Crafty Sisters

Halloween Flash Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 17:18:00 +0000

With Halloween right around the corner we thought it would be fun to flash back to some of our favorite Halloween crafts we've done. Above is my all time favorite Witch Shoe Craft!

Witch Shoe Cake Stand

Halloween Haunted Village

Halloween Lollipop Tree

Trick or Treat Topiaries

Witchy Wreath

Boo & Halloween Wood Letters

Beware Banner

Eyeball Wreath

Last week Beckie over at Infarrantly Creative featured a tutorial we had done for her with our DIY Knock Off Pottery Barn School Utility Boards. They were such a fun project to do! Make sure to check out the full tutorial here! It was such a fun surprise to wake up to on my Instagram feed!

Beckie asked me why we weren't blogging anymore. Good question and it has a simple answer. Candace put down her crafting gloves and had a baby. Best reason ever right! It's not as fun to craft when your favorite crafting buddy is no longer available. Life happened, and ya know what, it's okay. We've both been busy with family, our kids, church, carpooling, sports, you name it -- it's happening. I'm trying to summon the courage to blog about our recent home renovation on the tightest budget ever. With a broken foot. Yup, the thought of recounting it is a little daunting but I think I'll try, hoping I can share what I learned the hard way so it might help someone else. Which is why we started blogging in the first place.

So, until then....enjoy all the Halloween fun!

A Giveaway With Mel!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Thu, 21 May 2015 03:43:00 +0000

Yup! Look familiar? Some of my wood letters are being featured in a GIVEAWAY over at one of our very favorite blogs MELS KITCHEN CAFE!!!

How cool is that? Mel is one of our very favorite Bloggers that we've been following for years! Candace just about died when she met her wonderful Aunt Marilyn when she moved here to Idaho recently and she is pretty amazing too! So included in these gift boxes are a set of my WISH letters, some of Aunt Marilyn's Sagebrush Soapworks fabulous homemade soaps, Jessica from JessicaBe's Jewelry (one of our local favorite crafters!) and an adorable apron from Mel herself!

Make sure to head over and enter to win one of these babies! The giveaway runs through this weekend with winners announced at the beginning of next week! A huge thank you to Mel~she is A.W.E.S.O.M.E! I got to meet her last week and she is the most kind, down to earth gal!
Best of luck!:)

Teacher Appreciation Door Decorations 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Fri, 08 May 2015 22:17:00 +0000

Hooray for Teacher Appreciation Week!
We got some really fun doors this year I just had to share with you!
This is our last year in Elementary school~I'm a bit tearful about it, so I took on doing 4 doors to decorate this year! I know, I'm totally crazy, but I totally love it!
First up is my Ode to Yoda~for our Librarian Mrs. Mortensen. I just love her!

I always try to personalize my daughter's teacher's door and since they have been learning all about U.S. History and the Constitution, this seemed fitting with Mrs. Webster as the Statue of Liberty. She's done an AMAZING job teaching our kids about National pride. We adore her!

This door is for our wonderful Principle Mrs. Gourley. She has watched over my kiddo from Kindergarten and I'll be forever grateful. I got my ideas for this door from a couple of differenct chalkboard artists I found on Pinterest totally from 2 amazing shops~make sure to go check them out Chalkboardhouse and Lily & Val! Very cool stuff!

This door is for our School Safety Officer Mrs. Christianson~she does so much for our school and keeps our kids safe!

Here are some more of the doors~there were some really great ones this year!

Check out the cute martian! Look familiar to something I did a few years ago?

I got such a kick out of seeing this! This is exactly why I post pictures of these doors each year, hopefully to inspire and help others out with what sometimes seems like an overwhelming task. This made my heart just happy!

My husband asked me how much time I put into my doors and it's several hours honestly. I am not an over achiever, I am not a mom that has too much time on my hands, I'm a mom who is honestly so grateful for these amazing teachers and people that have such an impact on our kids. I wish I had a hidden camera to capture the look on these teacher's faces when they see their doors, or even more so when their door isn't decorated. It's like a kid on Christmas morning. So if a few hours of my life is given so that they know they are loved....well, that's hardly anything compared to what they give to us. Now, let me step down off my soap box...:)

Have a great weekend friends!

