Cutie in the Orange Hoodie

My sweet boy in his favorite hoodie sporting the angel choir boy pose. 

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One Little Word: January

As I mentioned before I am taking the One Little Word 2012 class at Big Picture Classes. Our prompts this month involved digging deeper and exploring our word with definitions, synonyms, and quotes. Below is my January layout.....

(click to enlarge)

Creating this layout and the class thus far has been fun and some really good "me" time.

I'm excited to see what February brings! 

Credits: Feathers Digital Scrapooking Kit by Just So Scrappy Too

Quote of the Week: Good in Everyday

"Everyday may not be good but there is good in everyday."

- Author Unknown

Weekend Wonders: The One with Valentine's

I've been thinking about what kind of Valentine's Noah will make for his classmates at school. Of course, I turned to blogs for inspiration. There are tons of cute and creative ideas out there. Below are some of my faves. 

Stitched Heart Bookmark

I love this little Valentine with a simple felt heart bookmark from Thirty Handmade Days. The "Your tops in my book" card is available on her site for free download. I think this would be great for tween girls who still want to give their friends a little something.

I Dig You

How adorable are these little shovels filled with candy over at The Fry Family blog.

Popcorn Valentines

These popcorn Valentine's at Duncan Team Blog are fun and cute! You can download the free printable label to make your very own.

Love is a Battlefield

This little toy army guy Valentine at Jacolyn Murphy had me chuckling.

Pillow Box Valentines

Kristi at I Should be Mopping the Floor shares two (a boy version and a girl version) cute free pillow box Valentines. Simply download them, cut them out, and fill them with treats.


Bubble Gum Valentines

Living with Three Moon Babies shares a free printable and a how to for these cute bumble gum machine Valentines.

Sucker for You

Shindig Parties shares this adorable (free) printable card. 

Write One Valentine

Purple Sage Creations shares this adorable Valentine. Just print the tags, tie it to a cute pencil, and you have a great Valentine for your child's classmates.

100 Valentine Sayings

Still need some inspiration? Check out this post at the C.R.A.F.T. blog. Jamie shares a list of 100 clever Valentine sayings.

I seriously could keep on going and going but will make myself stop before this turns into the longest post ever!

Tender Moments

It’s Friday – the day where I join other bloggers and take five short minutes to just write from the heart. Five Minute Friday is hosted by Gypsy Mama and this week’s prompt is TENDER. 

As a Momma I experience many tender moments and for each one I am so thankful.


Noah is often very sweet and tender hearted. He has this innocence and love about him that is just indescribable and qualities I really hope he never loses. He worries about other people  a lot, so much so that we watch what we say in front of him. For example, awhile back my Mom and I were talking on speaker phone and I asked something about a friend of hers that was about to have surgery. Noah had never met this friend of hers but instantly became concerned about her and then insisted that my Mom make her a blanket. (My Mom makes no sew fleece blankets and have given Noah many and he associates blankets with feeling bad, hospital stays, and surgery.)


I pulled a muscle in my back lifting Noah and he knows that my back is bothering me and I went to the doctor about it. Yesterday, he was being so sweet and tender with me. He kept gently rubbing my back, giving me “ouchie kisses,” and telling me to get under the covers.


I love these tender moments with my boy and tuck the memories away in my heart for safe keeping.

Easy No Sew Curtains

I made these curtains last summer when I was working on my creative studio but never got around to posting the pictures. Since the challenge is window treatments this week at The CSI Project I thought I'd take pictures and share.

So these curtains actually started with two top/flat sheets that I bought individually at WalMart for about 5 bucks each. They have a great selection of colors that are perfect for various projects and I obviously chose teal since the color scheme in my creative studio is teal, black, and white.

So to create a hole to run the curtain rod through, I just turned the sheets over and made a small slit on each side of the wide seam at the top of the sheets careful just to cut the back side and not all the way through to the front. Then you just run the rod through and hang it! It should look something like this......



It's seriously THAT simple!

They looked a little plain though and I wanted to tie in some black and white to match the rest of my creative studio so I had some black and white damask fabric left over from another project that I thought would work great to create a valance of sorts. I also grabbed some Stitch Witchery, black ribbon, and my iron and got to work.

First, I traced a bowl on to some cardstock. Then I cut it in half. I then traced a bunch of those on to my fabric and cut them all out. Following the instructions on the Stitch Witchery, I adhered the half circles to the black ribbon just slightly overlapping them and then I attached them to the curtain rods.

It was a pretty easy project and inexpensive and I'm pleased with how they turned out.

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Looking out the Window

I love how every morning my sweet boy heads to the window when it's too cold to go on the front porch to watch for the school bus.

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It's a Hard Life

The first time I heard the song Hard Life by Brad Paisley tears welled up in my eyes. It felt like the song was written for my Noahie. I made J listen to it the next day and he immediately felt it too.



