DiY Arrow Baby Shower Decor

I shared the Arrow Baby Boy Shower with you a couple of days ago and now I would like to share a few of the handmade decor items and the "how to" with you today!
You can check out all of the photos from the shower here.

You see this little number hanging on our coffee table? Well, it is super easy to make and really fun to decorate with. I have actually started seeing banners made just like this popping up in stores lately.

You simply choose your paper, cut them into strips, and lay them out in the order you want them.

I used scrapbook paper.

There is not certain length or width for these. Simply cut to your liking.

I lined mine up in stacks, in the order I wanted them.




Next, you simply run them, one by one, through your sewing machine. That's it! Seriously, it's that easy. It takes just a few minutes to sew them.

And the felt arrows! I love working with felt for two reasons. I love the look of felt for various projects and it is SO super EASY to work with!
I used wool felt for these because it is thicker and I had the option of more colors to choose from. I simply cut my arrows out and then ran through my sewing machine. Sewing them is actually not even necessary but I love the look of the stitching. It just adds more character and interest.
Then, we used double stick tape pieces to arrange them on the wall.

We had fruit and vegetable skewers on the menu for this shower and I had the idea to turn our skewers into arrows as well.

 I used natural card stock and cut out my triangle shapes.
Then, I simply added a dab from my glue gun, and with the skewer sandwiched between, pressed them together.
I left the pointed end alone so we could easily add our fruits and veggies.

 We have done the "prayer/blessings" cards at many of the showers that I have helped throw now. They are truly a special touch that is becoming apart of the necessity for throwing baby showers around here.
I took some of the felt arrows I made and glued them on top of this little box.
Then, I added some cute polka-dot washi tape to the rim of the lid and filled the box with stamped strips of card stock.

Food labels.
I know they are not always needed and that sometimes what is sitting on the plate is really obvious, but I LOVE them!
I found these adorable arrow clips in the dollar bins at Target.
You could use plain clips and draw or paint on your own arrows as well.
I turned them upside down and they stood up to their task quite well!




And the banners. Also, something I love for celebrations!
I use this natural card stock a lot when making banners. It is durable and I love the look.

I cut out my pieces, cut out some cute paper, and then another smaller square of the card stock.
Got my alphabet stamps out, my photo mounting squares (I love using these...double stick and fast and easy!) and then ran them through my sewing machine to add some fun stitching in random places.

I made this banner much bigger, using almost the whole piece of card stock for each piece.
I only did three with initials on this one.
I wrote the letters because I wanted them big and then I stamped the arrow on in different places on each piece and added a bit of color to the ends of each arrow.
I also added stitching to these as well and a bit of washi tape.

Any excuse to use washi tape!!!

There you have it!

Come back later this week to learn how we made the cute arrow mobile!

Hope you are inspired!

-Jenny

Mediterranean Rice with Swai

I made a yummy new dish last night and it was a hit with the fam so I thought I'd share the recipe. Of course I wasn't thinking and didn't take any pictures while cooking. Next time I'll have to take pics and add them. Hopefully you can follow the recipe as it was more of a dump and taste than this but the amounts are roughly accurate.

2 cups dry brown rice (cooked makes approximately 4 servings)
2 - 4 fish fillets depending on size (I used Swai which is a mild fish much like Tilapia)
1 large bag of fresh or frozen spinach
1/2 jar sun dried tomatos
Vinegar/oil dressing
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Italian Seasoning
Sea Salt
Olive Oil or cooking spray

1. Prepare rice.
2. Preheat oven to 350-400 depending on how hot your oven cooks. (I cooked mine on 400 in my toaster oven for about 30 mins)
3. Place thawed fish fillets on baking sheet. Coat in cooking spray or olive oil sprinkle garlic powder and onion powder. Flip to other side and repeat.
4. Cook fish for 30 mins or until white and flaky.
5. Cook spinach in wok or pan until tender/thawed. 
6. Cut sun dried tomatos into small pieces and add to spinach.
7. Add rice to spinach and tomatos.
8. Mix in 3-4 tablespoons vinegar and oil dressing. 1-2 tablespoons garlic powder, 1-2 tablespoons onion powder, 1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning, and sea salt to taste.
9. Cook until flavors are combined.
10. Place rice on plate and top with fillet.

We had corn as our veggie side!

Enjoy!
Daspri

Quiver Full-Arrow Baby Shower

I was so blessed to be apart of planning this baby shower for such a sweet and dear friend of mine. My friends and I have spent the last month brainstorming, planning, and creating fun things for this celebration. We got to see it all come together over the weekend and celebrate a sweet baby boy and this growing family.

