Easy Valentine’s Project

My kindergarter needed to make valentines for all the kids in his classroom.  I was wanting to find a fun project for him to work on, without having to spend a bunch of money on supplies.

I looked over our “craft crap” section in our garage to see what I could use.

I had a lot of brand new, sparkly pencils that I could use.  I counted them to find I had exactly 31.  Exactly the same number of kids in his class!  Perfect!

I also had a bunch of left-over card stock, from a previous project, that were already cut in 1″x4″ strips that I could use as “tags”.  I used a hole punch to cut holes at the end of each.

Materials Needed:

- Pencils (whichever quantity is needed)
- Card stock cut in 1″x4″ strips (same quantity as pencils)
- Glue Stick
- Yarn

Directions:

1. Using Word, write Happy Valentine’s Day! in the number of times needed.  Print it out, and cut into individual labels.
2. Use a glue stick to attach each Valentine’s “label” to the 1″x4″ cardstock.
3. On the opposite side of the cardstock, attach another label “From” using his glue stick (my son wrote his name on each after the “From”).
4. Use yarn to attach the labels to the pencils. (Tip: I used a bit of hot glue to attach the yarn to the metal tip of the pencil near the eraser to keep the yarn from slipping off.)

Repeat for the number of Valentine’s you need

We set up our project assembly line style (as opposed to completing an entire pencil by itself).  I don’t know which way would be faster to complete, but this gave my son good practice on each of the skills of the project (ie. gluing on the labels, writing his name, etc.)

And now he’s all set to give and receive Valentine’s for his class

Linked on:

Today, www.womenlivingwell.com is starting a new 14 week summer series of The Proverbs 31 Woman .  I know I’m looking forward to participating in this series!

Courtney is offering her ebook The Proverbs 31 Woman: One Virtue at a Time for free when you subscribe to her blog.

RSM Lake - May 2012

I’m back!

Did you miss me?

After taking some time off from blogging, I’ve been missing this creative outlet.  I plan on sharing some of the many projects we’ve been working on around here.  So stay tuned!

If you remember from my Thanksgiving post last year, I announced a secret…

And now my lil’ guy is 2 months old today!

This week is also marked with a few other special dates:

• My 1 year blogiversary!
  (you can read my 1st post from May 7, 2011: Heart and Haven – the beginning…)
• and this Sunday is Mother’s Day!

I’m incredibly lucky, as I’ve already received my Mother’s Day present…

RSM Lake - May 2012

every one of my beautiful kids.

Psalm 127:3 “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.”

RSM Lake pics: courtesy of Buell’s Photophograhy

This Sunday, our family plans on going to my in-laws for lunch after church for hamburgers and homemade ice-cream.  Typically the kind of meal we enjoy for a
4th of July BBQ, but one of my FIL’s specialities – so that makes it extra special.

A day to enjoy being with family, perhaps a leisurely walk along the boardwalk at the beach, and just spending time with all my kids.

Do you have special plans for Mother’s Day this Sunday?

I left you with this image:

For those who guessed I was making a quilt…You’re Correct!

For Christmas, I wanted to make a rag quilt for my new baby nephew.
I followed the same pattern as I did to make my kids their Rag Quilts last year.

and here is a pic of the new quilt I made:

and with my baby nephew, Jayden…

I hope it brings color and light to his room, and that he will know how much his Auntie loves him.

Any guesses?

I like to change things up from time-to-time.  And much to my husband’s dismay, I usually change up the living room design a couple times a year.

In the past, I’d just have some crazy ideas and start moving (or more accurately have my husband push) the furniture around the room ’til I found a layout that I liked.  I am not gifted in the interior design department, so this process would take some time since I couldn’t just “see it in my head” how things would look until they were in place.

But then I found a furniture design tool that completely changed my world!

I know there are probably many different kinds of room layout tools, but I found the FREE 2D Room Planner on the La-Z-Boy site to be exactly what I needed!

(There is also a 3D Room Design, but I haven’t tried that one yet.)

