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Rustic Autumn Wreath | A Simple Craft

September 24, 2012 By Laura 20 Comments

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 If you’d like to add a touch of crafted Autumn decor to your home, but don’t have a lot of time or energy right now, this wreath is for you! It is so very simple and quick to make.  I think it’s beautiful, and has a real rustic flair that fits right in here at our homestead.

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I hung our wreath in the sun room, on the wall directly in front of anyone coming in through our front door.

It’s so very simple to make, you really don’t even need to be shown how.
But I will tell to you how, and give you a couple of tips as well.

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Start with a stick/branch wreath, which can be found ready-made at your local craft store.

The pumpkins I also found at the craft store. They are very light in weight, made of a paper medium, and some kind of painted wire.  They are finished with a shellac, and they came as a bunch in a net bag, much like potpourri comes. So you may want to look in that area.

005_fall-home-decor-crafts To attach them to the wreath, I used a small piece of raffia! I simply slipped it under the wire on the bottom/underside of the pumpkin, and tied it onto a branch where I wanted the pumpkin placed. How easy is that? I cut any excess tails of raffia I didn’t need, but I don’t even care if it is seen, because it just adds to the simple rustic charm of  the wreath, in my opinion.

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Then I added some nice looking faux fall leaves.  You can simply just tuck them under the intertwining sticks of the wreath. But if you want to be sure they stay, and/or plan to save the wreath to use year after year, I recommend using a dab of glue from a glue gun at the base of the leaf or stem area, and stick in between branches in an inconspicuous place.  The leaves don’t need to be any more attached than that, and keeping the leaves loose gives it a more natural look.

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Just follow that technique with leaves and pumpkins, all the way around.

007_autumn-crafts-decor The little birdie is just a clip on, and was also picked up at the craft store at some point. It was one we had, and it not only went perfectly with this wreath, with it’s warm tones, but added new interest.

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The wide ribbon is wired, which can be a little difficult to work with, when tying bows or making nice curls. But I found a trick I’ll share with you.
TIP:   When working with wired ribbon, use an aluminum can, cup, or any cylinder object to make nice curls for the tail of your ribbon, or uniform loops in your bows.  Simply choose an appropriately sized cylinder object, relevant to the size you’d like your curls or loops, and use it to shape your ribbon.  You can place the cylinder into the loops to make them nice and round where they curve around, and/or wrap the ribbon around the tails to make nice curls.

009_autumn-home-decor It’s really as easy as that! It can literally be done in 10 minutes.

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It’s not only a simple and beautiful wreath for this awesome season, but you can say you made it yourself.

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Project, FALL Crafts and Creations, FALL Home Decor, Home Decor, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, Seasonal Home decor, The Homestead Tagged With: autumn home decor, autumn-crafts, Autumn-decor-ideas, autumn-wreath-tutorial, autumn-wreaths, fall-crafts, fall-decor, fall-home-decor, fall-wreath-tutorial, fall-wreaths, rustic-wreaths, seasonal-crafts, seasonal-decor, seasonal-wreaths

Customized Sketchbooks | DIY idea

September 18, 2012 By Laura 15 Comments

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The kids and I are well into a new school year here, and things are going really well so far.  Our oldest is a high school sophmore now, and the 3 youngest (triplets) are fifth graders.  So naturally, each year has gotten more academically involved, deeper and serious for all of us;  myself as the teacher, and they as students.  But I can freely admit that I am learning almost as much as they are, and enjoying my re-education as we progress with each year.  I love finding new ways to keep their homeschooling experiences fun.

One new idea I came up with this year, actually came about as I was brainstorming a gift idea for a special-little someone-else in my life.  While that gift is more elaborate and expensive, and personalized from me, it occurred to me that it might be fun to incorporate the general idea into our schooling, on a more budget level, for my own kids. So I mentioned the idea to them, of keeping their own sketch books throughout the year, and was not prepared for their level of excitement about it! I also wanted them to customize their very own a little bit, so they treasured them more.

The intentions for these sketch books are for the kids to just use freely whenever they want to, to practice drawing, write a little poetry, journal some thoughts, or even just doodle as they feel like it. But I did let them know I may ask them to use their sketch pads to express their thoughts or feelings in any way they’d like, following field trips or other home schooling or life events worth noting, in an artistic way. These pads are for dry medium only, but naturally you can adapt the general idea to any kind of pad, as well as customize the cover using any material you’d like. But today, I’m just sharing with you what we did.

