there was a knock at the door; it was the florist with the bouquet from my boss.

I don’t know why, but that stands out so strongly in my memory. How those flowers were sent from sorrow, but arrived in joy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that’s my pregnancy story with LittleO.

I’m sitting here crying again as I type this (even though this is the second posting of this story), just so thankful to the Lord for getting us through that. He is so faithful.

The rest of the pregnancy went pretty normally (if you don’t count Little O deciding to come a month early!).

And now my little blip is FIVE years old and learning to read and explaining to me exactly how legos work and talking and talking and talking and talking (he talks *a lot*).

And I love every minute of it.

♥ M~
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"No one's ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like it— what God has arranged for those who love Him."
-1 Corinthians 2:9,10

ten on tuesday -crafty & cakey & what can you do with old egg shells from Easter?

ten random thoughts on tuesday
(on wednesday night again - maybe I should rename it "ten on wen"... you know that would rhyme if you said it with a Texas accent...really...try it...."tin on win"...see?)

one

It's cupcake week on Martha Stewart!  Have you been watching?  So much yummy fun.  I think we should have cupcake week around here. Then I can make more of these.

two

My little guy is turning five tomorrow.  This hurts.  And also makes me feel a little crazy, because *yesterday* I was changing his diaper...yesterday people! 

And I don't really want him to stop calling me mama and kissing me every time he walks through the room and saying  "I yuv you" instead of "I love you".

But it will happen.  I know. 

So I'll just treasure every moment and take a million pictures and blog every cute thing he says and does (even if you guys get sick of it...heh-heh)...and then I'll remember...and then I'll start it all over again with grand-children! yippee!

Since his birthday always falls right around Easter we tend to combine the two and he actually *loves* having an egg hunt at his birthday party.  He calls it his "easterbirthday".  So sweet.  So here's some snaps from the party we had on Sunday:

Little O and his great uncle (my uncle).  So funny.

Chocolate cheesecake, yum (his request)!  I'll post the recipe this week.

Little O attacking the pinata.

I *love* this one.  My nephew's little feet as he runs for the pinata candy.

Nephew and Little O grabbing that pinata candy!

Egg hunting at the "easterbirthday"

Squirt gun fight broke out after present opening.

three

Remember the yummy salsa I told you about?  The unusual ingredient is watermelon!  I know it sounds gross, but I'm telling you it is soooooo good.  You have to try it!  The watermelon replaces the usual tomatoes.  Most people don't even realize this until they taste it.  Here is the recipe:

Watermelon Salsa

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped watermelon
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
3-5 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped green onion
2 tablespoons chopped jalapeño pepper (this is spicy, cut it to one if you are chicken)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large glass bowl and chill for at least an hour.  The longer you let it sit in the fridge the yummier flavors taste together. 

2. Serve in the hollowed shell of the watermelon to delight and confuse your guests!

A couple of hints:

-DO NOT rub your eyes after chopping up the jalepeno...you will be sorry if you do.

-You may want to put the chopped watermelon in a colander over a bowl for a half hour or so to let it drain a little bit because otherwise your salsa can be a little too "juicy".

four

I really don't like junk mail.  It's like people mailing trash to my house that I have to then sort and make decisions about.  Like I don't have enough to do.  Junk mail...yuck.  I am going to have to think of some crafty things to do with junk mail.  Here are some ideas to start: Junk Mail Gems

five

We made a fun craft with our leftover easter egg shells today.  Super easy too!  Pictures & a tutorial in the next post. (right after this one or maybe before by the time you read this...heh-heh) EDITED: It's here!

six

I'm teaching myself embroidery!  It's so fun and it seems to go along with my new love for fabric.  I found a really fun link that has lots of free vintage embroidery patterns!  So cool! 

seven

Another fun link I wanted to share with you is this one-Free printables at Wondertime.  Fantastic fun for homeschoolers or even just preschool moms or scrapbookers or babysitters...you get the idea.

eight

Did you see my new button about subscribing to my RSS feed (over there on the right)?  I completely made that up. Just thought I should tell you. 

I *do* think you'll feel more crafty after hanging out here though.  And the best way to hang out here of course is to subscribe to my feed.

I know I've told you about bloglines before (so cool).  But just in case some of you still aren't gettin' the whole RSS feed thing, I found a great video to help explain it.  It's by the same guys who did the Twitter video I showed you earlier, Common Craft (they're geniuses).

nine

My friend Janice at Everyday Education, wrote a really wonderful article a couple of days ago.  It's geared towards homeschooling parents, but really I think if you're a parent at all you will be blessed by this article.

The two lines that spoke to me the most were these:

"Remember that children don’t remember what you do; they remember how you made them feel."

"Understand that this season of life will be over before you know it. Don’t put off doing the fun things!"

Those two lines really speak to what I want this blog to be all about.  I'm always striving to have fun with my kids, to soak up every minute of my time with them and make sweet memories with them that they can carry into adulthood and their own parenthood.  I want to teach them how good God is and I want to share with you all the ways I figure out how to do this.

I'm actually working on a pretty big project related to this and in the mean time I hope that when you come and visit here you are inspired in some way to create things and have fun and celebrate with your children or even as a child yourself .

Go read the article, it will bless you.

ten

Thanks for my three volunteers who played tag with me!  Here they are:

Quirky at Quirky is a Compliment

Alison at Barefoot in Boston

Erin at Fully Alive...Ready To Smile (Actually she hasn't done it yet, but said she would so I'm linking her in anticipation...heh-heh...)

Ok, now time to go put up the egg shell craft.  Hope ya'll are havin' a great week.