You can put in the dimensions of your room, add structural elements like windows and doors, and with a simple click either add any of the products La-Z-Boy sells.  They even include generic items, where you can click on the item and customize the dimensions your specific item.

• Here is what my Living Room looked like before:

• And here is the new layout:

I’ve been really liking the new Living Room arrangement!
- More open layout
- The “Play Area” is not in back of the “Living Room” – makes it easier to watch the kids.
- Less mess throughout the day! (see bullet point #2)

Now the Living Room is all set to start Christmas decorating!

What tools have you found helpful in redesigning your rooms?

My 1st trimester was plagued with nausea and extreme fatigue.  My poor hubby had to take on more than his fair share of household chores (ie. cleaning, laundry, etc.).  Luckily, I’ve been feeling much better so far my 2nd trimester.  Hopefully good enough to start again on more projects, which I love to do!

However, some more good progress has been made on our Garage Organization Project recently.   If you remember from a previous post…

Here are the garage “zones” I currently have plans for:
- Laundry Room
– Christmas
– Gift Wrap
– Craft Items
– Media & Books
- Childhood Memorabilia
- Sports Equipment
- Camping Gear
- Tools

The last project I had tackled in our garage, using tips from the ebook One Bite At A Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler, was our book collection.

• It was now time to move on to our Media Collection

One thing that has been extremely useful, is storing our media on our Western Digital MyBook Essential 3TB Desktop External Hard Drive

We can play from our movies and music on our XBox Media Center, and store the physical media as back-up in our garage.

Recently, we have gone through our DVD & CD collection…

However, I thought I could do much better than (6) Rubbermaid bins of DVD’s and (3) large cardboard boxes of CD’s – not organized in any sort of fashion.

I had been researching various methods of storing our media, when I saw this post from one of my favorite blogs, IHeart Organizing.

She used these acrylic containers from The Container Store

I thought it was perfect!

Each little 6-1/2″ x 8-1/4″ x 6-1/4″ h cube holds up to 120 discs.
We wound up getting (3) for our DVD’s and (3) for our CD’s – which takes up MUCH LESS SPACE in our garage!  Woohoo!
(We did keep the inserts for the CD’s along with the discs, so each CD container only held about 75 discs each.)

- Our movies & music are stored alphabetically in the cubes for ease of finding them.
- I also created an Excel spreadsheet that lists all our media collection:
Movies - Title, Genre
Music – Artist, Album, Genre

I listed the empty DVD and CD cases on craigslist for Free (we had approx. 160 DVD & 200 CD cases!).  I would rather someone be able to reuse them, rather then them taking up space in a landfill.

• Also, I had been gathering items I had been planning for a Garage Sale

Sell/Give away
- Any items that are still useful (but we no longer want or need) get placed on a separate 8 ft banquet table (ie. garage sale, craigslist, donate).

Being the beginning of December (and not the “ideal” time to hold a garage sale), and our little one due in early Spring, I did not think it was realistic that we could hold a garage sale anytime soon.  This past weekend, I told my hubby I was finally ready to get rid of some items and asked if he would be willing to bring some items to Goodwill….I didn’t have to ask twice!

An entire 4×6 trailer-load full of “stuff” was donated to Goodwill, and no longer in our garage!

It feels great to have reclaimed space in our garage, and allows us more room to more easily tackle the last few areas on the list.  Hopefully soon, everything will be organized….and I can work on finish touches to beautify to help keep things that way…and I can share all the progress I’ve made.

I’m actually excited to start our Christmas decorating this weekend, as all our Christmas decorations have already been sorted/organized/labeled! 

What areas have you made progress organizing lately? 

We are all enjoying a week of vacation in Palm Springs.

And it’s time I let you in on a little secret I’ve been keeping…

I’m 22 weeks pregnant

Baby Fisher is due March 24, 2012!

Hehe, I just love this pic of the hubby…he was a good sport and pretended a “surprise”  look for me.  He’s actually pretty excited….

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving season?

