Ok so I promised DIY's.
We celebrated my son's first birthday last weekend and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share a few of my favorite DIY's that I put together for his party.

I tried my best to add some links to the products I bought so hopefully it will help!

For the guest book I got everyone to sign on a Project Life card, that I had printed online. Didn't pay a cent, other then ink I guess. That way I could throw them into J's Project Life photobook I am making for him!

CHALKBOARDS:

I had wrote everything on little chalkboards. But we all know chalkboards are pricy. I bought one chalkboard which you will see below and I used a 40% off coupon at Michaels. For the rest I bought little pieces of plain wood from Michaels (ranging from .50 cents to $1.25) and I already owned some Martha Stewart Chalkboard Paint. Made my own Chalkboards!

All you need to do is two coats of paint and then take some chalk and draw over the entire thing. Then take a cloth and rub it off. It will give it the chalkboard finish.

CHALKBOARD POTS:

To incorporate more of the chalkboard/garden theme I had bought some small ceramic pots from the dollar store and again just painted them with chalkboard paint. Then bought some small little plants from Walmart for $2.50 a piece. 

BURLAP POTS:

These cute plant pots were from the dollar store again, no more then a dollar each and already owned some burlap. You can buy it from Michaels for pretty cheap if you look around and use a coupon. I hot glued it to the pot and left some extra burlap on the top to fold over into the pot and glued it in the pot as well. I had some cute polka dot ribbon I had got on sale awhile back from Michaels and just hot glued it around the edge of the burlap. I did not actually glue that part to the pot just because I liked the three dimensional look to it. I then took some parchment paper and cut some squares and shoved it in the pot.

CAKE POP HOLDER:

My amazing Mother-In-Law made these adorable cake pops. The little boxes I got from Target for .50 while they were going out of business here in Canada. I then bought some Styrofoam from Michaels and wrapped them like a present in gold paper. They worked wonderfully.

PAPER PENNANTS:

The pennants were all homemade, VERY easy again! Bought a stack of paper from Michaels (it came in a package with brown, beige, grey, yellow beige and black) cost me 5$. Also bought one sheet of gold paper. I just cut out some little triangles by hand (I am not super picky about them all looking the same, if you were picky about them I am sure a paper cutter would work and maybe cutting one and tracing it.) I then used a tiny hold punch and just threaded some string threw. Quick and easy and I made 4 of them in no time!

WOODEN CRATES:

Let's talk about the crates. These were again a bigger splurge for me although I did stain them myself. I looked for the cheapest place to buy crates and sure enough Walmart had them for $10 each. I bought 3 and stained them with a Walnut stain that I bought for the Growth Charts I had made. I kept them outside for a good week since the smell was strong but they turned out really nice in the end. 

MILK CONTAINER FAVORS:

 The favors were probably my longest project. My dear friend Erika was the one who gave me the whole idea of milk and cookies party and all thanks to these little milk carton favors she had a cut out for. Check out her blog: Scraptherapy. She is amazing. She pretty much put these adorable favors together. All I did was assemble them and then I created the little "thank you" tags on photoshop with a graphic I found online. Inside: Cookies and Cream Hersheys drops. I managed to score 4 big bags off amazon for $12.

FLAGGED STRAWS:

The black straws with the gold flag: Straws from Ikea and the flags I just made with gold washi tape, just stick the tape together over the straw and cut a little triangle at the end.

Made the picture on Photoshop and just printed it. Added pinecones as a bit of decor.

Hope you enjoy these DIY's!

Growth Chart DIY

Well I have promised a DIY for way too long!

First up: Growth Chart.

To be honest I found it hard to get a handful of nice photos through the process of making mine, so instead I thought I would just try to explain it, again it has been too long.

We have all seen them, the giant ruler growth charts!
A few months back I stopped at a friends house just for a quick visit, while there I saw her gorgeous wooden growth chart. It was a must have. After explaining all she needed was a sharpie, wood and stain to do it (plus a few more supplies I will explain), I was hooked. I not only made one for myself but one for both my sister-in-laws.

