boo'd!

Have you been boo'd? It's a fun Halloween neighborhood activity where you leave treats anonymously at your neighbors door and ask that they "pay it forward" to another neighbor by leaving treats on their door. It's a unique way to spread Halloween fun (and get something yummy out of the deal). Plus, you get to ding dong ditch your neighbors, and that's always a blast. 

This is the first year that Ella and I have done the boo'ing. Three and a half years old is a really fun age. They totally "get it" and everything is still carefree and fun. There's no eye rolling, sighing, or complaining (though I'm sure its not far off). 

This year we grabbed some cute Halloween baskets and filled them with various treats for our friends. Glow sticks, ghost lollipops, homemade peanut butter cookies, and mini glass milk bottles filled with candy. It was fun baking the cookies with Ella and making the ghost lollipops. (Tissues wrapped around tootsie pops, tied with ribbon and eyes drawn on with sharpie).  

I filled and topped the mini milk bottles with Halloween fabric and twine. Then we printed Halloween labels from here onto sticker paper and wrapped them around the bottles. The "boo" instructions and sign were a free download that you can find here. Everything turned out super cute. It's a tradition I think we'll continue, as long as there's no eye rolling. 

30 before thrity: update

A quick update on my 30 before thrity list. Since I turned 28 years old (gasp!) over the summer I thought I should update you all on how I'm doing on the list. I guess I haven't accomplished too much, BUT I did get to do the most time consuming and labor intensive (no pun intended) task at hand.

30 BEFORE THIRTY 

1. Run a 5k

2. Run a 10k

3. Have another baby

4. Pay it forward

5. Give blood

6. Get another tattoo

7. Reach my "ideal" medical weight

8. Re-connect with someone from my past

9. Master cooking classic Italian recipes

10. Read some classic novels

11. Make homemade pasta from scratch

12. Own something from Tiffany's

13. Research/make a family tree

14. Go on an overnight vacation with just Travis

15. Go on a missions trip

16. Family trip to the beach

17. Get/raise chickens

18. Take a spin class

19. Disneyland

20. Try a new food I've never had before

21. Throw someone a surprise party

22. Fill a journal

23. Get my colors done

24. Organize the whole house

25. Sew with leather

26. Watch the sunrise

27. Family portraits

28. ???

29. ???

30. ???

And remember, you can follow along. It's not to late to make you're own milestone list and link up.

<center> <a title="Abstract Grace" href="http://abstractgrace.blogspot.com/2012/08/30-before-thirty.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/8159/30button.jpg"/></a></center>

i'm back!

Wow, has it really been almost a year?! Saying I neglected the blog would be an understatement, I dropped off the face of the blogging world. Here we are almost the end of 2013 and my last post was Halloween 2012. A LOT has happened in the last 365ish days. LOTS and LOTS. I guess you could say that life got "busy." I'll recap my year MIA with the three biggest things.

1. I got pregnant and had a baby. YES!! I told you, a lot really can happen in a year. Starting the beginning of 2012 we started trying to have a baby. Ella was 18 months old and we thought it was time to starting thinking about another addition to the family. We didn't put to much pressure on ourselves thinking it would happen quickly, but month after month went by and the tests came back negative EVERY MONTH. After 3 or so months of negative tests I started using ovulation prediction tests to better our chances...still not pregnant. Spring and Summer came and went and several close friends announced their pregnancies along the way and still we tried and tried and it just wasn't happening. Ella turned two and my hopes of having kids 2.5 years apart went out the window. I was discouraged but knew that in God's timing we'd have another if we were supposed to. Then just two weeks before Christmas 2012 we got the best gift ever, a big fat POSITIVE test. I could barely contain myself. It had been a LONG nine months but finally we were having a baby! So this summer we welcomed Maci Evelyn to the family (I'll share her birth story soon). The little sister Ella had hoped for, and the baby her daddy and I prayed for.

2. Ella turned THREE (hello! stop growing so fast!) and started preschool. When they say don't blink, kids grow so fast, they really mean it! I can't believe that Ella is not only three (which we celebrated with a Doc McStuffin's themed party) but has started 5 day a week preschool. We placed her in a montessori program and to say she is enjoying it is an understatement. She loves her "work" and is thriving tremendously!

