Thank you so much for all the positive comments and emails about my last post. I knew you would understand! This little mama bird seems to echo our sentiments…. don’t blink, they’re grown before you know it!
I did this little painting at a friend’s request and donated it to the charity auction she runs to benefit a school. If you would like to bid on the painting, please contact Cindy at Paper Crown in Oklahoma City at (405) 848-2389.
I know I use that phrase a lot. It’s a phrase I made up to remind myself of where I am in my life. I’m right smack-dab in the middle of the best part, the good stuff, the beautiful days. Today I was playing and doodling and coloring again at my dining room table (because, you guessed it, my craft (crap) room tables are completely covered in the stuff removed from the floor in order to vacuum). Both of my boys have been really sick, so it was a play inside day today. I always say I don’t really keep a journal, but I do journal things. Just not in any kind of a logical, organized way. This is what the writing on the page on the right says:
The dimples in their knees, the curvature of their faces. Sometimes, I find myself just soaking them in~ taking in their beauty, their sweet innocence, their smell and sound even. And then I feel that familiar swelling that all mothers know. It starts in my heart and works it’s way up to my throat and then pushes out of my eyes. That mixture of sadness, gratefulness, nostalgia, love and fear. Because I know that all too soon, this little moment will be a foggy memory, hard to recall. More like the memory of a dream. A flutter of time… when I was a young mother and my babies were small and silly and fresh. When, for that brief and beautiful moment, my babies were here, with me.
I’ve noticed lately a trend to be sort of flippant about motherhood. To talk about it as if it were an irritation, a chore, a frustration, a distraction. I’ve seen it on TV, read it online and in magazines, and listened to women chat about it. While I can totally relate to wanting to run for the hills when my kids are screaming maniacs, or wanting a MOMENT to not have to wipe a rear end or make someone a drink of water AGAIN, or wanting the ability to talk on the phone for 5 minutes without having to lock yourself in the laundry room because otherwise you suddenly have two monkeys who think you are a tree to climb; I cannot relate to this particular trend of being just annoyed with motherhood. And I don’t think most of you can either! I want us, we most blessed of all women, MOTHERS, to be more aware of the incredible gift we’ve been given.
We’ve received our children through birth, adoption, foster care, or marriage. However they came to us, we have them for a reason. None of us, NONE of us deserves our blessings. They are given IN SPITE of us, not because of us. And I just don’t want to waste a single second of time with these little ones. I do, I waste moments, lots of them, but I don’t want to. I am a jerk, I am imperfect, I have too many “lame mother” moments, but I really want to be better, better every day. So, now and then, I’ll share with you about my epiphanies in motherhood. Those moments where I was PRESENT in the realization of the miracle I was witnessing or involved in. Won’t you share your stories with me too? Funny, touching, silly, beautiful moments, even the “lame mom moments” and what you learned from them. How you do cope with the tug of wanting something for yourself but wanting to be the best mother for your kids. I would love to read them. Let’s start a revolution… one of tenderness towards, love of, and gratefulness for our children. Ok, revolution sounds a little dramatic, but you know what I mean!
After all, these are the beautiful days. I’m just sayin.
This one is for Andrea. It was her birthday yesterday. I already made her a different one, but I wasn’t really happy with it, too scribbly. You can see the other on her blog. This is my make-up one. I hope you had a wonderful birthday, sweet Andrea!
And I hope all of you dear girls have a great weekend. In case you didn’t know, you are a blessing to me. xo
Doodled this little framey thingy as a gift to Hope, who’s getting married soon. These are really fun. I’m thinking of doing a line of stamps or die-cuts or little cards/stationary with my little doodles (refined, of course). What do you think of that? Would it be something you would want? Is the stamp/scrapbook scene still hot or is it slowing down? Would you buy these kinds of cards? This is my pitiful attempt at market research, I guess… ha ha ha…. I don’t know, let me know your thoughts.
So I was able to add a sign-in page for my girlfriends as well as a hello page to the journal I showed you in my last post. I mailed it off to Lori this morning.
I’m spending the evening at the tee-ball fields tonight. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
When I was little, and my sister and I would play “house” or “dolls” or “barbies” or “school” or anything, my favorite part was setting it all up. Decorating the house, setting up a desk for school, making a nursery for the babies, etc. I didn’t really like the role-playing much, I just wanted to be the set designer! ha ha…. So, when Lori asked me to join her in a paper-doll round robin journal along with Andrea and Heather, I knew it would be fun. All the joy of setting up the dolls came back to me.
Here is my front and back covers. I was going to do a sign-in page too, but I think I’m out of time and will have to send it on without it. If I get really motivated, maybe I can do one tonight. I dunno, this tee-ball schedule is serious this year, I am at the ball fields 3 days a week!
