DIY: Family Tree Canvas

Another DIY? Of course! I've never been one of those people to look at something and think, "Hey, I could make that!" but lately I've been tapping into my creative side and I'm loving it! There is something very satisfying about creating a piece of art for your home and loving the way it turns out. It's been a long time since I felt proud of myself for accomplishing something, and it feels nice:)

A week or two ago, I was browsing through family tree items on Etsy (have you ever checked out Etsy.com? The world is so full of creative, inspiring people!) and saw a family tree quilt that someone had made that I LOVED. Now, being that I don't quilt and can't even sew, I changed the idea a bit and decided to do a similar project, but use mod podge to decoupage scrapbook paper onto a canvas. I'm pleased with how it turned out, even though it's not perfect. It's imperfectly perfect, just like my own little family:)

Materials needed: misc. scrapbook paper, mod podge, blank canvas (I used 11 x 14), foam brushes, printed pictures of you and your children (on regular printer paper, not photo paper)
> I got my canvas for 40% off at Michael's, so it only cost $3.20. I used 4 different sheets of scrapbook paper which cost $1.80 total. So aside from the cost of a new jar of mod podge (eek, that stuff is pricey! $7 for a pretty small jar!), this is a very frugal art project!

For an added "cute" touch, I wrote my and Chuck's initials on the trunk of the tree and our wedding date underneath it. After I finished the project I thought it would have been cute to "carve" the kids initials and birthdays into their limbs of the tree, but it was too late to add them :( Oh well.

Have fun making yours and show me how it turns out! I used green scrapbook paper because my house is very neutral and virtually any color would look fine, but I love the idea of doing a red/yellow autumn tree also.

PS--you can't see it in the picture, but using mod podge on canvas makes the whole thing look like an oil painting. It is very cool!

DIY: Family Monogram Photo Collage

When I found this DIY tutorial on A Little Moore last week, I swooned. So of course, I had to make a giant B:) I got the cardboard letter at JoAnn Fabrics for $9.99, but if you shop there a lot you probably have a 50% off coupon and could get your letter for $5. The nice thing about this project is that it is EASY. The not-so-nice thing is that it is TIME CONSUMING. But no matter, I think literally anyone could do this project. This would make such a fabulous house-warming present for a newlywed couple if you had access to their wedding photos!

I used about 60 photos to make my letter, and it took me about 2 hours total. It doesn't show in the pictures very well, but this is a GIANT letter, lol. 24 inches tall, so it has presence. All you need is plain old computer paper and mod podge. I copied/pasted my photos into a word document and re-sized them to make them about 2.5-3 inches wide (depending on if it was a portrait or landscape-oriented photo). Then you just start cutting and affixing your photos to the letter. A tip for beginner mod podgers (is that a word? lol): I think your fingers are your best tools for helping to smooth edges and press out bubbles. I had a bit of a problem with the mod podge smearing the ink and discoloring it a bit, but after I was finished Chuck and I both agreed that it sort of gives the B an "aged" antiquey feel that I actually really like!

I LOVE the way this project turned out!

Born to you

I posted this on FB last night, but I wanted to share it here as well. It warmed me deep in my soul, it stretched those sinews that anchor my heart to my spirit and it made me feel effortlessly loved. Unconditionally.

The kids were riding bikes in the driveway yesterday afternoon. Ava came up to me and asked, out of the blue, "I was born from you, Mommy?" So I explained that, yes, she grew in my belly and was born from me. And then she said, "I was born from you, and you were born to me, and that's cause why we love each other, Mommy!"

She was born from me. I was born to her. And THAT is why we love each other.

I hope beyond hope that our love will always be so simple and uncomplicated. I hope that we never let our petty issues get in the way of our love for each other. I hope that I always make the effort to show my children, to tell them, to LOVE them the way they deserve to be loved. Even when they let me down, even when they disappoint me, even if we don't see eye to eye. I hope that I can be the kind of mother to them that they will want to be to their own children some day.

My love for them...some days I wonder if anything else really matters at all?

On a related note, I took these pictures in the koala house at the Cleveland Zoo yesterday. I could have sat and watched this mom and baby for hours. The baby is almost one year old and the zookeeper in the koala house told me that she didn't know how much longer the mom was going to keep holding the baby while they slept, because it was clear that the mom was not very comfortable and she kept giving the baby the stink-eye every time the baby fidgeted and moved around. It can't have been very comfortable for either of them, but oh my goodness, was it ever cute to watch!





And one of my monkeys loving another monkey:)

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

It is NEVER going to stop raining.

Ok, that's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but right now it feels accurate. It's been raining for five days. So, in an effort to banish boredom and also make fun Halloween treats, the kids helped me make these candy corn sugar cookies today. Kind of a pain to make, because this dough was REALLY sticky. If I make these again, I would make two separate logs of dough and keep one in the freezer while I cut the other, because by the time I got to the end of slicing my very long log of dough, it was mushy and my cookies didn't look anything like candy corns, lol.

I followed this recipe from What I Live For. The kids loved making them, and loved eating them even more!

DIY: Book wreath

When I find a DIY project that I absolutely LOVE, I obsess over it and have to do it immediately, lol. So when I stumbled on this book wreath tutorial last night in bed, I knew I HAD to make a trip to the Dollar Tree today. This project cost all of $1 (for the foam craft wreath) since I already had lots of hot glue sticks and an old book from MOPS that I was just going to recycle.

You'll notice that my book wreath looks NOTHING like the one in the tutorial, because I did my folding differently and affixed my scrolls differently, but I actually like the way mine turned out even better than the one in the tutorial. It is HUGE, and looks perfect in our downstairs half bath, which I've been struggling to decorate for over 6 months now, lol.

I won't lie...I'm in LOVE with it. Can you love a wreath? It's exactly my style--crisp lines, white and black, makes a statement all by itself.

PS--I also made a lovely autumn flower and leaf wreath for $3, and I can't wait to hang it on our front door, but I forgot to take a pic--oops! Maybe once I get it hung...