* remember this *

"Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there for each other."

-- Carol Saline

Alphabet Bean Bags

Birthday gift completed!! I made my nephew and Charlotte, Alphabet bean bags. We had so many dry beans and I needed to do something with them. What a better way to use beans than to make bean bags. I'm very excited.

Charlotte and Zoie played with them for a bit before bedtime tonight and had a blast with them. It was a success!!

 Charlotte's Bean Bags

Elliot's Bean Bags

I found the idea off of pinterest. All I did was cut 5x5 inch squares of all my scrap fabric. Then I used a diy cut machine to cut out the letters of the alphabet onto freezer paper, then painted the letters on, had my friend surged around three of the edges, then we filled the bags with beans and surged the top. 

I love how they turned out and may do some with numbers or shapes eventually. The girls love them so much!

Feeding Daisy

Wednesday, Ryan had Farmer Val come to the library with her baby calf, Daisy. We thought since Zoie loved seeing the animals at the fair she would love this, so we went and we were right. She couldn't stop talking about it! She had so much fun! The only picture I wasn't able to get was of  her giving Daisy her milk. It was fun to watch Zoie feed Daisy.

Brushing Daisy

Zoie so anxious

Hanging on to Daisy

Feeding Daisy the 1st time 

 Feeding Daisy the 2nd time

Keeping a close watch on her 

Charlotte and Zoie  and Daisy 

Feeding Daisy the 3rd time

 Feeding Daisy the 4th time

Feeding Daisy for the 5th and final time! She loved to feed Daisy and Daisy knew it and about tackled Zoie once, as she walked away. 

* remember this *

"Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there for each other."

-- Carol Saline

Birthday's Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peak of what I am making Charlotte and my nephew Elliot for their 1st Birthday next month. 

Any ideas?

Can you guess what I am making with these flannel fabrics for their birthdays?

Swimming with Family Pt.2

cousins playing together. Good times 

Zoie loves her cousin Elliot 

Handsome Elliot 

getting ready to stand up like Elliot 

"I'm coming Elliot" 

the gang! Uncle Dozer, Zoie, Charlotte, Aunt Shelby, Mommy, Elliot, Grandpa & Aunt Til's knee 

Grandpa swinging on the rope swing

Charlotte watching Grandpa swing over her

 "Go Grandpa Go!"

Aunt Shelby and Elliot

Mommy, Zoie and Charlotte

Our Family, so much love going on! 

Uncle Dozer, Zoie, Mommy, Charlotte, Aunt Shelby, Elliot, and Aunt Tilda

The girls had so much fun swimming and playing with everyone. A bunch of memories were made and will last forever. Zoie kept saying "This is the best!" and "Your cool" to everyone!

Swimming with Family Pt.1

The last few days we were visiting with my family, my dad set up one of his smaller pools in the backyard. The girls were super excited, actually the whole family was super excited. One of the main reasons for us older kids was we could get our tan on.  :) Not that I got much of a tan, but it was fun to be in the pool with the the girls and my nephew Elliot.

Ready to get Uncle Dozer and Charlotte 

Crawling in the pool and loving every minute of it 

Charlotte and Elliot getting each other 

Zoie messing with the hose 

Ready to race down the pool on our knees 

Mommy, Aunt Shelby, and Zoie striking a pose 

Charlotte splashing herself 

 Charlotte and Zoie playing

Zoie running and sliding with Uncle Dozer 

Charlotte laughing, she's having so much fun 

Aunt Shelby getting Zoie 

 Zoie in her own little world

Charlotte and Aunt Shelby splashing

Look at Charlotte Roo's smile!

Smile Board

I spent the month of April visiting my family. It was great, but I missed doing crafts. So I took advantage of all the extra wood that my dad had in his backyard and created a little board for my sister for her birthday, inspired by a pinterest pin (don't remember where though).

Feeling Dumb

Yesterday, I had both girls asleep at once! Finally sometime for just me. I should of took a nap with them, but really wanted to sit and ponder on life and random things. Haven't done that in a while.

As I sat pondering on various things in my life, I had the feeling of being "dumb." I don't want to be dumb or get dumb (if that's even possible). I want to be able to have intelligent conversations, know what everyone else is talking about, help my children out with schoolwork and life, and so much more. I feel like right now in my life, I can't do those things.

I can't go back to school now. What options do I have left? I can't do online classes at the moment. So what's left? Asking myself these questions and others, I found myself coming to the conclusion that I need to make time to read books. I read books, but not as often as I should. I take forever to finish them now, probably even longer with two kids. I am still reading "The Counte of Monte Cristo", I have like 200 pages left, but I started it a two years ago.

*amazon.com

I decided to ask my sisters and mom to join with me in reading a book a month, every odd month is a church/inspirational book and every even month is any book. They said yes and we have been taking turns picking out the books. It's been a lot of fun. We started in February. I have learned a lot and am growing a lot. I made a page at the top of the blog to keep track of all the books that we read and such.

It's been fun to do something with my sisters and mom, especially when we aren't all together. I am hoping that we continue to do this and make it a tradition and at some point my girls and future nieces can join in. It's a great bonding experience and gives us something to talk about.

After reading these books the past few months, I don't feel so dumb, I feel a little smarter. :)

Do you have any favorite books?

Simplicity

Lately, I have fell in love with birds.With that said, I have decided to name my project Simplicity. I love the simplicity of the birds silhouettes and the joy that their sounds bring into my life. So I wanted to do a project with a bird. Something very simple, elegant, and one that I would have all the supplies for.

 Yesterday, Zoie had ripped some pages out of one of Ryan's old school books. For some reason both girls have seemed to grab this Dubliners book and play with it all the time, and Zoie "reads" it to Charlotte and her babies. It's very cute.

I didn't want to throw those ripped pages away and I thought maybe I could do a project  with them and then this morning my head was trying to create a project. It kept going to making flowers with pages and putting them with a frame with a picture of a bird. So that's what I did and here are my results and I am absolutely in love.

I made a bird silhouette stencil and cut it out onto freezer paper. Then iron the freezer paper to my lace fabric and spray painted it the color teal.

I cut the book pages into circles, burned the edges and made them look old and then hot glued them together with a bead in the middle and I spray painted the frame teal to match the bird.

I hot glued the lace to the back of the frame so it would stay put. And I was done! 

I am so in love and I can't stop smiling. I plan on making some more in different colors. I have a really cool octagon frame that I got at good will, that this will be perfect for. 

What do you think? Maybe I'll try an Owl since those are pretty in style now-a-days too or a different animal

Would you want one? Would you buy one?
I'd like to try selling some of my projects, but want to know if I should.
Pros? Cons? Would anyone be interested? Stuff like that.
Please share and be respectful and kind. Thanks.