notable quotable: praise your life

photo curtesy capturing motherhood

I know, here I go again with the youngest in our family.


but you know how when they're young the way they say things, 


they're just too cute to forget.


Audrey:  "Mom do you wish you could be a kid again?"


Me:  "Well, I like being a grown up, but sure I'd love to be a kid, because you get to play a lot more."


Audrey: "Yes, you get to play and sing and praise your life."


Her comment made me stop in my tracks.


What does it mean to praise your life to her?


It means to be happy with where you are.


And isn't that a lesson for all of us?


Because the Most High created us and gave us our lives.


How dare we not praise.


Happy Friday Everyone.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows."

James 1:17

fall inspiration

Fall is my most favorite season.

I love the anticipation.

The spirit of thanksgiving.

There's a feeling in the air.

The sunlight is different.

The leaves changing colors

 (even if they aren't as plentiful in so. cal.).

I wanted to capture this season of giving in an autumn print.

and finally i have a red-head in the shop.

I'm working to turn this into a thank you card 

with a different scripture...

It's coming soon.

I think i'd like that outfit she has on...

and below you'll see what happens around here when 

mommy tries to work while the kids are awake.

 

Yes, the dishes get piled high in the sink and the filing awaits, 

but I love that my kids get inspired to do their own drawings.  

This little lady likes to draw from my drawings.

She was getting frustrated that i kept blocking her view,

so I printed it out for her to have her own copy.

I love that she's so detailed.  

and I love her creativity.

She and I are kindred spirits

in the fact that she'll wake up and say,

"I NEED to draw."

When there's a spark of an idea, 

she has to get it out.

Before eating, before anything else.

She just needs to draw.

Happy Autumn everyone!

notable quotable

Awhile back I said I was going to try to keep track of something my kids said that I wouldn't want to forget.  


And of course I forgot to keep up with it.


But today I'm resurrecting the notable quotable friday.


Because this little lady, just said something that melted my heart.


As I made her a smoothie and was cleaning up


she said, 'I want to be a mommy."


And I said why?


And she replied, "So I can take care of you."


Sigh.


These are the moments that make it all worth it.

embracing cousins

This past week my sister who lives far, far away in New York came out for her first visit with her baby.  My kids were absolutely ecstatic to meet their cousin.  My sister took these and emailed them to me today, just in time to share for embrace the camera.

I had a very bad hat head, but couldn't let that stop me from a family photo.

Promptly after their visit each one of my kids have come down with a terrible cold.  Our house has felt like a germ fest of sneezes and coughs.  

I'm one pooped mommy, but thankfully I think the colds are lifting and praise God my sister and her son didn't catch anything.

It was so nice to be an Auntie to a little one.  

And my son's wish has finally come true, to have a baby boy in the family.

mirror mirror

This is the first of a series I've had in mind for awhile. 

Quoting 2 Corinthians 3:18 to remind each of us that we, with unveiled faces, are a reflection of His glory.


To think of that the next time you look in the mirror.


And to think, we're being transformed into His same image more and more each day.  


We get to behold the glory of the Lord and in turn reflect it out to others.  


Pretty powerful.  And pretty convicting.

"But we all, with unveiled face, 

beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, 

are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, 

just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

.

I've created it in a few different color choices.  Keep checking back... there are more prints to come in this series.  I'm thinking they'll go perfectly in a bathroom or wherever you get ready for the day.

weekend treasure hunt

A craft inspired trip to a flea market proved unsuccessful

but we stumbled upon a used book store.

They're just as much into the hunt for a treasure as I am.

Are they kindred spirits by nature or nurture?

Even in the womb they've joined me on hunts such as these.  

And even if we don't walk away with anything,

it is fun just seeing the old, 

browsing the rows & rows 

of possibilities

and enjoying a common love.

181. walking in the warmth of the sun.

182. patient children

183. memories working

184. a diverted journey

185. a snuggable nephew

186. inspiration for new projects

187. nerves calming

188. having fun doing nothing at all

189. vintage books

190. kids creativity

191. a son praying for others at dinner

192.  his heart 

193. his first purchase all on his own

out of his own wallet for a deck of cards.

fall party

Back when my son was just four years old, I had a fall party for his preschool friends.

It was their last year of preschool and we were a close group of moms and kids.

I recently came across the photos and thought I'd share.