WYLTC? Spring Theme Wreath Hanger

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 00:33:00 +0000

Make sure to pop over and check out the fun "SPRING" themed wood crafts this week over at

WOOD YOU LIKE TO CRAFT!

We are up today with our Picket Fence Wreath Hanger!

As you can see it holds signs too and is so easy/inexpensive to make!

From The Crafty Sister Vault~Bunny Silhouettes

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 18:51:00 +0000

Picking from the Crafty Sisters vault today is our fun Bunny Silhouette Weather Vanes we did a few years ago.

Make sure to go HERE for the full tutorial!

One of our fun readers Tracie and her craft group just did 15 of these beauties and sent us a picture! We love getting pictures from our readers! I love how they did some in black! Aren't they great?

We have the best readers! Thanks again Tracie for sharing!

I've finally downloaded most of my pictures for our Church Talent Show from last weekend. I was so grateful for Pinterest and the ideas I got there. I'll have a post up soon! Have a great weekend!

Fireplace Built Ins

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:08:00 +0000

I finally finished my fireplace built in's and never got around to taking a picture to share.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I love them and they were worth all the hard work!

I was trying to find a couple of pictures of before~honestly I don't have hardly any because I hated this room. It had an awkward feel with no light and a fireplace that was ho hum. So, we never took pictures in there.
About 1 1/2 years ago my hubby and his friend installed the windows....which was a chore since the whole wall was actually 12" thick. It had the original wall, then a wall of solid pinkish brown brick and then a faux wall over the brick to hide it's ugliness from the unsuspecting new home buyer.....me.

This room was dark and dreary. It made the golden tan paint I loved look olive green at night. Not the good olive green either.

So I thought about ideas for a while, begged my contractor brother-in-law for ideas and finally settled on the one I liked best after searching endlessly on Pinterest for ideas.

I found stock cabinets at Home Depot on sale that I got for my birthday. I had to use upper cabinets because I had only about 16" to work with before I hit the sliding glass door.
I built a base from 2x4's to sit the cabinets on. That's when I realized the original mantel for the fireplace wouldn't work either and had to rebuilt it from 3/4" MDF. It actually wasn't too bad since they are basically boxes put together. The key to making them look professionally done was investing in the right router bit for the edges.

The best part was the top piece of the mantel. I couldn't find anything that was thick enough without buying a huge big board to cut a 6" wide mantel.....so......I took two pieces of 3/4" MDF and using a lot of Gorilla Wood Glue, glued them together and clamped them overnight for a snug fit. The next morning I was then able to run it through my table saw for a perfect clean cut and then run the router along the edge for a custom look. It turned out better than I could have hoped!

My Dad helped me to put together the basic shelves that sat upon the cabinets that I then trimmed them out with 1 1/2" MDF molding. I spent a whole day filling in with wood strips and then caulking all the nooks and crannies from my old home which was very evidently not level. The base boards went back in and covered the bases perfectly.

Dad also gave me a great lesson in electrical work as we moved the electrical outlet for easy access for the DVD player and HDMI cords to run up behind the TV which my hubby and I installed without any swearing if you can believe that.:)

I then painted the whole thing with Behr self-priming Interior Semi-Gloss Enamel which was delicious to paint with. I painted the room as well with Kilim Beige, a Sherman Williams color that you can't go wrong with. It is the perfect warm neutral beige.

I found the perfect rug at Home Depot in their random return section located in the back of the store that tied in the black fireplace and brown brick for only $100. We installed a ceiling fan that makes all the difference in the summer. Yes, I still need to tackle the popcorn ceiling.....eventually.

I'm just so happy with the result! I have so much light in my family room now, it's my favorite room in the house!
Cost Breakdown:
Cabinets $150
MDF boards $72
New Router Bit $20
New Outlets $10
Paint $30
Caulk $5
Misc. $10
Grand Total: $297

Not bad for about $300 right?

Next project.....where do I start? Have a great weekend friends!

The North Pole Sign Holder

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 19:35:00 +0000

I just had to share this quick and easy North Pole Sign Holder I created for our school holiday celebration with you. It's super easy and is so cute to put on display.

I made a base about 11" square from a 1x12" board. For the pole I used a 6' 2x2" post. Then I topped it off with a 3" knob ball from Hobby Lobby. I think I made the whole thing for about $15!

