Sarah Jane Studios

By Karen Brown

I have long been a fan of Sarah Jane Studios. Her artwork is beautifully done with the slight vintage vibe I am drawn to, and gorgeous color!

She has recently added some children’s prints to her collection that would be perfect in a nursery. Don’t they just make you smile? What I may love most is that they come in both boy and girl designs, several skin colors and even different languages to choose from.

In addition to nursery artwork, Sarah Jane has some more grown-up, but equally inspiring prints you can download for free here and here.

I would love to have these hanging in my home...such good reminders! Check out what Ashley Ann did with hers. So very creative!

Jesus-Centered Easter Traditions

By Jessica Floyd

I have an 18 month old son and a little girl on the way. As Easter is approaching, I am thinking how I want to make sure my kids will know the story of Jesus and not just the Easter Bunny. I have to admit, that I love all holidays and I am a sucker for Santa, elf mischief, the Tooth Fairy, Leprechaun tricks, and the Easter Bunny. I think it is all fun, but not at the expense of my children not knowing about the true meanings of religious holidays. I know many families who choose not to celebrate with Santa or the Easter Bunny and I respect that choice absolutely. I think for my family we would like to have Santa and the Easter Bunny visit, but we want the main focus to be on Jesus!

I came across this blog, which is full of fun ideas and activities to do with children at Easter time that reinforce what Easter is supposed to be about. My son is probably too young this year for a lot of the activities, but I look forward to doing them in the years to come! My favorite is number 5!

Photo via We Are THAT Family

School for the Arts

By Karen Brown

If you are local to Boston---and looking to get your family more exposure to music---this is for you.

REUNION is kicking off its School for the Arts next week. This is an amazing opportunity for your kids (and you) to take some great classes and workshops at really affordable prices. They are offering private lessons in drum, percussion, violin, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, and piano. And the teachers are top notch...lots of Berklee College of Music grads. My son is taking drum lessons and as excited as I am for him to learn to play an instrument, I am equally as excited for him to spend some time with Christian guys that are fantastic role models---and are men that he really looks up to. They are also offering kids dance, theatre, and preschool music lessons. Adult workshops are coming soon and will be in special interest areas like photography, Photoshop, creative writing, and the like.

You can check out the School for the Arts website for more details and registration information.

No bake energy bites

By Karen Brown

Source: smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com via Karen on Pinterest

 

My kids love sweet treats and most anything we bake together.  I still feel like we are coming off the sugar high of the holiday season though.  One thing we are trying to improve on as a family is fueling our “temples” with healthier food choices.  I found this recipe via Pinterest recently and we have been making these No Bake Energy Bites quite a bit.   The kids really like them and they are super easy!  And since the ingredients aren’t all processed carbs, I don’t feel nearly as guilt dishing these out as after school snacks.  Be warned though, they are completely addicting!

Beanies and Bags

By Karen Brown

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, you know how much we love Craft Hope. You can read about previous projects here and here. Craft Hope is all about creating and distributing love and hope in the form of handmade items to those in need.

This next project is for the littlest warriors...kids fighting cancer. Craft Hope is collecting beanie hats and bags for kids to wear and take on hospital visits. Hats to keep their little heads warm and bags to bring goodies in to occupy little ones time during treatments. Any kind of beanie hats and any kind of bags will do. You can get as creative as you want. You can even fill the bags with surprises like stickers and such.



For Christmas, my daughter received an upcycled beanie hat made from old sweaters. She has hardly taken this hat off since she got it. I can imagine that she would really love it if together we could make some more hats like hers for these kids battling for their young lives. I can imagine her picking sweaters that she would love to wear as a hat. (I heard somewhere recently that this is a great time of year to shop thrift stores since many people are cleaning out closets for their new year’s resolutions.) My boys would even like picking fabric for bags to sew up for other little boys and choosing gifts to fill them with.... fun bandaids, Matchbox cars, and stickers. My three year old hardly goes anywhere without a bag or backpack filled with “treasures”!

The deadline for this project is March 12th. You can read more details about where to send gifts here. Drop us a line in the comments if you plan to participate. If you’re in the Boston area and would be interested in getting together with others to create, let us know that too and we’ll put together a party.

A quick Google or Pinterest search should give you some inspiration and tutorials. Here are some of my favorites

via Noodlehead

via I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar

Here’s a no-sew bag embellished with fabric paint and freezer paper stencil, via Twoellie. For instructions on freezer paper stencils, see here.

