DIY – Page 3 – The Bless Your Heart Blog

I Wrote Again – Is It Gonna Snow?

This poor thing has been neglected! I wish I had some deep, revelatory reason as to why…but I don’t. The Lord didn’t tell me to take a break…I didn’t take a sabbatical to make sure I was spending x amount of hours not on the computer and with the fam…I haven’t been suffering from writer’s block and there certainly hasn’t been a lack of happenings to talk about…I’ve just been absent. Shame on me!

Alas, I’m back! So let’s catch up!

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We had a fabulous Christmas break! My husband’s job affords him quite a few days off, so we had daddy around (all to ourselves, mind you) for two weeks! YIPPEE! We ate well, slept well, played lots of games, watched some fun shows, cuddled a lot, talked a lot – took full advantage of our time with him.

We were all ~~dreadfully sad~~ a little sad to see him go Monday morning but we all survived!

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I have been in MAJOR nesting mode. My poor husband.

The past two days, I’ve decluttered/deep cleaned our ENTIRE house! Six bags of trash and six bags of give away later, I’m feeling good! (Except for my feet, lower back and hip – but hey, it was worth it!) Now if it will all just say this way until baby comes……..

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Speaking of baby….we’re having a GIRL! Sawyer called it from the beginning and she was right again…and quite proud of herself. 🙂

Sayble Jean Phipps is due May 1st and doesn’t seem to be near as active in utero has her siblings. 🙂

We are over the moon about having another sweet little princess. I’ve already ordered a few *ahem* hair bows. The selection of girly, frilly, adorable clothing, footwear and head wear is astounding. I’m already thinking I made need to order a new debit card so I won’t have the new number memorized like I do this one. Ay yi yi…

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We got to see a lot of family over Christmas break. We got together with all of Wrex’s family over Thanksgiving and snuck in some family pictures! How cute is this set of grandkids? I mean, I know I’m a little partial, but come on!

RaRa and the grand-girls... — RaRa and the grand-girls…

We met up with my family halfway in Kansas and spent the weekend together – soooo thankful for the time together! Sawyer was so excited to have another cousin to play with, hold hands with Gramps and swim at the motel pool, of course.

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Other happenings (in no particular order, thank you pregnancy brain)…

I had four teeth pulled. Not my favorite experience, especially pregnant, but I survived…

We had a little New Year’s Eve party with Sawyer. We let her stay up until nine and then we watched last year’s ball drop on Youtube…

I made Sawyer a set of Disney princess felt ornaments for the tree in her room. I LOVE how they turned out. I see more of these in my future…

We got to witness two beautiful unions in the past month. Sawyer and Wryder danced their little hearts out AND met Santa at the first wedding – how cool is that?

Sittin' with Santa... — Sittin’ with Santa

I thought I was getting a stand mixer for Christmas and I got a handgun instead! (MUCH better, in my opinion!) We’ve been so busy and it’s been so cold, I’ve only shot ten rounds through it, but I’m excited to get more familiar with it and take my concealed to carry class…

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I’m sure there’s more to tell but that’s a good start, yes?

Piggy, Kermie and a Few Other Characters

I love a good handmade, put-together costume. For her first halloween, Sawyer was a Chia Pet. We made a little pattern and glued a LOT of moss on it. It was highly original, albeit itchy.

The next year, my sister ~~in law~~ sent me an adorable idea for a peacock costume that she had seen online. I loved it so much we made it happen! We found peacock feathers at the floral shop, glued them to a belt, paired them with a tutu, dyed some tights and voila!

When she turned two, she was really into Dora the Explorer so we turned her into Dora!

Wrex and I even got in on the fun; he dressed up as Swiper the Fox and I went as Boots the Monkey. 🙂

Last year, a friend of mine gave us the cutest little Indian papoose costume for Wryder so we went on the hunt for something matching for Sawyer. We found the main piece of her costume at the thrift store in Denver. We used some leather, ribbon and feathers from home to make her head piece. We gave her a few stripes of paint and some little braids and she was one cute Indian girl!

