Do I look like a........., and Happy Mother's Day!

It's been a great day. I love Mother's day.
The kids helped their dad make crepes for breakfast with fresh strawberries and cream and they all went out of their way to be kind to each other and me. It doesn't get much better than that.
I had to laugh at Mr. Man's excitement over his Mother's day gift to me.
When I opened it there was an antique looking picture of my boy in a frame (see above picture). I thought it was just so sweet and I started to tell him how much I liked it when he blurted out,
"Do I look Canadian? I think I look Canadian. That's what I wanted to look like.....Canadian."
So I told him, with a smile on my face, "Oh yes, you look very Canadian."
And he was happy.
Not sure where that came from but I think I'm going to label this picture on the back, S- the Canadian, and then someday he'll look at the picture and say, "S- the Canadian, what?" And I'll get to tell him this story which I think is very cute.

While I'm writing I just have to express my love for the two moms in my life.
I feel so blessed to have my mom who has managed to live her life with love, kindness and intelligence and gracefully teach me the the nuances of this sacred role of motherhood. She held me in her arms and then by the hand and now she stands with her arm around me all the while being my biggest cheerleader and I'm grateful for her sacrifices and love. I love you mom.
But my blessings don't stop there.
My Mother-In-Law is a remarkable woman as well. Somehow she survived my husbands accident-prone childhood with her sanity and sense of humor intact. She taught her boy to never give up, to work hard and play hard, to love and to dance and to clean a toilet and I thank her for all of those things. Now she supports and loves me as a daughter and as a mother to her grandchildren. I love you mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

Quite A Week

Have you ever run down a steep hill and felt your top half get slightly off balance and out in front of your bottom half and you know you need to figure something out and get back in balance  because if you don't you're going to crash and burn face first and it just won't be pretty?

That's how I feel or felt.......only I did... crash and burn.

Even still with all of the crashing and burning it's hard to slow down. 

I should slow down more often and enjoy the scenes like this one out my back window.

My daughter took this picture she's turning out to be a pretty good photographer.

Anyway, back to the crashing and burning, my foot crashed into the door frame of my bathroom and I think I broke my toe. I didn't have any x-rays taken but I'm pretty sure it was broken. But telling people you broke your toe stubbing it on the door coming out of the bathroom just isn't exciting enough for me.  So after polling friends and family we've come up with two acceptable and more interesting stories.

• While climbing Annapurna in Nepal I lost my footing on a sheer rock face and started to plummet to a certain painful death. Fortunately my fearless baby toe saved me by throwing its self at a sharp, jutting-out cluster of rocks and becoming wedged in a crack and thus saving my life. You saw the story on the news, no doubt.
• We were walking through the African Savanna when a wild and ferocious wart-hog attacked my child. But my fearless and heroic baby toe fought it off with superhuman strength saving both  the life of my child and my life. Sadly my toe did suffer some injuries but they are not life threatening and it is believed my toe will make a full recovery.

Feel free to share either of the above stories if anyone asks you what happened to my toe.

But to tell you the truth I'm not sure they will ask you because it seems my toe has been recovering incredibly fast and I know it is a blessing.

So, I have these two incredible in-laws. 

They are hoping to adopt sooner rather than later and they asked me to take a few pictures of them. I am not a professional photographer by any means and I was flattered they'd ask because I do enjoy pretending to be a professional.  We had a great time and we even got some pretty decent shots.

If you'd like to learn more about them go HERE or HERE.

Later in the week the burning part of the crashing and burning came when I picked up my youngest's cold and I was burning up with a fever. I also lost my voice which is always fun when you're the ring leader, zoo keeper, wrangler, mother of five. Luckily for me they are really good kids and helped out as much as they could but I really didn't have time to stay down which is probably why I'm still fighting this silly cold.

It turns out the prospect of a solar eclipse is terrifying to my youngest. 

Our family was discussing the solar eclipse that's coming up at the end of this month and Utah is the perfect spot to view the eclipse. However, the idea of the moon passing in front of the sun sent my 5 year old into a fit of terror with shaking and crying. I'm not sure what she thinks is going to happen. Fire-benders won't have any fire bending powers during the eclipse but she's not a fire bender (silly avatar the last air bender reference) so that shouldn't bother her. She also hasn't cast any spells turning people into hawks and wolves that can be broken during an eclipse (LadyHawk) so I'm just not sure what she's worried about.

But in all seriousness I think it's just the unknown and the strangeness of it that's bothering her.

We tried to explain to her exactly what was going to happen and listen to her fears.

We then told her there are much stranger and scarier things in this world than an eclipse like this picture of her brother that her older sister took and messed with.

She laughed and agreed.

So here's to a new week and to not letting my head get in front of my feet.

Bleached T-Shirts Take 2....Now that's more like it!

Okay, so my first try didn't go as planned. But that's okay. Live and learn, right?
The second try was so much more what I had in mind.
The thing I love about this project is you don't need to have any fancy cutting machines or equipment.
And it's quick, easy, fun and inexpensive.
Perfect in my opinion!

Let me walk you through it.

Supplies:

• A colored T-shirt (Yellow doesn't work very well)
• Bleach
• Small Spray Bottle (a travel hairspray bottle worked perfectly)
• A design (I got mine from www.picmonkey.com )
• Clear or light colored contact paper
• Sharpie (permanent marker)
• Scissors
• Tape
• Plastic Bag
• Rubber Gloves (not mandatory but nice to have)
• Well ventilated area

I started by printing a design on regular paper and then taping it to a window.
I then taped a piece of clear contact paper over the top of the design with the vinyl side facing me.
I traced the design onto the contact paper.

In this picture the design was traced onto the paper not the vinyl but believe me it's a lot easier if you trace it onto the vinyl.

After the design was traced I simply cut it out with the scissors, peeled off the paper backing and placed it on the t-shirt where I wanted it.

I made sure I was wearing old clothes and shoes and moved the shirt outside where the bleach couldn't get on anything important.
However, I did not wear rubber gloves and my hands are paying the price.
Bleach is a VERY potent chemical and should be treated with respect. My hands have been cracking and bleeding since doing this craft with-out gloves. So don't do it!

Also, if you don't want the bleach to bleed through to the other side of the shirt put some plastic or an old towel between the front and back layers of the shirt.

Now comes the fun part!

With your spray bottle lightly squirt the bleach 4 or 5 times over your design.
And then wait a minute. The bleach won't look like it's doing anything for a minute but believe me it is.
Suddenly the bleached spots will show up.
Now you can decide if you want to bleach some more. If you do, spray a couple more times and then wait again.

Once you have the design the way you want it let it dry for a few minutes.
Then remove the vinyl, rinse in the sink in cold water and wash in the washing machine or dry in the dryer.

That's it!

This was a very easy, inexpensive and fun craft to do with the Young Women I work with.

And it really made me happy to see how excited they were about their creations!

Good luck and I'd love to hear if you decide to try it!!!