{Easy Wall Art 4 Kids}

I am absolutely famous for buying supplies for a specific project and never getting around to it. I have purchased 2 sets of wood letters spelling out my girls name over the years with high hopes of decorating them and hanging them above their bed. Ummm, never happened. Then probably about a year or 2 ago I found these awesome chipboard letters in Joann's for a buck each. They were all different pastel colored patterns. Each one was different. Very cute. I managed to pick up letters to spell Grace and I *think* I was only able to get the E-M and I for Emilee's name (at least those are the only ones I could find at home). Anyhow, now ready to finish this project, I went back to Joann's to look for the L-E and E to finish Emilee's name and no such luck. :( Figures. Good think we call her Emi a lot so at least I could put her nickname up on the wall.

This was probably the easiest project I've done to date and it was really inexpensive.

The Supplies

• Flat thumb tacks
• Chipboard letters
  
• Chipboard shapes (flowers, hearts, anything you like)
• Hot glue gun
• Ribbon
• String, yarn or ribbon (my shapes were actually chipboard buttons so I used the yarn to make them look sewn. Leave this step out if you have solid pieces to use.)

First I took some ribbon, thread it through the letters and spaced them out according to my liking.

Then I took my yarn and "sewed" my chipboard buttons. I used a toothpick to help push the yarn through the small holes.

Next I took my hot glue gun and glued the thumb tacks to the back of each of my chipboard buttons and let them dry.

Once they were dry I took the letters to my girls room and used the now decorated thumb tacks and hung the letters above their beds on the wall.

Piece of cake! :) If you use this tutorial, I'd love to see your finished projects. :)

*Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to photography so please forgive the horrible picture quality and lighting on some of the pictures.

{The First Day of School}

So the day has finally come. The first day of school for Emilee (kindergarten) and Gracie (preschool). They both only had to go for an hour today but they both did really well. Grace went right into the room and began playing with the toys. I was able to leave, fill out papers and come back without her even noticing. She even told me "I didn't cry". What a big girl she is. She begins her regular class on Tuesday where she'll be starting on the color purple and will be learning about creation during Bible time. Absolutely love it that she will be learning the Bible. :)

Emilee and I got to her school and found a bunch of parents and kids waiting outside. I was excited to see one of the mom's that I had become friendly with during orientation in the spring. Even more excited to find out that her son and Emilee were in the same class. Her teacher seems very nice too. I got to speak to her for a few minutes just filling her in on some of Emilee's little quirks (i.e. very chatty and sensitive). We found Emilee's locker outside in the hall and also found her name all over the classroom on different boards. She's the only one in her class with a December birthday so that should be a special time for her this year in school. Tomorrow she goes for a half day and then on Monday it's full day from here on out. Let the fun begin!

{I Thought I Was Raising Girls}

Last night Tim was working late and Gracie had taken a late nap so naturally I was dreading the night. I was pretty tired from all the laundry I managed to get done yesterday and I really just wanted to crash. Then I thought about my new friend Amy's blog and how she talks about making memories with her girls (she has 3!). Recently she blogged about how her girls were so excited about these aprons they had recieved and when she got home from the gym (exhausted and tired) at 8:30 at night they surrounded her asking her to bake with them. As tired as she was, she took her girls to the kitchen and they whipped up a quick dessert and made a fun memory. Well, clearly I had no excuse (we all know I was not at the gym working my butt off! )so I announced that we were going to have a girl's night in my bedroom including my bed, popcorn and a movie of their choice. Daddy Daycare it is. Or as Gracie calls it Daddy Aycare. She's been dropping the first letter off of a lot of words lately. She'll say ola bar when she means granola bar. She calls our favorite restaurant Ugaboo when it's really Bugaboo. Very cute.

Anyhow, about a 1/4 of the way into the movie, Gracie lets one loose. Of course Emilee had to say "eeew, who farted?" and it began. The farting, the smelling of the hinee's, the laughter. lol The 2 "princesses" were getting such a kick out of themselves. They had so much fun just carrying on and laughing. Strangely enough the room didn't even really smell .Well, maybe just a little. lol Here I thought I was raising "girls" but clearly these 2 hold their own if ever a little boy enters our family. :)

{Before & After}

No, I'm not doing before and after pictures of my almost 100 lbs weight loss. But, that's coming. Soon. (hint hint - hit that nice little subscribe button to your right so that you don't miss out on that post :)Today I'm participating in a Before & After party over at Thrifty Decor Chick. If you want in on the fun, visit TDC and grab the details. :)

Okay, so in the Spring we re-did our bathroom. And boy oh boy did it need it. We gutted the whole thing down to the studs, replaced the plumbing and created our dream bathroom. I don't think I stopped smiling the whole time I took a shower for the first time. I felt like I was on vacation.

The "Before"ShotsOur house was built in the '50's and I think the tub and floor were original. Totally gross. Wait until you see the duck tape. lol

Our horrible spackle/repair job. I have no words for this.

Ahhh, there it is. The ducktape. Lovely. We had caulked and recaulked it so many times that finally I just threw some ducktape on there until the construction work begain.