This year, I wanted them to be able to be something together so we were trying to think of famous duos and Miss Piggy and Kermit the frog came to mind. I knew she would love all of the frilly, girliness of Miss Piggy so we went for it!

We made some felt ears and glued them to a head band, bought a pig nose on Amazon and a feather boa from the dollar store and paired that with some pink, fru-fru clothes and Miss Piggy was born!

For Wryder, we used sister’s green tights and a green hoodie to make the base of his costume. We cut a Styrofoam ball in half, painted on the eyes and glued them to the hood. We then made Kermie’s famous pointy collar, hands and feet out of green felt. Easy, peasey!

All in all, we spent less than $13 on both costumes – score!

Seriously, are they not to-die-for adorable?! I really couldn’t get over how cute they looked!

Our church hosts a harvest carnival every year so we put on all of our garb and headed to town. They played games and ate snacks and rode the horse and buggy until they were worn out!

Riding the horse and buggy with our dear friend Jim

We’re not just uber Halloween fans nor do we (remotely) get into the dark side of the ‘holiday’ but I do love the innocence that can be found in dressing up and getting to be whimsical and downright silly.

We still proclaim the name of Jesus and worship (only) the one true God, but we do let our kids dress up and trick-or-treat. Dressing up in costumes doesn’t make us satanic evil-doers any more than wearing a suit to church makes you a follower of Jesus; it’s all about the heart, ya know?

For a TREMENDOUS read on a wise-woman’s opinions on Halloween, read this lovely little blog post. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

60 Years Together

This year, the Phipps’ celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss! 60 years, people!

They made the choice in 1954 to love each other for better or for worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, never to divorce…and they’ve succeeded! I’m sure they’ve had hard times and disagreements and stressful months/days/years…but they made the choice to love each other regardless and stick it out for the long haul! We are so proud to be from this long line of love…

Wrex and I have actually attended two other 60th anniversary celebrations, one of which was Grandad Phipps’ brother. The Lord has put some incredible people in our path, it’s true…

We had the honor of decorating for the grand occasion and I regret to inform you that I didn’t get too many pictures. I left my good camera at home, my iPhone was full and in my nauseous state, we just tried to survive.

With that being said, I’ll share what few I do have!

We went with a neutral theme…lots of white, off-white, gold and a buttery yellow.

The happy couple - matching, no less! — The happy couple – matching, no less!

My favorite part of the party was a display of Doug and Alice’s wedding ensembles. How incredible is that going away outfit?! Grandma was so tiny when she got married we barely got that thing on the mannequin!

Alice's going away outfit, Doug's suit, Alice's wedding dress — Alice’s going away outfit, Doug’s suit, Alice’s wedding dress

We had pictures from their biggest anniversary milestones…

Through the years... — Through the years…

We had this little pretty at the entrance of the banquet room…

and this right above the welcome table. That really puts it in perspective, doesn’t it?

About a month before the party, I put together a list of questions to ask the Phipps’ and then called them up on several occasions to interview them. It was, honestly, one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to do. There is sooooo much rich history there…stories we need to know! We laughed so much, it was almost unbearable!

Did you know Grandma left her wedding and went straight to the dentist to get a tooth pulled before their two week honeymoon?? The dentist did the work for free as a wedding gift, but Grandma told him he didn’t need to do that because she’d been waiting to marry a rich rancher so she could get her teeth fixed and she just had! HA!

I took the interview and turned it into 60 facts about 60 years. We printed them out and then (painstakingly) put them on a huge board to display at the party. We loved how it turned out and people really seemed to enjoy reading little tidbits about their life together.

There was cake and punch and a popcorn bar…boisterous conversations and laughter. They had such a great turnout; there were well over 100 people that came to hug them and bless them and celebrate with them!

Before we left, Grandad told us thank you for all we did and he said, “I hope you guys have 60 years, too.” And he didn’t say it in a “I hope you actually make it!” way…he said it like 60 years is worth it. We’ll make ya proud, Grandad…we promise!