The chorus says:
"Yeah, it's a hard life
But I'm okay
If I didn't have this, I wouldn't be who I am today
And I have lots of friends
Oh, and I have love
And yeah, I have a hard life but in some ways everybody does" 

The part about having lots of friends and love just about makes me do the ugly cry Oprah loathes. J and I have always said that although Noah may not be able to run a marathon or be the CEO of a huge corporation, he has already in his short life touched many people lives and he has SO many people that love him. Every time something big happens in our lives, like Noah's Scoliosis surgery last year or the recent grand mal seizure emergency J and I are always humbled at the amount of prayers, thoughts, and love shown to Noah and our family. People who have never even met me or my child in person have shown him tremendous love.

Not every person is lucky enough to receive the amount of love that Noah has in his life and I think love and kindness from others can make living a hard life just a little bit easier.

Quote of the Week: Creative Life

"To live a create life, 

we must lose our fear of being wrong." 

- Joesph Dearce

Weekend Wonders: The One with Valentine's Day Decor

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day? In the past few years, I have started doing a little Valentine's Day themed decorating. It's fun as Valentine's Day is also my man's birthday. I had planned to make a few new things this year but have been a bit under the weather lately with a cold and haven't had the energy to craft but am feeling better and think I will be able to do some crafting soon! In the meantime, I've been looking at the many Valentine's Day decor projects that are popping up all over the blogosphere lately. 

Here are a few of my faves....

Love Blocks

I love these fun, cute blocks over at Six Sisters' Stuff. 

Love Candles

These love candles at In the Loop are so pretty and elegant.

Paint Chip Banner

How cute and fun is this paint chip banner at Twigs and Twirls!

Red Wreath

I love this vibrant red wreath at A Little Tipsy. And would you believe it's made out of crepe paper!

Love Sign

I think this simple sign at Thrifty Decorating makes a big impact. 

Love Note Pillows

Days of Chalk and Chocolate created adorable Valentine pillows with a hand written "love note."

Framed XO

Momma D and Da Boyz created this cute framed "XO" seed bead art.

Heart Wreath

I love this heart wreath made out of red burlap at I Heart My Glue Gun.

Conversation Heart Art

While I think they taste like chalk, I had to include something with those quintessential Valentine's candy, conversation hearts and this convo heart art at Wonderfully Made Pursuits is too cute.

Vivid Memories

It’s Friday – the day where I join other bloggers and take five short minutes to just write from the heart. Five Minute Friday is hosted by Gypsy Mama and this week’s prompt is VIVID. 

I have vivid memories of my childhood. Although it took me growing up to realize it, I was blessed with two amazing parents who gave my brother and I every opportunity they could.


I remember summers at my Grandparents house, trips to Disney World, football games, birthday parties with amazing cakes made by Momma, slumber parties, movies on Christmas Eve, astronomy club meetings with my Dad, and so much more. I carry those memories with me now.

I hope that I’m providing Noah with the same type of childhood my parents provided me with. I hope he has vivid memories to carry with him as he grows. 

Crafty Goals for the New Year

I was laying in bed the other night trying to sleep but my brain wouldn’t stop thinking of projects that I wanted to accomplish. I thought it would be a good idea to get them down on paper.

Gallery Wall – I want to create a gallery wall on a wall in our living room. I’ve been pinning different gallery walls (like this one or that one) that I like for ideas of placement and I’ve been collecting frames for a good 6 months now. Now, I just need to choose photos for the frames (that’s the really hard part!) and paint all the frames the same color then enlist my darling husband’s help to get them all hung up.

Old Window turned Picture Frame or Coat Rack – My Mom’s sweet friend, Miss Lainey, gave me an old window. I have wanted one for awhile so when Miss Lainey asked my Mom if she had any use for an old window, my Mom told her I had mentioned wanting when so it became mine. It is now sitting on my back porch waiting for me to show it some attention. I haven’t decided if I will turn it into a coat rack similar to this or use it as a picture frame similar to that. If I turned it in to a coat rack, then I’d have to rearrange some furniture in order to hang it near the front door and that seems like a lot of trouble just to have a spot to hang something but we shall see what I eventually decide.

Re-Vamp an Old Mirror – My Mom recently told me I could have this gorgeous old mirror that is hanging in one of the spare bedrooms at her house. It originally belonged to my Grandmother and was green. When my Mom acquired it years ago, she painted it dark brown. It does need some love, like a fresh coat of paint but it has some beautiful scrollwork at the top. I am thinking of hanging it in our bedroom and painting it a light shade of teal that matches some of the other things in my bedroom. Although my Grandmother hated blue so I don’t think she’d be happy to see her old mirror painted teal so I’m also considering cream which an accent color I have used in our bedroom. Either way, I may attempt to distress it a bit. I have never distressed anything before and I personally don’t typically like the look of distressing but thought it might be nice on this mirror since it is old. And if I do distress it and don’t like the end result I could always start over.

Faux Organic Bloom Frames - I love the look of Organic Bloom frames but do not love the price. I want to create some similar for my studio.

What crafty goals do you have for 2012?