Joyful Week: Decorate Your Fridge

Hopefully by now all of your winter decorations are up at your house. But if you're like us, you're still finding things to cover in Christmas cheer! Well here are some simple ideas for an area of your kitchen that may be without decor: the refrigerator!

I like to keep family photos and announcements on the fridge year-round and didn't feel like taking everything down to decorate. So I spent a few dollars and got some construction paper and poster board. It only took a few minutes to whip up a cute snowman fridge!

With a little one all over the place, all the things we put on our fridge is up high so the bottom is just a black void. I am also constantly thinking of things to keep my little dude occupied while I make a meal. Some scrapbook paper and poster board are all you need for this. I made a little Christmas tree with decorations to pull off and put back on and used fridge magnets we already have to place ornaments. So now my son can have fun in the kitchen while I cook!

Do you decorate your kitchen? What are some creative ways your like to spruce up your home for Christmas?

God Bless, 

 &

Harvest Week: Recipe Cards

Chances are you've already received or found plenty of recipes to whip up for upcoming dinners and parties. What better way to stay organized than to have recipe cards ready to write them down? Or feel free to write your favorite dish on them and hand it out to friends and family! Print them out and make them your own!

And here's an example card with a bonus recipe on it! You're going to LOVE these crackers. Not too spicy and just addicting enough to snack on while you cook your Thanksgiving feast!

How do you keep your recipes organized?

God Bless,

 &

Harvest Week: Turkey Craft

We love to get crafty here at James & June and we're hoping to instill this into our kids' hearts early as well. Everyone loves a good hand/footprint craft so why not get festive...and maybe a little messy! We created our own Pinterest inspired turkey craft to do with little ones as well as older kiddos.

We've attached some printables for you to customize your turkey! Below you'll find a printable turkey, turkey outline (in case you're older ones feel like coloring), and several backgrounds to choose from. Get creative! Just "feather out" Little Ones' painted hand or footprints, then cut and paste the turkey cut out over it! So simple and so cute!

Here is everything you'll need:
-Printable Turkey (find below)
-Background (find below)
-Construction Paper for mounting (optional)
-Paint
-Glue
-Scissors

Here are some pictures of our playgroup getting in on the fun:

Painting with baby feet is HARD! Our turkeys came out different but equally cute! What a great way to remember how tiny our babies' feet once were. 

How did your's turn out? We want to see!
Do you have any other turkey crafts you like to create with your kids?

God Bless,

 &

Godparent Book

My husband and I have the amazing privilege of being the Godparents of the brilliant and beautiful Addy. We don't get to see her very often (only 3 times in just as many years), but the pictures, videos, and FaceTime chats are the highlights of our days!

We were blessed to be able to visit Addy and her family last month. We had so much fun hanging out with them for the weekend and I can't wait to tell you all about it! But right now I want to share with you one of the things we got Addy for her 3rd birthday.

The Godparents of Addy's sister approached us awhile back about creating Guidebooks to Your Godparents for the girls. We made several pages and put them in a photo album. We left a good portion of the photo album empty so we could fill it with all our future pictures together. Here are a few of our favorite pages:

Being a godparent is so much fun! We love getting creative and making memories with the ones we love! 

What creative gifts have you made? 

God Bless,

What We Made Wednesday: Kitchen Remix

The husband and I love to build things together. It's such a great bonding experience. Are you picturing two people smiling and laughing as they create something together? Well don't. :) Don't get me wrong, I'm madly, head-over-heels in love with my best friend. Working together creates an opportunity to work through some things in our relationship that we wouldn't discover on a normal day. It's like really cheap couples' therapy!

We've built several things together including a house and separate litter box for our feline companion. Now that was rough! We've realized something new about ourselves and each other every time we work together. I'm a controller. Sometimes things HAVE to be done MY way because your was is dead WRONG. I'm working on it. I also have a hard time conveying my thoughts. They make sense in my head but I just can't explain them out loud. Working on it. The hubs is...well he...he's patient, supportive, hard-working...maybe it's just me who needs to get it in gear!

Our most recent undertaking was a play kitchen for our daughter. Can a 7 month old appreciate a homemade kitchen? Probably not. But all the parts were taking up much needed space in our garage so we thought now was as good a time as any!

Below are the pictures and some instructions on how we renovated a small microwave stand. The project took a lot longer than I thought it would due to painting laminate. I should've done more research on how to handle this part better. Overall, we spent $105.61 (an amount that could drastically change based on your starting piece and what grade of supplies you use). Sound like a lot? It is! But we believe we're investing in not only a good quality toy for our kids to enjoy for years to come, but also in the experience of creating something together. Here's the breakdown:

Microwave stand: $14 at a garage sale
1/4" thick board x2: $12.94
5/8" square dowel x3: $7.32
Plexiglass: $4.78
Nails/screws: We had some in the garage that worked
Large mixing bowl: $6.47
Faucet: $19 (This was a splurge. They make much cheaper faucets, but they look cheaper. I suggest shopping around before purchasing. Our faucet fits a drinking spout and was the perfect size for our project.)
Drawer handles: $4.97
Wooden knobs: $3.94
Key hook: $5.97
Tension rod: $2.47
Curtain fabric: I had some scrap fabric that we based the whole color scheme off of
Chalkboard: $2.97
Wood for top shelf: We had some extra from a previous project
Quart of paint: $13.97
Craft paint for burners, knobs, and accessories: $4.14
Paint brush: $2.67

BEFORE

Glue/screw square dowel pieces to create
places for additional shelves

Cut holes for mixing bowl and faucet. We kept our
 shelves loose so that they could be removable

Attach plexiglass to a cutout in one of the
doors, sew curtain, and then
paint, paint, paint!

