I know how it feels when a holiday creeps up on us and you realize you’re suddenly out of time to get everything done you wanted to! That’s why I rounded up this blog post for you, in case you’re in a similar boat.
Here are a handful of items I’m putting in the kid’s baskets this year along with some I’ve done in the past! Hope it helps and makes for a meaningful Easter for you and your kids this holiday!
I have lots more saved in my Amazon list you can check out here for boys and girls for all ages. Hope it helps and gives you some more fun and simple ideas!
Hope you and your family have a sweet and meaningful Easter together.
Thanks for being here friend.
(Click on each link to shop the items on Amazon, these are affiliate links which just means if you happen to purchase, I get a small percentage at no extra cost to you! It’s like a little thank you for putting in the work to bring you something easy and pretty!)
]]>I get asked every now and then where I get our frames to use for my art or pictures in our home. While there are many options out there I know it can be overwhelming to choose and sometimes you just need a guide to just tell you exactly what to do. So that’s what this post is for.
I know not everyone is familiar with frames and how to choose them, especially when you’re not in the art or interior world. So this post is to help give you a general understanding of framing and how it can be really simple. I’ll share some tips to begin and then share some of my favorite places to buy frames below. My hope is that this encourages you to just go for it! Hang that frame and piece of art or photo you’ve been putting off for years so you can make your home feel more creative and beautiful. Because what we surround ourselves with matters and there’s no easier way to elevate your home's surroundings with framed art and photos from your life’s story.
Framing your favorite art pieces or photos can instantly add beauty and elevate the whole look, easily making them a focal point for your home. But if you're new to framing, the world of frame sizes and styles can sometimes be a bit overwhelming…I’ve been there. I’m that person that put off hanging things on our walls for YEARS because I never felt confident in this area. But you know what changed that for me? Just DOING IT! Like just hang the picture already and you’ll feel instantly more capable of your ability or worst case, you’ll have a reason to grow and get better at it!
Artwork in this photo is Mama No. 4 Art Print
Here’s the gist of framing to get started:
When you’re shopping at your local home decor store such as (Target, Home Goods, Ikea, etc.) you’ll see that the majority of the frames come in standard sizes to fit common artwork and photo dimensions. Some popular frame sizes include 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 inches. These are the sizes I offer with my artwork dimensions (with the possibility of adding new smaller sizes this year!) and keeps it pretty simple to be able to grab art you love in my shop and find a frame that will easily fit it.
It’s good to note that the frame size is not based on the full frame size, but is just based on the inside of the frame dimensions, where the art or photo will be placed. So when choosing a frame, match the size to your artwork or photo to the size that the frame says. For example if you have an 8x10 art print then an 8x10 frame is what you will want to get.
If your piece is an unusual size, you can often find a frame with a mat that will fit your artwork into a standard frame size. (More on understanding matting below).
Remember, framing is a personal choice, so don't be afraid to get creative and choose a frame that complements your art and style.
You’ve probably seen that some frames come with a mat inside. A mat is a thick paper or cardboard border (usually white) that surrounds the artwork within the frame. For me personally, I love matted frames because I think it adds more focus on the picture or artwork inside and gives it more of an elevated look.
When you’re looking at frames with mats, you’ll usually see that they mention two different sizes. This is to give you an idea of the frame size with the mat and without the mat. For example, with a mat insert the opening would be 8x10 and without the mat in the same frame the size would be 16x20.
Mats can add a touch of elegance to your framed piece and provide several practical benefits for example:
Enhanced Presentation: Mats create a visual buffer between the artwork and the frame, drawing the viewer's eye to the art itself. They can help highlight the colors and details of your piece, making it appear more professional and polished.
Protection: Mats help keep your artwork away from the glass or acrylic sheet, reducing the risk of damage from moisture or sticking. They also provide some space for air circulation, which can be beneficial for certain types of art, such as watercolors.
Customization: Mats allow you to adjust the size of the opening, providing a border around your art that suits your style and the overall look you want to achieve. Like I said above if you have an unusual sized piece of art or photo, a mat can help customize your piece to the frame. In my opinion, a mat no smaller than 1.5 inches around is perfect.
All that being said, using a mat is not always necessary. Some artwork, such as hand drawn art, photographs or bold pieces, can look great without a mat, allowing the art to fill the frame entirely to create a more impactful presence on the wall. Experimenting with different framing options can help you find the perfect look you’re wanting for your space.
While most of the frames I choose are with a mat, I also have framed artwork that has no mat because I liked how the piece filled the whole frame. This is completely up to your preference and what you love. Always go with your gut and what YOU love…it’s your home after all!
Photos in this picture are from my 'Birth Flowers Collection'
There are many different ways to display frames in your home and I believe that adding these to your home however many, will instantly and easily add more life and beauty to your home. I wrote this post to help give you more ideas on how to bring cheap and meaningful art around your home and this post shares more ways you can add creativity to your home too.
Art pieces in this photo can be found in my 'Mother's Love' Collection.
Now that you’re all set on how to find and hang frames in your home here are some of the places I get frames the most.
Target:
Amazon:
White Frame with or without mat
Black Frame with or without mat
Wood Frame with our without mat
Framebridge:
This company makes it super easy for you to frame your favorite pieces and brings a super high quality frame to preserve your most loved pieces. Just upload your image, choose a frame and size and they’ll assemble and ship it straight to you. A perfect place for gift ideas or just to take the overwhelm and guesswork out of the picture for you. I especially love that they offer gallery frame bundles to make it even easier to get a bundle of frames that are all meant to be placed together.
Antique Fluted Gold Frame with mat
I hope this was helpful for you and not only inspired you but encourages you to start hanging art and photos up in your home to make your space more creative, beautiful and meaningful. Join my email community below to never miss a post and get updates on new artwork coming to the shop, behind the scenes news, and exclusive freebies and deals.
(p.s. yes, some of these links are affiliate links meaning if you happen to make a purchase from it I get a small percentage at no extra cost to you! It's like a little reward for putting in the work to make it easier for the both of us)
That's why I love hanging their art all over our home. I know not every piece that comes to life through is going to get its own shrine, but sifting through the ones where it inspired me and stood out in a unique way are the ones I’ve chosen to display.
I know it may be hard to think of how to put your kids art up in ways that is tastefully done, when on the surface it may looks like chicken scratch or blobs of a mess, but this post is to help inspire you and give you ideas on how you can use your kids artwork to add beauty to your home in a way that only this can bring. So I’m sharing 5 easy ideas where you can display your kids art among your home so it will fit in seamlessly with your decor and within your story.
Have a blank wall that needs some life put back into it? Then your kid’s art is the perfect antidote for that. Our hallway in our home is small, but I knew I wanted to give something special to this space, so I grabbed various sized frames and a pile of their works that I have loved over the years and started adding to it. And now this spot is one of my favorites. One tip on making a gallery wall for your kids art is to get frames that are all the same color or within the same tone like all wood frames or a mix of light wood, white and gold frames so the frame doesn’t take away from the art itself. If you add too many colors to frames and have lots of colorful pieces going on it can create visual chaos, in my opinion, where you don’t really know where to look, making it feel more like a mess than a beautiful display.
