A Groovy Kind Of Love

If there is one thing my little girl loves it is art! Last week I took Teagan to the best little studio where she got to go to five toddler friendly stations and create Valentine themed art to her little heart's content! Here she is painting with shaving cream. I recently saw a Pinterest post on this where the mom added food coloring to the shaving cream to make it a bath-friendly medium. How cool is that?


Teagan also got to paint a large wooden heart and then paint and glue on smaller hearts.


Next she beaded pipe cleaners attached to her wooden hearts, turning it into a cool ornament that now graces our refrigerator.


This was my favorite station. She painted a heart shaped doily and topped it with various pieces of fun fabric, yarn, glitter and more making a very groovy Valentine for Daddy!

My little Jackson Pollock! We moved from station to station according to Teagan's whims and she had the best time while still getting everything in!


She decorated a fun Valentine's mailbox with more paint and glitter...


And wrapped up the session with a trip to the play dough table followed by the whale collage table. Love it!

I got a bunch of great ideas and can't wait to make my own little craft stations with her at home. If you have toddlers, what are some of your favorite crafts and art projects? I'd love ideas so be sure to link them up this Tuesday on our Destination: Inspiration Linky Party!Happy Sunday! Stay warm everyone!

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

Happy Saturday friends! We had a sweet time yesterday with our toddler buddies with a Valentine's party! First we made a craft Valentine's mailbox. Next we delivered Valentine's cards to each other, had pink lemonaide and other goodies. We wrapped it up with a pink lesson on how to decorate mini cupcakes with frosting and festive sprinkles! The picture above is my favorite picture from the day of sweet Alexa Kate decorating her cupcakes! When 11:30 rolled around it was time for lunch and naptime! An exhausted but happy Teagan, Isla and mommy took a three hour nap!

Teagan so excited and waiting for friends to arrive!

I just love little Landon's cute Valentine's outfit! Mama Leah looks amazing too! On of my favorite photos from the day.

Buddies Kaden and Carson! Aren't they cute? Carson asked if she could take her daddy a cupcake and that just made my heart melt!

Check out Alexa Kate's cuuteeeeeeee skirt!

Kaden's brother Grayson always makes me smile!

My happy baby. She stayed in her carseat most of the party, content to just watch the festivities. I just love this picture of her two little teeth.

I am SO excited Blair and Lauren got to join us!! Isn't Blair so pretty? Love this!

Speaking of pretty! Wendy and Alexa Kate added some sparkletastic to the party!

We were delighted that Natasha's dad Ivan could join us! He's visiting from Russia. Doesn't he have the kindest eyes? Is so see my beloved friend in her Daddy's face! And Lera loves her grandpa!

I adore the bows in Lera's hair. Isn't that precious?

Ha! Landon seems to be thinking, "What have we done giving all these kids sugar???"

Looks like baby Isla is just as mesmerized as mommy by all the pinkalicious goodies here!

Shanna and baby Liam get a snuggle in!

Hi sleepy boy!

Happy Valentine's! I still have so many fun kid crafts to share and pictures from Teagan's Valentine's art class last week! Hope to see you tomorrow for more. Plus, we had a GREAT turnout this week for our first Tuesday Destination: Inspiration Linky Party. Be sure to come back if you submitted to see if you were featured. And if it is your first time, join in the fun!

Valentine's Decor Wrap Up

I can't believe Valentine's is next week! Today I want to recap some of our Valentine's projects and add in my no sew banner and a final look at the completed fireplace mantle decor. It was so much fun to put this together with Teagan and super easy!

My no sew Valentine's banner.

To make the no sew banner we painted bare wooden mini clothes pins a fun pink. Then Teagan, my toddler daughter went crazy with glitter on these adorable felt hearts!

We punched out flower circles using coordinating scrap book paper and added two holes at the top so we could thread them. The string we used is a bright pink cord from Hobby Lobby for about $2. Finally, I had extra tulle hanging about so we added bits of it to fill the banner in and add a bit of girly fun! I love the way it turned out and it took just a few minutes!

