A baby shower invitation

My sister is pregos with her first little girl and is due in May.  She's having her shower in March...in UT.  I'm in WA aka Boonville.  So to contribute and help with her shower that is being held at my other sister's home, I made the invitations.

I stuck with the pinks and greys since those are her nursery's colors.  I deleted the address and my personal email address.
Fonts used were The Only Exception & Walkway Bold.  Background paper from Soft Pink paper pack

I recently upgraded to Photoshop Elements 10 and love it.  I have Elements 5 before....I felt as though I were in the dark ages!

PS  Craftwell is back on HSN tomorrow!!  Times will be 10 am, 3pm, & 7 pm ESP.  There are going to be great deals on Craftwell products available for 1 day only!  The Consumer Electronics Show Innovations award winning eCraft will be featured on HSN hosted by Melinda Mckinsey!  You must check this out if you have been looking into getting an electronic die cutting machine.

10 on 10: March 2012

March is here!  Another month for 10 on 10!

breakfast show & tell.
shapes & colors.
morning chores.
favorite blanket.

morning brushing.

6 am play.

sunrise.

daddy/daughter interview.

almost done.

anticipating spring.

the "glamour" of real life.

I was talking to some friends this morning about the love/hate relationship we have with the internet, particularly about blogs and Facebook.  I've had this discussion before, many many times.

Blogs are deceiving because many post life's happy moments.  They then become ideal and perfect in our minds.  Then we start comparing our lives to their perfect lives.  Facebook is the same way.  People update great news, pictures, awards, ideas etc etc.

But you have to remember that THAT is not real life.  Everyone has problems.  Everyone has trials.  They just don't flaunt it online.  And that's fine.  It's their space.  They can do whatever they want.  I used to get really frustrated about that too.  A particular blog did this to me.  It was only after talking to friends & family of the author and even reading archives of said blog that she was imperfect.  It gave me a glimpse of the "behind the scenes" of "perfect" blogs.

So now, when I read a blog, I read it with a grain of salt.  Always.  If it seems they can do everything.  They can't.  They are probably neglecting their kids, their marriage is hurting, she hires a maid to clean the house etc etc.  So many things.

So in celebration of our discussion, here's first a story of what happened today when I went to pick up Emma from school.  Luke has this fabulous habit of running off when I tell the kids to get in the van.  Today, he chose to run down the neighbors driveway.  So I closed the doors and started driving away, telling him, "bye!!"  I was at the end of my driveway when I stopped and watched him run back down the driveway towards the van.  Once he got close, I came out of the car to get him.  Of course, he then started running away again.  So, being very motherly, I ran after him, yelling and trying to control the anger that was building up inside of me.  I snatched him up and gave him a few "light" swats on the behind.  I kept sternly telling him he needs to come to the van when I told him too.....5 bucks he'll do the same thing next time.  Argh, seriously, this kid.  Not the best "mom" moment, I assure you.

Next, i'm posting pictures what my house looks like right now.  Like right NOW.  These were taken about 20 minutes ago.
Just to show you that I DO NOT have my house clean all the time.   I only go around 2-3 times a day and do a quick clean up to tackle the mess.

This doesn't even cover my room, the laundry room or even the toy room...**shudder**
I think we are all doing what we can.  Let's not judge or assume anything.  Instead, let's help one another and be a bit more understanding. :)

DIY Family Home Evening Board

Don't you love when a project that you have in your mind goes according to plan and it turns out better than you thought?

Let me introduce you to what i'm talking about:

This is our family's Family Home Evening magnet board.  Each week, we get together as a family and do activities, treats, and a lesson.  It's a wonderful way to bond as a family.  My kids love it and look forward to Mondays.  I'll go into details later, but let's see how this baby was born.

Supplies Used:

eCraft machine

Fundamentals 1 SD card
Jen Allyson SD card

CutMates cardstock paper

hot glue

Shrink and Bake paper

Patterned Paper by My Mind's Eye

Alpha mini Stamps from Hobby Lobby

Modge Podge

I started with this.  It's a large print inside a wooden frame. I got this for free. 

Next, I grabbed some metal sheets I got from Home Depot and hot glued them onto the large mounted print that I popped out of the wooden frame.

Next, I grabbed some paper and started the design process.  I added some cut outs from the Fundamentals SD card.  Then I cut out a few more and started grafting some branches in.

 I used Modge Podge to get everything set.

After a hard night's work, my design was finally done!  I used some journaling spots from Joann's $ spot for the labels.  Cut out some letters for my title.  LOTS of leaves as well :)

See, each week, each person in the family will be in charge of spot: Song, Treats, Game, Prayer & Lesson.

So I used my Shrink & Bake to make everyone's individual name tags.  I cut out adorable animal shapes from both SD cards and colored with.

Followed the instructions and got some wonderful name tags!

 So I put on some magnets on the back.

Now we can alternate each week!

 

Here's my Kate helping me show off my latest creation :)

Then I put back into the frame.

 

Now it's on the wall, for all to see!  The kids are really excited to see what they get to do each week.

And what's fun is that they can play with the animals and board too!  I am probably going to make some more creatures for them to play with.

Do you like to do DIY redos?  I think i'm addicted!

This project is being posted over at the eCraft Blog too!  Go check out the wonderful creations we have there every day of the week!

DIY Bench from Head & Foot Board

My bench is done!

So back in May..(almost a year ago!) I picked up this head & foot board for FREE from a garage sale.  It was the last day and they wanted everything to go.  I took advantage....

Anyways, wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.  

It sat in our basement for months and months.  Come October and Joe had had it!  Our basement was turning into it's own thrift store.  I knew I had a problem at hoarding so we started de-junking the basement. This set was put onto the chopping block.  At first, I agreed since, seriously, when was I going to use this anytime soon?  So it was put outside.  But the thought of it being given away left me sad.  There was just so much potential!  So over Thanksgiving Break, I confronted Joe and told me I had a plan for this set and that I needed his help.  My plan?  Turning this into a bench for a large porch.

So somewhere on my computer, I have pictures that show Joe cutting up the foot board and screwing it onto the head board....but I can't find them.  But you can imagine and see how we did it.  We measured about 19 inches in on each side and cut the foot board.  We used some Long screws to attach them onto the headboard.  We then placed a piece of wood across the front to add support for the arm rests.

Then we went and cut up some boards to lay on top of the support wood for the seat.

Then we had our friends use their nail gun to nail those in place.  They also reinforced the seat by placing a  vertical board underneath the seat, as you can see in the middle in the picture below.
I also sanded then painted a pretty light aqua blue.

It looks wonderful on my porch.  I love love love it.  and glad it's done and outta my house :)

Linking up HERE.