DIY Sharpie Mug

I finally jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon and decided to try making sharpie mugs. What I found when searching the million different posts about making these mugs is that there are about a million different suggestions on what to do. So I decided to just try some different things that were being suggested and thought I would share on here how my experiment turned out.

1. I bought Oil-based sharpies from Michaels. From what I've read if you use normal sharpies it will eventually just rub right off. The Oil-based sharpies come in different sizes. I bought the fine point and medium point markers. I found that the medium point were easier for me to write with, but I really think it depends on the person and the design.

2. I washed each mug and then wiped them down with rubbing alcohol and let them dry. When they were dry I started drawing on them. It takes a little bit (especially if you are not an artist and I am not one) to get the hang of drawing on a mug. If you make a mistake (I made lots) you can remove your mistake with nail polish remover.

3. Once you finish designing your mug let it sit for 24 hours before baking in the oven. After 24 hours  place on a cookie sheet and put the mug in the oven before turning it on so that it can heat up with the oven. The first time I turned my oven to 450 degrees and after it preheated, I baked the mugs for 30 mins. This worked fine for the the mugs I drew on with the black marker. However, with the colored markers it distorted the colors at that temperature. (see below).

See how the colors faded :/

So I tried it again and the second time I turned the oven to 375 degrees and baked for 30 mins. and wha-laa...The color was not distorted. (see below)

This was Brian's birthday gift from the boys this year ;)

4. After the mugs bake for 30 mins. turn off the oven and let the mug cool with the oven. I waited about 15 mins and then cracked open the oven door and let it finish cooling. After it cools you have a brand new really cool personalized mug! :)

I would advise hand washing the mugs. I read that after doing this you could put them in the dishwasher and they would be fine, but I don't know if I'm convinced. So be cautious about how you decide to clean the mugs. I've hand washed all of mine and they have been just fine.
I purchased most of my mugs from Walmart. They are under a $1 and seem to work great for this project.

Boys Turn 2

I can't believe the tiny little babes I had are growing up and now 2! How did this happen so quickly?

The boys are really into a cute show called Paw Patrol (it's about puppies who rescue other animals or humans) and just dogs in general. So for the 2nd birthday bash we had a Paw Patrol/Puppy Pawty theme. It was a lot of fun. There are so many cute ideas out there for puppy parties.
Here are a few of the things I did:

This was the main activity I had planned for the kids. Everyone got to adopt a puppy, make a collar for them, and sign their puppy adoption papers. 

I got letter beads and just regular plastic beads for the kids to decorate their dog collar with. The collar is a pipe cleaner that I cut to fit around the puppies necks. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this and they came up with all sorts of creative names for their puppies.

I found a free printable for the adoption papers HERE

The other main activity took place in the sandbox. We hid real dog bones in the sand and had all the kids dig for them. My brother in law was the expert dog bone hider and we still haven't found all of the bones :)  I made a cute sign that said "Dig For Bones", but by the time I made it outside to take a picture of it, the wind had blown off most of the letters (that's what I get for using double sided tape instead of glue). I'm so glad we put this huge sandbox in because it was a hit at the party and the boys have really been enjoying it. 

To greet all our guests I drew puppy paw prints leading up to the door with chalk.

My husband and I stayed up until 1am working on this cake. I thought a bone cake would be easy to make, and it probably would have been if we didn't keep having "caketastrophies". I kept realizing that either I didn't have ingredients I needed to bake the cake or the ingredients I was planning on using were expired. Thank God for husbands, because I think he ended up running to the store about 5 or 6 times. After I finally got the cake baked, I turned it over to get it out of the pan and half of it fell apart. Somehow we got it all back together looking like a bone. The entire time I kept asking myself why I didn't just buy a cake somewhere. Apparently that is what smart people do. 

This was the only picture I got of the food setup, which is sad, because we had a lot of yummy and pretty food. I made 7-layer dip, veggies and dip, and fruit kabobs. 

Sharing some cake and ice cream :)

Last year the boys didn't even want to try their cupcakes. What a big difference a year makes. Lane was completely into feasting on cake and ice cream this year. It was EVERYWHERE.

This is my all time favorite picture from the party. Eli pushed his cousin, Nora, all over the yard on his new tractor.  

We made a lot of fun memories with family and friends. I'm excited for what year 2 will look like with the boys. I know there will still be lots of challenges, but I'm anticipating a lot of exciting times. I'm so glad I get to be their mom. It's been already been an amazing journey in just 2 years. 

Motherhood

To be honest, it really isn't what I imagined it to be.

When I was pregnant with the boys I thought about all the fun things we were going to do: playing in the snow, making crafts, having them help me with dinner, going to the park, cuddling and watching movies, and the list could go on.

I never stopped to think about the tantrums, the incessant whining, the schedules, the meals, the mess, the disobedience.

Then my two miracles arrived and all of the sudden I realized how much work and sacrifice comes with being a mom.