Here's the felt wreath I posted earlier. This year I was so into pinks instead of reds! Check out the tutorial here.

My fun cupcake liner wreath! I'd love to try one of these in white. Here's the tutorial for making this.

I used scrapbook paper to cover a few books and add more color. In the future I would recommend wrapping paper as it would fit better. I just discovered Mod Podge and had a fun time making these scrapbook paper frames for the girls. Here's the post on how I did it!

I added a few mini paper flowers as vase fillers, some flowers and a pink candle. Finally, I topped it with a pink iron Eiffel Tower from Hobby Lobby that is normally in Teagan's room...and voila! Our mantel for 2012! We went from zero Valentine's decorations to these fun items this year. I can't wait to add more...but next up is the "greeeeeeeeeeeeen" holiday, Teagan's favorite from Daddy's country of Ireland. So stay tuned for all kinds of lucky fun!

Valentine DIY: $1 Wooden Frames

We are so into the Valentines spirit this year! This week I'll post my no-sew fireplace banner and mantel decor. In the meantime, I wanted to share my Super Bowl Sunday craftiness that kept me busy whilst watching the game (as if entertaining three wee ones wasn't crazy enough)! Brian and I had a great night together with Teagan, Isla and Kade. I still need to finish Kade's frame but with Valentine's Day hot on my heels I thought I'd better get this posted!

Also, please join us tomorrow for my very first linky party!! I am beyond excited as I've wanted to host one of these for ages. It's Destination: Inspiration Tuesday DIY Linky Party. Everything goes including crafts, recipes, household tips and Etsy stores! As long as you make it and it is family friendly we'd love to be inspired by it!

For now, back to my frames. I love the way they turned out and want this to become a tradition!

I've listed my materials above. First, I painted the back of the $1 Michael's frames and the stand a bright red keeping the front unfinished so the paper would lie flat. Next, I Modge Podged the front of the frame using a foam paintbrush to secure my scrapbook paper. These brushes were on sale at Michael's 14 for $1, what a score!


I put a second coat of the adhesive on, making certain the first layer was completely dry. The I used the knife to cut around the edges of the frame and inside the heart. I cut out a sweet photo of my girls and embellished from there. For Teagan's picture I highlighted the year with a few sparkles.


I love this picture of baby Isla that my friend Jennifer took in our backyard! Her nursery is an owl theme so this was a fun, whimsical version of the frame. I love the rickrack trim and the sparkly baubles! I have a HUGE bucket of these jewel tones from Hobby Lobby and I used them on everything!

That's my crafty project in a nutshell. Altogether I think it cost $2-3 per frame. I so hope you will try this and I'd love to see them! We might just give this a whirl again for our St. Patrick's Day mantel! Have a great night and see you for the linky party this Tuesday, February 7th!

Valentine's Decor Fun!

Happy Friday everyone! We are getting so excited about Valentine's Day here and thanks to Pinterest I have mucho inspiration for the season. We have lots of indoor ideas to share and it's been fun seeing Teagan's reaction as she comes downstairs each morning to find a little more decorated. But I'm not finished just yet so that will come in a later post. Today I wanted to share the felt wreath I made for our front door. It's inexpensive and super easy!

This is my first attempt a DIY (do-it-yourself) post and I have to say:

Naptime.is.not.going.to.plan.

So forgive the mismatched fonts and lack of a whole lot of pictures here. For now I

will direct you to an awesome tutorial at Domestifluff that will give you the scoop. Isn't that white wreath beautiful? I so wanna make this after Paddy's Day!

My two cents to add is that I used chalk and a 1/4 cup measuring cup to make my circles. The chalk comes off the felt easily and they were the perfect size to finish the project.

