Monday

Hi there! Just touching base with my blog peeps! How is it that February is the shortest month... that feels like it has been the longest month that is passing by so quickly?! Crazy! Perhaps it's because we have had a lot of changes occur!
Cal (my 7 year old) has lost two teeth and so now he has his four front upper and two front bottom teeth missing (cutest speaking difficulties!)... my daughters vocabulary and personality (she is 5 going on 16) has caused me to laugh several times every day but I wasn't too happy to find an almost empty gallon container of milk under her bed... my youngest son (3 going on 4) insists on letting his sister paint his finger nails and toe nails PINK... and keeps telling me that he needs 'boy binger nall paint' and asks when I am going to find his skateboard (still in a box from our move last July).
We are a military family that recently moved to KS... but we were moving to TX in July but now that has changed as the Army has informed us that our next duty station will be in CO (yippee!!) but with it comes a deployment (not so yippee) SO... the kids and I are going to stay in our house near our gym and our church (who needs a move with a deployment at the same time... not us... been there, done that!).
Lets see... what else, taxes: done! My father in law showed me a thing or two about an electric saw, drywall, wires, plugs, lighting... yes... it's time to finish the unfinished room in our basement! What was going to be an office room is now (thank you ARMY) going to be a quilters quarter! That of course has given me even more motivation to get it done (and trust me... my mind is thinking of all kinds of projects I want to do!).
I have hit the gym again after taking almost two months off to find that I didn't gain any weight (well, maybe a pound or two) but I did loose an inch off my arms and almost another off my chest (woohoo!).
I am no longer a 'beginner' in Tai Chi and am looking forward to participating in the World Tai Chi & Qigong day in April! I love this style of Tai Chi (Quang Ping Yang right style) and it fits well with the gentle yoga and ball exercises that I do. Even though I am active in church/Bible study, it's nice to have a way to help me sync my heart and mind with quiet thoughts, quiet movements, quiet breath and keep a quiet smile!
All right... time to get on with my day! Hope your Monday goes well... mine has started really well! Whew!

Gifts in the mail!!!!

Saturday brought me a lovely gift in the mail! The photo above is of a beautiful piece from the "Angel" series by Nancy Donaldson who is a mixed media artist and photographer from Toronto Canada! The prayer reads:

For Little Children

For the sunshine warm and bright,

For the day and for the night,

For the lessons of our youth~

Honour, gratitude and truth,

For the love that met us here,

For the home and for the cheer,

Father, we thank Thee,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

~

Please stop by Nancy's blog! I have enjoyed reading it and I know you will too!

