A Long One . . .

Clare shared the family photos with me via dropbox which is the easiest way to share pictures. WAY faster than facebook, emailing, etc . . . but ya gotta join! SO, I decided to put a few up here. I love them. Makes me pretty sad that we couldn't be there, but grateful to see pictures of everyone! Here they are:

Christmas In Virginia

We have been dying to see pictures of Christmas when everyone was together! If anyone (Elise, Clare, Fran, Mary) would be so obliged, we would love to see a new post! This blog is getting a little lonely!

Fun as of late . . .

Lately I have been inspired to improve our little home and it's been fun and refreshing! The winter days in the Northwest are full of gloom and rain, and gloom and rain! We need a little uplifting home decor to help us get through the rainy days. Because we are renting I have to work with the colors (and there are many!) that are already here so it's a bit of a challenge. I have been inspired by the online pin board Pinterest and a few books I have been reading lately, written by Amanda Soule.

Gianna has been really into doing art projects lately and I wanted a fun way to display it so she can be proud of it and be inspired to do more! We ran to Goodwill and picked up seven old frames for our latest project. We took the glass out of six of them and painted all the frames the same color. On one of them we left the glass in and painted a few layers of chalkboard paint over it. We arranged it on the big empty wall in our dining room and I think it turned out great. :)

 I pulled out some colored pencil sketches that I did in college and added them to the wall: (you know, back when I had time to sketch!) I stamped their names with my new letter stamps I got for Christmas.

 

I cannot do what? This vocation called motherhood! All by the grace of God. :)

We sat down with some seeds, beans and grains to create some more artwork. We have here: lentils, pinto beans, red beans, chia seeds, whole corn, kamut grain, rye berries and quinoa. How's that for a homeschool lesson! ;P  It was a a fun project!

Gianna's work. Showing off her masterpiece.

And last, I finally made curtains! Last summer I bought this Ikea duvet cover at a garage sale for $4! I was stoked. I finally got around to putting them up and we love it. (recognize this, Fran?)

We miss you all and hope you are having wonderful and cheery winter days!