A Girl and Her Shoes

Funny how I can take 50 pictures {in 10 minutes} of my littles playing together outside and manage to fall in love with the shots of their shoes.

You can tell a lot about a girl by her shoes.

Enjoy the little things today {especially little feet}.

Happy Friday.

Our Formally Informal Easter

We had a lovely Easter.

My Husband's parents are out of town so they were not around to host this year's Easter.  Sad. We decided to offer up our humble abode to a few family and friends.

It was wonderful.

I had so much fun preparing the Easter favors and setting up our simple {but fun} Easter table.

We are pretty casual at our house, but we love hosting gatherings and I wanted this one to have a smidge of formality to it.  

I wanted us all to be able to sit at the table instead of spread throughout the house.  We don't have the room at our dining table for everyone so I improvised.

We have a folding buffet style table that I lugged up the stairs for our version of a formal Easter dinner.

How do you make a folding, plastic table look like a dining table?  You cover it up.

I don't have any rectangular table cloths since our dining table is round so I cut a strip of painter's paper and secured it to the table using tape.  I adorned the table with the adorable Easter favors I made and added a few crystal votive holders filled with an assortment of crayons {the grown ups were very excited to color on the table}.  To give it the final grown up twist I added each guest's wine glass.

Beautiful.

It was great that the favors were able to pull double duty as the centerpiece as well.

I made these potted beauties with dollar store buckets, potting soil, tiny strawberry starters, tasty chocolate mint plants and a glittery easter egg stake from the dollar store.

I wonder if the strawberries will have a hint of chocolatey mint freshness?

The lovely white backdrop brought to you by my trusty assistant, Maia.

I hope you had a fabulous holiday weekend!

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Monday: Crafts Keep Me Sane, Craftomaniac, Making the World Cuter, Skip to my Lou, Mad in Crafts, DIY Home Sweet Home, C.R.A.F.T., Cherished Bliss, Lines Across My Face

Tuesday: Not Just a Housewife, Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, My World Made By Hand, Cowgirl Up!, Chef in Training, A Little Tipsy

Wednesday: 733blog, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Gingersnap Crafts, I Gotta Create

Thursday: The ArtsyGirl Connection, Embracing Change, Delightful Order, 52mantels, Somewhat Simple, Live Laugh Rowe, Hating Martha, Crafty Scrappy Happy

Friday: Tatertots and Jello, A Little Inspiration, Addicted 2 Decorating, Whipperberry, Naptime Crafters, Thirty Handmade Days

Saturday: Six Sister's Stuff, Family Ever After, Be Different Act Normal, Too Much Time on my Hands

Sunday: Homemaker on a Dime, DIY Show Off

April Showers Bring May Flowers {Tongue Depressor Spring Pallet Art}

Here in Seattle our "April Showers" start in... well, actually, some would say our "April Showers" don't start in April because they still haven't stopped.

I would disagree.

Yes, it does rain here in the gorgeous Northwest more than it rains in many other places, but does it rain all the time?  Absolutely not.  We have amazing summers here.  Not too hot.  Not too cold.  Perfection.  But that is neither here, nor there.

Maia wanted to craft something up last week and there was a project I had been dying to try.

U-Create made adorable mini pallets using craft sticks and canvas.  Love them!  They've got a super easy tutorial {HERE}.

I knew I had a box of tongue depressors that my mother had brought over {she works in a doctor's office} many, many moons ago and those are basically craft sticks, right?

I have a few canvases in stock, but I wasn't sure how well this project was going turn out, so for this first go round we used a piece of cardboard.  Next time I will probably use a canvas or several layers of cardboard to get a thicker base.  I would also go with smaller dimensions in the future.

Cutting the depressors was an interesting task.  Pieces of those babies were flying everywhere.  Every time I cut one I told Maia to close her eyes.  My husband almost got it a few times, and he was in the other room.  Hey, I had warned him.

Crafting can be a dangerous business.

After I cut the depressors, I hot glued them onto the cardboard and then let Maia do her thing. 

I asked her to paint a person holding an umbrella.  

She decided on her own to add a few rain drops.  They were so cute and tiny and she was being so careful.

I walked away for a minute.  A minute folks.  When I came back I discovered that there had been a monsoon.  The drops were no longer teeny weeny, she was forcefully pounding the paintbrush here and then there and then there again.  All I could do was stare {mouth agape}.

Can you spot the little drops amongst the madness?

Oh, Maia, I love you.

You probably recognize the bouquet of coffee filter flowers I made for the mantel {HERE}.

I do adore the little splashing drops, don't you?

