Thankful

To all of my friends south of the border, "Happy Thanksgiving". 

I just wanted to let you know that I'm out and about

getting inspired these days.

I'm looking forward to posting all about it soon.

xoxo

Terri

what I've been up to this week

I've been out of the classroom for a few years (taking some precious time with my boys)

but I've been back this week

substituting teaching in a Grade 2 class.

I've had so much fun playing with this:

 I don't know if your child's classroom is equipped with one of these,

but they are truly amazing.

Pictures just don't do it justice.

I hope that you are having a great week too!

Pocket Pillow

I finally finished this today,

to go with this Sports Theme Bulletin Board:

I had a "tiny bit of consulting assistance" from my dear friend Tracy putting this pillow together.

OK- she did it and I watched

whilst surfing the bloggyworld

showing her all the cool stuff that y'all are doing.

We took a Gosa Slan pillow (20x26 inch)  from Ikea and

cut it in half.

Tracy measured, cut, and worked her sewing magic.

I cut out the other pocket left on the jeans after using the first on the bulletin board,

and glue gunned it on.

Wahoo for glue-

I can do that all by myself :)

This project was brought to you by the Letter T (for terrific Tracy)

and the Number 1 (for first class help from a first class friend).

Thanks Tracy!!!!

Linked to Crystal's Craft Spot's Accessory Challenge

Monogrammed Bag

Ashly Ann posted this great project a while back. 
She monogrammed a simple bag beautifully.

Today I found a bag that I thought might work for my take on it.

It has been a bit of trial and error so far.

Canvas vs. burlap

12 inch diameter doily vs. 6 inch diameter doily.

Here is how mine turned out:

I started with:

I used a little painter's tape to attach the doily in place

and then used a Sharpie to colour in the holes.

I placed the chipboard letter in the middle of the pattern and traced it with a pen.

I coloured that in with Sharpie too. I wanted a little bit darker finish,

so I dug out the craft paint and brushes and tried again.

I cut out the center of a larger doily, taped it in place, and painted the holes in order to make the lacy pattern larger.

And Voila!

I'm giving it to a bride to be at a shower on Friday.

I hope that she likes it

and the present inside too.

Linked to: Blue Cricket Design

e.j. & emma

I am so excited to announce

that a good friend of mine

just opened a

fabulous etsy store.

We lived together in college

and she has a knack for making

BEA-U-TI-FUL  things. 

Look at these amazing things listed in her shop:

This last one is an extra large receiving blanket perfect for
baby boys.
My boys still use their blankets from when they were babies when they are watching movies etc.
If they had had these ones they would be stylin' now :)

A few months ago Rachelle did a giveaway

on her blog mom'ents

and I won this

fabulous bracelet.

Thank you Rachelle! 
I wish you much success on your new endeavour! 
You go girl!!!

Dutch Meatball Soup

Although my married name has put me in cognito,

I am from 100%

Dutch heritage.

Growing up Sundays always meant

going to church twice,

baked goodies and coffee right after morning service,

and soup and buns for a mid-afternoon lunch.

Mom always made the soup Saturday night

in an effort to keep Sunday as a day of rest -

as much as possible anyway.

When I moved so far away that I couldn't come over for Mom's Sunday soup anymore,

my sister wrote her version of Sunday Soup out

for me.  I've been making it ever since.

It works for late Saturday night suppers too :)

Happy Sunday!

Linking to Under the Table and Dreaming
Funky Junk Interiors
Remodelaholic Recipe Linkup

Borrowed Blogging Tips

I stumbled into this blogging world

by accident. 

I was designing multiple centerpieces at the time

and was using Google Image for inspiration.

Thrifty Decor Chick made

this amazing centerpiece for her dining room.  It was "lurve" at first sight :)

So, in celebration of reaching over 1000 page views yesterday,

I thought it would be nice to give a shout out 

to the fabulous blogger who inspired it all for me :)

Check out Thrifty Decor Chick's blogging tips.  These have been super helpful to this baby blogger :)

Thank you Thrifty Decor Chick! 

Sweet Love Notes from 2 Little Boys

Ever since the boys brought their candy bags home

I have been finding these:

 This one was left on my pillow last night.

And when I was blogging tonight

I found one on my desk.

The boys know that they are my favorite

so they leave them out

for me to find.

They just make me smile!  I love those boys!!!

Spiritual Emergency Room Statistics

I have been at "school" for the last couple of days here.

This is Dr. Dean Radtke

who empowered us with

specific mindsets,

skills, and

organizational structures  that will enable us 

to accomplish more

AND

have a better quality of life.

Now who wouldn't say yes to that? 

This course was specifically geared toward 

churches and ministries,

but some good friends of ours came to glean information for their businesses.

We learned a lot of specific information that I am excited to implement and see the rewards of.  

One thing that I am thinking about:

Dr. Radtke compared churches

to spiritual emergency rooms. 

How well are we meeting the needs of those individuals coming through the doors?

What percentage of people get help

and what percentage of people leave

and never come back? 

What do those statistics look like?

I'm calculating and facing the facts.

I'm thinking

and praying for wisdom

to do a better job so that we can

help a lot more precious people find

healing, help, restoration, and hope

through Jesus.  

Cupcake Costume Recipe

November 10, 2010 UPDATE:  I've been featured for this post at Crystal's Craft Spot!!!
Thank you Crystal.  I hope that you have time to check out her great link up parties.

We always have a super fun

party for the kids at church

on October 31.

The boys are not into the cute costumes I made for them when they were little any more,

so we are going store bought again this year.

I figured I would skip a costume for myself this time.

But when I saw this feature on Cityline I reconsidered.

Here is my take on the cupcake costume that they featured:

Cupcake Costume Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

dollar store laundry basket (mine was round and cost $3)

pink shirt (from my closet and free)

glitter felt (I bought 4 pieces for $2 and had lots left over)

scrap cardboard (from my recycling bin and free)

safety pins (on hand and I don't know how much I paid for them)

twine (dollar store special from my stash)

pink wig (Shopper's Drug Mart for $5)

2 headbands (stash)

artificial pumpkin (stash)

red craft paint (left over from my Sports Theme Bulletin Board)

Hot Glue

Aluminum Foil (kitchen)

Gorilla Tape

METHOD:

Cut felt into rectangular strips that resemble sprinkles. 

Safety pin them to a pink shirt.

(I tried not to put too many on the "chestal" region but that wouldn't matter for a kid).  

Cut the bottom out of the laundry basket.  If you are fortunate enough to be skinny enough to fit into that round opening, rejoice and move on to covering the basket with aluminum foil. If your hips are more than enough for that opening, cut the basket in half and gorilla tape the cardboard in to widen the basket.  It will make the cupcake base oval instead of round.  I suppose I could have used an oval laundry basket, but our dollar stores didn't have any of those and I didn't want to cut up the laundry baskets that I actually use for laundry. 

Cover the shape with aluminum foil.

Cut two lengths of twine and attach to top of basket to make straps that will go over your shoulders.

Paint the pumpkin red.

Pull out the tiny stem and replace with part of a headband in order to make a cherry like stem.

Attach to another headband with hot glue. 

Put on your sprinkle shirt, step into cupcake laundry basket base and slip twine straps over your shoulders.  Slip on the pink wig and pop on your "cherry on top" headband. 

Out of pocket cost: $10

OK,  I did feel kinda silly wearing it,

but it was a kids party. 

The little ones thought I was looking pretty "sweet". 

Linked here to Crystal's Craft Spot