The Little's Rooms Got Some Love

Last week I was thinking about how much creating I do for custom orders or for volunteer jobs. I spend a lot of creative energy on people outside of my family and so I suggested to David that it would nice to spend some creative energy on the littles. I had some ideas brewing and when he gave me the thumbs up, I went into full design mode. We settled on a gallery wall for each room plus curtains, hooks for their towels, shelves for each bedside and an art hanger for each little. I made a list of elements I wanted to include in each room.

1. something sewn/fabric element
2. woodcut element
3. string art
4. monograms
5. photograph
6. printable art/quote
7. scripture verse

Then I narrowed down to specifics as to what that looked like. So for the girls' room it ended up like:

1. kite
2. heart (inspired by HEart by CC)
3. crown
4. cut out of foam board
5. siblings picture
6. "Dream Big" (source)
7. I will add a verse to the heart woodcut at a later time

The boys room:

1. deer head
2. arrow
3. sword
4. cut out of foam board
5. siblings picture
6. fox
7. I will add a verse to their arrow art later

David shopped, cut and stained wood during the daytime. He was in charge of the woodcuts, string art, shelves, towel hooks and art hangers. I painted the clothes pins (for the art hangers) and the frames plus rough cut out the fabric elements during the day. The rest of the projects were done in the evenings after the littles went to bed. That meant late bleary eyed nights, but I'm really happy with the results. Last night I planned the gallery walls, but putting them on the floor. I took pictures to give to David for hanging and while I took the children out on a playdate, David re-arranged the girls' room and hung all the elements we crafted. What a thrill it was to reveal it all to the littles!

The deer head was made from a pattern found here. I found the wood plaque at the thrift store and a with a bit of paint it made a great mount.

David cut this based on a few pictures I showed him on Pinterest. I didn't want to tell him exactly what to make, but I knew I wanted an arrow. It turned out great. His favourite piece.

Again, I asked for the sword, but I left David to do the style he wanted. He found a sword image on google, added a cross in the middle and enlarged it to make the template. Screws were an easier choice and he just went with it. I like it a lot!

The monogram "M"s I printed out on the computer, taped to foam board and cut out. I painted them and that's it! Super easy and a great and cheap monogram! We enlarged a photograph from our last family pictures in 2014. The same picture for both bedrooms. 

I thrifted and painted this cute frame and got the printable from here. 

Here's Malachi's art hanger in action (sorry for the dark picture). Just clothespins painted and glued to a board. Each little has one, though we haven't hung Hannah's yet. We are saving it until she is a bit older.

Michaels had these cutlery clothespins in a bin and I simply glued them onto this little board, also from Michaels. Cheap and funny, considering the boys are always thinking about food. This wasn't planned for, but added on a whim.

I found this wood pineapple at the thrift store. It was varnished and worn, but I saw its potential and snapped it up. I painted it and glued an oversized clothespin on it and it's adorable! My favourite piece in the girls' room!

David did the crown the same way as the sword and he did a great job!

The girls' monograms were done the same as the boys. I found the birdhouse and bird at Michaels and threw it in. 

The kite I made up as I went. I drew a pattern and did a basic quilting pattern on it. Then simply tied jersey bows onto a ribbon tail.

Each little got a shelf on their bed. They all needed a place to put water bottles and treasures etc. Here's Abby's in action. David made simply with two boards, painted white and attached right to the bed frames.

David made this based on a picture I showed him. Abby thinks it looks like a minecraft heart.

I used flat sheets from two of the littles' bed sets to make quick curtains. Not too difficult as I cut them in half, finished the two cut edges and voila! Curtains! I hate sewing curtains, but this wasn't too bad. We are exhausted, but happy with the results!

An Art Update: Part Two

I shared about our family art time from the summer, but that is not all the art I did. Surprisingly (to me anyway) I didn't do more. The art time that I had, I cherished but I chose to spend more time on family focused time than my art. That's a decent accomplishment for me and I'm proud of it.

I spent some evenings painting and some afternoons lettering. I joined a few new groups on Instagram so that I'd have prompts to practice my lettering. I don't think I'll do it daily, but I do enjoy having some new things to try. The flowers are painted and cut out to use in my Bible, journal and letter writing. The bookmark on the right was by request from a friend. 

The one art that I was most faithful to was my Documented Faith journal. This little book has been a delight to fill. I update weekly on Instagram. (user name: mrsgingras)

I did a fair amount of Bible journaling, too. I love how I'm able "to hide His Word in my heart" through art. By the end of the summer I picked up a new Bible study guide. I find that having something structured to follow helps me with consistency. 