We have a gallery wall of pictures in our bedroom mixed with family photos, love notes, my art and the kids' art. I chose a drawing my daughter Sage made that fit visually within the overall display so it was a perfect addition to the whole story that I wanted to tell through the gallery. If you already have a gallery wall in your home maybe try adding one or two pieces of your kids art that would work well within the mixture of photos you have. Another tip here is to use only black and white photos and use your kids' art within the gallery wall to add in pops of color. This naturally gives the art its own time to shine while still surrounded by a handful of meaningful pieces.
I chose two places to frame my kids' art in our home that are subtle but add fun whenever they’re seen. One in their bathroom above the toilet and the other in small pockets on our bookshelves. My kids are constantly drawing and painting on all sorts of sizes and textures of paper we have around the house which also gives them a little more character. So when adding these to the bathroom or the bookshelf it also added fun in a simple way to those spaces too.
I have a wall right next to my desk of all the creations they’ve given me as they’ve made visits when I’m painting in my studio. Looking at this not only inspires my own creativity but also gives me so much joy. This one is so simple as I just chose to tape each piece up on the wall, layering them as I added to it over the years. And they love looking at it each time they come in to greet me here too.
I hung up a piece of jute and nailed it to the wall in my oldest kids room years ago and clothespinned art to the string as they created something new. This display still hangs in their room today and we’ve switched out some things but mostly have kept a lot of the doodles and artwork they’ve made over the years there. I love that it not only adds color to the room, but also gives an artistic and creative feel to their room too. This idea is so simple you can start doing this today!
So if you have piles of your kids artwork laying around that you don’t know what to do with, give yourself 5 or 10 minutes to sift through them and just see what pops out to you. Is there one that has colors you love, or one that looks like an abstract image of something they’ve dreamt up, or their own depiction of a family portrait, or maybe words they’ve written out that are adorable to look at? Don’t overthink it, just pick it up and see if it sticks out to you or not, if it does set it aside as one you can frame or display. Once you’ve chosen one or a few, look around your home and find a blank wall, an empty shelf, or a small pocket that doesn’t get much attention to see how you can add their artwork there.
I guarantee this will not only create more beauty and fun to your home, but your kids will be so proud to see their work on display for all the world (or all of the people within your home) to see!
Want more inspiration and tips like this sent to your inbox so you never miss a post? Sign up for my email letter here and join the community! I’d love to see you there.
Thanks for being here, friend!
Xo, Coley
]]>Recently I shared some creative ideas to decorate your home for Valentine’s Day in simple and subtle ways and one of the ideas was to display handmade heart art by your kiddos. So today, I’m giving you a simple and easy DIY you can create with them to make for your home this season. The best part is that it’s used with materials you probably already have handy and can take as little as 5 minutes to create! This project is also meant to be one that will make a meaningful piece as you create it together, made with markings and doodles from the hands that you love most in this world that you can cherish for years to come.
So grab these materials below, put it down on the calendar, and grab some special treats to enjoy as you create something beautiful together.
-Card stock paper or watercolor paper or regular printer paper
-Markers, colored pencils, watercolor paint (optional)
-Paint brushes & water (if you decided to use paints)
Each person chooses one color they want to draw or paint their hearts with. This color can be the representation of the person within the picture as you create.
Tip: Since this is a piece you’re creating to frame and put up in your home, I recommend pulling out a handful of colors that you want in the picture so it can match and fit in beautifully with the rest of the decor in your home. For me I chose neutrals, tans, brown, and light pinks here so it would still fit beautifully within the decor of our living room. This is totally optional too, so feel free to choose whatever colors mean something to you!
Once each person has chosen a color, take turns drawing hearts all over the page. They can be big & bold, subtle or patterned, small and delicate, or all of the above. Let each person create in their own unique way. Once they draw their heart on the page, pass it to the next person. This makes it extra fun to watch the art come alive as you are all sitting there creating together.
Tip: Give each person a time limit to create as much as they can within the time you give. I recommend giving 15-30 seconds each to keep it going and then pass it on to the next person.
Once you have filled the page to your heart's content (no pun intended) take a new type of medium you want to create with. For example if you made your hearts with markers before, now choose a colored pencil in a different color to create this next step with. Go around filling in the hearts with a new medium. Maybe you fill some with dots or stripes or fill it in completely with a different color than the outlines heart. Get creative with it and make it unique to your family's abilities and creativity.
Tip: Use this time to make it more intentional. As you’re coloring in your hearts, think of a question you all can answer like “How do you feel loved the most in our family”, or “What do you think love means” or “what was one way you felt loved today”. You could also go around just sharing a memory of when you felt loved the most. When we use moments like this with more intention it naturally solidifies a memory in your brain that you and your kids will be able to remember and look back on together.
Once your piece is finished and you love how it turned out, hang it up or display it within the rest of your home decor like we did here. I find that when I hang my kids' art pieces in our home it not only makes them proud to see their finished work up for everyone to see, but also creates confidence in them and instills a sense that their creativity is celebrated and adored.
I hope you love creating this project together as much as we did. And if you want more creative tips and ideas for bringing creativity, art projects, and building connections within your home then join my email list here where I send out weekly updates on all of this and more!
Tell me in the comments if you ended up doing this together and how you liked it. And tag me on instagram so I can see your finished project, I’d love to see!
Thanks so much for being here, friend!
Xo, Coley
]]>I made these mini Valentine’s Cards for my kid’s classmates a couple years ago and I've loved seeing so many of you downloading and using them too. When I first created them I only had mini cards in mind, but after using our creative ideas a little more, my kids helped me come up with more ways they can be fun and useful for the holiday.
So here are 5 ideas (apart from using them in your kids classes) on how you can use these cards for yourself or your kids this year.
And yes! You can download them inside here for FREE! Enjoy:
Use them for a birthday, shower, or a just because gift. Dodge the whole gift wrap ensemble and just punch a hole at the top of one of the cards, tie a pretty ribbon through to wrap around your gift for the simplest gift wrapping ever.
Cut out the illustrations you like most and tape them onto string or jute to make a unique and cute decorative garland for your Valentine’s day table or use them for a birthday or baby shower. I used the hearts here to make a sweet heart garland I hung above our table for Valentine’s Day morning.
Choose your favorite ones to cut out and simply tape them on the back of a toothpick or wooden skewer to stick into the top of a cake for a party or on pancakes for a holiday breakfast! A simple touch like this can make the whole celebration go a long way.
Cut out the animal illustrations or one of the hearts and glue it onto folded card stock. Color it in with your favorite pencils or markers and add your own hand drawn touches around the card for a personal feel. A perfect way to make something so simple have more meaning for a loved one, teacher, or friend.
And who doesn’t love stickers, right!?! Print these pages out on sticker paper and turn them into the cutest stickers for your kids to use or gift to their friends on Valentine’s day.