The whole thing took me about 1.5 to 2 hours long, and did not cost me more then $30:

1. Buy a 6 foot .... (Home Depot, Rona) Approx. $10
2. I started by drawing faint pencil marks with a ruler at every inch going up the board, making sure I made the half and feet marks a bit longer.
3. After double checking all the lines looked straight and accurate I grabbed a brand new black sharpie and went over all of the lines.
4. For the numbers, if you have stencils that would work really well and save you a lot of time. I did not so I printed very large numbers (1-5) off of Word in a font I liked. I then cut out all of the numbers and taped them onto the feet lines. Then I traced them with a pencil and then went over them with a sharpie.
5. After all of that was complete, I took a break.
6. After a short break, I had bought some oil, wood stain in colour: "Walnut". You can get whatever colour you like but I found the "Walnut" gave it a really nice finish. About $15 from Walmart.
7. I applied the stain while following the instructions on the back: applying and whipping as I went along.
8. I kept the chart outside for a handful of hours and then kept it in our kitchen for a few more days since the stain can be quite strong and did not want it in my son's room.

Easy-peasy. Hope you enjoyed! I loved this idea for my own kids and also as a really thoughtful, easy, fairly cheap gift you can make for others!

"I Would Be Happier If I...."

If you didn't already know, other then taking care of my little dude at home I also do photography as a pretty consistent side job. Over two months ago, while sitting at my table finishing up some photo editing I finally convinced myself to quickly upload a handful of my most recent photos to an online contest called, Shoot and Share.

I had come across the contest awhile back and at the time quickly decided I was definitely not good enough to put my photos in the contest. I was nervous that mine would stick our like a sore thumb in a wave of amazing photos. But after a couple of weeks I finally changed my mind, not totally sure why but for whatever reason I thought, why not?

In the weeks to come my husband and I took a couple of evenings to sit down with a cup of tea and vote a bit. It was fun, four photos pop up on the screen and you pick your favorite. Easy peasy. You have no idea whose is whose and chances of seeing your own in the 111, 000 photos submitted was a rush, although it never did happen.

For the next month, the contest continued to eliminate a percent of photos bit by bit. I would get Facebook update: Round 1, Round 2 etc. I never paid too much attention to them but it was always fun to see here and there how much better the photos got each round.

What happened next though I never would have anticipated. Sure enough after a few weeks I received an email while blow drying my hair that read: Julie, you have made it to the finals. I was blown away (no pun intended).
Um excuse me? I thought to myself. There must have been some sort of mistake. I could not believe it, I had made it to the finals! I had made it to the top 10% of 111, 000 photos!

The next days were spent voting, trying to see if I could see which picture(s) exactly had made it this far. Finally within another few days I received an email again: Julie, you have made it to the Top 100. I again could not believe it, with 111, 000 photos submitted and only 21 categories of photos one of MY photos made it to the Top 100. I was ecstatic.

In the midst of excitement, what happened next was even more surprising to me.
I was SO excited and so grateful to have placed in the finals! But what was once a complete shock and gratefulness to everyone who got me this far quickly turned into: Finals aren't good enough, I want more. When I placed in the Top 100, I was excited but quickly my feelings faded and again I wanted more. What was once a complete surprise, a gift I never would have expected, and a complete joy quickly turned into great expectation and a quick loss in joy when I did not see it pan out. Why is it we always want more?

I often think, if I just had more money I would be happier. If I just dressed like all those other fashionable moms I would happier. If I just decided to spend my money on getting my hair done every month I would just be happier. Sure I just got two new tops, but really I want two more now. Sure I got a nice hair cut a few months back, but now I want to dye it and get a new style. It is never ending. It is so sad to think we look so much on the outside to make us happy rather then looking on the inside. Rather then savouring the very things we have been so gracious blessed with. I often have to stop and remind myself we are the top 1% of rich people in the world, that I have NO idea what it means to be poor as "poor" as I think I am.