I tried my hand at mixed media and had a lot of fun, but need more practice. I mostly like the results.

I did a little sewing. I have a few custom orders on my plate right now, so it's back to the grind of it tonight. My new table is a dream to sew on - solid and no bounce! Happy sewist right here.

Does playing with her hair count as art? I am counting it as art and focused family time. Win win!

And finally, I shared this on Facebook and Instagram, but I wanted to share here, too. I went on an artistic field trip. This is Nettie and she is one of several volunteer sewists who make quilts for charities worldwide. Nettie and her friends work from the MCC thrift store. They sew and make 1000 quilts per year. They are resourceful, using every piece of useable fabric that's donated. Some quilts are "batted" with light blankets or heavy sheets and then are are hand tied (I helped tie 3 this morning). They use the self binding technique and are finished with a sewing machine. Cutting and quilt top sewing are done in homes and the stacking, tying and finishing is done upstairs in the store. I had such a great morning! Thanks ladies.

This summer was by far my most favourite in years. I am so thankful for the two months of family adventures, simply perfect days and yes, some challenges. It was a great time. 

An Art Update: Part One

Part of the summer fun for me was having lots of art practice time. I was our family "art director" for the summer and I look back with fondness at these times. Although...

family art is something that I have to work hard at. In the end, I'm usually glad that I put in the effort. I am not a fan of messes that I don't make myself and so I have to focus on the fact that it's a family creative initiative and it WILL be messy. If I prepare myself ahead of a time for that reality then it helps me not to mind too much. This summer we did more family art projects than ever.

Sun painting was the first art project we tried. I saved this for our camping trip so that we'd have something fun to look forward to (I'm not a great camper and this helped me to have something to look forward to). The idea is that you paint the fabric with diluted paint, then place leaves etc on it, lay it in the sun to dry. We followed this tutorial here. We didn't have much direct sunlight that day, so only a couple turned out the way we had hoped, but they were all colourful and we had fun doing it.

Tree faces is a family favourite and we've already decided that this will be an annual summer tradition. Tutorial/instructions can be found here. 

Stick painting might have been one of my favourites. (I chose family crafts that I wanted to try and it helped to keep my focus off the mess and onto the creative effort). We had some grumpy-ness during this craft and it was uncomfortably hot, but I loved the results and still have them in a vase in my kitchen.

Paper making was a two day process and the results weren't as satisfying with this method, but I think the children had fun with the process, so I can still feel like it was a success. Tutorial that we used is here.

Bubble painting was another children favourite. The picture above of them blowing the bubbles is before we got the paint to water and soap ratio quite right. The littles were less interested in the art than the bubble blowing, but I got some cute stationary out of the deal. Tutorial/idea from here.

Individual craft time can also reduce the mess. Malachi did a cute printing paint project (similar to this method) at Michael's and the mess stayed at the store - worth the $2! Abby and I had a mini art date one quiet time and we did make a large mess, but with it just being the two of us it was still manageable. Both littles appreciated the focused one-on-one art times.

Some art projects require no mess at all! Shadow play was something we all had fun with this summer.

This wasn't exactly a family craft project, but we all certainly benefit from the result! My favourite art project of the summer, was definitely my table! David, with some help from a student he mentors, built me this gorgeous kitchen table. My David's love for me is all over this table and I'm so thankful!

Checking In

Happy June! I can hardly believe that summer break is just over a week away. June has slipped away so fast and it's been a great month. Let's get to it, shall we?

• June has been full of art exploration and creative time. I love every chance I get to create.

1. a sketch of the china pattern I'm treasure hunting for 2. a sketch of some Winnipeg landmarks. 3. I had a hankering to try my hand at something larger

• Sewing some little lovelies...

1. All my littles have dolls now (L-R Malachi's super doll, Micah's super doll, Hannah's mini dolly and Abby's dolly) 2. a zipper pouch birthday present with vintage fabric and the March #zipperofthemonthchallenge 3 & 4. Mother/daughter cuff bracelet sets

• It's been awhile since I've shown you an update in my Documented Faith journal. Here's weeks 15-23.

You can keep up to date with my #documentedfaith journal on Instagram (user: mrsgingras)

• A few of my Bible journaling pages...

You can keep up to date with my #Illustratedfaith Bible journaling on Instagram (user: mrsgingras)

• My Dad has been in the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital for a couple of weeks now and is making leaps and bounds in progress. I am so proud of him and how hard he's working. My mom and sister even took him out to the mall on Father's Day and he's rocking a power chair that gives him so much more freedom. Praying for his FULL healing and recovery.

