A Pillow Doll Giveaway!

Apparently, I need better lighting when I embroider. Or glasses. Probably both now that I think about it. It wasn't until I was finishing this doll that I noticed I had accidentally grabbed the variegated red, not the solid color red. See how the left side of his cape is lighter than the right side? Don't worry if you can't. My color blind husband can't either, but I can. Since I don't feel like I can sell this one in the shop, I'm offering it here as a giveaway.

You can enter below using the Rafflecopter entry widget for a chance or multiple chances to win this little Blessed (soon to be Saint) John Paul II Pillow Doll. The giveaway closes Thursday night at 11:59pm so I can get the doll in the mail to the winner on Friday. 

If you don't want to wait until the giveaway closes, there is one JPII doll in the shop right now. I plan on putting the shop on vacation starting April 6th so, if you'd like to place an order for anything over there for Easter, please keep that deadline in mind. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

7 Quick Takes :: In (Mostly) Pictures

~1~

Our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book club included lots of fun treats for the kids to make: Edible Teacups, Chocolate Spoons, Crazy Colored Mustaches, Fairy Wands, and Candy Sushi. Next time, we won't pick this book during Lent!

~2~

The Princess is not amused...

~3~

…until mama busts out the REAL paints. Watercolor pencils just don't cut it. 

~4~

We are beginning a new adventure with our teens… a monthly board game playing afternoon. First up was Lord of the Rings Risk. Huge success all around!

~5~

 I had a custom request come in that allowed me to get a little creative and try my hand at some new designs. The one on the far left is St. Genevieve, one of my first designs. Can you tell who the other two saints are?

Sadly, I have to admit that it wasn't until someone else requested St. Teresa of Avila that I actually made a St. Teresa of Avila. I had thought about making one but just hadn't gotten around to it. There is one already waiting to go in Cupcake's Easter basket. 

~6~

An IG friend mentioned that she thought she could make a coffee table book with pictures of ugly waiting room carpet. This is my contribution. It was at the orthodontist's office. Is it just me or do those look like tiny little teeth lined up in rows? Creepy. BTW…we LOVE our orthodontist! Just not his carpet. And with two already in braces, a third on the way and BigBoy starting Phase I of his treatment soon, we will be spending a lot of time trying not to count the creepy tiny teeth on the floor.

~7~

For those of you who might be interested, there are some new kits and dolls up in the shop. I'm going to be doing a giveaway next week and then I plan to put the shop "on vacation" starting April 6th through Easter. 

Happy Feast of the Annunciation

Mary's "Fiat" was really a gift to us all. 

Here is a little gift for those who asked…

I added the most popular embroidery designs back to my Scribd account. These are some of the original designs I made. The new ones are not in any kind of publishing shape yet.

Saints 'N Stitches : Bl. Mother Teresa and St. Therese the Little Flower

Saints 'N Stitches : St. Michael the Archangel and St. John Bosco

Saints 'N Stitches : St. Elizabeth of Hungary and St. Josephine Bakhita

If you'd like to print them off and use them for yourself and your family without having to purchase a kit from my Etsy shop, please feel free to. I'm not charging a download fee or anything. I like sharing. All I ask is that they are only used for personal use and are not sold or distributed for profit in anyway. You may not sell anything that you create using these designs either. Please do not use the images for anything else besides embroidery patterns (or simple coloring pages) without my specific prior approval. And please do not upload them anywhere else on the internet or on any other kind of electronic device. Sorry to be so limiting, but I've had problems with my designs being stolen in the past and used without my permission. Thank you for understanding.

{p,h,f,r} First Day of Spring edition

 

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}

{happy}

Sharing a fruit rainbow with your big brother and getting a card in the mail… it's the little things that can bring such joy.

{funny}

My big girls dumped cups of water on our back porch just so their baby sister could splash in the puddles. She insisted that they splash too. Silly girls! Oh, I love them so.

{real}

Do you see that scowl on her face? I'd love to pretend that that's the face of a serious artist at work. Sadly, it's the face of a toddler firmly embracing her Terrible Two's grumping because mom didn't bust out the "real" paints for her rainbow but tried to get by with some water color pencils. Bad mom! Oh… and that piece of cheese. We call it "crabby cheese". You can guess why.

Please pray and give if you can...