Here’s the basic supplies we worked with:

  • customized-sketchbooks-idea-1 Inexpensive spiral bound sketching pads
  • Modge Podge
  • Foam brushes
  • Scissors or an X-Acto type blade

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And, 12″ x 12″ patterned scrap booking paper.  These are the sheets my kiddos picked out for themselves.

Now things are about to get ever-so-slightly-messy. Especially with kids. So I thought I would tell you my cheap little trick I use for protecting the table for all of our craft happenings . . . . . .

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TIP: Plastic party table covers, from the Dollar Store!  One usually lasts us for many, many projects. When we are done working, we make sure any paint or glue on it is dry, and then we just roll it up in a ball and put it away for next time.  (You could fold it, if you really need to. I know some people are like that. Hey, I have my own weird issues, but they are different. I’m not judging! lol)

customized-sketchbooks-idea-2 So the first step is putting a quick layer of Modge Podge on the back of the patterned paper.

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You don’t want to put any excessive amount on, or go over and over it, or the paper will get kind of soggy, and buckle.
But you do want to go right to the edge of the paper.

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Then also put a layer all over the cover of the sketchbook.

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Then carefully place your Modge Podge’d paper, onto your Modge Podge’d sketch pad cover.

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You can line up your paper evenly, by using the spiral bind as a guide.
Be sure to smooth out any air bubbles in the paper.

Now, the paper was not cut to size on purpose. You could figure out and prepare the exact size paper you needed ahead of time. But it just seemed easier to me to just put it on their, and then either trim off the excess, or just fold it over into the inside of the cover.

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These particular sketch pads were conveniently 12 ” tall, but only 9″ wide, so we had 3 extra inches to fold in.  The putting Modge Podge on both surfaces is just a preference, and may not be necessarry.  I just know with my kids, these sketch books were going places, and going to take a traveling beating. So, I figured the more secure the paper was adhered, the better.

customized-sketchbooks-idea-8 Granted, not all of them came out with the paper put on perfectly straight anyway, because they are kids, and doing the best they can. And perhaps not as particular and picky as I am! (Which really, has got to be a nice feeling, sometimes!) They just had fun making them, and were really excited about the whole project. Which is really the best part:  Kids being proud of what they made, and caring for those things that much more, because it is their own creation, from start to finish.

customized-sketchbooks-idea-9 I’ll tell you, it’s been weeks now, and these sketch books have proven to be a really great idea for my kids. They have really used them, on their very own whims. Regularly! Every day. It’s a beautiful thing to catch your kids sketching this or that.  Sometimes really working on a particular one over time, trying to make it come out just right. This is how all of my illustration skills were born!

As you can see, we further personalized their sketch pads, with their initials. Those were all cut in vinyl for them, but they each specified the exact initials they wanted, colors, design and arrangement. I think they all came out so great!  And each cover really does well express their individual styles and personalities.

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 I hope this idea inspires you in some way. I know that for me personally, any notebook or sketch book full of blank or lined paper, gives me the butterflies.  IS there anyone else out there, who understands what I mean? The opportunity for expression just laying before those two covers, is exciting!  So consider making yourself a special one of your own, and just let whatever wants to come out of your head to your hand, come out. See what happens inside! You may be surprised, and you may just enjoy every minute of it. Everybody should just take time to chill and doodle, sometimes.

Thanks for coming over. Please share this idea if you are so inclined.

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Filed Under: Budget, Crafts & Creations, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Project, Homeschooling, Kids Arts and Crafts Tagged With: Catholic-families-Catholic-blogs, customized-sketchbooks, doodling, encouraging-imagination, homeschooling, illustrating, journaling, journals, sketchbook-ideas-for-kids, sketchbooks, triplets

Part II: A Day of Celebration Fun! | Our Triplets’ 10th Birthday

September 10, 2012 By Laura 1 Comment

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 I told you Part II was coming!  There could be a Part III but, I can let it go. It was a big day though, and I took a lot of photos of so many special moments. (If you missed it, you can find Part I here.) But listen, here’s the truth of it all:  You know I (we) love to share with you our crafting ideas, house projects, decor, recipes, and all of that. But our kids . . . . . . They are our greatest creation of all! Well, God’s creation, of course, of ours. They are the reason we celebrate, every day. And they really love to see and read the posts on our blog!  Especially the ones about them. It’s their childhood memories recorded, for them to hold onto. So if you want to skip it, we won’t hold it against you.  : )