• I took Abby on a Mother/daughter getaway with a girlfriend (Jenny did the arranging for the weekend and it was so nice to just go and enjoy) and her daughter. We had a dress up tea party, presents, hot tub time, craft time, girly nails time, movie time, amazing meals at the retreat centre and Abby I finished the weekend at a special dinner out. We both came home exhausted, but with good memories. We stayed at the Women Refreshed at the Well Retreat Centre. It's a gorgeous house that had me full of refreshed dreams for a God-sized dream yet to come true. Joy is such an amazing hostess and we were very well taken care of.

• June has had some amazing weather! We've been treated to hot, sunny days and cool, rainy days and I've enjoyed sneaking in some adventures with the family. Park trips and long drives and mini dance parties and summer break hasn't even begun yet. I think it's going to be a great one!

It's almost time to come up with our summer schedule/rhythm and summer idea list. One more week!!!!

Checking In

Phew! What a crazy month April (and into early May) turned out to be. Let's get to it...

• April is my favourite month to throw a party! My birthday is as good of a reason as anything else, right? I knew that I wanted to have another My Favourite Things party and when I asked a few people what they thought, the resounding answer was "YES!" It's such a great party and it almost throws itself. You can read about the last party here and here. How it worked is I had everyone bring 4 of their same favourite item/s (under $10) and every one went home with four others' favourite items. My favourite items this year were a carton of Tazo Chai Latte mix, fun socks, a pen, a soap sample, straws, an essential oil sample and a couple of dishcloths (Compliments - microfibre - seriously the best dishcloth EVER). I had so much fun with this! By the way, if you didn't get invited, please don't be upset. I wanted to invite so many more of you, but my place can only hold so many. In my heart, you are all welcome!

My favourite things package

• Here's a list of what everyone brought.... Soy candles, journals, Starbucks gift card, jellybeans, pens, mugs, hairspray, lip balm, cuticle cutters, jar mugs, drink tumbler, napkins, chocolates (store bought and homemade), soaps, homemade laundry detergent, collapsible bins, zipper storage bags, a pansy plant, various stationary items, mesh laundry bag, socks and candy. I think that's everything. It was so great to hear things about the gals that I didn't know as each person had to answer a random question about something that was a favourite. I also had everyone bring a favourite drink or food to share and once again - the BEST party food!

London Fog cupcakes from my friend, Sugar Momma and her truffles, too!

• I chose to set up an Italian Soda Bar as my favourite beverage to share. David and I enjoyed testing these and David made the strawberry, orange and butter rum flavour syrups. I'm a big fan of "help yourself" so I doodled instructions and let everyone do just that.

Italian Soda Bar

• I could've easily spent a month on the plans and preparations for a party, but thankfully I didn't need to because I spent the month sewing and crafting for my first craft sale. Our church hosted a craft sale fundraiser for some missionaries who will be going out with Wycliffe. David and I spent every spare evening and weekend working on growth charts, (David did the bulk of the work on those. I just lettered them) scrap buntings, mini scrap buntings and cake toppers. I had a goal of 12 growth charts and 40 each of the other items. We spent many evenings late into the night making. It was fun and tiring and my poor house got pretty neglected. I met my goals! David's amazing growth charts sold really well. I came home with three and they're now all spoken for, too. I have most of the rest of the products still. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'm so relieved to have it all finished that I'm okay to just put it aside for now. Sadly, there wasn't a whole lot of customer traffic at the sale, but we recovered our costs and were able to make a small donation to the missionaries. 

Buntings!

Craft Sale Booth

• Michaels Arts and Crafts are moving into my neighbourhood! It's going to be nice not needing to drive across town to shop!

• Mothers' Day was a quiet and relaxing day finished off with my favourite family "date". We call it Pajama Van. It's usually a Saturday evening tradition, but I'm glad we saved it for last night it was perfect. (pajama van is where we load the littles up in the van in their pjs, put on a movie for them to watch, grab tea and timbits from Tim Hortons and go for a nice long drive).
• I got quite spoiled with mail lately! I love my dear pen friends!

Top pictures are my birthday package from dear Annemarie and the bottom two from dear Donna!

• I was crazy spoiled for my birthday, too.

L-R ink and pens from David's family, essential oils from my family (card signed by my Daddy - a big deal for a partial quadriplegic) flowers from friends and a drawing book from my David.

• And in case you needed a reminder of how adorable my David is...