I painted each part seperately and knew I didn't want to tackle stripes going up it, so I picked up some cute holiday ribbon I wound up the pole. I secured it with hot glue.

I screwed 2" screws along the board where I wanted my signs to hang askew.

For the signs I cut out arrows from 3/4" thick MDF that were about 18" wide. This size easily accommodates cute scrapbook paper with letters cut from my Cricut. I attached little D rings on the back for easy hanging.

Easy and fun! You could personalize it any way you want!

I have some great Posts I created to partition off the area for Santa too I'll share next!

Happy Monday Friends!

Wood You Like To Craft Baby Jesus Ornaments

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:03:00 +0000

We are so excited to kick off the week over at Wood You Like To Craft!
This month the gals decided to do an Ornament Exchange with a Baby Jesus theme.
(enter SQUEAL of delight here!)

Make sure to head over and check out our full tutorial at Wood You Like To Craft.
Then make sure to check back each day this week to see what Wendy, Melinda and Krystal will share!

Also, I joined in this year with an online ornament exchange. I haven't done one for years and this was so much fun! Do you do ornament exchanges too? We'd love to hear your tips and fun stories! Here's the first one I got in the mail~isn't it so cute? I'll keep sharing them as they arrive~it's like Christmas every day when the mail comes!

Happy Monday friends!

Two Weeks Late Halloween Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 18:34:00 +0000

I know, I'm more than 2 weeks late sharing Halloween pictures.

Plus, we Crafty Sisters have basically fallen off the edge of the planet.

I was going through my pictures today and couldn't help but smile looking at my little girl who is not so little anymore. Stop growing!:)

She was Winnifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus this year.
Trying to find a pattern that would work.....impossible. Trying to find the right colored material......even harder. I was pleased with the result even after scrapping the gold printing that should have been down the front of the jacket.

We found all of our fabric at JoAnns. The shoes were an absolute lucky find at the thrift store for $4! Her necklace I put together from bead sets and a brooch from Hobby Lobby that was all on sale 50% off. The wig was found on ebay for a steal~it's actually Disney's Queen of Hearts wig.

I got such a hoot out of her getting into character. We had Candace's youngest with us that night since Candace and the rest of her boys were running a room in their local neighborhood haunted house. They spent the night autopsying aliens while we begged for candy. We hit my folks neighborhood this year and used their house as home base. I'm not sure which I enjoyed more, watching the kids dump their stash out on their floor to count it or watching my parents watching them, It was a sweet night and the most beautiful warm weather!

As for Crafty Sisters......The last few months and even the last year have really been one of personal retrospect. I turned 40. Yikes, That seems like a swear word almost...hee hee. I celebrated 20 years of marriage to my man, that's even more eye brow raising. Our families are the most important and when you start to feel like they aren't, it makes you take a step back. When I have more pictures on my computer of crafts than my kid......it makes you take pause. I've actually taken time in the last few months to craft for myself. And I haven't taken any pictures of them. Candace and I and our Sweet Little Mother have all been put back into serving the youth in our church~so we've got lots of fun projects we've been doing and want to share...they just might not have a picture by picture tutorial, but it's the idea that counts right? We've loved being able to share with you and we've missed you!

We've got a few Christmas ideas to post this week even! Hooray!

Happy Wednesday...school is almost out for Thanksgiving!

Crafty Sisters WYLTC June

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 21:35:00 +0000

Just in case you missed last week's Wood You Like To Craft "SUMMER" theme~make sure to head over and check out the fun ideas!

Wood You Like To Craft

We shared our super easy and quick Garden Stakes made from cedar wood fencing and other spare parts. We made ours in the shape of our feline friends but you could do just about anything. A great project for the summer with the kids!

Happy Monday!

Teacher Appreciation Door Decorations 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 17:40:00 +0000

Finally as promised~Teacher Appreciation

Door Decorations for 2014!

This year I got to do 3 doors, one for my daughter's teacher:

This year they have been learning all about Idaho State History~so Cowboys, Indians, Pioneers and all things cool about Idaho the famous Gem State and producer of Potatoes! Mrs. West has been phenomenal and I'm glad that my girl got her for a teacher since she is retiring. I found an old movie poster for my inspiration and painted a version of her. It's really quite hard to do something~paint, paper~whatever on a scale this size. I've learned to "GO BIG OR GO HOME"! My daughter helped me paint and I cut all the letters out with my Cricut.

