Completed Fabric Wall

Finally a post! I’ve had this project completed for about a week now, but no time to write about it. Life is so busy! Making things and being creative is so life giving. Sometimes it is relaxing and sometimes I can get frustrated. When I start to get frustrated I just have to walk away from it and come back to it. That is what happened when I started on the art piece for my dining room. I knew I wanted to do fabric -covered canvases. I liked the eclectic feel of it and how simple it seemed. Well, when I started buying my supplies I really hated to buy canvases just to cover them up and not paint on them, so I decided to go with foam board. I had no idea how hard it would be for me to cut and get the foam board straight! If it hadn't been for my sweet hubs the project would have been all kinds of crooked. Plus with the foam board I had to attach something to hang it, which I just used twine. So, if you want to do this and save money then use foam board, but it might be more of a headache. When I started putting the fabric pieces on I hated how it looked. So I just had to walk away. After about a day ideas started coming and I knew each piece needed some kind of "accessory" on it. Here are some pics and description of the added accessories:

the finish product

the accessories on these two are from a stained tablecloth. I just very carefully cut out the lace. So glad I was able to reuse this tablecloth. i loved it so


this flower I made using this tutorial.

the little cluster of flowers are the same style I did for my fall wreath, so that was an easy one.

the top piece I just made some circle looking things with some coordinating felt in the middle. Nothing brilliant.

It took me some rearranging to finally love how it looked, but I am pleased with it now. It is much better than the bare wall I've had for over 2 months now. I've got more to share soon!

Off to Nan's house they go!

The kiddos are spending the night and most of Saturday with Nan, so that means Don and I are going out! Woohoo! Our dates always revolve around where we are going to eat. My husband and I LOVE good local food. Don is amazing at finding awesome restaurants. If you ever need a new place to eat ask him. He knows. And he will never point you to a chain. I think he hates them. We had planned on eating at Andrew Michael, but they were basically booked. The earliest we could get a table was like 8:30 and that is way too late for me and dinner. So we will have to try again. Our next choice was Acre we have heard great things about it and cannot wait to try it out. Then tomorrow we are going to do the Victorian Village tour personally I am way excited about this. I love old houses and history. Plus it is going to be beautiful day tomorrow. Of course we will miss Eden and Owen, but they will have a blast at Nan's and it will be a good refreshing time for us. Any yummy restaurant suggestions for us? Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Creating a "Family Plan"

I am about to reveal just how "type A" I am... because this is all about planning and writing things down. However, I have to give the family plan planning and initiating all to my husband it was his idea for our family. I love how he leads us :)

Almost a year ago Don came to me after he had listened to this sermon on managing your family and wanted us to create a family plan. Of course I was excited because I love lists and planning! I get all excited about calendars and writing things on them... i know that is rather dorky. Basically what it is is creating a mission statement for your family, making goals divided into different categories, and then planning on how to do them each day, week, month and year. This is our first year doing it so we have had some months were the family plan did not happen. Plus unexpected things happen and you just have to be flexible with life, but this is a great tool to help your family stay on track and focused. I am not going to share our whole family plan because it is 3 pages long, but just the basics of it:

Categories: Finances, Marriage, Family/Parenting, Outreach, Church Life
Then under each of those categories we wrote down the things that were important to us. Goals we had for each sections. Here are a few examples from each category
Finances: Maintain a monthly budget. Evaluate it as a couple. Live and give generously.
Marriage: Date night once or twice a month, Yearly getaway alone, Pray nightly together, Read 3 books a year together,
Family/Parenting: Daily family worship, Keep a family journal,
Outreach: Plan a monthly thing to do as a family to reach out to our neighbors and city
Church Life: Have someone over for dinner twice a month

The last Sunday of each month Don and I sit down and look at the upcoming month and we decide on who we want to invite over for dinner, when date nights are going to be, when family nights are going to be, what outreach we want to do. It is a great way to keep it all going. Like I mentioned before we are so not perfect at this. There are things on the family plan that we have never even done before, but it really helps.

Here is the audio and here is the blog to get the whole picture. Happy planning :)

The Fall Wreath is Finished!

For a few days I thought this wreath was going to have to be a Christmas wreath because it seemed to take forever! All those little flowers were a bit time consuming, but I am so happy with the results. This is my first Fall wreath to make, so I am sure they will get better over the years. I got the idea from here Check her blog out she has some super cute ideas. Anyone else finished up some wreaths for their front door if not you should make one. They are fun and of course they make your front door look cute :)

a close up of all those flowers