The Last Day of School

Isn't it strange how as parents we are so excited to take pictures on the first day of class? Like most parents I always get that first day of school photo op. Usually the smile is a little strained, nervous or anxious. The unknown world. I know we all have experienced that. This year I thought;

Why not take a last day of school picture?

This is when we should be snapping away. The kids are excited confident little beings who have learned alot........and bursting with energy and excitement to begin the summer adventure. So friends I challenge you to take that last day of school picture next year!

The dotters had exceptional teachers this year and we felt blessed to have such talented and amazing women teaching them. We wanted to do something special, so I threw together the treat jar pictured. Yummy carmel chocolate pretzels and my famous chocolate chip cookies. The girls wrote sweet personal notes to their teachers.(Brooklyn's is pictured.) Hope your kids teachers were as wonderful and you remembered to say thanks!

This Beautiful Land We Live In-Memorial Day Weekend

The long weekend, the start of summer vacation (almost) for the kids....yep Memorial Day Weekend. Nat and I have vowed, promised, crossed our hearts and pinkie promised (probably the most sacred of them all) to spend more time with our kids outdoors this summer. They love to hike, camp and bike and we live in a place where there is an abundance of all of those activities. We thought we would start the summer right and we spent some really fun family outdoor time with the kids. Just to make it more fun we had friends along on the excursions. The kids had a ball and we did too. Some fun pics from the weekend.....

On Sunday we went to American Fork Canyon with our friends the McEwans and roasted hot dogs, smores and went hiking. As you can see from the pics, Brooklyn and Savanna were most interested in seeing how many snails they could collect along the way.

On Monday our friends the Meigs invited us to go boating on Utah Lake. This was the first time the girls had been on Utah Lake. They went tubing and had a blast!

Show and Tell "Take 2"

I know I said I was going to post show and tell on Friday, but sometimes the days get away from you. I'm sure a lot of people can relate. I love boutique clothes, but I don't love the price tag, so I'm always trying to figure out how to create a unique look for my girls. I love fabric (and I will confess sometimes I will just buy 1/2 yard of fabric that catches my eye....and stash it for a rainy day. Most of the time I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I bought this fabric at Broadbents in Lehi (I think one of the best fabric stores in the area.) and knew I wanted to use it for something for the dotters. I was reading the Farm Chicks blog and saw this cute idea. Off to Walmart for some inexpensive tanks and skirts (tanks-$3, skirts-$4). I used wonderunder to fuse the fabric onto the clothes. I then outlined the patch with a zig-zag stitch. I bought some cute ric rac and pom poms for the skirt. I didn't have a skirt for 1dotter, so I made this fun headband. I sewed a strip of fabric and put together this white flower. The middle is a very cool red vintage button. I think the outfits came out cute and the dotters really love them.


Many, many years ago (when I lived back east) I used to sell really cool vintage clothing. I have always loved the hunt for that special treasure or cool vintage sweater. I would go to thrift stores often, and I always found great stuff. Fast forward some years (I won't tell you how many.) and I still love to go to thrift stores. Unfortunately I don't have as much time as I like and we live in a very vintage savvy time right now. So cool vintage stuff in thrift stores is hard to come by these days. I mostly go to DI now and once in a while I hit the jackpot. This past week, was a good week and I thought I would share some of my finds. You can still find some cool stuff there. Happy hunting!

I found this bag of trims and lace for $4 !!! Lots of cool vintage stuff in there. I can't wait to use it!

Close up of vintage trims and lace, I love the brown flower ribbon! I think it would look cute on jeans.

I picked up this cute crocheted beanie ($1) the knitted bag ($1) and 2 bridal crowns ($10 each)
I'm post the finished products of what I have in mind for this stuff!

How funky! I couldn't resist the fabric top hat! I'm going to redo it. ($1) I also found this cool hat cloche form. ($1)

Sing for Me

I want to share this audition tape of Bronwyn's for "Lehi's Got Talent".
Enjoy!

