Mother's Day gifts, 2013

I found this idea while looking through the ads one Sunday morning. Old Time Pottery had these advertised for $8.99. Not a bad price but I knew that I could make one and decided that it would be a great Mother's Day gift for the grandmas (and of course I had to have one too!) This project took a while to do, not because it was hard but because the wood soaked up the paint so quickly, I had to paint things 3 times to make them look right! I bough the wooden plaques at JoAnns, with Qpons. Painted each one in colors that coordinate with decor in our homes (mine will hang in my "Irish" kitchen, hence the bright green). I used a Sharpie paint pen to write on the wood, once all of the paint was dry. I'd thought about cutting out letters with my Cricut and doing a Mod Podge thing but decided against that - way more work than I wanted to do! We used Crayola Washable paint for Ryann to put her hand and fingerprints all over. Once dry, we used a spray varnish to set it all. (I always use varnish on wooden projects but with the washable paint on this one, I wasn't sure if I could use liquid varnish and didn't want to mess it up!). Then, with super bond glue, I added the metal clips (these are magnetic, found in the stationary section at Wal-Mart). The ones that I saw in the ad had 3 clips on them but I thought that made the plaque too crowded - gotta have room to hang up Ryann's handy work (pun intended) =)

Monogrammed Burlap wreath

I don't spend tons of time looking through Pinterst (because I don't have tons of FREE time) but I do enjoy looking at ideas, even if I know that I'll never have the time to make them! This idea, however, I wasn't able to get out of my mind! I didn't follow any directions from Pinterest. Not exactly. I used a metal 18" wreath - it has three 'layers', slots to put things in. I bought burlap ribbon at Hobby Lobby (I ended up using 1 whole roll and about 3/4 of a second roll). I tucked the ribbon through the wreath, alternating top row, bottom row, pinching the burlap at the bottom, wrapping the bottom of the burlap with floral wire to hold it's shape and then wrapping it around the wreath to hold the loop in place. Some tutorials called for cutting the burlap and making separate loops. That seemed like way too much work to me! I kind of made this up as I went along. Much to my surprise, it was symmetrical when I was finished!!! After lots of though, I decided that burlap doesn't need any decoration. It kind of says it all just by itself. I DID see lots of monogrammed wreaths on Pinterst and loved that idea! So,yep, I bought I wooden "F" (for Fischer) on sale at Hobby Lobby and painted it with teal paint, adding varying sizes of circles that I painted in chocolate brown and Papaya orange. My mother in law used a darker teal/blue to do some shading around the "F" to make it stand out against the burlap and to give it some depth. (I found a metal flower to hang on my front porch that had these colors in it, I wanted to tie the 2 together, kind of matching the colors of the brick of our house). I LOVE how this wreath turned out! I normally change my wreaths for the seasons but I think this one will be hanging up year-round, at least until I get tired of it! =)

Ryann's new door plaque

While pregnant with Ryann, I made things to hang in her room or to sit on the dresser, etc. A lot of the things that I made had a princess theme, which I was so in love with because we were having a GIRL! As she has gotten older, I am starting to think about child rearing more and more (obviously). The media has helped me (or hurt me, not sure which, yet) in that I see how women are perceived, how celebrities get berated for being "overweight" and how much pressure is put on appearance, etc. This bothers me on so many levels! While I have always said that Ryann is OUR princess, I certainly don't want to put the pressure on her to BE a princess! I started thinking about this a few weeks ago and have totally stripped her room of anything that says 'princess' on it. I want her to grow up to be independent with self-confidence and a sense of self worth. Does this make a difference right now with her being only 2 years old?! I have no idea. Though I don't know that I want to take the chance and find out. She now has a canvas print that says "Always remember that you are loved" and a print by Emily McDowell that is a quotation by Eleanor Roosevelt that says "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent". The door plaque that used to be on her door said "Princess Ryann". I painted this plaque from Michael's and used chipboard glitter letters (they already had adhesive on them but I painted wood glue on the back of them to make sure they'd stay on). I found this little owl a while back and bought it because I thought it was cute. The paint job on it was rough. I repainted this one to match the color scheme of her room.

Another simple thank-you card

Off and on, I have been selling some things on eBay. To add a personal touch to the orders when I ship them, I make a thank you card to add in the package. This one is cute and was super simple to make! I found some cards in my stash that already said "thank you" on them, in silver. For this card, I just added some paper flowers with brads in the center and there you go! Not everything handmade has to take hours to make!!! I have gotten some nice feedback from eBay customers about how much they appreciate getting a hand written thank you card.

Wedding gift and card

Some of our friends got married in March. This is the card that I made for them - I embossed the stamp of the couple with some metallic purple embossing powder to match the purple for their wedding. Their gift was a set of personalized wooden utensils from www.personalizationmall.com. I just left the utensils in the bag that they came in and added a cute bow around the handles.

An owl of a different color

Lately, I have become obsessed with owls! Mostly cartoon-y ones but owls, none the less. I have been slowly changing the decor in my bathroom to include owls. Knowing that, James's cousin and MY friend gave me this adorable 1980's (??) owl as an "Easter gift". While looking around in the stores, I have noticed that most home decorations these days are mono-chromatic, which I really love! I decided that this little guy belonged in my bathroom but certainly not as he was. SO, I found some spray paint that I liked and gave him a makeover! Yes, he now lives on the counter in my bathroom. He is has so much personality and I just love how he turned out!!!!