Free Thanksgiving Acrostic and Word Hunt Printables

Looking for an easy, no-prep, last minute  Thanksgiving activity for the kiddos?  Well, look no further!  Here are 2 super fun printable sheets that will keep the kids entertained while the turkey bakes.

Two Free Thanksgiving Printables!

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DIY Valentine's Day Gifts: Candy, Coffee, and Tea

When hubby and I first started dating, we were grad students and super strapped for cash.  For our first Valentine's day, I gave hubby Hershey Kisses with little slips of paper stuck to their bottoms.  Each slip of paper contained a special memory that we had shared together or was simply blank (symbolizing memories that we were still going to make.)

Right now we're about to celebrate our ninth Valentine's day together... and for some reason I got thinking about that first gift.  It was easy to make and didn't cost very much.  But, it was really special for both of us.  Feeling inspired by that first Valentine's gift nine years ago, here are three really easy, affordable, and sweet DIY gifts to make for your loved ones.

To see the details for each one, keep reading!

Light Painting with a Flashlight

Hubby and I love seeing things glow in the dark. We've taken photos with glow sticks (and then cut them up to see what was inside- muah ha ha), made our Christmas lights look like different shapes, and even made glow-in-the dark chalk.

This past Christmas our uncle gave us his old tripod (Thanks Tito Ric!), so hubby wanted to try light painting.  We basically just waved around a flashlight in the air to make lovely "drawings" in the dark.

Maker Faire 2013 (Part 2)

"Don't think.  Thinking is the enemy of creativity.  It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy.  You can't try to do things.  You must simply do things."  Ray Bradbury 

Often times when an idea pops in my head, I find myself just sitting on it.  I spend days thinking about it. I turn it around and around in my head.   And then I get overwhelmed by it.

I guess I tend to over think things.  (Anyone else like that too?)

Seeing the exhibitors at the Maker Faire really inspired me.  Yeah, they probably did a lot of thinking.  But, they also stepped out of their thoughts and actually tinkered and experimented with their ideas.  They dared to try and they dared to fail.

Alright, that was rather a long intro to these last set of photographs from the Maker Faire.  (To see part 1, click here.)  I guess I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the exhibitors.  Thanks for being brave and trying.  Thanks for showcasing your creativity and hard work.  Thanks for inspiring the maker in me. 

Giant felted dinosaur

Chair made out of very thin cardboard (or thick paper?)

Butterfly bicycle!

The inventor of this toy (and the one below) was at the faire showcasing his toys.  They were lovely, modern, and classic at the same time.

You build a structure and then drop marbles onto it.  The marbles slide around on ramps and through holes.

Pink elephant made of wooden shapes- who thinks of this stuff?

Awesome pink elephant

Hide it close to your heart

Disappointments.  Fears.  Worries about the future.  Problems with a second pregnancy.  A break-up.  Struggles with job-hunting.  Illegal residency.  A  child with learning disabilities.

While hearing about friends' and family members' struggles, this quote kept popping into my head:

It's true, right?  Life is beautiful, but it is also brutal.  I'm going to hide the quote close to my heart, and pull it out whenever I feel myself getting grumpy at someone or feeling too shy around strangers.

Make a Sharpie decorated plate

I never know what to get people as gifts.  Maybe you're like me?  I walk through the entire store several times.  Each time around, I find different treasures and then mentally debate the pros and cons of the item for several minutes.  Then, I inevitably change my mind and movie onto the next item. Then, after about 2 hours of mumbling to myself like a crazy lady, I finally leave empty handed, with only a grouchy hubby and fussy baby to show for my effort.

So when I was invited to a friend's bridal shower, I knew I was in trouble.  If buying gifts for the building's superintendent already caused me grief, buying a gift for a longtime friend should have sent me into cardiac arrest.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?), Chuck's been having a rotten time with teething, so this time around I just took the easy way out:  gift card.  Packaged money.  And honey, who doesn't want money?

