It's Friday? Time for Letters!

Again, my days are all screwed up from taking a day off in the middle of the week. Not that I would trade that day in for a work day... hahaha... but it does get confusing. I spent HALF A DAY cleaning my kitchen. Serious Deep Clean. Now my fridge is empty - and I'm totally not kidding about this. But maybe that's good. I can restock it with healthier choices (after the beach trip, of course...)  All this to say it doesn't feel like a Friday. But it is Friday, therefore, it's time for letters.

   

Dear Pintrest... I know you think all of your ideas are wonderful, BUT not all of us are perfect crafty people. Macy helped paint the four canvases and the pic on the right is what I imagine the final product will somewhat look like.  Cross your fingers for me.

Dear Macy, why are you growing up so quickly?? Look how long legged you've become! (I asked her when did she get big enough to crawl into that chair by herself and she said, "Aunt Bef, I grew!" hahaha). And because I can - here is another photo of her in her mommy's classroom:

Dear Coworker - thank you for going through the stack of doctor's bill and EOBs and matching everything up for me. The growing stack was very intimidating, but your expertise helped me out so much!  Now, who wants to pay these things?? :)

  

Dear Lego Movie - you really did crack me up! You are hilarious! Frozen, you were good, too. I surprisingly loved you! Now to watch Last Vegas and get these movies returned before I have to pay for another night.

Dear Big Brother - Oh my.  You are so bad for me. I stay up late reading your feeds and I wake up and start all over with more feeds. At least ya'll are interesting this year. Judd is still my fav (oh how I wish he would make a guest appearance in the house!) but ya'll are pretty entertaining.

Ok, I'm off to do battle with my insurance company and see what they'll do for me.  Ya'll have a gerat weekend (stay dry, it's pouring buckets here) and I'll see you next week. :)

Friday's Letters - 7-11-2014

Get this poster here! Love it!

It's been forever since I did a Friday's Letters, so here goes!

Dear Paulene- I LOVED your photos from your Alaska trip.  This and Ireland are definitely on my bucket list.  And it is helping convince me to get healthier so I can meander about the footpaths and hike the glaciers without keeling over dead from the exercise.

Dear Raynore, Brooke, Patricia, & Sherry - ya'll have been so good about checking up on me and my family through this medical drama.  THANK YOU and thanks so very much for your prayers. I have felt such an outpouring of love and concern and it's just humbling.

Dear Big Brother, Happy Birthday! I am so thankful for your happiness, thankful you are my brother and that you brought Angela into our family.  Your sense of humor is wacky but so much fun! Hope your 43 bday is the best!

Dear crafty people - I've added new posts to Pressed Clovers, both on Facebook and on the blog. And on Pintrest! I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting. :)  (Here is my creations page on Pintrest)

Dear shingles, feel free to wrap up and go away so mom can get some relief from your horrible pain. I'm taking her to the dr in the morning, hopefully he'll have some suggestions for getting this over with quickly.

Ya'll have a GREAT weekend and I'll see you back here soon. :)  :)

Adios 2013...

Holy cow, Batman, where did 2013 go?? It's just crazy to think the entire year is G.O.N.E. I mentioned before, I'm not sad to see 2013 go, but there have been some really wonderful moments that I wanted to remember. 

January: Pinned It/Did it - Love canvas.  This was made for my sister from the kids for Valentine's Day.  The baby's feet and the preteen's hands.  :)  I thought it was cute! 

February: I am going to toot my own horn about the racing scrapbook I made for my friend, Paulene.  It was an honor to be part of her racing memories! :)  

March: 500th post!!!   And it just happened on a Muffin Monday. :) 

April:  Friday's Letters in April.  What can I say, I was boring in April.  But here is Sweet Niece and she's adorable. :) 

May:  I blogged roughly "Every Day in May."  - my Favorites and my Struggles. 

June:  Sweet Niece #2 turned ONE and I lost my sidekick - Muffin. :(

July:  The annual Family Beach Trip! WOOP WOOP!  And lots of scrappin'. 

August:  A Monday Muse on a Wednesday with lots of pics pics pics (and one picnic). 

September:  It's My Birthday!! Thanks to everyone who contributed to the USO! 