I haven't found the perfect place for this yet.  It was on the mantel.  Then hanging by the door.  Now it is back on the mantel.  Maybe hang it on the inside of the entry door?

Yeesh.  The decisions I am forced to make each day.  

Being a craftateer is not for the weak.

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Monday: Crafts Keep Me Sane, Craftomaniac, Making the World Cuter, Skip to my Lou, Mad in Crafts, DIY Home Sweet Home, C.R.A.F.T., Cherished Bliss, Lines Across My Face

Tuesday: Not Just a Housewife, Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, My World Made By Hand, Cowgirl Up!, Chef in Training

Wednesday: 733blog, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Gingersnap Crafts, I Gotta Create

Thursday: The ArtsyGirl Connection, Embracing Change, Delightful Order, 52mantels, Somewhat Simple, Live Laugh Rowe, Hating Martha, Crafty Scrappy Happy

Friday: Tatertots and Jello, A Little Inspiration, Addicted 2 Decorating, Whipperberry, Naptime Crafters, Thirty Handmade Days

Saturday: Six Sister's Stuff, Family Ever After, Be Different Act Normal, Too Much Time on my Hands

Sunday: Homemaker on a Dime, DIY Show Off

My Mantel is Finally in Full Spring

Spring mantels have been popping up all over the place in the last month.  So bright.  So cheery.  So fresh.

I love them.

Despite seeing all of the creative displays I wasn't feeling motivated to transform my drab mantel.

And then it happened.  

Sunshine.

It is amazing what a little peek at the big, bright guy can do to a person.  I was suddenly inspired and moving full spring ahead!

I got rid of the deep, chocolatey brown wall above my mantel, painting it a less "light sucking" color, Simply Beige by Sherwin Williams {same color as the rest of the living room walls}.

Oh the things a girl can accomplish when the little one is napping...

I haven't gotten around to painting the brick and mantel, they are still the yucky, dated brown color.  Thanks to the magic of photo editing I was able to take a peek at what a little white paint might do... I am in love.  I can hear the fireplace whispering "paint me" from every corner of the house.

I love my refreshingly simple Spring mantel.

The gorgeous bouquet was inspired by Little Birdie Secrets.  The flowers are made using coffee filters!  Beautiful.  Want to make some yourself?  Check out the quick, easy tutorial {HERE}.  I did not have floral wire or tape.  I used some wire out of the closet.  You can't see the sticks in this vase anyway, so no biggie.

I made the "Spring." bunting from paper doilies I found at Dollar Tree and letters cut from scrapbook paper on my Silhouette.

I ran a piece of twine through the doilies and tied them to two dowels I found in the closet.  To pretty up the dowels I gave them a quick coat of white paint and then wrapped them in yellow and white twine from The Twinery.

To keep with my yellow, white and blue theme I snatched up two baby blue buttons and attached the bunting to the dowels with those to cover up the knot.

To hold the dowels I dug out two small terra cotta pots and painted them white, yellow and blue.  I wasn't worried about terra cotta showing through so I just did one coat.  To keep the dowels in place I stuck a little square of floral foam in the bottom, jabbed the dowel in it and then filled the pot with river rocks to keep them from shifting.

The frame was a Goodwill find from long ago that I spray painted white.  The simple, elegant vase was a fellow Goodwill pickup.  I love Goodwill!

Lastly, the bunny was cut from scrapbook paper on the ol' Silhouette that I hung on the frame's wire using a mini clothespin.

Ta-da!


How pumped was I that I didn't have to run out to buy a single thing to do this??

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Monday: Crafts Keep Me Sane, Craftomaniac, Making the World Cuter, Skip to my Lou, Mad in Crafts, DIY Home Sweet Home, C.R.A.F.T., Cherished Bliss, Lines Across My Face

Tuesday: Not Just a Housewife, Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, My World Made By Hand, Cowgirl Up!, Chef in Training

Wednesday: 733blog, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Gingersnap Crafts, I Gotta Create

Thursday: The ArtsyGirl Connection, Embracing Change, Delightful Order, 52mantels, Somewhat Simple, Live Laugh Rowe, Hating Martha, Crafty Scrappy Happy

Friday: Tatertots and Jello, A Little Inspiration, Addicted 2 Decorating, Whipperberry, Naptime Crafters, Thirty Handmade Days

Saturday: Six Sister's Stuff, Family Ever After, Be Different Act Normal, Too Much Time on my Hands

Sunday: Homemaker on a Dime, DIY Show Off

**My entry into Strut Your Stuff sponsored by Appliances Online and the Bosch Washing Machines