Window photo project

I do not have a lot of wall space in my house. Mainly because I decorate my walls with my art and several of my friends work. I DO NOT BUY from any retail stores to decorate my walls. I feel like my home is my personal gallery and each piece hanging in it has a story. Whether it is mine or a artist friend has given me a personal treasure or maybe I have even bought a piece or two myself. Each one has a story behind it and we surround ourselves with love and special memories.

I don't have hardly any pictures of my girls up and we recently had a close friend photograph them in my parents back yard next to a 1960s horse barn. The pictures are so beautiful and captures their sweet faces and personality. I decided to bring down one of my paitings in our living room above our couch and put something new up. I wanted to have the girls photos turned into black and white and  included them in my next piece. Although I am still working on the pictures I put a few in to test it out and we did go ahead and hang it.

I have seen this done before but have never tried one myself. I normally paint on old windows and sell them but I decided to try something different. In this picture I am scraping off the old paint left on the glass. I sanded the wood to give it texture and get rid of the rough stuff.

I went ahead and put paint tape around the edges of the glass because I am lazy and I don't want to scrape paint off again. LOL

I first painted the wood with a primer. That way everything is all one color. Then I mixed my colors in order to make it exactly the color I wanted for my living room. This matches my curtains that are directly across on the other wall from this painting.

Like I said before I am still working on getting my pictures all done and ready to put up so I put a few in their place. This is almost done but I need two more antique glass door knobs to put on the bottom of the window. My mom and dad bought me the glass knob hanging from this window for mothers day! I love gifts like that. They are priceless and again I have memories to cherish. Even though no one would understand or see the value in this piece it is my story and I get to look at it everyday and know exactly why, where and how I did it.

Stitches

This past spring my mom started a "Stitches" class at our church. It is growing and becoming such a fun time to hang out with great friends. All you have to do is bring your latest unfinished project, a bagged lunch, and if you have kiddos they are welcome too! We have a blast!   I worked on making some felt hearts for Valentines Day. Although many of the ladies bring their own fabrics and my mom teaches different patterns for quilting you can do whatever you like. Some come and make clothing for their children, or knitting, or crocheting. It is just a fun way to do what we love and visit at the same time. The kids love it too! They play right there with us in the gym.

Here is a few pics of the ladies working. We didn't have as big a crowd today as last month but if you miss a class you just pick up where you left off  the last time you were there.

 Dot and my mom working on the lamp quilt project.

 My mess of stuff. I maybe accomplished one heart out of felt. LOL

 Kathy, Kathy and Deb

 Pahla and Abbie Cake rolling around on the gym floor. They are all such well behaved girls. I just love them ALL!!!

                                             Emma Blue and Church playing in the gym!

Kathy working on her Lamp quilt

                                                      Deb working on her lamp quilt

Valentines Day Cards

January 24, 2012

Today after homeschool we started working on our Valentines Day cards. We are having a Valentines Day party with some good friends and each child is to bring a card for each guest. These are what we have worked on so far! Emma was so excited because she got to use my buttons and glitter and we got messy!!! Abbie Cake just liked peeling the backing off the stickers and putting them on hearts for her cards!! So sweet!

Penguin project

January 18th, 2012
My moms favorite thing about cold weather is, she gets to pull out her stuffed penguin named Purcival. These last two weeks we have been reading books about penguins. Perfect timing since we just bought the movie "Mr. Poppers Penguins" with Jim Carey. Me and Emma went to see it in the theater this past summer and it came out on DVD a few weeks ago.

So in honor of Purcival we did this cute little cutting and gluing project. I just loved Emma's creation....she might be an artist just like her proud mama!!!!

Crazy Crayon Hearts

January 18th, 2012
I forgot to put a picture up of how the melted crayons turned out. Although they are not the prettiest my girls loved them. Emma is so excited to give them away at her Valentines Party we are having at our house next month. I am not sure why I didn't think of this before but you can take your favorite colors that go together and melt them and see how pretty they turn out. I am definetly trying that next go round.

Heart Shaped Crazy Crayons

Today we took broken crayons and melted them in heart shaped molds to make cute little gifts for Emma and Abbie's friends. We are having a Valentines Day party next month and planning on making cute V-day cards for our guests. We needed something fun to add to their goodie bags.

My new Xoom

I got a xoom for Christmas. I love it. However I am still trying to figure out how to use it and update my blog. So be patient cause this is all new to me.