There was tragic news in the Catholic blog/FB world yesterday about two little girls who died in a car accident. Olivia and Emma Lewis passed away after being Life-flighted from the accident scene in Wyoming to Salt Lake City. Their dad is a professor at Wyoming Catholic College and is also an alum of the University of Dallas. Today, the internet world is coming together to help this grieving family not just with prayers for their peace of mind and comfort, but with financial help to assist them in covering hospital bills and funeral costs. Please donate something if you can. It won't take away their pain, but it will ease some of their burden. If you can't, please commit to praying for this young family and the incredibly hard days to come.

St. Augustine Coloring Page

St. Augustine coloring page

~ click here ~

St. Monica Coloring Page

St. Monica coloring page

~ click here ~

Pope St. Pius X Coloring Page

Pope St. Pius X Coloring Page

~ click here ~

St. Helena Coloring Page

St. Helena Coloring Page

~ click here ~

St. Jane de Chantal Coloring Pag

St. Jane de Chantal Coloring Page

~ click here ~

St. Maximillian Coloring Page

St. Maximillian Kolbe Coloring Page

~ click here ~

St. Mary MacKillop Coloring Page

St. Mary MacKillop Coloring Page

~ click here ~

St. John Vianney Coloring Page

St. John Vianney Coloring Page

~ click here ~

St. Sophia Coloring Page

St. Sophia coloring page

~ click here ~

St. Anne Coloring Page

St. Anne coloring page (with title and date)

~ click here ~

St. Anne coloring page (no title or date)

~ click here ~

St. Philip Neri Coloring Page

St. Philip Neri coloring page

~ click here ~

St. Damien Coloring Page

St. Damien coloring page

~ click here ~

St. Catherine of Siena Coloring Page

St. Catherine of Siena coloring page

~ click here ~

St. Gianna Coloring Page

St. Gianna coloring page

~ click here ~

St. Mark Coloring Page

Original image from The Printery House

St. Mark coloring page

~ click here ~

St. Joseph Coloring Page

St. Joseph Coloring Page

~ click here ~

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

The other day, Cupcake saw her very first rainbow in the sky! She's always loved rainbows thanks to Rachel Coleman and the colors of the rainbow song. In fact, for a while, I thought her first birthday was going to be a rainbow themed birthday.

I know that rainbows don't really have anything to do with St. Patrick, but since the rainbow is linked to leprechauns and Irish folklore, I decided that we would have a Rainbow Day. (Next year, we'll cover the theological symbolism of the shamrock, I promise!)

I found this tutorial about making a cute little cloud and rainbow softie and whipped one up yesterday.
Not your typical Roy G. Biv rainbow… we go with Rachel's version for the littles because it fits with the song: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Purple and Blue. If you've ever heard Rachel talk about why her song is out of order, you know that she says, "If you can think of a rhyme for 'purple', you can have my job!"

Miss Cupcake has also reached that age where she needs some "busy work". Since our weather is so unpredictable, I can't always rely on her getting outside to play everyday. I've seen ideas for toddler busy bags and similar things and if you have any suggestions, please send them my way. The first one that seemed super easy to do was the idea of a fabric scrap box. Many ideas said just cut scraps of fabric and put them in a old wet wipe box. I decided to make it a rainbow box.

Simple scraps of fabric cut with pinking shears.

I'm thinking we might paint some rainbows later and make some sticker rainbows. We are also planning on Potato Soup for dinner with Irish Soda Bread and a Rainbow Fruit salad. The big kids are going to watch this documentary, St. Patrick: Apostle of Ireland,  on Amazon. (I've previewed it and while it could be better, it's not that bad, once you get past the weird St. Patrick's Day Parade featured in the first few minutes.)

{p,h,f,r} Is it Easter yet?

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}

I was pretty proud of myself for getting dinner made the other day super early so that when dinner time rolled around, I just had to pop it in the oven! Shepherd's Pie for the win!

{happy}

So happy to stumble across this little early morning tea party...

{funny}

So, Sean bought this cute little cup for Cupcake when she was sick and refusing to drink for two days (so scary!). He thought it might tempt her into taking a few sips. We called it her little whale cup. Because of course it's a whale… right...

Sunshine pointed out… "Um...whales don't have stems." Apparently my teens were wondering just how exhausted (and crazy) Mom and Dad were to be calling an apple a whale for like half a week. But I ask you, why would apples be hot pink? Or have eyes? (And eyelashes!) It's still her whale cup.

{real}
Snapshots from real life… aka IG dump!

"Hanging out for 40 minutes with my big guy and the NLE this morning. He just chuckled at a couple of the questions. Yes, he laughs in the face of Latin translation!" (Monday)

"Mommy, take my picture." (Tuesday)

 "Is it Easter yet?" (Thursday)