The Wearin' o' the Green 2014

Even though my shamrock plant looked like this by St. Patty's day,  we still had a grand time :)

 When I was in line at the grocery store, early in March, buying this plant, a neighbor came in line behind me and asked what the occasion was...why was I buying a plant?

I said, "It's a shamrock."

I guess I thought that would explain everything, but by the somewhat blank stare I received in return I figured I needed to explain some more.

I told him I realized not everyone celebrates St. Patrick's Day but it is kind of big at our house.  

My Dad served an LDS mission to Ireland and, well, we're Bryans.

Abby summed it up quite well in this little piece of art...

We are more than a wee bit Irish.  We are Bryans!

I found these super fun moustaches at Old Navy!

The kids loved wearing them...even Ben :)

 I've decided Abby is a face maker when it comes to picture taking.

 Business as usual...just with a green moustache on my face.

 I tried to do a green dinner, but it's nothing worth showing...kind of lame actually but my family were good sports.

We also had a chocolate, gold coin hunt and watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People...a classic!

I hope Abby doesn't mind me showing these last pictures.

They are just so fun!

I found this earlier this month in our guest bedroom.

Apparently the olympic influence was still strong in the imagination at the time.

(Half Pipe.  Sorry, we don't have any mini skate boards so you will have to bring your own.  Come prepared.)

Then, just tonight, I found this thoughtful resting place for some weary leprechauns.

 (I'm curious why she chose the term "bar"! :)

 One penny for each person that comes.  Thank you for coming.

 If necessary, you can chip off pieces of food.  Only take one sip at a time from big cups.

Half Pipe - Only have one skate board.

(I'm glad she found a skateboard for them :)

And a shout out to all of my siblings...
A happy birthday to my wonderful sister Angie!
And safe travels to my two brothers on their trip home from Iceland (because everybody goes to Iceland for their spring break :)

Silhouette Stencils for Pride and Prejudice Paintings

A few years ago I found some darling watercolor prints from Slovly on Etsy.

I love her style...so sweet :)

Anyway, these sweet prints have just been sitting in clear sleeves waiting for a proper framing.

I have acquired quite a collection of unfinished wooden frames of late and decided that two of them needed to go to this project.

First, I painted each frame a solid color...

Then, I used my handy dandy Silhouette Cameo to cut out some beautiful patterns from contact paper...

I peeled off the back of the contact paper and placed them on the frames...

I painted a different color all over the stencil and frame...

After a few minutes of drying, I peeled off the contact paper...

After the frames were completely dry I sanded and distressed them and added the pictures.

Aren't the pictures darling?!?
I present Miss Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.

I was really pleased with the results although they weren't perfect {the damask stencil was so intricate that some of it got torn as I peeled it from the mat and there were such little parts that sometimes the paint got underneath the contact paper} and if I were to do them again I probably would have chosen more complementary colors...but I love them anyway :)

I love that they now are framed and sitting on my shelf.  They make me smile :)

Pinewood Pics

If you are a boy scout mother and have had your fill of pinewood derbies, don't feel obligated to read on :)

Andy helped Josh with his Perry car.  They sanded, painted and constructed with a lot of blood, sweat and...I don't think there were any tears, but there truly was blood.  Andy drilled into his thumb.  Ouch! 

We actually ended up with a whole family of Perrys.

Abby and Matt wanted their own and so Andy was good enough to help them cut and paint two more.

Excitement was in the air when we arrived at the church.

Matt enjoyed a close up view...

There's our platypus on the right.

It looks like Ben is trying to negotiate something with Andy.

Talking to his primary teacher...

Perry in motion (the far left blur).

I think Josh really enjoyed himself.

Ben found a

little friend.  

He loved being able to run around free in the gym.  I regretted not bringing his helmet.  Not that he got hurt...

Just a lot of close

calls!

Our good friend and neighbor, Chase, who was in charge of the evening, let Ben carry around his old derby car since Ben was trying to grab other cars off the tables and tracks.

Ben had to get in on the racing action too :)

Way to go guys!

Doors and a Demonstration

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week at the elementary school.

I helped decorate two doors and I was so excited to get to use my silhouette!

We were supposed to use the teacher's favorite children's book as the theme for the door.

Ben's teacher's favorite was one I had never heard of before...Pete the Cat.  There's several of the books though and they are stinkin' cute so I have since ordered 3 or 4 of them from the book order :)

Another cute mother did all of the art and I did all the wording.  I realize now, the letters should have been a bit bigger...I'm still figuring out this machine of mine ;)

I also did Josh's teacher's door.

Can you tell which book it is?...

Where the Red Fern Grows.

The funny thing about this is that we are currently reading this book as a family in the evenings.

Andy has never really cared what books we read together but a while ago he suggested that we start this one and has enjoyed reading it to the kids lately.

I found the two dogs, two different ferns and the white frame in the silhouette store.

The words took some time to meld together but I think it's a lot easier than cutting them out separately and having to attach them one at a time.

I couldn't tell if the raccoon tail sticking out of the tree was tacky looking or not but I finally decided to leave it in for kicks and giggles :)

Speaking of raccoons...can you see that one hiding in there?

I recently taught a short class at a Relief Society activity about how to sew a mitered corner baby blanket.  In preparation, I sewed four different ones to various points in the process to use in my demonstration.  I also printed quite a detailed instruction sheet to hand out.

After the class I went ahead and finished them all up.  

The two boyish ones were to be gifts for friends who have had or are having boys.  However, I was on one of those friends' blogs a few days after completing them and happened to scroll down through some older posts. 

I'm glad I did!  There was a picture of some baby blankets she had made for her baby and there was the exact same raccoon fabric among them!  I had seen the post but had not remembered that fabric.  How embarrassing!  So...

I went and found some more cute flannel and you will be getting it soon Margie :)

I'm sorry it's taken so long.

When I went shopping for the flannel above, I just couldn't resist this cute stuff.  I'm going to either have plenty of baby girl gifts or plenty of blankets for a future baby girl of mine some day (I'm hoping for the latter :)