Thursday, February 7, 2013

....the DIY Valentine from a non DIY kind of gal......

....I attend a weekly group with several mommas on Thursdays and it is one of the highlights of my week.....I am always inspired by our discussions.....I laugh at the stories of other households, I learn new perspectives and find myself reflecting back on our group's conversation throughout the week.....my mentor momma, who facilitates our discussion, has said many times that each of our children has been given to us so that we may be stretched.....raising babies is not supposed to be easy.....and as much as I could spend time blogging about the serious stuff that can get a crowd of mommas into deep and spirited discussions; for now, I will keep it light.....

....Elsie is begging for french braids every morning......I am sweating at the thought of staring down at her golden blond, beautiful head of hair waiting to be woven.......I secretly sigh when I hear the question from her lips......I keep attempting; trying, pulling, combing through the hair to avoid lumps.......I shake it out and start over when I notice the braid is a tangled mess once I get to the bottom......

.....but I will not give up and this braiding thing is certainly stretching me......


....now, I assure you that when my mentor momma told us our children would stretch us, she was not referring to something as basic and simple as learning how to french braid.....however, there are deep stretches and warm up stretches and I know that these small bends are preparing me for greater flexibility......

.....both girls love to craft.......again, I am stretched......I do not like crafts.....the mess bothers me, I frustrate easily,  the store Michaels overwhelms me, opposed to inspires me.......crafting is simply not my forte.....and over the last three years since Elsie has been coloring, gluing, painting, sculpting, sprinkling and tracing; she always asks, want to do it with me, Momma?......sometimes I oblige, cursing the crafts in my head and wishing we could curl up and read a book instead and other times I tell her that I can not craft today.....

.....as Valentines Day glared at me when February rolled around and the conversations about stretching have hovered over my daily routine, I decided I would be the one to initiate something she loves.....

.....Elsie, do you want to make homemade Valentines cards this year?......

.....I wish I had a video of her response......

......the following DIY tutorial is for the mommas like me who need an easy, cute craft that doesn't leave glitter in your hardwood cracks for months, doesn't require a lot of concentration or skill and simply makes your children happy and ecstatic to address cards to the ones they love.....plus, you eat popcorn while you cut, trace, glue and tie.....I browsed pinterest a few weeks ago and found a cute pin that lists several Valentines sayings.....we selected one and thought of our idea.....

......I promise this is not a DIY that vows to be easy; when really, Martha Stewart would be challenged......I see those DIYs on pinterest all the time.....they are some of the most beautiful creations and I pin those ideas just to go back and look at them, not because I actually think I will do them someday.........gorgeous centerpiece ideas, DIY hair bows, hand made gift bags for parties, amazing creations in the kitchen of food manipulated to look like snowmen, daisies, or real watermelon ice pops......I know confidently that I will never be able to duplicate those details.....

....but this is the easiest Valentine craft you will ever do......


.....find some construction paper, scissors, glue, twine, a hole puncher, something circular sized proportionately to what you want for your card.......a pen, a few markers and some snack size pop corn bags......


.....we used a lid that also looked like a hot air balloon.....we weren't sure if our nursery school would allow us to attach the popcorn.....luckily, the popcorn idea was approved; however, the back up plan was to make our circle look like a balloon and the twine would be the string.....my waist line is lucky we can go with plan A, as we would have had a lot of popcorn left to devour for the rest of the winter.....


....we cut simple hearts out of construction paper and glued them directly to the card.....we changed the message style for each one, based on where Callie ended up glueing them......


....punch a hole in the card and the plastic popcorn wrapping, attach the twine to the card, tie to the popcorn and wollah!.....

....now that is crafting for mommas like me.....


.......here's the lesson.....

.....my girls could have cared less what the craft was....the fact I was at the table with them cutting, punching, glueing and chatting with my little ladies is all that mattered.....



......and the Valentines day cards are far from perfect......in fact, Callie proudly glued several hearts on upside down and thought her idea of flipping them was spectacular.....



.....as mommas, we will be challenged, stretched, stumped, awe struck and bewildered......and while this is all happening to us, all our children will notice is whether or not we were present.....

....Happy Valentines Day......