Post-Valentine Blues - with Green on the Horizon!

Roses are red, violets are blue, Valentine's day is over - boo hoo hoo.
I love Valentine's day. We had a great day this week with lots of love shared around the family. I made a giant Coca-Cola valentine's box out of an oatmeal container for my 7-year old, heart shaped ham sandwiches for my 2 year old's preschool party and t-shirts with a heart doily stencil for a teen mom friend of mine's two daughters. My hubby got me a box of Godiva's and some beautiful flowers. What more could a mom want? So, now that the romance is over - what's a crafty dreamer to do? Go hunting on craft blogs for ideas to celebrate St. Patty's day, of course ;)

My husband is of Irish descent and I am of Scottish descent - so it's fun to celebrate our European heritage with the kids. Last year I made a leprechaun trap out of an oatmeal container for my older son - it looked like a top hat with lots of shiny coins on top. I'll be trying to "top" that (pardon the pun) this year!

Time to put the kettle on for some tea and inspiration...

Heather

Singin' in the Rain

I found a cute rubber stamp of a young couple under an umbrella on eBay. It reminded me of the wonderful feminine dresses worn by the characters on Mad Men - my latest TV show addiction.

I decided to use the stamp as the focal point for a valentine card after seeing a similar one on another craft blog. At Michael's (my version of the candy store), there were adorable coordinating paper packs in the dollar section, so I snatched up a red and black pack with plaids, floral patterns and sheet music. I also picked up some coordinating ribbon and heart embellishments. I happened to have some plain white cards from a previous project and used a tape runner to adhere the paper and ribbon to the card. For extra punch, I used a red twistable crayon to color in the umbrella stripes and the flowered skirt and pumps. (Every girl should have a pair of red pumps! Unfortunately, I don't.) Voila! Singing in the Rain - a valentine for my hubby. On the inside, I will write "Come rain or come shine - you'll always be my valentine!" (By the way, the L-O-V-E blocks on my mantel came from Hobby Lobby last year.)

Bisous!

Je T 'aime Valentine's Day

Ahh, how I love Valentine's Day. In fact, it is probably my favorite holiday - even over Christmas. I especially love the Parisian flair you can bring to crafts celebrating this charming time of year. I recently made this clipboard using a dollar store clipboard, scrapbook paper and embellishments. It makes me dream of Paris - which I got to visit years ago on a business trip. I took my mom with me and we had such a wonderful time visiting le Musee d'Orsay, le Louvre and le Pompidou.  We also had tea and macarons at a delightful tea room near the Paris Opera house and visited Versailles. How I would love to go back someday!

Bisous! (Kisses!)

Don't Worry, Be Happy :)

TGIF!

I did a devotion for my MOPS meeting today. I love reading a blog written by a friend of mine who is a life coach - Merrill Frailey - http://www.justmerrill.com/ - she had a great one on 20 tips for a positive productive and JOYFUL New Year. Several people asked me to email it to them afterward, so I thought I would feature it here:

20 Tips for a Positive Productive and JOYFUL New Year

January 2nd, 2012

1. You can’t control everything that happens to you. – But you can control how you react to things.  Everyone’s life has positive and negative aspects. Whether you’re happy or not depends greatly on which aspects you focus on. Things change but the sun always rises. The bad news: nothing is permanent. The good news: nothing is permanent.

2. Zoom Focus.- Each day when you wake up in the morning ask: “What are the three most important things I need to do today that will help create the life I desire?” Then tune out all the distractions and focus on these actions.

3. Don’t look side to side to compare yourself to others. That is their journey, story and life. You have your own so make it a good one! You are the CEO of your life so run it on prayer and good choices. Then live out the unique story God created you to live in order to live out a bigger, better story for Him.

4. Instead of being disappointed about where you are, think optimistically about where you are going. Then use your energy, talents and time to get there!

5. Don’t make a problem bigger than it is. – You should never let one dark cloud of worry or fear cover the entire sky.  The sun is always shining on some part of your life.
6. Get more sleep and remember to play and pray more. – These things that we can never have too much of in our busy lives!

7. Teach and Learn – Mentor someone and be mentored by someone. Life-long learners adopt the ongoing posture of reinvention and redemption. It’s difficult to waste your life when you are humble enough to take time to teach and be taught!
8.“Do or Do Not, there is no try” Yoda- “I’ll try or I can’t…” almost always means “I don’t want to.” “I can’t or I’ll try” allows us to pretend that the choice to DO is not ours.

9. Don’t waste your precious energy - on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. Forgive, let go, put down and MOVE ON.

