Valentines Decor

With it being the first weekend in February, I thought I probably ought to get some Valentines decorations put up before I miss the holiday completely. 

 Besides, what else did I have to do today while waiting for the Superbowl to start?

I started by painting the frame black.  The frame I picked up at Goodwill for a little over a buck.

 I got two of them actually. 

 The paint was "donated" by my father.

Then out came my Cricut to pop out some hearts.

Thought I should lay it out with copy paper before I used my cardstock.

When I figured out how everything was going to fit together, I just glued them on a white background.

 Here is the first one .

And here is the second one.

This one almost looks like it belongs in Kennedy's room.

( Dont mind the discoloration on the heart. It is just my reflection)

No More Coat Clutter

Since winter has arrived I have discovered something our new home is missing.

A place to hang our coats. Sure, we could hang them in our bedroom closet but that 

would mean walking through the mudroom, the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom to get there.

Way too much work for some. So my kitchen chairs have been covered with this clutter.

I just couldn't stand it anymore.  I thought about it a couple days and came up with an idea.

I told Superman that I needed a board and gave him the measurements. 

Didn't really matter what kind.  Didn't have to be fancy.

He went to the lumber yard and picked this out of the scrap pile for me.

Scrap is cheap.  I can work with that.

First I put a coat of stain on it.

Then, while it was drying, I got out my Cricut  and started cutting out letters.

That took a while.  I had a hard time deciding on font and size but 

I got it figured out.

I glued the letters on with a coating of Elmer's glue.

I just needed them to stay on long enough to apply some Polyurethane.

Actually I applied 4 coats of it.  Didn't want the letters to peel off ya know.

 Last but not least, I picked up some hooks at the hardware store and screwed them on.

And taa daaaa. No more clutter on the kitchen chairs.  

Waiting for a Miracle

Many years ago my son, Christopher, met a girl at school named Lauren.  

He insisted that she was just a friend for a while. 

 Then he admitted that she was, in fact, his girlfriend.

I actually liked her. 

 I told a family member that is was such a shame that she was his first love. 

They usually don't work out which was really too bad because they would have beautiful kids.

But then, they got engaged.  

I was lucky enough to go with him when he chose this beautiful ring. 

Luckily the jewelry store also gave out free kleenex because it made me cry a little bit.

They had a beautiful wedding, of which,

 I have no pictures on this computer of so we are going to fast forward a bit.

After a while God decided it was time for them to be parents.

So, ready or not here she comes.

On Friday December 20th she went in to begin her induction.

So they got settled in and the waiting began.

And more waiting.  

Yes, Chris really is in there.

Here are the Grandma's waiting.  

And yes, Kennedy will call us each a different name.

Here is some more of the waiting

We were pretty laid back.

Cousin Mason and Jarrod were waiting.

Jarrod was so excited.  

We know because he told us many MANY times.  He said

 " I'm so excited!  I'm going to be her cousin but kind of like an uncle. 

 I"m going to be her cuncle. I'm so excited!"

Here is the full fledged Uncle. Aaron and his pretty girlfriend. 

And after waiting and waiting and waiting. 

She was finally there.

And my blue eyed boy turned into a Daddy.

And I cried.  She is perfect.  And just look at that hair.

Mommy kisses are the best!

I am pretty sure she stole Granny's heart before she was even born.

She fits in perfectly  as one of my girls.  

Hope I can get them all together someday.

Gram just can't take her eyes off of her.

Just how can you not love that sweet thing!

Mad Scientist

After searching Pinterest for a simple crafty Christmas gift idea

 I decided lip gloss/balm would be perfect for the freezing winter months. 

I looked and looked but I just couldn't find one with the perfect formula.

So, crazy me, decided to create my own.

So I gathered my ingredients through out the state of Wisconsin.

(I also added some Vitamin E but I forgot to include it in the picture)

I measured out the ingredients and heated them up like this

The end product was this plus a few other flavor/scents like candy cane, butter rum and strawberry.

Looks simple enough huh.

Well it wasn't all really that pretty.  Here are a few pictures of the process.

This is a mix that I actually ended up throwing in the trash.  

The colorant(a.k.a cheap lipstick) I used just wouldn't mix and it was settled in the bottom of the jar.

Here is one of my many spills.  

And let me tell ya, oils and wax are not easy to clean up!

And as with most of my crafty experiments, 

when I was done I questioned whether is was high quality enough to give as gifts.  

As, usual I decided "negative".