DIY: Birdie Art Work

I love unique art work.  I was looking through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog a few years ago and saw an adorable collection of birdie canvases.  Super cute, but the price wasn't so cute.  I wondered if it was something I could whip up on my own.  I searched the internet and found some templates.

I used this free Amy Butler template for the rooster, butterfly, and tall bird.  Did you know she has free sewing and craft patterns?  How cool is that?  It's the Nigella Silhouettes.  I didn't make the intended artwork, but the templates can be used for a variety of projects.

A bit of rick rack and a tiara make this tall birdie quite regal. 

This rooster got a sparkly eye and trimmed in some ribbon.

I found another template for the smaller birdies, but unfortunately the template is no longer available.  I traced the parts and scanned them in case you want to use them.  It's not professional, I'm sorry...  You should be able to click on the picture and print out the template.

I added a scrapbook embellishment to the bottom by the branch that looks like a little leaf.

Here I just flipped the pattern over and cut out a mirror image so I had two birdies facing opposite directions.  This little birdie got a gingham scarf in the form of a tied ribbon.  Hold the ends of the ribbon over a open flame, very carefully and not directly in the flame, to seal the ribbon so it doesn't fray. 

Here is the other bird template.  You can see the main body, then there are two wings, an oval belly part, tiny feet, tail, and a branch.  It's best to dry fit your pieces before you start glueing.   You can look at my finished bird below for a sample placement. 

The original tutorial I followed recommended artist canvas.  I happened to see some wooden blocks in my dad's garage that he was going to throw out.  I scooped them up, spray painted them white and they worked perfectly for this project.  I also think embroidery hoops would work great too!

After you select your templates, simply cut out the pieces using any scrapbook paper.  I used Heather Bailey's Pop Garden Scrapbook Paper for my project and used spray adhesive to attach them to the surface, but you could use any glue that allows the paper to lay flat.  Once everything is in place, start embellishing!  As a mentioned earlier, I used scrapbook embellishments to jazz up my little animals.
Rhinestone stickers became the eyes. Tied ribbons became little scarves. Ribbons bordering the bottom looks like a collar.

Get creative.  There's no right or wrong.  After I ran out of animal templates, I made one of the blocks a monogram of sorts.  It have a "K" along with cute other embellishments.

This was a super easy, quick, and inexpensive project.  Such a fun wall art collection that can be tailored to any decor!  Have fun!

Can she be any cuter?

Kate is our only girl, and although she doesn't have a sister, that doesn't stop her from having a fab time.

Here she set up several of her Barbie's on the table and was just talking away to them.

Last Minute Valentine Ideas

Well, it's the weekend before Valentine's Day and I'm short a Valentine box and cards for 25+ kiddos.  Yay, to Google and Pinterest!  I found this link to a cute mailbox.

Here's my version...

I used a post office box I had in the house, glued both ends together with Elmer's glue, painted two coats of red paint, carefully cut three sides with a box cutter, and hinged the back.  Then it was ready to decorate!

Kate and I made a quick shopping trip to Michael's where we found lots of Valentine's decorations 40% off.  Don't forget to check their website, they usually have coupons you can print out.  We found a cute lock and key, ribbon for the bottom, glitter hearts, and some cute flowers.  I printed out the MAIL portion on some scrapbook paper and applied it with double sided tape.  

I cut a small piece of ribbon to use for the closure and attached it with sticky foam dots.  Velcro dots would be better, but I was out.

I then poked two holes in the top with some scissors and fed some ribbon through for a handle. Ta-da, a super cute valentine box!

Now onto the valentine cards.  I really didn't want to do candy this year, so I saw this great post on Pinterest.  Her complete post was lovely, but I didn't have time to order an alphabet stamp and I don't have a cute little paper heart cutter.  Sooooo, I found some heart shaped silicone ice cube trays at Michael's and tried those for the crayons.  I bought the $1 box of 64 crayons and used a razor blade to take off the wrapper.  I used her suggestions to group the crayons by color families and made some camo ones for the boys and girlie ones for the girls.  I wasn't sure if the silicone would melt, so I baked them at 220 degrees for about 20 - 25 minutes.