As I walked towards the cash register that nagging voice started whispering in my ear, "Leslie.  Is this really the best gift?  You've known her for how long?  Isn't this a bit impersonal?"  I tried responding back, "Shush. Chuck's actually behaving nicely.  If we leave now I can get good parking.  And I don't need to buy wrapping paper."

But the nagging voice continued, and I finally succumbed.  But this time a crafty idea also came to me and I took a quick trip to the kitchen section and grabbed a plate.

Because after seeing the gorgeous DIY Anthropologie knock-off mug from Home Heart Craft, I had to get into the Sharpie plate decorating market.

And after a couple of hours, I came up with this lovely plate:

I really like how it turned out.  It's beautiful, personal, quirky, useful, and *fingers crossed* long-lasting.  (I didn't try washing it... so I'm hoping the marker holds.)

Want to use Sharpie markers to unleash your creativity on some unsuspecting pieces of china?  Read on!

Materials:
- Oven
- Plate (I got mine at Target)
- Sharpie markers
- Paper
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Tape
- Q-Tip

Directions:
1.  Trace your plate onto a piece of paper and cut out the resulting shape.  Now you know how big to make your design..

2.  Come up with your design.  (This was super hard.  I knew I wanted to practice my handwriting skills and include something romantic and slightly naughty.)

3.  Turn your paper over.  On the back, rub your pencil over the back of your design.  (Guess what?  You've essentially made your own carbon paper!)

4.  Tape your design to your plate.  Trace over your design with your pencil.  Lift up your paper and you'll find a faint imprint of the design underneath.  (Magical!)

5.  Use Sharpie to trace over your design.  I have shaky hands, so I did this very slowly and carefully.  Some parts of the lettering came out a big uneven, so I retraced over parts to make sure that everything looked uniformly black.  Once my Sharpie dried, I brushed off any visible pencil residue with a Q-tip.  Feeling inspired, I also free handed a design on the back.

6.  Pop your work of art into the oven and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.  Then, admire your handiwork and wrap it up.

(Have you ever tried to draw on plates or mugs with Sharpies?  Did the Sharpie marker stay on even after you washed the item?  I'm hoping my design stays on.  Hubby received this lovely mug decorated with Sharpie from his students last year.... and the message they wrote washed away after several rinses.  Luckily we took a photo of the mug before everything disappeared... but it was still pretty disappointing.  *Crosses fingers*)

Hello 2013

"Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book.  Write a good one."  ~ Brad Paisley

Happy New Year!  

Here's how we celebrated the beginning of 2013:

Baby Chuck tried to open our sparkling apple cider

We were pleasantly surprised by the fireworks outside

Give Thanks Poem (Illustrated)

So I took the plunge and tried creating illustrations to go with my "Give Thanks" poem.  Instead of taking the traditional paper and pen route that I used for my Tulip Time Book, this time I tried my hand at digital art.

Poem Book


Special thanks to hubby for helping me to figure out how to convert my .blah blah files to another set of .blah blah files so that I could ultimately compress them into .what-the-heck-is-happening-my-computer-is-freezing-again files.   (As you can tell, I'm quite computer savvy... ehhh... not really.)

A poem

(Click here to see an  illustrated copy of this poem!)


Give thanks when a bright sun warms the sky,
and thanks for each gentle breeze that whispers by.

Give thanks when we have enough food to eat,
and thanks for the good earth beneath our feet.

Give thanks when we complete honest work with our hands,
and thanks for the blessing of family and friends.

Give thanks even though current times might be hard,
and thanks for the strength found in loved ones' arms.

Give thanks for each star that twinkles at night,
and thanks for the moon's soft comforting light.

New York Aquarium Part 2

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever..  ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau 

 

 
Jellyfish from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

Bad Writing

Did you know that people actually compete for the best worst writing?  Every year since 1982, writers entered their worst opening sentences to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.   This year's winning line came from Cathy Bryant of Manchester, England:
  

"As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting."