We even have a few accessories thanks to
some good garage sale buys!

What do you think?

What toys/furniture have you made for your kids?

We can't wait to watch June play chef! (Even if it won't be for another year or so...)

Our next project is a work bench for the little one! Can't wait to show it to you!

God Bless,

What We Made Wednesday: Two Are Better Than One

Sometimes Kacie and I think so much alike. A few weeks ago I started playing around with making sensory bottles for my little guy and coincidentally Kacie was making some for Little June. I loved this idea from Pinterest and Little James is at the age where I thought he might start enjoying them.

I had made mine out of 2 ounce Medela bottles Little Man used to drink out of as a newborn. In them I put anything that would make an interesting noise when he shook them. I found some pasta, bendy straws, and small binder clips. Little Man was not really interested in shaking them and making noise but rather chewing on the bottles themselves. (He is in major teething mode right now!) And they really weren't visually appealing. Fail.

Now Kacie’s on the other hand, where a lot nicer. She used Voss brand water bottles and made very visually appealing discovery bottles. One had colored rice and toothpicks and another had colored water with glitter and beads. In one word, they were awesome. There was one problem though, the cap on these bottles were not very durable and one broke and leaked. The bottles were also a little big for our kiddos' little hands.

Well let’s just say we were both at square one. I wanted something affordable that my son could play with and something that would appeal to him. And who doesn't love the huge grin your baby gets on their face when you give them something fun, especially since you made it!  So how do we make a better discovery bottle?

The Medela bottles were perfect for little hands and the caps were durable enough to keep anything from escaping. Kacie had some beads and made some fun colored rice. Put those two together and you get some pretty neat looking sensory toys for Little James and June.

Even though both of our designs had flaws, we took what worked well in our initial idea for discovery bottles and put them together. What I thought might be a complete fail of a project turned out to be a success. Two brains are definitely better than one!

Have you ever done something that failed and then talked to a friend and it ended up working out? 

Do you have a friend who thinks a lot like you?

Blessings,

What We Made Wednesday: Doing Things the Hard Way

One of the things you'll quickly learn about me is I don't do things the easy way. What's the fun in that? I also tend to jump into things with both feet before thinking it through.
I'm the one who runs full speed into the water, whizzing right past the "DANGER: Sharks sighted. Swimmers use caution!" sign.
This post is the perfect example of that. I wanted to show you all something I made that really highlights my craftiness. I love sewing and I love creating things so why not start with a pair of baby sweatpants? Do I have a pattern? Nope. Have I ever made a clothing item before? Negative. Great, this will be perfect. Fast forward 4 hours later and I end up with this:

Isn't she adorable?

Honestly, that girl can pull off anything. Even the most ill-fitting sweatpants ever made.
The plus side to never doing things the easy way and making plenty of mistakes is I'm always learning. Will I try again? Youbetcha! The next pair might still not be perfect, but I can guarantee they'll be better than this pair. When I fail epically on a project, I love how it teaches me something about myself. Even when I get frustrated beyond words, I can still manage to push through and try again.
Well since I can't show you how to make the cutest sweatpants known to man (not yet anyway), I can show you what else I've been working on.
I love painting. Especially when stickers and tape are involved. Stickers and tape? Yup! Let me show you what I mean:

I just love my little girl's name.

You might think using stickers is cheating, but there's no way I'd be able to freehand letters that please my perfectionist nature. Ergo, stickers! Now before you say, "Kacie, I could whip up one of those in no time. Why are you showing me this?",  let me tell you that my "never do it the easy way" self struck again. I was so excited to get the letters on the board that I didn't think about future steps. Thus, ending up spending a profound amount of time doing this:

Should I have painted the board teal then put the letters on? Absolutely! Did I do that? Nope!
But as I said, I love painting with tape so this wasn't an all lose situation. Should you decide to do a similar project, please learn from my mistake! I know I will!
Luckily, the end product was worth all the frustration.

Sweet and simple.

I have a ton of other masking tape projects I can't wait to show you! (They all turned out wonderfully, unlike the sweatpants debacle).
I hope this inspired you to do a quick craft! I love getting the crafty juices flowing, even if it's just for a few minutes a day.

What will you make today?
Do you have any "sweatpants" stories?
Don't let the failed projects keep you down! Try again and I promise you'll learn something!

On a serious note, we would like to ask for your prayers for a mutual friend's family. Her mother just received a lung cancer diagnosis with a life expectancy of 2 months. Aggressive medical action is being taken and we are praying hard for recovery. God works amazing miracles and we pray that He moves in this woman's life. Please ask God to comfort this family in their time of suffering and confusion. Ask Him to put His healing hands on her lungs and their hearts. Thank you.

God Bless,