Friend-amily photo shoot

THE LITTLE HAGEL LIGHT

mandie & Jarrett from about a year and half ago in one of many family shoots

FRIEND-AMILY STORY

The Hagel family was the first family that we actually dubbed our "friend-amily". They quickly became like family to us, after i began babysitting their at the time two children while they had worship practise ever thursday. After nearly four years of friendship i cant imagine my life without them.


While the husband and I walked through the hardest walk of our life, losing our first baby at three months pregnant, Joshua Matthew, the same week their third beautiful daughter, Sophie Brielle was born.

Newborn shoot

I remember Mandie (the mum) wanting to be so sensitive to what we were going through. Our original commitment to watch the kids while she was in labour, she wanted us to know we could decline! Oh course i didnt want to decline. I love these kids as if they were my own, i also tell them off like they were my own... haha (with the mothers permission of course).

ONE OF THE MANY SLEEPOVERS WE HAVE HAD BEFORE SOPHIE ARRIVED

Even though i know that Mandies heart was breaking for our sad loss, my heart was also beaming at this new life that was a little light in our life. How wonderful God works, that in the week we lost our baby, Sophie a little light of life came around. Yes, of course i cried when i held her, but not just because of our loss. But because we loved her already. 

we were blessed to be there within 20 minutes of her being born and got to capture the first pics.

Now at seven months old, i look at her today and couldnt resist taking pictures, especially when my husband held her. She doesnt remind me of a sad week, she reminds us of joy in the the pain. She reminds me of light, and new hope. So to say all that here is a sneek peek of our impromptu photo shoot with this little light!


Love you sophie... thank you for being our little light in the midst of darkness! 

wearing uncle matts (the husbands) hat

cant wait to see the husband hold our baby!

Isn't she just beautiful?

BLOGSWAP:: 12StoneDance :: SECOND CHANCE Rocking Chair

I am so excited to be a guest here at the Casabella Project! This blog is now firmly in my favourites. When i signed up for this Blogswap extravaganza, i knew i was blessed to be get to be featured here! So i hope you enjoy! I would love to have you over for a visit on my blog http://www.12stonedance.blogspot.com/ and maybe you could stay for some tea and crumpets (yes, thats right, im a brit living the canadian life in the prairies of Saskatchewan)

I have found in the small prairie town i live that it is hard to come across good finds. We have one thrift store, which believe me, i search high and low for project possibilities, and the dollar store definitely gets a working over regulary too. I have been blessed to live next door to one of my best friends, who happens to be an awesome DIY/crafter! We often have craft nights with the girls or just hang out doing crafts together. I actually used her basement to finished up this project!

So saying that, when my friend Joey told me that she was giving some old stuff away to the church for a garage sale, she said i could come over and take a look at what she had. Well, my jaw dropped as i entered her shed filled with jewels. Not literally, but in the craft world, yes jewels!

First thing that caught my eye was this huge stain glass window from an old church... that quickly became mine! Then out the corner of my eye i see this rocking chair. I turn to joey "i love that rocking chair, how much?" She told me she had nursed all three of her children in this chair, and that she would like to give it too me... no charge! NO WAY! I could already see the possibilites. I love second chances. For me i see the second chance i get by God;s grace, and this chair was crying out for some TLC!

I think its beautiful in its original state, but i needed to "vintage" it up! I love everything vintage, from floral bed sheets found at thrift stores, to jewellery, and especially furntiure i can transform!

I cant wait to hold our first baby in september while rocking in this chair.

STEP 1

Firstly i needed to sand it down a bit, i wanted to prime is and make sure it was coated good!

Again, i my husband (who is starting to understand this whole crafitng craze i am in) found this at a garage sale for $7, although after all the stuff we bought from there the guy gave us a deal for everything, so it was probably less that $7 in the end!

Works like a charm!

I never thought i would be excited about a sander! :)

The husband went over some of the more intricate nooks and crannies with a sanding block... he helped as my growing belly is making it harder to bend down for long periods of time!

STEP 2

I am the worst for taking short cuts, things like not sanding or not cleaning after i sanded and just going straight to painting. But i knew i had to do this right, it does make a difference i have learnt to take time to do the tedious things to get a better result. So once i sanded, and with any sanding, always give it a wipe down!