I hope you have fun with these and make them in your own special way. You can join the Insider’s Collection here (my freebie vault/library) and start creating with them today!
Thanks for being here, friend!
xo, Coley
]]>Every time a new season or holiday comes around I find myelsf wanting to switch things up in our home again. Not because I'm discontent with what we have, but because I'm wanting to use my creativity in a fresh new way and our home is one of the first places I go to to start using that muscle again.
I know as a busy mama myself, it's not always possible to do a full on revamp of your living room for each season like many of us may see or feel intimidated by while scrolling Instagram. So I came up with 10 easy ways to decorate for Valentine's day that are simple, affordable, and aren't cheesy. I think they'll come in handy for when you want to be creative, celebrate, or decorate a room. I hope they inspire you to do one of these in your own home to add a touch of beauty and creativity to your world this season. Enjoy!
Fresh flowers is an instant way to add beauty to any space, but if you don’t wanna go for real having some faux ones to change every season is the next best thing. I have a handful of different plants I switch out around the house like a small arrangement on our coffee table, on our kitchen table and our living room mantle. Putting in some soft pink ones helps bring a touch of the holiday into your home without overtly saying “valentine’s day.”
I love having a designated frame for swapping out art every season to make our home feel new and fresh. We have this print on our mantle right now, which gives a subtle nod to the holiday, but can also be left up all year round. This print would add a pretty pop of color and this one can give you all the Valentine’s feels.
Another simple and meaningful way is to have your kids paint or draw hearts all over a paper and frame it! Make this a fun craft activity one morning to do together while you sip a special drink and eat some cookies. The piece of art will not only be sweet to look at but will give you a special memory that you connected over too.
I’m a sucker for a cute coffee mug and it’s even more fun when I get to pull out our festive mugs for the holidays. These ones are especially cute for the season but also I’d love using these all year round too. They'd also make for a cute gift to a friend or loved one.
I love adding small touches like this in the places that get the most use, like in the kids bathrooms or the kitchen. Even something so simple like just adding a touch of pink or red can bring creativity to the room.
Another thing I’m a total sucker for are candles! I think they bring a sense of comfort and warmth to the home in an effortless way. Lighting them in the evenings as we’re getting ready for dinner has been a nightly ritual I love doing. Swapping out your candles for a fresh vanilla or rosemary scent brings those subtle Valentines feelings too.
A few years ago I grabbed some pink plastic plates from Target and we have these in two colors now because they are SO EASY (and cheap!) for having a big family. I love bringing out the pink ones on Valentine’s morning as we have a fun breakfast together and exchange love notes.
This not only makes for a cute decoration piece but also gives an excuse to add a special treat into your little one’s lunches every now and then. We have a jar full of pink and red kisses in our kitchen and the kids love being surprised when they get to find them inside their lunchbox at school!
I made this one with the kids a couple years ago and they love recreating it. You can also grab some paper and cut out heart shapes and have your kids paint and color all over them and hang it in your entry way, above a mirror or over your mantle for a sweet, meaningful piece. Pro Tip: Let the kids color them in colors that match your home decor like neutrals or a few colors that blend well together so that it’s not an eyesore to look at when you hang it up. Win-win for you and them!
While I love candles in the evening, I’m not burning them around the clock so I love a good blend of oils to diffuse during the day to keep things feeling fresh. My go to scents during this time of year are lavender, vanilla, and orange. Yum!
I hope these gave you some fun ideas to start around your home even if you only choose just one! And if you’re looking for some easy Valentine’s crafts to do with your kiddos (or for yourself) you can access my FREE library of printable goodies I’ve created over the years for you to enjoy. Free Valentine’s cards, mini cards, coloring pages and more are all waiting inside for you to print at home and create with today!
Thanks for being here friend,
Coley
]]>The gift of beauty.
The gift of inspiration.
The gift of joy.
And more than anything I think having art hung in your home spurs on the gift of creativity in a way that nothing else does.
I’m often thinking of ways how I can give gifts that will last longer and create something more meaningful in one's life. And I believe giving the gift of art can do just that.
The best part about these prints I’ve created and rounded up for you here is that they can’t be boxed into only being used for Valentine’s day alone. Use them on a mantle all year round, place one in a gallery wall surrounded by pictures from your life’s story, or hang it in your child’s room for an added touch of beauty and whimsy.
I hope you find something special you love through these and that it inspires you to finally put something beautiful on that blank wall you’ve been staring at for too long. (I also have a little gift for you at the bottom of this post if you happen to find one you love 😉)
I hand lettered this simple print after the lyrics from one of my favorite musicians, John Mayer. We have this print sitting on our mantle next to our family photos and it reminds me that the gift of love isn’t just about feelings, it’s more about the actions we take to show someone we love them. An all time favorite for it’s simple, yet profound message.
I love picturing this print hung up in a child’s room reminding them of the love they are surrounded with. Frame this next to a family photo and hang side by side for the sweetest touch.
Flowers on Valentine's day that will never die!?! Yes please! This would make a sweet gift for a galentine, sister, mom, or mother in law. Pair it with some chocolate and you'll be an instant favorite!
Another print I love to see in a baby nursery or little one’s room. It’s simple and sweet and has all the precious details they’ll adore as they grow.
I painted this during the fall, but I love how the rich colors remind me of this time of year too. Grab this in a larger print size and pop it into a matted frame then set it in the background with your favorite black and white photos layered next to it. This will give a touch of beautiful color among your home decor and beauty that will last through the year.
I painted this one for my girls room and it’s been a favorite of mine ever since. Each flower represents each of my kids with the colors and delicacy of it representing how I feel about motherhood. It’s a beauty for all year round and is an easy way to add life to any space.
I still stare at this print in adoration, thinking of the meaning it brings to me. A moment in time that I never want to forget as a mama, holding my little ones hands, having them reach for me as they grow. I hope this one brings meaning to your story as well in a way that’s personal to you. Choose this in a smaller size and write a love note to your little one on the back of it, or gift it to your significant other with a love note telling them how much you love parenting alongside them. A simple piece of art you can gift that will turn into a cherished heirloom overtime.
This is a phrase my parents would say to us all growing up and I knew I had to hand-lettered it and put it into a collection someday to be remembered. Now it's here for you to have and use within your own story too. Frame it for your partner or your kids this Valentine’s day for a meaningful gift they’ll delight in.
If you’ve read this far and enjoyed this post, thank you! As a little bonus and gift just for you, if you found a print you liked or another throughout the shop use this code at checkout for 10% off ( VDAYBLOGPRINT ). A little way to say happy Valentine’s day and thanks for being here, friend.
Want more behind the scenes deals and stories from me on how to be more creative in your home and in your life? Pop your email in below and join the community where I share really fun and beautiful things with you every week!
xo, Coley
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In the last post I shared how I’ve collected some things over the years that I’ve used over and over again for my kids' parties--like cake stands, a drop cloth for the table, balloon air pump (time and life saver!) and some dishes for snacks. Once I have a color palette figured out I start browsing Amazon and Target for other decor pieces to go with the theme. I like to keep it simple and sometimes use out of the box ideas to pull the theme together, like I did here in the color of flowers or the star garlands.