(This is where you should call your mom and thank her for everything she has ever done for you)

I knew that it isn't always fun and that it would be hard at times, but it was much more so than I expected.

Some days I find myself wondering if we will all survive to the end of day. Some days I think I might actually be going crazy. Some days I just want to cry and pout just like my boys. Some days I just want a babysitter to come over and watch the boys while I go on a shopping spree. Some days I want this never-ending job to just give me a short break. Some days I feel like pulling all my hair out. Some days I feel like a really mean mom.

But...

Everyday those smiles melt my heart. Everyday those cuddles and kisses and little voices saying "Mommy" mend my soul. Everyday I can choose to have joy amongst the chaos. Everyday the laughs, the playing, the really good moments turn into priceless memories. Everyday all these things outweigh all the sacrifices and all the work.

I've learned a lot about myself since having kids. I always thought I was a pretty patient person and that I could tolerate pretty much anything. I was so wrong. It's amazing to me how God uses our children to teach us, to draw us closer to Him, to develop good character, to grow.

Motherhood changes you.

I can now multitask like never before. I can juggle 30 different things all while trying to get two boys out the door. I can change diapers in my sleep. I start crying whenever something touches my heart while my husband looks at me like I'm a little crazy. (seriously, I was watching "Up" with the boys they other day and cried about 3 different times). I can take care of two children after a sleepless night with only having coffee as my aid.

I've also had to learn how to rely on God for strength, pray through tough days, give thanks in all circumstances. I've gained a deeper understanding of God's unending love for us, His amazing grace, His constant presence.

Motherhood is so worth it. Every hard day, every heartache, every frustration.

Our job is so important. We are enough. We are the perfect moms for our kids. God is using us in the mundane ordinary days. We have a purpose. We are all in this Mom thing together.

To all my fellow moms, You Got This!

Welcome Sign DIY

I was at Target the other day and I always stop by the $1 bins just in case there is something I really need ;)  I found this super cute framed chalkboard for just $3 and immediately envisioned it hanging on my front door.

This was the only one left (at my Target in Wichita), otherwise I would have bought every single one and made a ton of these for friends. 

It needed a little something extra though before I hung it on my door, so I decided to make some felt flowers to go with it. Now, I'm no felt flower expert, but I looked through some tutorials on Pinterest and kinda made my own version of felt flowers.

For the first type of flower I made, I just hand drew a flower with four petals on a piece of paper and cut it out to use it as a template for cutting the felt.

Then I traced and cut out 5 sets. I stacked them alternating the petal positions each time and then sewed a button in the middle to keep them all together. 

Simplest felt flower ever!

For the next flower I drew a circle on the felt and several small half circles (varying in 3 different sizes) for the petals. Once again I hand drew a template on a piece of paper and then used that for marking on the felt. There really isn't an exact science to all of this, so you can really just play around with different sizes and see what you like. 

I cut out 10 larger half circles, 5 small half circles, and 3 small half circles that were shaped a little differently than the others. After cutting out all the petals, get out the trusty glue gun. Arrange the petals (starting with the largest size) around the edge of the big circle and glue them in place with the glue gun. For the next row of petals arrange them around the edge of the row of petals that were just glued on and so on and so forth until you fill the entire circle with petals. 

I hot glued on a button in the center. 

Then with a chalkboard pencil I wrote "Welcome" on the chalkboard. Chalkboard pencils are great and so much easier to write with than actual sticks of chalk. 

For my last step I just hot glued the flowers onto the sign and hung it on my door. It was a super simple project and probably only took me 30-45 mins. 

I'm hoping my "springy" sign with help bring warmer weather soon. I'm ready to stop wearing coats and boots and being stuck inside most days. 

Craft Weekend

I got invited by some friends to join them at a girls craft weekend.
I said YES! ;)

And we had so much fun!

We stayed at an amazing craft house in Newton, KS. It was a crafter's dream. I felt a little like I was in heaven.

My bed for the weekend. 

The dining room

Isn't this the cutest house?

It was so dreamy! A true crafter's paradise.

This was in another bedroom, but I just loved the wall decor.

The HUGE crafting room.

 I was the first one up in the morning and snapped this picture while everyone was still sleeping. I also didn't stay up as late as everyone else. I can't pull all-nighter's anymore. There were thousand more pictures I could have taken, because this is just a small portion of the house. I could not stop OOOOing and AHHHing over everything. 

I mostly just worked on hand painting signs. My hands got so tired, but I was so productive. It was the most crafting I think I have ever done in a weekend. 

One of my favorite quotes by Ann Voskamp

I made this to go above the window at my kitchen sink. 

These are going to be giveaways for a women's conference at my sister's church.

I had such a wonderful weekend and I feel so blessed that I got to be a part of this craft weekend. It was really refreshing to just get away for a little bit. 