I simply cut out some hearts from scrapbook paper and hand wrote the message, "You color my world" and her name. She's adding a few smiley faces, x's, and o's.  

Now I just hope it doesn't snow on Monday!!!  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!

xoxo

Capitol Day!

Today we traveled to Oklahoma City, our state capital, for the home educator's Capitol Day sponsored by OCHEC (Oklahoma Christian Home Educators' Consociation).  It was my first time to attend the event and it was a wonderful day!

Did you know that a homeschooling option was written into the Oklahoma State Constitution?  OCHEC has a saying that Capitol Day is the one day of the year when people come to the capitol to ask their legislators to doing nothing.

Governor Fallin addressed the packed rotunda.

We had a chance to meet Senator Dan Newberry and he was quite gracious to take us to the Senate lounge and talk with us for a little bit.  It's always fun to have a behind the scenes tour! 

Here is Veronica, her son Luke and Jono.

I believe this sculpture was called "The Guardian" 

Zach took a beautiful picture of the Capitol Building

The Rotunda was beautiful!

Shhh, don't tell him I told you but, Zach even recognized some Latin and partially translated it.  Woot, woot!!  So proud of him!

All in all, a great day at our Capitol and you never know the seeds that were planted today and what might become of them in 10 to 15 years....

How I came to the end of myself...

Ya know, there are times I look back with regret on the years I wasted, but there is also something about coming to the end of yourself that solidifies a no looking back mentality.  Here's how it happened for me.

Jeff and I were married our senior year of college.  I loved him fully and completely.  Our early years were good, yet now I see we just lived for ourselves.  We both worked full time and spent all our money and time on ourselves.  We "attended" a church in town, but I'm sure they didn't know we attended since we looked for any small excuse not to go.

The years of growing up in Christian homes gave us a spiritual foundation, but because we didn't continue it in our own lives, we became spiritually bankrupt.  After the birth of our first son, things began it deteriorate quickly.  Newborns can cause additional stress and bring an already fragile relationship to a breaking point.  I remember trying so hard to be nice when Jeff got home, but it seemed every conversation ended in an argument and we just weren't like that!  We never argued before, never.  We were great friends, so this made it all the more difficult since I felt like I was losing my best friend and my husband.  The month Zach was born, Jeff took a job at a new company.  In his desire to climb the corporate ladder, he started going to happy hour.  I completely supported him and thought it was a great way to earn more money.  Jeff is an all or nothing kind of guy.  He's either fully in or fully out.  I could see the pull on him.  I remember him saying he struggled with alcohol in high school, but we never drank as a couple.  He began spending more nights out with the guys.  It hurt.  I was losing my best friend.  I started to withdraw and harden my heart to him.  I'm sure that's why it was so difficult to be nice.  In my mind, I began thinking about how I was going to support my son and I by myself.

All the while, I would keep up a good appearance to my family and try to portray that everything was fine. Funny thing about parents, they know the truth.  They kept bringing over books for us to read.  Later, my Mom said, she came over and saw all those books stacked up on our mantle that they had given us and wondered if she should stop.  It was one of those books, A Heart Ablaze, that Jeff pulled off the mantle in December 2000 that began a change in our lives.

He came home from a business trip and something was different.  He said we were going to go to church.  I knew he needed it, but I didn't realize how much I needed it too.  That next week, we went to church and then enrolled in a discipleship class at the church.  There was one class for the ladies and a separate one for the men.  My parents worked at the church where we attended the class, so it was a little awkward for me, but Jeff just broke immediately and I could see the change was instant.  Like I said, he's either fully in or fully out and he had truly come to his end.  I remember seeing him go down for every altar call, glad he was getting the help he needed.

In farming, they say drought stricken land cannot absorb water from a torrential downpour because the ground is too hard.  It needs to be softened first.  I think that's what happened to me during the 12 week course.  As I continued to attend each week and read the assigned books, I was getting watered and softened.  I cannot tell you when exactly it happened, but I broke.  All the years of striving on my own, not wanting to fully surrender my life to the Lord because I was afraid he'd ask me to do something I didn't want to do or that I'd change into someone I didn't want to be, were over.   I came to my end.

