Love Rocks

As I was perusing some blogs I love last week, I stumbled upon a fun Valentines idea over at my friend's blog, The Copycat Crafter. She introduced me to love rocks.

What are love rocks, you ask? They're rocks that you paint with your kids, and then you put them in a jar somewhere easily accessible. And then throughout February, whenever you do an act of love, like make someone's bed ect., you take a rock from the jar and then leave it on their pillow. :)

So, last Monday night, we gathered some rocks, paint, our little artists, and got to work!

We even let our littlest munchkin participate.  She had a ball painting herself!

But when it came to trying to paint her eyeballs, we decided to intervene. :)

So, it's been exactly a week since we came up with our love rock jar and it honestly hasn't been the biggest success. I think I've only left one love rock. :/

I'm just impressed that someone left me any! The other night when my son should've been sleeping, he instead brought every toy he owns (including his big hurky tool table) into my room. When I came upstairs to hit the sack, it was tricky dodging all the toys in the path to my bed. But when I made it there, I found a huge pile of rocks on my pillow...

Yep, LOVE ROCK(S).  You better believe I was feeling the love, and I never thought a giant mess and a pile of rocks could make me feel that way!

XOXO, Marie

Phototips: Won't You Be Mine??

Hey girls!

I've been antsy to put together some cutesy Valentines for my little kindergartner to take to school in a few weeks. I was super excited to find some freebie templates over at Florabella. All you have to do is like her page and then you get access to some fun downloads! I took myself to school today and figured out how to tweak them to my liking...anyway, now I'm all into design mode and don't want to stop! :) Maybe I'll figure out how to give you all access to download these cards I put together, but as of right now, I need to get dinner on the table!

Below is my first spin on one of Florabella's cards:

 Front:

Back:

And card number two...

Front:

Back:

There is also a free snow overlay that you can download. What do you think? I think it's kind of fun and kind of cheesy/fake at the same time. :) I think it might look more real if I added it to a genuine picture of snow falling.

And lastly, there was an awesome vintage frame template that I think comes in really handy for all kinds of things like a blog header or an album or even a Valentine card!


Let me know if you decide to go play with these Florabella downloads! I'd love to see you what you come up with...plus I think it's a great way to learn more about the wonderful world of Photoshop!

XOXO, Marie

Handmade Nighties

Happy MLK Day!

It's looking like we are going to be snowed in today! The kids are on cloud nine looking out the window. They're waiting patiently for more snow to fall before they pounce. Should be fun!

So, I'm guilty on at least five accounts of giving my mom my sewing projects. I struck out again this past Christmas. I had high hopes of making my kids and their two baby cousins matching handmade Christmas jammies. And then the next thing I knew my family arrived and it was practically Christmas Eve and still no pajamas. So, our sweet mom offered to help, and a few hours later she'd whipped out these pretty nighties for us!

We used this pillowcase pattern for the girls, and concocted our own pattern for the boys and they turned out oh so fabulous! One of my favorite things about the nightgowns is that we just pinned that red flower on for Christmas Eve, but since then I've taken it off, so it's a nightgown that works year-round. I think my girls look so dainty and sweet in their nightgowns that are so beautiful, they could even be worn as a dress!

 Thanks, Grandma Lisa! We love you!!

XOXO, Marie

Friday Picture Book: Bundled!

We're back with our regular Friday Picture Book, and today's word is...bundled. Lulu made a list of all the words we'll be doing this year under the "Words" tab above if you want to play along! Next week's word is whisper. :)

Marie:

Lulu:

Emma:

Lissie:

Here's to a kick-back three-day weekend!

XOXO, Marie

Monster LOVE

(Before I even begin, I have to give you a dog-ate-my-homework excuse for my tardiness...

Ummm... The monsters are really photogenic?) 

So, hi! We all know that Emma is a rockstar when it comes to giving gifts. I think she's secretly one of Santa's fairy elves, and guess what? She drew my family's name for Christmas this year! And I didn't really think much of it until Christmas morning when all these handmade gifts came one after another! I think she may be the first person I've met to actually execute all the cuteness she finds on Pinterest. Actually, I take that back. Lulu also made the kids sock bunnies! (Check back next week...for those pictures :))

Anyway, my heart still does a happy dance every time I catch a glimpse of the monsters Emma made my kids because, well, let me show you Juliette's monster:

IT LOOKS JUST LIKE HER!

Sisters, and sister monsters, make the best friends, don't ya think?

Ahhh! Monsters! Hide!

And you better believe Liam got his very own boy monster that he loves to snuggle up with...

But she didn't stop there.  She also made them a matching game out of Jenga blocks! She told me she found the generic brand of Jenga blocks at Target for real cheap and then glued scrapbook paper to them.

My girls LOVE these blocks and do adorable things with them all the time.

Like spell out "I love you."

And that's not all she made for us. She also made Isabella and me beautiful lace earring frames. Here's Isabella's on her dresser. She can't wait to get her ears pierced now!

And I can't forget about the APRONS! I love these Emma-made aprons so, so, so much!

And gah! Did I mention how my heart throbs for these monsters? Thanks so so so much, Emma! You amaze me!

XOXO, Marie

2012

Thanks to our baby brother, Bryant, we now have some updated pictures of the four of us! Thanks, B! He is a complete natural with the camera.

So, let's see. What should I tell you this first Monday of 2012?

*I've been living off Christmas goodies. I just discovered today that there is still some Nutella left in the cupboard! Yesss.

*I've been eyeing our new tramp out back. I'm trying to decide if I want to risk my life and do a back flip like in the olden days...

*I wore one of my new Goodwill shirts today and I love it! Oh, and I've been meaning to tell everyone that all Goodwills are NOT created equal. Up here in Port Orchard, I think we have it pretty good. Down in Cali? Yeah, not so much.

*I made a goal to set some goals.

*And lastly, Juliette is squealing in her crib so it's time for me to sign off and go grocery shopping so that we can stop living off of Christmas goodies.

XOXO, Marie