happy love day!

 

 Happy Valentine's Day!



I made the cutest Valentine's book of my kids this year and thought I would share...I am anxiosuly awaiting this book in the mail, I cannot wait to see how it turned out! I made the effort to take Valentine's pictures of the kids, and like many of the pictures I take of them, they end up sitting on my computer and no one sees them...so I took about an hour one night and put this together. I just love these 4 so much! Oh, they are crazy, busy and....well, crazy...but they are MINE and I love 'em all.



I hope everyone has a wonderful day with their sweeties. Graham and I have decided this year not to worry about gifts and stuff for eachother...we love each other all the time, so we're good! I'm glad we're keepin' it simple. Thanks for stopping by!



xoxox

valentine's decor & a birthday party

I gotta say, I love decorating for Valentine's Day...pink and red and hearts...oh, my! When I saw this banner by Rebecca from Simple as That, I got to work. It has been soooo long since I've properly scrapbooked or made much in the way of cute projects, so it was nice to get out some paper and scissors and cut and play. Thank you, Rebecca for the inspiration and the motivation!

After I finished this banner and hung it up I decided it was so cute that I made another one for our mantle and then I made yet another one for my sister...I just love the mix of the vintage book papers with the pink and red hearts...so so cute!! And believe it or not, I added some hearts to twigs to put on my mantle as well, and then I saw this post of Rebecca's...mine are purely decorative, but I love that she's using hers to write love notes to their family members...I'll have to keep that in mind for next year!!

We also had a little birthday party for Payton on the weekend, and since our house was already half-decorated, we went with a Valentine's theme for her party and I loved how it turned out!! It was sooooo easy to throw together since there's so much in the way of Valnetine's stuff in the stores right now. The girls did some v-day crafts and coloring, played human tic-tac-toe, decorated a valentine's frame and of course, had some heart-shaped cake.

So we're very much in the "Valentine's Spirit" around here...next up on the to-do list is the girls Valentine's to bring to school!

DIY: Lavender Heating Pads

Hey, Everyone!

Popping in today to share a super easy DIY project! For Christmas this year, my sister-in-law's and I decided to do a handmade gift exchange. It had to be super cheap and totally handmade, so of course, I turned to Pinterest! (heehee)

I came across this pin, and since it was like, December 22nd or 23rd, I knew I needed something really simple! These adorable heating pads were very easy to make. Trust me. If I can make them, anyone can! I am not a seamstress by any sense of the word, but if you can sew a straight line, then you're good to go!

I made my heating pads following this tutorial from Elm Street Life, but I only sewed 1 seam down the middle instead of 3...like I said, simple people, simple! I filled my heating pads with rice and then scented them with Lavender essential oil. I love them!! They turned out so so cute and I use mine all the time. I am always cold at bedtime so I love heating one of these babies up before bed and they smell so good! All the fabric I used were scraps I had on hand...since I started these at about 10pm, I had no other option, heehee!

So there ya go...a simple little gift idea for any occasion. Have fun!!!

diy: oversized photo collage

Hey, everyone!

Hope you're all having a great Monday and today I have a fun little (or maybe I should I say BIG?) diy project to share. Introducing my oversized photo collage. Ever since I pinned this on Pinterest, it was one project I knew I HAD to do. I bought this big frame at Ikea and it sat empty on my landing upstairs for 2 months at least! (I know...pathetic!) I just couldn't commit to what photos I wanted to use and where I wanted to put it...so I did nothing. Which is lame.

A couple weeks ago I got the urge at about 10 o'clock one night to go ahead and do my collage, and this is what I ended up with. And needless to say, I love it soooooooo much!!! I carefully chose each photo (a few older ones, the rest new) and printed them all on my printer. They're all about 8x10" in size. Then putting the collage together was a little like a puzzle...I moved the pictures around until it looked just right. Then I just adhered the photos to the large photo mat that came with the frame and I was done!

I was originally planning on hanging it down in my scrapbook room, but I ended up loving it so much that I couldn't put it down there for no one to see! So I hung it in our front hallway and like I said....LOVE!

I still want to hang something else above it, maybe a word with some of my cute wood letters that I haven't used yet since we moved, so we'll see...for now, I'm glad I just finished a project! Heehee!

And here's one last little look so you can get an idea of how big it is...my 5 year old standing behind it.

Hope you like it!! Now go and make one for your house!!

Tal:)

(and P.S...these pictures don't do it justice AT ALL....it's in a really tricky spot to photograph, and trust me, it looks awesome...the pictures are all so sharp and clear...looks way better in real life!!)

photo album scrapbooks

If you're anything like me, then you have piles and piles of photos in boxes, waiting to be used. I've recently been unpacking my scrapbook stuff and I couldn't believe the amount of photos I've accumulated over the years....holy cow! I knew I had to something with them, and fast. Today was another rainy day around here, so it was the perfect opportunity for the girls to make their own "photo album scrapbooks" while Kherington and Crew slept. They had so much fun!

We started off with empty 4x6 photo albums (I got these ones at Superstore) and I just spread out a ton of pictures on the table and let the girls use whatever ones they wanted in their albums.

They both spent 2 full hours on these this afternoon! I was so impressed...they carefully put each and every photo in themselves and it was so fun for me to watch them look through the pictures and laugh and remember...it was awesome. Payton decided to embellish hers a little bit with stickers, while Gabby decided to keep hers plain. Whatever they wanted.

And just like that, 200 pictures are now out of a box and in an album, ready to be enjoyed.

:)