****If I gather up more photos from the rest of the fam, I’ll be sure and share them as an update!****

Super Sawyer

Sawyer has been asking for a superhero birthday party for quite some time and while we didn’t make plans for a big, invite-the-entire-population-of-the-eastern-plains party, she wanted to hang out with the “Kruegers and they” so that’s exactly what we did!

A friend of mine had bought this CUTE cape-included shirt for her daughter and when I saw it, I knew Sawyer had to have it for her party; it served as the inspiration for everything else we did.

We made her wrist bands out of felt and foam and attached them with velcro…

We made a little mask, but she mainly wore it as a headband (which I thought looked cuter anyways).

As I was taking pics of her, a special guest was getting ready in the mudroom…

She had NO idea and her face was priceless!

She loves her super daddy!

For the background of the party, we made a foam city scape, sprayed it black and then glued on foam squares to act as windows.

We had the big ‘S’ from a previous project so we added a cape and called it cute!

I hung some star adorned poms from the light fixture and did my best 5 minute free hand of the logo from her shirt…

threw some cute bunting and balloons on the stairs…

and added super Sawyer to the backdoor and called it good!

Sawyer doesn’t really get into cake I made an ice cream sandwich cake…which she also ate none of. She did think it looked cute – that’s half the battle right?!

We made some picks out of paper and foam and stuck them to the whipped cream topping on the cake and I must say I really, really like how it turned out!

We made a few cake pops, adorned with capes, obviously…

and had her favorite pink punch!I was really happy with how everything turned out for as quickly and cheaply as we put it all together. Most importantly, the birthday girl was stoked!

I love her to pieces!

Pinterest Picks (Well, Sorta)

So, I started out by browsing through my latest pins so I could link them here. I found some cute stuff…like this:

Is that room not divine?!? The light…the wallpaper…the tire swing for pete’s sake – perfection!

Or this:

I’m thinking I need a wood beam divider…and a bigger house. *ahem*

And then I came across these cute little guys:

I’m so ready for football season I can hardly stand it! From there, my love of all things football and Texas Tech took over my brain. Enjoy!

Would Sawyer look cute in this or what?!

I think I could make this happen... — I think I could make this happen…

I'm thinking our flower boxes could use this... — I’m thinking our flower boxes could use this…

15 days! I think I can make it. 😉 Get your guns up!

1630 See Saw Lane

My sweet Sawyer turns four next Tuesday. Don’t even ask me how that’s possible. We’ve been so busy this summer that August (and her birthday) completely snuck on me.

We’ve been wanting to get her a real playhouse for about year now. She has a little plastic one in the barn that she plays with all the time, but we were wanting to get one that she and brother could both play in and one that would survive outside.

Growing up, my grandparents ALWAYS had a little place for us to play outside. If there was a shed or garage on the property, my sweet Mema (Alene) never used it for herself – it was for us kids! I can’t tell you how many mudpies and dirty cups of coffee we served at her house but it was a lot. I sure wish she was around to play with my kiddos. I have no doubt that she would think they hung they moon and them feel the same about her.

We knew we could build one, but our time is kind of precious right now. By the time Wrexy gets home from work, spends some time with the kids, eats supper and helps with bedtime, that doesn’t leave a lot of build-a-miniature-house time. We’ve been keeping an eye on Craigslist, this one popped up, we liked it, drove to Denver and hauled it home!

It’s in really good shape and I love the siding and how everything’s trimmed out. All of the windows have screens, we just need to put in windows before winter. The inside was unfinished, so Wrexy hooked up our spray gun and painted it all an antique white. Then, we went to town making it homey.

The only things we bought new for this project was the rug (it’s completely vinyl/plastic so it can be washed with a water hose), some hooks to hang utensils and the flower on the door; everything else we just repurposed.

I covered these cans in cute paper and then affixed them to the wall for her to store utensils and things in.

We’ve had this old bank sorter for a while and I had originally wanted it to organize homeschool worksheets, but it just wasn’t the right size. We turned it on it’s end and made into a little shelf for dishes.