The great thing about having older kids now is they love to help out putting everything together so it really does become a whole family activity. Shane and Dash blew up all the balloons and the older girls tied the balloon garland together that was hanging above the table. Sage and I painted a moon and some glittery planets that stuck around the balloons too to give it the whole outer space look and feel.
Here’s everything we used for this party:
Here's the full list on Amazon with everything we bought and used.
I grabbed some simple white and purple flowers from the grocery store for the little jars of flowers around the table. And then the morning of the party, my dear friend Jenna who is the floral designer of Milk and Honey Florals gave us the gorgeous bouquets that were left over from an event she did earlier. I loved how perfectly they fit in--she’s so talented!
(Btw, I always think adding flowers to anything makes it that much more beautiful and elevated, in my humble opinion.)
I also drew up some illustrations of planets and printed them off to stick in the flower bouquets to tie the whole theme together and I love how it all turned out!
Something I love to do for my kid’s parties is have a simple activity to do. I think it keeps the flow of the party going and is helpful to entertain kids as we’re together. We usually will do one game or activity, sing happy birthday and open presents and that’s enough to keep the flow going. Since Sage loves anything to do with art and crafts, we decided to have some crafts for the kids to do to go along with the theme and these were so fun to see each kid use their creativity in different ways with some simple supplies.
For the crafts we made paper rockets made out of, yes, toilet paper rolls, construction paper, glitter and tape. (I’m telling ya, these TP rolls are some of my kids’ favorite things to get creative with. Recycling at it’s best!) Then we made “moon rocks” with glitter and air dry clay and they all turned out so cute! We used jars for them to collect their moon rocks in and decorated the outside with glow in the dark stars and took home with them as a keepsake.
I’ll share a tutorial soon on how we made these crafts, but they don’t require much and are seriously so simple that anyone can do them.
Here's some of the supplies for the crafts we used here and I have them linked in the amazon list here:
One thing that I also do with each kid’s birthday party is design their own birthday party invitations to match the theme it goes with. I love this process too because it also pushes me to use my love for design and making art for something meaningful for my kids. And I love that they’ll have these as keepsakes to look back on growing up.
Making all of these parties over the years has me dreaming of putting together some kind of party shop with all the invitations and themes we’ve made over the years so you can have a way to easily use them too . I’m not sure exactly what it would look like yet. Is this something you’d like? if you have any ideas along those lines, I’m all ears so let me know in the comments!
Tell me below what you thought of this party below and join my email list for more behind the scenes inspiration so you never miss a post!
Thanks for being here friend,
Coley
]]>So to make it a bit easier for you to find an easy craft to do for Valentine's day this year, I decided to round up the ones that we’ve loved most so you and your kids can create something beautiful together.
Head to each link for the full tutorial. And stay tuned for the next one coming soon!
Make this simple and cute mini canvas with your kiddos special artwork on it to give as a gift or hangup. See full tutorial.
This one is so fun to make for gifting and making it personal for friends. See full tutorial.
It’s no secret that we are big fans of Disney in our home. I grew up in Orange County and I had the privilege of frequent trips to Disneyland as a part of my childhood. I certainly never imagined when I moved to Arizona to marry Shane that visiting the park would continue to be a part of our life, but when my mom landed her dream job there a few years ago it was inevitable that we kept this childhood tradition of mine alive as our kids grew up. We’ve been going with our kids since our oldest was one, which is hard to believe we’ve been doing this for a decade now!
I fully realize how much of a gift it is that we get to do this with our family and I don’t take that for granted one bit. I also know how much joy and beauty and life getting to experience a day at Disneyland can bring to your world, especially as you experience it through the eyes of your kids. There’s nothing quite like it.
As I’ve shared about our trips here and there on Instagram it never fails that I get asked how we do it, what our favorite things to do there are, and what makes being at Disneyland for a day with little ones smooth-ish. While I won’t be turning this space into a Disney blog (sorry!) this is a big part of our life that people have been well interested in and I’m not opposed to talking about Disneyland any chance I can! :)
So I pulled together our top favorite things to do and some things we’ve done as our family has grown to hopefully help you think creatively if ever you decide to take your family too--which I highly recommend you do!
There is certainly more to share since we also go into California Adventure Park too (another theme park across from Disneyland) which I can share in another post, but here are the top things we came up with for now. I hope this helps you next time you go or your first time experiencing it so you can make the most out of your time together.
(Tired eyes and legs taken right after finishing up our last ride on Space Mountain)
I may update this post as I think of new things! Leave a comment and ask me any more questions you have and I could write up a new post for more ways to be creative on doing Disney with your family.
I hope this brought lots of ideas for you to do and make it even just a bit more fun and smooth for you to spend a day at the happiest place on Earth!
So when I asked her what she wanted to do for her 8th celebration I never saw this one coming–especially since she’s never shown interest in anything of this category... until now.
Outer space party is what she requested, so outer space is what she’ll get! :)
Follow my Pinterest board to see how I'm saving inspiration for the party.
If you’ve been here a while you know I love to put together a good party to celebrate our kids and coming up with the theme is always half the fun for us. As they’ve gotten older, having them be a part of the process has made it even more special.
So if you’re on the hunt for a new and creative way to celebrate your little ones' next big day without feeling overwhelmed on how to do it, here's my process and how I’m putting together this party that will be out of this world (haha, sorry I had to use that line somehow!)
And if you’re still coming up short with ideas after this, I’m sure Sage would be happy to help come up with some out of the box and creative ones for you too.
I always start with Pinterest and grab inspiration there. Sometimes it’s an idea for a game, the way something is set up, the colors I like together, or the kind of food that is served. I’ll take note of any little thing that grabs my attention that I want to try to pull off and gather it all on a board. You can peek at the one I did for this party here.
Once I’ve got a board I’ll pull together a color palette to stick to for the decorations. This helps make everything look cohesive and also helps me when I’m buying things. I can easily get sucked into anything that’s pretty, but when I have a specific color scheme I’m going for it helps eliminate all the other things that won’t fit within that, even if they are super cute! I suggest keeping it between 3-5 colors and adding in at least one neutral color (usually for the backdrop of everything) like black, white, tan, or gray to balance things out.
Then I’ll start browsing Amazon for some cheap things to buy that will fit with the theme. Party plates, table cloth, a piece of decor that will tie the whole thing together. One (of the many) great things about having 7 kiddos is that I’ve invested in some party decor that I have used over and over again with each of their celebrations so I can pull from things I already have at home and then sprinkle in the theme within the food, plates & napkins, balloons, florals, or simple decoration around the table.
Some things I've invested in and used numerous times for our parties table cloth/drop cloth, cake stands, balloon pump, vases, candle sticks, dishes for cakes or treats.
I'll share all the pics from the party and links for what we used in an upcoming post so stay tuned and sign up for my email list here so you never miss a post.