3. For the first time since Ella was born I started working outside the home. I suppose this is the largest contributing factor to the blog being neglected. When you're pregnant, have a toddler and work outside the home there isn't a lot of extra time for keeping up on the blog. Like most families in the last few years, money was getting tight so this SAHM had to look for work outside the home. I found a job working part time at night after the husband came home. While in the first trimester of my pregnancy I was actually working two jobs. Let me tell you, there was a bit of mama guilt at times and it felt like a "break" being around adults and having someone besides a 2 year old to talk to at other times. Verdict: I love being a SAHM at this point in my life. Kids grow so fast (see #2) that I really cherish being able to be at home with them during their early years. I'm still on maternity leave from Maci's birth and I hope that I can keep it that way. Of course, i'll do whatever I have to for the family.

Well I hope that explains my absence. And I hope I can jump back into posting more regularly too. It was nice logging into Blogger and seeing that even though I haven't touched the blog in almost a year I still average 100+ views a day and looking back at the stats some of my posts had thousands of views (thank you Pinterest). One thing that I haven't neglected is my Instagram account. I post everyday so if you'd like to follow along there, please do! (click HERE to follow or search username abstractgrace)

It feels good to be back. Happy Fall!

halloween peg dolls

This was my first attempt at peg dolls after seeing a few around on the interwebs. Originally I wanted to use them to make Ella a kid friendly nativity for Christmas (which is only 2 months away, eek!). After doing some research on peg dolls, I decided I should try my hand at something less detailed then the three wise men and baby Jesus. It would be a shame to mess up baby Jesus on my first try, don't ya think?

I stumbled upon this great blogger and her awesome walkthrough on the basics of painting peg dolls while doing my research.  I knew nothing of how to get started with these little pegs, so a big thanks goes out to her lovely tutorial on how to get started with halloween peg dolls.

I ordered my wooden peg dolls from Hobby Lobby online. I used the 2 5/16 inch" Birch Man peg for these. They also sell a smaller 1 11/16" Birch Boy which I ordered to use for baby Jesus. 

As you can see Ella loves them. They're just the perfect size for her tiny hands.

This little guy is my favorite. His pointy little teeth and cape, so cute. Very Twilight-esque if you ask me. Hm, Twilight themed pegs....I could be onto something. 

The great thing about pegs are that you can decide how much detail you want to add to them. I added some stitches to Frankenstein and a drip of blood to Mr. Vampire. Feel free to go all out or keep them simple and plain. This being my first time, I kept them fairly simple.

I used regular old cheap Folk Art craft paints. After everything was good and dry (I let them dry overnight after they were all finished) I sealed them with 3 coats of Modge Podge Hardcoat. I wanted then to stand up to the heavy wear and tear of 2.5 year olds.

These have opened a door wide open! I've already had about 30 ideas for other peg dolls, and have started working on Ella's nativity. I will warn you, they can be a little time consuming depending on your level of perfectionism, but the end product is SO worth it!

felt food making-bacon

Its been a while since I've shared another of the items in Ella's felt food collection, but since we had bacon wrapped jalapenos poppers (with jalapenos from our garden) last night, I thought it was appropriate to share the felt version.

It was a very simple one to make. Two 6 inch dark red pieces of felt with curvy sides sewn together and two white wavy stripes of felt sewn on top. Voila! Bacon without all the calories!

To see more felt food click below:

Strawberries 

Watermelon

Peel-able Banana

Waffles & Pancakes

30 before thirty

I didn't mention it but my birthday was a couple weeks back and I turned 27. Ugh, just the sound of it bothered me in the months leading up to the actual day. This was the first year that getting older really freaked me out. 27 isn't exactly old I guess, but it sure feels like you're on your way and thats the part I loathe. You can't say you're in your early 20's or even mid 20's anymore. You're officially in your late 20's and well...in my book that's old.

So I got all nostalgic and started thinking about my life. The things I have accomplished in my 27 years so far and the things I want to accomplish in the future. After thinking long and hard (oh who am I kidding, it was more like wallowing in my "oldness") I came up with a list of 30 things I'd like to do/accomplish/have before I turn THIRTY years old. So here it is:

30 BEFORE THIRTY 

1. Run a 5k

2. Run a 10k

3. Have another baby

4. Pay it forward

5. Give blood

6. Get another tattoo

7. Reach my "ideal" medical weight

8. Re-connect with someone from my past

9. Master cooking classic Italian recipes

10. Read some classic novels

11. Make homemade pasta from scratch

12. Own something from Tiffany's

13. Research/make a family tree

14. Go on an overnight vacation with just Travis

15. Go on a missions trip

16. Family trip to the beach

17. Get/raise chickens

18. Take a spin class

19. Disneyland

20. Try a new food I've never had before

21. Throw someone a surprise party

22. Fill a journal

23. Get my colors done

24. Organize the whole house

25. Sew with leather

26. Watch the sunrise

27. Family portraits

28. ???

