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Right Frame of Mind

February 22, 2013 By Shan Leave a Comment

I’m up early this morning. Youngest girl is going on a field trip. She was so excited. We pulled on her skinny jeans, slid on shoes and tied her scarf. I should have taken a photo. After preparing her sack lunch with a peanut butter sandwich, Cheetos, Oreos and G2, she was off. DH took the kids to school on his way to work. Thank you hubby.

I’m going running this morning. After scrounging up my layers of running clothes, including sliding on my compression socks and shoes, I decided to watch an inspirational video to get me in the right frame of mind. This one was perfect. I felt compelled to share it with you, my lovely readers today.

Doesn’t that put everything in perspective?
I think so.
Have a beautiful Friday my friends.

Sincerely,

Filed Under: Home Brings Joy, Me Time Brings Joy, MY Family Brings Joy, Photography Brings Joy, Running Brings Joy, Values Bring Joy

Grandparent’s LOVE – A Valentine’s Day Mantel

February 13, 2013 By Shan 3 Comments

Valentines Mantel 2013 familybringsjoy.com

As usual it’s been a work in progress. Meaning I finally added the finishing touch yesterday.

I’d like to call this “Grandparent’s LOVE.” I decided to add photos of our grandparents in the window frames to feature them. This is a great opportunity for family history discussion within our family. Two couples represented are my grandparents. One couple is my husband’s grandparents. The other two couples are my great grandparents. {Just for the record, I’m not playing favorites. I found these photos quickly and they were the right size to fit on the heart doily} The legacy of enduring love exudes from these grandparents.

Great Grandparents familybringsjoy.com

I am blessed to have one of these grandmother’s living in Arkansas looking and acting as young as ever. I am grateful our children are able to spend time with her. There’s nothing like the love of a grandma. We love you so much Oma!

Valentine Mantel collage1 familybringsjoy.com

I also wanted to feature some of my kids previous handmade gifts of love. My son made the clay heart with the arrow going through it years ago. My youngest daughter made the clay heart inside the small lantern. I think it’s important to display items our kids have made us. This shows them how grateful we are for their works of art, but also encourages their creativity. I’d much rather have a handmade gift than a store bought gift from them.

I found the 2 free printables on Pinterest. You can find them on my Valentine’s Day Pinterest board. I added them to frames I had on hand. The heart photo album is the one I have blogged about in the past. And of course you can see my Stringed Heart Sculpture I just blogged about in the previous post.

Valentines Mantel collage2 familybringsjoy.com

I added the wood “You are the…” board I gave my husband as an anniversary gift one year. The Generosity board I purchased in the past and felt it went with the theme. {I’m also trying to teach this concept to my family. } Last, but certainly not least, is the Christus I glazed at a church activity around 18 years ago. Christ is the epitome of LOVE. He almost always is on my mantel, if not there, then somewhere in our living room where I can see him. The only money spent on this mantel was for the heart doilies and supplies for the Stringed Heart Sculpture. It’s so much fun shopping from home and using what I already have. You should try it.

Celebrating enduring love,

Filed Under: Crafts Bring Joy, Home Brings Joy, MY Family Brings Joy, Photography Brings Joy, Values Bring Joy

Large Wood Heart for My Front Door

January 26, 2013 By Shan 10 Comments

Last week I looked at our undecorated entry way and thought to myself, “I need a heart.”

No, I’m not quoting from the Tin Man (Wizard of Oz)…lol

I envisioned in my mind a simple big rustic wooden heart to go on my front door for Valentine’s Day.

Normally, when I get something in my head like this, the first thing I do is go searching online for it. Invariably, every time I spend way too much time looking for ‘it’ and never find it. So instead, I decided to make one!
2 Beginnings of Wood Heart familybringsjoy.com

4. I painted and added a little of Annie Sloan’s Dark (Brown) wax to give dimension and have a subtle rustic look to it.

keys to add texture familybringsjoy.com

To add to the rustic look I took keys and banged them on the painted heart.

I decided to sand the heart again after I got my frustrations out by throwing the keys over & over on the heart. I wanted a little of the original light wood to show through around the edges. I ran into a slight hiccup when I decided to sand over the top of the heart as well. I explained and showed on the following videos {very amateur videos} what happened and how I was to remedy the problem without repainting it all over again:

Next part of making wood heart familybringsjoy.com

Final Wood Heart on door familybringsjoy.com

My Son says it’s “tacky.” What do you think?

I heart Valentine’s Day,

Filed Under: Crafts Bring Joy, Home Brings Joy, Me Time Brings Joy, Photography Brings Joy

Great Organizing Tips

January 17, 2013 By Shan Leave a Comment

photo(22) Yesterday, after tripping over shoe upon shoe I decided it was time.

Time to organize my closet once and for all.