Doesn’t she remind you of a 1980’s Debbie Gibson type? ha ha!
I hope you’re having a lovely day today, girls. I’m off to make lunch for the kiddos.
OK, this is seriously the EASIEST thing on Earth to do! I almost feel silly calling it a “tutorial” because it’s such a basic thing, all I’m really showing you is the supplies. Are you ready?
Ta-Da!
It’s wooden candlesticks and chipboard boxes from my local craft store! With one chipboard box and 2 unfinished wood candlesticks, you can make 2 pedestals. To use the bottom of the box, you will have to cut it down. Here is how I do that:
OK, so you have your two tops now. Turn them over and hot glue the candlestick right in the middle of the chipboard.
After it’s cooled, paint the whole thing whatever color you settle on. For mine, I used an antique white color. I also like to go over it with this pearlizing medium. I got this in the craft paint section, but off to the side. They also have a sparkle medium which my nieces love. Here you can see the difference in the plain painted one and the one that has the pearl medium over it. So much prettier with the pearl.
After it dries, it’s just a matter of embellishing. I simply hot-glued the ruffles along the edge, went back around with ribbon, then affixed some millinery and viola! You’re done. EASY PEASY!
Some tips….
*Make sure you choose boxes and lids that are as flat as possible, some of them can be kinda wonky.
*If you can’t find wooden candlesticks at your craft store, check Home Depot or Lowes. They have a section with small turned legs, etc, for use in making tables. Or, get creative, use risers for cake decorating, or maybe even a wooden dowel covered in wallpaper, anything that will give you some height.
*These are obviously not for use with food!
*The pedestals are pretty lightweight. If you find them to be hard to balance (especially if you make a double decker model) then you can get little wooden disc platforms (see first picture of supplies) at your craft store to glue on the bottom to create more width and weight. I didn’t use them on any of mine, but if I do a double-decker one I will.
*For the glitter covered stand, I simply hand-drew a scallop pattern onto thick artist watercolor paper from my craft store. I cut it and glued it onto the lip of my lid/top. After it dried, I painted the whole pedestal, including the scalloped paper border with silver paint. When that dried I covered it in white glue and poured silver glass glitter over it. My nieces think this one is the coolest.
*The velvet ribbon I used is from One Hundred Wishes. The little strawberries on some of the stands are not vintage, I made them myself. I was going to try to scan my made-up pattern for them, but I didn’t get around to it. But, here is one that is almost identical and you can’t go wrong with Martha!
So there ya go! I just had so much fun with these and I knew you would too. Show me pictures of what you come up with.
This one is the one I’m giving away! Leave a comment on this post or the Marie post before this one. I’ll randomly pick a name on Monday and send that person this ruffly little lady:
Hi girls! You may be reading on other blogs about the new publication from Somerset, aptly titled Marie. It’s a lovely magazine chock FULL of Marie Antoinette inspired art.
In this decadant magazine, there are several pages from a round robin that I was blessed to participate in with three of the loveliest girls I’ve ever met. The cool thing is this was an international affaire! Sweet Ginny is on the other side of the pond in England, beautiful Natasha is across the world in Australia, and Gorgeous Heather is a just a stone’s-throw-away here in the states. When we got all done with our beautiful books (which took like a YEAR!), Heather decided they were so special that she wanted to submit them to Somerset, who we were excited to hear was interested in publishing some of our pages. So off they went again, for another schlep across country to Somerset Studios.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…… (ha ha) Somerset had also been receiving other round robins with a Marie theme. They had so much Marie inspired goodness that they decided to do a whole publication devoted to art in her honor. So exciting! So I am truly humbled and grateful that our little round robin, which was a blessing in itself, was chosen for this beautiful publication.
In honor of Marie, I’ll be doing a give-away. I think I’ll give away a pretty pedestal all done up in Marie ruffles and millinery. So leave a comment here on this post or on the post tomorrow with the tutorial and if I randomly pick your comment, I’ll send you a pedestal worthy of a Queen.
If you can’t find the Marie magazine near you, ask your local bookstore if they carry it. I think my Barnes & Noble has them. Oh, and check out Natasha, Heather, and Ginny’s blogs for their give-aways too!
*all photographs courtesy of Heather Kowalski (thank you, Heather!)… I still have no camera! geesh! The cover art on the Marie mag is from dear Lori at Vintage Flair. Yay for Lori! The other photo is the beginning of our article and shows both Heather and my book covers. I would show you more photos if I had a camera, but you can visit the other blogs to see more.
Thank you girls. I’m borrowing my sister’s camera for the tutorial tomorrow, so give me a while. It probably won’t be up till late afternoon!
