Craft Project - Paper Banner

We are out of school for our 5th day out of the last 7---so crazy! I decided to work on another craft project! :)

Landrie's room needed some updates. I love her patchwork quilt, but she didn't have much on her walls. After getting an adorable cupcake print from a friend, I decided to do a cupcake theme for her room. Landrie LOVES sweets, so it seemed like the perfect decor for her!

I got my inspiration from this post on Shanty 2 Chic's link party this week.



I love the different papers used and knew it would look great in Landrie's room. Since we were iced in, I used what I had to create her banner. Plus, that made it FREE which I love!

I used my Cricut to cut out the letters at 5 1/2" tall. I used my favorite cartridge - Alphalicious. I then used my straight cutter to make 6" x 6" squares and 7" x 7" squares. After I mounted the letters to those, I decided it still needed something else. I backed all of them in 7.5" x 7.5" white squares to give it a more unified look.

For the cupcakes I used torn paper to create the bottom and cut 3 ovals on the Cricut for the icing. Instead of a cherry on top, I put a heart!

I hung them over her bed with white tulle. I may eventually mount them onto wooden plaques, but this works for now.

What do you think?

Karsyn's begging for a banner in her room too. Maybe we'll have another snow day soon??

ICE Day Project #2-3

I find it so crazy that we're out of school for the 3rd day in a row due to ice. Normally we'll have one snow day and the next day it will be 60 degrees and it all melts off. This week, we're struggling to get out of the 20s, so we're still at home. It's not a bad vacation except that everything is closed! We went to the mall yesterday and there was hardly anyone there!!!

I finally hung up some shelves that I painted for the girls bathroom a LONG time ago. I bought them at a tiny antique store for $12. They were already white, but I decided I wanted to crackle paint them.

I used some free Glidden paint in a Watermelon color (Thanks Missy!) and then crackled them with white on top. I love the way that they turned out. It definitely added so much to their bathroom.

Project #3 was to Mod Podge a K to coordiante with Landrie's L. She got the L for her birthday 2 years ago, and it's been in their bathroom ever since. Poor Karsyn felt left out and I finally came through and decorated one for her. I had most of the same scrapbook papers that our friend used, so for $2.99 she has her matching K now. I also framed a picture of them for the top of the shelf.


I love going to my friends houses and seeing personal touches in every room. I'm trying to do the same here now--little by little and on a budget!


I'm posting this early for Shanty 2 Chic's - I Made it Without My Hubby! For once, I'm ahead of the game! :)

Ice Day = Project Day

Texas is known for it's crazy weather...especially up here in the DFW area. Saturday it was 76 degrees and the girls were riding their bikes everywhere.

Today we have wind chills near/below zero and are having an Ice Day at home!! The girls braved the weather for about 15 minutes. They were trying to round up snow balls, but it's mostly packed ice. Several schools have canceled school for tomorrow too. We're waiting to find out if we have school or not. While the break is nice, it will be disappointing to lose Good Friday and Memorial Day as our holidays.

I worked on a project this morning and have a couple of other things I'm going to do tonight/tomorrow. This is our door leading to the garage. We've never had a good place to hang backpacks and purses, so I found these hooks at Hobby Lobby and hung my new Shutterfly canvas. I love the way it turned out - and so does my little apprentice!

I hope everyone is staying warm and safe out there! I'm beginning to go a little stir crazy!

Photo Shoot

We had a few minutes to spare before church this morning (Imagine that!?!), so I had the girls pose for a few pics. They thought they looked like rock stars...I just thought they were pretty darn cute - even if they are mine!

Karsyn thinks that if she's "modeling" she has to have a serious face -- she's just a mess!

Great Idea

This was such a great idea - I had to share!

Email for Kids

I just set up accounts for my girls. I think I will print them every year and add them to the back of our family scrapbook. I know how much they love to hear stories about themselves now and I can only imagine how special it will be to them to have letters from their family to look back on.

New Years Day

We had a low-key, but fun New Years Eve at our house. We had 5 girls (8 and under) and 1 boy over. They were all super sweet and had so much fun!

This was the best attempt we had at a group picture!