For those of you who have been following and praying for Mitch here is an update:

The doctors have turned all the sedation off and he has been opening his eyes off and on. He is breathing on his own for 2 hours at a time, three times a day. This is definitely a huge improvement. Please keep praying for his body to continue to heal and to stay calm as the sedation wears off. I am so grateful for all that God is doing in his life and for each and everyone of you that have been praying for him. Your prayers are making a difference. 

Winter Recap Part 2

About a week after Christmas, Eli got his cast. It was terrible. By this point, Eli was so freaked out by any doctor getting near his arm that he screamed while they put his cast on. They had to move his arm around a bunch so I'm sure it was also painful. I let him have a sucker and the pain was soon forgotten after it was all over. We had sticky blue slobber everywhere, including my clothes. But, when your baby is in pain you are pretty much willing to do anything to make it better.

He thought it was pretty cool that we could write on his arm. Lane thought it was cool too and kept asking for me to write on his arm. As I already mentioned in my last post, Eli got his cast off a couple days ago. He has bounced right back to being a crazy stunt man. My boys have no fear.

We ended up having our 2nd Christmas with my family the first weekend of January. It was short, but very sweet. The boys loved getting to play with all their older cousins. They really weren't very interested in opening gifts at either Christmas celebration this year. I think they are just too busy to actually sit down and rip wrapping paper. 

The boys playing with their Papa!

Me and my sweet niece Nora

We got her one of those Generation Dolls that are supposed to be like American Girl Dolls and I think it's safe to say that she really liked her gift.

The boys got these really cute remote control dogs. They have been a hit. 

Loved getting to spend some time with my mom and sister. It always goes by way too fast!

And the best picture of the day award goes to this girl. She stole the cuteness show. Enna is so much fun to be with.

We had a great year full of wonderful memories, laughter, and good times. I'm looking forward to this year and all it has to offer. 

*Update on Mitch: The pressure around his brain has gone down to 5, which is really good! He does have pneumonia now, so please pray for that to go away. He is still in a coma and needs lots of healing. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him and his family. We appreciate your prayers so much. 

Winter Recap

Christmas flew by, the New Year flew by, and we are already almost halfway through January and I haven't blogged about anything! So this is going to just be my recap of all that has happened in the past month. It may even have two parts, because a lot has happened.

4 days before Christmas we took Lane to the ER and found out he had pneumonia. When we got home from the ER our house was really cold and we suddenly realized our furnace wasn't working.

This little fireplace sat on our island (so the boys couldn't touch it) heating our house for the next couple days until we were able to get everything fixed. We had to replace the whole thing. That was a fun bill right before Christmas. 

Christmas Eve, right before I was getting ready to put the boys to bed, Eli fell off the couch and broke his arm. We knew it was broken right away because you could actually see that his arm was bent where it was supposed to be straight. Talk about a traumatic experience for mother and baby. 

It broke my heart to see him in so much pain and know that there was nothing I could do to take it away. He was such a trooper though and ended up falling asleep on me while we waited for the doctor to put a splint on his arm. It was a really long night. I'm happy to report though, that we survived the broken arm and the cast actually came off today. Eli and Lane celebrated with a really long bath that included lots of splashing. I cannot tell you enough how tired I was of that stinky cast and sponge baths. 

Christmas morning with his splint. Poor little guy!

The hospital gave us child sized sling, but it was way too big for his little arm. Good thing in know how to sew ;)

The next day we had Christmas brunch at our house and I wasn't sure if I would be able to pull it off or not since we had a rough Christmas Eve. It was a wonderful day though and we really had a nice time together and the food tasted good ;)

Making that yummy brunch in my new kitchen with my new apron that my husband got me for Christmas. 

Oma and Opa with the grandbabies. It's impossible to get everyone to look at the camera.

Me and my nephew Fallon. He is such a cutie. I think I spent most of the day holding him. I got my baby fix!

The family minus the boys and the photographer : Brian's mom. 

I'm so glad we got to spend this time all together. I'm not really sure how to share this next portion, but that lovely young couple on the left side of the couch really need your prayers. That lovely young couple is Mitch and Karen, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Just last week Mitch was in a very serious car accident and was taken to the hospital unresponsive. He is now in a coma and has a lot of brain swelling. They are having a hard time keeping his brain pressure stable and are not really sure what damage there is. Please pray for him. We are praying and hoping for God to heal his body. Would you please join me in lifting him up. Also please pray for his wife. I can't imagine how hard this is for her. If you would like to give towards their medical bills and upcoming expenses, go HERE to donate. Thank you all in advance for you prayers and support. 

It's crazy how sudden life can change drastically. It's really not something you ever imagine happening. This has been a reminder to me, to cherish every moment. A lot of times I find myself looking forward to the future. Looking forward to when life might seem a little easier, a little less stressful. Instead I really want to start enjoying every moment, because things can change in an instant. I don't want to miss out on the joys of today when I'm focusing on making it to tomorrow. 

So, I'm going to end with that. There will be a part 2 soon though, I promise.