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...

 

Checking In

Ugh! Cold and flu season. It seems like it's just keeps going around and around, but the good news is that we have been hooked up with Young Living Essential Oils and even though these sicknesses are awful, I feel like the quality of living with the oils is a definite improvement. This won't be a sales pitch don't worry... just sayin'.
      Let's get to it.

• Cold days mean I don't want to go anywhere, so lots of creative time. My Documented Faith has been a lot of journaling, so I haven't shared but here's an overview look from the last two weeks. 

• Malachi got invited to his first birthday party, so I made this cape and mask duo (it's become my go-to gift for boys).

Malachi models it for me

• My girlfriend got an NIV Notetaker's Bible for her birthday and so I had the privilege of making a cover for her. 

• We are not the only "oil-ers" in our circle of friends and family and so, I've been working out a to-go oil carrying case. I've made five and I think I finally have the pattern figured out. My mom and my sister got a couple of my prototypes and in my distracted-ness I only put one row of pockets in it instead of two. In order to remedy the situation, I whipped up little divider pockets that could be slipped in the pouch. I think it'll do in a pinch. I will be sewing up a few more complete pouches this week.

• In other custom jobs, I have a huge project that I will be picking up my fabric order for this week. This will be (in size, my largest project yet). I'm a bit nervous and will pray my way through it. Measure twice, cut once!!!!
• I'm still having a lot of fun with happy snail mail. I have three regular pen pals, plus I sent a birthday package to my sister and I've just chosen someone on the Documented Faith Happy Mail list to send a little package to. I like working on mail scattered throughout my creative times. If I am working on mixed media items, then I make several similar ones so that I can use them in my journal, my Bible and/or in my letters. 

My sister's bday pkg

• Have you heard of "Pocket Letters"? Well, I stumbled across them on Pinterest and my pen pals will be receiving at least one as you know it... I "had" to try!

• I post almost daily on Instagram, so when my blog activity is low, you can still keep in touch with me there. User name: mrsgingras

a lovely package I received last week

• Bible Journaling is going well. I love it more everyday. I post pretty much every single page on Instagram, but here's a little peek. Our church has been going through the Forty Days of Faith and I'm really enjoying it! A lot of my pages have been inspired from the daily readings. 

• Abby has even joined me in Bible Journaling. On the Illustrated Faith website, April shared how impactful this was with her daughter and I knew I needed to invite Abby to do some journaling in my Bible. You should have seen her face when I said she could journal in my Bible. It was priceless!

#kidsintheword

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

On my Writing Desk

Well, not literally. I don't actually have a desk, but I have been getting into the swing of letter writing again. In truth, more like letter doodling. I am having fun working on the art side of snail mail. It all began a few weeks ago when a friend from church and Instagram suggested a little swap. I jumped at the opportunity, who doesn't love receiving something fun in the mail?! I kept it fairly simple, but it kinda prompted in me happy memories of past pen pals and the fun letters we swapped. I would spend my allowance on stamps, stickers and stationary. I would ask for special stamps at the post office so that they'd be pretty on the envelope. It might seem a little silly now with technology making things quicker and cheaper, but I wrote a letter this week that made me slow down and think through what I was going to say. I carefully chose what I wanted to represent and how I wanted to introduce myself. It was fun. I think I took a whole week to put together a letter. I took my time with the art and heart of it. I recently signed up for The Snail Mail Project over at the Snail Mail Ideas website. It's a one time sign-up to write to someone somewhere and you receive a letter from someone else from somewhere else. I got a lady's address in Mexico. How fun!

I saw online that Moleskin has put out a mailable notebook and knew I could make one and it wouldn't cost me $9. I grabbed an envelope and used it to make myself a template. I sewed in the paper as my stapler isn't quite long enough. I then treated it kind of like an art journal. I included a paperclip banner and a couple paper embellishments, but mostly it's pen work. This keeps the postage costs down. At least in theory.

paper feather template found here

I had a package of permanent stamps and figured it would take three stamps to cover the cost to Mexico. I'm glad I decided to go into the post office and double check though because I learned some new things  about postage. Internationally, the permanent stamps are not recognized. They must have the cost printed on the stamps to be valid. The lady at the post office helped me to save my stamps and replace them. She helped me to pick out pretty stamps and made sure that everything was the right size etc. Sadly, my letter size board must have a tiny bit of give to it as my letter squeezed through the standard size slot on my board, but not the acrylic one at the post office. After working hard to keep it small, I ended up having to pay for an oversize letter in the end. I guess I could've taken it home and removed the tea bag or paperclip banner and it would've been fine, but I wanted to send it all. I need to be more careful in the future or I won't afford to send many letters at $5.90 a piece. The lady at the post office gave me one other helpful hint, don't use tape over top of your stamps (she was referring to the ones we saved and were now less sticky) or they will be rejected. Use a good sticky glue. Good to know. I like knowing the rules ~ I'm a bit of a risk management geek.