In the meantime here’s some past parties we’ve also done to keep you inspired.
Backyard Fair Party, Strawberry Party, Dinosaur Party
And if you have any ideas to add into a space themed party, let me know in the comments below!
]]>I know as busy mamas it can feel overwhelming to try to think of one more thing to do--especially when it comes to entertaining the kiddos. If you're like me, you love creating and being creative within your home and want to find ways to invite your kids into that. And I get how having kids around can sometimes make if feel like one more daunting task to get through, but I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be!
Yes, I've had my fair share of stressful projects in our home that didn't go so well. But because I've experienced those times myself I can now give you perspective and share some things we've done that are not only simple and easy, but also really meaningful.
So if you're looking to add more creativity into your days without the stress and overwhelm here are 3 projects you can pull together and try today (or plan ahead for) that I think will ignite your kid's imagination and creativity effortlessly.
My oldest girls have loved making their own calendars recently. They love to write down their friends' birthdays, special outings and holidays making them feel like a little adult. Making your own calendar can be so simple and done with things you already have at home. Take some printer paper, make a fun border around the outside that's creative and unique to you. Write in the month at the top and google the dates for the year. You can also take some sturdier cardstock to put a cover and back on it to make it more fun. Make it a flip calendar by punching holes in the top and stringing jute or yarn through it to keep it together. Punch a hole in the middle at the top to hang it on your wall.
I’ve loved doing this with our kids and having them write down the things they’ve been thankful for. I especially love having it to look back on over the years and seeing all the sweet things they’ve written and thought of. Use a piece of cardboard or the back of a cereal box for your cover. Take about 5-7 pieces of regular text paper for your pages and fold in half. Once folded, put your cardboard on the top and back of your papers and punch holes down the left side and tie your string through each hole. Decorate the front and write on it. Take 5 minutes each day or once a week to write down something you all were thankful for that day and share about it together after you're done.
This can be as simple as making a creative table for the kids in a corner of the living room or rearranging a shelf. The point is to invite their creativity and ideas into the process, helping them grow and feel more confident in their own ideas. This has been really fun to do as my girls have gotten older. We’re in the middle of redoing one of the kids' bedrooms with a few minimal things like new paint and a rug (stay tuned here as I’ll bring you into the process soon). It’s been fun to have them be a part of it to pick out the theme and colors we want to use. This is an easy way to have your kids use their own creativity and feel like they’re a part of making your home meaningful and intentional. Another tip is to add their own artwork to the space. Have them draw a picture of anything that comes to mind or give them a prompt like a jar of flowers or a sunny day at the beach and let them get creative. Hang it in the room and watch their confidence in their ability to create grow as they see that you chose to hang their work in a space they can look at every day!
I hope these helped make you think of some creative things to start doing within your home and if you need some more inspiration and ideas head to my YouTube channel to watch some projects we’ve done in our home too.
You can also sign up for my FREEBIE vault here to access over 25 printable crafts and projects to do at home today! Here’s to more creative living this year friends!
xo,
Coley
]]>The morning was chaos. We all woke up a little grumpy and hungry. There was complaint after complaint and I couldn't seem to get a word in before someone else needed my help. Read more...
]]>We all woke up a little grumpy and hungry. There was complaint after complaint and I couldn't seem to get a word in before someone else needed my help.
This wasn't how I pictured our Thanksgiving break starting out together. I started to feel like “the bad mom” that couldn't figure out how to get my kids to calm down and I found that as their emotions escalated, so did mine.
I managed to feed all the bellies, including mine, and finished my coffee before I forgot about it sitting on the counter.
The kids were still at each other and our little house started to get louder with each passing minute. We needed a change of pace, and fast!
I went into my studio and printed out the painting project I had created for The Creative Haven membership that month.
In all honesty, I was reluctant that this would actually give any of us a moment of peace (the teenage hormones are creeping up faster than I'd like to admit! ha!). I hoped that I could get at least one, maaaaybe two of our kids to sit and color for a minute just to be able to give each other some space.
I covered the table with our drop cloth and started spreading out the supplies-- just the few pages I printed off, a couple spots of paint on a paper plate, and q-tips to use as their paint brush (that's a little hack for you, by the way-- painting with q-tips can go a long way!).
Before I could finish putting paint on the plate I had not one, but all seven kids crowding the table (yes, including our one year old).
“I want to do one, mama!"
“Can you print one for me too, mama?”
Within minutes the table was full of little hands dabbing paint and making colorful dots all over their fall tree papers.
I expected another dose of whining or chaos to explode, but surprisingly it was the exact opposite. For the first time since we all woke I could actually hear myself think. With the simplicity of a printed page and a paint filled q-tip, peace and calm started to fill the room. Space was made for creativity and with it came more than a moment of silence…it was a moment for a memory to be made, creating together.
That's the beauty that sitting down to focus on creating with your own two hands can make for times when we need a little rest and ease.
I believe wholeheartedly that anyone and any home can easily experience this too. And through it, you'll experience a gift that you'll cherish for a lifetime. A gift of meaningful moments, a gift of shared memories, a gift of creativity you didn't think was possible.
If you're ready to experience more moments like this within your own home and have a way to easily bring creativity into your life in nearly effortless ways, then you'll love what I have for you inside my library of FREE printable crafts and activities to print and do at home.
Click here to have the link sent to your inbox and start creating something beautiful together today!
Enjoy friends!
xo, Coley
P.S. Here's a little photo for proof of our morning creating together.
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I get asked often how it is that are kids are so creative and after thinking more on this I realized the ways we have naturally brought creativity into our home. Yes I know it helps that they have a mama who is also an artist, but I firmly believe that creativity can be brought into any home, with any type of personality, for any stage of life. Some of the things we've done are almost effortless and I've seen firsthand how they have infused creativity into all parts of our kid's lives. I see it in the way they play with friends or each other. I see it in how they problem solve or entertain themselves. I see it in how they think outside the box and how they are drawn to creating in almost anything they do.
So I thought of 4 things you can do to easily start adding creativity into your own home too. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming or overcomplicated and I hope these will serve as a way to inspire you to just start. You’ll be surprised at how much your mind and the natural creative gene in you will expand throughout the year when you do.
This can be as simple or as big as you’d like. Our house is small so we don’t have extra rooms to make a whole dedicated space for just creating. Instead I have a small table next to a wall in our living room with a couple baskets on top. One for papers and one for colored pencils. And that’s it. We’ve had it there since our oldest could start coloring and it has been a place our kids are constantly spending time at. This simple idea gives them the invitation to start creating whenever and however they want. They know that it’s there for whenever an idea pops into their head and they want to start making something. So keep it simple, make it inviting and pretty and let your kids have at it!
I know us mamas have limited amounts of time to be running around to all the craft stores to grab more and more things– plus, if you’re like me I just don’t want to add anymore clutter to our home. So something I’ve tried to show my kids over the years is how to use things we already have at home to make something they want to create. And you know what, I think the projects they end up making are far more creative and amazing than anything we could’ve put together from buying more things at the store. Dollhouses from cardboard boxes, instruments from toilet paper rolls, masks and crowns from paper plates and the list goes on.