I know I left you in suspense wondering…what was the gift we gave?

 The Five Love Languages

How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate

By: Gary Chapman

Men Are Like Waffles
Women Are Like Spaghetti

Understanding and Delighting in Your Differences

By: Bill and Pam Farrel

Men, do you want your wives to desire you  and be more intimate more often?
Women, do you want your husbands to be more loving and understanding?

Read these books!

Ryan and I have been married now for 7 1/2 years.
We do not have a perfect marriage; we are not perfect people.

However, we are both committed to each other and to God.

In an effort to strengthen our marriage and honor God, we have continually read many books on marriage and intimacy, attended marriage seminars, and are involved in a weekly bible study focused primarily on marriage from a biblical perspective.  We also meet with our mentors – who’ve been married themselves now for 51 years!

Of the many marriage books we’ve read, the two I listed above have really been a paradigm shift for our marriage.  It’s given us a road map, or at least given us a common language, for our marriage.  It has helped open the lines of communication for us, and to better understand our spouse and their needs.

From Gary Chapman’s, The Five Love Languages, we learned that:

• Ryan’s primary love language is:
  Words of Affirmation

  and he showed love by:
  Acts of Service

• My primary love language is:
  Quality Time

  and I showed love by:
  Physical Touch

You can easily see how we used to have problems expressing and receiving our love for each other!

As I desire primarily quality time, when Ryan would try to express his love by doing acts of service (ie. cooking, laundry, etc.), I would feel hurt thinking that he didn’t love me since he wouldn’t spend time with me.

On the other hand, when I would try to show my affection to my husband with physical touch, he would feel reserved because he wanted to hear how I loved him and appreciated him.

Now that we better understand each others’ love languages, we both make an effort to speak the love language that the other prefers to hear.  Ryan makes an effort to just be near me, and I try to make more of an effort to verbally express my love and appreciation of him.

And by the way, my hubby still does a lot of acts of service - that is just his nature.  But now that I understand that better…let me tell you…there is nothing sexier than a man that vacuums!

We hope our friends, Chad and Juli, find as many nuggets of wisdom from these books as we have!

By the way, I am in no way getting paid for this post in any way. 
I am just providing my heartfelt and honest opinion.

Chad & Juli

Chad & Juli – just announced as husband and wife!

**********************************************************************************************************

I’m gonna let you in on a little secret of mine…

I’m not a “traditional” gift giver.

I know that wedding registries are convenient to know what a couple wants, helps avoid duplicates of items, and are just….well….easy.  But I also find they are a bit…impersonal.

I really try to put thought and meaning in gifts that I give to others, as I appreciate thought that is put into gifts given to me.  And you can ask my husband, I usually don’t even care what the gift is if he’s personally wrapped it in pretty wrapping paper with sparkly ribbon.

Yes, I’ll admit it…I’m a sucker for bling.

As the hubby and I were discussing the gift for Chad and Juli’s wedding, we both agreed on the theme of a “road map” or journey.  A road map for a happy marriage.

I came up with the idea to wrap their gift in an actual map of the US.  Cute, no?
We also included a brass compass to tie on the front of the gift.

Ryan found the perfect card that went right along with our journey theme.

Inside the card we wrote:

Chad and Juli,

You have started your wonderful journey together.  You will be spending the rest of your lives exploring the depths of your love together.  But like any exploration, it’s important to have the right tools before you get too far from home.  Just like you would never start a cross country journey without a map or a compass (okay a GPS probably now), starting your exploration of each other will be easier with some tools.  Tonia and I both really appreciated the guidance we received from the enclosed.  They helped us both to understand things as a kind of “road map” for a healthy and happy marriage.

We wish you both the best on your journey together.

Ryan and Tonia

Ok, I know I have you all sitting on the edge of your seats wondering….what’s the gift?

Well, we just dropped off the gift on their front porch, on our way out of town on our way up to Portland.  So you will have to come back next week, after they’ve had a chance to open it, and I’ll let you know what we got them.