DIY: Soda Caddy makeover

So today's my birthday and the kiddos surprised me with a six pack of my favorite root beer and my craftiness is rubbing off, the girl's had to add their own touch to the soda before hiding it in the fridge for me to find on this morning! I love every part of it, they left no detail out. So let's see if I can describe this well enough to show off all their hard work.

 First the girl's used an acrylic stamping kit to make the bottle and caddy labels ( it's stamped onto a plain white postage label) and covered the soda caddy by gluing some scrapbooking paper to the cardboard and then they used round stickers on the bottle caps. 

Every part of this present is awesome just like my kids!

 Did I mention they're all under 12 years old, so it would make a great teacher of Father's day gift idea too.

Be sure to stop over and check out some other wonderful ideas over at Two Yellow Birds Decor!

Confetti and Balloons

Sometimes a birthday goes unnoticed like my 30th and sometimes birthdays require little need for fanfare like this year and sometimes all you need is the company of four of the most wonderful kids you could ever want and spend a lazy day drinking fabulous rootbeer on the beach. But don't get me wrong hanging out with 35,000 of your closest friends singing and dancing can be really fun too and if you bring your kids to see the Flaming Lips (yes it's the name of a band, for those of us over 35 and don't have an ipod ) live with confetti canons and giant balloons it can catapult you into super cool mom status instantly!

So here's to finally reaching a birthday where there's not enough room on the cake for all my candles! 

Link-up to:

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{WW} Hot off the Press

I'm exhausted from thinking literally, for the past week now the news about the fate of our daily paper like many others around the country isn't good. We will no longer be printing seven days a week and my job of 13 years is in jeopardy. I'm still in shock, it's like losing a best friend. I absolutely love what I do, meeting new people, sharing stories and connecting with tens of thousands of readers daily through my photos. It has been my way of making a difference in this world letting the good, the bad and the tearful be shared in your homes and at the breakfast table. I never dreamed of a better job or career this is what I aspired to do, it's the memories of our family sitting around the table on Sunday morning after church, talking about the stories, laughing over the comics and playing word jumble. I don't know how many people I've impacted in my 16 years as a photojournalist but there has been many hugs from strangers and thank you notes left in my mailbox and phone calls of gratitude, I can't imagine doing anything else. So as I wait to hear what will become of myself and co-workers I know that what we do we do out of a love and for every dogs that fetches the morning paper. The ink still runs deep in my viens and I hope for many more years to come.

I finally got through writing this post without crying until my kids delivered this handmade newspaper which made me tear up with both joy and sadness. They really spent a lot of time, energy and love making it just to put a smile on my face and if this can't I don't know what will.

The Early Bird Newspaper editorial staff: Zen, Luna, Stream and Little Eco.

WWednesdays Link-ups:

 

One Bad Egg

That's all it takes to leave you sick in bed for a week. I've read the packaging and heeded the warnings,
we don't even eat raw cookie dough not ever! So when my photographer brain kicked in and I had to
 snap a few shots of the eggs that looked so pretty sitting on my kitchen counter waiting to become our next dinner
 I wouldn't have thought it would turn into 5 days of recovering from salmonella.
 Yep, just like the egg cartons warn you about, playing with eggs is not recommended especially by this photographer.
But how many of us are ocd enough to sanitize our camera equipment, really? 

Lesson Learned.

Emotional post coming Wednesday bring tissues.... I'll be needing some.

Waving Proud!

When see the true joy my children get out of waving the American flag it's then I'm reminded of our freedoms to choose the life we want for our kids and love we have for one another. We wave our colors in good times and in bad and for a better future for all!

Remembering those who have served......

Happy Memorial day!

Join in on this weeks photo challenge over at The Paper Mama theme: “Outside”

Pinterest Dresser Love

via Pinterest

I've been seeing a lot more DIY dresser makeovers on Pinterest lately and my wheels of creativity are a spinning so I'll need to start hitting the local thrift stores. I'm really into the fabric covered dressers but we're really limited around here on funky fabrics so I'm leaning towards doing a creative paint job for my dresser makeover.

My three top dresser loves:

via Babble

via Mod Podge Rocks

via Casa Sugar

Happy Weekend!

Love You.... MORE!

This can last for hours, Little Eco and I go back and forth every night saying how much we love each other and in the end I let her get
the last I LOVE YOU MORE in before she falls asleep just
 because that's how much I love her more!

The banner was added to the photo in photoshop using my favorite Adhesive Nr. Seven free font.

Doctor in the House

I'm almost 100% recovered from my bout with salmonella, it's a casualty of photographing playing with eggs. Guess I didn't wash my hands well enough or maybe I forgot to wipe down the camera, what ever the case I was in bed for days and my house doctor medicine woman took very good care of me, even though she was super sick with a cough and head cold. But my doctor advised me that snuggling is the best medicine of all..... and pizza or was it gummy bears? Nope, it was definitely snuggling but we tried the other remedies out just to make sure.

No really Mommy this won't hurt, I promise.

But if I don't get ice cream for breakfast it might!

{WW} DIY: Prayer Flags

Normally I save my DIY projects for later in the week but we really had to get our flags up and start sending out some good vibes.
This was our second year making Tibetan Prayer Flags and it's one of our favorite activities to do as a family.  We learned about this project last spring when the kiddos made them in our local library's art class. They hung out in the backyard for 7 months sending wonderful messages in the wind. The story behind the flags is wonderful, Tibetan Buddhists for centuries have planted these flags outside their homes and places of spiritual practice for the wind to carry the beneficent vibrations across the countryside. Prayer flags are said to bring happiness, long life and prosperity to the flag planter and those in the vicinity. 

We have come to appreciate their inner message as much as their outer beauty.

Supplies:

Yarn for hanging

Fabric Glue

Sharpie Markers

Scissors

Scraps of color material cut into 6x6 squares

Scraps of white material cut into 4x4 squares

After you've cut the material scraps to size and before you or the kiddos get ready to decorate the white message squares take out your globe or a map and locate Tibet. My kids we fascinated by seeing how far away it is, we talked about their culture and religion and it helped them to get inspired before they began drawing and writing their messages. We also wrote some of the ideas on a chalkboard for the younger kiddos who need help in spelling.

1. Add glue on the back side of your decorated white squares

2. Place your decorated white square onto your colored material,

be sure to leave about an extra inch of room at the top for folding over the yarn.

3. Once dry turn the flag over and run a bead of glue at the top

4. Fold over the yarn that you will be using to hang the flags on, leave enough extra yarn to tie the flags where you'll want them.

Let dry and then hang in a windy spot in your backyard or garden. 

We are in need of some good energy lately, really big changes are on the horizon and some tough decisions have to be made soon. It's too early to know what the outcome but we are ready to jump in with both feet!

Fun and creative Linky(s)

Live Laugh Rowe 

Wordless(ful) Wednesdays :

Project Alicia

Seven Clown Circus

The Paper Mama

Jenni From The Blog

Live and Love Out loud