The girls slept in until 10 AM on New Years Day (a record for us!) and we just laid low the rest of the day. It was super cold! We ordered pizza for dinner and then put Lamar's new fire pit to work. We roasted marshmellows and then came in for hot chocolate. The girls were way more interested in lighting the marshmellows on fire than eating them!

Both of the girls have an interesting fashion sense when we're at home. They know what matches and always match when we're out in public, but when we're home...all bets are off!! You'll notice in the pictures that Karsyn is wearing a princess gown with piggy pj bottoms--it's usually worse!

I have no intentional resolutions for 2011. I've never been good at following through and like most people, I give them up quickly. I have done a few things so far though that I'm happy to be doing so well with. No matter how tired I am, the girls lunches are packed the night before and I try to pick out their clothes the night before too. Our mornings have gone so much better because of those 2 little things! It's lasted 2+ weeks so far and I'm hoping to keep it up.

I'm looking forward to seeing what 2011 holds for our family!

96 Years YOUNG!

After Christmas, we celebrated December/January birthdays with Lamar's family. Most significant is Grandmommy Jane - she is turning 96 years YOUNG on January 8th!!! We took family pictures with her to celebrate this milestone. 5 grandchildren were missing and 4 great-grandchildren were missing, but it was still a great turnout! I'm so thankful for the memories that we made over the break!!!

Christmas Morning

We often travel before or after Christmas Day, but we decided a few years ago that we would always be home for Christmas morning. We have a few neat traditions with the girls...Santa's "Magic Snow" (baking powder and Lamar's giant shoes) and PJs from Santa are just a few.

I had a BIG surprise on Christmas morning. Lamar got me a new fancy camera - a Nikon D3000!!! I was shocked to get it! These are just a few of the 300ish pictures I took over our Christmas celebrations.

Santa brought Landrie a art studio (easel) and Karsyn a digital camera which suited them both perfectly!

We also let the girls shop for each other and for us this year. Lamar took Karsyn to pick out a gift for me and Landrie. And I took Landrie to do the same for Lamar and Karsyn. Karsyn picked out a dress and a bracelet for me and a game for Landrie. Landrie gave Karsyn a Barbie and Ken doll and sunglasses and picked out Ghostbusters 1 & 2 for Lamar. I think that will be a new tradition for us too! Next year we'll switch kids though.

We had such a fun Christmas this year and I hope you did too! I can't believe our break is over! Before too long it will be Spring Break!

Christmas Round #1 ~ Christmas Eve Eve

We are blessed to have a large family and extended family, but that does make coordinating holidays a little crazy! Playing football until the week before Christmas makes things challenging, but fun too!

On the 23rd, Gigi, Grandpa, John and David came up for the day so we could all open presents together. The girls were spoiled and loved every minute of it!!

Opening the Barbie Party Cruise

Uncle John

The girls helping Grandpa open new family pictures for him and Gigi


Daddy & Uncle Dave

The hit of the day - Karsyn's Rapunzel Dress. She even slept in it that night!

Family Photos

The Original Kirk Krew cooperated for some pictures before Christmas. Whitney took our pictures, and I think she has new talent to add to her list! We are all so happy with these pictures. I especially love the last one of the girls with Gigi and Grandpa.

Now the rest of my family needs to cooperate! I want pictures of the girls with Pops and Lolly too!

The Stockings Were Hung...

Just for me...our 2010 Christmas Decorations:

The cutest little elves I know with out Charlie Brown tree. Our big tree won't fit in our living room any more, so I moved our little tree in here. The girls handmade ornaments and the ones from our Christmas events (Ice, Polar Express, etc) go on this tree. I also added the presents that we were giving on that day under the tree.

Not a Christmas decoration, but this is my new window treatment in my living room. I am IN LOVE with it! It is exactly what I've wanted and waited 4 1/2 years for!

My "Joy to the World" banner - a Shanty 2 Chic tutorial found here.

Landrie's Tree

Karsyn's Christmas tree - another Shanty 2 Chic tutorial!

Our big tree is in the formal living room. I love that I actually have presents under the tree right now! I'm usually still shopping and not finished wrapping on Christmas Eve. I can't believe I'm finished this early! I love that you can see the tree lit from the front yard.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas surrounded by family and friends! I am so thankful for all of my family that we get to spend our holidays with.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!