Kids Valentines

 this year for valentines day i had my daugther make one for my mother in law. this is what we created.

all it takes is a construction paper heart,

a little lipstick and

some sweet lips

i had my son make one too but i just follow this link. only we just traced his hand

Window makeover

 a couple months ago i pinned this. i loved the idea of using napkins as a curtain on our kitchen window because if i got a couple sets that i loved then i could always interchange them. i started to search on etsy first to find some that i liked. i came across these and just loved them. i tried to use a tension rod first for the curtain rod but i think the span between the two cabinets was just way to big and it kind of sagged in the middle. i thought a tension rod that was bigger around may work better but after talking to my mom decided to just go with the curtain rod that had the hooks to set it in. i got the rod at walmart and then got the silver mini rings at target. it took two packages to use for all four napkins. i love the way it turned out.


the curtains opened



the curtains closed


 

this is what i had up before the change. i liked it but liked the idea of more light coming through the window and being able to see out of the whole window

Julie's Sprinkle

yesterday we had a "Sprinkle" for my friend Julie. she is pregnant with baby #2 and the baby is a girl. her first is also a girl so she wasn't in need of many things. her oldest loves books and was pretty hard on them so she wanted us to have all the guests bring books to as the gift. we would have probably gone with a book theme but just a couple months ago we did a book theme shower for two of our other friends. julie is a lover of all things pink and sweet. once we dedided that we were having a "sprinkle" we went to work planning. i have to say that we had a pretty awesome team in the works to help with getting ready for this. the three other ladies were amazing and super easy to work with. here are some pics of the shower.

Kelly brought the yummy punch



i provided the mason jars but Linds had the cute straws and made the little clouds that went on the straws. she got the idea from here



Linds also made this table cloth. she was going to pain the circles like this one(to mimic sprinkles of course) on the table cloth but she decided to just lightly stitch them on one corner. i think it turned out awesome.

these balloons were also something that we saw and thought would be fun. but instead of putting the sequins inside of the balloons Linds glued them to the bottom. i love how they came out

the streamers were made by me and and i got the inspiration from these sites
6thstreetdesignschool  hostess with the mostess  elleapparelblog
 

our good table was covered with all things sprinkled. mini cucakes (by Kelly) donuts (by me) chocolate covered pretzles (by Blakeley), bakes pretzles (by me), cake pops and sea salt covered caramels (by kelly)

we had an ice cream bar were you could sprinkle nuts, mini chocolate chips or sprinkles on the icecream and keeping this the drinking mason jars we went with the little ones to eat the ice cream out of. found the pic here

Linds made these cute flower vases out of baby food jars and sprinkled pink and purple senquins in the water. she saw the idea  here

Blakeley put together a cute mad lib that we did before Julie opened the gifts

Momma Julie  :)

we thought it would be fun to send everyone home with something as a thank you. what girl doesn't love sparkle (sprinkled with glitter) nail polish. got the tag idea from here. thanks Linds for making the cute tags and thanks Kelly for supplying the punch.  

 the only think that i didn't get a pic of was the cup cake liner banner that i made that hung on the fire place mantel.  maybe Linds or Blakeley got a shot of it.   like i said we had a great group helping put this shower together and a great group of ladies who showed up to celebrate Julie and baby peaunt.

here is the link to linds pics from the sprinkle.
here is the link to blakeley's pics from the sprinkle.

Quotes

it's taken me a month to get back to the blog and type out the quotes from some of the books that i read last year but here they are. oh and i am lacking behind in my reading this year. 24 days into the year and still haven't completed one book.

"The mother heart within me is almost starved for heaven." Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

"God had knit us together like plantings in a garden-wild and unique above ground, blooming in different ways at different times, the roots untertwined deep beneath the soil."
-Heather Hampton in the book Blue Moon Bay by Lisa Wingate

"To open the book of another's life required great care, as the pages must be turned with delicacy and caution-but it is usually worth the effort." -Luke Crisps Diary from Lost December by Richard Paul Evans

"My father once said, 'The warrior who goes off to battle should not boast as the one who returns from it.' I realize now that I have only to boast of good people who held my shield when my arms were too weak and lifted me up when I was too tired to stand on my own." -Luke Crisps Diary from Lost Decemeber by Richard Paul Evans

and last but probably my favorite:

"Remember, God will never give you more than you can handle." 'People repeat this frequently, I heard it when I was growing up and I hear it now. It is meant to be a source of encouragement, and it would be if I believed it were true. But I don't. I believe God totally, absolutely, intentionally gives us more than we can handle. Because this is when we surrender to Him and He takes over proving Himself by doing the impossible in our lives.'  -Katie Davis from Kisses From Katie

Books Read in 2012

at the beginning of every year i post a list of all the books that i read in the previous year. i have been keeping track in a notebook since 2004. i think that year was the most books i've ever read in one year bit i have gotten close in other years. here is my 2012 list