I had fun finding the vintage clip art and recipes for a fun fall party.

This was fresh squeezed oranges, rice milk and bananas blended together, with black licorice for straws.

I found an assortment of ideas for this snack mix through searches on the web.  

Barefoot Contessa's Chicken Chili Recipe - I was pregnant with my third baby
when we had this party.  I craved this chili all the time!   

Martha Stewart - Cranberry Oat Cereal Bars (really a fancy rice krispie treat)

As an activity, the kids got to decorate pumpkins.  We also let them paint their own leaf  placemats.
I later added scripture and laminated them as a fall keepsake.

So crazy...all these kids are nearly ten years old now!

super girl

I've been inspired a lot lately.


So many ideas, but so little time.


However, I stayed up late the last couple of nights in order to finish


SUPER GIRL.... she makes me smile.


She was inspired by this photo of my youngest daughter.

I thought it went perfectly with 2 Timothy 1:7.

This was one of the earliest scriptures I memorized.


Because I can be prone to a spirit of fear.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear;

but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

I love this reminder that fear is not from God.


Because of Him we get to have a power greater than our own.


I especially love that I get an opportunity to instill this in my girls.


Super girl is available in the shop.

Feel free to convo me if you'd like her with a different hair color.

the long abandoned chandelier

My husband and I bought our house a little over twelve years ago.


After two years of house hunting all over parts of Los Angeles, 


the Lord led us to this neighborhood that we had never heard of, nor stepped foot in before.


That face was me saying, "OH BOY... what are we getting ourselves into???"


Because it was a major fixer.  Built in 1949, lived in by the same family since 1950.

This was the dining room complete with mirrored paneling around 


the inset, textured wallpaper, and a lovely yellow shag carpet on the 
floor.


The chandelier.  It was ho hum.  I took the crystals off and planned 
to do something with it.


But many other projects (like the moldings I meticulously mapped out with tape)


and many other to-do lists took precedence.


And well, twelve years passed and the chandelier still hung without it's crystals.


For a long while the room was this Martha Stewart A1 red with Dunn Edwards Pearl White.  How I loved it.

But I longed for a change and we switched to more of a gray/blue.  The bottom is still Dunn Edwards Pearl White, but the moldings are DE Swiss Coffee.  I loved the contrast of the ivory and white.  

I can be such a color girl, and this gray was a little too blue, and it never felt right to me.


So I finally found the right mix of gray/green/blue in Benjamin Moore's Wales Gray. 

But still I hadn't gotten to the chandelier.


So recently I decided it was time.


We could restore the brass or paint it or just get a new one.


When I started looking, the things I liked were


around $4,000 dollars.  Of course.


So I told my husband I wanted to take a risk.


I wanted to paint it, a deep teal.


I fell in love with Newburg Green by Benjamin Moore.

It looks a little odd for a chandelier, but stick with me.


I wish I could say that I did it all myself, but we hired


a painter with a professional sprayer to paint the base Newburg Green.


He had to cover up the entire room with plastic, something I probably wouldn't have done


and probably would have made a mess.  


But I did hand paint the gold accents and distressed the whole thing


to give it more of an aged look. 

The Newburg Green is part of their historic colors and I think it does have a nice antique feel.


And it's unique.  Even though I used to think the crystals were sort of an odd shape.  

They've grown on me and now I like that they seem more modern and geometric.  I'm so glad I saved them all these years.  This also taught me you really can change your mind on something you may at first think isn't very pretty.

And the girls were oh so excited to be my helpers putting all the crystals back.

They took their job very seriously.

They actually were a big help, because I was able to make dinner while they quietly worked away.

Now I'm just oh so glad we actually finished the job 


and my husband said, "It looks awesome."

So take that $4,000 dollar chandeliers!


And this inspired more progress on long awaited projects.

Like finally painting a chalkboard for the dining room.  


I used the Newburg Green and the gold paint and can't


wait to change out scriptures, inspirational sayings and menus 


as the months go by.

Another long needed re-do is my son's room.


He has had this since he was two.

And he's now 9 1/2.  So it is time to do some updating.  Painting this...

inspired painting this.

Slowly I'm working on making his room look more grown up.  


The girls room is getting a new addition too.

These desks, painted a pretty blue have my mind 


spinning with ideas to transform the area into a little


creative station all their own.


Happy Weekend everyone!