My Chalkboard

My granddad made this chalkboard for me. He and I made a queen sized bed years ago that ended up not being used. I hated seeing it just sit there in the garage. So we decided to cut the bed up and turn it into a bench. When we cut the foot board in half, to be used as the arms of the bench, we were left with this piece of wood. When I turned it upside down it had a perfect ledge for holding chalk. All that to say, it's pretty special to me. I'm so glad to be able to use it in a different way.

I use the board to make lists and to remind myself of things, and inspirations.

Chalk pens show up the brightest and write so well. You can buy them here

This is the bench now

Daily Drawings Part 3

So I've enjoyed the daily sketch challenge my friend put me up to so much so that I am going to keep it going. I will call them my daily drawings. Here is the next set...enjoy and feel free to join in!

Lesson on Lions

Yesterday our homeschool lesson was about lions. I found this lion pillow craft I wanted to do with this lesson a while back in Family Fun magazine. We had so much fun making them. I bought single sheets of felt at Michael's craft store for $3.24. I got two each of orange, pink, and purple, one brown, and one peel and stick white sheet. Since the sheets were smaller our lion pillows had to be smaller too. So we have miniature ones, but I think they are still cute. Our circles were about 8.5 in. each. I traced a dessert plate for each circle. We were able to make 3 lions from that amount of felt. Click here for pillow instructions.

Here my daughter roars! She is keeping one for herself and then going to give the other two to friends.

I had to just use the face template as a guide because each piece had to be smaller. Once I got one set right I used those pieces as my template.

Try it out with your kids, it was a fun craft!

Phones to Have or Have not

So the other day I got a new phone because I was eligible for an upgrade. I'm excited to have a sharper camera, a flash, and the Facetime function. My daughter picked out the case and it is so pretty and fun too (go to switcheasy.com for this case and others like it).

Lately though I've been doing a lot of thinking about the phone and how it affects my life. It is my way of communication with friends and family, my camera, my notepad, my dictionary, my computer, my map, my music player, my clock, my calendar. It entertains me and holds tons of inspiration and knowledge. I question whether or not it is too powerful? Do I go to it too often? When my daughter looks back at her childhood will she remember me with my phone all the time? Do I love it too much?

I've had good conversations with my husband and one with my dad to get their take on it. My husband tries to limit himself too. My dad said "we can't live with them, and we can't live without them." He said they've made us have little to no attention spans, they've destroyed our communication skills, and challenge our manners.

I'm trying to be mindful of my use of it. I try to only go to it when I get a call or a text, to respond, and then walk away from it. I'm doing my best to only check my three favorite apps (Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter) once at night. Other ways I try to maintain a healthy balance between life and phone is by opting out of receiving push notifications so that it isn't constantly going off. When I sit down to a meal at home or at a restaurant I try my hardest to keep it put away.

I don't want to be a slave to my phone. I want to have one to stay in touch and to stay safe, always able to call for help or get directions. At the same time though, I want to be present in my actual life, present with my family and friends, really present. I want to look at my daughter in her pretty blue eyes and really listen to her and not break my gaze to look at my phone. I want to carry on conversations that don't involve the phone. I want to play board games and not have my phone right beside me, but be lost in the game and the time with friends. I want to carry a book with me always so that whenever I have to wait for something I don't go to my phone to waste time, but read a rich story instead. I don't want to always be on Pinterest, but instead I want to be sketching and actually creating new art and bringing those ideas I love to life.

How do you handle it? What is your relationship like with your phone? I would love to hear your ideas :)

My Art Cabinet

This piece of furniture is a prized possession. It is hands down my favorite piece of furniture that we own. I got it at antique show years ago. I love it's character and charm. We keep our art supplies inside it, so it is functional too. It holds endless possibilities, and I am thankful for it.

February Sketch Challenge Part 2

These are my daily drawings from February 9- 22 It's still a really fun challenge. Enjoy! Do a simple square sketch from your day and see what you come up with!

My Art In Our Home

Here is my artwork that I have throughout our home. Painting is a passion of mine. I hope you enjoy!

The above painting is made up of the last names of important and influential people in our lives. Someday in the near future I want to offer to make custom paintings like this one for those interested.

I created this painting for my daughter's room. Each house is a different part of dreams I have, or from favorite books and movies. I think it would be fun to customize these too. I did one for my brother last year with buildings from his favorite movies and local hang outs.