Natural lovin’

My brother Bob’s family gave us this small herbal salve, ointment and essential oil set for part of our Christmas present last year. He and his amazing wife Amanda have been learning how to make many of them. Although it was fun to have my brother’s handwriting on bright neon sticky labels on the containers above, I decided it was time to truly let this beauties shine by making a bit fancier labels. 🙂

{Used labels from:  Meet and Greet Elements Pack by In the Making design:

I adore these!!  Used them for a few projects now:  here & here.  😉 ;  fonts on herbal remedy labels: American Typewriter & Marcelle Script}

Most of the herbal remedies have become staples in our home – especially the BF&C (bone,flesh and cartilage) salve.   Starts out as this, but they made it into a salve for all the bumps and bruises around these parts.  Such a fast-working, relief-giving wonder.

I would love to spend some more time on this site and take the Family Herbalist Course someday.  It sounds fascinating.

Love Stories…

A few stories I don’t want to forget.  🙂  I love the words+photos process for that.  The +colors+polka dots+digital paint+toothpick flags… that would be for me.  The little heart(s) “hidden” on each layout I do… that’s for all of us.

My silly little one. One morning she came running into our bedroom, hopped on the bed and announced “I am going to juggle oranges!” Her daddy helped her and there were many smiles and giggles.
Epilogue: The next day, Katey threw a party for one of her oranges.

{Credits}

My summertime entrepreneurs. 🙂

Journaling:
Heard from the window:
“Dirt for sale. Great for growing flowers. Only 50 cents! Dirt here. Dirt for saaaaaaale!”

{Credits}

Crafting with my little ones… a real treat

These fun little beauties can be adapted for any age or occasion.

Our little ones got in on the fun as well.  Here’s Jacob starting out:

Some treat trying from Momma’s jars:

I love little chubby fingers wiggling and prying.

Jacob still at it… making a very fancy dispenser.

Some containers by the others.  Katey’s is my personal favorite – you cannot beat the accessibility of a cup.  😉

And the final product:

A triple-decker lock – takes a lot of twisting, but very secure.

For now, I have babies on the brain and my choice of treats reflects that.  🙂  The almonds are to keep nearby – when I need a little extra protein. And sometimes nothing settles my sickiness like a sour candy.  The plan is to keep these on my headboard.  We’ll see how many times I need to refill them.  😉

With babies we always wait to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  I really enjoy it that way.  Of course I don’t know any different – but it works for us.  Jim Bob is the one that wanted to wait on our firstborn and I knew there was no way I could know without sharing.  I really enjoyed it and now I’m the one that insists and he could go either way.  🙂  I made one treat jar for each gender.  The scenes and decorations on the dispensers are from Echo Park:  Little Boy Paper Pack, Little Boy Element Pack, Little Girl Paper Pack, Little Girl Element Pack.

I used two projects I’ve been wanting to try out:  Candy Dispensers by Heidi Swapp & Jar Scenes by Rhonna Farrer.  I had a few adaptions.  I used a little larger plastic cup for the top – 16 ounces (also available at WalMart).  I also could not find my glue gun anywhere, so I used double-sided sticky square adhesive things (sorry – no name on those??) that I had from another project.

I also bent o-wires from my bind-it-all to make the places to stick the decorations to.  Then floral wire and sparkly clear embroidery floss for hanging clouds and airplanes from the top of jars.  🙂  Lace and pipe cleaners became the decor for the bottom part of the jars.  Now that I type it all out I wish I had taken photos along the way to better describe – sorry!  Some of these details are easier to see in the photos below.

A fun activity with a lasting use.  I loved all the creative ideas kicked around as we played together.  I can see variations on this theme popping up for years.  🙂

 

C that rhymes with T and that stands for…

Trouble.  Our little man, with trouble written all over his face:

I guess not all over… just half of a mischievous mustache.

Yes, I’m talking about you…

(and *bam* here’s where I get the giggles and he knows that he has yet again had another successful adventure with markers…)

a little announcement…

This one deserves a post all it’s own. 🙂

Yup, it’s a baby announcement.  And… it’s for our family.  :)!

Photo inspired by the adorable print here.

{Credits:  Meet & Greet Elements Pack by In the Making Design, “You are awesome” mini kit by Splendid Fiins (thought bubble – recolored), font: American Typewriter, “Just Love” and “Peace Man” actions on photo by Sarah Cornish, (myfourhensphotography.com)}

Strolling…

Speaking of celebrations, here are a few more from the merry merry month of May.

First off (although it’s the end of the month 😉 ) – Mom Pipes’ birthday.  She is one of my favorite people in the whole world.  She is always showing us the most amazing home decor items that she got for a deal. For her birthday I made her this “Treasure Finding Queen” card.

We slipped some money in there for her to use on her next excursion.

{For card credits, go here.}

Also in May:  Liz’s graduation.  The youngest in the family and one of the sweetest!  We had so much fun on this photoshoot – just her and me running around town, trying to get as many photos as the evening light would permit.  We both even scouted out the same green truck on the edge of town before hand (we’re a little similar 😉 ).  Later I had a lot of fun making her announcement too:

{credits:  background from Mouse Paper Scissors:Mom class by Jessica Sprague and Heidi Swapp, photostrip, stamps and chalkboard label from House of 3}

Feliz Fiesta!