Blessed Child-Ted Dekker and Bill Bright
Thr3e-Ted Dekker
Here Burns My Candle-Liz Curtis Higgs
Safe Haven-Nicholas Sparks
Loving-Karen Kingsbury
The Short 2nd Life of Bree Tanner-Stephanie Meyer
One Thousand Gifts-Ann Voskamp
The Last Summer (of You and Me)-Ann Brashares
Kidnapped-Dee Henderson
The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins
Mocking Jay-Suzanne Collins
Larkspur Cove-Lisa Wingate
Chomp-Carl Hiaasen
Blue Moon Bay-Lisa Wingate
Waterfall-Lisa T. Bergren
The Lightening Thief-Rick Riordan
Cascade-Lisa T Bergren
Looking for Alaska-John Green
Torrent-Lisa T Bergren
Bourne-Lisa T Bergren
Coming Home-Karen Kingsbury
Seven-Jen Hatmaker
Between Sisters-Kristin Hannah
Finally and Forever-Robin Jones Gunn
Mr Darcy Broke my Heart-Beth Pattillo
Parables from the Backside-J. Ellsworth Kalas
The Dashwood Sisters Tell All-Beth Pattillo
The Pioneer Woman Black Heels to Tractor Wheels-Ree Drummond
Last Light-Terri Blackstock
Night Light-Terri Blackstock
True Light-Terri Blackstock
Mine is the Night-Liz Curtis Higgs
Dawns Light-Terri Blackstock
Tributary-Lisa T Bergren
Firefly Lane-Kristin Hannan
Kisses from Katie-Katie Davis
Lost December-Richard Paul Evans
A Wreath of Snow-Liz Curtis Higgs
Cape Refuge-Terri Blackstock
The Road to Grace-Richard Paul Evans
Souther Storm-Terri Blackstock

next i will try to post my favorite quotes from these books that i have read this year.  so fun.

Book Theme Baby Shower

Lorax Lemonade. saw the idea to do this  here

we had  a really fun time planning this baby shower for our friends Blakeley and Lindsay. Blakeley was having baby #3 and at the time they didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. since the shower she has had the baby and it is a beautiful baby girl that they named Winnie. Lindsay was having baby #2 and it was a boy just like her first so we decided to go with a book theme. you can never have to many books. everyone brought a book and one of the books the moms kept for their library and the other one was donated to the hospital childrens floor. enjoy the pictures of our fun book theme baby shower.

julie made the cute decorations with the ABC and books

green eggs......

meatballs............

moon pies............

cookies...........

julie also made these cute book bags for the moms to put the babies books in

katie made this awsome cake to look like a book.

the momma's so cute.

this shower was not only the book theme but also a chill time and a girls night time thing too. we all showed up in our comfey pjs and the plan was to watch what to expect when expecting. but get a group of girls together and the talking never stops. we never did get around to watching the movie.

Would Love This

little girl would look cute in these dresses if we won this giveaway. check it out.

Kids Art Work Wall

so when i first considered hanging the kids art work in the house somewhere, i came across this  and fell in love. it is awesome. upon further inspection and consideration i found out that the system was from ikea. we don't have one all that close. at least not close enough to go just for this. although i'm sure i would find other things there that i had to have. and shipping was just to much.

then i saw this  and thought now i can do something like that. so i headed to walmart and started pricing thing and making sure i was getting the right size. that was 3-4 months ago. now the stuff to do this isn't all that expensive until you start timsing it by three. i thought some more about it all and remembered reading Under the Sycamore blog and seeing this post where she used a limb to make a curtain rod.i pinterest searched stick rods or something along that line to get a couple more ideas for how this would go down.

One morning when i was running i came across three limbs that would be prefect for my project. all i needed to get was glossy black spray paint, the rod hooks (hangers) they were like 2.18 for a set and the drapery rings that were a litte more expensive than i would have (a little over $5 for 7of them) liked but well worth it for how much i love this.

Panty Door Fun

my new chalk board on my pantry door.

when we first moved into our house i wanted to paint chalk board paint somewhere in the kitchen. my original thought was not here but pretty close by. i came across this diy by the lovely Ashley Ann from Under the Sycamore and loved the idea of using the yard sticks or rulers. i couldn't find yard sticks as cute as she has so i just went with all rulers.

i hate our doors in our house. they are hollow wood and flat. my hope is to one day get new ones so i figured that it couldn't hurt to do this because if i messed up maybe we could get a new one sooner. come to find out i love it and we may be keeping this specific door for a while longer and getting rid of the other ones slowly.

 i just taped off the area i wanted to paint. chalk board painted it (two coats i think) and used the liquid nails to glue the rulers on.

Frame

i have seen a couple of these cute state frames around pinterest lately and even pinned a few. when i saw this one i knew it was the one that i wanted for our house.

 

so here they are. our alabama and louisiana

i just love it

here is is with the other cluster of frames and canvases on the wall

and here is the big picture. it's a huge wall. i could keep going either direction with photos and fill it up