Some projects

I have been horrible about blogging lately. Shame on me! However, I thought I might go ahead and share a few photos of two projects.  One that has already been completed and the other I am currently working on.

The one above is a gift I made for my sweet mother-in-law, Debbie, or as we like to call her in this house, "Nena". Nena leads the praise team at her church and is so kind-hearted and a truly great lady! So I wanted to give her something special and meaningful this past year for Christmas.

I always feel a bit self-conscious about gifting things that I have made. ("Is this good enough to give to someone I care about?" "I hope they like it!" "Maybe I should just go to Wal-Mart and buy something instead...") It never fails! Those thoughts always come knockin' and screamin' inside my brain!  

That being said, I actually really ended up liking the wall-hanging and I decided I'd like to try to make one for my home as well.

We have ABSOLUTELY no photos on our walls. We have a very old home with plastered walls and honestly, sometimes getting nails through that stuff is impossible! But, I am tired of not being able to walk through this house and see the beautiful faces of the people we love on a daily basis. I wanted a piece of (dare I say it?) "art" to compliment the photos that I WILL make my husband hang for me. (Thanks in advance, babe!) So here is what I came up with:

Now, keep in mind it isn't perfectly finished. I still need to drill holes at the top and add a pretty ribbon to hang it from, but I think it turned out pretty okay! Right?

And, I adore this saying because it's just so true! Can't wait to finish it up and get it up on the walls along with some pictures of the fam!

Thanks for stopping by! ;)

Love Always,

Mommy (Ashlie)

Sweet Flowers - An Edible Craft

Happy Wednesday!

It has been a personal goal of mine to be more active since having my youngest baby, Nijel. For some reason it has really been quite a struggle for me to get back into the swing of things in pretty much every way imaginable: physically/emotionally/mentally.
This morning I wanted to be creatively active! My daughter absolutely loves to go to church on Sunday morning and will often ask throughout the week to go. She has really been such a blessing to me in that way. What is more motivational than a 2 year old asking to go to church every day of the week to keep you moving on a Sunday morning {when maybe, just maybe, all you'd really like to do is sleep in}? Perhaps it is God speaking through her, keeping her Momma in line & where I know I need to be on Sundays.
Anyway, of course she loves to go to Sunday school and be with the other kids there. There is such a sweet little girl who goes to Sunday school with her, named Leah. It is her birthday on Sunday and I thought it would be sweet to make little treats in honor of her birthday.
This only took me about 15 minutes, and would have probably taken less time if little hands & tiny mouth weren't trying to 'help'. And by that I mean, eat the suckers.


Here is what you need:
-Paper {some green for the leaves, and another color or pattern for the 'flower'}
-Circle punch {This is optional if you don't mind cutting out a bunch of circles by hand}
-Fun patterned scissors / Scrapbook scissors {If you don't have any if the patterned scissors, you can just do a simple flower cut out.}
-Hole punch
-Dum Dum suckers, or suckers of your choice

Instructions:

- Figure out how many flower suckers you'd like to make. Take that number and double to figure out how many circles to punch.

-Put 2 of your punched paper circles wrong side to wrong side {so the pretty part of the paper is both seen on the top and the bottom

-Punch a hole with your hole-punch in the middle of the circle, fold the paper in half if you must to get the hole in the middle of the punched circle {I had to}

-Use your patterned scissors and cut around the edge of the circle, creating your 'flower' design

- Cut out triangle shapes with your patterned scissors using your green paper

- Punch hole for stem to go through

-Assemble your flowers onto your suckers: Flower shape on first, then your leaves on last. Add a dot of glue if you need to keep it from falling off.

They stayed on just fine for me, because the paper of the Dum-Dum helped fill up the hole and kept it from sliding.



Here's the finished product. You could really embellish these or just leave them simple like I did.

It is just something to make a sweet girl feel a little extra special on her birthday.

 Let me know if you try these out and how you like them!

Enjoy!

Love Always,

Mommy (Ashlie)