Here’s some things you can think of using in your own home: cereal boxes, cardboard, toilet paper and paper towel rolls and the paper from them, printer paper, tape, plastic cups, paper bowls and plates, string or yarn, fabric scraps, magazines, things you don’t use anymore, etc.
I love doing this with my kids and letting them be a part of the process with me. Not only does it let their creativity come to life but it also gives them ownership in their own creative ideas. With 7 kids under our roof we are regularly changing things up in our home as they grow to accommodate their ages and needs–which usually means switching up their bedrooms constantly. I’ve had them make decisions with me on how to rearrange, decorate or where to put things in their rooms. I not only want to give them freedom to use their creativity in this way but also want them to be excited to live in their own space (even as it’s being shared with a sibling). We recently moved around kids in different rooms which have also had my creative juices flowing so we are redoing my oldest’s room with her two younger siblings--a process I'm excited to take you into soon!
Maybe there’s something in your house you can give your kids ownership in to use their creativity too– redoing a bookshelf with pictures, picking out their own color to paint on their walls, decorating their door with all their favorite artwork, making and setting the table for dinner. There are numerous ways to let them into this that can be so easy and simple.
Plan it on the calendar like it’s an event! This will not only ease your mind in planning ahead, but also gives you and your kids something to look forward to. And it doesn’t have to take over your whole day. It can be just 30 minutes on a certain day every week. Or maybe 15 minutes every day. You can keep it as elaborate or as simple as you can handle too. Any little bit of creativity infused into your day is a guarantee for making it more fun and exciting.
And to make it extra easy for you, I have a whole library of printable coloring pages, tags, cards, and more that you can find inside my freebie vault too so you can easily have things on hand when you do plan a day like this for you and your kids. Sign up here to get access to it and I’ll send it straight to your inbox.
I hope these ideas inspire you to start bringing creativity into your home today and that you start to see the beauty doing this brings.
Tell me below which one you think you’ll try out first! I can’t wait to see.
xo, Coley
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All Will Be Made Well Art Print
I think there’s something really meaningful when we take the time to reflect and doing this at the end of each year has become one of my favorite things to do. It's almost like sitting down for a movie to re-watch the year play out in front of me and be reminded of all the things we’ve been through. So as I went through photos and videos of the year I wrote down some of takeaways, big and small, that have brought us to where we are today, changed for the better and more ready to step into bigger and better things in the new year.
I'm sharing them below (in no particular order) hoping this can be a way to inspire you to do the same with your year and see how when you step back to see the big picture of it all you’ll see the beauty you were creating all along the way.
The last of the firsts in our home and this mama heart is trying to soak in and squeeze out every ounce of it that I can hold onto. Norah turned one in the spring and in complete honesty I don’t think a year has ever gone by faster in my life. I can’t fully wrap my head and heart around how we’re slowly growing out of the baby stages around here when it’s been my life the last decade. Somehow I’m equally at peace and wishing it wasn’t over all at the same time. Something I may never come to terms with, but where we’re at with our little family feels right where we should be.
A memory and gift that I’ll never get over or take for granted. Our journey to getting to this part of our story was one unlike any other and probably changed me more than the trip itself (I’ll have a post coming all about that soon), but boy am I deeply grateful that we can stand on this side of it now saying it was all worth it to get here. Renovating a school bus is not for the faint of heart, but focusing on the big picture to give our family experiences and memories like this is what got us through. And I’m convinced everyone needs to visit the Redwoods at least once (if not 7 times!) in their lifetime!
Well we officially have 5 kids out of 7 in school full time and it’s changed our daytime routines up for sure. I remember the days of feeling like every day was one continuous long never ending day with no real routine or structure because we were just getting through diaper changes and feedings and repeating it all over again. Somehow we’re here and although there are other parts of parenting that are hard, the kids having a place they can grow and thrive and learn feels like it’s given our whole family a breath of fresh air. Yes, we have chaotic mornings here and there, but the few hours of quiet during the day sure makes up for it!
Shane and I both grew up playing sports and always knew it was something we’d want to do with our kids someday. With 7 kids within 9 years of each other we weren't quite sure how sports would fit into our schedule and wanted to tread lightly when it came to putting them in all the things. We value our home life and family time so much and knew that without intention we could easily get swept away in the sports schedules and carting kids all over the place which would end up taking away from what we value most– being together. The beauty of having our four oldest within two years of each other is that in most things they end up being in the same age group, so when they were old enough this year to start playing in golf tournaments this is how we chose to enter into the sports world and it’s honestly been the perfect fit for our family lifestyle so far. When the kids are playing, we’re all outside, each of them gets to play at the same time and we can watch (most of the time) all of them playing together. It’s been a sweet part of our year and I’m excited to see how this continues to be a part of filling our days.
2023 brought a lot of growth for me, personally, relationally, spiritually and mentally which has led to a lot of clarity in a lot of things and where I hope to take Coley Kuyper Art into the world. This year I launched something that had been on my heart for a while– The Creative Haven: a printable art membership for the creative, playful mama and child. I soft launched this earlier this year and I was encouraged to have so many join. It has been a gift to see others adding more creativity into their homes with their families and kiddos and left me feeling like this is exactly where my heart's passions are colliding (motherhood and creativity) and I can’t wait to share more of what’s to come with that. (PS. If you’re interested in finding out more click here and join the waitlist!)
A decade of motherhood!! For lack of sounding cliche, how did that go by so fast!?! It’s just not fair. I wrote a letter to my email community earlier in the fall on what 10 years of being a mama has taught me. You can read it here too and I hope it will resonate and give you some encouragement wherever you find yourself along in the journey too.
I can’t believe I actually read these in a year, let alone finished most of them! I feel pretty proud that I can say that too. These books were the ones that I couldn’t put down this year and have changed a part of my heart, mindset, parenting, and life in ways I’m so grateful for and I highly recommend them aaaalll.
Atomic Habits, Big Magic, You’re a BadA at Making Money, Create Anyways (still reading through but I’ll probably read it 10x over again), Every Moment Sacred (A seasonal book and so beautiful, reading through this all year).
I’ll share the list I’ll be working on reading through this year below in case any resonate with you too.
I joined Bonnie Christine’s mastermind group in 2022 and it has changed me in more ways in the last year than anything else in a long time. I can’t say enough about how being with a group of creative women who has challenged and inspired and encouraged me has changed me in ways I’m not sure I can quite articulate yet. There is something pretty powerful when you get in a room of other women who are actually cheering and rooting for you and are willing to share everything they’ve ever learned with such openness and ease. And the biggest thing I think I’ve taken from being a part of this group is how much I want to live and create so that others may benefit and live more freely and beautifully because of it. It’s a deep honor that I get to do this and that I have a husband that encourages me to keep showing up for it (even on days when I feel imposter syndrome taking over!). This group has been one of the most life giving and freeing and inspirational places I’ve been a part of.