Friday Craft "Show and Tell"

I've decided every Friday, I will am going to write about the craft projects I have been working on that week. I feel like I'm in a really creative state of mind, and have been having fun with some ideas I've wanted to do for awhile. First, I love jewelry and am always trying to come up with some new ideas. Fun, funky stuff that I would love to wear and is unique. I put together some cool new necklaces, with pieces of "stuff" I've collected the last few months. It finally came together. Of course, the week would not be complete without making a few bracelets. I am certifiably OBSESSED with vintage buttons. I found some really cute sticker buttons at the BYU craft store (is a sweet little gem, and a nice break sometimes) and I had to have them. They truly spoke to me and really reflected my personality. A little hot glue and I had some adorable magnets. (I especially love the "I Love Blogs".) Finally, I bought this cute handmade kit at the "Beehive Bazaar" a few weeks ago and finally sat down and put it together. I am totally charmed by it; as were the "DOTTERS" and I plan to make one for each of them. They love little things....anything tiny or something with lots of parts. Luckily this little family house is contained in a cute box. I had lots of fun creating this week. Enjoy the show and tell!

A few necklaces I made with objects I love. Vintage buttons, Buddhas, these cool birds I found at a boutique, velvet ribbon and before you know it..... fun funky necklaces.

Fun magnets!
I love blogs! Magnet
Black, Bling and Red Vintage Button BraceletOrange Bling Vintage Button Bracelet. I love this one, because it takes a while to find vintage orange.

Blingy Gold Vintage Button Bracelet. Don't you love the hint of red and blue rhinestone. A sweet surprise!
Our little doll house box (outside)
Meet the family, with their beds, table, chairs, potted flowers, clothesline, stuffed animal and pillows. I used scrapbook papers for wallpaper, rugs, etc. It was fun to "decorate" this little house.
Detail of the bed and pillow, walls
Mom, the queen of course. I designed her outfit myself. (With a crown of course!)
Family in a box! :)

3rd Graders Meet Shakespeare

Last month Bronwyn read "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for her book report. They were allowed to do anything for their presentation. Nat has been developing his Shakespeare marionette show and we thought it would be fun to have her present it to the class. The show is based loosely on Jay Leno and is called "Shakespeare's Half Hour Comedy Hour". The show starts with Shakespeare and his opening monologue. He also does a top ten list, headlines and ends with the "mechanicals" community theatre presenting Prymus and Thisbee. This was perfect since that is taken directly from "Midsummer". Nat usually uses a different puppeteer but taught Bronwyn the show. I came and did some props and sound. The class was great and very responsive to the show. It is always good for Nat to do the show for an audience as he is trying to add and refine it. Bronwyn did great! She really enjoys puppeteering as well. After the show the kids asked lots of questions and wanted to work the puppets. Nat also stayed and helped them make their own paper cup marionettes. I think the class had a great time, hopefully learned something and Miss Russell (Bronwyn's teacher) was very appreciative of the event. Hopefully Bronwyn got an A on the book report!

My Little Artists

I love that quiet time when I can pull out supplies, treasures, etc and create something new and beautiful. Most of the time this happens in the quiet hours of the night when kids have been tucked in for the night. The girls however, always seem to be aware of the projects I am working on and beg on a weekly basis to do something too. Now, I have to be honest and admit after working a full day, running a household, doing homework.......you get my meaning..... the last thing I want to do is make "crafts" with my kids. Now understand, I have a room in our house full of projects and supplies that they try and enter on a daily basis. I could put them off no longer and we hunkered down Sunday afternoon to CREATE. I went in my room to find something. I had bought these little chipboard flower books really cheap and I also pulled stickers, ribbon and misc. paper to bring to the crafting table. They were so excited and went and found some pictures to use. I made them do all the work, Brooklyn traced, cut and glued everything. Bronwyn being more meticulous took her time to make sure the flowers were cut to perfection. We spent all afternoon working on the project. It was so nice being able to spend time this way with them. They love to create, just like I do and I realized I needed to allow them the resources and time to work on projects to allow their creativity to flow.It was the kick in the butt I needed and I have vowed to spend more time"creating" together. I leave you with the very wise words of Pablo Picasso:

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.