Dad: Son’s First Hero + Daughter’s First Love Vinyl Quote

Jason is an amazing father.  The time and energy he spends being a dad is exactly what I would choose for my son.  Now that Coleman can get in and out of his booster seat in the car, they can go just about anywhere together.  There are very few days when Jason does not take Coleman with him to run errands or go on an outing to the Dollar Store, Cherry Berry Yogurt, to play at a fast food playplace, or anything else they can dream up.  They work out the logistics of a successful day together.  With physical challenges that would give any father opportunities for excuses and giving up, Jason is a hero in every sense of the word.

Father’s Day is only a few days away.  Here is a vinyl quote for the perfect Dad Project.  Personally, I think it would look fabulous using the chalkboard tutorial found here. The quote comes with both son and daughter as well as individual versions. It fits any family.

Head on over to my Silhouette store to get the vinyl quote shape.

Enjoy!

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The Best Things in Life Aren’t Things + Other Vinyl Quotes

It took us 16 years of marriage for me to become a mother.  There were a lot of Mother’s Days that I didn’t love and I know that for many mothers, there are a lot of Mother’s Days that are still hard.  Maybe we don’t feel adequate.  Maybe we compare ourselves to “perfect” mothers who are not perfect in real life, just in our view of them.  Maybe we feel a sense of loss because we have truly lost something or someone.  Mother’s Day can be difficult.

But now that I am a mother I love Mother’s Day.  I love hearing my 4-year-old sing to the mothers with the other children at church.  I love homemade cards and pint jars covered with tissue paper and glue.  I love feeling that little body pressed up against my leg or my arm or my side…depending on where I am.  I love his hand reaching for mine as we simply walk down the hall together.  I love being called, “Mom.”

Happy Mother’s Day to you all – whether you have children or not.  We are all nurturers and caregivers and friends and mothers to someone.

I have created a new line of vinyl quotes in my Silhouette store here.  I love them.  Yes, it’s true.  I love them.  I hope you love them, too.

Happy Day.

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Mother’s Day Silhouette Shapes

Get ready for Mother’s Day with my Silhouette shapes available here in my Silhouette store.

Check out this link for this project featured on the Silhouette blog using my “Love You Mom” shape:

Here are some more new shapes for you to use for Mother’s Day, including vinyl subway art, a layered phrase, and a flourished phrase.  Give these a try for your Mother’s Day projects.

Here is a card for every mom in your life  from last year’s collection of letter-size cards.

Life Cards for Project Life or to use as an embellishment on all of your projects:

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you women out there – you are mothering someone. Enjoy the day celebrating the mothers in your life.

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Sister Missionary Quote – Free Printable

The LDS Church recently announced that young women are welcome to serve a full-time mission for the Church at age 19 instead of 21.  The excitement over this prospect is high and the world is being flooded with strong, happy young women who want to serve others and teach what they believe about Jesus Christ.  Our family has 4 missionaries serving in full-time missions all over the world right now with one more niece headed out in June.  We are kind of in missionary mode right now!

Here is Kylee on her first day of her mission in Brazil.  She’s the one with the long hair in the light blue sweater – a darling girl ready to serve.

Here’s a quote about girls and their desire to serve in this way.  For those of you working with LDS young women, enjoy this free printable that I designed for our area.  Some people don’t believe that the youth of today have much to offer but I say they do – no matter your faith or beliefs or way of life, we have strong youth in the world today and they will affect this world for good.

Here’s an example of kids making a difference in their daily life.  I cried like a baby while watching it.  My desire is strong to help mold Coleman to be the kind of young man that will SEE the needs of those around him, RECOGNIZE that he can do something to help, then ACT on those feelings even when that action is different than what might be normal in that situation.  Seeing the need – to me that is the key.  So often we pass by opportunities to help simply because we do not see the need.   We don’t observe it because we are focused on other things.  I want to teach Coleman to see the need then have the courage to act on what he observes.

What amazing young people he has to learn from!  Strong, capable, happy young men and women who are accomplishing good things – whatever faith or beliefs they might have.

I love watching it happen.

Sister Missionary Quote

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To the Moon and Back – Printable

Each night at bedtime my 3, soon to be 4-year-old son, drags out the inevitable in order to get me to linger longer in his bedroom.  ”Mom, one more thing!”  ”Can you get me a drink?” “I don’t want to wear my jammies shirt.” “Mom, I need something.”  And a variety of other comments, questions and pleas to keep me in the room.  His efforts only serve to escalate my frustration and cause me to pause to count to 10 multiple times over the course of the 13 minutes it takes to actually get him to stop talking and go to sleep.