Via Twoellie

ruffled welcome

By Marianna Whitson

This wreath has been pinned on my Pinterest board for quite some time, so I was excited to actually make it.  I originally found it on Design*Sponge and thought it looked really cute.

Since we're making an effort to spend more time with people this year (and less on gifts), I thought it would be fun to add a new Christmas decoration to our home.  A fun welcome for people when they arrive for dinner (or drinks or a football viewing).

Felt again for this project. The tutorial called for 2.5 yds (!) of felt, but I think I only ended up using about 2 yards.  I guess it depends on how full you want your wreath.  And I had what I thought was a great idea to add some wintry blues to the all-white wreath, which ended up being, as my husband put it, "a little too crafty." And I agreed, so you'll noticed that the blue disappears by the end of the project.

This project was a definitely more expensive than the felt garland, but not crazy; I was able to get the felt on sale, too.  You'll need the felt (2-2.5 yards), pins (enough for each circle which turns out is A LOT!), a 12" styrofoam wreath, scissors, circle template, pencil (i used a disappearing fabric marker) and a scrap of ribbon.  I made it in about 3 sittings, and it seems like it took a really long time, but easy, kind of mindless work.  It would also be an easy project for older kids to help with since there's mainly tracing and cutting involved.

First, I created my circle template out of an empty cereal box. I wanted something more substantial than paper, but not as heavy as cardboard.  I used a random candle stick base to trace a ~3" circle onto the paperboard and then cut it out.  Easy peasy.

After that, it was on to the circle tracing.  I folded my fabric in half so that there'd be 2 pieces for every circle I traced and cut.  I did the tracing several rows at a time and then cut them out.  Traced a few rows and then cut.  It was better for my tired hands to vary it at least a little.  Once it seemed like I had a decent amount - aka towers and towers of wobbling felt circles - I decided to start pinning them onto the wreath.  I didn't want to waste supplies and time and effort cutting out more circles than I needed.  Plus, again, it would give my hands something different to do.  

Each circle is folded in half once (to make a semi-circle) and then in half again.  You stick the pin through the bottom corner to make the "rosettes."  I wasn't really sure how to arrange them on the wreath, but I just sort of eyeballed it as I went.  Once I had a batch pinned in, I went back and fluffed them a little, moving and re-arranging where necessary.  

It turns out that the towers and towers of felt circles only covered about half the wreath...back to tracing and cutting and pinning (repeat repeat repeat).  Once I made it all the way around, I gave it a once-over again, fluffing, moving, re-pinning.  



For the hanger, I originally just cut a strip of felt instead of using ribbon, but decided that ribbon would probably be sturdier.  And seeing as the wreath is a snowy white, I didn't want it falling onto our dirty porch.  So I replaced the short felt strip with some scrap ribbon I had leftover from another project (you can't see it so it doesn't matter what color it is - mine is pink!).  One thing I did do was make sure that the 2 pins holding the ribbon into the wreath were angled up when I pushed them into the foam, just in case they were thinking about popping out, it seemed slightly more secure that way.

Whew!  Turned out pretty cute if I do say so.  One other thing that I thought would be cool to try is an ombre color shift...but that's probably a little ambitious!

using an Advent Jesse Tree to Celebrate Jesus at christmas

By Katharine Grubb

photo from: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/11/free-jesse-tree-advent-devotional-book/

I’m a stressed out Mom at Christmas time. I often am tempted to overlook the importance of Jesus’ birth. And if I’m neglectful, then my children will miss something meaningful.

To add meaning to our holiday season, over the last few years, our family has created a Jesse Tree advent calendar. Not only do we count down the days until Christmas, but we also read and reflect on the history of mankind and the need of a savior.

The name Jesse Tree comes from a prophecy. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah tells the discouraged nation of Israel that they will have a future king who will be their salvation.

This is what the NIV says in Isaiah 11:
1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; 
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

The idea of the Jesse Tree is that its a way to simply and concretely introduce the idea of Jesus’s birth as an Old Testament fulfillment. A Jesse Tree has 25 symbols, one for each day of the month. The first symbol is about Creation, the later symbols depict Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and all of the Old Testament pillars of faith, including Jesse, the father of King David, who is a direct ancestor of Jesus.

A Jesse Tree in your home can be a branch with a small ornament hanging from it, one for each day in the month of December. The ornaments depict the symbol of each one of the ancestors of Jesus and the forerunners of our faith.

