Little Hands, Little Fingers

Last night I could not sleep, so I decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet.

I have been pregnant ever since we moved to camp and have moved through phases of morning sickness, indigestion, achiness, heartburn and dizzy spells. It's been well worth it, but I have yet to make our little apartment "homey". I keep wanting to paint and fix up Lil' Man's nursery, but I really can't with the cold weather and my current intolerance of paint. I decided I needed some wall art to brighten things up.

I went by the store and picked up 3 cheap canvases and three tubes of that cheap acrylic paint that almost every where seems to carry. I bought a bottle each of chocolate, aqua and pink.

Step 1: Paint a base coat on each canvas, allow to dry and then apply a second coat.

Note the beautiful roses my incredibly sweet husband gave me for St. Valentine's Day.

Ignore the Christmas tablecloth that I have yet to pack away with the Christmas tree that went back into storage LAST WEEK! Yes, I like Christmas to literally last the whole year 'round!

Step 2: After everything has dried completely, I took an assortment of cups and baby bottles and applied paint to the rims to use them as circular stamps.

Step 3: After the circles had dried, I painted my hand and stamped it on the middle of the canvas and repeated the process this morning with Paul and Lil' Man just after breakfast.

Aren't my boys adorable??? 

Step 4: Step back and enjoy getting something other than laundry done! :)

 

Our plan is to do one for each of our children and create a line of them in the nursery. Cute, huh?

 Have any cute and frugal ways of decorating a nursery/kids room that you could share? We'd love any inspirations. I'm also trying to come up with cute ideas for homemade baby stuff (I'll be posting a few projects that my family has helped me with). Any and all ideas are welcome and appreciated!

A New Use For Teapots!!!!

Any one who has ever been to my house knows how much  I love collecting teapots and tea cups. They are so beautiful and yet practical! I love sitting down in my comfy chair to read with a steaming pot of tea wafting the scents of mangos and peaches around the room. Can anyone deny how heavenly this can be???

Okay, so I do get teased, mainly by my brothers, about my teapot collection (how many does a person really need? they ask) and I just laugh off their teasing, but I am here to share with you how I use my collection to bring joy to my husband!

There is a hysterical Dick van Dyke episode where he finds a bank book that his wife has been hiding away and seceretly stashing money. When he finally confronts his wife she explains that she has been saving up to buy him the sports car he's always dreamt of. He ask his wife where she ever got such an idea and she responds, "From my mother! [...] She saved for years to buy a really big, important gift for my father." He ask what the big, important gift was and her answer was "His own room!" What a hoot!!! She explains that her mother had a den added to their house with a pool table, etc. It's a very funny episode and you can watch the final scene on youtube here

What does that have to do with anything??? Well, I think I've seen that episode a few too many times over the years, because last autumn I decided to try doing the same sort of thing. Everytime Paul had to go out on the road without me I would take on odd jobs to make some money while he was away. I would take all the money I made and I would hide it in a teapot (Paul would NEVER go looking in a teapot) so that I could buy him a "really big, important present".

While we were on our honeymoon, we rented a motorcycle and really enjoyed riding it. Paul's been wanting one ever since and he spends alot of his spare time researching them and looking into used ones on craigslist. As I've said in previous posts, we are huge Dave Ramsey fans and worked really hard to save up and pay off all our student loans and credit card debt during the past year and a half. When received our letters saying that our student loans had been paid off, I felt like having them framed!!! We only have one small amount left to take care of before we are completely debt free and that we've been socking away money for and will take care of very soon, so I had no qualms with using my extra earnings to surprise Paul with something special.

For Easter I was able to surprise my hubby with a beautiful (though used and almost as old as me!) silver Honda Goldwing Aspencade! Honestly, at this point I don't know who is more excited- him or me??? It was at a reliable dealership that had just marked it down and it was an amazing deal! I felt so happy to be ab;e to surprise my husband and see my hard work make him so happy! We are both looking forward to a summer of saving money on gas while seeing the country and having alot of fun together. Our life together is such an adventure- its truly exciting!

So, for all those who have never found a reason to appreciate a small piece of chinaware used to hold hot water, let this be a lesson to you! My husband now has a new found appreciation for my china (even though it will ONLY be holding hot water for quite a while now!) and I am happy to be on the receiving end of his gratitude! =D

Have a cup of tea and think of all the exciting inspirations that little cup could hold for you!