I never had such a vivid experience as this that made me really think about how quickly I turn what I have into "not good enough". The grass is always greener on the other side hey? Nah it is garbage. It is never ending, even if I place finals in a contest I will want more. I make it to Top 100 and guess what, I will still want more. It won't stop. And even if I would have won, I would have taken a few moments to celebrate, probably walked around most of the day on cloud nine but quickly the moment would pass and I would once again have greater expectations for myself.

Through it I have spent more time praying that I would see what I own, what I have accomplished, who I am, what I do as is and be grateful for what God has given me. I personally need to learn to live in the moment, to savour the the things God has so graciously given to me. My cars, my clothes, my money, my family, it is all His.

Check out this TED talk on this topic: The Happy Secret to Better Work

DIY and New Hobbies!

The last few years, my first 4 as a mom, have been full of joy. There have been so many fun things to do, experience for the first time, and establish as new traditions. We have taken field trips, spent rainy afternoons at home, tried new foods and tried to woo our little one toward our healthy favorites. We have spent our first years as parents in a special sort of glow.

But things definitely changed when we became parents, especially for me, as the mom. Suddenly, most of my every day was full of child care, in all of its forms. And a lot of my favorite pastimes fell to the wayside, as I made time to take care of another human. I stopped reading as much, scrapbooking, playing guitar, rollerblading, shopping for leisure (ha!), painting, etc. It was too frustrating to get started doing something and then be interrupted and never have time to pick it back up again. I started to resent the pile of scrapbooking supplies that represented my lack of free time.

But seasons definitely do change, don’t they? As we approach my baby’s fourth birthday, I’m amazed at how the landscape of my days and weeks has changed. I recently shared a few posts about self-care and spending more time on myself. One thing I did recently as an exercise in carving out time for myself was to complete a month long makeup challenge (which felt totally luxurious in how unnecessary it was!) I’m getting better at claiming minutes during my day for myself. I even sat down recently and completed a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle! I mean, wow. I couldn’t have imagined doing something like that even two years ago!

As my time begins to feel more free, I’m considering my hobbies again. I’m opening that cabinet that has held my art supplies for so long, and I’m starting new projects that I have never considered before. I took a calligraphy class online with my mom. So fun!

And she’s teaching me to sew. ME! SEWING!!

My mom made almost all of my clothes when I was little. She sewed matching outfits for all of my siblings for all of our photo shoots and family events. She is an amazing seamstress. But I can’t make anything with fabric! It all seems so overwhelming and confusing when I sit down and look at a pattern. Cutting all one direction, measuring, sewing inside out, gathering…it just seems like a lot to absorb, much less gain mastery of! But my mom is awesome and very patient, and she’s been giving me lessons.

How cute is my Mom? Seriously!

We’ve made five summer dresses for Austen. I’m so proud of us! Four of them are very basic, I mean LEVEL BEGINNER, pillowcase style dresses. But I did a whole dress BY MYSELF! And then we did one dress with a pattern. It is so fun and satisfying to make something useful and cute for my daughter to wear!

So here is my DIY of late. I have photographic evidence! See that blue pinstripe? I did it MYSELF!

I think the one thing all of these cute dresses illustrate is this: sometimes in life we end up doing things that we never thought we would do. And it's exciting and confidence-inspiring when something unexpected goes unexpectedly well. So I'm learning to expand my borders and take on hobbies that are maybe more "me" than I ever thought, and I'm hoping that this experience will help me be brave about other "unimaginable" tasks, like tart-making or home decorating or photography.

Are you stepping bravely out into "hard" tasks? Taking on new hobbies? Let me know how you've stepped out of your comfort zone recently in the comments!

Love, 

Courtlandt

For Everything There Is a Season

I hope you all had a lovely Easter. 

I wish I could have pulled together a post especially for this weekend, but with all of the family festivities this weekend time seemed to slip by. 

We had a lovely weekend celebrating it with family and friends and hope you did, too! 