♥ M~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Come, children, listen closely; I'll give you a lesson in God worship."
-Psalm 34:10

taggity-tag-tag-tag

As I mentioned in this post, I have been multitudinously (yes, I made that up) tagged by lots of lovely people (however I am a dork and said it was Quirky, but it was actually Fizz who tagged me for one of them).

I was going to try and do them all in one post, but um, I can't.  So here is the first one:   

The five things tag from Marianna

The rules are:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

And here’s the meme:

What I was doing 10 years ago:

Ten years ago I was planning my wedding to the most wonderful man I had ever met.  The funny thing is I had *no* idea how happy I would be.  None.  I was kinda scared actually, but had really prayed about it and felt it was right  (and also the pretty dress and flowers and fun party helped to distract me...heh-heh).

Five things on my To Do List today:

1) Work on a puppet theater out of a cereal box idea with Little O
2) Call family about birthday plans for Little O
3) Look up chocolate cheesecake recipe which, yes, my four year old requested for his birthday
4) Post this tag post
5) Buy party stuff

Snacks I enjoy:

1) Fruit (really, I do)
2) Chips & Salsa  (I have a recipe for salsa that has a completely unexpected ingredient in it, but is *so* good - I'll share next week)
3) Chocolate (is that a snack really?  Little O is always asking me that, "Mama is cake healfy for you or a tweat?")

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

This could be long.

Of course the usual answers, travel, help my family etc.

But the thing that would be the most fun is that every time I heard of a need I would do something about it. Sick children who need medical care, orphanages that need blankets and toys, single mamas that need help with Christmas money...you know the stuff you read about and pray about but usually can't do anything about yourself .

That's what I would spend all my time and money doing (anonymously too so I could stand around and watch their reactions without anyone knowing.)  

Can you imagine sitting in a little church somewhere that is having trouble making ends meet and putting say 150,000 dollars in the offering basket? 

Or buying a struggling family a new house and mailing them the keys and the deed.  Or paying for every hopeful adoptive parent you meet to adopt a child from Ukraine or China or Africa? 

I think if I was a billionaire I just wouldn't be one for long, because I would constantly be giving it away.

My accountant would hate me.

Three of my bad habits:

1) Interrupting people (go ahead try to say something...)
2) Procrastination
3) Is *not* exercising a habit?

Five places I have lived:

1) Texas of course
2) Oregon (loved it)
3) South Africa (one of the best times of my life)
4) Arkansas (don't remember it)
5) Mississippi (don't remember much except some kind of spelling/pee-pee joke that I thought was very funny:

1st Kid: Can you spell Mississippi? 
2nd Unsuspecting kid: M-i-s-s-i-p-p...
1st Kid: you pee pee?  wahhh-hhahaah-hahaa

...what? I was in second grade)

Five jobs I’ve had:

1) Preschool Teacher (fun)
2) Preschool Director (not fun)
3) Cake Decorator/Instructor (fun)
4) Wench at Medieval Times, yes that's right Wench (sooo not fun and an embarrassing costume)
5) Scrapbook Designer/Writer/Instructor (super duper fun)
6) Mama (really fun and the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life)

And I really have to run now, busy, busy weekend, so could five of you volunteer to do this tag?? Please?  I really want to tag all of you so I can hear your answers!

Leave me a comment if you're going to do it and then I will post your links on Monday!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

♥ M~

--------------------------------------------------------------
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering."
-Romans 12:1

quilty mcquilterkin

Remember a couple of week's ago, the ten on tuesday about the quilt tablecloth?  Well I tried it and it looks *fantastic* (um...if I do say so myself..heh-heh).

Not only that, but I  found a remnant of clear vinyl at the craft store for a dollar and I didn't know what I would do with it, but thought it was cool so I bought it. 

Well, after putting the quilt on the table I realized it would be pretty labor intensive to wash it after every meal...(um...yeah....ya think?)...so I was trying to figure out what to do when I remembered that vinyl. 

It was all rolled up so I unrolled it and it was the *perfect* size for the table!  I didn't even have to trim it!  Was God takin' care of me or what?

So then looking at the layer of vinyl and pretty pink quilt I started to think how cool it would be to put something between the layers...and came up with this:

These are some old family photos.  The one in the center is my grandfather at a barbecue restaurant he owned in downtown Dallas in the fifties.  Cool, huh?  I used the originals to try the idea out, but I think I'm going to take them out and put photocopies of them in instead.

This is my dad (the tall one) and uncle and aunt on Easter morning circa 1950-something.  So cute.

Next I put together a centerpiece for Easter.  I have been working on little bits & pieces of this for awhile.  I got the idea at Christmas actually.  We have a "candy cane tree" that I bought at the "after-Christmas" sales at Target  a couple of years ago (love those sales).  This is what it looks like with candy canes on it:

So I was thinking for other holidays I could just cover up the star and hang little paper pretties on the rings instead of candy canes.  I wanted to do this for Valentines day, but ran out of time, so the Easter version is my first attempt.

It was fun to work on and I really like how it turned out.

How it looks all together:

And a view with the kitchen banner (don't you just love how I manage to work that spring banner into every post? *LOL*)

So lots of Easter-y things to get ready for this weekend.  I won't be around until Tuesday, but I've scheduled some of my favorite Easter posts for the weekend.

Hope you all have a blessed and wonderful holiday with your loved ones.

♥ M~

P.S.  I made a little easter egg coloring sheet for my LittleO...thought you might like to have a copy.  Just click here to download.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call!

What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in His life-saving resurrection.

We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word.

When Jesus died, He took sin down with Him, but alive He brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word.

You are dead to sin and alive to God.

That's what Jesus did."

-Romans 6:6 (the message)