I have a beadboard shelf that I love, but I thought I’d be able to do a little more with it if it had some hooks on it. So I was looking for oil rubbed bronze hooks at Walmart – and I found some! But they were $2 more each than the exact same hook with the bright brass finish.
So what did I do?
I bought the cheaper brass hooks for $1.97 each and took them home to doctor them up a little with my newest favourite thing – spray paint (which I didn’t need to buy since I already had plenty of at home!).
My guy taught me this little trick for spray painting the tops of screws – just poke them in cardboard so they stand up nicely.
Couple coats later, and I’m now the proud owner of the more expensive hooks, at the less expensive price!!! And I know it’s only $4 I saved, but it makes me feel good! And there’s a lot you can buy at the dollar store for that much!!!
I screwed them on and now I can do so much more with my shelf – like hang things from it!
It’s a fun little place to decorate for the seasons!
St. Patrick’s Day is just a few days away and I’ve done nothing yet to decorate. I don’t do much for St. Patrick’s Day – mostly because we have four kids with birthdays in March (yup, four!), and there is also all the basketball playoffs, and the Relief Society Anniversary Party. So there is no time to celebrate the green day or Pi day. About all I’ve been known to do for St. P’s day is wear green and put some green food colouring in the milk. The girls are always a little startled to be pouring green milk on their cereal in the morning!
Anyway, Krystal at Sassy Sanctuary did this cute shamrock craft and I thought to myself, “I can do something like that!”
So I went to my stash of frames, and bingo – found the perfect little chalkboard frame!!! With moving and building, I hadn’t seen my stash in years. I have no recollection of ever getting this little chalkboard, but it must have been from a dollar store or sale bins at Michael’s or Walmart, cause that’s how I shop!
I roughly painted the outside edge in a beige, being sure to miss lots of spots!!!
I’m not set up for cutting out wood yet, so I decided to let cardboard be my shamrock base. I am set up for cutting with an exacto knife!!! I just traced my pattern onto the cardboard and green paper.
I think the part of this project that took the longest was choosing the green paper – again, from my stash! Then I distressed the edges and mod podged it together.
I used my Burnt Umber oil colour paint to distress the edges of the frame (after lightly sanding of course!)
Just lightly rub it on with a cloth, after rubbing most of it off on paper first!
Wait, what’s this? A blue frame? Well, this is the backside of my chalkboard! I thought it looked pretty usable too for something else – but that’ll be another post someday! Stay tuned!
When I did my top layer of mod podge – after letting the bottom layer get really dry (don’t want any bubbles in my shamrock!) I put a piece of fabric on top of the wet mod podge. Pressed it down firmly and then peeled it off right away.
It gives the top finish a “canvassy” look, which I like better than brush strokes.
The next step was simply to tie the shamock to the frame with some jute and add some words . . .
I love it! And you can be assured that I’ll be changing out that shamrock for other shapes for different holidays.
You often hear people say, “Oh, you’re so lucky!” but I think the more accurate phrase would be, “Oh, you’re so blessed!” Hence my words “Lucky means Blessed”.
The St. Patrick’s Day shelf . . .. . . add a few hydrangeas, burn candle wicks so they show up, and voila! (Oh, and I just added the hooks to my shelf – check out that screaming deal here!)
We have two Christmas trees every year. We refer to one of them as our “Nativity Tree”. It’s got white lights and lots of gold and silver on it, and all ornaments somehow remind us of the Savior.
Under the tree are some small gold and silver boxes – one for each person in the family. On Christmas Eve we all take a bit to time to think of what gift we will give the Savior this year – some way to help us grow closer to Him and to improve ourselves. We write this on a piece of paper that is in our box – and also look back on our past “gifts” to the Savior. It’s a good time for personal reflection!
One year I thought that it would be neat to receive “gifts from the Savior”. I didn’t mention it to anyone in my family, so they were a little surprised to wake up on Christmas morning to find gifts under the Nativity Tree! (All our gifts go under the colourful tree – the tree with the other types of ornaments you collect over the years and that the kids have made!)The gifts under the Nativity Tree are all wrapped in plain paper and they each have a scripture or saying on it that is pertinent to that person, or to the gift. We always take time to read the scripture before opening the gift.
I usually buy the gifts from a church bookstore, but that can get pretty pricey. With this year being a house-building year for us with not a lot of extra cash laying around, I decided to make gifts. We might not have had cash laying around, but we did have plenty of wood laying around!
For example . . .. . . this is what my guys gift started like! It’s a chunk of solid oak that was cut off the bottom of a newel post on the stairs. What would you make with that?
Now before I started any projects, I asked everyone what their favourite scriptures or quotes were, and their favourite colours, so I could make something meaningful to them.