STEP 3

Volia! The first coat in on. I actually used paint and not spray paint for the prime, it wasnt as necessary as i thought as the spray paint i got covered well and it got in all the corners my brush wouldnt, but im glad i did i first coat just to give the spray paint a little more to stick too!

STEP 4

Now onto covering the kinda worn down green covers (not quite a fan).

This beautiful fabric i found at a value village! I fell in love, and this was the perfect time to pull it out!

I measured how big i need the pillow cover to be out of my fabric, and because the foam was a light yellow, i didnt line the sheet, but i would probably do that just to make it a bit thicker!

STEP 5

Get your sewing on. Turn the fabric inside out so that when you flip it inside out, your stitching will be on the inside. And because i always forget, make sure you leave a little opening to be able to pull it back through!

STEP 6

Ahh, this makes my crafting heart happy and cheerful! So much lighter, brighter and vintage than the green! Its starting to come together!

STEP 7

Now putting it all together. After the first coat of paint, i chose a ivory spray paint to cover the chair in, because the white was a little to stark and i wanted to soften in up a bit too!

Covers on, its gets excited to see a project come to affluention the way you wanted it to!

And here is one big picture just for more of a close up!

I hope you enjoyed this, and it will inspire you to find a piece that you can give a second chance to. I love that this chair represents a story behind it. I love that it belonged to a dear friend, and that she has held all her children on it. And i love that this chair has a future. Its not really about the chair, but its about the baby i will hold in it soon! Cant wait!

Thank you so much for allowing me to a part of your blog! Hopefully this is the start to a crafting blogger friendship! Give a second chance in the name of this of post!



BLOGSWAP:: Danielle from Mostly Food & Crafts

Today I’m participating in the Ultimate Blog Swap. You’ll find me posting over at The Casabella Project about my "second chance rocking chair", and I’m excited to welcome 
Danielle
 from 
MOSTLY FOOD AND CRAFTS 

......................................................


Hi everyone! My Name is Danielle and I blog at Mostly Food and Crafts  I blog about cooking and crafting with and for my two kids.  We love finding recipes and projects that we can do together.  Today I am going to share a quick recipe that my kids love making as well as a fun project.

These are Nutella-Raspberry Crescents

I  have a few different recipes using canned crescent rolls on my blog.  I love to turn to my kids and ask "so what should we try stuffing it with today"  they helped come up with this idea and it is so good.

All you need is:

A can of Crescents

Raspberry Jelly

Nutella

All you do is:

Preheat the oven according to package directions. Unroll your dough and fill with a small scoop of jelly and a small scoop of Nutella.

(or have your little chef do it instead)

Then just roll.  We found that if you fold the end of the dough over the filling and seal the sides before rolling the whole crescent it forms a nice pocket and keeps the jelly from oozing out (we discovered this halfway through unfortunately.)

Place on a baking sheet and cook for about 12-14 minutes. I dare you to eat just one - they are Awesome.

And now a craft - I came up with a great way to motivate my kids to help out a little more around the house.  I created these Personalized Reward Jars for my kids.

Here's how our system works, every time one of the kids does something to help out or goes out of their way they can earn a coin in the jar.  Coins can also be earned for bringing home a 100% on a test paper and for A's on the report card.  There are a few other ways that are specific to each child and his/her personality.  The one thing I need to constantly reiterate to the kids is that you do not earn coins for doing something that is expected from you. As soon as they reach one hundred coins, the child gets something special; maybe a toy or a book at the store or a trip out for ice cream by themselves, something fun.

 Here's how I made our jars- I took 2 jars that I picked up at Hobby Lobby, I used an etching cream and a stencil to put their names on the jars.  On the top is the cover with ribbon glued around it and a tag with each child's initial.  The back has my words of encouragement "Way to go." It was a fun project and I hope the kids stay excited about the jars.  I leave them out where the kids can see them.  I think they need the visual to keep them encouraged.  

Be sure to stop by my blog and check out the rest of my recipes and crafts.

like my Slow Cooker Lasagna

or some fun Clay Pot Critters

And Thank You Dani for having me guest post over at 12 Stone Dance today!


