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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Blogging (and Pinterest)

Hello all! I just wanted to say thanks for following my little blog and for the sweet comments. I've realized that I just can't take the time to blog. So, I won't be posting anything else on here. I will leave the blog up so that the few tutorials that I did will still be available to those who would like to use them. You can find me on Pinterest here: pinterest.com/luvyrnaybor. If you need an invite to Pinterest, leave me a message with your email and I'd be happy to send you an invitation.
Thanks again for reading this blog! :) 

Monday, June 13, 2011

Make a Memory {EVERYDAY} Day 3

 Our Make a Memory {Everyday} activity today was shadow puppets. I got the idea from The Usborne Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do. 
 I folded rectangles of cardstock in half, then punched a hole and cut out a mouth shape. Then, the kids drew monsters around the faces and we cut them out and taped a straw to the bottom of each. 
 We tried using them for shadow puppets, but the kids had more fun using them as regular puppets behind the kitchen counter. :)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Make a Memory {EVERYDAY} Day 2

 
We made mystery paintings on Day 2 of  Make a Memory {Everyday}. I found this idea on Doehler Days. Ours didn't turn out quite as cute as hers, but my kids thought I was pretty clever. As they were painting, my oldest said, "How are you doing this, Mom?!". I just traced pictures from coloring books with a white crayon. When they painted over the crayon with watercolor paints, the pictures appeared. 
 Fish:
 Yoda:
 
R2-D2
 
Very easy and very fun!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Make a Memory {EVERYDAY} Day 1

 
 
We spend a lot of time at the local libraries and check out A LOT of books. So, for the first day of our Make a Memory {EVERYDAY}, we made book bags. There are a number of small towns in the area where we live and each town has it's own public library. We enjoy going to 3 different libraries and participating in their Summer Reading Programs. However, it can get overwhelming to keep track of books from 3 different libraries. For the main library that we go to, I purchased a folding plastic crate on wheels. We take our cart to the library with us, fill it up with books, and bring it home. Then, we keep all the books in the cart in our living room, making it super easy to gather the books when it's time to go take them back to the library.
 We don't check out as many books at the other two libraries we frequent (and 3 carts would be quite excessive). So, we made a special bag for each of the other two libraries and we keep the books and library card for those particular libraries in the bags. To make the bags, I cut rectangles out of a heavy weight cream fabric. Then, the kids colored pictures on the rectangles with permanent markers (I didn't want to spend the money on fabric markers and figured that permanent markers would work just as well). Then, I made the fabric with their pictures on it into pockets.

 
I found this great red and white polka dot outdoor canvas for an awesome price (1 1/2 yards for $5.03!) at Walmart and thought it would be perfect for book bags. 

I made simple, boxy bags and added the pockets on the outside. We keep our library cards in the pockets, so they're always ready to go when we head to the library.  The kids are very proud to have their artwork displayed on our new book bags!


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Make A Memory {EVERYDAY}

I was inspired by Nikki's Summer Diary over at Whimsy Love to make a memory everyday with my kids. She planned something fun to do with her girls every day during Summer break and she does a great job documenting it on her blog. I always have a long list of ideas of things that I want to do with the kids, but I sometimes have a hard time getting them done. So, I decided to plan out enough activities for the Summer and gather all the supplies and instructions into one file folder basket. That way, each day we can just pull out a file folder and everything is ready to go. I'll be posting all of our activities on here. 
 
Here's our basket, all ready to go!
  

And an extra box of supplies that didn't fit in the basket:

Kristine McKay has an awesome free e-book with Summer fun ideas. You can find it here. In addition to our everyday activities, I also made an "I'm Bored" jar with her free printable. My kids don't generally say "I'm Bored" all that often. They seem to think they have to say the "b" word to draw something from the jar. So, I think a name change is in order for ours! :)  Thank you, Kristine, for the awesome idea! We used a hot cocoa mix container and Mod Podged some fabric to the outside.
Stay tuned for all of our "Make a Memory Everyday" projects.

The Schoolhouse is Almost Finished!!

 Hello all! Life has been very busy for us as we've been working to finish the remodel on our old schoolhouse. We're at the point where we were able to move in, but there's still some more work to be done. Soon, I'm hoping to share finished pictures and decor projects. For now, here's some more pictures of the process.