My guy likes Mosiah 4:19
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”
This is what I came up with for him . . .. . . a candle holder, with his favourite part of the scripture.
It’s simply words stamped onto cardstock, then distressed and mod podged onto the stained piece of oak. He loves it, even though he wondered if I dulled his drill bit drilling the hole in the top!!!
My gift was thoughtfully made for me by me at my friend’s craft classes – thanks again Kd!!!I love this quote and picture of the temple. I was going to give it to one of my girls, but then I realized “Hey, I want it!!!” And if I keep it, each one of them will be able to benefit from the message!
Elle’s gift was probably my biggest challenge! She liked a really long scripture, and the whole thing was so good, I didn’t want to shorten anything. (You can read it in the pictures!)
Her favourite scripture right now is Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-3.
I decide to make her a candle holder too, but hers was a soft wood and didn’t dull the drill bit!!!I printed out her scripture – one verse per side of the wooden block. Mod podged on scrapbook paper in her favourite colours and glued on the little clothes pins. I like the clothes pins because that way she can easily change her scriptures, or add pictures, or anything else inspiring.
Warning: remove ribbon if you’re going to burn the candle!
Yes – it turned out pretty cute!!!
The next three daughters were easier – they all got long pieces of wood to go over a door or window.
Min got Proverbs 3:5-6 (one of my favourites too!)
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they paths.”
Jo got Alma 26:12.
“Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;
therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God,
for in His strength I can do all things . . .”
Lee chose 1 Timothy 4:12.
“Be thou an example of the believers,
in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
Jen got a picture of the temple too. I printed hers from this site.Then it was simply mod podged onto a piece of 2×6 with all the cute other little details to match her room.
Laying a piece of cloth over the mod podge while it’s still wet (pressing it down and then peeling it off right away) gives a nice canvassy looking finish.
Kat’s gift was actually made by my mom! Thanks mom!!!
Six puzzles to keep me her quiet in church! These are about one inch squares and each side has a picture on it. It’s pretty challenging!
And finally, Mac got a popsicle stick puzzle.
One side has a picture and the other side has . . .. . . a message! And again, mod podge is the secret ingredient!
And the final, finally . . .. . . a picture of the Savior by Liz Lemon Swindle – an amazing artist.
She says of this picture,
“During His ministry, Christ healed a blind man. The leaders of the Jews called the man before them and demanded he renounce Christ. When he refused, they cast him out.
When Jesus heard what the leaders had done, He immediately went looking for this man (John 9:35). I could see the determination on Christ’s face as He made His way through the crowd. I draw comfort from knowing that if He will search after him, He will search after me.”
This 8×10 picture was free during the “Every home should have a picture of Christ” campaign. All I had to do was frame it!
This tradition that we started a few years ago has quickly become one of my favourite parts of the holidays. Tears are often shed and the Spirit is felt as we celebrate our Savior’s birth.
I like long wooden signs!!! I find them an easy way to have inspirational message in my home because they fit so nicely in often unused places – like over a door or window, or above and below pictures.
If they’re going to specific people, I often ask for a phrase preference and colour preference. Then I paint and plan it out on paper to make sure the spacing works.
These were some my sister’s requested . . .Isn’t “Did You Think to Pray?” a great one to have over your bedroom door (it’s okay, one of my sisters actually has a red and gold bedroom!)
“Live Without Regret” is one of my favourite quotes from Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley.
The wonky buttons actually match my sister’s area rug!!!
Another sis has six sons and a daughter and thinks of her home as a “Missionary Training Center”.
And I attached a Future Missionary tag with burlap.
The ladies I Visit Teach got these “Joy to the World” signs this Christmas.
Notice the green one (how could you not?) That’s my one – I made it many years ago and it’s reversible – looks the same as the others on the other side. It was perfect for a ledge in my house that was visible from both sides.
Just a close up of the etchings on the wood. The letters are just done with an alphabet stencil from Michaels.
And a few more . . .
“There is Beauty all Around” was the most sung Family Home Evening song in my guys home. So now this little sign hangs above his parents dining room window.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart” is just a great scripture for us all to remember all the time.
I mod podged a picture of the Lord onto a heart.
And finally, “Family is Everything” because, it really is!!!
I had fun making signs this past Christmas (kinda helped to have that precut pile of wood piled up in the workshop!!!).
The theme for Primary this year is Choose the Right.
With so many choices facing our youth daily, we wanted to give them something for their birthdays that could be a visual reminder to help them remember to choose the right.
Our Primary second counsellor found these bottlecap zipper pulls somewhere and ordered them for us. Then she printed out all the CTR logos in so many cute colours, and cut them all out by hand and assembled them!!! (I hope she had a good movie to watch!)