One for our Librarian:

This one was easy~just the idea since we were seated near our favorite librarian when we went to go see Wicked a few weeks ago. Can I just say~WE LOVED IT! There is no other music played in the car or house right now except Wicked music.:) I cut everything out of paper and painted on the skin color for Glinda and the facial features. Letters I cut out with my Cricut.

One for our Head Janitor/Mr. Does Everything for our school:

I painted this one again. Paint sounds crazy right~it actually is a lot easier than trying to cut all that paper to scale. I cut him out of paper first and then painted him. Mr. Ernie collects all thing Ernie, as you can imagine, and knew this would be perfect for him. I was delighted to hear that he was going to have it laminated to hang up later. Cool!

Here are the other doors this year~some really fun ones! I especially liked the Rock Star one, The Minion was hilarious and still makes me smile every time I walk by it and of course the Taco's for the Lunch Ladies.

We decorate every staff members doors for the week and they keep them up until the end of the year. It doesn't seem like a very big deal but our teachers absolutely love it! I have offered to do all the door decorations next year~sorta like my parting gift to the school as my daughter will move on to Middle School~oh, that sounds like a curse word to my ears! I'm thinking I'm a bit crazy and I didn't think the PTO would take me up on it!

I'm always loving to hear what everyone else does for Teacher Appreciation Week. We provide a potluck lunch every day for our staff, usually with a theme like Baked Potato Bar, Soup, Salad Bar, stuff like that. We do gift card drawings each day for our teachers. We decorate their doors and then each class has their own list of things to do each day~anything from a sweet treat, bringing in a flower or even just a thank you card. It's really a tender week for all involved and it feels so good to give back.

What do you do at your school?

Dollhouses

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:04:00 +0000

Looking for a fun project to do with your kids?
This Dollhouse from Creatology was a perfect project for rainy days.

Do you remember the Gingerbread houses Candace and I put together using these same wooden puzzle dollhouses?

We picked them up at Michael's~and if you use a coupon you can get them for less than $10. They come in all shapes and sizes.

It took us a couple of hours to put it together, making sure to glue it together along the way. Then we did a quick coat of spray paint inside and out, adding some contrast to the roof, windows and railings.

The funnest part was heading down to Hobby Lobby and picking out our flooring and wall paper!
We used felt for the flooring and scrapbook paper for the wall paper. It actually wasn't too bad installing it. We hot glued on the floor and Mod Podged on the paper.

My daughter even made "artwork" for her walls from images she found on the internet.

It turned out pretty cute and is now hauled all over the house leaving a trail of dolls and toys behind it. Not bad for less than $20 right? Now to create the rest of the block.....

Guess what's coming in less than 2 weeks? Teacher Appreciation Week! My head is whirling with door decoration ideas! What do you do at your school to show your appreciation?

Happy Monday friends!

Because of Him

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 13:36:00 +0000

I'm up early and putting the finishing touches on my Easter lesson for my little Sunday School kids, making sure the Easter baskets are filled, treats all in place. I've watched this video several times and love the perspective it gives for what Easter is really all about. Enjoy it and we hope you have a wonderful day filled with family!

Fat Cat Daddio's

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 23:30:00 +0000

I'm not sure where this last month went~seriously!
Part was scrambling to fill orders before Spring Break,
then 10 days visiting my in-laws in Tennessee without my husband~yes, I know weird but fun!
Then it's been scrambling to catch up from being gone.

Oh, did I mention that my computer died and I thought I lost everything~because really, who backs stuff up over the last 9 years? Not me.

Amidst it all though my daughter has the chance to be part of the Holiday House Spring Boutique in their new Kid's Crafting Section, which is a brilliant idea! So as parents we thought this was a unique idea and challenge for our little 10 year old.

First I told her to create a Company Name and Logo:

This is her original drawing but she liked her second one better~at least the colors.

So we told the logo guy to run with whichever image he thought would work.
This is the final result:

My husband has a great contact for logo's, Deeper Designs~this guy is brilliant, amazing and wonderful! We had so much fun working with him on the logo! It was so fun to see her drawing come to life!