So, after their big water balloon fight at the park, we came straight to the beach for just a couple of hours, before dinner and their birthday surprise.  Of course they had already been in the sun for some time, so birthdays or not, it was time for sunscreen! Confession time:  Over the past 15 years of raising my 4 kids, I have realized there are only 2 ‘mom jobs’ I have really hated:  1) When they were very little, putting on and tying all of their shoes! Uuu-Gh. 2) And the other is putting sunscreen on them.  (OH!  And the wiping in the bathroom while potty training too! But gosh, that one’s a given. Isn’t it?)  Sometimes, Michael and I can still hear in our heads, the little voices yelling from the bathroom, “I’M DONE!!”

What you should know about me is, when I really hate doing something, I’m going to find a way out of it! So all of the shoes and boots thing got to a point with the triplets where I just announced one day “OK! That’s it. Today, we are going to spend the whole day just learning how to put on and tie your very own shoes, all by yourself! Isn’t that exciting, Guys? I don’t really care if you are only 9 months old.”  (Kidding.)

For the sunscreen applying, here’s my trick.  First I just spray them, and then I line them up like a train . . . . . .

sunscreen-tip-for-moms-of-many-kids Am I a mean Mama, or what? Turns out, they don’t like putting sunscreen on any more than I do! Imagine that. They just had no idea the fun they were missing out on. For the rest of their bodies, I spray it where it needs to go, and the rub it in themselves. But for their backs, they need each other.  What do you think of that?

Personally, I think I’m a genius.

Something had to be done. We practically live on the beach.

triplets-10th-birthday-beach The ocean is like our backyard.

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-1 They are all serious water babies.  Probably most of all Olivia, who is difficult to get out of the water. She even asks to take a shower at really odd times; and I know she just wants/needs to get into the water.

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-2 Probably least of all, is Shane. The boy cannot take the cold water! Look at him!  Its like . . . . . . excruciating for him! They were trying to all put their feet up together and next to each other, but he just couldn’t stand it any longer, and bailed.

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-3 But Olivia and JackMichael managed.  And that got me pondering one of those little weird life questions . . . . . .

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-4 How can the bottom of 2 little people’s feet, be such different colors?  They are siblings. ‘Super-twins’, even.  I do know that JM’s feet sweat and stink more.  Maybe that is some kind of clue to this mystery. But I’m not sure what to do with it, to figure this out.

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Oh; this one.  I’ve got to catch you all up on her. She’s got a lot of exciting things happening in her life. Especially for a just-turned-15 year old.  And I’ll tell you what else:  I think I’ve been warned 1,000 times over in life, about what a nightmare being a parent of a teen is. I’m here to say, if this is as bad as it gets with any of our kids, we’ll be getting off easy! I’m thanking God she’s our ‘trail-blazer’. (That’s what I call her. ; )  That’s my little hot reminder to her, that she is setting an example, every day! Hoping the littles are taking notes!

Not to say she is perfect, by any means . . . . . .

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-5 ( Taunting her sister with seaweed. )

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-6 Remember doing this as a kid? There’s a sure way to get sand in your shorts.

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-7 Sometimes, I love to just watch them.

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-8 Olivia senses the Mamapaparrazzi is watching.

I’ve got to tell you:  My most favorite photo of the day, I can’t even show you! It’s almost killing me, too. But my boy asked me not to please blog it or put on Facebook.  (Actually, he said, “You better not!”) And, I would never go ahead and do it anyway. I try very hard not to embarrass my kids, or ever disrespect their privacy, online.  When I think of it, I’m pretty happy my mother wasn’t blogging and all over the internet while she was raising . . . you know . . . . Cain. (Or is it…me, who was raising cane? Well, whatever.) But back to the photo of my boy – I’ll just tell you that it involved losing his bathing suit shorts a bit, on his backside.  Oh my goodness. It’s just the sweetest shot. When they were little toddlers, and losing their diaper a bit, I thought it was so cute! I would have thought that my gushing over it would go away as they got older but….nope!  Still wicked cute. (Ask me again when they are teens. I promise you; There will be no “lookin’ like a fool with their pants on the ground”. ; )  Not cute, and not happening, when they are older.

triplets-10th-birthday-beach-9 Anyway. This day was going by too fast. It was time to get home and take showers, before heading to dinner and their big surprise, which would be Part III. But as of this posting, those photos aren’t even processed yet.  So in case I never get to it, after dinner we went to our favorite park, and gave them their gift: Razor Scooters in their own colors, and gear. (Helmets, pads, etc.) Boy were they happy! It was awesome to see them so excited, hop right on them and go racing off and racing each other, around the park.

