Friday, January 30, 2015

Family Night: January


After coming across this post about serving together as a family, I spontaneously decided to use these ideas for our Family Nights this year. We needed some new ideas and serving together? Win-win!

So far, we've had SO much fun with these and I'm excited to see the cumulative benefits and blessings over the entire year. I confess though, that I have not been great about pictures through this process so that is one thing to learn for February.

Here's what we did:
Week One: wrote letters to military serving overseas through A Million Thanks.

Week Two: shopped for baby care items and created kits sent to Church World Service.

Week Three: Made cakes for local children's shelter

Week Four: packed up and mailed our baby care kits, delivered a meal to a family in our community



We also watched Homeless for the Holidays together which proved to be a good connection between family and serving.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Valentine Hoop Art for the Front Door


I finally put my Christmas decor away and now it feels like things are a little bare! But, this will be fun to work with also. First up was the front door. I don't want to do too much Valentine in the house until after Samuel's birthday this coming weekend but thought one thing on the door would work!

I made the foam heart several years ago but wanted to dress it up in a little bit of a new way. I'm also trying to only use what I have on hand - so I shopped my house and found a large embroidery hoop, some canvas drop cloth fabric, a heart stamp, some chalk cloth, twine and thrifted lace.



Really easy and a fun new combination of things I already had!



Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Slow Day

 

















Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Canning Jars Cookies


Can you get over how completely adorable these are?! I saw a link on Pinterest to some similar cookies and began to investigate where to find a canning jar cookie cutter. First, I was discouraged with how pricey they were until this one popped up. World Market, ninety nine cents. Done!

And, thanks to my friend who picked it up for me AND had a coupon, it was even less than that! She brought it to me at church Sunday morning and I had made these by mid-afternoon! Soooo fun!





UPDATE: This is my sugar cookie recipe and homemade icing!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Slow Quote


"What do people catch in the Queensborough Bridge - bugs?" asked Wilbur.

"No," said Charlotte. "They don't catch anything. They just keep trotting back and forth across the bridge thinking there is something better on the other side. If they'd hang head-down at the top of the thing and wait quietly, maybe something good would come along. But no - with men it's rush, rush, rush, every minute. I'm glad I'm a sedentary spider."

"What does sedentary mean?" asked Wilbur.

"Means I sit still a good part of the time and don't go wandering all over creation. I know a good thing when I see it, and my web is a good thing. I stay put and wait for what comes. Gives me a chance to think."

~ Charlotte's Web chapter 9

Friday, January 23, 2015

Cozy Christmas Quilt


Several months ago, I got the bug to want to make a Christmas quilt. I know, I don't *need* another quilt - but I love making them and my little family adores snuggling with quilts. I've frequently said if there is one thing this family knows how to do it is: cozy.

Anyway, this idea also came at a time that I was trying not to spend anything extra - so I spent lots of time window shopping and had a cute style board all picked out and just was sort of waiting for a coupon code to push me over but one never came. So, I shelved the idea for a few months.

Then, Black Friday came and fabrics were on sale, I shopped again and several of my initial picks were sold out or not available but the fabric was on a goooood sale and still cute options. I revamped my picks and put everything in my cart and then thought about how I didn't really need to spend that money. So, I ignored my cart and that was that.

Until. Yes, the next day - they extended the sale another day - I decided to run it by David and with is go-for-it, I did! The fabric came while we were in Colorado, so when we got home I washed it and there is has been looking at me all pretty and enticing!

I knew I wanted this quilt done before next Christmas and if I even put the fabric away it would probably not happen - so a recent Slow Day afternoon - this came out and voila, a new quilt was born. I stayed up late and finished it all in one afternoon/evening and even though I didn't have an exact vision - I absolutely love how it turned out!!! It is equal parts funky, vintage, festive, whimsical, cozy, and makes me smile!

Fabric from Fabric.com. JOY pillow - Target clearance 2013.






I sorta have a feeling we won't be packing this away anytime soon :)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Family Photo Memories

Photo Credit: Jen Lints