At our house, we didn’t have room for an actual branch. Instead, we cut out 4”X4” squares of paper and drew a picture of the 25 symbols on each one. Then we taped the paper around a doorframe in our dining room. We’d read the passage associated with that day, and, as the month progressed, so did the artwork and the discussions about why Jesus came, how Christmas is about all of mankind, not just for December 25th. As our children have grown older, they’ve come to anticipate the Jesse Tree as an important element in our Christmas celebrations.

Links for more Jesse Tree ideas, artwork to print and scriptures to look up, try these links:
ERIErcd
A Holy Experience 
Jesse Tree
CRI Voice

I’ve found that there is a bit of inconsistency on these sites. This isn’t a major church doctrine, it’s just a fun tradition, so there is no right way to do it. Like everything you do in your family, choose how it can best fit your needs to add meaning to Christmas.

Gift Idea: The Coupon Book for Grandparents

By Katharine Grubb

My parents and in-laws do not need more junk. The don’t need more clothes, nor sweets, nor the latest gadget (although they have fallen in love with their iPad). What they need this holiday season is more quality time with my children. So for Christmas one year, I made them a holiday coupon book.

Fortunately, they are close enough for us to be together on a monthly basis. So I made a coupon book with twelve coupons, one for each month of the upcoming year. Each coupon was decorated with the foods we planned on eating and pictures of us enjoying our time together. This was pretty simple and nice for me, the non-scrapbook type of mom.

January: Eat beef stew and watch the Patriots in the playoffs.
February: Spaghetti and meatballs and Valentine’s celebration
March: Homemade pizza and board game time
April: Pack a picnic lunch and go to Drumlin Farm to see the baby animals
May: Pack a picnic and walk through Arnold Arboretum
June: Grammy’s birthday celebration!
July: A cookout and a trip to the zoo
August: Beach day picnic!
...You get the idea...

This was a huge hit. We made an extra effort to schedule the events, but we also walked in grace, so when Grampy was sick, we just picked it up the following month.

This was fun to make, fun to plan and fun to enjoy all year long. And we took lots of photos to make it even more special.

thanksgiving garland

By Marianna Whitson

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

I cannot believe that it’s the week of Thanksgiving. Where did the year go? We were planning to have family up from the South to celebrate the day, but, as things sometimes go, those plans fell through. So instead, we are going to be giving thanks with some friends from our church community.

Boston is such a mix of people from all over the country and from even farther away; a mix of people who have always lived here, who plan to stay for a while, and who are just here for a year or two. It is inevitable that there will be many without family around them this week. So, extend an invitation for Thursday’s meal; share a post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich this weekend; or be especially thankful if you are able to be with your family. Because family isn’t just who you are related to by blood, but who you spend your days with, who you relate to and who you connect with in spirit.

To make things a little more festive for our gathering, I decided to make a Thanksgiving-esque garland. I first saw this idea on Design*Sponge, but altered it for Turkey Day. It took me about an hour to do 18 pom-poms. You can totally adjust the number and the spacing based on where you’re going to hang the garland and what floats your boat.

I chose six fall colors of felt – it was on sale in pre-cut rectangles, four for $1. I already had the kitchen twine (a nice natural color), embroidery thread, scissors and a needle. So, yes, this was done for under $2. So cheap!

I started by cutting my felt length-wise, some with three strips to a sheet, others with four to a sheet. I then folded the strips in half and cut fringe down each side, leaving about a quarter-inch in the center. I folded them in half because it made this part go much faster! I tried two different fringe widths, and ended up liking the thinner fringe better. But play around with it! There’s no right or wrong way to go, and nothing has to be exact.

Once the fringe is cut, roll the strips up. Once the strip is fully rolled, thread the needle and stick it through the center of the pom-pom, leaving a good length of thread behind. I then stuck the needle back into the same hole it originally went in through, wrapping the string around half way as I did that. Once the needle was through a second time, I used the string lengths from both ends to wrap around the pom-pom several times. I then tied the two ends together securely. Do not fluff the pom-poms yet! *Although the original post says to tie a knot in one end of the string and tie it onto the garland, I found that it was easier for me to do it this way.

Once all the pom-poms are tied off, cut off some twine – the length you need plus some extra. Tie the twine around a pom-pom – I just used a regular knot. You may have to twist the pom-poms around to get the knot to lay flat. Continue down the twine until it’s as full as you want it. Once all the pom-poms are on there, then you can fluff them, separating the fringe pieces and ‘encouraging’ them into a rounder shape.

tie them all UNFLUFFED first

then fluff!