For curtains, I wanted something that wasn’t going to get absolutely filthy and have to be washed a lot. I decided to use some vinyl tablecloth fabric I had, that way we could just wipe them down if needed. We made faux cornices by wrapping a board with said fabric and voila!

And how cute are those mustached dog prints?! They’re my favorite!

Wrex mad a drop down table so that when she wasn’t serving a meal ;), she could fold it up and have a little more room on this side of the house. (It’s deceivingly small).

We wanted to put a little chandelier over the dining table. I used embroidery hoops and wire to make a form (well, actually, Wrex did) and then I hung these old marquee letters from each hoop. I think it’s adorable!

We got some little records hot with an iron and folded them up to make little pocket shelves that she could store her linens in. We hung bunting on the east and west windows because it seemed too cluttered to add another “curtain.”

All in all, I was completely pleased with how it turned out, I just keep reminding myself that 1) it’s a PLAYhouse 2) it’s outside 3) it IS gonna get dirty!

Sawyer got to see the finished product this morning and her response made my day! She loved it!It wasn’t even 8:00 and she was already cooking breakfast for visitors!I have a feeling that there will be lots of memories made at 1630 See Saw Lane…Happy birthday week, sweet girl!

DIY: Painted Flatware

I’m thanking the Lord for that cozy weather we had yesterday. I don’t know what it is about clouds that make me productive but they do. I got my flatware project done – yay! – and today I’m gonna show you how simple it really is.

I’ve done this before for a baby shower I hosted for my sister. I used hot pink for that event and I absolutely loved how they turned out.

This time, I chose a matte black paint; maybe not as exciting as electric pink, but I think it’s gonna go well with the rest of the decor.

What you’ll need:

Flatware – any and all; doesn’t have to match (I prefer it not to)
Painter’s tape
Spray paint that adheres to metal. (I prefer a model car paint put out by Krylon but maybe there’s some better options out there??)
Clear acrylic top coat
Acrylic coat and spray paint

Step 1: Prep and clean your flatware.

I ran these through the dishwasher this morning and then got busy taping.

I wanted these to be painted at differing heights but the possibilities are endless.

Step 2: Paint the back sides of the flatware.

I always start with the backs because I’m usually half-way in a hurry when I’m doing all these projects and if any side is going to be less than perfect, I’d prefer it to be the back. This model car paint dries to the touch really quickly so after I let them sit for about 5 minutes, I flipped them to do the fronts.

Step 3: Paint the fronts of the flatware.

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the clear acrylic coating.

This was something I did not do with the pink set of silverware. They’ve held up pretty well…there are a few nicks here and there…so I thought I’d try adding this step this time to see how they fare. I’ll let ya know…

Step 5: Let them dry for 24 hours.

A very important step, obviously. Put them on a flat, dry surface that they won’t stick to – ie – no paper.

Old records work well... — Old records work well…

Step 6: Pair your flatware with some killer dishes.

I love this project because it’s cheap and easy AND it’s one of those details that can totally make a dinner party. Scourge your local thrifts, find some cheap flatware and funky it up!

Random Rambles

It’s overcast and cool out; my soul is begging for fall! This has been such a mild summer and I have very little tan left on my arms and legs…might as well call it and hide them under sweaters and jeans, right?! Come on, fall…

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Wryder’s namesake and great-grandpa is turning 85 this year and I have the distinct honor of providing decor for the grand event! I’ve got about 10 projects half done and ~~quite~~ a few *ahem* that I have yet to embark upon. For some reason, this overcast weather makes me uber-productive, so I’m hoping to take advantage of that today. I’ve already got these bad boys in the dishwasher…

Stay tuned for a DIY this week! Maybe that will REALLY make me get it done this week…

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Our church cleaned out their library and had tables of free books for us to peruse this past Sunday. For bibliophiles, it was hard not to take them all, but we decided upon these:

Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories — Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories

These are the sweetest little stories that discuss character and wise choices and how the Lord would prefer us to live. They’ve been a fun edition to our daily readings and we highly recommend them if you can get your hands on a set!