This last summer we grew a ton of catnip! It's amazing stuff and so potent! Our kitties go crazy for it! We've packaged it up and it's ready to please the finickiest of kittens! (My daughter is going to love that I used "Finnick" in some way referring to her~ahhhhh swoon!) Stuff you get in the store just doesn't compare so she was really excited to put her Fat Cat Daddio's seal of approval on it!

We of course had to print up some shirts! I have to admit it was pretty adorable to see my hubby sporting his Fat Cat Daddio's shirt to lacrosse practice to show his boys. He's a good Daddy.:)

Last but not least are the fun Greeting cards! Avery is always busy drawing~always. We buy her more notebooks than toys if you can believe it. I thought it would be fun to share some of her little drawings since her homemade cards are the favorites or our family and friends. We printed off some of her cute drawings and mounted them on cute colored polka dotted cards. Did I get a decent picture before taking them over to the boutique~no!

Fun stuff right?
I even spent most of the day creating her own little Etsy store, because I love Etsy!

Fat Cat Daddio's

There are so many great things there and I love that they are handmade. If you get a chance make sure to check it out~I think I need to work on her little banner some more. Any and all feedback is welcome!

So what do you guys think? Crazy to do this? Funner than 100 degree heat Lemonade stands?
Happy Friday Friends and here's hoping you have an AMAZING weekend~SpRiNg is here!

WYLTC Welcome Spring!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 22:15:00 +0000

With all the crazy weather going on across the country lately we thought

this month's theme for Wood You Like To Craft was quite fitting~ Welcome Spring!

Here's our Grassy Mound of Flowers that we put together!

Pretty simple and easy!

Make sure to stop by to see what the other Gals have put together~Wendy did an adorable kite yesterday

that we just love!

Happy Tuesday friends~we hope the sun is shining wherever you are today too!

Happy Valentines Day!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 19:08:00 +0000

Happy Valentines Day from Crafty Sisters!
Had to share the very very last moment Valentines we hurried to throw together last night.
Of course we had to follow our tradition of pictures with pets and these kitties were such good sports wearing their pretty dresses again.:)

I let my daughter add some scraps of paper and sticker her heart away this year.

I love how easy Picasa is to use to add text to pictures. Valentines are easy to make this way!

We hope you have a wonderful Valentines Day!
XOXO :)

Ottomans Part Three!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 22:37:00 +0000

Remember these beauties Candace recovered a few years ago?

Well 4 boys later.....she was ready to toss them in her house purge she did over Christmas.
Of course I was more than happy to be her charitable recipient.

I found some really cute and super thick quality upholstrey material at Home Fabrics for about $20. It's a gorgeous houndstooth pattern that is almost a taupe/dark grey color on a creamy white. An hour later I now have these!

I didn't try to make a pattern from her old material~I just measured each of the sides so every thing would be a crisp square.

One thing I did do was seam around a square piece to cover the bottom. I hate that black cloth that most furniture pieces have on the bottom~besides where do you find that stuff and why does it rip so easy?

This was super easy and makes the ottomans look even more finished.

What do you think?

Phoebe

Callie

Now if they survive these two kittens.....that's another story.

Yes, I'm feeling like an animal hoarder. This is what happens when your daughter baby sits the neighbors cat who also happens to be pregnant....and then she baby sits the kittens......it was bound to happen. They were her birthday present and I told her "these are the last pets we will ever have while she lives under our roof." And yes, those are Build A Bear outfits~they fit little real kitties too!

WYLTC Valentine Love Birds

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 22:44:00 +0000

This week Valentines is in the air for the ladies at Wood You Like To Craft!

We are up first with our "Love Is Tweet" Love Birds.

Head over to Wood You Like To Craft to check out our latest project and make sure to check back each day this week to see what Wendy, Melinda and Krystal have up their sleeves!

P.S. Where did January go?

Pinewood Derby Time!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 22:16:00 +0000

It's Pinewood Derby Time of year!
How many of you participate in the Boy Scouts of America Pinewood Derby with your kids?
Above is a picture of our two oldest brothers sporting their winning car and trophy. They'll probably kill me for putting it on here but I couldn't resist!
Candace is busy preparing for her son and I got the chance to cut one out for a neighbor boy.
I never, ever, ever, did I mention ever....thought I'd be doing this but how do you refuse a little boy who brings a picture to your house and begs you to help him?

I seriously stressed bullets over it~I did manage to snap a quick snapshot before I turned it over to him. The actual car next to his reference picture. I tried~I'm going to go to the race to cheer him on now!

