I thrifted this poncho way back, even before Ben and I got married, and actually I think it was before I left to study abroad in London. I have always loved it and it is so comfy. It is one of my favorite comfy things to wear and I am sure I will never get rid of it.
Looking at these pictures, I should have folded out the top part of the boot because it has a really cool pattern inside and I should shown that part off. Oh well… there is always next time!
These two are the best of friends, but they sure do fight! True was only 15 months when Brave was born, so she doesn’t know what life is like without her.
I am the oldest of four. My brother is next in line, but I have two little sisters. We are grown now and are the best of friends, even if I am 7 and 10 years older than them. We have lots of fun together and we especially wreak havoc shopping together, though my parents aren’t so happy about that cause it usually is at their expense. Yes, even now. But can a father really say no to his daughters?!! Good luck, Ben!
I spent all day today hanging out with my sisters and some friends all in celebration for the middle’s sister’s last hurrah as a single lady. It was such a good day filled with adventure and now the next adventure on the list will be the wedding in less than two weeks. So much to do, but so little time!
I may be biased because I have two sisters and all my girls know is having sisters, but I think sisters are especially sweet. Don’t you?
We can’t get over how this one is already rolling over and cooing and giggling like crazy! It seems just like yesterday I had her.
This weekend is busy. My sister’s bachelorette party is this Sunday and we are going to have a bit of fun. The wedding is also in two weeks so things are going to be crazy wild for a bit. I have a list of to-dos that I need to get to.
This week’s learned and links…
– True can now read beginning and ending blends, though she is having some trouble with fluency. Though, BFF is assuring me that it will eventually come. Next up, is consonant digraphs.
– This first week of meal planning went pretty good. Especially love the oven fried chicken recipe!
– My house is a big crazy mess that Ben is starting to itch about it. If he is itching, then you know it is really messy!
– I still want winter weather, but I am kinda excited for spring dressing.
Yes, I am really going all the way back to Christmas. It seems like so long ago now, doesn’t it?! Next thing you know, it will be Christmas again!
This past Christmas, Ben and I decided it would be fun to make each other’s gift. We wanted to make this a bit more interesting, so we wanted to compile a list of up to 10 things that we could use to make the gift. We were going to come up with the list ourselves, but thought we might be too biased with the materials we are familiar with, so we sought help from the the most creative duo out there… Shauna & Stephen from Something’s Hiding In Here. Anything those two come up with is pure genius, so we know by asking them, we were sure in for a challenge.
These are the ten items they came up: old book, kids’ painting, well-worn shirt, paint, reclaimed wood, glass jar, recycled leather, something from nature, photograph, and wire.
We also added one little bonus called “a secret ingredient” that meant we could use an additional item of our choice. All ten items didn’t have to be used in the gift either. We were both excited about the challenge, but were both so nervous cause we really wanted to make something special for the other.
Here is my gift to Ben…
I wanted to give Ben something that had a little message on it and this is what I came up with. The reclaimed lumber was purchased on etsy because I don’t have the time to go looking for reclaimed wood with 4 girls in tow. The old book page was from a vintage book we already had. The photo was printed onto the book page and was taken at our engagement shoot by David Jay. The kids painted some other old book pages and those are layered under the painting to give it some texture. They also painted the left side of the piece. In total, I used 6 out of the 10 ingredients. Plus, my “secret ingredient” of mod podge to get the book page onto the wood.
I really do love Ben very much and wanted him to know so!
Now, Ben’s gift to me made my jaw drop. His gift was so darn creative that I was just in awe the moment I saw it (he gave me his gift first that I wanted to hide the gift I made him because his was just so cool!)…
Seriously?!! A ship in a bottle?!! Using 9 out of the 10 things on our list?!! Dude has got some talent!
He found the glass jar at an antique shop and it had to be the perfect size for his ship. The kids’ painting and paint was the blue for the ocean. The ship base was a piece of reclaimed wood from some vintage moulding. The wire he used was cut from hangers. Wow! I wouldn’t have thought of that! His something from nature item were the little sticks from a tree in our front yard that make up the mast of the ship. He used a scrap from an old t-shirt of his for the one of the sails, a little piece of an old book page (that was leftover from this v-day present) for the front sail, and a photograph, along with a homage to the list givers (their mustache on a sticks were used in the picture), for the middle sail and his secret ingredient was black thread to hold up all the sails!
I was floored by the amazingness of his creation. I kept staring and staring and it (and still like to stare at it!). It can even fold flat to come out of the bottle and be put back in. I am in complete wow and love it so much!!!
Both our gifts are near each other displayed in our home. I even put little lights behind the bottle so it gives it a little twinkle at night. I really loved coming up with something for Ben and I love seeing how he used his creativity for me. Giving handmade gifts are the best and we may just make this a new tradition every Christmas! Maybe we’ll ask a different couple each year to come up with a list. I would love to have a nice collection of handmade Christmas gifts for each other!
Thanks Shauna & Stephen, your list was pure genius and it was super fun for us to make something for each other using it!!! You guys seriously rock!!!
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