I never truly organized it when we moved in to this house about 3 years ago. It has also become a dumping ground for stuff around the house. For example, I might have company coming so I grab a container and throw all the clutter in it. That container ends up in my closet. For some reason I have linens and all kinds of non-closet items. I always justify that the rest of the house {the part everyone sees} deserves my attention more. However it is completely out of control and beginning to wreak havoc when trying to find clothing I need or want.

I have a nice size walk in closet with built ins. It is plenty big for my needs yet most of the time I can’t walk in. Isn’t that awful!? It is. Sigh…

This is where I am in my organizing {no I did not finish}:

-Took all the shoes out of the closet. Purged shoes (1 bag)

-Vacuumed the floor I could see. {I love vacuuming because of the instant gratification it brings!}

-Purged dresses and shirts. (1bag) Threw away old hangers and used new wooden hangers I scored for only $6 for a box of 20 at Wal Mart. {Sure hope when I go back to Wal Mart they’ll have more of those hangers}

-Grouped my dresses in colors. Ahhh…if it only looked like this all the time.

Anyway, so a beautiful person I met at Blissdom last year is a professional organizer. Her name is Amy Volk from amyvolk.com She saw me whining about how grueling this closet organizing process is for me on Instagram with the photo above. She left me this comment of hope:

“Tomorrow my segment is on closet organizing )))”

I visited her site first thing this morning and found a video of Amy on a TV news segment and had to share it with you:

I’m off to work some more on my closet.

P.S.: When I updated my blog it took away my pages {Home, About Me, Blogs Bring Joy, Affiliates Bring joy, Books Bring Joy} I’m currently waiting to hear back from WordPress to see how this can be corrected. Sorry for the technical difficulties

Wish me luck,

Filed Under: Home Brings Joy, Other Emotions, Photography Brings Joy, Values Bring Joy

White Christmas Week {in OK}

January 2, 2013 By Shan 2 Comments

Happy New Year from familybringsjoy.com

‘baby’ girl’s snow angel

It’s not ‘normal’ to have snow in OK the week of Christmas

Using her new camera familybringsjoy.com

Taking a snow photo with her Santa gift

Testing my new wide angle lens…thanks hubs {our backyard}

Winter Wonderland on Wordless Wednesday,

Filed Under: Home Brings Joy, MY Family Brings Joy, Photography Brings Joy

A JOYful Christmas Mantel

December 28, 2012 By Shan 8 Comments

I hope everyone had a safe and lovely Christmas! Christmas Mantel 1 familybringsjoy.com

One of my favorite sayings is “Better late than never.”

Christmas time requires more than what we normally do on a day to day basis. I apologize for not being able to post these photos before Christmas.

Welcome to our home for Christmas 2012…

Christmas Stockings familybringsjoy.com

I got a wild hair and decided to make some new Christmas stockings this year. I almost bought some burlap stockings but decided denim was more me.

I couldn’t find any online I liked so why not make them?

Kid's Christmas Stockings familybringsjoy

I took my pattern off our old stockings on size. I figured out how to do a cuff based on the old ones as well, but decided to make them all different. The red gingham ones are the boys. The white cuffed ones are the girls. It took me longer to blanket stitch the loop hangers than it did for me to make all 5 stockings. I still think it was worth it, though. I bought the letters/ornaments at Pottery Barn to place on the kid’s packages. I decided they looked cute on the stockings and wished I would have bought one for me and the mr. {Thus the 2 stockings without initials on them}

Nativity 2 familybringsjoy.com

I was so excited to find this unique nativity at a holiday bazaar I went to with my Mom. It’s made out of metal and came with the pretty background. You can find one of these at EverThineHome.com

Nativity familybringsjoy.com

I channeled a little creativity by covering up some Styrofoam trees {below}. I used denim scraps left over from making the stockings to ruffle around one of the trees. It was as simple as using pins and hot glue. I covered the large tree by wrapping it with red yarn. The smallest tree was decorated by using kraft wrapping paper. I used my circle punch and pinned the circles on the tree.

Trees familybringsjoy.com

The wreath below was also purchased at the Ever Thine Home booth I spoke of earlier. I love how the leaves are made out of hymns.

JOY with wreath familybringsjoy.com

The JOY letters are the ones I decorated with sweater material at Whatever Craft Weekend. I changed the embellishments to be more Christmas like. Thanks to A Cottage Life I used her mini bunting she gave as swag for Whatever Craft Weekend on the O. On the J I used the same red yarn I used to wrap around the tree and a couple of cute pins JCPenney’s was handing out this year for the Y. I saved the old window frame I bought at the barn while at Whatever Craft Weekend just for this Christmas mantel.

JOY letters familybringsjoy.com

At the last minute I decided to make the lighted garland. I added red and white tulle to a battery operated led light strand…just tied them on. I tied a few snowflake ornaments {12 for $1 at Dollar Tree} to complete the look.

Christmas Mantel 3 familybringsjoy.com