easter eggs

There was a time I thought that the older the boys got the less they would be into things like dyeing Easter eggs.  After this year, the opposite seems to be true.  This was the most creative, careful, and fun year dyeing them yet.  They were seriously dedicated to the task and created lots of fun mixed color blocked styles.  So fun! 

painting on the porch

Before pollen started overtaking our porch and after it had begun to warm up to those beautiful Spring temperatures that I love but never stick around for too long, Connor wanted to paint with me.  We sat on the porch for over an hour with acrylics for us, watercolors for Logan and a stack of paper. 

Artistic painting is not my best crafty outlet but it's still fun and after I painted my word wait in the corner of one of my "pieces" Connor painted one with the word kind and then hung it up in his room.  

And as you can see Obi enjoyed the process as well.

spring craft market

Before I can catch up on the WEEKS of pitiful blogging on all the fun things we've been up to besides my craftaholicness I wanted to share about the Craft Market.

In one word I'll say AMAZING!  But I have more words than one :)  It seriously was one of the most fun things I've ever done and I am still overwhelmed (in a good way) at how great it was.

 My parents helped me load up my car and there car with my boocoodles of stuff and take it over to the church the night before.  We weren't able to start setting up until after 10 because of a wedding shower for Zach's youngest brother which meant we weren't done until well after midnight.  There was a lot of stuff to fit into a 10x10 space but my mom is a master at manipulating spaces so we fit it all and kept it pretty darn cute.

My mom and I got there around 8 the next morning to help with the details of the event and make sure everything was ready for the other vendors.  Kiley was in charge of the whole thing and I know it stressed her out but she did a FANTASTIC job of keeping everything straight and making her own super cute booth as well.  It was a rainy rainy day but the sun was shining through the rain and we had a steady and by steady I mean STEADY stream of people all day.  

I got to chat with lots of new folks and see some old friends who came to visit the Market as well.  I sold 95% of my products, got orders from 5 or 6 people for items I ran out of quickly, got to keep two things I REALLY wanted :), and made the rest of the money I needed for my part of our trip to Romania.  Thankful doesn't even begin to cover it.

I know that God's hand was all over this and next year if we do it again which I hope we do, I won't make as much money because I definitely won't make as many products.  Either way while I don't plan on making this a job any time soon or maybe ever I can't wait to do it again!

fingernails

My fingernails are shot.  They are pitifully short, peeling and stained.  It only takes one glance down at my hands to make me remember what work they have been doing.  In the last three months they have cleaned, painted, stained, sanded, sealed, picked up and carried.  It only takes one glance to make me realize how easily your brain and therefore how you carry about your life can be overcome with one thing.

Our mission team is hosting a craft market and I get to be a vendor.  As silly as it may sound to some, this is very close to a dream coming true.  In my mind I have always wanted to create for not just myself but for others as well.  I love crafting.  I love making the mundane beautiful.  I love seeing something different in an item and figuring out how to make it useful.  When the bible says that all things reveal the character of God I firmly believe the things we create, no matter in what way, show us Him.  I believe it so much so that I wrote about the craftiness of God.

In the past year and a half God has revealed many things to me about myself.  Things that give me comfort and smiles and things that hit me hard and reduced me to tears, but all things that were welcomed (eventually) and needed.  I feel like I am finally beginning to know myself well, so well that I even anticipated the happening of being too wrapped up into things and asked several people to pray for me about it and keep me accountable.  I can very much see how gracious God has been in answering their prayers because I have felt quite free of stress overall and more excited than obsessed.  Big Success!

  If you talk to Zach he might have viewed things different but at least he without a doubt can agree that I could, and in the past have been, much worse.  Of course no matter how hard you try it is impossible keep your life free of idols and distractions.  Even ones as cute as chalkboards and welcome signs.  But I am truly thankful that God is faithful in all things, in HUGE earth shattering difficulties of the past and small, fun, inconsequential, to some, things of the present.