I've dusted off my doodling hobby. It helps to have great fine tip markers. I do lack original inspiration and for that I go to Pinterest. No need to re-invent the wheel. The other day Abby and I sat down at the table and doodled owls. The owl I sent in the letter was my third attempt. I don't really consider myself an artist in the tradition sense, but more of a crafter. I thoroughly enjoyed my side-by-side time with Abby, though.

Thank you for those of you  that signed up for my creative pen pal swap. I hope you have fun with it. Vive la Snail Mail!

bookmark inspired by this picture

free camera printable found here

I have a few people who have agreed to continue to write, so I am looking forward to more snail mail art. Yay! BTW, Canada Post, I'm for door-to-door!

Checkin' In

Happy (almost) Valentines! It really snuck up on me this year and I find myself two days away without any plans. We have had a lot of other things on our mind. In the meantime, let's get to it!

• Today is my meal planning/grocery list making day. I work one month at a time... payday to payday. Last month I worked on emptying my freezer stores - work with what we had, so nothing goes to waste. This month, freezer meals! I've been invited by a friend to join in a small group cooking co-op night. The idea is that we each are responsible for 2 recipes that we make enough of for each family. We then go home with a nice variety of meals. We get to work together, which makes the kitchen work much more enjoyable and we get to have a great variety to go home with. These meals will be some of my months plan. I have a Pinterest board with links to sites full of great recipes. I will be choosing a few of them. My hope is to have at least half a month of freezer meals. I'm not a huge fan of cooking and this will be nice to have. 
• David and I have been exchanging mirror messages this week. Fun and easy and encouraging!

• I finished the iPad mini cover. It turned out pretty good.

• My David made doughnuts last week... from scratch. DANGEROUSLY YUMMY!

• I received love in the mail. Packages are great, surprise packages are awesome! By the way... LOVE this darljeeling earl grey!

• I've had to patch my couch cover. It's in rough shape, but the patches will hold until I can re-cover the whole thing. I've been inspired by these and would love to try my hand at something that fun!

• Valentines Day may have snuck up on me, but it has been on my mind for awhile. I took these pics a week ago.

• I had planned on making Valentines, but with our printer dead (sad day that was!) and not having sent them in to get printed... well, maybe next year. Enjoy my intentions:

• I've been really enjoying quiet time in the Bible lately. I've had to re-prioritize my day to make it work and it's been worth every minute!

• Micah has had a terrible diaper rash until recently. Thanks to my mom and sister (they sent me the base for it at Christmas), I whipped up a batch of diaper cream and it totally did the trick. It also, by the way, cleared up my dry and cracked hands from all the washing I'd had to do. Jenny, if you want some for Ezra, I have some extra!
• David and I are taking control of our finances. Friends lent us The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and we are SOLD! We're working on baby step one and are so excited. It will be hard work, but worth it in the end.
• Road test in two days. Nervous. More nervous this time than the last. Oh well. This IS THE WEEK!

Baby Parcel - Part One

David and I got to go to the bus depot to pick up our baby parcel from my parents....thanks, Mom & Dad! This is us picking up the package and digging into it right away. We needed to open it up to get the gift card for the play yard so we could make it a one-trip excursion. Over the next few posts I will show you the wonderful goodies that we had thrills over getting.



First of all, the play yard. We've opted to not get a crib, but to use this beauty and Mom & Dad pre picked out a great one for us to get with our gift card. (We're saving the full view shots for when the baby room is set up, so more to come later). I'm thinking I'll do navy blue and cream coloured bedding (what do you think, Mom?) I love the bassinet level and the changing station! The teddy bear mobile is super sweet, too. On the side of the play yard is a little light, sound box and vibrator with auto shut off after 15 minutes (David timed it today, just to be sure). On the end of the play yard is a great organizer which I'm sure I'll load and re-load a million times before we're done! Stay tuned for more parcel pics!