Thank you Nancy for this lovely gift that arrived on Valentines day! Even the card was lovely! Both items have a special place in my home! (And you made so many!!!)

~~~~

Now for part two... also arriving in my mailbox today was this adorable little monster named Speckles. At first I wasn't sure how my kids would react to this new little monster (they have a tendency to be afraid of such things) but Monster Speckles was quickly given a grand tour of the house and much discussion was had over where he was going spend the night and who he belonged to! We love Monster Speckles and will probably be adopting a few others soon!

So... who sent me this awesome green, yellow speckled creature?! Why it was Nicole from Mealy Monster Land! Monster Speckles was a One World One Heart give away that I won! You must visit her blog and then also check out her Etsy shop! Actually, take a good look around her shop as she has a link to another shop that sells onesie's, plush dolls and adult t-shirts that feature her monsters! There is no end to this mother of three's craftiness!

By the way... my youngest has made a bed for Monster Speckles and so that is where he is sleeping tonight!

The birds are tucked away in their boxed nests ... labeled and ready to fly to their new homes! The kids had fun choosing which bird went to which home... they each had their favorite bird and I think are in a way a little sad to see them go. I am already brainstorming and digging through my quilting fabric to see what I can use next! I might have to create a craft calendar... I have so many projects that I want to get done!
I really enjoyed the One World One Heart event. I met so many new friends and have just as many new blogs to visit... I could seriously pull some all nighters just trying to read them all! Of course I am already thinking about what to create for the 2010 OWOH event!

My next project is to create some eggs! I am going to participate in the Easter Egg Hunt Swap... I found this through several different blogs... Viv from www.vivs-whimsy.blogspot.com is hosting the swap. I am so excited... we will make 2 eggs and then Viv will send our eggs out to two recipients and in return I will receive two eggs from different folks. On April 5 we will post pictures of our creations along with the ones we received and then will have to hunt on the blogs to see who got ours and where our new ones came from. Anyhow, there are 38 of us signed up and that is a lot of eggs! Bravo to Viv and to her local post office!
Well, it's incredibly late and I have to get one to Ballet in the morning and another has a basketball game!
Night!

And the Winners are...

OWOH Winners!!!!

I had over 200 people leave a comment for a One World One Heart Folk Bird! Thanks to everyone for stopping by! I hope you had as much fun as I did visiting the over 900 blogs that participated!

Ok, for the important stuff..... the winners are..... drum roll please.....

• Michele from Calicodaisy

• Suse from SuseAdoodle

• Ele from Ele at abitofpinkheaven

• Jennifer from Jennifer R.D.

Congratulations!!! I will be sending each of you an email to make snail mail delivery plans!

Valentines Day craft

This year we wanted to skip the regular valentines day cards and do what we did last year... (maybe this is our new tradition!)... We make crayons! Actually we recycled our old ones and made new ones! Here is what we did:

1. Remove all the wrappers (if you are going to use new crayons... I highly recommend soaking them in warm water so the papers come off easily... I ruined my nails/finger tips trying peel them dry).



2. Break the crayon into 3-5 pieces



3. Spray lightly the bottoms of a muffin tin (we used heart shaped)... if using a silicone muffin mold then you wont need to spray.



4. Put several crayon pieces into mold... at least enough to cover the bottom



5. Place into pre-heated oven for @ 10-15 min (250*F)



6. Remove from oven... let rest until solid (I let them rest a few minutes and then place it in the freezer. They pop right out!)
   

You can round the edges on paper by 'coloring' and then we placed ours onto heart shaped doilies and wrote a little note " You Color My World Valentine!"

One World ~ One Heart

Please click here to view the winners!!!!

http://thehormanns.blogspot.com/2009/02/and-winners-are.html

One World ~ One Heart

*There are updates!*

Hello everyone! My name is Charlene and after visiting so many blog sites I have decided that I also want to participate in the One World One Heart event with a giveaway! For those of you who are not sure what this event is you should really click on the event badge at the top of this post! In short this is an event that was started 3 years ago by Lisa "oceandreamer" Swifka. It is a way for bloggers from all over this great big world to meet ... as Lisa put it... it's like having an open house at our blog sites with nifty giveaways. But it's not just the giveaways that make this special... its the ability to make connections/friends with people from all different walks of life. Once you start it's amazing to see how 'little' this big world is and how much we have in common even though we are so different!
Ok, down to some details! My giveaway is open to anyone having an active blog around the world, so please leave a comment for a chance to win. The winner will be announced on February 12th on my blog site and I will also contact the winner to let them know they won....so be sure I have a way to link back/contact you. Even if you are a blogger not hosting a OWOH giveaway yourself you are more than welcome to enter your name to win! If I have over *100 comments then I will choose a winner for every 100 comments... please only enter your comment once! Sooooo what am I giving away?!
I will have to make my gift and post a **picture soon... but here is a hint... it involves a folk bird... one world... and one heart! Here is a picture of a bird that I did in December, it's the inspiration for what is fluttering around in my head.... I cant wait for it to hatch so I can show you! Are you interested?! Then leave a comment (and tell me something interesting about you!) and be sure to visit the over 500 other blog participants! (esp #30... that's my sister!) You can do that by clicking on the OWOH link at the beginning of this post. Have a great day!!!!!

*UPDATE! I will be giving at least 4 birds away regardless of how many comments!! I am having too much fun making them!

**Here are pictures of two of the new birds.... I hope you like them. I removed the hemp cord because I think the birds look better sitting on a ledge... you can always add your own cord to suit how you would like to display them!