But I would take all those 13 minutes and more of the haggling to continue to hear his final declaration as I’m walking out the bedroom door, “Love you to the moon and back!”  To which I have been instructed to respond, “Oh, you caught me!”  Which, in 3-year-old interpretations means something similar to, “The moon is the farthest away, therefore, you won the love contest, Coleman!”

I do love him to the moon and back.  And farther.  And farther still.  So simple and so perfect.

So dear reader, it’s your lucky day.  Due to popular demand of this vinyl quote in my Silhouette store, I’ve decided it needs to be made into a printable.  Free.  For you.

To the Moon & Back – Printable 5×7

Two color choices.  Both 5″x7″ size.  Actually, they will fit into a 5×7 mat (or frame) or mounted to a 5×7 card.  Try it in a 8×10 or larger frame with a mat cut-out to fit the 5×7 image.  Use a white mat to give it a little breathing room and it will pack a punch.

And check out how the eighteen25 gals used my arrows here.  You’ll also love my “Thin Arrows” found here at my silhouette store.  Arrows are in – grab them now for all of your Silhouette projects!

Happy Valentines Day.

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I’m A Mormon – Love It

I want Coleman to love things.  To love life.  To love friends.  To love family.  To love reading.  To love soccer or lacrosse or chess or whatever activity he chooses.  Jason is a very loyal, passionate person.  He is a super fan of so many things, including Cole and I. I want Coleman to feel that same passion for whatever he chooses to do in his life.  Including his faith.

There is so much good in the world.  So many good people who believe in doing good and being good.  I am grateful for the opportunity to rub shoulders and be friends with people of all faiths and beliefs.  But I think I’m not alone when, as a parent, I want my child to feel as strongly about his faith as I do.  I want him to be proud to believe in things of the spirit.  I want him to know it for himself and by knowing it, choose to live it.  I want him to love it.

I think I want this for the simple reason that I know life is challenging.  My faith has guided me, strengthened me, and given me peace during dark, difficult times.  I would love for my son to feel that same sense of strength throughout his life as he faces the natural twists and turns, ups and downs that our journey takes.

I’m sure these thoughts are on my mind right now because Jason is back in the hospital for an 8-week stay.  He just finished 6 weeks in the hospital this fall from surgery on a bone that was causing chronic bedsores.   Unfortunately, that surgery didn’t heal properly so the surgeon had to go back in a second time.  We had a fabulous holiday with our families and after two weeks of cousins and food and laughter and fun, we left grandma’s house to drop Jason off at the hospital while Cole and I headed home.  Surgery was two weeks ago (two weeks down – hooray!) and Jason is actually doing amazingly well as he is required to lay on the fancy no-pressure sand bed to heal.

Life brings challenges.  Adversity is around the corner.  Faith doesn’t solve the problem or take it away but it helps us manage our struggles.  And sometimes that’s all we need.  Here’s to faith – whatever yours is, wherever it’s found.  May you find hope and peace and courage to help you work through anything life throws you.

Faith – Love It.

For those of you out there who loved Ann Dibb’s talk about being a Mormon, here’s her quotable quote from that lovely talk.  Free Printable….Yes!  I can see this in our Activity Days future.

click: I’m a Mormon Quote

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All Is Well

After multiple emails from you, my kind and thoughtful readers, wondering where in the heck I have been – I have finally bit the bullet and entered the blogging world again.  I’ve wanted to give you all an update for a little while now but after so long, I felt the heavy weight of thinking I had to tell you everything, which would take forever and was way too much to tackle.  So I did what many of us do when we don’t want to deal with something – I ignored it.

But, enough is enough!  Let’s start fresh!  Here is what I’ve been doing instead of click, click, clicking away at my computer:

Hanging Out at the Pool with My Little Fish

Spending Time with Cousins and Friends

Seeing If I Like to Bike (and I do)

Starting Preschool

Running Back and Forth to the Hospital While Jason Spent 6 Weeks Recovering From Surgery

There.  That’s been my life.  And it hasn’t had time for blogging or browsing or facebook or following. Hey, I love Pinterest as much as the next girl but sometimes we have to put the computer away and live life, don’t you think?  However, now that the fall chill is setting in, I’m ready to pay attention to you and to my work a little more.