We replaced all of the windows in the house. So, I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of projects with these treasures: 


 Paint in the Master Bedroom:

 Magnetic paint primer in our schoolroom:

Paint in the Kitchen/Living/Dining Room:

Paint in our boys' bedroom:

Under tile heating in the basement:

I'll be sharing a lot more pictures SOON, I promise! :)

Monday, March 14, 2011

Lord Build Me a Cabin: Thoughts on our Remodel Project

File:LowerSwedishCabin.JPG
I feel the need to share some of my thoughts on our schoolhouse remodel project. In the process of our remodel, I've spent a lot of time thinking, dreaming, and planning. I've had a lot of fun doing so and sharing our progress with others. However, I want people to know that our ultimate goal isn't to have a big fancy house that looks like it should be in a magazine. Our ultimate goals are to reduce our debt and to use our home to the glory of God through intentionally raising our children and opening our home to others. In this day and age, there seems to be a great desire for everything to look perfect and to have a certain trendy look to it. It seems to me as though there is a feeling of superiority if we eat organic food or live in perfect magazine/catalog houses with all the right styles and design, when there are people who are starving and homeless. Not that there is anything wrong with eating healthy or having a beautiful home. In fact, those can be very good things. We just need to remember what's really important: are we going to find our identity in those things, or in Christ?  It's easy to get caught up in the temporary things of this world, but I want to have an eternal focus. I want our home to be comfortable and inviting, not perfect. I know this is a random post, and I'm not a great writer, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts. Please know that I'm not trying to preach, just simply share what's going on in my heart and mind. As the song says, "I don't want a fine mansion on earth's sinking sands. Lord build me just a cabin in the corner of Glory Land."

Schoolhouse Remodel In Progress Pictures

As promised, I wanted to share some of the pictures of our schoolhouse remodel in progress. You can see the before pictures here. These pictures are of some of the work that has been done over the last 2 months.

Lathe and plaster were torn off all exterior walls and wood floors were sanded down:

This wall paper was a fun surprise:

The exterior walls and the new walls were all framed and all new electrical was added:

Spray-in insulation was added to all exterior walls:

All of the plumbing was replaced, which meant digging up the concrete in the basement:

New drywall on walls and ceilings throughout the house:

Bedrooms, bathroom and hallway were built into one of the classrooms:

The staircase was sanded down (this picture was taken when only the bottom set of stairs had been sanded):

My husband has accomplished a lot in two months, and there's still a lot more to do. I will be posting more on individual rooms soon.

Monday, February 14, 2011

A gift for my favorite Valentine

Happy Valentines Day to you all!!
 My husband is an electrical contractor, so when I saw this idea for a Valentine lightbulb over at Design Sponge, I knew it would be the perfect gift for him. I decided to add a little picture of us, which was much more challenging than I imagined, but I'm glad I did.
Here's how it turned out:



Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Old Schoolhouse

In my post yesterday, I mentioned the old schoolhouse that my husband and I recently purchased. We have decided that we would like to rid ourselves of mortgage debt within the next few years. That really isn't a possibility for us with the size of our current mortgage. So, we started looking around at some properties with one main requirement in mind, it had to be *cheap*. That's when I stumbled upon this amazing property that was being sold for next to nothing. We were able to purchase it last month and we hope to move into it in a couple more months. It was a WPA building built in the 1930's. It hasn't been used as a school since the 1950's, so there is A LOT of work to be done. Fortunately, I have a totally amazing husband who is more than capable of taking on a big project on a small budget. Our goal is to make this a nice home for our family while spending as little money as possible. :)
Here's a few before pictures of the house:
 The stairs:
 Large Classroom:
 Closet in Classroom:
 2nd Large Classroom:
 The basement:
 The back of the building:

Remodel in progress pictures coming soon.

Monday, January 31, 2011

I'm Back (I think)..... and Some Felt Food

Hello! I don't know if anyone is still reading this blog, considering I haven't posted anything on here for more than a year. Where have I been? That's a great question. I don't really have any reason for not posting, I guess I've just been caught up in the important job of raising a family. :) Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to start posting a little more regularly. I plan on posting a few of the projects I've done over this last year. Also, I'm hoping to share some pictures and projects from the old schoolhouse my husband and I recently purchased and we're remodeling for our home. In the meantime, here's some felt food for you.

This felt food was a lot of fun to make for our niece's birthday.

PIZZA

Would anyone be interested in a tutorial for the pizza or the tacos?

TACOS: With meat, cheese, salsa, and sour cream

QUESADILLA:

Juice Pouch, Bag of Chips, and Banana:


Pancakes with syrup and butter and Eggs:

PASTA:

Sugar cookie baking set: