my blessed life

Yes, I already have fall decor on my front door!   Isn't this handmade, wooden "leaf" absolutely gorgeous?!  My amazing husband whipped this together for me after I saw one I liked in the new Lowe's magazine .  It's even more beautiful in person--I wish you could see it! And it's the perfect way to welcome a new season: fall.  My favorite season! So, Happy September!  And Happy Labor Day!

Happy October!!   In honor of this glorious month I did a little round-up of some of my favorite fall recipes and crafts that have been featured here on my blog.  And now I'm in the mood to do a lot of baking ...and a lot of eating! ;) Pumpkin Cookies a Fall Batik Banner Pumpkin Pancakes homemade kettle corn Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread Pumpkin Spice Latte Chopped Apple Cake Roasted Pumpkin Seeds ***** Don't want to miss a thing here at My Blessed Life? Subscribe by email today!

Having lived in a few states now, my daughter has quite the little list of far-away friends.  She loves keeping in touch with them all!  One day this summer when the kiddos needed something different and fun to do I dragged out all of my old stamping supplies.  In the days before I had children I actually did a lot of stamping, making cards with friends and I still have all of my stamps, stamp pads, special scissors, etc.  I get them out for the kids once in a great while. In the process of getting out all of these supplies, I found a little journaling kit that I'd forgotten all about.  It was a Circle Journey kit , which I don't think they even make anymore.  It's basically a correspondence kit for friends and comes with a small journal, extra envelopes, stickers, and journaling ideas.  I had bought it thinking to keep my circle of high school girlfriends in better touch ...and that didn't happen.  It had never been used.  I...

Last night I had some of the best fun I've had in a while.  I went to a paint-your-own canvas party!!  If you've never painted your own canvas before, you totally should try it.  It's relaxing, fun, and challenging all at the same time. There is a business, Creative Canvas By You , in our area who will actually come to you for a paint party rather than you going to a studio (and their workers were awesome~I highly recommend them!).  So we hosted this party at our church.  The ladies who came had a blast!   Our party got to choose between three different paintings.  Then the ladies from the business walked us through our paintings step-by-step.  Isn't it fun to see how each person's painting looks different?  Even though you might be doing the same painting as several other people your own personal touches shine through making it your very own. I can't wait to find a place to hang my beautiful new cross paint...

I don't even remember where my Mr. B saw this idea, but he couldn't wait to try it.  I was a bit skeptical as it whether or not it would produce such big bubbles, but I was proven wrong.   Just a regular recycled water bottle with a scrap of an old washcloth rubberbanded to the cut-off bottom of the bottle (fyi: it helps if the bottle has an inward indention to attach the rubber band to) dipped into a bowl of slightly-watery dish soap and then given a little puff of air produces the coolest bubble "snake" you've ever seen!   Mr. B had so much fun playing with this.  Simple summer fun--I love it! ***** Don't miss a thing here at My Blessed Life! Subscribe, Follow, & "Like" today!

We have a new project going at our house.  The Princess is making a 'knot quilt'. She received the kit for the quilt a couple of years ago actually from my mom, but we are just now getting around to making it. I think the timing is right though: her interest is there and she's able to  make all of those knots on her own.   Teaching sewing is really out of my personal realm of knowledge,  but I'm grateful for a mom and sister who sew and can  assist with projects as needed. Do you teach any kind of sewing to your children?  

This past Christmas there we received some adorable and fun handmade gifts!  I love handmade gifts!  They are always unique, from the heart, and made with love.  I just had to share these with you. Mustache mugs hand-painted by my sister~totally awesome!! (Vince's mug is a Tom Selleck 'stache and my mug is Quill's from The Cat Who... books) Hand-stenciled t-shirts with Darth Vader and Luke for the "boys" from my sister:) A hand-painted nesting nativity set for The Princess from my sister. I love this awesome lap desk that my sister made me~ it even comes with a pen holder and a clip to hold papers! (Top view) Here is the cute Mary Engelbreit fabric covering the cushion on the bottom:) The coolest collage from Vince to me with all of the places I've/we've lived. A beautiful handmade platter from a family in our church. I must say I am very inspired for next Christmas!  I've already created my "secre...

Don't miss a thing at My Blessed Life!  Subscribe by email and "like" our Facebook page today! It's Day 4 of the 5 Days of Preparing for the Holidays Blog Hop with the Schoolhouse Review Crew ! My family loves to craft!  I am constantly looking for fun ideas and stashing supplies for future craft projects. The holidays are the perfect time to make a few crafts to enjoy and to share. Here are some that we have made in the past: Painted Christmas balls Pinecone birdfeeders Paper-covered letters Christmas crayons Salt-dough ornaments Mod-Podged notebooks Beaded letters This year I've got a few things on my Pinterest Christmas board that I'm hoping to make: Painted pinecones Reindeer thumbprint ornaments No-sew burlap ruffle tree skirt Christmas door mat Wooden block photo ornaments I'd love to hear what you're crafting up this year~tell me in the comments below!   Join the Crew in our blog hop today and link up yo...

Don't miss a thing here at My Blessed Life!   Subscribe by email and "like" our Facebook page today! It's Day Three of our Preparing for the Holidays Blog Hop and today we're talking about gift giving .  You know what that means, don't you?  List making, right?   And I've actually been doing just that.  Just this past week I finally dug out my Christmas notebook (yes, I'm a little behind, I admit it) and began making some lists.  I'm sure as you make your lists they might look similar to mine in that they focus mainly on our families.  Part of my list also includes a small handful of friends, our neighbors, and the service people in our daily lives (postman, sanitation workers...).   When you start looking at your lists it can sometimes feel overwhelming, right?  Because even though we want to bless our family, friends, and neighbors it can really add up.  However, if we are creative, pro-active, and plan ahead we ...

Does this describe your house at least part of the time?  It sure does mine!  Which is maybe why I pinned something similar on Pinterest a while back :)  Then my hubby was checking out my boards (yes, he does Pinterest, too!) and decided this would be fun to make for me.  Now it's hanging in my ever-full and messy laundry room--perfect!  I love it! :)

This past Sunday our church honored the school teachers in our congregation who are returning to teach this week.  We so appreciate all they do in our local schools for the children of our community!  My husband found the cutest gift bag idea on Pinterest (yes, my creative hubby is now on Pinterest :) and we sort of recreated it on these gift bags.  I love the way these owls turned out!  Each bag had a different *expression*...too cute!   We stuffed them full of all kind of things these teachers need on a daily basis: sanitizer, pencils, glue, paper clips, sticky notes, tape, white-out, colored pencils, red pens, black pens, highlighter, an insulated cup, and also chocolate:)  Just a little something to make the beginning of their year go a little better.

My kids have had a chore chart for a while.  It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it.  However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it.  Plus it's a little bulky.   When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it!  It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make.   I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course.  They  have these little wooden door hangers for .79.  I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each.  I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing.   I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had).  Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

I've had this cute little mirror since our nursery days.  I picked it up years ago at a TJ Maxx while getting ready for The Princess to arrive in this world.  Since then it graced both kiddos' nursery and eventually found it's way to Mr. B's room.  However it was still decorated with some baby-ish decor and finally was put in the closet because I knew it needed to be redone.  I just hadn't been inspired yet.   Recently while looking through some old editions of Family Fun magazine (love that one!), I found this adorable idea.  I just had to do it!  So Vince, Mr. B and I got busy collecting his tiny little toys and also found some at a yard sale that were perfect.  Next we grabbed the hot glue gun and....voila!  The perfect mirror for Mr. B's room!    I love this idea because it can be totally personalized to the individual.  In this case it has themes of Legos, Toy Story, Star Wars and just plain ol' fun...

Quite a long time ago I saw this idea for boys' flip flops and tucked it away in my mind. However, it's only been just this week that I've taken the time to try it. After my son got over the fact that I had glued his toy *creepy crawlies* onto his shoes, he actually liked the idea. (Yes, I made him cry over his fave lizard. Total bad parenting moment). First I picked up some new flip flops at the store. Then I came home and ransacked Mr. B's bug box, choosing the longest and flattest *bugs* . Finally I grabbed some super glue gel and some clothes pins . Then I positioned the *bugs* on the flip flops, one on each, and glued them. I clamped them down with the clothes pins to dry. They turned out very cute! I must tell you, the orange ones (above) had a harder time gluing because the toe straps were shinier than the one on the blue pair (below). I think I'm going to re-glue these with a different glue (flip flop glue maybe) just to be on the safe sid...