He's Thankful for the important things..

Love this kid!  My son has an intense flair for storytelling... Can't imagine who he gets that from! 

advent calendar - box of mini boxes!

Our family likes to use the month of December to purposefully spend time with each other each day, this is a great way to do so when things get busy.

I bought the brown cardboard set from Hobby Lobby, but have had it at least two years before finally getting around to finishing it off.  I used multiple cans of spray paint for different metallic finishes- sterling silver, dull aluminum, hammered silver, dark bronze, and white. I also use two colors of spray glitter, sealing them well with a clearcoat.  At this point, some time between when I spray-painted in the garage on Sunday and today, Wednesday, one of the boxes randomly went missing. Lovely.  You will see in the next post, I just used washi tape for the center box, because I gave up looking and it's too cold to spray paint.

Lay out lots of little happy random things for all the numbers....

And hot glue! Add handwriting for those needed.  I'm still not done with the numbers, I have to find my LabelMaker and some number stickers that are at my studio.

We are happy with it! It will hold little treats for the kids, or tags that tell them fun family activities for the day, like Cocoa night, storytime, movie night, family night out, Smore's, etc.  They will also open preselected gifts from time to time, like books for a day they'll be home, a cute toy for a long car ride, pajamas, a new ornament for their tree, or crafts we can do together that afternoon.

80s inspired charm necklace

I bought a crazy rainbow striped dress this week that looked like a pack of Lifesavers to wear to a vinyl toy art show that I was participating in. I was afraid it was too loud, but wanted a perfect piece of jewelry to wear with it. The colors reminded me of the crazy 80s, so I decided to pull a bunch of awesome plastic mini toys and objects and make a necklace inspired by the charm necklaces we wore in elementary school.

I got the colored chain at hobby lobby and two large charms there, the gold bicycle and large black glasses, as well as two packs of miniature, bright colored Christmas ornaments. I bought two pairs of earrings at Claire's that I took apart for smaller bright colored charms, and the rest is either from my shadow boxes of cute mini things, or pieces of my kids toys or game pieces.

I love the end result, it's fun and playful and I had quite a few compliments on it last night, even strangers who were mildly obsessed with it. LOL. It's not superheavy since most of it is plastic.  The funny part is, I still have enough stuff that I could probably make an entire other necklace! LOL

Which are your favorite charms? 

Did you have one as a kid? 

Geeked out organized bins

In preparation for the move, we emptied all the medicine cabinets and bathroom drawers and misc. stuff in linen closets in the house. Since we are going from 2 bathrooms to 4, it was important to get everything organized. After tossing out all the old stuff like expired meds, Goopy fingernail polish, and random toiletries we no longer use, I got these great bins for less than four bucks each and got it all sorted. 

To nerd out a bit more, I had some 8.5x11 card stock I had previously stencil spray inked, cut those in half lengthwise, labeled everything  and just stuck them in the side of the bins with the loot. 

This was Seriously easy, and since the big card stock "labels" cover the whole side of the bin, you can easily find what you need without seeing the hot mess inside. Easy Peasy process, with a great sense of satisfaction.

Being this organized before we move I think will really help us settle in more easily.

Like my descriptions?  Lol 

Daily doodles... One pen

Little doodles, just ink pen. 

Daily doodles....

I've begun using a bit of my quiet time most days to sit and draw or doodle, whatever words or Scriptures or meaningful content I find, it helps me to reflect more deeply on the words.

I've had some requests for friends who want to remember these or follow them or pin them, so I will post a few at a time.

I post these more regularly on Instagram, I am OriginalYouth there, if you want to follow.