You can see the whole list of winners here.  The following are some of my favorites:

She slinked through my door wearing a dress that looked like it had been painted on … not with good paint, like Behr or Sherwin-Williams, but with that watered-down stuff that bubbles up right away if you don’t prime the surface before you slap it on, and – just like that cheap paint – the dress needed two more coats to cover her. — Sue Fondrie, Appleton, WI

 As I gardened, gazing towards the autumnal sky, I longed to run my finger through the trail of mucus left by a single speckled slug – innocuously thrusting past my rhododendrons – and in feeling that warm slime, be swept back to planet Alderon, back into the tentacles of the alien who loved me. — Mary E. Patrick, Lake City, SC

Goodbye Katie!

Our apartment is quiet again.

I miss her already.

Why do I always take photos of our feet?

“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”  ~ C.S. Lewis

Hello Tulip Time!

I can't believe how time has flown by.  It's now been a month since we left Holland and moved back East.

I still miss Michigan, but we're slowly readjusting to our new life here. 

One day when Baby Chuck grows up, I'll tell him lots of stories about our time in Michigan.  I'll share about the kindness of mid-westerners.  I'll scare him with a gory recounting of his birth.  I'll make him laugh with tales about our sweet and grumpy Charlie. 

And I'll delight him with descriptions of that quirky festival called Tulip Time. 
 

Hello Tulip Time

Oh how I love that festival! If only I had learned how to dance in klompen. :)

Birthday reflections

Last week I celebrated my 31st birthday. 

I don't know about you, but there's something about birthdays and New Years that makes me feel reflective.  Maybe you feel it too?  I find myself thinking about who I am and where I am and what I'm doing.  And then I dream about who I want to be, and where I want to be, and what I want to be doing in the future.

I'm currently reading Parker Palmer's book, Let Your Life Speak.  Here's one of my favorite passages so far:

"Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be.  As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human seeks-we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.  True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as 'the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need.'"

I'm not sure where that meeting place is, but I'm going to try to spend this year finding it.

Hope you had a good weekend! 

Funny license plates

Hubby and I still enjoy hunting for funny signs and license plates.  Here are some that we recently spotted:

To see other funny signs that we've spotted, click here, here, here, or here.

Yes Virginia letter

I recently got the chance to read that famous Christmas letter and response.  I enjoyed reading it so much that I posted it down below (with my favorite bits highlighted in green.)  Virginia's letter is just so sweet and the editor's response is so eloquent and touching.  Does anyone write like this anymore?


Virginia's letter:
DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in THE SUN it's so." Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

Editor's response:

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Dear Santa

Our town published some children's letters to Santa in the local newspaper.  Here are two that I found particularly humorous:

Dear Santa,

Thank you for coming to my house last year and thank you for the presents.  I am glad that you did.  I hope you and the reindeer liked the cookies and the carrots.  This year I decided to make you a present.  I will leave a box on the top of the roof.  It will be waiting for you on the top of the roof.  It might look like something that you can eat, but it is not.  Travel safe!  

Your friend, Gavin S.  Age: 7

Dear Santa,

Can I have John Deere tractors?  And a John Deere Gator?  I love John Deere.  My daddy is a farmer.  He has tractors.  And spreads poop on fields.  Did you know I'm going to be a farmer?  I want a Happy Napper like my Sissy, Isabelle.  I love to eat her Chapstick. 

Bryce Mason S.  Age:  3

Letter to hubby

Hubby went out of town and will be back tomorrow.  Baby Chuck missed him so much that he wrote him a letter:

************************************************************************

Dear Daddy,

I miss you.  Do you like my new Harry Potter scar?  Mommy, Charlie, and I had a good day today.  I kicked Charlie, took lots of naps with mom, and made lots of dirty diapers.  I can't wait till you come home.

Love, Baby Chuck

Lazy Sunday

What a lovely, lazy Sunday,

when breakfast is eaten for lunch,

and a long-awaited nap helps the afternoon to 

slip right by 

A mum's prayer

Lately I've been finding myself praying for more
more patience,
more peace,
more wisdom,
more hope,
more understanding
more strength,
more bravery,
and more love.

Because having a child is more wonderful
and more difficult than I could have ever imagined.