Valentines Day Burlap and Fabric Heart Banner

Isn't red an awesome color??
I'm still very much in love with my old red door, and after I took down my Christmas decorations, I wanted to keep it out....
Solution: give it a little Valentines Day love!

Please Remove Your Shoes Sign made with Stir Sticks

Are you ready for a really EASY, SIMPLE and CHEAP way to make yourself a wooden sign??  You can, of course, write anything you want - fun for your child's bedroom doorknob, inside a wreath on your front door, hanging in the kitchen...

My friend asked me to whip her up a quick sign for her front door.  She has three young children, and wanted a polite way to notify people before they came in that they prefer no shoes on in the house.

Instead of making a sign out of thicker, heavier wood, I started looking around my house for something I could use that would be lightweight (and free)!

These large wooden stir sticks - available at your local hardware store - were just the ticket!

I cut mine down to 12" long, and 5 side by side like this makes it about 7" tall.

With the stir sticks face down, I applied a very thin layer of wood glue in between each stick (on that little narrow edge) and pressed them tightly together.
Then, I used the a couple pieces just under 7" as the cross pieces, and glued those onto the back.  While it was drying, to hold it all tightly together, I hammered in a few little nails just partway.  I didn't have any nails short enough that they wouldn't poke through.  Once it was dry I simply pulled the nails out.  Wood glue is SO strong when it dries, there's no need to keep the nails!
If I had had staples for my staple gun that were short enough, I would have used those to hold the sticks together while the glue dried - but I didn't :)

I gave the front a white wash with watered down white acrylic paint...

Then, I sanded the edges and stenciled on the saying my friend wanted.  

Cute little sign, ready for their front door!

I'm already thinking about what other little signs I want to make - this was so fun!

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Time Lapse Month by Month Baby Pictures

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My sweet baby turned 1 a few months ago.  During her first year of life I actually remembered (thanks to multiple calendar reminders) to take a picture on each month birthday!  I printed off a new word bubble each month that said her age, and tried to take each picture in the same place, with a different outfit :)  

I love the time lapse pics all in one big collage - it is crazy to see how much babies change in 1 year!  

I'm not sure exactly what I'll do with these pictures yet, but I'm so glad that I took them.  My older daughters wish they had some like it :)

You can also check out my "photography" Pinterest board, where I have even more baby photo ideas!

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Our Winter Themed Birthday Party

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Having daughters is so wonderful!  Some of my favorite things to do with them are craft and play and watch them grow and be excited about new things.  As much as I want them to stay babies forever, my oldest daughter is growing up to be one of the most helpful, thoughtful and kind kids I have ever met.  This year, she and I had a lot of fun planning her 7th birthday party together - and she picked a winter theme!
Over the past couple years we have thrown a Pirate Party and an Art Party, and they were great!  I have learned a few things about throwing a party for kids, and I am feeling much more confident that I can plan games, food and activities that they are sure to enjoy.

For our invitations, we made colorful mittens with all the info on the inside, tied together with string.

First, I cut strips of colorful magazine pages, and my daughter used Mod Podge to glue the strips side by side onto a piece of cardstock.  

On the back of each page I traced 4 mitten shapes.  2 mittens per invitation, so you can get 2 invitations per page.

Once they were cut out, I punched a hole in the top corner of each, wrote a little rhyme on one mitten, and the party specifics on the other.

Finally, I tied the two mittens together with a string, and they fit into a colorful card envelope. 

Most of our winter party centered around snowmen.  

One of the crafts we had the kids do was make these easy wooden snowman decorations to take home.  The kids loved sanding, painting and gluing!

BYU Football Smash Book

How is your New Year going??  I hope you are feeling energized and ready to tackle your resolutions, for those of you who make them.  (Despite this bitter cold most of the U.S. is experiencing!)

I love the idea of writing things down and keeping records.  I have been an off and on journal keeper since I was a young kid.  It is a blast for me to look through photo albums, school papers, scrapbooks, journals, baby books...and I am always so proud of myself when I actually sit down and take the time to write.

For Christmas this year, I decided to make a journal smash type book for my aunt and uncle who are huge BYU football fans!  I mean, they have season tickets - and they don't even live in Utah!  They brave weather, crowds, traveling long distances - all for their beloved Cougars :)  And I wanted to help them remember their football fan adventures.

This would also be a great project for those of you who have a resolution to keep a journal or write down snippets of some aspect of your life this year.

So, here's a look at a bit of their book.