Visit Life...Your Way to see all of the Ultimate Blog Swap participants!

"Copy Cat" Pairing Project

You will find that i often refer to my crafty neighbour Mo, over at Pocketful of Whimsy, and that is because she is a keen crafter too, and has lots of sweet ideas! So this post i am showing you something that i made, that came from seeing Mo's craft. I thought it was so cute and such a lovely idea for kids i  just had to make it.

One of my besties, Mezzles, has a son Jaxson, who turned one this weekend, and we were able to go to Calgary to celebrate. I knew this was the ideal time to put some love into a crafty pressie for him.


One of these gifts was inspired by a project Monique had done a while ago for her kids. She made cork coasters with pictures of family and friends in her childrens lives, but did two of every picture so that it could be a pairing game.


I couldnt find cork coasters in Estevan this week, so when i came across foam stars, that was how i would carry out my plan.


Items needed:
24 pack of coloured foam stars : $1 (you dont have to have that many, its up to you as to how many pics you have)
glue stick
printer to print out paper or get them printed at your nearest photo centre
(Excuse the bad quality pics as i only had my iphone

I printed off a bunch of jaxsons family and friends and used my crinkle cutting scissors to make it a little more fancy and stuck them on the front! Easy peesy lemon sqeezy!

Its not hard, but im all about the gifts that have some thought behind them if you have the time! Give it a try for your kids or as a gift. Im going to get working on ours, so our baby bump will have some when he enters the world!


And here he is looking at one of the pairs of stars:

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY JAXSON! THE PARTY ROCKED!

SPRINGSPIRATION CHALLENGE!! fan-dab-ee-dosy Notebook

So, my awesome, cool, brilliant and lovely friend and neighbour came up with this sweet idea called Springspiration! She called on five people she knows from the blogging world (one of them being me, thankfully) and sent us a package of goodies that we had to come up with a craft with using the things in the bag.

Each day of this week will have a different blogger showing a tutorial of what they made with the same materials. There have already been two from Monique herself, and Jordyn.

Go to POCKETFUL OF WHIMSY to check out the other crafts :: and have a look around her blog!

Thanks for letting me be part of the SPRINGSPIRATION CHALLENGE!

Here is what we got given:

piece of 4x4 fabric (very cute and vintage-y)
two dollies
button
bakers twine
pearls (optional to use)

I DECIDED TO MAKE A FAN-DAB-EE-DOSY ALL THE TRIMMINGS NOTEBOOK SLIP

I added a composition book i grabbed from the dollar strore (yeah, $1 baby) and some white fabric just to line the vintage fabric to make it thicker!

I decided to make a cute notebook cover for these cheap compostion books... because everyone needs a notebook, especially me, for all my magazine clippings from home magazines. and it needs to be cute and pretty!

STEP ONE:
Depending on the fabric you may want to line it just so you cant see the ugly original cover, and plus it makes it thicker and more durable. Just turn your fabric inside out and sew along the edges.
MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE A LITTLE OPENING SO YOU CAN TURN IT INSIDE OUT (i always make this mistake).
Once you have finished, turn inside out, and then stich up the little opening!

STEP TWO
To make the folds on either end to be able to slip your notebook into firmly, use your notebook as a template and pin where you need to stitch the bottom and top of the flap.

STEP THREE
Do this on both sides so you book fits into the slots and it should look something like this:

STEP FOUR
On the front side of your fabric sew on a button which will be so you can close your book and sew the bakers twine on the other side into a hoop so it will fasten over the button.
I braided the bakers twine so it was thicker, but its totally up to you if you want to make it quicker and use a single strand of it.
Also i slipped my book in the cover to make sure i made the twine long enough to shut the book with the twine over the button.

STEP FIVE
Next i took the two doilies and put them on the front side and stitched around the bottom and two sides, but left the top unstitched so that it can be used as a couple holders for pens, maybe a skinny glue stick for those magazine clipping/recipes or whatever you so decide, maybe even a pair of scissors! Then you will always have a pen when you grab your notebook! neat trick!

