Sometimes, I like to plan arts and crafts for my kids.  I’ll have an idea, or see some great crafts project in a magazine or online, and we’ll do it.   But whether I plan arts and crafts or not,  it still happens in this house, and all over this house, every day.  The kids sure don’t need me, to come up with creative ideas.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say, that their wild imagination tends to venture further than mine does.

I try to keep the school room stocked with art supplies at all times, so that the kids can get creating any time it strikes their fancy to.  But… Continue reading

So it was almost the end of January, when I put up our ‘winter themed’ fan pull.  Because, I had to make it first!  Next year, they will all be up right on time, because they’ll all already be made.   But for this little craft-session, I also made February’s. A LOVE theme of course.

We’ll look at the winter one first.  This one we’ll probably use maybe in late November, if it has snowed, and maybe the first week or so of December. But then we’ll be having our Christmas fan pull up for the rest of December.  The winter one here will go back up for the month of January, and maybe early March until it feels like spring.  Unless of course I make a… Continue reading

I already shared the beautiful Advent Calendar Michael’s mother gave us for Christmas, and mentioned in that thread there were a couple of other hand-made gifts she sent us as well.

One is this apron she made for {A}.  When {A} talked to Grandma on the phone on Christmas Day, {A} said, that Grandma said, that she was inspired by our gifts to them last year, including their aprons.   She rather enjoyed making gifts too!  We rather enjoyed receiving them, and they mean a lot to us.

She took an already made apron, and ‘made it her own’.  (And then gave it away. lol). She added the cute… Continue reading

My mother-in-law/Michael’s mother/(the kid’s grandmother, if you are not catching on to who I am referring to yet..lol), seemingly got quite crafty this year, and we surely benefited from her doing so, in the way of wonderful gifts this Christmas!

A package full of goods arrived from Florida in early December, but there was one that we were instructed to open right away.  So we did, and I literally gasped, and naturally, because I am becoming more of a sap with each passing day in my older years here, teared up.  I guess I kept saying, “Oh my gosh….I LOVE that!”….because Michael said, “We KNOW Honey.  We HEARD you.  You LOVE it!”  lol.  He loves it too.  We immediately started discussing where we could hang it.… Continue reading

The other day,  I found myself gazing at this tiny,  intricate, beautiful little ceramic egg, that I spontaneously hung from our fan pull in our sun room one day, quite awhile ago.

I wondered why it never struck me as a little Easter decoration until then, and how it really didn’t look quite right hanging there, the way it was.

It bothered me a tad more, when I realized Christmas was really coming very soon.   I needed to do something about the egg, hanging there.  I had a little more time on my hands than I have had for the past few months… Continue reading

Meet Michelle McCarthy Manteiga, owner, and sole designer of Stitch a Wish Designs.

Michelle has been sewing for many years, but only started her business last spring.  Since then, it has grown quickly in that short amount of time!  The name of her business is reflective of the fact that she loves to custom design specific items for her clients, upon their request.  Whatever they are wishing for, she thrives on the challenge to be able to create it!

Today, she has a web site from which online orders come in from all… Continue reading

This is a fairly easy craft project where you can create some really beautiful jewelry for kids or adults.  Depending on the materials you use, you can really get all kinds of styles using the same concept.  Also, keep in mind;  it may only be August, but Christmas is really just around the corner!  Especially if you like to hand-make some of your gifts to give, as we do!   We’ve made these as Christmas gifts before, and they were very well received!  So this may be a great idea for all or some of the little girls and ladies on your list.  Or, maybe you’d like to add to your own accessories!  The pieces we… Continue reading

Well, how was THAT for a quick game??  Who knew we had such a smarty pants in the house? : )  JODI from New Beginnings, guessed correctly with Clue #1.  {A} and Michael created a chipmunk house, with the 2 cd houses.

Here are a few more photos of the project in progress, from the first photo (being shown again):

At this point in the last photo, the house was not quite done.  It still needed the plexi sliders on the front,  plexi sky-lights,  plexi over the… Continue reading

As I’ve mentioned, with swim lessons every day, and home school reporting still being done, we’ve had little extra time to do much crafting. I’ve actually got a bag of supplies for a project, right here next to me!  But no time to do it. And anyway, no camera to photograph it if I did right now.

So we thought we’d have a little fun here.  Just a little filler, and a little something to save us all from having to look at that 4th of July craft right there all of the time still.  It’s sad really. We did that at the end of June, and it’s August now.  So anyhoo…

Here’s the deal.  Take a look at the photo below…….

I saw this craft somewhere online I think.   I thought it was a great one for the kids to make,  so they could have a little something to make some ‘joyful noise’ at  our various  celebrations  coming up for America’s birthday!  Living in America’s Hometown, our town most always has a huge, big long 4th of July parade through the heart of our downtown area.  But this year, there will be no parade, due another exciting event their holding. (Which is even more exciting, and we’ll be sure to document and share with you when the times comes.)    Anyway, my point is, if there’s a 4th of July parade in your town, your kids will love having… Continue reading