That’s enough for today.  I hear an awesome 3-year-old riding his plasma car around the kitchen calling, “Mom!  Yo-de-lay-he-hoo!”

Way better than blogging.

Welcome back.

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Silhouette Odds + Ends

Whenever I design things for real life I try to do it with other work in mind.  I think about how it can apply to the various work projects I am assigned so that I can use it a variety of ways.  It’s one way I can be efficient in my designing.  So I have some odds and ends from the last couple months that I have uploaded to the Silhouette store that I wanted to share with you.

If you are LDS, you will like the Young Men/Young Women theme images that I did to help out my friend for New Beginning’s activity.  With Girls Camp season coming, I wanted to make sure you had some artwork to play with on your Silhouette.  Click on the image to be sent to my store.

I also used this “shine” as part of the event and since it works for anyone, especially with summer here, I wanted to make sure you had it.  They used this as the event title.  Oh, how I love using one strong word for the theme of an activity or event!  I can’t think of a better message to give anyone, especially teenage girls, to help them understand their purpose on earth and give them encouragement to believe they are awesome.

And with my busy schedule I didn’t have a chance to blog about the set of phrase cards I did a few weeks ago.  Perfect for graduation, mothers, daughters, friends, grandmas, sisters.  Plus, teacher appreciation here and here.  Check them out – of course, I always have to include a thank you card option!  Click on each word or the images below to find them in my Silhouette store.

I tucked a mother’s day card into a gift I was giving to a friend just to celebrate her role as a mother.  This can be done any time of year – not just Mother’s Day.  I used the “Mother” card base and added the script “so grateful” from the “Thanks” card.  These can all be mixed and matched or even used for different projects.

Happy Cutting!

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Activity Days: Your Happily Ever After (Part 2) – Ruffled Runners

Ruffles from plastic tablecloths?  Yep.  Easy and darling.  Here’s how I made them for our Activity Day Mother-Daughter Dinner Recognition Night (click here and here for more info).  I saw this tutorial and decided to try it out.  However, instead of needing my ruffles to run down the center of long tables, I wanted them to travel in a circle around the centerpiece of each round table.  This required some adjusting of the instructions.

These took about an hour to create.  I made 8 ruffles in that time.  They were the last thing on my list and after a crazy week, I wasn’t sure if they were going to get done.  After setting up for the evening I had about an hour to run home and make dinner.  Instead of slaving at the stove I decided to see if I could get these done in time.  I did.  And aren’t you glad?  They turned out really cute and were the finishing touch on an already great-looking party.  Give them a try!  They were worth serving PBJs for dinner.

First, cut down the length of a long rectangle plastic tablecloth.  Create 4 strips, all the same width.  I used the fold marks as a guide and it was very easy.  Fold one strip over lengthwise so that you have two layers of plastic, one about 2″ shorter than the other.  This will create your layered ruffle look.

Sew a gathering stitch (longest that you can on your machine) about 1/2″ from the fold.  This stitch will go through both layers.

After stitched along the entire length of the plastic, tie the threads at one end together in a knot.  This will secure the ends so you don’t pull the thread all the way through, leaving you without any stitching.  Next, take one thread from the other end of your plastic and pull gently.  It should start to gather your plastic.  Carefully use your fingers to shift the gathering down the length of your plastic ruffle, spreading out the gathering evenly as you go.  Pull it as gathered as you need it.  I based mine on how large I needed my circle to be.  Gather your ruffle to the length you need it to be and tie off the ends of the string.  Trim threads.

You’re done!  Now you just need a party!  Use these ruffles as centerpiece runners, swag them from tables or walls or other decor to create backdrops.  Attach them to edges of tables or doorways for a fabulous trim.  Whatever.  The possibilities really are endless!  I’m thinking they would look great this weekend at your Memorial Day BBQs.  Enjoy!

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Activity Days: Your Happily Ever After (Part 1)

I have lots to share, though so I need to get to it.  Today, enjoy the first installment of our mother-daughter Activity Day Recognition Night.  Seriously, this thing was put together 92% with the Silhouette.  It should be a commercial.

Overview of the evening:

Theme: Your Happily Ever After (based on speech given by Dieter Uchdorf here) leading to a focus on PRINCESSES.  Could there be anything better for 8-11 year-old girls?  As you will see, there is not.

Food was involved…salad, yummy biscuits, skewered fruit and daughter-served brownie sundaes.  But I wasn’t in charge of that part and happily put it out of my mind.  Give me the assignment for decorations any day.

