Printable St. Patrick's Subway Art

Subway art is everywhere this last year. I have been enjoying the ability to switch seasons just by placing different seasonal items into my existing frames. (And no storage necessary- just save them on your computer to print again next year!)

So....now my fall, Christmas, winter, and Valentine's Day subway art is packed away. (I will try to link to my favorites one of these days :)) As I began decorating for St. Patrick's Day, I realized that there was not nearly as many good printables to choose from.

So I made my own. It is a quotation from the lorica of St. Patrick. This was my first attempt at using Picnik. Picnik is a free program that allows you to edit photos and add text, stickers, etc. Feel free to copy the jpeg for your own use!

Valentine's Verses Heart Bunting

I love decorating for holidays. So fun to change up our home from season to season. Having kids makes this even more special- they can make great stuff to hang and love to "craft."

My hubby likes this... except for the volume that holiday decorations can take up...mostly because he is the one moving everything in and out of the garage for me.

Enter my new decor idea this year! These Valentine's buntings are super quick, easy to put up, and will fit into AN ENVELOPE to store until next year!!!!

We want to focus on the Lord throughout the seasons in our home. And what better holiday than one about love to think on His great love for us?

Step 1: Cut hearts out of scrapbook paper.

Step 2: Find verses that capture the holiday. You can either look in the concordance in the back of a bible or go to a website like biblegateway.com to search by keywords. I searched Love and narrowed it down to verses about God's love for us. You could also look at verses that describe the love we should have for one another. Dozens and dozens to choose from!

Step 3: Write the verses out on your heart cut-outs. (Yes, I know it would look better printed on the paper, and it would be simple to do. The kids loved helping me write out the verses so we stuck with plain old sharpie markers).

Step 4: Find a ribbon to string where desired.

Step 5: Use clothespins to attach hearts to your ribbon. You could paint the clothespins a cutesy color if you had the gumption. We stayed old school. You could also just affix the hearts along the ribbon-- we went with this both for ease of putting together and ease of storage!

If you don't have any Valentine's decor up, here is a way to take a few minutes to bring beauty and meaning to this holiday!

Happy Crafting!

Kitchen Under-cabinet $10 Redo!!!

I have always been somewhat messy, disorganized, cluttered organizationally challenged. I love the idea of order, it's the execution that is a challenge for me. Mentally, I am very organized. I can keep tons of appointments and ideas juggling around quite nicely. It's just the physical manifestation of order that baffles me. Even more frustrating- when I DO have things well organized, they never look cute like in the magazine.

Enter my new cute (cheap, instant) under closet faux-appliance garage :)

Look at the difference! I have a number of friends who keep all their goods neatly stowed in cupboards and off the counter. Doesn't work as well in our house. Partly due to lack of cupboard space. Exacerbated by my knack for needing something WAY in the back of a cabinet and pulling everything else out onto the floor to get that thing out. Leaving it on the seems to work better for me than a layer of cabinet spewed all across my kitchen.

I was inspired by a Pinterest pin. (See- I do sometimes actually DO the cute things I pin!) It came from a Martha Stewart page. I think the intent was to highlight the beauty and order of laundry supplies. But my eyes went instantly to that curtain lurking in the upper left, thinking... ooh- what a great way to hide my laundry room shelves that are not and will never be that orderly and lovely.

This whole project was over within an our. I found a cute clearance shower curtain. I have an eggplant wall in the adjoining living room, so this tied things together nicely. I may have mentioned this before, but I don't sew. Don't. Yes, I know, this would be an easy straight stitch, but I went with an iron and some Stitch Witchery instead, Just cut the shower curtain in thirds, hemmed it up, and slid it through several $1.99 tension curtain rods, which nestle nicely in the under-cabinet area. Done. I recommend the small clip on curtain rings- they slide better. Also cheap.

Here is the teapot/fizzy storage area. I also have one over the coffee pot etc. corner.

What do you think- compare the before and after shots!

Love! LOVE! (Though now I have a hankering for darker cabinets- drat!... not this season :)

Make-ahead Lunch Fun!

I have the greatest husband ever, who sent me on a girlfriend trip ALL WEEK. While he watches the kids. All 3. 1 still in diapers (sometimes). The best daddy I could ever fathom for my babies. (Jealous, aren't you!)... Been enjoying reading, shopping, staying out late, and sleeping in!

So.... before I left town I tried to set things up so he would have an easier week. In addition to hair brushing practice with the girls and finishing my daughter's homework ahead for all week, I thought I'd address the issue of....Lunches.

My oldest daughter loves Lunchables (tm). Well... she loves the idea of lunchables. Unfortunately, she doesn't like the american cheese or the round butter crackers... so she begs and pleads at the store for one, and then eats about 4 bites.