Advent Conspiracy: For the Ladies in Your Life

By Emily McKenna

So, you are all excited about advent conspiracy. What now? Here are a few ideas of homemade gifts that are doable for almost any level of DIYer. Proof? I have made each of them and I am no expert. You can do it!

HEX NUT BRACELET 

Friendship bracelets made a strong come back this summer.  In case you've missed it, layering numerous friendship-style bracelets is where it's at.  This is a hex nut friendship style bracelet. If you can braid, you can make this.

Check out the original tutorial on this blog for the basics, which I tweaked a bit to make what you see above. Instead of a three-strand braid I used a fishtail braid.  When I got to the hex nut section I switched to a three-strand braid.  Also, taping the ends of the strings/ropes makes threading the hex nuts much less frustrating. 

CANVAS TOTE

This is the best beach bag I have ever used.  It's huge.  There are so many colors of canvas and patterns.  Oh, the options.  The best part, though, is how fast it was to make.  Here is a link to the tutorial I used. 

REVERSIBLE TOTE

I like this bag because it has an interesting shape and you get two bags in one.  Here is a link to the tutorial and free pattern I used. 

A few tips:

1. Make sure the pattern prints to the correct size.  Mine was a little smaller than it should have been, which I realized after I cut the fabric.

2. I added a few inches of length to the straps after reading the comments on the tutorial I used.

3. I added pockets to both sides of the bag.

RUFFLE KNIT SCARF

Love me some ruffles.  I saw this scarf and thought to myself, "Self.  Don't even think about it."  Something about knit scares the heck out of me.  With the scarf calling my mother-in-law's name for Christmas and a craft night to boost my confidence, I tackled the scarf. Everyone in the room was surprised at how easy and quickly the ruffling went. If skills were bucks you would get a lot of bang for your buck with this handmade gift.  The embellishments took a little time but they really add to the ruffles.  I will be making one for myself.

Here is the link to the scarf tutorial.  A little warning: this specific scarf is a combination of three blogposts on the site.  She links to all of them but it's not all in a nice little package like other tutorials.  This scarf is totally worth the extra clicking, though. 

TRAVEL BAG

I made this travel bag for my friend’s birthday.  I was pretty intimidated when I set out to make it. (Zipper! Boxed shape! Lining!) It is surprisingly easy and quick.  It’s for an ambitious beginner sewer and up.  Here is the tutorial. 

Here is a short list of other awesome gifts for ladies that I are still on my to do list:

Braided Scarf 

Wrap Bracelet  
Braided Layered Scarf

Turban Twisted Headband

Freezer Meals: Save your Wallet and Your Sanity

By Melissa Nicholson

Have you heard of freezer cooking? It’s a great way for moms to save time, money, and their sanity. Freezer cooking just means cooking meals ahead of time and freezing them so it’s easy to defrost, cook, and serve later. Variations can include cooking once a month, batch cooking, or cooking parts of meals. The benefits include always having a home cooked meal on hand so you can avoid the “It’s 5:00, what are we going to have for supper?” fiasco! It also saves money by purchasing groceries in bulk, and you end up wasting less food. You will also end up eating out less often. You will have a more peaceful dinner hour because most of the work has been done already, including most of the dishes (major bonus)! It saves a lot of time and energy in the long run.

Photo Credit: SouthernLiving

Step one is to Plan it! You can choose to make a bunch of the same meal at one time to freeze or do 30 meals for the month, it’s up to you. Think about what is on sale? Stock up on meats throughout the month when they go on sale and choose the meal based on what you have on hand. Also think about what season it is: in the summer you will probably want to stock up meats with marinades for the grill or lighter meals and the winter is lots of soups and slow cooker meals. Think about things that freeze well too. Sour cream separates and don’t freeze whole potatoes. I also try to think of people that I would be bringing a meal to in the next month such as those who have just had babies and sick families at church). Once you have your meal plan together then you need to make your grocery list. You may need to shop at multiple stores to take advantage of the different sales. Write out every ingredient with its quantity and then go through the cupboards to see what is in hand. It’s important to write the quantity to add up because when you do multiple meals it’s easy to lose track of, for example, how many eggs you will need and just assume you will have enough. It’s really annoying to have to run to the store in the middle of a cooking day. When you have your list together, rewrite it in the order that you will find the items in the store. Remember to add things like gallon- and quart-size freezer bags and tin foil pans and pie plates if you will be giving the meals away or don’t have enough containers to store them in your freezer. It’s a great idea to go garage sale shopping to stock up on Tupperware so you’re not always buying disposable tins. Clean out and organize your fridge and freezer before you go shopping so you have room to put it all away when you get home from the store.