We started out with a different theme entirely! I loved the idea, but for some reason, I wasn't completely sold on it for this friend and this shower. But, it was really cute and everyone seemed on board so we were going forward with it.......until, I saw this! As soon as I read this blog post, I immediately fell in love and knew that this was the direction we needed to head in. The super cool thing about it is that this was a verse that this family had been meditating on and praying over for some time as they waited for the Lord to bless them with another baby.
It was meant to be. :)

So, without further ado, here is our take on the arrow baby shower theme!

 I designed these and we printed them ourselves on natural card stock. Easy, affordable and fun!

The food table boasted fruit and vegetable skewers with arrow heads, mini hot ham and cheese sandwiches, and individual servings of trail mix in cute little brown paper sacks complete with an arrow stamped on the front.

When planning the decor for a shower, I always try and make things that can be sent home with the mom-to-be and can possibly be used in the nursery.

The two frames on either side of the chalkboard are prints that I designed on the computer, had printed at Staples, and framed them. I painted and distressed two of the frames to go with our color scheme.

My friend, Sarah, made the adorable fabric scrap banner hanging on the front of the table.

Can you see the craft paper arrow heads on the skewers? Eek! I love the little touches!
Another friend of mine, Kerri, made the stunning yarn wrapped "E". I am loving these yarn wrapped letters!

More arrow skewers! And yes, that is a slice of wood that they are lying on. Do you see the cute little arrow clips that are holding the food cards? Those were scored at the Target dollar bins (thanks for the tip Amy!) Turned upside down, they made perfect holders for these cards.

Some of the skewers have little colored flags made from washi tape on the ends...just to mix it up a little and add some color.
And there are the cute little bags of trail mix. These were actually a big hit!

 "Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them." Psalm 127:4-5

This is the verse that the whole shower is based upon. So, a quiver full of arrows was out centerpiece! The quiver is simply a large clear glass vase wrapped in twine. And the arrows, a few of us painted, a few of us cut pieces of felt and a few of us applied the glue that brought them together (and also burned a few fingers in the process)!

hmmmm.....can you guess who was using the glue gun? Hint: it was someone who writes on this blog and it wasn't Daspri.

The arrows are arranged within the quiver using blocks of floral foam.

 This table featured the cake, Strawberry lemonade, and  gifts. Not to mention, the super fun arrow mobile hanging overhead.

Rather than having fresh flowers for this shower, we chose fresh herbs because we knew our friend and mom-to-be would love them!

 And the mobile....I think this is possibly my favorite piece of decor from this shower. Our little team worked on this together; making the arrows and then fitting them with these embroidery hoops. I really love how it turned out.

Let's take a closer look at this cake. My friend, Rachel, is always the "go-to" for the shower cakes. She does such a great job, with ALL of it. The cakes always look great AND taste great!

This was a lemonade cake and it was SO yummy! I even took a bite to taste it. I had to see what all of the fuss was about and....I LOVE lemon!

We told her we wanted an arrow-chevron type pattern around the bottom border and we gave her colors and she worked the magic.

We had a little coffee station. We don't throw baby showers without coffee around here.

The little arrows on the wall are made from wool felt. So easy and fun to make.

 Another print for our mom-to-be to take home.

Mason jars and paper straws for the Strawberry Lemonade.

This little box sat on the gift table with little pieces of natural card stock and a note beside it that read "prayers and blessings for Elias".

Each guest wrote a little something and placed the paper in the box.

A little sketch for the door.

And last, but certainly not least, are these sweet little arrows that my friend Sarah made. Aren't they adorable?!

I believe our friend and mom-to-be already has ideas of a blanket with these.

It was such an honor to shower sweet Kim and celebrate their growing family and more specifically, number 3,a sweet baby boy!

We had an incredible team of ladies that helped make this shower possible and it was so fun working with them all! I love seeing how God uses each one of us.

Come back for tomorrow's post to see how some of these shower decorations were made!

Blessings,

-Jenny

Mother's Day - Toddler DiY Gift for Granny

It's not too late to do a little mother's day project from your kiddos to their grandmas. Keylee's Meme and Nana will be getting these on Sunday...shhh, don't tell them yet.  

1. Grab some canvases and stickers. Spell out your word or name.

2. Give the little one some paints and brushes (protect as necessary) and let them paint away (you may have to help them with the first few strokes over the stickers to keep them in place.

3. Let them dry a few minutes but not completely and peal off the stickers. We had a little bleed through. So, I grabbed a little white paint and a brush and filled in a bit.

4. Let everything dry well. Flip them over and staple some ribbon, rope, etc to the back to hold them together and hang them. 

Ta-DA! Sweet and fun hand made art for Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommas out there,
Daspri

 

Sunny Chair Makeover

Spring is here. The sun is shining more days than not which means my kids are giggling in the back yard and squealing with delight as they find mounds of roly-polies.

But it also means.....it's time to get the spray paint out!

Spring brings new life to everything around us outside...