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I missed my kiddos terribly while I was at jury duty last week so we’ve tried to make up for lost play time with LOTS of playtime. I must say, I have the cutest playmates of anyone around.

This girl throws quite the party and this little guest sure makes them fun!

It warms my heart how well they get along. I’m sure those feelings for each other might change and evolve as the years go on but I hope they only intensify amorously. It’s so cute to see them interact together and greet each other in the morning and give random hugs and pull each other close to sit…

I wish I could say this attentive shot was during our family devotions…but I was letting them watch “Let it Go.” *ahem* Maybe I should start theatrically singing all of our Bible lessons…

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I don’t know about your kids, but Sawyer is a lover of rocks! Every parking lot/driveway/restaurant/farm/house/business/ we visit, she finds at least one to add to her “collection.” Wrex was cleaning out his pickup last night and found a stash under her seat. He brought them in and she put them in a little baggie and showed them to us and said, “These are so I can remember all the places I’ve been.”

It was completely cute and completely heart melting. We talked to her about how incredibly Biblical that was. Over and over in the Old Testament, stones are placed at significant places of significant happenings so that when people saw them, they would remember what transpired there…they would remember the faithfulness of God and what He did.

That’s sort of what this blog is; a giant rock of remembrance for me and my family. He has done so much for us and I don’t want them to forget where all of this good comes from.

I don’t think I’ll be forgetting her and her rocks anytime soon.

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If you’re not familiar with Angie Smith, you should be! She has quite the story, the best red hair, an adorable self-deprecation and I swear she’s my sister from another mister…or something. Her latest book, Chasing God, is on sale today for $0.99 (Kindle edition) at Amazon. I haven’t read it yet but if it’s anything like her others, it will be worth the buck. Bought and downloaded!

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All right, I better hop to it! The coffee cup is empty, the play tent is set up and the natives are growing restless; time to camp and then create! Enjoy this cozy day!

Worth 1,000 Words: Country Cottage

Our floral boxes have really come on in the past two weeks and things have bloomed like crazy! ***I contribute their success to my sweet neighbor who took most excellent care of them while we were gone.*** Regardless, the Phipps “Ranch” is looking more like a country cottage…and l love it! If only we could find time to mow…sigh…

Pretend you can't see all those weeds... — Pretend you can’t see all those weeds…

Love this little area... — Love this little area…

And these pink petunias are Wrexy's favorite! — These pink petunias are Wrexy’s favorite!

A little show box full of red surprises!

Volunteer portulaca has sprouted up everywhere!

Today was so incredibly lovely…I even told the Lord that if He wanted to send an early fall I wouldn’t complain one bit! I’d gladly trade these pretties for pumpkins. 😉

DIY: Gourmet S’mores

I mentioned yesterday that we cooked up some gourmet s’mores ’round the fire pit this weekend…and they were delish! I mean, the classic s’more is pretty hard to beat, but I nosed around and found a few others that we think might take the cake.

The Nutty Buddy

graham cracker

marshmallow

peanut butter cup

The Salted Caramel

graham cracker

chocolate/caramel square (Ghirardelli or Caramello)

sea salt

marshmallow

Mexican Hot Chocolate

graham cracker

chocolate

marshmallow

cinnamon

nutmeg

The Grasshopper

graham cracker

peppermint patty

marshmallow

Two we didn’t try (but I definitely think we should have) are:

The Samoa

graham cracker

chocolate/caramel square

toasted coconut

marshmallow

The Nutella

graham cracker

chocolate

spread of Nutella

marshmallow

My favorite was the Salted Caramel – man it was good! The Nutty Buddy and the Grasshopper were popular as well…but, really, IS there a bad s’more?!

I created a little menu for our occasion and I’ll attach it here so you can download and print for your next fire feast. (Click on the image and then right click to save)

If you have a yummy s’more recipe to share, please do…there’s still lots of summer left!