Baseballs and dangling eggs.....

     This time next week we will have just finished our 1st baseball game of the season. This is my most favorite time of the year! I love watching my little boys play baseball. Big C absolutely LOVES it, and Little C, well it's growing on him. Big C is so competitive on that field. He's one of those kids who can think quick about the play that needs to be made and get it done. He's never been one of those who have played with grass in the outfield or kicked the dirt. He listens to instructions and does as he's told and as he's been coached. He's always had his head in the game and his eye on the ball. What he lacks in strength he makes up for in agility and speed of the play. His strength is his focus. He never loses sight of the ball and where its going. He's quick on his feet and quick on the play. But every now and then he needs a little refocusing. He'll get a little lazy and not pull the bat back as far as he needs to and good ol Momma will have to yell "bat back"!! Gotta get that bat back so his timing will be right and he can smack that ball. I told him to tell himself "bat back" every time he walks up to the plate.Mr. Loud told him, " Son, you might as well do what Momma tells you to do because she will be at every game you ever play in for the rest of your life yelling, so might as well make it easier on yourself". And that's why I love Mr. Loud, he see's things my way. He supports me, just like we support our boys. We all need support and refocusing from time to time.....someone yelling "bat back!" so we can get our timing right and make that hit. We know our strengths and think we are playing hard but every now and then we get a little lazy and our timing is off. Maybe off with our spouse, our kids, our coworkers, our projects. Every now and then it's nice to hear "Momma" hollering at us from the stands of life. From time to time we all need to hear "bat back"! I know I do. I think that might be my next crafting project....a baseball that says just that....."BAT BACK!"......a little reminder is a good thing!


     This past weekend I was in a full blown crafting frenzy! My bff Cathy has an Etsy site and I've been coming up with inspirations for her to make and put in her Etsy store. Your welcome Cathy!! The link to her store is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/cathyBs?ref=shop_sugg. So I found these cute painted baseball door hangers. I had Mr. Loud cut her a circle to see how they would look hanging on the door. The first one was 23 inches. WAAAY too big, so I thought. Soooo as not to be wasteful I decided to paint this one myself for my own front door! Meanwhile, Mr. Loud cut her 8 more 18inch circles so she could get started on her new project. 

1st I painted it white, 2 coats using craft paint and a sponge brush. Mine will be hanging between my door and a glass door so it will not be exposed to the outside elements. If hanging on an exterior door then you will need outside acrylic paint or some other exterior paint.( Notice I had this laying on my washing machine to dry. This is the one place I knew the boys would not go near since they had no desire what so ever to learn about laundry!)

After letting it dry I outlined it in a thin little line/dot pattern.....just to define the shape a little. 

Next I added some grayish shadowing to it to give it a little 3 dimensional ball shape.

                                      

Next I added the stitching. I just took a deep breath and made the red lines. Thank goodness they turned out even! Then I had to go look at the baseball and check the direction of the stitches. 

Stitches finished!

It actually looks like a baseball! (Yes, I was surprised! and ignore the messy shelf behind the ball!)

I even shadowed under my stitches for a little extra dimension. 

I noticed my crafting partner was not right under my feet as she usually does when I'm in my crafting area, so I went looking for her and this is what I found.....absolutely pathetic isn't it?! This is her chair in our computer room. Notice the edge of the chair? This is why I'm considering declawing her....but in the meantime I trimmed her nails....better, but she still likes to scratch this chair!

Ok....back to the project. Next I printed out a font that I liked. I used TEAM JORDAN so it would represent both boys.....with 2 playing we go with the TEAM approach. When Big C first started playing me and Mr. Loud were the coaches. My family had t-shirts that had TEAM C on the back...now that there are 2 it transformed into TEAM JORDAN.....cause that's how we roll around here.....total support in everything each other does! Gosh I love my family!!

Then I taped it down using painter's tape. I used an exacto knife and cut the letters out right on top of the wood. It didn't mess up a bit of the paint. 

Then I painted right over my stencil 1st with gray paint, and followed by black paint, then carefully removed the stencil.

Since I don't know the boys team colors yet I added the red bow. Mr. Loud and Big C both had something smart to say about how boys don't have bows on their baseballs....soooo....since it got a rise out of them I think it'll stay on there for a couple more days till I find out team colors. Cause that's how I roll.....it's just me in a sea of testosterone.....throw Momma a bow every now and then! But it came out pretty cute indeed. It will hang out on my door throughout baseball season.

I made this little cute letter complete with paper flowers and a stamped on "BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD" for my soon to be 20 year old step-daughter. She's in college and making that transition into adulthood beautifully. 

I made this pretty letter for my recently turned 18 year old step-daughter. She'll be graduating in a couple of months and heading to college in the fall.  She has grown into such a smart and responsible young lady. I am extremely proud of both of them. I made these letters for their brother's to take to them when they take them out to eat soon. It's hard to make a dinner date with busy young ladies!

One of my friends birthdays was on St. Patrick's Day. I told her I will not buy one single gift for friends this year. Every gift will be hand made! She laughed and said no way will I keep that up! So for her birthday I made her a monogrammed t-shirt with clover fabric. I cut the W out using curlz font and double layered the fabric, ironed it on, and sewed around the edges on my machine. I left the edges raw and when I washed it they frayed and puffed up. I added 4 leaf clovers on both sides and ta-da!! One super cute and homemade gift for a special friend! She couldn't buy that in any store....which I reminded her of....and she loved it! Now that's a thoughtful gift. Can't wait till another friend has a birthday....this is going to be fun!

Now being Easter I couldn't let it go by without having an Easter Egg wreath up! Soooo I saw a super cute wreath on Pinterest and went to Wal-Mart, bought $8 worth of iridescent eggs, found an old wire wreath shape, got the trusty glue gun heated up and went to work! I arranged them all going the same direction in 2 layers and added a 3 layer between the 2 bottom rings. I then poked grass between the spaces to fill in the gaps. I added a simple little bow hook and ta-da....a cute Easter Egg wreath....or so I thought.....and then we left home and went to baseball practice. 

As we are driving up our driveway....this is what I see! Lesson learned here: you need more surface area to glue the eggs to...the thin pieces of wreath are not enough!!! Mr. Loud was trying not to laugh too much because I'm fairly certain I said every dirty word I knew when I saw my wreath I had made only 3 short hours before with eggs dangling !!!

Soooo.....after I cleaned all of the old hot glue off of those $8 worth of eggs I cut some cardboard into a circle and reglued them on. Now this wreath is hanging on my office door and not one egg has fallen off....if you don't count that one I knocked off when I hung it up! (But thanks to keeping a glue gun in my office that was quickly fixed!) 

And this is the other one I made for my front door. It's lacking the grass, but the bright colors make up for it. Plus my house sits way off of the road so you can't really tell anyway! ;-)

Oh...and look who showed up today.....Hank Hops Alot! He comes to see us every year 2 weeks before Easter to help teach the boys about the true meaning of Easter. He hops around every night and he brings a new card each morning for the boys to read after they find him. They have been asking about him for a month! Little C found him today and was jumping up and down yelling "I FOUND HANK"!!! How cute is that?! I'm loving their pure and unquestioned faith in Hank returning every year. As Hebrews 11:1 reads: Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. God definitely can move us through the actions of children. Hoppy Easter everyone! 

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