Loves to Paint

Aubrey loves to paint.  She loves to "paint" with water outside all the time as well as with real paints.  The other day I didn't really have anything she could paint and I wasn't sure where exactly I "organized" my paints, so we stuck with one color and a printout of her name.  She loved it just the same as if I had 10 colors. 

 

We got her little crafting apron on and she got to painting...

 

 

I just love these little moments :)

Valentine's Day 2013

We got to celebrate our Valentine's Day a day early. 

 

I got some flowers from my wonderful hubby in the morning and for some reason we have kind of started this tradition of getting doughnuts for breakfast on special days.  He didn't disappoint in keeping up the tradition.  I got him a Ron Swanson (character from Parks and Recreation) mug that he could take to work for his morning coffee.  I have my friend Melissa C. to thank for this :).

 

 

Aubrey and I painted some paper and traced her hands on it.  I cut those hand prints out, cut a piece of string that was the length from one of her hands to the other, and then wrote "I love you this much Daddy" on one of the hands.  You can find this idea here.  Thank you Pinterest for this idea :).

 

For our last MOPS craft we did some scratch-off valentines which were very simple to make.  I personalized two for Aubrey and two for the hubby and they each scratched them off to find something special they would get or something special we could do together.  My awesome sister ended up creating the design for the valentine.  I found the simple idea for the scratch-off part here.

 

I was probably on my feet a little more than I should have been, but it was worth the effort to make a carbonara pasta dish and strawberry and vanilla ice cream sandwich cookies for dessert :).  We had a great dinner and had a great evening spending some time together. 

 

 

 

Today I got to take Aubrey out for a little picnic lunch.  We got a smoothie and enjoyed playing at a nearby park.  It was so good to spend some time with this little girl.  I don't know how many opportunities I will have to really get to spend this quality time with her before baby sister comes, but I felt so blessed to enjoy some mother-daughter time today :).

 

 

 

Love you both so much!  Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 

 

 

 

Quote Project

So this idea came from this picture that I saw and we kind of went with the idea from there.  There was another website that did something similar with the word 'love' and so that's where I got the idea to do this project as words rather than a picture.

 

Of course I get these ideas (that might be cheap but definitely time consuming) and I have the hubby help me.  Not like he needs anything else on his plate right now, but I'm so glad he's willing to go along with me so much :).

 

For this project we decided to use part of the verse from Proverbs 31:10 "...She is worth far more than rubies."  So when this big project is finished that's what it will say.

 

I started off by enlarging the words and printing and pasting them together.

 

Then I had my dad cut down pieces of poplar wood that would fit the words nicely.  We're going to have five total boards with one to two words on each board.

 

Then Brandon stained the wood.  We combined two different types of stain to get the color we wanted.  After that is was time to get to the heart of the project.

 

Brandon drew lines on the papers to show where each nail would have to go.  You don't need them too close together but you want them close enough so when you are finished you have the shape of the letter.  Brandon then taped the paper down down to the wood and started hammering in those nails on the lines that were drawn.  We used 3D 1 1/4" nails for this project and we're going to need a LOT of nails.  The first board took over 200 nails!

 

 

After the nails were in it was my job to string the thread back and forth.  We took apart a mechanical pencil so that we could thread the string through and use that as a guide to help get in between the nails. Doing this by hand would be way too tedious and you wouldn't always get the right tension on the string I think. 

 

After we threaded the string through the pencil I tied a knot to one of the nails and then started working the broken down mechanical pencil with the string in it by going back and forth and around the nails.  You want enough coverage back and forth so you can really see the silhouette of the letters.

 

 

I tied knots sporadically on some of the nails to keep them from slipping.  I'll go back and super glue those knots so they don't come undone and glue some of the strings on other nails to make it more secure.  I'll also go back and cut off the strings from where the knots were.

 

One down, four more to go.  I know it's a big project but I think it's going to look so great in Aubrey's new room when we're finished!!

 

 

A few projects we've been working on...

So this one was a combined family effort and I just had to share...

My good friend Jennifer is getting married in May and for her bridal shower gift I decided to make her a key hook.  I wanted to do something a little more personal.

Here's the final product!

My grandfather and dad made the actual frame, we spray painted chalkboard on the sides, and in the middle is glass with their wedding date and initials!  My sister made the logo (one creative girl!) and we made it into a vinyl decal to stick on the glass.  One of my favorite parts is the background behind the glass...you can change the paper/fabric behind it :).

I was just so proud of the final product and so proud of my family's talent.  The idea might have been mine, but I couldn't have done it without my wonderful family.  Thank you all so much!!

The bride and groom also arrived a little early :)