The sale is this weekend and I am so ready.  I'm ready to share my heart for creating with others.  I'm ready to see the art others have created to the glory of God.  I'm ready to see if anyone wants my stuff.  I'm ready to, hopefully, earn a lot towards my trip to see the people of Romania again this summer.  And I'm ready for it to be finished so that I can get back to my life where my evenings and afternoons are completely devoted to my family and the building of our home together and writing about the day to day of our lives instead of the destruction of my fingernails.

super hero house

Zach spent the majority of last Saturday building what we affectionately call our Super Hero House.  We have been planning to make something like this for months and were hoping to have it done for Christmas but as our Christmas was a little overwhelming this year we put it off for later.

fall snack

Yesterday's weather was gross.  Rainy but not the pretty relaxing rain.  It was the slightly humid muddy rain.  For the first time in a LONG time I thought about and planned ahead an afterschool project to do with the boys.  We had a lovely crafternoon and snack making session.

A few years ago my friend Kiley introduced me to a fall snack she always makes for her coworkers and friends.  It's Oh's cereal mixed with any or all of the following, 

reece's pieces

fall colored plain m&ms

fall colored peanut m&ms

candy corn m&ms

candy corn

candy pumpkins

peanuts

I have made it the past two years for the boys' teachers and friends as well as plenty of leftovers for us and it's a favorite for sure!

To decorate the jars, and take up lots of time on the rainy day, I cut out leaves from watercolor paper with my silhouette and we painted leaves fall colors.  Or at least Micah, Connor and I did.  Logan painted his leaves black and then painted himself and then painted me.  BUT he didn't eat the paint so we're moving in the right direction!

After the painting we taste tested all the ingredients, mixed it all together and got the jars ready to share.  They turned out super cute, and yummy!

earth day crafting

I've always been a fan of Earth Day.  Part of it could be because of the hippie blood I got from my mama, but the majority is because of a very simple sentence.

Genesis 1:1 God created the heavens and the earth

I live on this earth that God created and as his children we should be good stewards of what he has given us.  One of those things is the beautiful world we live in.  I am not going to go on and on about recycling and clean energy and organic farming and all the other things people argue about some of which are extremely important and some of which are a little ridiculous.

I'm just going to encourage myself and hopefully you to think, pray, and research scripture that shows me what it means to be a good steward of all things God has given us and how his creation pertains to that.

So anyway, to celebrate Earth Day the boys and I read a couple books and talked about creation and what we could do to take care of it.  Then we had fun coloring some coffee filters with markers and watching the color spread when we sprayed it with water.  Now that I think about it celebrating being good stewards of creation and using up a bunch of paper filters doesn't really go together but they were made of recycled paper so that's something right?

Oh well, it was a fun activity and good conversation with my fellas :)

finger painting

I decided to introduce the boys to fingerpainting  yesterday.  Micah and Connor had probably done it before, maybe but I don't remember.  I water color with the two of them a  lot even at Logan's age but Micah wasn't fond of getting his hands dirty and Connor was too fond of getting his hands dirty to do much fingerpainting.  

The good news is all three of them loved it and didn't destroy the place too much.  Logan was tentative at first but ended up going crazy and only put it in his mouth once.  SUCCESS!!  

They were  making Father's Day cards for Papa (my dad) and Poppy (Zach's dad).  I spelled out their names in painter's tape for C and L so when it was peeled off their names were in white. Micah wanted do his own thing and made a colorful one for Papa and a dark reddish with a Georgia G for Poppy.

cheap and fun

drinking straw plus florist foam equals an hour of entertainment

showing off his finished project

explaining that this is the gun that shoots out bullets

saying something Connorish that I wish I could remember  because I know it made me laugh

spooky spiders

Micah, Connor and I made spider web window clings last week to add to our fall decorations for October.  Spiders is about the extent of my Halloween decorating except for a jack o'lantern that we'll make this coming weekend.

I found a how to on pinterest.  It was super easy.  You just use puffy paint and wax paper.  I drew out a web design for them to follow and put it under the wax paper.  We ran out of paint pretty quickly because I bought small bottles.  I'm hoping to do a lot of them for Christmas as one of our advent box activities.

Micah's spider and web

Connor's Spider and web

Our spooked up mirror