Love At Home Valentine Countdown.

Love at Home Countdown "home"

There is beauty all around when there's love at home.  This song is one of my absolute favorite church hymns.  When sung, it creates such a feeling of love, it's hard to ignore it's message (link here).  Inspired by Cristin @ Serendipity's "count your many blessings' house (link here), I put together this little house by converting a birdhouse into a representation of our home.  I have a few more things to do to it, but I'm not sure I'll get there before next Valentine's Day!  Eventually, I will have a hook at the top of the roof's peak where we can hang our Love At Home countdown.

Countdown felt envelopes.

Each day, a red felt envelope will be pulled out of our little Valentine mailbox.  In each envelope are words to the song There is beauty all around, when there's love at home.  I separated the three verse texts into phrases and put them on printable tags.  The idea is that we'll read the tag and talk about it's message and why it's important to our family.  I hope to make this a joyful experience for our family!  

fireplace mantle "Love at Home"

I purposefully made only 10 tags and didn't number any of them.  Sometimes life gets busy and I always hate getting to a countdown, two or three days late!  This way there is room for error and no room for trying to catch-up!  The printables will place easily into your Word document and fit easily on two pieces of paper.  Click the image below, right click, and push save as.   The file should be a high resolution jpg image.  Let me know if you have trouble and I can send you the individual image.  My email is shecalledme@gmail.com.

printable #2

Printable #1

Do you have a valentine countdown?

Have you heard There is beauty all around?

9 Little Clay Russian Dolls and a bird.

This Christmas I discovered a wonderful medium in natural air drying clay.  It's one of those products you wish you would have found earlier!  These nine little Mytryoshka dolls were sculpted from stone clay and air dried.  I made sure to put wire in the sculpted doll before it dried to hold the ribbon that would eventually allow it to hang on the Christmas tree.  The paint I used went on perfectly with no issues and I finished the ornaments with modge podge.  These ornaments were for a handmade ornament exchange I attended, so I can't wait to make some for me and the girls!

This bird was my first try at using the stone clay.  I tried stamping the wet clay first, but it didn't dry the way I was hoping.  I sanded, painted the bird when finished and found it a nice little home with a special friend.

Here's the clay I used...

do you work with clay?

Is there a better product available?

Tell me about your homemade ornaments!

Happy New Year!

Michelle :)

Happy Birthday Nini and Cici!

Waiting, to blow out their birthday candles while we sing to them!

I can't stop thinking about two fantastic little ladies that graced my life eight years and four months ago.  They were the sweetest babes I had ever seen, they were Ninia and Cici.  We had a pre-milestone birthday this year.  That year that comes right before a child's age becomes a double digit.  Thankfully, my 9-year old sweethearts still have one more year before the tenth birthday. 

Their 9th birthday lasted the weekend!  We had their friend party, a friend who had a birthday party, and our family party - all in three days.  They had a wonderful time at each event and are enjoying their each one of their birthday gifts.  Their favorites included the outfit that Cici has on -the scarf and headband!  A friend gave this to her and she just loves - so much so, she won't let me borrow that scarf!  Nini has been enjoying a couple lego kits she got and her very own cans of sliced olives! 

We also purchased a the new credit card monoply game.  Who has this?  You'll never go back to the "old" way of dealing out the money and sorting it!  I would have played monopoly a lot more if I had this version as a kid.



As some point during our family party, Cici opened one of those cards with a recorded song.  It was of Ariel's, Part of your World song from  Little Mermaid.   Hawk was so entranced by the music (he and Mr. T watch this all the time - it's their favorite) that he just stood their - like the photo- with his little hand on Cici's shoulder staring at the card.  It was a good five minute episode of pure cuteness!  

  

Treat and trinkets bag for party.

The girl's friend party was at a local movie theatre where they and six of their friends got to see  A Dolphin's Tail.  They also had cupcakes and pizza in the theatres movie room afterwards.  I personally, could not handle an at home party this year, and I am grateful for this option we had.  As a parting gift, I put together these bags with some fun candy and trinkets in it. 

Have you seen a Dophin's Tail?

Have you played the new monopoly?
Do you have like birthday parties away from home?

Missed Moments.

My father, Nini, Cici, and Mr. C

 There are a few missed moments that I really must blog about.  The first is Father's Day.  For the first time, perhaps since we moved from Portland in 1996, my father was at our home for Father's Day.  We had fun getting presents and cake for both of the Daddy's in our lives!









 The next missed moment was our 4th of July BBQ with friends and blogging buddy Amanda L.  It was fantastic getting to know Mr. Amanda L. and seeing her kids again. I know my girls were ecstatic that they came. 



Shannon, Kirsten, and Amanda L. -such cute moms!



All the kids getting wet and having fun!



I loved having so many kids running around the house.  Everyone seemed to have someone to play with, which made it easier for the adults to sit and chat. When Posey, Amanda's daughter changed into her bathing suit, Cici and her realized that they had almost matching swimsuits.  Quite the excitement!
 

Michael (Shannon's other half) and Terry (Amanda's other half) lighting the sparklers



 We were supposed to get a permit from our town to do any major fireworks - and didn't.  We did a few sparklers and a few other low-key fireworks.  Craig is hoping for something bigger next year!

Of course, Amanda and I waited until it was dark to take our self-portrait for blogland.  So it's inside, with a flash!  Loved Amanda's bag and necklace - so chic!  My family were all dressed in Boston Red Sox attire - in honor of Mr. C's excitement over living in an area with a major baseball team.  He's becoming quite the fanatic!



lights at the baseball game



The last missed moment revolves around more baseball!  Our area has a local baseball team that we have been lucky to help out by going to some of their games.  Craig has taken the girls on a date once and now Craig and I took the girls and one of their friends to a game a couple of weeks ago.  We are truly enjoying being a part of a community.  Rather than all that moving!





The girl's watching the game with a friend.



Thanks so much for catching-up with my missed moments! 

If you miss a moment, do you post it later or never?

Do you like baseball?

Do you have a local team?

How is your summer?

A Blueberry 4th!



Mr. C and Mr. T await the finished blueberry ice cream on the 4th!



This fourth of July was full of blueberries, friends, and fun!  Here is Mr. T awaiting the finished-home made blueberry ice cream that Mr. C likes to make frequently during the summer.  Mr. T, of course, had his hands in the ice cream container the moment we weren't looking - oops!  We couldn't of planned the blueberry ice cream any better, as one of our guests surprised everyone with two homemade blueberry pies!  I have lots of photos from our fun day with fellow blogging buddy Amanda L. and friends - but, this is all I have time for today! 

How was your fourth?!

L-O-V-E spells Daddy :)

L

O

V

E

**********

SPELLS

WE

Daddy!

 This was a my father's day gift to Mr. C!  A photo-gram to put in his office.  He's been asking for an updated photo and this Father's Day - he got one!  The letters were made out of black felt and glued (for a quick and speedy photo) onto inexpensive white shirts.  That was the easy part!  It was getting everyone together and in the photo, that inevitably was the hardest part.  This was a lot of fun and something I hope to repeat for our Christmas card!   



Out-take - one of many!