I know most of you have your own joys and blessings, in the way of children, as well. And for those we know, we love to watch your children grow up, in various ways as we can too.  It’s nice to share the special (or difficult) moments of this parenting gig, with each other. Kids. They don’t always make life easy. But gosh, they sure do make life worth it!  God is so good, and we are so thankful to Him, for blessing us as He has.

Thanks for stopping by. And please say hi. Hope you didn’t get any sand in your shorts while you were here. : )

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Filed Under: Celebrations, Parenting, Photography, The Big Picture Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, family-celebrations, kids-beach-fun, multiple-kids-sunscreen-trick, triplet-birthdays, triplets

A Day of Celebration Fun! | Our Triplets 10th Birthday: Part I

September 3, 2012 By Laura 3 Comments

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We have yet another furniture refinish coming up, as well as more fun & easy crafty ideas to share with you all! However, for the sake of those who also like to follow our family’s more personal antics, for this post and a Part II coming up, we are giving a peek via (many) photos into the day of our triplet’s 10th birthday.  It was a day jam packed with fun for sure, from morning until bedtime!  As the Mama of these 3 babes, I just wanted to really enjoy watching them have fun all day, and casually get a lot of photos of them being 10!  Here just some of them from the first part of their day. We hope you enjoy them, if only to realize what a crazy family we are. : )

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Michael, their Daddy, needed to run out in the morning for a bit.  He was sure he would not be home when they got up in the morning, so he left them a note.  (He’s a clever one, with a pen, too.)  This got the morning giggles on a roll, and the day’s chaos into 2nd gear, anyway.

triplets-10th-birthday He was home before we knew it, and the birthday trio were able to have their traditional birthday number pancakes.

triplets-10th-birthday-1 Speaking of 10, I think that’s about how many they each usually eat.  I don’t know where it goes.

004_water-balloons We decided a great water balloon fight was in order!  So we filled 180 balloons, tied them off, and collected them all in a big plastic bin.

As excited as they all were, we suddenly had a whole knew idea for the water balloons:

We wondered which would be more fun:  Having the water balloon fight that we planned?…..

or……..

005_hedgehog Putting our hedgehog, Pixel, in the bin their on top of all of the water balloons, and watch her freak out as every move she made popped another balloon, with her razor sharp quills!  We got laughing pretty hysterically, just imagining the sight of witnessing that. But, we decided that was probably too mean to do to our beloved little pet, and stuck with our original idea.

Our yard is simply not the best area for a balloon fight of this manner, in terms of open wide space. So we hit the great grassy green park, just down the street.  Had the whole place to ourselves too!

LET THE WATER BALLOON FIGHT BEGIN!

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010_ Alexis hit her target, alright!

011_ But pay-back, was IMMEDIATE!

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Run, O!!

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JackMichael tried to re-arm himself quickly, without getting hit. But he wasn’t quite fast enough.

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This last photo cracks me up, when I look at Shane, on the far right. He often gets laughing so hysterically, he becomes unable to fully function.  I am just like he is. I’ve almost drowned more than once, laughing too hard out in deep water. I just sink! Seeing my kids laugh makes my heart so happy. (As long as their not in deep water, of course.)

There was a lot more fun on the agenda this day, including the trio’s big surprise!  We hope you enjoyed this post, and look forward to coming back again for Part II!

Have you or your kids had a good water balloon fight this summer?  What are your favorite childhood memory activities? Share with us your stories. We’d love to read about them!



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Filed Under: Celebrations, Photography, The Big Picture, Traditions Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, family-celebrations, triplet-birthdays, triplets, triplets-10th-birthday, water-balloon-fights

Blessed, Blessed, Blessed | Our Triplets Turn 10!

August 30, 2012 By Laura 4 Comments

Today, on this last day of August, we happily celebrate our triplets’ 10th birthdays.

triplets-10-2012 JackMichael, Olivia Faith & Shane Jacob.

Ten years ago today, they doubled the size of our family, multiplied the love in our hearts, and became three of the greatest blessings we have ever known.

Filed Under: Celebrations, The Big Picture Tagged With: 10-year-old-triplets, blessings, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, celebrations, multiple-births, multiples, multiples-birthdays, triplets

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