I think the zipper pulls is a brilliant idea! The children can put them on their coats or backpacks or anywhere else, for that little reminder to always Choose the Right.
Still haven’t decided which colour I’m going to give myself when my birthday comes around (being the secretary has some perks!)
I enlisted some help from my Jen and we made little birthday gift bags for the children. Even did some housekeeping of stuff that was already in the Primary cupboard from years past – the picture of Christ with the children with the Articles of Faith on the back.
I was searching for clear bags but they were sold out. Good thing because I think the red, yellow and blue bags turned out exactly perfect for Primary!
This stash of 45 should last until the fall, and then we’ll do a recount and make some more.
This year we’re also trying something new – we recognize and sing to the birthday child in Primary, and give them a little coupon. They take their coupon to the Bishop after church and he gives them their special birthday bag and is able to have a little chat with them. The Bishop loves it, the children love it, and there are no distracting birthday things in Primary!
When Pres. Deiter F. Uchtdorf gave his magnificent talk at the 2011 Relief Society Broadcast (you can read it here), I knew I needed to make myself a visual reminder of the things he said. I wanted to “Forget Not” his inspiring words!!!
And this is what I ended up with!
And I LOVE it!!!
I started with this really rough piece of 2×6 (I wanted a rough look!) and some 2×4’s. I sanded and spray painted and sanded a bit more. Made myself a forget-me-not flower template and printed my words out on the computer.
I’ve never tried the carbon paper method before but it worked really well. I just put a piece of carbon paper between my computer printed words and the wood, and traced around the letters. It left me a nice little outline of my letters on the wood. Now I just had to hand paint in the lines.
I only hand-painted my big words – the others were just printed on the computer and then distressed and mod podged onto the blocks of wood along with scrapbook paper.
I stained my blocks before I added any paper though – I’ve had bad luck with stain and mod podged paper before, so I always stain first, and it always turns out!!!
Isn’t it cute? I used burnt umber oil paint to colour my leaves and add a little more distressing.
And the blocks can be arranged many different ways, much to the children’s delight!
A close-up of the Forget-Me-Not flower (at least, my version of it – I googled it and there are tons of varieties of this little flower!!!) and the etchings.
And now it sits on my dresser and I see it whenever I leave my bedroom, reminding me daily of what I need to “Forget Not”.
Just four days ago, my guy grabbed the bottom piece – the one that says “The difference between good and foolish sacrifices” and brought it to me in bed. I was still in sleep mode at 8:20am – on the last Saturday of Christmas holidays! He suggest that my foolish sacrifice was lounging around in bed when I should be getting up and going to support my daughter at her basketball game. And he was right! I got ready in ten minutes and ate my breakfast in the car as we drove the half hour drive. We got seated just in time for the opening jump ball.
I made my guy a Sequence game for Christmas this year. We had good memories of playing it with friends in our pre-children days, so I thought it would be fun to have our own game in the house. And I knew I could make it for way cheaper than I could buy it! It was funny when he opened the gift because I had wrapped it in two parts. The first part he opened was a bag of playing cards and poker chips. His only comment was “Odd!” I think he thought I wanted him to take up gambling or something!!!
Sequence is the game where you try to be first to get two rows of five chips (see the blue chips above have one row). Fun and easy to learn, and you can play with 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 or 12 players – either as singles or teams. All you need to buy are two decks of cards and a bunch of poker chips in three different colours.
I Googled Sequence and it showed me exactly how the cards are to be placed on the board and what all the rules of the game were. Notice there are no Jacks on the board. The Jacks all go into the playing deck and they are the wild cards: one-eyed Jacks remove a chip and two-eyed Jacks place a chip. My board is a 19″ x 19″ square with the cards mod podged on it. You could even do it on cardboard. The size doesn’t really matter as long as the squares on the board are big enough to hold your poker chip – you just need to be able to see the number and suit. You chop your cards in half and use each half of the card on the board. The Joker cards in the corners are free spaces.
This game sits out on the coffee table all the time, but usually the Sequence side is down and the . . .
. . . checkerboard side is up because it’s much prettier!!! I painted on the light squares and then stained the board to make the dark parts. I love these playing pieces!!! Of course the poker chips would work just fine for checkers, but my oldest daughter who has since left home made these for me when she was about twelve. She chopped a wooden dowel on the chop saw – I love all the different widths of the pieces!!! And then she painted each side red or blue so they’re great to play – what’s that game called? Othello? – where you flip your pieces over to get the board in your colour. Love that game!
And if you get bored playing board games, you could always . . .
A few years ago I started choosing a “word” for the year.
Making New Year’s resolutions is a wonderful idea, but I found that I was never able to stick with them – probably because we’re still on holidays when the new year begins, and who wants to start exercising or dieting or whatever, when it’s still holidays? Not me.
