Framed Nativity

I had promised my sister a vinyl for her wall and she saw a framed nativity scene with vinyl and knew it was exactly what she wanted. I told her that if she got the frame, I would cut and put on the vinyl. I stumbled across this frame and fell in love with it. It wasn't exactly what she wanted (she was hoping for the two glass panel frame and found it) and I think she could see how excited I was over it. It's only March but the frame has been sitting on my craft table for over a month so I decided to get it done. I LOVE it. I'm so excited to have it and I'm hoping to see there are others that would like one as well. Here are some pictures of it:

Birthday Jam

This post is very similar to that of the one I just did, Cookie-in-a-jar. My para-educator's birthday is on Monday. I'm already putting together a luncheon for our team and the office staff, including a birthday dessert and so I was trying to think of something a little extra. Derek, my husband, made his berry jam this week and so I took the theme from the Cookie-in-a-jar. and put together one of the jars for her.

Cookie in a Jar

The youth in our ward were holding a fundraising auction. Life had been a little crazy so I wasn't able to make what I wanted to donate for it. A lot of people had signed up to bring treats and I wasn't sure what to do that was not too much of a repeat of what others were donating (I also had signed up to bring treats) so I thought if I did a "cookie in a jar", then I could add my own crafty style as well as make something that didn't need to be consumed right away. I ended up with what I decided was a good "Easter-themed" chocolate-chip style cookie recipe.

I got my recipe from this site:

https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/32260/chocolate-chip-cookie-mix-in-a-jar/

While I was searching through our jars, I came across this one and it made me think of my sister. She has done a lot for us lately and I thought it would be fun to surprise her with a small gift. She works in my district and a fellow teacher of hers was coming to observe in my class so I was even able to give her a special 'surprise delivery'.

Spring is in the Air

I decorated our house for spring. I don't know why, but I haven't done it before, other than Easter baskets. Some of the decorations are much thanks to Target, some are family heirlooms and gifts, and the SPRING letters on the banner I was able to make with my silhouette.

My Helper.

Floral Wonders and Purple Joy

Our tulips and daffodils are starting to pop up. Not only that but our hydrangeas are starting to shoot and our morning glories are blossoming! We are starting to see signs of early spring and I am so excited! This last spring I absolutely loved making flower bouquets! We moved into a house with beautiful flower gardens and space for it (which we were much in lacking in our previous home). I made vase arrangements for co-workers, family, friends, our "grandma Jack" that lives down the road. I'm so excited to begin making them again.

My husband bought me heather yesterday. It's a beautiful purplish-pink. If we have lots of any color in our garden, it's purple (although it's harder to tell from the arrangements above). My favorite color is purple, especially for flowers and judging by the gardens we moved into, so was the grandma that lived here before us. I've decided we're kindred spirits. I think she probably would have loved this heather too.

A Floral Update

I did this craft in the fall after we had moved in. With a new house, I wanted to do an updated look and this antique teal is one of my favorite colors.

This is the only picture I could easily find, but the vase in the clock is what it looked like previous to our move and 're-doing' it. I love using materials I already have. It feels good to be more material efficient, both for the environment and also financially.

I re-used the vase, accent paint left-over from painting our dinning room,
 as well as the pebbles and styrofoam in the vase.

I also painted this deep red shelf to match the dinning room/kitchen. It's ended up being our apron hooks. 

Haha, her face...