October:  The NOTEBOOK: It's not what you think, it's better! 

November: Friday's Letters - just a snippet of my life. Love it. 

December:  My column for YC Magazine.  

So there you go! :) A review of 2013!!! Thanks for reading, for being my "imaginary friends," for commenting and caring (because I know some of you do!).  Happy 2014!!! 

Sweet Niece #2 turns One!

This weekend my Sweet Niece #2 turned ONE!  We had festivities to celebrate this important milestone in her life, with lots of icing (of course!)

We had family and friends - especially the Prayer Peeps - here to celebrate Macy's birthday.  Mom and I, with much help from Dad, Aliah and Katie, set up a canopy in the yard and decorated in lots of pink and green!  Tissue balls, balloons, streamers, and cute bunnies! Loved it.

We found tin tubs at the dollar store and wrote each kids name on it as their goodie bag.  Inside we had bunny bags from the clearance bin after Easter with a Bible board book (dollar store - 2 for a buck), bubbles (left over from wedding), stickers (dollar store, 6 packs for a buck), and a washcloth that will expand full-sized in water (dollar store).  The older girls got extras like flower erasers, hangman notepads and colored pens. 

My sister made the smash cake from cutouts from a sheet cake and stacked it up for height.  Then she added tons of icing to make sure it was extra messy!

Pinned it, Did it! We used small plastic cups to hold the "rabbit food," carrots and celery sticks with ranch dressing in the bottom.  No more ranch on the cookies and watermelon! It's all contained and neat. Yum! Mom made these delicious cookies. The veggie sandwiches were cut in hearts and flowers with wheat on one side and white on the other.  

Another Pinned it, Did it! The cupcake liner wreath and handmade bunny ornaments for the adults. The goodie bags helped decorate with the cupcakes and smash cake.

The Birthday Banner.  Scrapbook paper glued to cardstock backers and I simply stapled the ribbon to the front. I was out of energy at that point - and you know what, no one noticed. The letters came from a banner from Party City that was on clearance.  We didn't use the banner, just the stickers.

The canopy was six-sided and green (I know it looks black) and we found these green tissue balls at Hobby Lobby - three for $7 or so.  The colored honeycomb balls came in a large package of decor items from Party City for a one-year-old birthday and they were about 70% off!! We used a metal wreath form tied from the top to connect all the streamers in the center.  A cluster of balloons were on each leg.  It was very cute and girlie. :)

The most popular place was the ball pit we made.  Sweet Niece's parents gave her a sandbox for her birthday and we put balls in it from Toys R Us.  The baby jail held the quilt down to keep things clean and contained the balls from rolling all over the yard.

Time to open presents!! She was interested for a while, then was done with that.  

Sweet Niece and my brother and sister-in-law.  Isn't this a great photo?? They are a cute couple. :)

Sweet Niece #1 popping out of the box.  We wrapped large boxes for the kids to climb through like tunnels - a hit! One was a cave (only one end was open) and the other a tunnel. They were so proud of themselves when they crawled all the way through!

PawPaw and his grandbabies

Aunt Donna and the birthday baby!

One exhausted birthday girl at the end of her party.  

And one more cake picture because she was loving it!

This party was so special to our family.  My sister had a difficult pregnancy with several issues and so many people were praying her through it.  Then when Sweet Niece made her appearance several weeks early, there were still issues and our family and friends were there, praying both of them through it.  These people are so wonderful and dedicated to prayer and support. Thanks so much to everyone who went through it with us all! :)  We love you!  

Photo Flower Pot Tutorial

Ya'll know I don't usually do tutorials, but this project came out so stinkin' cute, I had to share it. I found the original idea on Pintrest (Pinned It, Did It!) but never found great directions. Here are the directions for an adorable photo flower pot.

What you will need (or what I used):
Newspaper or something to avoid a major mess
Terracotta Flower Pots (I used 6" pots, I think)
Mod Podge
White Acrylic Paint
Foam Brushes
Access to a laser printer or copier - NO INK JET
Flower

Optional:
Ribbon, Buttons - your choice of stuff for the lip
Oil Diffuser Ring
Hot Glue
Super Glue

Ok, I think that will get you ready for cuteness. I did this at work it's so easy, so pretend like you don't see my work desk in these pictures, ok?