So choosing a word to live by for the year seems to work for me.
After some thought, but not too much (the words just seem to pop into my head!), I decided that my word for 2012 would be . . .. . . Courage!
When my daughter saw me making my word block, she commented that courage was a good word for 2012 – you know, for if the world ends!!!
Anyway, the scripture I chose is found in Joshua 1:9
“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.”
I chose “courage” for a few reasons, but I wasn’t really sure how to put it into words. And some were private and personal reasons that I just wasn’t ready to share on my blog! Anyway, last night I opened up the January Ensign and read the First Presidency Message. And WOW!!! President Monson summed up for me exactly why I choose “courage”.
Let me share a little (or you can read the whole short article by following the link above).
“Ralph Waldo Emerson said: ‘Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide on, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.’
Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve.
Have the determination to make the effort, the single-mindedness to work toward a worthy goal, and the courage not only to face the challenges that inevitably come but also to make a second effort, should such be required. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”
And that’s why I chose “Courage”!
Ready for a quick recap of my other words? This is the third year I’ve chosen a word at New Years.
“Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten His people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.”
(Mosiah 23:21)
My little word block sits beside my bed as a constant reminder to me of my current and past words (yes, those past words still need work!!!)
I used browns and teal this year to match my king size bedding!
Notice that book under my scriptures? That is the first word I ever chose . . .
. . . SIMPLIFY . . .
and it will always be my word. My mom gave me this book a few years back and it sits by my bed because I refer to it often. I have this word (Simplify) hanging in a few other spots in my house too.
This is a pretty jello to have on the table at Christmas time. And it would be even prettier in something other than a casserole dish!!!
The recipe:
1 small box green jello
1 can crushed pineapple
White marshmallows (you decide how much!)
1 small box red jello
1 can cherry pie filling
Whipped cream for top (optional)
Prepare green jello, but only use 1 cup of water. Stir in the whole can of crushed pineapple (that means that you don’t drain it!). Chill.
When it was still a bit soft, I added the marshmallows. Spread them evenly on top of the green layer. You can make this layer as thick or thin as you want – might depend on the size of your dish!
Prepare the red jello – again only using 1 cup of water. Stir in the whole can of cherry pie filling. When your green layer and marshmallows are completely set, add the red layer. Chill until firm.
If you have room in your dish, you can add whipped cream on top.
I find this jello to be plenty tasty and rich enough without the cream.
This is a never ending battle in my home: I love things in the jello!!!
But usually my guy and my kids prefer the jello plain. So as we’re eating our Christmas jello on Christmas day, I’m watching some of my kids not eat the green layer because of the pineapple. And I’m watching some of my kids pick all their cherries out of the red layer and leave them laying around on their plates looking squished, sad and rejected.
So I made a decision!!! Next year I’ll make the pretty Christmas jello without any fruit in the layers!
I’ll use the full water measurements, and maybe even do a few layers with marshmallows in between each layer – that would look pretty sweet. My kids and my guy will eat it all, and I’ll be about $5 richer.
Now I need to keep my eyes open for a trifle bowl – we’ll let the casserole dish hold something else next year!!!
Sure is a pretty jello though! Maybe someday I’ll get to eat it again with fruit in it!
My daughter Min made these blocks to display at her very first Young Women in Excellence evening (she’s now a second year Laurel working on her Honor Bee). She’d been twelve for a month and needed a project right away. Since we always have wood around, we decided on a 2×4 project. She picked a favourite phrase and then stamped it onto painted 2×4’s, and did some sanding and staining.
The neat thing about these blocks is that they’re reversible!
She chose a scripture for the other side:
Psalms 66:1 “Make a joyful noise unto God”
I like this scripture – it doesn’t say we have to be in tune or have perfect pitch – it just says to be joyful as we praise our Heavenly Father.
And I enjoyed seeing this in Min’s room while she was practicing her flute over and over and over and over and . . .
This fun stamp set came from Stampin’ Up – it’s one of my favourite alphabets! There are letters on each side of the blocks, and another set of matching numbers.
Now it’s time to get creative with the blocks and see what other phrases we can come up with . . .
Haha! Okay, maybe not!
This one’s much better . . .
. . . a beautiful reminder especially at Thanksgiving.
So what did I do?
My guy taught me this little trick for spray painting the tops of screws – just poke them in cardboard so they stand up nicely.
Couple coats later, and I’m now the proud owner of the more expensive hooks, at the less expensive price!!! And I know it’s only $4 I saved, but it makes me feel good! And there’s a lot you can buy at the dollar store for that much!!!
I screwed them on and now I can do so much more with my shelf – like hang things from it!
It’s a fun little place to decorate for the seasons!
Lovin’ it, lovin’ it!!!