A rough rundown on price for this would be $4.00 for the wreath, $5.00 for ribbon with a ton left over for future projects, the felt is .29 each and the pins were $3.50. But I steal my sister's Sunday paper each week and have three coupons at 40% off to use at Michael's, Hobby Lobby and AC Moore. By the way, does your Michael's accept AC Moore coupons? Ours does and I love them for it!

Here is some more scoop on our outdoor Valentine's look....

I have to wrap up with a sweet Valentine picture of Teagan from 2010! Oh she looks so little bitty to me here. I just can't believe the change in one short year. She was so happy that we were about to head off in her wagon to deliver Valentine's to the kids on our street!

More to come! Have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

Some may call Valentine's Day a big pink and red nightmare (I remember this well). But these days I love it for its pretty pinks and reds, parties, decorations and reasons to gush over those we love. We've had a great time here making cookies, having a toddler Valentine's party with our Thursday play date friends and making crafts for Brian in my mom's bible study class! Duped again by The Martha Stewart show! She gets me every time. I think, "I can do thattttttttt." Now I ask you blog friends, just what IS the secret to getting sugar cookies to hold their cute cookie cutter shape? If you know, for the love of all mom's having to take treats somewhere, please post a comment at the end of this post. These were supposed to be heart shaped cookies and St. Patty's is coming up so I need to be in the know...

Poppy and Nana Mo sent Teagan and Kade the cutest Valentine's package. I used some of the decorations on our front windows and door. Can you see them?

Melissa made these ever so fun Valentine pops for our toddler play date party. They were a huge hit with the kids. I think Teagan had three!

Linda made these gorgeous treats that tasted like banana bread and were simply divine! PLUS they are great for lactation and you know what that means! I'll be getting the recipe and eating these often during pregnancy and beyond!

Krissy is so cute and made these face masks. Teagan got the pink panda and had great fun eating dinner with it last night. Poor panda was made to eat strawberries!

Look at this for a goodie bag display of treats for the kids!

Teagan saw cousin Kade after and shared some of her goodies with him. They had a blast opening everything and sampling the goods!

Isn't this a cute picture of Jackson?

Caleb! Sweet Valentine!

I just love little Elsa! She always has the sweetest smile and the cutest outfits too!

Kaden shows off his Valentine's craft!

Shanna and Caleb work on the craft together.

A snack for inspiration.

Teagan ultimately decided to decorate Mommy's tummy with her stickers!

Great picture of Melissa and Grayson cuddling

More Valentine's Treats from Krissy!

Linda and her sweet sister Maria who was visiting from Sweden! We all loved her and want her to move to the US!

These group shots are always funny as we try to get squirmy-wormy toddlers to sit still and look at the camera.

Skype session with Nana Mo after the party...never mind sharing with Kade, she wanted to eat the entire bowl of M&M's that came in the package from her grandparents!

Sweets, if you are reading you need to stop here until after Valentine's Day!

On Tuesday we had a ton of fun in my Mom's bible study class making valentine's for our husbands. We had a wonderful rep from Stampin Up show us how to make a Valentine's Card and a cute box with wrapped candies. It was so much fun and I could see how it could get addicting. It reminded me of my happy days living below my friend Carrie just before I moved to study in Japan. I planted huge sunflowers outside my window and we would happily stamp away with the spring air floating in listening to Carey by Joni Mitchell. "Oh, the Wind is in from Africa, last night I couldn't sleep...." Missing you Carrie!

So here's what I made...I was the very.last.person to finish. Out of roughly 30 moms. Yes. Not a crafty person...so if I can do this, anyone can! I think it turned out really perfect! Inside the card it says," Today is God's gift to you...Each day you are God's gift to me! Happy Valentine's Day"

Brian's birthday is the day AFTER Valentine's so I am always at a double loss as to what to get him on both days especially as he reminds me often he doesn't NEED or WANT anything...except some time to play golf. So today's question for you friends is: What are you getting or doing for your husbands for Valentine's Day?

I hope you have many reasons to celebrate love this season!