First Vinyl Experience.

So I decided I wanted to make a prototype for my daughters Valentine's Day craft night we will be hosting in 2 weeks. After many wonderful pins on Pinterest - I found a couple of great ideas that I would be willing to try with six 7-year-olds! Shout to to the Life{Sweet}Life Blog, who gave me the instructions on how to make my own Gumball Machine Candy Jar! I decided to write the words "sweet" across the glass of my bowl. I found a great deal on vinyl at JoAnn's - only $6.99 regular price vs. Michael's $9.99 - and JoAnn's was having a 40% off sale on Cricut items! $4.19 per vinyl roll - not a bad deal!

Being new to this whole Silhouette adventure - I had no idea how to run it through my machine. Luckily, my high school friend/college bff-roommate/mom friend who has a silhouette gave me some pointers. She said:

Don't use the cutting mat...uncheck it in the cut settings.

You can leave it on the roll and feed it in then cut or cut the amount you need.

So - I did that. I felt really strange putting the vinyl in with only one side not being held down. As the vinyl was going back and forth and then eventually sideways - I thought....hmmm...I don't think this is how it is supposed to go. It kind of looked like a dance - so much so, that I video taped it.

Quite whimsical - don't you think?

So I texted her the photo of the aftermath... #fail

Little did I know - that you can move your rollers! So I did that - and tried again! Now this is looking like it should...

It finished up - and #success!

So, I had painted my base and top red - added the black vinyl lettering....and ta da! I need to add some candy and ribbon - but not too bad!

In my own pickiness - the letters are a little too large - and for craft night I will make them smaller. But what a super cute - inexpensive idea for Valentine's Day! Love it!

Words of Wisdom

Today, I had my health students reflect on the last year. All students in this class are girls. I gave them this handout I found on Pinterest.  I wanted to know over the course of the last year, what did they learn, what was the hardest thing they went through, what did they love about the year. Then I had them think about this coming year and what they are looking forward to.

Greatest Lessons Learned in 2013:

Being someone you are not is going to get you nowhere but lost. Don’t let others control your emotions.

Not everyone is kind to you, but you should be even nicer to them.

Not everyone is going to like you, and that’s okay. Just  be yourself.

Growing apart from someone isn’t always a bad thing.

That we are forgiven no matter how bad the sin, but strive for not doing it again.

Not everything in life is going to be easy, but you have to keep your head up.

I don’t have to be afraid of people and what they think. Their opinion of me is irrelevant.

No matter how many reasons you have to fall, show everyone that you are stronger – and get back up.

 

What I really want in 2014 is:

To give people a chance and not judge them by physical features. Accept everyone like I would want to be accepted.

Confidence in my body. I believe confidence is key. But I do not love my body. I will though.

Forgiveness and to forget the past.

Is for people to stop being so cruel. Then maybe more teenagers won’t commit suicide.

To have people treat me the way they would want to be treated.

To learn to be less self-conscious and more self-confident.

I need to look on the bright side of things, change it up and make it 1 step back and 3 steps forward.

To learn how to forgive and forget and think more positively.

Their responses touched my heart, I had to take a moment to soak it all in. What an amazing group of girls I have in my classroom every morning. They just get it. I think we can all learn a little from their wonderful words. 

 

Intentions....

So when I wrote my last blog post a word that kept jumping out at me was intentional. I talked about trying to be intentional with my Project Life album, but after I finished with the post the word just kept coming back to me.

                                                                                                     Webster's Dictionary

Of course, I follow Ali Edwards, who each year focuses on "One Little Word" - something that I've never been a part of, but I've watched how she incorporates it into her life. Not sure all that entails being part of her OLW class, but I guess in the back of my mind I've decided that my word for the year will be intentional. Not sure I'm going to do anything more with it than it being in the corner of my brain - keeping me in check along the way, but it's there and I'm hoping that it will help me open my eyes and live in a different way.

I hope to be intentional in all areas of my life: with my walk with Jesus, with my wonderful husband, with my girls, in my teaching, with my students, with my family, with my friends, with strangers, with my body, with food, in each area of my life.

In other news, today I walked 3 1/2 miles with BittyCent. Ready to get back in the groove of getting out there and walking/running. It's been too long. 21 days makes a habit, right?! Let's do this!

                                                                                                          Instagram
Until next time!

Project Life Round 2

Last year, I attempted to start Project Life. I made it to week 4. I wasn't intentional. Project Life was never far from my mind. I purchased my girls their own mini kits, used PL cards at my grandpa's funeral for memories from guests, bought 1 1/2 new kits. This year, I'm hoping to be intentional with my Project Life book. Looking back on those 4 weeks that I do have, it's amazing to see exactly what we were doing - little things that my mind has erased along the way. So today, I've stayed up ridiculously late and designed weekly cards, and most of the title page.

This year on our Christmas cards, I added a little quote at the end which I thought would be a great quote for the title page of my new album.

Our little family is the best thing that has ever happened to either of us. We are so enormously blessed by all that God has graced us with. 2014 is going to be an amazing year. I can't wait to see where it takes us.

Here is a look at the weekly cards I made. Shutterfly is having 101 free prints - so I thought I should use it to fill up pieces of my PL album.

And so the week is almost coming to an end. The girls fell asleep before Midnight (Madison, just minutes shy). Dan and I stepped into the past and learned a lot about his family history at our local museum and tomorrow we are celebrating a friends glorious 30th birthday!

Craft Night #1

A few weeks ago a friend of mine mentioned that we should start having a craft night every month. I love the idea of getting a group of ladies together so I was excited. We had our first pinterest inspired craft night last night at my house. We crafted magnets, coffee cups, wreaths, baby headbands, shadow boxes, picture frames and one of us began little projects for her sons 1st birthday.

Here are some of the lovely pieces that we ended up with.

Project Life

Last year, I started purchasing a bunch of Project Life items, because - well....what a fantastic idea! Scrapbooking made easy and really cute! I'm in! So I bought the binder, the pages (a ton of pages), a kit. Then another kit. Then 3 mini-kits and mini-albums for our girls. Then a holiday kit. But I have yet to actually follow through with it. I remember finishing up this first page I am about to show you and remember the sense of accomplishment that I felt! I was so excited to finish and so excited to see what the year was going to bring me with this project. In a way I have failed. But yet, my goal is to pick up - start over and begin again. There are so many wonderful things being done with Project Life and I can't wait to actually have something to show for it!

Back To School Photos!

About a week ago, I came across this amazing chalkboard. I borrowed it for a friends wedding and then came up with a great idea with my wonderful friend Brittany...we were going to do some back to school photos!

So today, we scheduled a little prototype session. We had three (well, 4 if you include Miss Ella) lovely little ladies to help be our models! Brittany and I took all of their photos, we had two separate set ups and spent roughly 15 minutes with them each. We decided to go ahead with our plan and we are now going to have our first back to school mini-session!

I've never advertised my photography before. I mostly take photos of people through the word of mouth. This type of photography makes me nervous. But I'm excited! The response so far has been great! We are very much looking forward to it!