Ok, so maybe this one hasn't been “life-changing” but it certainly has taken over our lives! Shane’s love for this sport has me wanting to get better myself and do something more active that I’d actually look forward to, so this has become a date night regular for us. Granted, I’m still nowhere near being anything remotely called “competition” when I’m playing with Shane, but it’s been fun to find something else we can connect on and hopefully keep playing together until we’re old and gray. The kids have even gown a love for it too and there are regular nights when we there is a makeshift pickle-ball court in our living room. It has become quite the family affair and I'm not complaining! :)
This is something I certainly haven’t mastered, but putting a time limit on apps on my phone is a no-brainer to a life changing habit. I hate how much it so easily sucks me in and that my kids watch me so often with my nose to the phone. This small but mighty hack has helped give me more time and honestly has left me feeling less on edge too. Some limits I’ve done are bedtime mode on at 8pm so the phone is put away and doesn’t turn back on until 8:30 am, limited time on most used apps like IG, email, and google. One thing I’ve never done but I think could be helpful if you haven't tried it is never turning on notifications, so I don’t get notified for anything unless I’m intentionally picking up my phone to look. I think I’ve done it for so long that it doesn’t even occur to me that people actually use notifications! Ha! I’ve also never had games on my phone which I think is also helpful. So if you’re wanting less screen time I’d recommend starting there and seeing how that little shift might help in your days.
I hope this inspires you to sit down and look back on your year and see all the ways you were changed through it too. I guarantee it will bring a sense of gratitude for what you’ve accomplished and how far you’ve come.
I’d love to hear from you! Tell me in the comments below what the biggest takeaway from you in 2023 was–it could be just one word or a whole story you want to share!
Cheers to 2024, friends! It’s going to be beautiful.
xo, Coley
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It only took a little over a month but we finally celebrated Norah’s first birthday with a sweet little party earlier this month. I’m still in shock that she is already a year old. Fastest year of my life EVER! I know I say that with every kid as I’m sure every mama does, but something about having 6 others to keep up with while a baby is growing into their first year of life just makes it fly even faster than I ever knew possible. So having a party to celebrate her is the closest thing I can think of to bottling up this moment in time so we can have these memories to look back on for years to come. With the start of summer and getting ready to head out of town on our bus trip, I knew I wanted to keep this party as simple as possible.
Tell me what you think of these ideas in the comments below or share with me more creative ways you could use them yourself.
Thanks for being here friend!
xo,
Coley
]]>(a hanging display of paintings my kids have created over the year's displayed in their bedroom)
(a small picture of my daughter's hand drawn art of her, me and Shane together hung up in our bedroom gallery wall)
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I'm so excited to share with you something we've been working on over the last few months. My email community were the first to hear about it and now I'm sharing it here with you! After several requests for printable art, I've finally put together a handful of items that were from seasons past and created them as printable downloads for you to easy buy, download and print right at home.
Since I'm always switching up art in our home depending on the season we're in I think this is a low cost and super easy way for you to do the same. Take your favorite frame on your mantle and easily switch it up throughout the year as you keep your home creative and cozy with each new season.
Winter: A hand lettered quote for the winter
Valentine's Day: A sweet floral heart paired with this quote
Spring: A beautiful reminder for a new season
Summer: Encouraging words to get you through the hot Summer days.
New baby or kids room: A meaningful sentiment or a silly watercolored alphabet for your new baby's nursery. These could even make a sweet baby shower gift to add something meaningful.
Autumn/Fall: This one is a favorite of mine for transitioning from Summer to Fall and paired with this one for Thanksgiving time. This poem I created and lettered is also a fun addition for Autumn decor on your mantle.
Christmas: There are a few Christmassy ones in the printable shop but this one is is my favorite for Christmas time or even all year round
Another fun addition to the printables are these sets of beloved alphabet flash cards now available as individual letters to print and frame right at home. I've see many over the years use certain letteres for their little ones, or spell out their child's name or use them for baby showers. So I'm offering them as printable indiviual letters nowso you can get creative with using them too.
Each letter comes with TWO different sized pieces in the download. One as a standard 5x7 piece to frame or hang or use however you'd like. And the other is sized the same as the flash cards 4x5 in case you want to use smaller ones.
I created one as a botanical theme and the other around adventure and both versions of the alphabet are available to download and print individually.
You can get 10% off your first order here when you sign up for my email community here and I'll send you a code instantly so you can use it right away!
If you love printing art at home or are in need of some creative activities for your kids I've created a library or vault of FREE printables inside what I call The Insider's Collective. You can join here for free and get access to over $150 worth of free goodies I've created for you to enjoy. I add more free goodies there every now and then too so its a great resource to have if you need some coloring pages, or party decor to use on a whim. Sign up here and get instant access, I'd love for you to enjoy!
]]>I get asked pretty often about all the art supplies I use with my kids when we're creating at home. So to help with that I put together this list of all the things I always have on hand whenever me or my kids want to make space to create in our home. Most of these items are pretty simple and they're ones that I've been using over and over again for years since by oldest ones were pretty little. While there are many out there that I think are helpful for getting creative, these are the ones I've found to be the easiest to get started and store away.
If you want to grab the list to always have on hand you can grab it here and I'll send it straight to your inbox. This list also has some tips and tricks I use with each supply also has a link for you to use so you can have them on hand and not have to dig up this blog post again.
This is a MUST have if you ever want to bring any form of messiness by way of creativity into your home. We've been using the same drop cloth for years and it is full of color and spills, and paint and memories of moments my kids have spent creating at our table. I share more about that here. This drop cloth not only works for making clean up smooth and easy, but ALSO becomes its own piece of art over the years as you or your kids create on it. I imagine some say I'll make a tapestry or huge canvas of some sort to hang on the wall and it will be my most treasure art piece ever. I'm determined to tell every mama about this idea, so go grab yourself one right this minute. You'll thank me 20 years from now that you did this too ;)
I'm always collecting these from all different craft stores. For kids, I would say pretty much any kind of paint brush works great and my little mom hack is the smaller the brush you give them to paint with, the longer it will keep their attention to paint whatever's in front of them, plus you don't have to use that much paint with a smaller brush. We have these paint brushes, and these. And this set is great for a slightly better quality ones and they're pretty too!
This is another supply I've been collecting over the years. Whenever I'm grabbing crafts or know I have a project coming up I'll grab a few colors of paint. This set will get you started on all the colors to have on hand and I love that this brand is super easy to wipe down if it gets on the table. Anything that is water based paint is much easier to clean right away and I'd only recommend this kind of paint when using it with kids.
Colored pencils and always revolving through our house hold and I prefer my kids using these over markers...becuase markers in our house is just asking for stress and disaster! haha! These pencils are some of my favorite and the quality is great if you're wanting more vibrant kinds. Although any kind of pencils will do the trick with kids. And if you're looking for some good ones for yourself these ones are another favorite of mine.