My Dremel was the most successful tool~I don't know what else you could use to carve these guys out.
My daughter and I spent some time peeking for more inspiration cars and here were a few of our favorites from around the web. Enjoy!
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Aren't these fun? Last night my hubby actually arrived home as we were polishing the axles and it was so fun to hear his stories from childhood about his cars. I learned all about the art of the axle, the perfect wedge...and it was hilarious to hear him insist on us shining the car up with a thick coat of polyurethane. Yes, my hubby talking about paint and "crafts". I will admit I had a glisten in my eye as I listened to him.:)

What are your most successful cars?
Best shapes? Best tips? Do share!
Have a fabulous weekend!

Wood You Like To Craft Snowman

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 00:44:00 +0000

Make sure to check in this week over at Wood You Like To Craft
for our January theme of SNOWMAN!!!

Krystal shared her cute snowman yesterday and we were up today with ours!
I'm just glad to have something to hang up now that all the Christmas decorations are down. I always feel weird putting up Valentine decorations too soon so this snowman will do the trick for now.
Happy Tuesday friends!

Merry Christmas Nativities

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 00:11:00 +0000

Merry Christmas!

As we enjoy this week with our families we thought it would be fun

to share some of the pretty Nativities from our Church Open House last week.

There was a whole room dedicated to just Nativities~

it was so beautiful and peaceful, I just had to snap some pictures of my favorites.

This one was life size and costumes were supplied so families could dress up like the Nativity and have their pictures taken. Pretty fun!

I was in charge of the kids craft room and Santa.

After searching the Internet for ideas I compiled them into a version of the Nativity story ornament.

I had to prepare 100 kits~which meant 1600 beads~all stuffed into little bags.

I got all my beads from an Ebay store Tandscraft, she was so helpful

helping me put together all the beads and even had white angel beads!

We love the festivities of this Christmas season!

Our Christmas program at church was amazing and thought it would be fun to share this with you too.

Candace found a gorgeous version of the song

my daughter and I sang with a lovely group of Mothers and Daughters. Candace is a gifted piano player and was kind enough to come over and help me practice. She was a life saver!

Click on the picture or follow this link:

Do You Have Room by Shawna Edwards

Also a story I had to read by our family friend from our home town, Darrell Smart:

A Small, Snow-Covered Tree

Darrell Smart, “A Small, Snow-Covered Tree,” Ensign, Dec. 2008, 18

One day, shortly before Christmas, our third child and first son, Bay, was born. As I said good-bye that evening to my exhausted but joyful wife and left the hospital, the warmth and joy that accompanied the birth of my son overwhelmed the cold chill of that clear December night.

The following December we celebrated the first birthday of our dark-eyed, dark-haired son. The day after Christmas, during an evening of games at the home of my in-laws, our revelry was interrupted by an awful shriek from my mother-in-law: “He’s not breathing!” She had gone to check on Bay, who had been sleeping on her bed, and discovered his cold, lifeless body. We immediately rushed our son to the hospital, attempting CPR on the way. We were grief-stricken to learn that nothing could be done to save his life. He had died from sudden infant death syndrome.

Since then, Christmas has been filled with a much deeper meaning for our family. Each year on Christmas Eve when we take down our other children’s stockings to fill them, one solitary stocking is left on the fireplace mantle. Throughout the remainder of the holiday the stocking serves as a reminder of Bay.

Each year, around the time of Bay’s birthday, my wife and I drive to the cemetery where he is buried. At each visit we find that someone else has arrived before us and placed something on our son’s grave: one year it was delicate, small flowers; the next year, a stuffed bear; the next, a little Christmas tree decorated with miniature ornaments. We have no idea who is responsible; the gifts, which touch us deeply, are never accompanied by a note or card.

When I hinted to my mother-in-law that I knew her secret, she denied responsibility. The following year while she and my father-in-law were serving a Church mission abroad, we again found that someone had placed a gift on our son’s grave. Even after inquiring with other family members and friends, we were unable to solve the mystery.

Ten years after our son’s death, a series of snowstorms prevented us from traveling short distances. As a result, our annual visit to our son’s grave site was delayed until several days after Christmas. When we finally made it, we saw a small, decorated Christmas tree, mostly buried in the snow, standing bravely at the head of Bay’s small grave. The effort it must have taken for someone to get to the cemetery through the heavy snowfall overwhelmed us. Tears streamed down our faces as we realized that someone still shared our grief and loss.