Program: 

(photoshoot as arriving)

Welcome

Dinner (girls served moms and brought dishes to kitchen before picking up desserts)

Message & Recognition of Activities Girls had done over the last 6 months

Craft

Concluding Remarks & Clean Up

Decor:

1. Cake Stands – a staple in throwing parties and can be used for everything, not just food display.

I used my pink, aqua, lime, yellow and white cake stands (made with a little epoxy attaching a candlestick or dessert glass to the bottom of a plate and spray painting the entire thing with 2X Rustoleum paint) as the centerpieces because….well, because it’s spring and they are little girls and we were doing princess stuff and…it’s what I already had.

2. Mason Jars with Colored Daisies 

Believe me when I tell you that you only need one flower per table to make it work.  Especially when you add a couple of skinny-doweled Silhouette cut-outs to portray the theme.  For me, it meant a crown and a “Your Happily Ever After” label card.  Wrap them loosely in tissue paper to keep them in place and to hide the ends.  Cost: about $1 if you shop sales for the daisies.

3.  Plastic Tablecloth Ruffles

I saw this idea for creating a table runner using a plastic tablecloth and adapted it to work on a round table.  Click for tutorial here.  Perfect for anchoring the centerpiece on these large tables and making the whole thing look and feel more rich than it cost.  You get 4 ruffles from each plastic tablecloth = that means 25 cents each.  Plus, the ruffles look great draped at the top of my shutter backdrop.

4.  Plastic Tablecloth Chair Bows

I’m sure you have seen these before but they must be done.  An inexpensive way to add flair to ordinary folding chairs and to make the whole place feel like a celebration.  Just cut down the length of a long plastic table cloth (we used the fold lines as guides) and you get 8 strips for bows.  12.5 cents each.

5.  Candy Jars

I’ll post about these in just a bit and give you a quick tutorial but what I will say here is that the girls made these darling candy jars in the activity before our event with the intention of using them as our primary decoration at the Recognition Night.  Click here for instructions.  Personalized, filled with purpose, and the perfect way to reinforce the message of the evening.  More coming on what I mean by that.  These are not your ordinary candy jar.  But let me tell you that the impact of the girls walking into the night with their mothers and seeing their work looking so perfectly lovely and enticing was a highlight of the evening.

6.  Supplies for Craft

Part of our evening included a take-away craft that each girl got to create with their mothers.  After cutting a 2″x6″ board into 6″ blocks, painting and sanding them, they were ready for the night.  Our partners were in charge of that part (bless them) and I tackled 28 sets of vinyl lettering on the Silhouette.  The vinyl shapes are available in my Silhouette store.  Click here for the princess and crown.  Click here for daughter of a heavenly king.  I added some Staz-On ink to the vinyl edges to create a distressed look but it really didn’t need it.  Plain or distressed – it looked great either way. The girls added a little rhinestone bling to their blocks and got to take them home as well to remind them of who they are and why they are here.

Here’s the thing, though.  I like everything to have purpose.  So, I designed the craft supplies to be part of the actual centerpieces of the table.  Large shallow bowls that held the vinyl, craft sticks for rubbing, and rhinestones rested on a cake stand.  Wood blocks were loving tucked under another pedestal and the ruffled tablecloth surrounded the entire thing.  It looked great and there was no time wasted on handing out supplies.  Efficient and beautiful.  The perfect party.

7.  Photo Booth

You first saw my photo booth at Cole’s superhero party and here it makes an appearance so that we could snap a quick pic of each mother with their daughter (probably to be used at a future activity….still working on the exact project idea).  Invites told them that they could come dressed as princesses or in coordinating outfits if they chose.  DARLING!  Some of them really got into it and only added to the feeling of celebration.  Seriously, do this every year, Kolette.

8.  Scallop Wrapping Paper Placemats

The Silhouette didn’t fail me as I cut out a slew of 12″ scalloped circles from a roll of wrapping paper.  I cut it into squares first then used two mats to keep the assembly line going as I cut out all the cute scallops.  We mixed and matched napkins and paper cup colors to keep it all random but coordinating.  They looked great with the green polka-dot placemats.

See, I told you that the Silhouette played a big role in pulling off this evening!  We were so happy to see all the mothers embracing the evening and making it special for each of their daughters.  Whether they dressed alike or worked side by side to complete the craft, it was a beautiful evening of sharing one-on-one time with some of the most important people in their lives.  Thank you mothers!

Come back for more details on how we made this night happen – some tutorials and a printable, of course.  See you soon!

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