10. Remember there’s no substitute for hard work. So bring the best you into each day.

11. Implement the No Complaining RULE. Complaining is like throwing up. Afterwards you feel better but everyone around you feels sick.
12. You are not what happened to you in the past. – No matter how chaotic the past has been, the future is a clean, fresh, wide open slate. You are not your past habits. You are not your past failures. You are only who you think you are right now in this moment. You are only what you do right now in this moment.
13. Focus on what you have, not on what you haven’t. Focus on “Get to” vs “Have to.” Each day focus on what you get to do and are already blessed with, not what you do not have.
14. Best of my days….. Keep a notebook by your bed and each night right down just ONE thing that made that day good. Then each month go back and read over the best of your days.
15. Laughter is the best medicine for stress. – Laugh at yourself often, smile more.  Find the humor in life, it’s there. Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.
16. Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy? Set peace of mind and heart as your highest goal.
17. “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” When watching the movie The Help, I couldn’t Help thinking that if we used our words to uplift more the world we live in would be a better place. This isn’t a competition, it is life and we are all in it together, so let’s use our words and actions to encourage, love and uplift.
18. Know where you are headed- If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up somewhere you might not have wanted to go! Goals both short and long term are necessary for purposeful change.

19. Mistakes are important to make. – We’ve all made mistakes. Remember, failure is not falling down; failure is staying down when you have the choice to get back up. Get back up! Oftentimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.
20. The end is a new beginning. – Say to yourself: “Dear Past, thank you for all the life lessons you have taught me.  Dear Future, I am ready now!”  Because a great beginning always occurs at the ending of something. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Also, for our craft we did a yummy hand sugar scrub. I found the recipe on eHow.com: 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of a "fresh rain" scented oil I found at Hobby Lobby in the soap making section. We put the mixture in Ball jelly jars I picked up by the case at Wal-Mart and embellished the lids with a square of cute cotton fabric I also found at Hobby Lobby. These will make great gifts for teacher appreciation week this spring! I'm putting the scrub in a basket along with a pair of comfy spa socks from Michael's ($1) and a votive candle with a sheer ribbon tied around it. I'll also add a journal covered with a pretty scrapbook paper like the one I featured in my last post.

Time to get the baby up from his nap...have a relaxing weekend!

Resolutions and Advice

I've been a volunteer mentor for a Teen MOPS group for almost two years. Last night, we heard a great devotion from my friend Amy. It was about resolutions and advice - and how God takes care of us even when we are wondering -- or worrying about the past, our present circumstances or our future. In a nutshell, "Let Go and Let God!"

We went around the room and heard everyone's resolutions and advice. Here are 12 notable ones for 2012:

1. Love people and use things. (Not vice versa)
2. Stop and think before you speak/jump into something.
3. Keep your head up - don't let anyone ruin your self esteem.
4. He won't change - no matter how hard you try to change him.
5. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to get where you need to be.
6. Never stop learning.
7. Don't sweat the small stuff.
8. When you make a mistake, "fess up" before your boss tells you what you did wrong.
9. Never burn a bridge you may someday have to cross again.
10. Don't let people take up free rent in your head.
11. Learn to let go of things you can't control.
12. Listen for opportunity - it's always out there.

Afterward, we made journals to write down our blessings during 2012. Easy to do - just buy little spiral notebooks from the dollar store, cover/mod podge with a pretty scrapbook paper and add embellishments. Add a ribbon to the spiral if you like and - voila!

A bientot :)

Rouladen!

Aunt Barb, 6 years ago with my oldest son. How I miss her!

One of my favorite childhood holiday memories is of my Aunt Barb making Rouladen - a special German dinner. My Aunt used to have German friends who gave her the recipe and she passed it down to me.
My hubby decided to surprise me and bought all the ingredients to make this fabulous dish last night. The house was filled with a savory, smoky smell and it brought back cozy memories with my dear Aunt.

Basically, you take a beef tenderloin, split it and stuff it with cooked bacon, dill pickles, chopped onion and brown mustard.  Roll the meat up and tie it with a string, then marinade it in red wine, salt, pepper and garlic. Next, dredge the meat in flour, sautee it in butter and bake in a 350 degree oven for an hour. Use the drippings as a base for a savory gravy made with some cornstarch. Serve with potatoes, asparagus and a nice green salad.

What meals bring back special memories for you?

Futurama

Blast off for 2012!

Take me to your leader!

Happy New Year!

Time to celebrate the new year! 

For New Year's Eve we had a quiet family night at home, but I wanted to make it special for my boys. I decided to go with a "futurama" party theme with lots of spacey decorations and crafts.  To help set the mood, I decorated the chandelier with silver tinsel and pink and purple slinkies as well as some pink and blue  stars. On the kitchen table, I made a table runner out of some white easel paper so the kids could decorate with crayons, markers, stickers and stamps. I even found little robot crafts and toys for the boys to play with and they loved them! For our party noisemakers, we filled empty water bottles with confetti, colored ribbon and jewel-toned jingle bells. We added robot stickers to the outside of the bottles too.

My oldest also enjoyed sipping a special kiddie cocktail just for him - sprite, blue Powerade, grenadine syrup and a maraschino cherry. For dessert, we had cupcakes and chocolates.

My favorite part of the evening was our dance party contest -- I took lots of video of the little guys boogie-ing to KC and the Sunshine Band and will post it as soon as I have time to edit (during my youngest's nap time!).

May 2012 be a great year for you filled with blessings!