However, I will mention this Easter weekend for me came with a heavy heart. Rather then a time of joy, I found myself struggling with the need for answers and the feeling of a thick oppression over me. Sadly in our home when these questions come up, they are often backed up with so much emotion that my hubby and I almost always end up in a heated argument... one that is almost always completely avoidable. All that to say, it was a harder weekend then most. 

On a weekend that is meant for remembrance of an incredible God who sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for all of us, I found myself angry and questioning God once again for the pain and suffering so many people go through. For years, I never struggled with this anger. 

Over the years though, as I have grown more and more aware of the world around me rather then just me and my life, my heart breaks ever so quickly. People's stories of loss hit so much deeper then they ever have. I am a sensitive spirit this way; I have a great desire to see fairness in our world and yet our world is the least fair place. I struggle when injustice is done, and I have such a hard time just giving it up to God as I should and trusting He is the one to judge and will rightly do so. Instead, my heart hurts so quickly, and I find myself angry.

I felt it the most after I had my baby boy last April. Something happened; something changed. My heart broke even more than it ever had for babies/children all over the world who are sick, hurting, in unjust circumstances, or are orphans. 

I am not sure if anyone has seen it yet, but my husband brought up the idea of watching the movie "Dropbox" this weekend. A perfect weekend to deliberately spend time watching the miracles/good God is doing in the world. As much as I have wanted to watch this movie, I instantly shouted "no" at the idea. Everything inside me struggled to want to spend yet another evening saddened (instead of happy) by the very idea of little babies/children everywhere without their mamas caring for them. 

The truth is there is good going on even in the bad. A truth I struggle to make sense of. God said it in His very word: "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Romans 8:28 NLT.

 In all of the anger I struggle with, there is a decision I have to make. A decision to trust that God has a plan for absolutely everyone, no matter how short or long, or how hard or easy, their time on earth is. God is chipping away at all of us, molding us into the people he has called us to be. In all of the pain, struggles, grief, and confusion I feel at times, I personally have to choose whether I will abandon the very God who gave up his Son for me, or choose to trust Him that through it all He has a plan, one I may never understand, one that may ALWAYS seem unfair during my time on earth. But it is one plan that I know and believe will have a unimaginable, wondrous, everlasting, eternal end as long as I choose to trust.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing." Ecclesiastics: 3:1-22 ESV

Julie

Keeping Fit

As we all know, I have been beyond horrible at posting the DIY's promised. I am hoping to do a few in the next couple weeks. With our little guy's birthday approaching, I am finally getting a chance to get a couple of those final tasks complete.

These past few weeks have been filled with craziness in our home with my husband nearly finished with his semester of school, and for me photography season is just starting to pick up. With all of this, we have been taking every bit of extra time we have to spend with each other and our little man.
We are also so excited to be expecting a baby niece into the family hopefully this Easter weekend! We will keep you posted.

With all of the additional tasks this month, I also decided to get a membership at the gym. "What?!" you say. Yes, it is for real.
As I have already been very honest about..  I am not a huge gym-goer. I do not love the atmosphere, and I really do not enjoy "working out." I would much rather play a sport or go for a hike. But, sadly, I do not do that either.

I can say before I had my son, it didn't feel like it was that big of a deal if I never went to the gym. I got out a lot and walked around a lot, but as many of us know things change when you have a kid. I read so many blogs of these women who somehow can manage their active lifestyles while having a newborn and I think "HUH?!?" I was lucky enough to get out of the house to buy groceries let alone to have free time to go for a jog.

But now after a year, I finally feel like I can sneak-in some "me time." The gym never sounded like "me time" in the past, but now being a mom... having a deep desire to staying healthy and strong for my kiddos... going to gym as grown into "me time." Even more so after a super stressful day. My hopes are that over the next couple years, we as a family will be able to be a much more active family, however that looks. Whether it be regular hikes, home workouts, who knows?
We will see what is in store.

Love, Julie