After that, we were more resolved than ever to discover the identity of our benefactor and thank him or her for showing us such compassion. But as we reflected more, we realized that whoever was doing these acts of kindness did not want to be identified. We decided to allow our friend to remain anonymous. We replaced our need to thank our friend with a desire to simply live better.

It is now harder for us to speak ill of or criticize any of our friends or family members, because any one of them may be our anonymous friend.

Often while doing service, my wife and I pause to examine our hearts: are we doing good things to be seen by others or for the pure love of Christ and of our fellowmen?

For us, charity—humble and never seeking its own—is symbolized by a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, half-buried in snow, resting in a quiet cemetery.

Merry Christmas friends! Thanks for a wonderful year, for your kind emails and for supporting us through our crafting adventures!

Love,

Nicole & Candace

WYLTC~December Nativities

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 21:32:00 +0000

Have you visited Wood You Like To Craft this month yet?
This month's theme is Nativities and Melinda from Under My Umbrella had
the best idea for all of us to use her original pattern she created years ago
and to do our own version of it.

We are up today sharing our version~make sure to hop over and see what Melinda and Krystal have already shared! Wendy will round us up tomorrow so check back then to see hers too! I will have to say what an honor it is to be able to craft with these incredibly talented women. They are amazing and inspire us!

Tomorrow is our School Christmas celebration~I'm out in the freezing garage trying to make Santa barricades. You know, those post thingies to keep the kids in a somewhat organized line....I think it will be a miracle if the cement sets up instead of just freezing. If they aren't a colossal fail.....I'm may just share them tomorrow!

Happy Christmas scurrying!

Mom, Is Santa Real?

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 21:27:00 +0000

Two weeks ago completely out of the blue....that dreaded question came up.
Yes, the one I've been dreading.
Mom, is Santa real?

I heard every one's opinions on the topic whether I wanted to or not.
We had 3 older brothers growing up who didn't let us believe a stitch in magic.
They knew all the best hiding places for presents and were masters of unwrapping and rewrapping.
After a few years of this mischief our parents just hid them at my Dad's office. No visions of sugar plum fairies ever danced in our heads.

I promised myself as a kid that when I had a kid of my own that it would be pure magic
in every sense of the word.
We love Santa and the Tooth Fairy at our house. They really are the only ones that seem even remotely real right? Here is one of her notes to the tooth fairy, embarrassed of the cavity she had.

I would never lie and I never have, I'm a master of asking round about questions. "Is Santa real?", "Well do you think he's real?" "Do you believe in Santa?" "Well do you believe in Santa, do you want to believe in Santa?" The only time I've walked the line was while we've been in stores shopping with Candace and our kids and I tell them Santa is watching them through all the store security cameras so they'll behave.

Or maybe when I printed out those awesome Christmas pictures secretly snapped when Santa was caught eating cookies. I hadn't even cleaned off the counter and that sneaky Santa was too impatient to eat those cookies! If you haven't seen this website Capture The Magic you have to go~it made me giddy creating the pictures!

photo from Graphics Fairy

I've never been more grateful for this cute little letter, a love letter of sorts from a Mother to her Daughter explaining Santa Claus.

It is found here from Cozi.com written by Martha Brockenbrough

I think it's one of the very first things I ever pinned and it saved my life. I didn't know how to even respond at first. Some people want to believe in Santa, some people don't. He's the magic of Christmas that loves the children and brings joy through his kindness and generosity towards others.

"You lied to me?" So how do you explain that you didn't really lie....
My daughter isn't confrontational~she expresses herself through drawings and books. Her "book" response to me was titled "Santa is a phony, my parents lied to me." She has since destroyed the book probably because I told her she misspelled some words and she might want to fix that because I intended to keep the book to show to her kids one day.

I quickly printed out this wonderful letter, adapting it to fit her and I and gave it to her. My hubby and I drove down to get a soda, this was a pain only Dr. Pepper could fix. My husband's quick fix-it-hat response was "Are you more upset that she's calling you a liar or that her innocence is lost?"