Last week, grandma and grandpa bought lunchables for the kids for a picnic. This time, I saved the plastic shells. We opted for sharp cheddar (her favorite), ham, and woven crackers. And of course halloween candy. Some mini cookie cutters makes it even more fun than the original store-bought version.

A little Glad Press&Seal, a sweet note from momma, and we were in business! The best part- I was able to do several of them all at once and leave them in the fridge- so all Chris has to do is grab a juicebox and some fresh fruit and school lunch is done! My little 2 are impressed as well- so much more fun for a picnic or lunch than a boring plate of cheese, meat, and crackers. I think I will keep this trick in my bag for future reference :)

Harvest Goodness at the Park!

The kids and I had a wonderful suprise at Micah's soccer practice this week. Her team meets at a local park close to our house. As we wandered around, we found that it was ACORN TIME!!! Tons of them, just dropping/about to fall from the trees!

So what did we do? Tacky mom that I am, I grabbed my daughters hoodie off the grass, politely excused myself from the huddle of soccer dads/moms, and began gleaning them up like crazy! Probably got about 4 cups of acorns, and a bunch of these:

They looked like giant, hairy acorns! My daughter found them and was thrilled. When the nut is out, the caps look like little nests! (And yes, these will surely reappear for some spring birdnest crafting!) With a little research (and the blessing of a friend who is a mad fountain of botany knowledge), we found that these were "Burr Oak" trees. Very cool. Local folk- go glean some up before they are gone!

What to do with these pretties? Started with the acorns as they fit into my containers better. Scored this hurricane for $0.50 at a yard sale. (You know how I love yard sales. To my joy, my sweet husband loves them also. Our perfect family Saturday date is grabbing some green chile breakfast burritos to eat while we visit and yard sale through the neighborhood!). Yeah, the silver is bright, at some point perhaps I will spray it antique rubbed bronze or something.

With the addition of these free acorns, what a fun addition to the fall pianoscape! I put the cool burr oak acorns into another glass vase. Thinking about moving them into a cool basket...we'll see!

Fall is the best! Take a walk around your local neighborhood (be sure to ask before you sneak into your neighbors manicured yard) and parks and see what goodness you can find!

Halloween Aquatic

After a long debate (granted, mostly inside my head), I have decided to jump head-first into the world of blogging. We'll see how this goes.

The end of October is approaching, and my 3 sweet monkey-noodles have come to me with their costume wishes. My redhead chose the little mermaid. (in the dress-up bin. Done.) My son chose Batman. (despite attempts to endear his Captain Hook costume to him. Nonetheless, in the dress-up bin. Done.) My youngest daughter chose.....A SEAHORSE?

A SEAHORSE. Not moved with talk of princesses, heroes, or land mammals. What do you do with that? Check online, of course. Found a (ridiculously ugly) toddler seahorse online. For $50! I don't know about you, but I am way too cheap frugal for that! So... after getting wise counsel and staring at dozens of seahorse jpegs, I got to work.


Here's the (mostly) finished costume:

Nice, huh? I'll post the side-view later!

It came together for about $8 (pink duck tape, 2 pink sponges, pipe insulation tube, and purple spraypaint) plus an old stained men's sweatshirt. Actually, it didn't even take long- mostly waiting for the hotglue to heat up. Which is good, because I am lazy try to be wise with my time. I didn't think to take pictures of the process, so you are stuck with my cluttered explanations.

First, I cut the sleeves off of the sweatshirt. Seeing as my petite 5 year old is much smaller than my 6"2" hubby, I also closed the armholes to a reasonable size. With hot glue. I. Don't. Sew. (I don't have a type-A bone in my body, and patterns and details make me crazy!) The sleeves were saved for later use on the tail.

I coiled up the pipe insulation 4 times and, after learning that hot glue and plastic foam are arch enemies, tied the spiral with a shoelace. Initially, I wanted a pool noodle. Not so easy to find in October.

I "sewed" the 2 sweatshirt sleeves together (with hot glue and duck tape, of course), and slipped the straight end of the pipe through. A little more glue and lots of plastic grocery bag stuffing later, I hotglued the tail unit onto the back of the (now sleeveless) sweatshirt).


For the head, I borrowed a play from last Halloweens playbook. Here is Slinky-dog 2010:

I took a baseball cap, then covered it with duck tape. A little scrunched newspaper for shape and loft and a paper towel tube were glued on, as well as a neckpiece coming off the back.


Next came the spraypaint. She was very clear that the seahorse must be purple.


What was missing?... Spines and eyeballs! The things you can do with pink scrubbie sponges (and a gluegun) is amazing.

Another October down... we'll see what crafty challenge comes next!
Here's a link to some other ideas around this week!