Just a quick share of my fan pull for Spring & Easter.

These beads are so beautiful. They are heavy, like marbles, but smaller.

And just ….pretty.

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… (READ MORE......) | 9 Comments

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… (READ MORE......) | 6 Comments

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… (READ MORE......) | 1 Comment

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… (READ MORE......) | 3 Comments

{J} has been a very busy boy in the past few weeks.  If you were following our blog here back in March, you may have caught the post titled Fly Him To The Moon, which was about a solar system {J} made, and about how he is ALWAYS. MAKING. SOMETHING.  He is literally his own toy maker.  Here are just some of his creations as of late:

An I-Pod

This has got to be one of my all time favorites of his creations. I’m a music freak. He has SUCH a great imagination, that he has spent quite a bit of time, listening to his imaginary i-pod!  He has… (READ MORE......) | 5 Comments

I was wondering what my oldest daughter was doing out there in the driveway.

She was getting rocks together, to surprise us with our very own Rock Family. Ourselves, actually.

Left to right: Mama, Daddy, {A}, {J}, {O} and {S}.

I was taking photos before the glue even dried, and become transparent.  Sorry ’bout that.

It’s a little (well known) craft she saw in my very favorite magazine subscription: Faith & Family; The Magazine of Catholic Living.

It ROCKS, too.

For those who get this magazine, and are interested… (READ MORE......) | 7 Comments

The kids have been working really hard with their school work, and will actually be done with their formal work in just a couple of weeks.  So in preparing our hearts and minds for this Holy week, we decided to do some more lengthy study of the Stations of the Cross, and then get creative today and make a big Easter cross decoration for our Easter celebration come this Sunday.

There were really only 5 things we needed:  a very large sheet of window cling, lots of colored tissue paper, a sponge brush, some Modge Podge and a pair of scissors.

Honestly, there are times I wonder, just a little bit, if our kids are actually pioneer children. They truly enjoy the simplest of toys, games and activities.  We’re thrilled, because we prefer the simpler things in life, anyway! But I sure am glad that they, too, can find such appreciation with simple, simple things.

Such is the case with these little wooden toys.  We were in one of our very favorite stores.  Not the ‘mercantile’ in town (I would LOVE it if there was one!), but Michael’s Arts & Crafts, when we spotted these little wooden toy kits…..for a $1 each!  Now, as parents, we don’t get our kids something every time we go… (READ MORE......) | 6 Comments