Even though I haven’t even blogged about our kid’s sports fall season(s) yet, I thought I would share with you all a nice personalized gift idea that is great as a ‘thank you’ to your kid’s sport coaches.  Although keep in mind, the specifics/design of this idea can be changed for many other gift needs, and fitting for teacher’s (on a pedestal mug), Dads, teens, etc., Christmas or thank you gifts as well, as long as you have some kind of cutter machine, such as a Silhouette. You may consider some simple graphics, or the special occasion of the recipient.  The gift idea is completely customizable and suitable for so many

I hope you all had the chance to join us, for our Halloween Decor Tour, in which we shared with you all of the festive touches I made, to put a little Halloween in the air, indoors and outdoors!  The post tour naturally consists of a ton of photos, or else how else could I show you all?  That, and my small chit-chat, made the post plenty long enough.  So I promised to share how I made some of the decor, in a separate post in the Crafts & Creations section soon. And here we are.

All of the signage design work

This just may be the coolest and most fun craft, I have ever done with our kiddos.  If that wasn’t awesome enough, it is super easy, and it doesn’t make a mess either!!  I know, right? It’s perfect for kid’s birthday parties, scouts, camps, etc.  Our kids didn’t want to stop.  They even made a couple of shirts for their friends.  But all of you mothers, as we show you how simple this project is,….think outside the box, for yourselves, or other projects, too. I am!

All you need is:

& FEATURED Linkers !

Happy Tuesday, once again! Unless of course, it’s Monday Eve. Or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Because of course, we leave the party door open for you, hoping you’ll get to coming around at some point through the week, to link-up, and inspire us with your ideas!!  Sometimes, People are just ‘late to the party’. Right? We’ve been there. So we’d hate for you to miss out. Feel free to ‘bring a friend’

I find spring-time to be such a craft-inspiring season.  Although winter & spring has been taking turns around here in the past few weeks, I still like to think of it as just spring, as it should be.  Time for garden planning, enjoying the new warmer, sunnier days, and looking for those very exciting signs of spring.  They are popping up all around us, despite the occasional surprise snowfall!  With spring comes all kinds of cheery colors and symbols always associated with this season of new life.  It just makes me feel like crafting!

I used to be pretty good at watercolor painting, back when my days consisted more of illustrating than photography.  Oh, I was never, ever nearly as good as I wanted to be.  But I am even further from my painting aspirations now!

My struggle with watercolor painting has never been about lack of brush control.  It’s seemed like it’s been more about too much of it! The style of my art has always been realism.  To create an image and make it as real as possible.  Before turning more and more to the art of photography, I had spent many years doing 100′s of large commissioned pencil portraits of people, using photos as… (READ MORE......) | 3 Comments

With Palm Sunday almost upon us once again, we thought we would re-post this tutorial which we had in the Big Picture section last year, on how to make a nice cross for your home, with the blessed palms you bring home from mass on Palm Sunday.  We hope you find the instructions and photos helpful, and the craft enjoyable, in making a beautiful palm cross for the walls of your home.

First, take 3 sets of 2 palms each, and at least one good palm wisp.

In the area the… (READ MORE......)

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… (READ MORE......) | 9 Comments

He is Risen!!

We hope you all had a lovely and blessed Easter!  Our entire Triduum was so focused and beautiful.  We especially enjoyed the services and masses at our church throughout the Holy days, and our quiet Easter celebration together was  pleasant and relaxing.

Just sharing with you today some photos from our egg coloring tradition. Our family here LOVES to color and decorate eggs. We could do it every day.  It’s also one of my favorite things to photograph.

We will have more Easter photos to share tomorrow or the next day, but have a heavier than usual work week, so we just may not be so chatty until later on in the week, if we are disciplined.  … (READ MORE......) | 6 Comments