Now I wonder why I waited so long. He is the most loving, caring Father and one who only has my well being in mind.  Sure, there were things I had to adjust, and some things were a little more painful to lay down, but in the end I am a better person for it.  I'm still in process, everyone is.

We are going into our 12th year of living completely surrendered to the Lord.  There have been some ebb and flow times, when I have to shake myself spiritually and commit to more time with the Lord, reading and memorizing His word.  A quick glance in the rearview mirror of my life, like writing this post, makes me all the more thankful for His faithfulness and renews my resolve to finish strong.

Fertility...Not so cut and dry

My second son turned nine this month and while celebrating his birthday I was reminded of the story of his conception.

After Jeff and I had been married for five years, we decided to start trying for children.  I had always heard it might take awhile to get pregnant.  A friend at work gave me a gestational wheel that showed ovulation dates and the best times to conceive. (Jeff said it sounded like a game show!)  Well, I followed it precisely and got pregnant the first month we tried! Easy peasy...

After a few years we desired to try for another child.  I always wanted a girl and had read a book about choosing the sex of your child by timing relations during certain parts of your ovulation cycle.  I tried it for a few months, but I didn't get pregnant.  So, I threw out the book idea and went back to the wheel.  Still nothing. I began charting my cycle, counting the days, CM, the whole thing, yet still nothing.

I was beginning to feel my body had betrayed me.  I had gotten pregnant before, why not now?  My emotions were all over the map.  One month, I was so confident that everything had been timed correctly and I was late.  I just knew I was pregnant.  I was about to leave to attend a bible study at church when I started my cycle.  I broke down and cried.  Jeff tried to comfort me, but I just sobbed as I got in the car to head to the church.

I was just driving and thinking when, out of the blue, I heard a voice on the inside that said, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."  It hit me like a rock.  I was consumed with "my plan" and "my charts" and wasn't relying on the Lord.  I clicked on the CD player and put on worship music.  I made a choice to praise him through my disappointment and tears.  I didn't feel like it, but I did it and it completely changed my outlook.

Guess what?  I got pregnant that very next month, about a year after first trying!

God is faithful to us when we ask him for help and make a decision to delight ourself in Him.

Here's my blessing.  He is one of the kindest, most joyful, silly boys I know.  Love him to pieces!

I love the Amplified version of Psalms 37:4,  "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart."

Just one of those days...

Have you ever just had one of those days? I felt like I was behind before I even got out of bed.  Over lunchtime, I was listening to a nationwide blog radio program by Leigh Bortins, the founder of Classical Conversations.  She was talking about the standardized testing coming up and some of my parents had questions about the test.  I posted a question in the chat box.  She answered the question and I replied my thanks.  I thought I would add a smiley face in my response, since I had seen others use them in their posts and thought they were cute.  I clicked on the smiley face icon and the box came up with several to choose from.  There were a lot of animated ones, so I chose one in the upper left hand corner that looked like a basic smiley face and clicked send.  When my post showed up, I noticed there were two animated smiley faces and the right one was kissing the left one.  Egad!!   I was sitting at my computer completely mortified!  I was trying to figure out how to delete it, but to no avail.  It just kept staring at me, scooting over to kiss the other smiley face and then glowing with hearts, again and again - stop it!  Oh, humbling moments...

The rest of my day was less eventful.  I rounded it out by cleaning out my refrigerator BEFORE the trash service arrived.  I've been married almost 20 years and I think that has happened maybe 4 times.
I took out each drawer and shelf and gave them a good cleaning.  It looks so wonderful!  I do indeed love a clean refrigerator.

Speaking of clean, I was completely bummed when our 1 year old dishwasher stopped getting our dishes clean and left a white film on our glasses.  We use it so much we even splurged for a nicer one, so this was very disappointing.  We tried LemiShine, all the rinse aids, and I even took the racks out and washed everything down. We were hand washing the dishes!  Then we came across these little babies

They work amazingly well!  Now my glasses look brand new!!  This makes mama very happy!

Ah, now I'm gonna sit here and finish up American Tail with my kiddos.

Happy Wednesday everyone!