For My One Best Friend's Birthday

Last year, for her birthday, (I won't mention what number, for her sake,) I literally threw together this butterfly project to give her as a gift. Keeping in mind that I am a novice scrapbooker, I made it entirely out of supplies that I already had in my craft stash, so it didn't cost me a dime...this time :) I don't think she minded that fact at all - she was just excited that someone had finally hand-crafted something for her... She is, after all, the queen of all paper-crafting in these parts. I personalized all pages for her.

Cone Trees for Christmas

Over this past holiday season, I saw a ton of crafty home decor items that were made with or embellished with jute string/twine. I just so happened to have some handy, plus I managed to save back the styrofoam trees that my sis-in-law, Ginger, used for grape and olive trees for table decor at children's birthday party. Viola!

Simple and virtually free...plus they went very well with this little snowman that was given to me a few years back. Bonus!

Not All That Crafty...

I don't consider myself to be the most "crafty" person who ever existed, but I have other talents to make up for my shortcomings. For instance, I can sew. I'm not claiming to sew well, but I know enough to give off the illusion that I can. I'm not one to be tooting my own horn, but as I sat in silence today, looking around, I felt a sense of accomplishment at. Even though I am self-taught, I have successfully sewn quite a few things around my house over the past couple of years, hence this post. Over time, I will be sharing pictures of some of the home furnishings and other "crafty" projects that I've completed.

For starters, here are the curtains that I whipped up for my kitchen windows. They are mostly along the back-side of the house, which catches full sunlight. I love how they sparkle when the outside light shines through the trim on these babies just right.

I loved the dark chocolate brown, golds, and the garnet colors in this fabric. I know the fabric is heavy, but I fell in love with it at first touch. It compliments every other color used in decorating the surrounding rooms, and ties in perfectly. I lined them in a coordinating garnet silk dupioni fabric that I used to make the drapes that flank either side of the fireplace mantle in the downstairs living area.

Oh, and I'm not too proud to admit that there are several safety pins holding some of these trumpets in their place...

I omitted the expensive trim from the curtain hanging over my kitchen sink, as it is a west-facing window and gets minimal lighting. Noone ever even notices :)

You would never guess that all of this trim is hot glued on, would you? ...the only quick and easy part of making these window treatments.

Evolution of Dance

Melanie - I bet you remember doing each one of these dance moves, don't you?

Door Wreath, Fall 2009

This was my first official "Fall wreath" ever. I've always been enamoured with wreaths, just never brave enough to dream one of my own up. But times, they are a changin', and I threw this little ditty together to adorn my door throughout the fall season.

It really wasn't all that difficult - I'd say maybe a 1 on a scale of 1-5 :) I just wired two different sized grapevine wreaths that I already had in my craft arsenal together like this...
Easy. Then, I hot glued 2 leaf garlands that I picked up for 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby onto the grapevine in a circular pattern. Simple.

I didn't want a traditional metal wreath hanger scraping up the paint on my front door, so I took about 1 yard of my favorite 5" wired ribbon, again from the craft stash, and looped it around the top center of my wreath. Stapling the ribbon to the top of the actual door was the most difficult part of this project for me - even on a step ladder, I was barely tall enough to get the staples in deep enough. I wound up taking my hammer and tapping them in all of the way to ensure they were flush with the door and not making contact with the door frame. Using the same wired ribbon, I made a simple bow and literally safety pinned it to the center front of the hanging ribbon.

Easy. Simple. Done. Granted, my wreath was nothing elaborate, but for a busy mother with twin toddlers and limited time on my hands, it was just perfect. All in all, the entire project took less than 1/2 an hour to complete, I only cost me, out of pocket, $14.99 for the swags. Not bad if I do say so myself!

...It's No Secret

OK. So it's no secret that keeping up my blog is pretty low on my very long list of to-do's and priorities. I enjoy checking our friend's and family's blogs, and blog surfing is a favorite past-time of mine, assuming that I ever have any time to pass! Jon and I both stay incredibly busy keeping up with the family and with one another, so actually sitting down and being still long enough to upload a photo or two alongside a quick blurb of the most recent holiday or happening is a rarity. It really shouldn't be that difficult to do, but somehow it is...


Life with Austin and the twins is like being in a 24/7 cage-match... he and I just tag one another in when we need a break! I'm very thankful that he's so hands-on and awesome with the kids. It turns out that this parenting gig is waaay more challenging that the pamphlet made it out to be!


This year, I make a solemn resolve to TRY to post once a week, (or so..) For now, I leave you with this picture of my little stinkers:

Dr. Seuss Birthday Party & Banner

My sister-in-law, Ginger, along with much help from myself and my sister-in-laws, threw the cutest "Cat in the Hat" themed party for her twin son's first birthday last weekend. She served green (deviled) eggs and ham with croissants, ...jello jigglers cut out in the shape of fish, and gold fish crackers, of course... Note to self: Cotton candy melts very quickly on humid days, so if you're going to try using it for cupcake toppers again in the future, make sure it's the final touch to your table, not the first...

Blue punch rounded out the color scheme.

I put together this banner... ...and also made these pom-poms out of tissue paper - should have made more for a bigger impact!
Per Ginger's request, I literally threw together these little hat cakes. They were perfect, by no means, but were all "cattywompus" and imperfect, just as she had asked them to be.
The multi-talented Amy, my other sister-in-law hand painted these Thing 1 & Thing 2 faceboard cut-outs. They were adorable! The kids loved having their pictures taken with it!
Everyone had a fun, fun, fun time! Thanks Ging!

Create.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. You don't need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty."

Another Testament of Jesus Christ

** You'll need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of this blog and turn off the auto-music if you plan to watch these videos. I haven't mastered HTML yet, so i'm not sure how to re-size the video, so you may want to just right click on the video and select the option to watch it on YouTube. Sorry! I'll correct it when I have the time to figure out how to...

"Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd" (John 10:16)

The amazing photography of Mark Mabry has been set to beautiful music by Clyde Bawden in a short slideshow depicting scenes from Christ's visit to the Americas as found in the Book of Mormon. You can read more about this project entitled "Another Testament" here.

Reflections of Christ's Life

The talented photographer, Mark Mabry, used live models to depict scenes of Christ's life from the New Testament.

Isogabamaware

I came across this amigurumi video while blog-searching yesterday - totally loved it. Made me laugh out loud it was so cute. I'm posting it here so that each time I open this blog, I can click play and instantly get a good feeling.

I Call Dibs...

Even though I have boy/girl twins, eventually, they won't want to share the same theme for their birthday celebrations. I call dibs on these ideas for a princess or ballerina themed party for my Grace. They could be modified and dressed up to look like ball gowns or tutus or whatever dress you'd prefer. You could stamp on or emboss on, or better yet, you could add beading or self-adhesive pearls onto the bodice part. They would work very well for a wedding shower as well... Very sweet - maybe for her 5th birthday? Don't forget: "..This seat's taken..."

Fishy Cake

Wouldn't this make a sweet ocean/swimming themed cake for a small child's birthday party? I can picture it now... Melanie, it's time for you to master fondant!

You Are a Marvel...

I posted this on our family's blog, but thought it important enough to post on this site - at least this way, I get to listen to it over and over again...if I so choose to.