A Bit Crafty!

Do you find yourself during the school year always meaning to get projects done, but the between homework & the sports practices & the church commitments & the parties & on & on...your projects get pushed further down the priority list? Do you find yourself saying, I'll do that next week, next month, after the holidays, when school  is out!!

I enjoy being creative. It is part of the reason that I blog because it gives me a little creative outlet. I also enjoy making & doing & having a final product to touch. But I also realize that life is intensive with little ones & God is reminding me each day that it isn't about my to-do list. I am learning each day a bit more about sacrificing self & putting others first, just like I'm always trying to teach my kids!

Okay, I know this is supposed to be a crafty post...SO while God is constantly refining my heart & teaching me joy in putting others ahead of myself...He also has given me a desire to create & a joy in working on a task & making something pretty.

So, finally this summer I have had an odd hour here & there to be a little crafty! And at this stage in life, I will take a little project when I can get it!

Right after school let out, Sophie & Darcy each were invited to a little friend's birthday party. We needed to get presents one day & I didn't make it to Target, but I was near Michael's so I took the kids in...I actually was there to find some cute flowers to make into hair bows for my girls. On our way into the store we couldn't miss the huge bin of flip-flops right on the sidewalk & inspiration struck! I have seen people make those cute flip-flops decorated with ribbon & flowers. Well, I love any excuse to buy more ribbon...so we grabbed a couple pairs of flip flops & picked out several spools  (okay, more like 17) of coordinating ribbon from the clearance bin. Did I mention that the first party started in about 2 hours...

So after finishing my shopping, we sped home & I whipped-up (or rather knotted) these cute flip-flops!

I hot-glued flowers to hair clips & clipped those onto the shoes...she can take the flowers off to use for a hair-bow if desired!

I also had some cute tattoo type stickers & Sophie picked out a cute butterfly for the heel. 

We had another little present for the friend, so I used the flip-flops as sort of a "bow" on the wrapped package. 

Then I raced off to take Sophie to the party & left the kitchen looking a little like this...

Not your run-of-the-mill kitchen mess & Jeff figured out right away that I didn't have dinner ready when he walked in the door!

A few days later, Darcy helped me choose the ribbons to use for her friend's birthday present.

She also chose the cute pink heart jewels for the center of the flowers.

Here are the flip-flops tucked into the side pocket of a lap desk

For Darcy's little friend, we got her a cute lap desk & filled it with all sort of summer craft goodies...chenille pipe cleaners, googly eyes, foam stickies, jewels & more...hopefully hours of summer fun!

If you couldn't tell from the shoes, I've gotten a little into making flower hair-bows this summer! This isn't the best angle, but here is Darcy sporting a cute purple flower bow.

Here's another flower bow clipped onto a headband for Lucy.

Over the past few weeks, we have also been able to tackle a few home decor projects that have been sitting in the garage mocking us for months!

 I had a two nice canvases that I no longer liked the prints on them. I purchased this square one on clearance at Target several years ago.

 This was another sale purchase somewhere. Both of these used to hang in the girls' room, but I really didn't love them.

I fell in love with this blue spray paint color & used it way back in April to paint a lamp for Lucy's room.

I love this shade of blue with the green of the nursery, so I decided to also paint the two canvases the same blue. After two coats on the square canvas, I realized it wasn't covering the original images, so the projects were put on hold until we could buy some spray primer. And as often happens when you start a project & have to put it on hold for one reason or another...life got in the way, and so the canvases sat in the garage half painted for 2 months...until, we planned Lucy's baby dedication & luncheon! 

Jeff & I joke that I host parties just so that we will get stuff done around the house! (But it isn't really a joke.) There is nothing like people coming to your house to provide some much needed project completion motivation!

So the week before the dedication, despite temps near 100 degrees, we (where we=Jeff) spent several evenings spray painting this & that...I kept finding more things to add to the "to be painted" pile!

But I gotta say, I {love} the end result! A sweet art work wall for Lucy's room! 

Jeff sprayed the canvases blue.  I free-hand painted Lucy's name onto the big canvas & then I decoupaged an "L" that I cut out of scrapbook paper onto the smaller one. I had originally planed to paint a cute little bird & birdcage along with Lucy's name, but ran out of time...and now I kind of like the simplicity of just the name...but if I get bored I can always go back & paint more later. 

I found the fancy little shelf thing hiding unused in my office & we painted it white, as well as a clearance frame from Michael's that I bought to frame the Kandinsky circles painting that Sophie did at school this year. The cute little vase originally had an ugly mottled green finish & I had actually put it in our donate pile when I realized a little two-tone spray paint job would give it new life! And now, I told Jeff that just walking by the room & seeing this grouping up on the walls makes me smile! Yay, for completed projects!

But wait, there's more...

My dad is great for finding treasures, especially of the old furniture variety. A while back I asked him to be on the look-out for some interesting chairs that I could re-do. He came through with this chair in desperate need of some TLC.

Jeff really wanted to fix the feet of the chair to make them even, but I liked them as-is (not to mention I'm impatient & wanted just to paint & be done!) Nevertheless, the chair sat & sat in our garage for at least 6-8 months...I found some cute brown & white zebra fabric way back before Lucy was born. Then we finally bought some very light blue spray paint...

 And voila! Finished up just in time for Lucy's baby dedication luncheon!

I love the way it turned out & am thinking of looking for some dark brown furry fabric to use on the seat in the fall & winter months...just to change it up a bit!

Now I'm hoping we can carry this momentum into the fall to keep the sanding dust flying & the spray paint flowing! We still have quite a few more "projects" hanging out in our garage waiting for their turn to shine...a chest of drawers to be spruced up for the girls, a desk for Jack's room, a low dresser/console that I hope to use for storage in our office, and all shapes & sizes of shelves. For now though, I am content & thankful & will savor that great "job finished" feeling as long as I can!