Farm Window Re Do

Years ago, I ordered an old farm window off of ebay. Since then it's served many purposes and has been in many places of the old house that we lived in. It came painted white and I put old photographs in it. Then I painted it brown and put it on the plant ledges we had in our old house. I decided the brown looked like doo doo brown and so I painted it black and hung it in the foyer near our front door and put a picture of Dale and I on it. It also looked great for Halloween.
Then we moved to the house we are in now. Poor thing had to go upstairs because I couldn't find a spot for it downstairs. I hung it in a hallway that leads from the loft to my office and there it has hung sad, lonely, and sorely neglected.

You will have to excuse my horrible pictures. I left my "nice" camera at my parent's house and so I used my pocket digital. Not the same.
I tried hanging a sign on it to cheer it up but it still looked bleak and boring.

So I began thinking of what the heck I could do to it to spruce it up and I thought of numbers on the panes. Apparently, putting numbers on things is hot right now and I decided to participate in the trend.

Visually, I think putting numbers on things looks really pretty but if I really think about it I say to myself, "Do I really need the number of window panes that I have counted out for me?" Then I decided I don't care because it looks cute.
You may notice the lack of number 7. It's because the window came without that pane. It's vintage and authentic, you know. Either that or the seller busted it and claimed it was found that way. Whatever, I think it gives it charm. I think to fill in that gap, I will find something cool and hang it in that spot.

Anyway, if you have a desire to put numbers on something in your home that you could easily count out yourself but want to add visual enhancement to it here's how I did it:

First I printed each number in the size I wanted it to be on the panes.
Then I put carbonite paper with the carbonite side facing the glass under each number.
And I taped the paper to the glass to keep it from moving around and I traced the outline of the number onto the glass using a stylus.
The carbonite paper left on the glas what I had traced and I then filled the numbers in with black acrylic paint using itty bitty paintbrushes.
It took awhile using these brushes but if you use bigger ones, you won't be able to paint very detailed numbers. It was kind of painstaking and I had to do a couple of coats but I think the result was worth it.
I'll post another picture when I find something cool for that empty spot.
I realize I could have ordered vinyl numbers but that would have cost money and I had the paint, paintbrushes, and carbonite paper left over from another project. Free is much better.

I think numbers would also look great on plates, on picture frames, above doors, bins for organizing, etc.

Anyone else have any fun ideas for numbers?

It's Awesome To Be Five

Rex-a-saurus turned the big 5! The morning of his birthday he was running back and forth across our loft to see if he could run any faster and punching Dale to see if he could hit any harder. I told him I had never seen him run that fast or hit that hard and he said "Mom, I love being five."

Rex really is a cool little dude. He always gives me compliments and hugs and smooches. He can read short words and write his name. He's awesome on his bike and rides like the devil on his Razor. He loves loves loves his little bro. He has to know where Gunner is at all times. I can tell he's itchin' for Gun boy to get bigger so they can play together. He has a kindness for others that always amazes me and makes my heart melt at times. And I hate to admit it but sometimes he beats me at Mario Kart. Sometimes.

Because of his birthday, he got to fill out a poster about all about him for preschool. We had it up on our fridge for a few days before he got to take it to class and I would catch him staring for a really long time at it. He asked me a couple of times if he could take it in the van with him when we ran some errands and if he could sleep with it. Finally he got to take it in and show it off. He couldn't have been prouder.
I had to take a close up of it to show you his family portrait.
I love how he draws people. And the figure on the far right is baby Gunner. So awesome.

For his party, Rex told me he wanted a Transformer theme. We invited some friends over and had an easy low-key party. It turned out to be great fun!
This Optimus Prime was soon blown to smithereens:
My sis Magi made yet another great looking and great tasting cake! I'm digging the mosaic theme on it!
Check out the transformer face:
So I thought it would be cool to have some blue and red (transformer colors) food for the kiddos to munch on. I attempted to make blue and red rice krispie treats and this was the result:
More like a pink and turquoise. Really odd looking, huh? Not quite Optimus Prime colors. Although I'm pretty sure I replicated the exact colors of most weddings in the late 80's and early 90's.

My blue Energon Cubes turned out great though!
Rex had a great time blowing out his candles and opening his gifts:

Then it was time to head over to the park for an epic water balloon battle! I handed out masks for the kids to wear to help them feel more like super cool Transformers but all it did was block their vision and make their throwing horribly inaccurate.

My girlies can still look cute in boy masks though:
The battle begins! Autobots roll out!
I love this shot of Ella trying to get Tabby:
Dale said "You better run boy!" and then launched a balloon at Rex:
Dale with a rather mischievous grin on his face:
After the battle, the kids spent the rest of the time playing at the park while the grown ups hung out. That's my kind of party!
I love this boy so much and I'm so happy he's my rad little dude! Rex, you are the coolest 5 year old I know!

March Card Club

For our card club meeting in March, our theme was birthday. I chose to make a card for a girl and I'm really proud of this one because I didn't go out and buy anything new for it. I only used stuff I had already. It's not my favorite card I've ever made but I was happy I didn't spend a dime to make it!
I like the "3D" butterflies!
Here is what I got in return:
Some of my faves:
Shenise used an old calendar for the pics on her cards:
I appreciate a good boy card. I've tried to make masculine cards before and found I wasn't very good at it.
While I was making my cards, Tabby found little scraps and bits around my office and made her own cards. I think they are really good! A girl after my own heart!
Unfortunately, when I wasn't looking Ella got into my stuff to try and make a card too. Ella making a card equals total destruction. And a lot of wasted glitter.