"During"

The whole job took about a month. One very. long. month.

The "After" Shots

I forgot to take a picture of the bathtub and shower area after the bathroom was completed and this was the only one I have so please ignore the unfinished window and blue painters tape on the right. (I picked up the shower curtain at Bed, Bath & Beyond if anyone is interested.)

I knew I wanted the dark fixtures but was not sure about the floor. Then on our first of many trips to Home Depot (which is where we purchased 99% of the supplies for our bathroom)with our contractor (and friend, Phil) my husband saw that chocolate brown tile and I fell in love with it. I was sold. Probably the easiest decision I had to make during the whole construction process. I never want to design another bathroom. Again. So many decisions had my head spinning. Not to mention the many 3+ hour trips to HD with the 2 little crazy princesses. I'm surprised I did not wind up in a mental hospital. lol

This used to be just a wall behind the door. We went into Princess Emilee and Princess Gracie's closet and took up about half of it to make shelves in the bathroom. They now have a small closer but we did have an extra shelf and bar put up so that each princess has their own rack for clothes.
Not shown here, we also have a towel rack under the medicine cabinet for decorative towels. I made the flower arrangements for dirt cheap. Got the vase in Michael's for a few dollars, used some old smoothe rocks for inside to keep the flowers in place and got 3 long stems/branches of flowers on sale at Michael's also. The whole thing cost me less than $10. I love a good bargain. :)

{Sunday Reflections}

We had a cool little detour on the way to church this morning. About a mile or 2 from church we saw a man walking with his Bible. I recognized him to be a homeless man that one of our church members usually brings to church. We turned the car around and just as I thought, it was Leonard. I only know his name because we asked him when he got into our car. He told us where he was coming from which was probably a good 7 miles or so. And when we made mention that that was a long way to walk to church his response was, "I go wherever the Lord gives me the strength to go". That statement made my heart happy. I'm sure we were a blessing to Leonard by picking him up but he blessed me today.

Later on in the day I received this video clip from my old Mary Kay director, Jenni. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhCF8GN8rWI It's of her 10 year old daughter leading a worship song at church this morning. I absolutely love it when I see children grow up in the ways of the Lord. As a mom, it's my responsibility to train up my children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). It's been my prayer more and more these days to raise Godly children and set a Godly example to my girls. I'm so far from perfect and fleshly in many ways but my prayer is to be more like Jesus and for my girls to grow up to love the Lord with all their heart. At least my heart is in the right place. :)

Right after I listened to this video clip, it was time to put the girls to bed. Tim sat the girls down, had me find a worship song on Playlist.com and reminded them of what they learned in their Sunday school class this morning: be kind to your neighbor. Of course they were getting antsy and squirmy and acting like they had ants in their pants but when we played Jesus Lover of My Soul, we worshiped together as a family and the sweet peace and presence of God rested on us. I love these lyrics:

I love you, I need you
Though my world may fall
I'll never let you go
My Savior, My closest friend
I will worship You
Until the very end

No matter what we go through and though everything around us may seem to fall apart, as long as we hold close to Jesus, everything will be alright. I'm thankful for the Lover of My Soul today.

{New Blog Reads}

When I decided to re-do my blog, I only kept some of the gadgets because I was just too lazy to make notes of all the rest. Plain and simple. So, I lost my blog list. I was not too worried because I had actually found most of my new favorite reads by visiting Collette over at Jesus Loves Mums. So, I took a gander over there a little while ago and took some notes and re-created my blog list.

Since I'm naturally addicted to the computer and since this has just felt like the world's longest day, I have been wandering around the web looking for some more new favorite reads. Lately I've been in a crafty mood. I haven't really done any projects but I'm always on the lookout for some neat idea or project to do with the girls. Well tonight must have been my lucky night because I came across of bunch of really great ones. Check these out:

Hostess with the Mostess
Little Birdie Secrets
A Feathered Nest
Crafty Chicks

{Princess Escapades}

The past few days have been so busy. The hubs had the day off yesterday so that always throws my routine off interferes with my loafing around. I took the girls for haircuts at Snippets. While it's fun for them, I think that place is totally overrated and overpriced. I could have brought them to my favorite hair dresser EVER, Tosha, and she would have given them a better cut and it would have cost me much less. But.........I digress. I forgot to bring the camera too. Not one of my better mothering moments.

I redesigned my blog.................again. I even changed the name a bit. I think The Princess Escapades is definitely more fitting. lol It's always an adventure. For example, on our way to Snippets we had to stop at Target so that I could use the bathroom. I'm famous for having to make pit stops. I get that from my mom. Anyhow, I drag Princess Emilee and Princess Gracie into the stall with me and are hoping and praying that they don't open the door on me (which Emilee did once but that's another post!). Grace sits on the floor (I know, ewww gross) and decides it would be fun to peek under the wall at the lady next to us. I hear this loud gasp and shreek. lol I'm embarrassed although I think it's hilarious and I'm trying not to laugh. Poor lady. lol So, yeah. This title is definitely more fitting, don't ya think?