Step two is to Prep it! Do as much of the prep work as possible the day before your cooking day. Good things to get done the day before include: browning all the hamburger, cooking the chicken and dicing it up, chopping things that can be chopped in advance (green peppers, carrots, etc.) Onions are a good thing to chop on the day you put your meals together, though. Clear your counters of everything you can. Pull out the ingredients that don’t need to be refrigerated and place like items together. Set up an area for canned/boxed food, freezer bags and permanent marker for labeling, and an area for putting the meals together. Put the spices out in the area you put the meals together for easier access. Pull out every mixing bowl you own---you will be using and washing them multiple times. Decide on the order you will be putting the meals together. Put all the chicken dishes together in a row then all the hamburger meals, etc. Put a star by the items that will be needed for the meals, but that are not added yet (ex. Pasta that you will cook right before you have the meal) and put them away in your cupboard. This way you will not use it for something else and not have what you need the day you finish the meal.

Step three is cooking day! Get a babysitter or have Dad take the kids AWAY from your house for the day. Don’t try to attempt to make 30 meals with your children around. Wear good shoes; your feet and back will thank you! (I sound like your mother.) Start early; this will take the entire day. Put the meals together. Stop every couple of hours to clean up and wash dishes and have a cup of coffee. Have fun with it! Put on some of your favorite Christian music or enjoy the sound of silence. Don’t expect to feed your family on this day; you have enough work to do!

Other helpful hints: Many meals will require defrosting, so remember to pull out meals at least a day in advance and put in fridge. Double bag things because sometimes the bag will split open as it expands with freezing. Make between 25-30 recipes if you are going for a whole day of making meals. Exceeding 30 is almost impossible and you don’t want the food to go bad before you eat it. When making 30 recipes it usually makes about 45 meals because many of them you will split or double to make a few of the same meal. This will get you through about 2 months because there will be left overs you will eat occasionally and sometimes you will have meals out of the house for one reason or another. A good place to start is buying a book that is devoted to freezer meals but once you get better at it you can use your own recipes that you enjoy. Two great books are Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg and The Freezer Cooking Manual by Nanci Slagle.

You could make this more fun by getting together with friends to prepare meals or by forming a cooking co-op. (Example: 10 people form a group and each make 10 of the same meal, get together and trade meals every month). My 5 old college roommates and I do this every so often and it’s a lot of fun.

Remind yourself that this is a service of love for your family! A great verse to meditate on:  Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3.

The Collage

By Jessica Floyd

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

We are all artists, it is true. Have you ever noticed how most all small children love to draw, paint, color, mold clay, play with Play-Doh? They enjoy the creative process more freely than adults because they are not afraid of making mistakes. So what changes? In my experience in the art room, I can tell you that as children get older they start to compare their art projects to others. Peers might even tell them that their project is very good, or maybe even that it is not so great. Parents may not realize when their child comes with an art project that it is something they have worked very hard on and that they may be self-conscious about the caliber of their work. So how do we react as parents? Do we say, "Oh that is very nice honey," brushing it aside? Or do we celebrate their hard work?

I remember when I was in second grade I made this collage. It was actually for a backdrop that my group used for a class project. My dad had come up to school for open house and my teacher told me I could take the backdrop home. I thought it was trash; where would I put the huge 8x10 foot collage on butcher paper? I told the teacher I would just throw it away. Dad stopped me. He said it was beautiful and he would like to have it. He hung it up at his house on a wall for years. That meant the world to me as a little kid. As I got older and went to high school, my dad moved. I probably did not notice the first couple of times I was at his new place, but I went in his room to get something and the closet door was open. He had used my collage on the back wall of his closet. It looked a little roughed up, but there it was. I could not believe it. The same pride that I felt when I was eight years old lit up inside me. I felt so special that he kept my artwork that I deemed as trash for all those years. 

