(re)Purposeful: Sparrow Painting

Now that I am in my new digs, the familiar left behind, it's time to decorate MY way... put my own special brand of "Amy Attitude" all over these carpenter-grade, cream-colored walls!

I am not much of a painter, besides the occasional furniture re-do, but I had this vision of sparrows on a branch in my head and I wanted to see if I could make it happen. After digging through the jungle of boxes in my garage, I found an old ugly canvas of beige vases on a beige table in a beige room....beige, beige, beige, BLAH! The size was perfect for  behind my bed so I thought: Why not paint over it? Anything would be a major improvement!

So I spray-primed the entire surface of the canvas and let it dry overnight. The next morning I dug out some black semi-gloss interior paint and covered the beige twice for good measure. Already a HUGE improvement! :o) I still had a little cream semi-gloss interior paint left from a coffee table project so I used that to paint a giant branch across the expanse... I had to go over it a few times but I like how it left brush marks, almost like bark on a tree!

So I've already admitted to my lack of painting skills... I wanted to sparrows to be colorful and precise. I know better of myself than to think I'd be happy with what I would do with a brush. I drew sparrow silhouettes in different poses and cut them out, now I had templates. After tracing them onto beautiful scrap book paper, I cut them out, then made wings and beaks in complimentary colors of paper. I used Mod-Podge to fix them to the canvas and to apply the wings and beaks as well. It works best and you get less bubbles, if you first glue down the bird, wait, then apply a top coat of Mod-Podge, wait, then put the wings and beak on. I covered the birds with a few coats of the miracle Mod-Podge to make sure they were on good and tight, then the whole canvas got two coats.

I LOVE how it came out and I had ALL the supplies on hand! It cost me nothing to make and my new room has some much needed, sparkle!

"His eye is on the Sparrow...."

Surviving a "Life Stroke" and living to blog about it...

So I have fallen off the face of the Earth for awhile again... I'm choosing to call it recovery. This past year has been a series of life-changing... or more aptly called: "life-taking" events, that have blindsided me much like a serious stroke that you never see coming until you suddenly can't move the left side of your body.
The first was divorcing the man I have been married to for 11 years, closely followed by my 19yr old brother's heart attack and the news he needed a 2nd heart transplant. Soon after that it was apparent I would be losing my house and my status as "Stay-at-home-domestic-goddess-and-CEO" which was a title I absolutely loved. I restarted my buried Massage Therapy business, short-saled my house, found a beautiful/affordable town home and moved my brood.
How did I survive? Honestly I have no idea... I chose to believe that G-d in all his infinite wisdom decided that I needed to grow. So many little blessings keep landing in my lap and I know He is responsible for the gifts. My perspective is that now I have a set of life skills so strong I could literally survive the apocalypse and actually thrive afterwards!
So I am settled and itching to get back to the more creative side of my life now that surviving is turning back into living.... It's the journey right?

Texas Trip: Bottle Cap Necklaces

There is something so fun about being able to craft with a friend...  For me it takes some of the anxiety out of trying a new project and I love the process of sharing ideas! So when planning the trip to Texas, we decided to make bottle caps necklaces...at first for the kids, but they were so cute we ended up making some for us too! :o)

For the supplies: We saved bottle caps from the last 2 months while waiting in agony for the trip to happen. I wanted to try out Mod Podge Dimensional Magic but all the KC stores were out or had never heard of it. I ended up ordering a 3-D glaze on Ebay and it worked great! The project also called for metal washers and strong craft magnets which I purchased at Walmart. Lyndy had the great idea to check out Joann's trimmings for lengths of nylon in different colors for the necklace. We chose pink for the girls and black for us. The trip was a mad success because Joann's (in Texas anyway) has Mod Podge Dimensional Magic...just in case you were wondering! Before I forget, I also packed up a bunch of cute scrap book paper and stickers for the pendants.

Friday afternoon, once the kids were napping, we pulled out our treasures and made our caps! We put a dab of 3-D glaze in the cap, cut out quarter-sized pieces of paper and embellished with tiny stickers and fixed it to the inside of the cap. After that dried a little, we filled the whole cap with 3-D glaze and set aside to dry. Here's a few of our favorites: 

I think we made over 30 caps!!! It's a bit addicting... I also used super glue to fix the magnet to the washer, allowing some space to thread the nylon necklace through.

The downside of the project is that it took FOREVER for the 3-D glaze to dry. The next day they were still gummy and squishy. However the cute-ness factor completely outweighs this and the girls were thrilled to mix and match caps all day! Honestly, I can't wait to make more!

