Spotlight on two local artists

The girls and I were perusing our local farmers' market last Saturday when we met one of our church friends there, at her booth! What a happy surprise. Anna and her friend Kori make beautiful aprons, oilcloth bags, stylish purses - all in fabric I drool over. Needless to say, I went shutter happy and clicked away (Anna had to tell the market personnel that she knows me so I wasn't hauled off by the scruff of my neck, heh heh):

{The artists, Kori and Anna}


{Their booth}


{Oh, the beautimous aprons!}


{Purses}


{Oilcloth bags}


Once they have more items up for sale at their Etsy site, be sure to grab yourself a thing or two!

More on purposeful parenting

I've been meaning to share this "Children See, Children Do" video on parenting for a long time. Each time I watch it, I am moved by just how much good (or bad) we can impart in our children. Take a look and let me know what you think. It's pretty raw, so here's a little disclaimer:



Thanks to Kathleen for unearthing this powerful video for me!

Big sister Amanda

This is the "fortune" that Amanda received from our Friday night meal. It marks the first time we heard her read off the entire message without asking for help. In astonishment I looked up from scarfing down my own fortune cookie, studying her winsome eyes. The funny thing is, I don't think I've really stopped to see this sweet gem of a girl in her entirety in a long time.

Is this invisibility the unnecessary price a little girl pays when she is a big sister?


This sweet girl with the broad, earnest smile is a pretty terrific big sister.


She loves sitting in the wagon with Abigail, watching the world together...


and leads her to endless adventures.

The problem is, she is too good at being the big sister. She even likes to act the part of a personal assistant at times, and a part-time nanny. She wants to write out the shopping list, and reads off the prices of products while grocery shopping. And she loves almost all the things I love. To this stay-at-home mom that sometimes lacks adult company, she is often times a good girlfriend!

I myself am the oldest. Of four children. And yet I often forget the weight of being the oldest. She is only five years old, remember? Let her be a child.

Note to self: parent with PURPOSE. Don't let the teachable, nurturable moments slip through the fingers because of self-serving reasons. Don't forget how precious this job is. And don't forget how precious your sweet eldest daughter is.

My first freebie - for you

::freebie::
I had the pleasure of hosting today's Tuesday Template Challenge at ScrapMatters, where I gave out a freebie. I wanted to offer it here too, in case you want to grab this template:


and a closer look at my layout:

Edited: Freebie is no longer available. Thanks!

::more layouts::

Here is one of Amy's party:


My two little ones:


And an introspective piece:


(As always, click images to enlarge)

"Happy birthday, America!"

That's what Amanda greeted me with this morning. We decided to celebrate with a special Red, White & Blue drink, which we saw featured in Family Fun Magazine. Love that magazine, by the way.

::Happy Birthday America Drink::

Cast of characters:

-cranberry juice (I bought the no-sugar added kind)
-blue Powerade
-club soda (the original recipe calls for diet 7up, but I refuse to give my children diet anything - bad stuff)

-pretty glasses filled with ice (the taller the glass, the more dramatic the end result)


Directions:

1. Pour cranberry juice in the bottom of the glass.
2. Carefully and slowly pour the Powerade onto the ice - this will ensure that the colors will not mix.
3. Pour the club soda/diet 7up onto the ice until the glass is filled.

The end result:




The judge's verdict:

"I give it two thumbs up, America!"

Abigail's world is shaken

We had a pretty strong wind storm blow through our area the other day. Everything outside was subjugated to a thrashing. When we went to inspect the damage, this is what we found:

Since this has happened several times before, and we've put the pieces back together with relative ease each time, everyone just shrugged their shoulders and prepared to work. But for Abigail, who spends each day in the playhouse, this was quite devastating to see.

This is her story.

....................................................................

"What? Something happened?"

"This could be pretty serious. I'd better go investigate. Could you please come with me?"

"Oh my. Oh my. My wonderful playhouse. What'll I do."

"I need to go help my big sister get it back to working order. I'm coming!"

"Why are you just standing there with that camera?"

"Really, we have work to do! It's a state of emergency!"

"We'll fix it. Together we can do anything...."

"Wait. Why is big sis sitting on her duff?"

"Where's she going?"

"Great, she's distracted with that gymnastics stuff."

"Can I get some help please? We have to get this playhouse back together!"

"Please help me - put that camera down."

"Who knows my pain? I guess I'll have to do it myself...."

Luckily, Abigail didn't overload because Daddy put the playhouse back together.

Our hero saves the day again!

Saying goodbye to friends, and a tutorial

This month, we said goodbye to a family from our church that really touched our lives. We shall miss them, but know that they are only an email - or a few plane rides - away. I had the privilege of making a little address book for them as a going away gift.

Here's a little tutorial on how to create one of these address books in Photoshop. I happen to be a CS3 user.

1) I opened a new 12"x12" document, and divided it into nine 4" squares using the blue guide lines:



2) Then I opened a new 4"x4" document. This is where I created each of the 18 layouts, flattened them, then moved them onto the 12"x12" document. I had two 12"x12" documents when all was said and done:



3) Be sure to save a .jpeg form of these layouts at this point. I took them to Costco to be printed. Once I brought the two 12″x12″ pages home from Costco, I cut them down to 18 indvidual pages and set them aside. I took the cardboard insert included in my prints envelope and cut them down to 18 4″x4″ squares, and painted the edges with white acrylic paint to give them a finished look.

4) I then adhered the photos to cardboard pieces with double-sided tape to make each page hefty enough to be handled without creasing. If you are concerned about acidity, you can use the Make It Acid Free Spray on the cardboard to do just that.

5) Using my trusty Bind-it-all, I added the coil and bound all the pages together. Voila!

The finished result:












If you get a chance to follow this tutorial to make yourself a similar project, I'd love to see it!