I went off to college and my dad got transferred to Memphis. He called me up and told me that he did bring my collage with him but it was smaller now because it got damaged in the move. I just laughed and told him that he did not have to keep that ratty old thing. I was majoring in art and promised to make him something new. But he told me he was going to keep it, that it was just going to be a little smaller, and that I should not worry because he had already taken pictures of it. He was telling the truth because a few years later on my 21st birthday I received a hand-made card in the mail. The inside of the card was filled with a collage of pictures of me and my Dad, and adorning the cover was a picture of my huge collage. Again, I was filled with pride that something I had created meant that much to my dad. He passed away about a year and half later. I do not really know whatever became of that silly collage on butcher paper, but I do know that I graduated with a degree in art.

As parents we have the ability to build up our children and encourage them. They are not all going to grow up and be professional artists, but they probably will want to pursue careers in areas in which they feel accomplished. In the art room, I noticed how a child feels about their artwork is not necessarily based on their artistic ability. Children with high self-esteem and self-worth may not be the most artistically talented in the class, but they hold their head up high and are proud of what they have created---and cannot wait to go home and show their parents! Likewise, the child with the best drawing may just assume it is not worth anything. So why is it important to foster creativity in our children? Creativity is not just slapping paint on canvas, it is problem solving. When children start to care about what others will think about their art, they can have a meltdown when they make a mistake. Part of my job as the art teacher was to pick up the pieces and show them that their work is not ruined. This is where even more creativity comes in. I would tell the child that even the most famous artists made changes to their artwork to make it better. In almost any creative project there are choices and decisions that have to be made and sometimes we make mistakes. Mistakes are OK. 

Try working on something creative at home with your child. Perhaps a scrapbook, a chore chart, or even an art project. If you or your child makes a mistake, don’t trash it and start over. Talk it through with your child and see what you can come up with to fix it. Problem solving is a wonderful attribute to model for your children. Instead of starting over or melting down, they can be confident and know that they have the ability to work something out. 

Her entry won first place at the county fair

We are all God's children. God is the creator of all things. Let us not forget that we are created in HIS image. We are just like a work or art. We may make some mistakes along the way as parents, as children, as friends. There is no blemish too big for God to repair within us, if we let Him. Thank goodness God is a patient artist and continues the work He started when He created us! 

Craft Hope: Sock Monkeys

By Karen Brown

Craft Hope has posted their last project for 2011. If you aren’t familiar with Craft Hope, you can read here and here, where we previously posted about this organization.

Craft Hope’s mission is “spreading seeds of hope one stitch at a time.” Project 15 is one I am personally excited about. For this project, handmade sock monkeys will be collected and distributed to children who lost their homes this summer in the devastating wildfires in Texas. Sock monkeys are sure to put smiles on the faces of kids who lost their special stuffed friends when their homes went up in flames.

A gift Owen and I made together for his cousin

My kids and I have been making sock monkeys together for a couple years. They are one of our favorite gifts to give to friends and family members for birthdays and Christmas. The kids really enjoy picking out the socks and button eyes to use and even help with stuffing the monkeys. This would be a great project to work on together as a family!

The deadline for this project is November 24th, Thanksgiving. Check out their website for further instructions and tutorials.

Embrace The Camera

By Karen Brown

Hey moms out there...do you take pictures of yourself with your kids? I know you take pictures of the kiddos, but what about YOU with them? Novel concept, I know. If you are like me, you don’t shy away from documenting your kids and all their happenings. You even have quite a few pictures of the kids with their daddy...at least on outings and special occasions. But as for pics with the mommy, those are a rare.

I have so many excuses for why I’m not in the shot. Someone has to actually take the picture, I didn’t get to shower today, we all have such cheesy smiles when we have to pose the picture...the list goes on. But, after reading this post this post on embracing the camera, I am inspired actually get in a few pictures with my kids and see how it goes.

I want my family to remember our times together as they grow up. I want them to remember that we were silly together, went on adventures together and cuddled on the couch together. I want them to remember that our family wasn’t always picture perfect (because that’s real life), but that we loved each other a lot!

Here are some quick tips for getting in the picture:

• Try the self-timer on your camera
• Shoot a picture into the mirror, or anything reflective, for that matter. Hold the camera waist-high if you can.
• Hold the camera over your head, or out in front of you
• Give the camera to someone else, dare I say a kid, if you have to
• If you have a Mac, try Photobooth

And if you’re still need some encouragement to jump behind the lens, read this and see if it doesn’t change your mind!

Someone else took this one of me and Aiden. 

Miles and I shot this one ourselves.

And someone else took this one of me and Owen.