My Trip to Texas...Therapy, Wisdom, and Sisterhood.

I have a wonderful friend...the kind that some never have in a lifetime. She is really more of a sister to me than a friend and she lives all the way down in Texas.
When I was going through the painful process of growing up, we met and bonded...sometime around 4th grade I think. Anyway, her mom and mine were in a prayer group together. My home life was difficult due to the neediness of two "special needs" children and over-exhausted parents. Her family graciously stepped in and gave me an oasis to retreat to when life got too real. Then one day the decisions were made for her family to move to Texas and mine to Kansas....Oh how we mourned!
We have fought to maintain our sisterhood all these years and somehow beaten all odds! I feel closer to her now more than ever!
Recently my life (and hers, but in different ways) has gone through a major upheaval.  Life has almost been more than I can bear at times, and terrifying too. During the most excruciating period we had already planned for me to come visit her home. Could G-d's timing be more perfect? It was the best therapy I could have ever wished for!

While there, we experimented with a few recipes, crafted into the wee hours, and caught up on a years worth of life drama. I'd like to share some of the fun we had in hopes of holding on to that "sunbeam trip" just a little while longer!

Our daughters are "sister friends" too! :o)

The Guilt-Free Margarita!

Nothing says "summer" quite like sipping a margarita at a barbecue or on the patio at some delicious Mexican Cantina... My mouth is already watering! While I love to indulge once in awhile, on the tangy, chilled concoction, the consequences to my waistline are almost not worth it! While at a Weight Watcher's meeting a couple of years ago, I lamented over the points of this yummy summer drink and low and behold, someone brought forth this great recipe! Although it doesn't pack quite the punch of the normal Margarita it is a satisfying alternative! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you:

The Guilt Free Margarita
Ingredients:
1 can Diet 7-Up or Sprite
1 packet Crystal Light Lemonade Drink Mix
2 tbs lime juice
1.5oz Tequila
15 ice cubes
Directions:
Put all the ingredients into the blender and mix until the ice is crushed to a desired consistency and pour into glasses! According to the old WW points system the entire blender is only 2pts!!!!!
ENJOY!

SUMMER FUN: Our Pool!!!

We all know that baby pools are really no fun for anyone over 3ft tall so when the decision was made to get something the adults could wallow in too, I was beyond excited!!! I didn't want to go too big because water testing, filters, and chemicals kind of seemed like too much work for a couple of toddlers. So I settled on a nice inflatable, rectangle pool with a drain and plenty of room to lounge whilst the yard monkeys splashed around.

We were blissfully happy for the first few days until the water got stinky and the bottom turned a weird, greenish hue. I drained it and hauled it over to the hose to scrub it, rinse it and refill it....Ok that was awful!!!  Maybe the big pools and their filtration systems were on to something?
My salvation came when, on impulse, I ducked into a small pool and hot tub store. The advice I got was to float a small chlorinator device in the pool with a chlorine tablet that lasted for a few weeks. I also purchased a skimmer (not the pole, just the actual skimming-thingy). I float the "chlorinator" at night and take it out before we all get in to play. My solution for dealing with the swarms of suicidal bugs that clog the water every morning was to buy a small tarp that floats on top of the water. Purchasing one that would cover the whole pool and tuck under the sides so it won't blow away, was ridiculously expensive!
We are now enjoying our little oasis very much and the upkeep has been surprisingly minimal now that I've got the few proper tools!

Happy Summer!

When Life Gets in the Way...

Its been such a turbulent series of months that I've had no desire recently, to blog or really share my life with people other than close friends and family. I remembered though that my purpose for starting this blog was to chronicle the many shifts in my life from working mom to stay-at-home goddess...why did I think that only applies to the fun, crafty, sparkly things?
The truth is since I left my business up on the top shelf and plugged into being at home, I've really struggled with losing my identity, trying to find where my self-worth comes from, and loneliness. Lately the pain has been more palpable due to decisions made, that I was not a part of, but drastically affected my life.

There is good news though: I'm reconnecting with the parts of me that I forgot I owned... I actually found my spine a few weeks back (it's been lost for years), and a strength that I've often admired in others but had no idea I even possessed!

I guess I'm writing this all down to remind myself that tucked inside all the recipes, fun ideas, and crafts is still a woman who is carefully picking her way though life and growing up all at the same time. I'm hoping this will be healing and help me get back up on the "blog horse", so to speak.