{For credits, go here.}

This banner would have been perfect for Cinco de Mayo – if it was done in time.  Sometimes the food is a priority.  😉  The banner makes for a fabulous party decoration anytime though.  I was going for a colorful after-a-pinata-burst look.  *Fiesta!*

We celebrated the day by having yummy Cafe Rio style salads:

…and playing outside for hours with Jim Bob’s brother John.

There was lots of frisbee and then a new game broke out.  It started with one little one in a hollow construction tube:

Drewby started looking for a friend:

And along came Uncle John:

Soon there was a whole lotta people (5 in this photo) rolling around:

Times like that just make me smile.

So does this photo.  Partly because of the large apron-bib.  Partly the smile behind the binky.  The tight grip on the sippy cup… it all contributes.

Such a fun, laughter-filled playing time.

Later Jim Bob and John started their own fun.

 

Jim Bob called it “a new take on the classic log rolling sport of lumberjacks… with less water and more kids inside the log.”  Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.  🙂

You can even play frisbee at the same time… if you’re coordinated.

John got a lesson, Katey got snuggles and the neighbor got a wave…

We’re thankful John lives so close and could come visit – mid-week even.  He came to dinner and said the blessing on the food in Spanish.  John served his mission in Mexico and said where he served – they hardly celebrated Cinco de Mayo at all.  I found that kinda interesting… and sad.  I always imagined huge, noisy, yummily-scented celebrations.  I don’t understand all the social significance – it would make for some interesting research.  For me, Cinco de Mayo is a time to celebrate Mexican culture, most especially the food… and sometimes a pinata.

These were in the plans, but will have to be made for another time.  My ideas always outshine the time available.  We settled for fiesta Starburst instead, which were quite yummy and were thankfully on hand for such an occasion.  It’s not my favorite to change plans at the end, but our children are so good to adjust.  Plus if I was hurriedly trying to make mini pinatas, I would have missed out on the fun activities above.  How sad would that have been?  🙂  I’m learning.

Perhaps someday now that I have the banner made we can make miniature pinatas and have another fiesta.  That would be a fun activity to do together.  Feliz Tres de Septiembre?  Sounds good to me.  😉

Ready for s’more?

I have quite a few photos of projects I haven’t posted… and many fun stories and details behind them.  This week will be a sharing extravaganza.  Are you sitting on the edge of your seat?  Oh, good.  😉  First up we have an invitation to a birthday party:

{Invitation made with Cosmo Cricket’s Mr. Campy Journal Stack & Mr. Campy Elements – one of my favorite lines ever.}

Not just any birthday party… Joshua’s 8th birthday.  We won’t talk about his actual birthday date – this party happened much later.  It didn’t even happen on the date of the invitation.  (Thankful for perfect matching masking tape  🙂 ).  Joshua wanted an outdoor birthday party badly, but this last spring has been our wettest that I can remember.  We postponed it until the beginning of May and found a day that the weather was to be perfect.  No rain or snow.  Jim Bob wouldn’t get home until half-way through the party so he got the fire all ready to light – what a blessing.  We did get it lit:

and it even burned for a short time.  Sadly, we had a large wind storm blow through.  I believe two boys got to roast dogs before the smoke was too bad and the fire was not cooperating.  I tried to light the grill to cook the dogs, but the wind was incredibly too strong.  Thankfully hot dogs and s’mores can be cooked indoors as well.  One of the boys there mentioned that his family cooks them right on the racks in the oven.  We tried it out (I personally do not like boiled or microwaved hot dogs) and it worked pretty well:

Joshua had a grand time.  While I made the s’mores Joshua opened presents and his daddy took photos.  I love these captures.

And although I didn’t get any photos of the s’mores (it was a little busy!) – the wind finished blowing through and I was left with gorgeous lighting outside.  I was able to take a few after-dessert photos of the birthday boy’s little brother.  This being one of my favorites:

– look at those eyes and messy mug.  Pure delight.

Happy Birthday Joshua – how we love you!

Independence

**Happy Independence Day!**

Here are a few gems from my scripture study this morning.

‎”Faith of our fathers, we will strive to win all nations unto thee, And thru the truth that comes from God, mankind shall then be truly free.” (hymn #84)  I love that verse 3 teaches us how to win all nations unto God – “we will love…and preach thee, too, as love knows how, By kindly words and virtuous life.”

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”  Galatians 5:1,13

“And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters, for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.  And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free.”  Mosiah 5:8

Thankful today, and always, for the knowledge of true liberty and freedom.

**Happy Independence Day!!!  Stand fast.**

Parenting Lesson #3,092

…that I’m learning, but who’s counting.  😉

If the answer is going to be yes anyway, you might as well say it with an exaggerated nod and a sparkle in your eye.

Case in point:

Katey asked for the largest, curvest banana in the bunch.

I answered with my sparkly nod, letting her know I was in on her little secret… and was rewarded with a fruity smile.

Sweet.

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