Tiny Crafts

Last week I started on this little craft I have been wanting to do for Evelyn's room. I haven't been able to find any crib mobiles that I really like, so I was inspired by the one over at Young House Love, and wanted to give it a shot! I was trying to wait until I am done working to start on any crafts so that I have plenty of things to keep me busy, but I couldn't wait!

Here's what I did:

♥) I bought a bunch of fake flowers and plucked off the little buds one by one.

♥) Poked holes in the bud section of of the flower (the little part at the bottom), and threaded some lightweight floral wire through.

♥) once I had a ton of flowers threaded on, I wrapped the wire in an asymmetrical sphere kinda shape.

♥) I hung them all at different heights from a little wreath from the craft store.

Easy as pie (but kinnnda tedious)

soooo many tiny flowers.

The finished product! I love how it turned out!

Here is what her view will be, from in the crib.

♥

All together the whole thing only cost me about $35 and a few hours in front of the TV plucking off flower buds and poking holes!

Still to come: a big ol' chalkboard for above the changing table, some artwork for the walls, and some tissue paper garland.

This is the fun stuff!

Busy busy

Oops. I went to Ikea.

♥

Twice. Two days in a row. I am busy working on a very sneaky project.

more to come....

muwahaha

little paper hearts

A cute little whimsical project I wanted to try.

(see)

Here is what I came up with, except I used brown grocery bags instead of craft paper because thats what I had at home.

not bad eh? easy enough too!

The Didomi Project

Didomi: give
John 3:16

I have an amazing husband. He has the biggest heart in the world and that is the first reason I fell in love with him. He is more like Jesus than anyone I know. He is full of compassion, passionate about almost everything, loves everyone, has more patience than i know what to do with, has the gift of encouragement, a shepherds heart, and is really just the best person I know, but would argue with me on that until he is blue in the face.

Ben and I have always had a heart for the widow and the orphan, and our first adventure together was going on a trip to India with our church. He was on staff at the church as the missions pastor at the time, so he was our fearless team leader. We kinda fell in love here (even though I already knew well before this that I would be lucky to be with him forever). If anyone has ever been on any kind of trip like that, you know that two weeks with a person in a third world country is good for about a year's worth of relationship building in a normal day to day life. Anyway, it was on this first trip together that i really got to see just how much love Ben has for God's broken people.

A few months ago he started talking to me about his desire to do more for the kingdom of God in other countries, and giving people a way to give and be connected with ministries around the world that do not have the resources or the voice to receive any sort of help and support. He has created a blog about a friend of ours named Stanley in Kitwe, Zambia. You can read his whole story here, but to make a long story short, Stanley used to have tuberculosis and was not supposed to live. God healed him completely, and he has devoted his life to helping those who are diagnosed with AIDS and TB in Zambia who cannot afford food, shelter, and the medication to make them well enough to live their life. He has given up his whole life to make this happen, and he currently has ONE supporter. His needs are small compared to what you might think, about $300 a month to run his whole ministry. Since its Christmas and a lot of people are looking for a way to give, I thought I would share Stanley's story and the beginning of this ministry that Ben is setting up for him, and other people around the world with grass roots ministry ideas who need support from people like us.

For more information on projects like Stanley's and others, check out The Didomi Project

organization?

To Do: get an office.

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Our house has a second bedroom which currently holds a crappy old desk from when i was little holding nothing at all (on which one of the drawer faces is actually glued on from when it fell off once), a filing box sitting on the floor, a funky futon that holds unfolded laundry and never gets sat upon, Tangle's crate, and thats about it! In the room though are too small closets with bi-fold doors. One of them holds Ben's clothes and the other one we are wanting to turn into an office space. I have always wanted to have a desk in a closet, and now we have a an extra one...so that is our next project. I have been gathering inspiration on ones that I like. Ben wants to make sure its "manly"...I think he means he wants it dark and studyish and rugged. Thats fair. I can go with that. Here are some things I have found that I like..let me know if you have seen anything amazing. Its our Christmas beak project..even though it will probably be ongoing for a little while if we're realistic. I'll post progress as we get started! But for now here is some inspiration...

Some of these are not in closets, but I love them just the same
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Seen any good ones lately?

my next project

I have WAY to much jewelry which needs to first be sorted through and purged...but at the same time, I need a more lovely way to store everything in one place other than draped over my bed posts, mirrors, door handles, cups, bedside tables, drawers, or any other place that happens to be next to me when i want to take it off (I'm kind of a free spirit when it comes to keeping things in "their place"). This is lovely and I think i will try it. I might need a few of them.

(before.)

(after.)

cute!

i live in the north pole

Hi my name is Amanda and I live in the North Pole. And by that I mean my living room is a winter wonderland full of Christmasy goodness. Ben and I made the journey to cut our tree over the holiday weekend (all 10 miles away). We tried a different place this year that we did not love as much as last year, but it was still fun. The place we went was a little more domesticated and less rugged hiking through the mud. It may have been the mansion sized house behind the tree farm that tainted the experience just a tad...but not enough that it was not still really fun and festive. After we got our tree we set it up and got to decorating, and then attempted the almost impossible task of teaching the puppy not to eat the bird ornaments... really hard for him clearly.

such an adventurer.

boyfriend and girlfriend

I love this dog, but he was SO annoying to have at a tree farm. Not the best place for a hunting dog. I think he ate some mushrooms too.

Its fun starting out and working with what we have to make decorating cute and fun without spending a boatload of money every year. We are firm believers that you can make people feel special and loved without draining your savings account or going into debt. It may be a little more work and time, but home made and creative gift giving, hostessing, and decorating are so much more fun and memorable in my opinion. Anyway, enough of my rant...here's where we are at so far

eureka! the lights are good!

my dinner: frosted flakes and cider



I promise after Christmas I will share my homemade gifts, but I don't want anyone who is getting them to see and ruin the fun!

CHRISTMAS!