On a closing note, I have an aunt who really wanted to have a little book published, so in her spare time (I can't really imagine her having any spare time since she has 12 kids!) she cleaned houses so that she could
earn the money to make her dream come true! There are so many ways to make things that seem impossible happen. It just takes a little creativity and a lot of patience! I'd love to hear if anyone else has done anything similiar and how they did it.

Saintly Books for Little Ones

I feel like I just struck Gold!!!! I was over at one of my favorite blogs, Shower of Roses, and noticed her widget link to amazon's St. Joseph books. They are selling select titles in packages of ten for $1.50! That's 10 books for $1.50!!! Amazing titles that I remember from when I was growing up. Ones like these:

Confession: I bought 180 of these books from Amazon tonight! I selected 18 titles and was given a discount atomatically because of the 4 for 3 discount amazon has. With so many titles I received free shipping, so my total was $21.00! I use Swagbucks as my search engine and have earned a $5.00 amazon gift card.

Grand Total= 180 books $16.00!!!!

What am I going to do with so many of the same books, you ask?

1. One of each title for our family.

2. A set of each for our goddaughters.

3. A set for our nieces and my brother's baby who is due in March.

4. 4 sets to add to a Mass time tote to give as shower gifts, First Confession/Communion gifts, Christmas gifts, etc.I hate to admit it, but my Mom and Aunt were interviewed by EWTN for two hours last week about our most recent book and, in the excitement, I failed to post about it in case anyone wanted to listen. Luckily, the interview went so well that they have been invited back for a second interview next month. I will try to post the date and time as early as possible. The picture of our book, The Most Beautiful Thing in the World, that I placed above is not our newest book, but one of my favorite. The story is a beautiful and simple story of God's love and mercy that always brings tears to my eyes. Not to sound like an ad, but you can buy any of our books (and the most beautiful Catholic art!) at http://www.catholictothemax.com/ You will love all of their amazing paintings, mugs and clothing! When I worked there, I had to be very careful not to spend every pay check before I left work!

I also bought the sweetest nun doll recently. This is an awful, distorted picture of her! She is a lovely little nun with removable glasses, little leatherette shoes, white pantaloons and more. I can'y wait to watch a curly, red haired angel playing with her.

Any other amazing Catholic deals out there??? Feel free to share them with me! :)

May God bless the work of your hands!

Secret Santa

Hubby and I spend a lot of our time listening to Dave Ramsey. We actually refer to him as Uncle Dave since he gives advice that a family member would.

If you aren't familiar with him you must go to his website and see if there is a radio station near you that plays his radio show. If there isn't you should download his podcasts. Or check out his books from the library.

Dave Ramsey gives the best and most practical advice on money. He is a good Christian who really helps people, even those who know or think they know a lot about how to handle money, to truly change their lives for the better. He's a ROCKSTAR!

During a recent program he was discussing Secret Santas- millionares and billionares from around the country who go out at Christmas time and hand out money to those who are in need, but who keep their identities secret. The stories were amazing and brought tears to my eyes.

Uncle Dave discussed how anyone can be a Secret Santa like these people. This triggered a great conversation between hubby and I about St. Nicholas of Bari, the REAL Santa. St. Nicholas did what these "secret santas" do. He gave to the people who truly needed help.

Not that there is anything wrong with giving gifts to friends and family, but when you think about it that aspect of gift giving seems kind of silly. The people we love know we love them with or with out our gifts and usually don't NEED the things we give them. The people who need gifts are those who need to be reminded that God loves them and is providing for their earthly needs via us, the body of Christ! What better way to celebrate the life of Christ then to spend at least His birthday working with those who are rejected, suffering or just lonely?

My family used to go and sing Christmas carols at our local nursing home and then visit with the people who didn't have any family to visit. Paul has been trying to see if we can find a kitchen to help out at this year (if we can find somewhere to park our rig since we have to work on Christmas day!). There are so many other amazing things that we could do. Even just buying someone a meal. Something, anything! I pray that I have the wisdom to recognize the opportunities in my life to show Christ to others. We really hope to create a family tradition of service when we have children.

Thanks for the reminder Uncle Dave!