Think Spring

This week's Foto Friday theme was spring. For me spring is alot of things...Dogs rolling around on the ground with contentment, Shading your oh-so sensitive eyes from the bright sunlight that has been hidden away all winter, Tea Parties with their delicate prettiness, spring cleaning (which I did, and will be posting later) and my most favorite- my children dressed in their Spring finery. I've been busy hosting guests a few times this week, so this morning we dressed up in our pretty (and handsome) duds, and took a few Easter shots. These aren't actually my children's Easter outfits, daddy bought the girls matching dresses this year, but these are among my favorites. And Samuel, well, he is always handsome, and always loves dressing up which is such a treat to his mama. The dress that Christiana is wearing, she's been wearing for more than year and has been my favorite dress of hers since it was extra big on her, now it fits her just right so I doubt we will get another year out of it :) Enjoy my perception of spring this year :)

Foto Friday- GREEN!

Wow, I cannot believe it is already Foto Friday again! To be honest, I completely forgot about it till I went to visit my sister's blog tonight- Thank Goodness I had already taken my Foto Friday pics a few days ago so I wasn't out of luck! It was pretty easy to find green for this week's theme, especially since we've been having such grand weather. Good thing we had a few days to enjoy it because now my other two little ones are spiking fevers and have non-stop coughing. They've been coughing for a few days but I thought it was allergy related, until that is, their fevers starting climbing. Now I get to visit the walk-in tomorrow morning- yippee.. Not. :)

In any case I love green, it really does make me feel refreshed, renewed, and invigorated. How can you not when you are surrounded by the color of new flora and fauna? It reminds me of new beginnings (with the exception of evergreens I suppose) :)

I had to add a shot of my "redhead" in his green finery which he wore in celebration of St. Patricks Day. Redhead is in quotes because he doesn't believe himself to be a redhead because his hair is orange, but people might look sideways if I called him my Orangehead ;)..He looks like a fine irish lad, doesn't he? :)

If you'd like to contribute, or see other Foto Friday interpretations, visit Renaissance! Go Green! :)

Transformation Thursday

Here is a mini-project that cost me little more than a dollar for this Transformation Thursday. I found this plaque at the dollar store and all I could think of was my bathroom (again!) It was entirely the wrong color though, as my bathroom is black and white toile with pale pistachio green walls. I put a few coats of black paint on it (I actually really liked how it looked between coats (the next to last shot down), but it just wasn't the right color for the bathroom so I kept on. Once the black was established, I lightly stuppled some cream on the top layer of detail to help the words to "stick out" and the sprayed sealant on it to give it a bit of a shiny look. It looks great in our bathroom and I loved the price :)

Super Easy Craft for the Kiddos

To Welcome Spring I made butterflies with my little ones with a handful of supplies I had on hand. Each child got 1 wooden clothespin, 2 paper coffee filters, and some markers. My kiddos colored their filters with markers (I helped Christiana by adding purple scribble hearts on her wings) When coloring was done, the had to color the butterflies clothespin body with marker as well. Then each filter was folded like a fan, twisted in the middle placed in the the clip "mouth" of the butterfly and the folded fans were gently opened to make an upper set and lower set of butterfly wings. Then I added fabric paint embellishments and their initials on the wings so that we would know whose was whose...There was just enough "clip" left to clip them right to the dining room curtains..The kids love seeing their butterflies "flying" :) So Easy, So Fun, and So Pretty :)

Foto Friday-Lines

This week's Foto Friday was Lines..I captured a few shots, but nothing extraordinary or exciting. They just didn't seem to stand out this week for me, and came across as a bit boring and mundane.. Line of fenceposts, Line of trees (with a very old telephone pole from the early days of phone poles I suspect) and a line of good reading, including my Opa's books that he wrote before developing alzheimers (the first 3) To go see other perspective's of lines, please visit Renaissance, you will be glad you did! :)

Stepstool fit for two princesses

This is my second week of Transformation Thursday- The first week was a bummer for me because not one person left a comment, not even the moderator who hosts it each week. I was so excited to share what I had done and pretty much deflated by the end of the day for if people were visiting, I didn't know it..

So, here I try again.. I apologize that the pics are out of sequence- I've been having blogger issues all morning and finally decided to give up!

We bought a stepstool for our daughter in the hopes that the potty training process would be sped up and simplified..She is tiny and cannot reach the potty by herself..Unfortunately, she STILL couldn't reach the potty by herself with the storebought one (we put it in our second bathroom for now) So I asked my hubby if he could build a stepstool for her..We had leftover wood from a mini-workshop he built for our son so what started as a basic stepstool became a grand project for a man who has very little building experience..He decided to make it for both our daughters, one who is potty training, the other that will be potty training soon enough...He had gotten router stencils at Salvation Army a while back for 3.00 so he carved the girls initials on each level of step (my little ones all have 2 middle initials just like their mama) I bought a can of black paint so that their stepstool would match our toile bathroom. After the 3 coats of black had dried I added cream flowers, dots and accents..I initially wanted to paint the tops with a pretty design but decided against it because my hope is that it will be well used and I didn't want the design to get worn down from tread..Instead I opted for rosebuds and dots in the corner..I also added dots to the initial letters because the plain cream letters looked too boring to me..

A little sealant later, and all done..Our project was a joint effort, my husband as creator and me as painter..We are happy with the result and our princesses can both reach the potty by themselves now :) Bring on the potty training! :)

Please join Shabby Chic Cottage for Transformation Thursday too - Alot of amazing people have alot of amazing ideas :)

3.00 Decoration for Easter..

Just because you shop at the Dollar Store doesn't mean it has to be cheesy :) I stopped over there Saturday morning and found some ceramic vases..Most were pink but they had one light green, and one robin's egg blue one left. I've always loved robin's egg blue so you can guess which color I picked. I grabbed a bag of green paper Easter grass (safer for kids, pets, and environment) and found a bag of 3 foam glittered easter eggs hidden away, the only pack I found so it must have been meant to be..I brought them home and went digging thru my surplus craft stuff. I found an artificial bluish calla lilly, a frond of artificial greenery and some extra ribbon I had laying around. I painted the sticks that the eggs were on to match, and arranged everything in the vase (the greenery acts sort of like foam keeping the things in the vase from shifting around, plus it looks pretty) Lastly I tied the ribbons on the outside of the vase to give it that little extra it needed for me :)

I spent 3.00 plus tax for a pretty decoration I can keep up till Easter :) Yay for cheap thrills :)

A New View....

I've been pondering HOW I might be able to continue participating in some of the things I enjoy participating in without limiting myself, or others that would not otherwise be able to view my primary blog. This is a trial run..My hope is that I can open this up and participate in the things I enjoy doing and leave it open to the public..I will be using this blog for photos I've taken (mostly for Foto Fridays) and Crafts (Transformation Thursday) that I've made. I may also include recipes I've come across and loved, as well as Kid Craft Ideas. Nothing will be personalized on here, and my main blog will be kept private for my private thoughts and the goings-on of my life, but this might just be the outlet I need to be able to continue on with these projects I'd love to be able to share... So Welcome to the New View :)