Gunn Boy is 8 Months

My little hefty boy is 8 months old now.
Don't you just love all of his squishies?

Time really does fly. Gunner is really an amazing little guy and I feel so blessed that he is mine.

He's done all sorts of really cool things with his life since I last posted about him. He can sit up now, he has 2 little toofies and two more are almost in. He hardly makes a fuss about it though, being the sweet little guy he is. He can't crawl yet but he has mastered the belly spin. It really is funny to watch him try and figure out crawling though. He thinks if he kicks his legs hard enough, he will go somewhere. Not quite, Gunner.

I have also reached a milestone. I just moved Gunner out of my bedside crib and into his big crib in Rex's room. I know, I'm crazy. 8 months is a really long time to have your baby sleeping in your room. But you know how everybody has a little bit of OCD? Mine is checking on my kids and making sure they are breathing. It all started when Tabby was an infant and was diagnosed with a heart defect. It wasn't anything super serious but it was still hard for me to put her to sleep every night so I would go in and check on her at least 5 times a night. Even after she had her corrective surgery. So I guess you could say that's what started it and now I have to check on all my kids every night. Especially the babies. So I figured it would be easier for me to check on Gunner when he was right beside me. At least I wouldn't be having to get out of bed a bunch of times. But I have gotten better control of it now and since I've moved Gunner into a different room, I only have to check on my kids twice before I fall asleep. I've successfully reduced my craziness a good amount.

One last milestone to tell you about. Or show you rather:

New Blog

My headband store has it's very own blog now. Awww, so grown up!

Check it if you want:
http://gimmiethatheadband.blogspot.com

P.S. I know it looks like I'm way full of myself because I'm just about in every one of my headband pictures. I must get another model!

A Great Story

We had an amazing thing happen to us and I feel like it would be a waste if I didn't share it. It's way cool. Here' goes.

So it's no secret that Dale and I are poor. Run out of groceries poor. Not all the time. But that does happen from time to time. As it does with lots of people. No biggie.

Anyhow, regardless of our bank statement, we have always paid our tithing. No matter what. If you are unfamiliar with tithing, it's what we pay to our church each month. You can read about it here. Many times already we have experienced the blessings of paying our tithing. I believe that when we pay our tithing in full, we will always be taken care of. And we have been. Every time.

Including this past Monday.

I feel like I need to add a disclaimer here and state for the record that Dale is the most hardest working man I have ever met. He is and has been determined to provide for his family. Our financial shortcomings are no fault of Dale's.

Anyhow, this past month has been a particularly hard one. I balanced the account on Saturday and saw that after we paid our tithing (which we pay first) there would be a meager amount of money left in our account. We also needed to buy groceries as we were totally out. Well of course I would pay the tithing but then I remembered that it was fast Sunday. If you are unfamiliar with what fast Sunday is, you can read about it here. I thought about fast offerings and asked Dale if he thought it was like tithing where you paid it no matter what or if you had nothing to pay, you skip it that month or pay it later. He said he wasn't sure and we decided to think about it.

While driving home from church on Sunday, Dale said he felt prompted that we needed to pay our fast offering along with our tithing. This would make our balance go negative but we both agreed it needed to be paid. We felt that if we had faith and paid our tithing and fast offering, the Lord would help us cover the rest of our expenses like groceries, gas, etc. So we paid a generous fast offering that afternoon and said lots of prayers. We spent that night feeling like everything would be okay. We even came across this article in our Ensign magazine. If you don't know what the Ensign is, it's the magazine that our church sends out every month.

So the next day is Monday and Dale goes into work. Right off the bat, he meets up with his boss. There was a management position open and Dale planned to ask his boss for it. Dale's boss then tells Dale that for some reason he had been thinking about Dale all weekend. Also, he says that had been thinking about offering Dale the promotion and Dale coming right up and asking for it sealed it for him. He gave him the promotion on the spot.

Miracle. Straight up miracle. Dale has been wanting and praying for a promotion for a while now. It's not a coincidence that it happened right after we showed a huge amount of faith in paying our tithes and fast offerings.

I'm not sharing this to toot our own horn about Dale getting a promotion or anything like that. To me, this is an amazing strengthening experience that I really felt like I should share with everyone. The Lord knows us and blesses us. He loves us. He will never let us go. If we show faith, the Lord will deliver miracles.

Malachi 3: Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Lamp Re-Vamp

I have two of these floor lamps in our family room and always thought they looked quite blank:

I've been wanting to dress them up for a while but couldn't decide on what to do. I thought about adding beads and fringe and bows but didn't like anything I tried.

Finally, I came up with something. Here is what I ended up doing:
Flowers! I love them!
Best thing about it? It was free! I already had all the materials. I used black satin ribbon for the sash, black satin fabric cut into strips for the flowers, glue and felt.

I thought about doing different colored flowers and maybe using fabric with a pattern but decided that all black looked best against the stripes on the shade.

Now I can move on to obsessing about another part of my house.