Upon arriving back home her reaction to me was completely different, soft, pleading for answers. It was a therapist dream session, explaining all my "issues" from my youth and my promise to my child I hoped I'd have someday. After tears hugs, tears and more hugs everything seemed okay. I felt so emotionally drained but so grateful for that letter.

Later that afternoon I found her busy hunting down her wish list off of eBay. I guess as a parent I'm okay...and I've survived to parent another day.

Have a wonderful weekend friends!:)

For The Birds Birthday Party

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:48:00 +0000

My little girl turned 10 a few weeks ago and we had such a fun little party for her.
She is growing up fast and wanted nothing super cutesy so I stuck her on Pinterest and told her to pin her favorite things she found.

The result was an Owl/bird themed party.
We took bits and pieces of all the things she found that she liked and put them all together.
We were inspired by these cute invitations from Olive and Star found here.
The invitations were made from Vellum and paper found at Hobby Lobby.
I found these cute little owl and party hat stickers from Stickabilities.
Yes, they were super cutesy, but hey sometimes I can't help it!

After finding the stickers it was easy to pick out cute matching paper.

The party hat stickers just made everything soooo cute!

We even had to put them on the outside envelope.

And...we had to make cupcake toppers with them too! These are so easy, I stuck them onto white card stock first because they are translucent. Then I cut out around them and then cut out a larger outline of them on the coordinating chevron paper. Using my glue gun I glued lollipop sticks onto the chevron and then glued the little owls on top of the lollipop stick. Easy and matched everything perfect!

We had to make goodie bags too!

We couldn't decide between our two favorites so we morphed them into one.

Inspirations came from here at Kerry's Paper Crafts and the other is a source unknown.

We found some easy to make Thank You Twwwwweeeeats to make for our guests,

found here from Hello, Good Gravy!

At first we didn't think we would have time to play games and then I double checked the time that the bird flight show started and realized I had some extra time on my hands I hadn't planned for since they changed the time from last year. Yes, you'd think I would have checked that out "before" making the invitations....

We found a Candy Themed Punch game over at Mom Filter found here.

So at the last moment I found a big card board box and put this together the night before around midnight.

Did I mention I am a procrastinator?

My lighting wasn't very good that morning but it turned out great!

My daughter helped me put all the prizes together that I picked up at a local party store.

Most popular were the hillbilly fake teeth from Walmart and the party poppers. I should have gotten way more of those!

The kids had to answer "bird" related questions, ranging from "what kind of bird do most Americans eat at Thanksgiving" to "What is our National Bird"? It was a total blast and totally worth making!

I'm not a fancy table setter but we did have some fun with the goodies for the kids!

We had all sorts of stuff that birds would eat and funny descriptions to go along with them.

I found some mini Idaho Spud Bar bites that reminded me of Owl Pellets. Needless to say they weren't really touched. I guess they looked too realistic. Too bad, more for me.:)

My daughter wanted blue frosting to match all things blue with the party.

We made white cupcakes and filled them with vanilla pudding colored with yellow food coloring.

We thought it was fun to bite into one and have it mimic an egg.:)

We used The Idea Room's whipping cream frosting which is soooo yummy found here.

The stuff melts easily so be careful piping it in. My hands heated up the bag and we almost had a cupcake failure on our hands. Thanks goodness for cold refrigerators!

Finally we finished our day out at the Idaho Center for Birds of Prey.

In October and the first part of November they bring out about 5 of their birds and do outdoor flight shows for the public.

It's not only fascinating but so much fun!

They have an outside theater for visitors to be seated in and the birds fly right over your head.

This is Trish Nixon, a Raptor Specialist at the World Center. She's A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

She is holding Wally our favorite bird, a Eurasian Eagle Owl.

After the crazy day we returned home to this.

Yes, this is what happens when boys are invited to the party.

She looks like a zombie in there....

I can't believe that's it's been 10 years already with this sweet girl. She was so worth the wait!

WYLTC November Turkey

noreply@blogger.com (Nicole@CraftySisters-nc) — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 17:41:00 +0000

Come join us today over at Wood You Like To Craft
with November's Thanksgiving/Turkey theme!

I've had this turkey mostly cut out for over 4 years begging me to get around to making him.
Another thing checked off my long list "for me" that I've been working on.
Come see what the other gals have done too!

No school tomorrow~I think I'm about as excited as my daughter is! Happy Thursday!