STEP SIX
OK, ill admit it, i kinda was showing off adding the pearls. As soon as i saw optional, i knew i wanted to make it part of the project. So what better way to add more delight and use to this notebook cover then a strng of pearls so i can hang it on a hook in my bedroom, or even to grab with ease and style when going on a road trip... optional for you if you try this out! haha!

STEP SEVEN
And here it is, the finished fandabeedosy notebook with all the trimmings. A handle, a button up clasp, and a couple holders for your pens and stationary!
Hope you enjoy and even try this one out for yourself.

Go over to POCKETFUL OF WHIMSY to check out the other five bloggers crafts using the same materials! You'll never guess what they have come up with!

IT'S A BOY!!!

Oh boy, oh boy, what a sound of joy that rings through our house this day! We found out yesterday that our little baby chicken legs in utero is a BOY!!! We cannot be more thrilled or delighted!

A mere seven months ago we sat in an ultrasound clinic to be told our first baby, Joshua Matthew, had gone, and we officially enter the "couple that miscarried" zone. There are no words to describe the grief, the sense of losing part of yourself, that reality had come and crumbled around you.

I think the hardest part of that time was folded up the two little onsies i had so excitedly bought only that month. The only way i knew i could get through this time, and for my husband, was that we remembered. We would remember that baby alot. We would talk about him, we would honour him, and we would make sure he was always part of our family.

We remember our heaven baby Joshua with a frame of where he used to lived (my womby)

always in our hearts

the excitement of telling the world we were preggo for the first time.

Now a mere seven months on, we are expecting our second baby, and how overjoyed we are to know its  healthy boy! It felt like this would never come even in the short time we took to get pregnant again.

Today i celebrate that my second baby is alive and well inside of me, and that we would never take back the thrill of having the baby, but we still shed a tear that we could not share these milestones with out first, Joshua.

I am grieved knwoing that women around the world have to suffer what seems so unfair and unjust, but i know God has a plan. He has the whole world in his hand. Never did i think that cheesey sunday school song, with ever hold so much meaning for me. But i know, that even in the midst of my life feeling choastic, grief striken, and like no one cares, God really does have it in his hand. Not only that, he has my beautiful little Joshua in his hands too.

I thank God today that i have my second chance to be an earthly mother. Thats i get to hold this little one in four months. I also pray, that God would remind me every day how  blessed i am to have been given this chance to be a mother. I ask that even though its hard, that he put people in my life that i can walk with through similar tragedies. That the loss of our first has purpose and a way to reach out to others! I pray that all those that walk through miscarriage and loss, especially of their firsts, will receive the joy one day of holding a baby they can call their own!

Thank you God for my miracle baby!

Frame Worthy Chicken Wire Tutorial

So firstly, i apologise for the quality of photos for this tutorial, as i was having issues with my camera the other day, but i was desperate to get my craft on, so i went ahead anyways.

And i also have to note that this is not an original creation! All over craft blogs i have seen some version of using chicken wire to use as an organiser or photo holder, and so i wanted to do my own version. This may either end up as a jewellery rack for all my dangly earrings (the bigger the earrings the more im into it) or whether it will go into the baby's room (WHICH IS A BOY we found out today) to display family and friends photos for baby to always see!!

All you will need is:
Chicken wire ( i found mine at the local dollar store in the garden aisle for $2)
Old frame (the more vintage looking the better)
spray paint
staple gun

This craft cost me a total of $7 = bargain

Step one

Go out searching for a frame that you can see potential in and that you love, or maybe you already have one at home. But i found mine at Salvation army for $5 and i just loved the vintage look to it, but it was GOLD! im not a huge fan of gold

Step 2

Paint a pretty colour of your choice... i chose white this time just because i knew i would probably be loading the frame up with goodies of photos or jewellery so that would be all the colour i needed

Voila! looking much more to my liking!

Step 3

Flip your frame over (obviously once its dry) and just go to town with the staples. Make sure you staple it down as much as you can, and stretch it a little so that it doesnt sag once you flip it back over.

lots of staples!

Step four

Flip it over and start pinning things to it - pegs are good to use and you could paint those, or cover them in scrap book paper to add some more colour and fun to it, or your dangly earrings with hang up there by themselves!

Its as easy as that, 1,2,3,4!