 

...so why not bring some new life inside too! Bring on the sunshine and I'll bring on the spray paint!

 Years ago, my mother in law scored these super cool vintage chairs for us at a yard sale. I loved them right away and restored them with some black spray paint on the seat and some chrome paint on the legs.
These chairs have gotten A LOT of use and have been moved around to various rooms in our house over the years.
This one has been on our front porch for a while now. I have wanted to move it in and when we changed up the porch recently, I decided to give this ole beauty a much needed makeover and a new home.

My husband painted this large sun piece when were dating. It has been hanging in our bedroom and I have wanted to incorporate more orange in our space in other places too.
The chair was the perfect opportunity!

 I really love how it turned out! It instantly makes me happy when I walk in our bedroom and see that sunny orange chair.

A friend of mine gave me this wooden magazine rack a while back. It has been sitting in my closet begging for a makeover ever since.
I knew I wanted it to have more of a distressed look but honestly, I was really excited about adding my little reading corner to our bedroom and I didn't want to wait!

So, I grabbed my white paint and a damp washcloth and went to town!
I used this same technique on a wall cabinet in our bathroom a few years back. It is easy, fast and I personally, love the look it gives.

New life for this old piece and a new home for all of my new and inspiring books!

What Spring makeovers do you have planned?
-Jenny

More To Learning Than Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic

So, I promise that we will get back to sharing fun DiY projects with you soon, but this season of life has been more about rest and learning (and stretching).  ;) While we are always learning, I feel like this season of needing more rest is finally nearing an end with a much busier, exciting season ahead.

I am very blessed to be able to stay home with my four children. We homeschool. Right now, I have two in school; in the fall, I will have three in school.
To say that it has it's challenges is on some days, a big understatement. However, even on the most challenging of days, there is still no where else I would rather be than here, in our home, teaching my children and learning with them.

One of the hardest parts of our school is honestly me. That fact is a really hard one to swallow and even harder to admit but it's true.

Some days, my patience is far less than it should be; some days, it is hard to find. Some days, I simply don't feel like doing it and am tired. And most days, I feel inadequate; questioning whether they are getting it or not; questioning whether I have done enough. I want learning to be fun for them. I often don't feel like it is fun for them.

I want them to be given every tool and opportunity to learn and be successful.

As much as I dislike this and I mean, REALLY dislike this, I sometimes find myself comparing what my kids know to others kids their age. That becomes one more thing to make me feel more pressure and a bit a doubt. It also makes me put more unnecessary pressure on them, whether I realize I am doing it or not.

Here's the deal. I think most every mother, whether stay at home mother, working mother, or homeschooling mother, questions her abilities often, if not daily sometimes.
As for me, I am tired of these questions.

I was talking with a sweet friend of mine on the phone recently. She also teaches her children at home. We were sharing various things about this and she said to me, "Ya know Jen, there is so much more to learning than reading, writing, and arithmetic."
I know this, but man oh man, did I need to be reminded!
And I thought, "YES! Yes, there is. You are so right!"

This simple statement reminded me of the many reasons why our hearts were for homeschooling in the first place.

We want our children to learn so much more than simply reading, writing, and arithmetic. These are wonderful things and they are so blessed to have the opportunity to learn these things.
However, our hearts are for them to learn so much more; to learn about the Lord Jesus Christ, to learn His word giving them a firm foundation in this life, to learn what it means and looks like to love people, to learn what it means to be apart of a family, to learn how to care for a family, how to care for a house.....all of the practical things that they need to know to live in this world.

I want my little girl to learn what it means to be a godly wife and a mother and how to practically carry out these things in caring for her husband and children one day. I want her to learn how to be a lady and not just a lady, but a lady after God's very heart.

I want my boys to have time to explore nature as little boys should. I want them to learn what it means to be a godly husband and father and how to do so in practically ways that glorify the Lord and provide for their families.

I want my children to be free to learn and not be subject to any labels that someone else may give them.
Each one of my children are very different from one another. They like different things. And they definitely learn in different ways. I get to be here and learn the best way to teach them individually!

I want them to be free to be children throughout their childhood and not pressured into growing up too fast.
They are only little for so long and it is such a short time that goes by all too fast. I want them to be given the gift of being a child.

These are just a few of our reasons for our family.

The reading, writing, and arithmetic will come. It will click with each child when that particular child is ready. One day, they will just get it. Until then, what's the hurry?

Why waste another second of life worrying about when they will get it or the "what if's"? Why not just teach them what they need to know, enjoy that precious time that you get to literally watch them learn and grow, and trust that God will do the rest?

Ah......it feels good to lay the "what-if's" down and trust.

It's almost as if that is the way it is supposed to be! ;)

Enjoy right now, today....there will never be another day just like this one.
-Jenny