I first painted the clay pots white. You don't have to, I just liked the look of it better.  I used a foam brush and wasn't careful because it will mostly be covered up with pictures and ribbon. It dried super quick. 

I didn't paint all the way inside because you'll be adding a flower later.  I chose to include the base of the flower pots, too, but that is optional. 

I used Publisher to make up plenty of pictures for the pots. I think my pots were 6" and it took 15 pictures to cover pretty well. I did use two different sizes - a smaller (2" x 2") and larger size (2.4" x 2.4"). I also learned to leave a bit of "dead space" in the pictures and not fill the frames up with faces BECAUSE you'll need to overlap a bit.

I printed on a laser printer with regular copy paper and worried they would streak when I applied the glue, but they didn't.  I do not believe an ink jet printer will work on this.

I also learned by the second one to lay out the design to see if you'll be covering up people's faces or not. Or to make sure the kids are scattered all the way around and not just in one spot.

Grab your Mod Podge and smear some on the pot with another foam brush. Take a photo and press it into the glue, smoothing it out as you go with your fingers. Keep doing this until everything is covered.  I did have some white gaps showing the painted pot at the top, no biggie. Just keep smoothing as you go. I did end up with a few wrinkles, but it wasn't very noticable. The copy paper is very thin, but I think anything thicker might not adhere as easily?? Thoughts on this - please share.

Once you are totally covered, smear Mod Podge all over the outside using your foam brush.  It dries clear so no worries! (I had never used it and it was SO EASY!) I do recommend keeping it going in one direction because you will see brush strokes in certain lights.

See, it's clear! I must have done 4 coats or more, letting each one dry before adding another to it. I wanted a good solid coating before I gifted it. 

After they dried I used super glue to adhere ribbon around the top lip for decor. Hot glue seems to leave ridges and super glue doesn't.  Understand, it will NOT lay flat all the way around because the edges are tapered. To get bubbles at the bottom edge of the ribbon out, I made a little snip with scissors right in the middle of the bubble, overlapped and glued down the two sides and it removed the bubbles. I hot glued buttons and bows to add some color to all this black/white scheme! And thankfully, I found flowers that fit perfect into the pots with liners!!

Optional addition:  because I was planning to use live flowers that would require water, I decided to add an oil diffuser ring to the bottom so the bottom of the pots wouldn't be standing in water.  I hot glue those on, too. Anything would work - like a shower ring, I would think. But those only added a dollar to the overall cost. I thought they turned out so cute - the diffusers are almost like a little pedestal for the pots. :)

Tell me what you think! I'm sharing this on Pintrest, too. And please share your pictures if you decide to do it!! I'd love to see how yours turn out. It's awesome to see everyone's take on it, you know? So please share!! :) 

Mom with her gift

My sister with her gift

Every Day in May: Photo. & Friday's Letters

A favorite photo of me. There really aren't many, but I do like this one:

Me and Sweet Niece #2. Adore that girl.

(Join in the Every Day in May blogging fun - click the button on the right.)

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Friday's Letters:

Dear Pintrest, I have wasted so much time this week looking for projects to use up these buttons on.  Yard Sales suck me in and I bought this box of old buttons for a buck.  Now it's time to make some money on them! (You can find me at catlyn_sc or maybe under Beth Covington??)

Dear elementary schools, when did ya'll get so cool and trendy and paint this massive murals all throughout the lobby?  I feel like I'm chilling at the park or something when I come to visit. :)

Dear Sweet Niece #2,  can I just say you are adorable? This week you have learned to shake your finger when you and MiMaw read, "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed."  When Mama calls the doctor and the doctor says, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" she'll shake her finger like a stern doctor. TOO CUTE!

Dear Write More Love Letters, I've been signed up for months and have never actually written a letter. This guy's story, Ray, really hit home as he battles cancer.  So I felt compelled to share a word of encouragement with him. So many people have done the same for us.

Ya'll have a great weekend, and hopefully I get my blogs written each day. :) Yard sale tomorrow, so wish me luck!