29. ???

30. ???

I know I'm missing a few but I figured that in the next 3 years something else is bound to come up and I'll add it to the list then. I'll check in along the way and keep you updated as I check things off of my list. And I encourage you all to think about some of the things that you'd like to do before you turn 25, 30, 35, 40...whatever your next birthday milestone is. I've made a button to share with you all, so grab it, use it, link up and join in on the fun!

<center> <a title="Abstract Grace" href="http://abstractgrace.blogspot.com/2012/08/30-before-thirty.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/8159/30button.jpg"/></a></center>

hand stamped jam knives

I shared on Monday about my jam making adventure. I also left you with a preview of a small project I did as an accompaniment to my gifting jars of peach jam to friends and family. Im sure we've all seen the hammered flat spoons with stamped lettering, right? Here's another spin on silverware stamping, butter/jam knives.

I made a stop by the thrift store and picked up a variety of spreader knives for $.10 each. Then using the metal stamping kit I already had I picked a phrase and steadied my hand. One good whack of the hammer on the end of the stamp was all it took. The hardest part is lining up the letters straight and getting a good impression on the silverware. Hit it too hard and you'll double up the letter, too soft and you wont get the full letter stamped into the knife.

After the knives were stamped I used a permanent sharpie and filled the letters in. Then I used a magic eraser to wipe off the excess sharpie, leaving the letters darkened. Then to make sure the knife is food safe I ran them through the dishwasher. Easy peasy!

Don't they make the most darling accessory? And they were easy! I'm going to help a friend stamp names into spoons as favors for the kiddos at her daughters ice cream themed 3rd birthday party. How cute is that idea?!

homemade peach jam

I may have a new hobby. Yes, another to add to the list of 1,345,215 things that I enjoy doing. Canning! Travis and I ventured into canning when we were trying to make his barbecue sauce shelf stable. So we packed the mason jars full of sauce and boiled them, then sat back and listened to the "ping, ping, ping" and they self sealed. So gratifying to hear that little sound.

My sister in law recently bought a new house in the area and was lucky enough that the property came with 3 mature fruit trees, two apricot and one peach. We feasted on apricots (one of my favorites) prior to out adventures in canning, otherwise i'd be slathering apricot jam on every food item at every meal. 

Don't get me wrong, when we visited the new place a few weeks later we were lucky enough to pull about 20lbs of beautifully ripe peaches from her tree. She didn't want them and sent them home with us. I immediately knew I wanted to try my hand at making peach jam and canning it, and so I did!

We followed the directions on the back of the Sure Jell pectin package. "If its not broke don't fix it" was our first time jam making motto. And it turned out SO GOOD!!! I made a whopping 21 jars of jam and our tiny family of three has already gone through almost three jars. 

I also had to have labels for the jars. Im kinda obsessed with sticker paper and making custom tags and labels and stuff. It makes it look so much more official. I came across this amazing site called the jam labelizer where you can customize different designs and print them. Super easy, super cute. I named my jam after the little one-of course. 

I also DIY'ed a little something extra to go with the jam I gave to a few friends. There's a sneak peak below, but I'll share more about that later this week. Now don't be intimidated, go make some jam!

yo gabba gabba thank you

Ella's Yo Gabba Gabba 2nd birthday party was a huge success! I'll share pics of the party soon, but until then I wanted to share the "thank you" card that I designed for all her guests. 

I really enjoy designing invites and thank you's. Here is a thank you I designed recently for a friends little boy. Can you guess the theme of his 2nd birthday party...yep, Sesame Street!

Hope you're all having a great week!

xo,

Laura

4th of july pinwheel tutorial

Today I'm sharing a quick and easy tutorial for making 4th of July decorations. Pinwheels are fun, simple to make, require basic supplies, and are perfect for last minute procrastinators, ahem...like myself. I made two sizes of pinwheels, a 12 inch and a 6 inch. Both are fun, but the large ones really make an impact. I chose not to put stakes on mine, but if you'd like to line your driveway or use them as festive cake toppers just tape a bbq skewer onto the back. 

Happy decorating!