I have a few of these palettes for the kids and I love how vibrant and easy they are to use. It makes it super simple for when the kids want to paint for a short amount of time. I also love these paints for my older girls that are more into painting and wanting to learn more about the technique of art. And these are the paints I've been using for years for all the watercolor art I paint myself.
I've been using this pad of watercolor paper for years for all the art I create. I use it for my kids too because its great paper that doesn't break the bank. A simple hack to do with this paper is to buy the larger size pad so you can cut the papers smaller for your kids to paint on. This way the paper pad lasts a little longer.
Paper, paper, paper. It will be a life saver for keeping kids busy and creative. We have drawers full of blank paper that they can go grab and start coloring with on a whim. My kids not only use it for coloring on, but have also come up with their own creative ways to use paper for playing. Paper airplanes for racing, microphones for singing, folding origami animals, books for journaling or writing their own stories, and so much more!
This one is sort of a hack I've used over the years. Because we have a big family, paper plates just makes sense for us with easy dinner clean ups (and less dishes to do). But having paper plates also makes the perfect palette for painting with the kids and all you have to do is throw it away when you're done. No washing out messy plastic palettes after every craft. These also are great items for the kids to create and play with. My kids have also come up with all kinds of ways to use and bring creative with plates--masks and hats for pretending, make shift instruments, and more!
Foil surprisingly is so much fun for little ones. I gave a wad of this to my 3 & 4 year olds one morning and they played with it for a good hour. Ripping, folding, crumbling, throwing it in the air. They kept wanting more. So this not only makes for a creative sculpting project, but I've also used foil as palettes for holding painting or canvases to painting on. They really love it!
Every time I buy masking tape for studio, its gone within minutes. My kids are always coming in to grab more so they can tape anything they're crafting and creating in the other room. Sometimes it gives me a headache that I've lost so much tape to these little hands, but on the other hand it just means they're being creative and coming up with their own ideas and projects while using something that's pretty low maintenence. Plus masking tape (or painters tape) is pretty easy to take off of anything. I've spent lots of time peeling this off of things, but since it's not too sticky it comes off easily.
So there is my list of all the things I keep over and over again. We add things here and there, but these are the essentials we've used since my oldest kids could start holding a pencil and their creativity seems to grow each time they pull out any or all of these supplies.
If you want more regular creative inspiration sent to your inbox, join my email community here and I'll send you freebies, inspiration, special deals and more just for being on the inside. I'd love to have you there!
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It's become a tradition in our home to write little love notes to each other for Valentine's Day. I realized that writing and receiving notes like this is one of my favorite things to do as a mama and as I thought about my kids growing up I love thinking about this being a childhood memory for them they'll cherish. Since I'm a bit of a sentimental, I thought about how much I love receiving notes even as an adult now so I wanted to give my kids something they can have when they're older that they'd look back on and still feel loved no matter what age they'd read it.
So I came up with these affirmation cards for my kids this year and wanted to share them with you here so you can reference them again next year or use the idea for a meaningful birthday card or something to make for someone you love just because. These really can be used for all kinds of occasions and thats the beauty of this project.
This one is not only meaningful, but so so simple it can be done with things you already have from home. Here’s what you can grab on hand to make these yourself.
-A recent picture of your kids (if you don't have one keep reading below to learn how I made some cute updated ones right at home)
-Card stock, a 5x7 size or any size you want your finished card to be
-Marker, pen
-Glue & scissors
-Optional paint or colored pencils
I needed to get some new pictures of my kids so I set up a space in our living room with a blank canvas drop cloth and had my kids sit in front of it. I asked them questions, make them giggle and had fun making a quick little photoshoot with them.
Once I edited the pictures I liked best I put them into photoshop and made them a little smaller than the card I would use to write on then printed them off and started cutting out each kids picture. I cut around their body in the picture leaving a slight border around them to give it a little dimension. Then I glued the picture onto the middle of the card stock paper so their cute faces were front and center.
Once I was done gluing all the pictures onto cards I took a card and started thinking intentionally about each of my kids. I wrote out words that described who they are, what they mean our family, and what I love about them. This part was so fun to think of my kids individually like this and how much their unique personalities add so much value to our family.
After I was done writing, I decided to fill in the rest of the white space with flowers or doodles and painted around it adding some special touches they could tell were just from mama. The night before Valentine’s Day I wrote each of them a letter on the back a little more about how much I love them and how I’ve seen them grow this year. They loved waking up the next morning to find all of these on our table. I even found my girls reading them over and over again to themselves later in the week.
Making this tradition extra special for them in this way made it feel even sweeter. I guarantee your kids will love receiving this little project from you and will cherish it for a lifetime.
If you decide to make these yourself too I’d love to see!! Leave a comment and tell me if you made them or tag me on Instagram to show me.
Enjoy friends!
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I unintentionally took a break from posting here in the last few (uuh, several) months. I’ll just chalk that up to 7 kids and those glorious sleepless nights.
I wanted to enter back into the blog by updating you on the biggest thing that happened in the last year and that is our SIXTH girl (7th baby), Norah James who entered our world and made things even sweeter than I ever thought possible.
She was born last April just 5 days after my birthday. I love that we share a birthday week and that she’ll grow up with us having that special memory together. Along with that, a memory I’ll never forget is how she actually entered the world and even today, almost 10 months later I’m still wrapping my head around the whole story. It’s a whirlwind, friends, so here’s a little update on her birth and motherhood lately.
Grab a warm cozy drink, this is gonna be a long one...but a good one, I promise!
I’m starting to feel a bit like myself again, coming out of the newborn fog and not feeling *as* tired as those first few weeks. These last few months have felt a bit slower but also somehow the fastest they’ve ever been at the same time. Slower in the creating art and running my business side of life, but just as fast in the kid-raising/momming part of things. And that’s kind of how motherhood goes though doesn't it!? Seasons ebb and flow and change without even knowing it until you’re out of one season and into the next. I kind of hate how that happens too because just as I was trying to hold on to those precious newborn moments with Norah being welcomed into our home, I blink and I’m trying to hold her down from rolling off the couch already!
Sheesh, Time you never let us mamas get to hold on long enough before the next precious moments with our little ones start filling our days. It’s a love/hate relationship with time and raising kids, though isn't it? And I guess the only thing I can really know and hold onto is that it will always be this way, so with each new day I hope to have at least one moment in it that is intentional, focused on what really matters and that it gave us a memory together that will live long into our years ahead.
This ever fleeting feeling of motherhood is really what led me to create this collection I titled Mother's Love. I created it as a way to capture those moments of motherhood that feel mundane, but may be the most sacred ones of all. If you haven't seen this collection, you can click here to take a look. It has a deeply special place in my heart and I created it in hopes it would create something meaningful and special for another mama out there too.
Speaking of time, I can’t really comprehend how Norah is already 9 months old now. (Heck, I can’t comprehend how my oldest is 9 years!!!) And since I can’t hold down the fleeting moments, I’m going to write them down here so they’ll always be remembered and kept close. Her birth story is one I can easily say I will never forget. One unlike any other I’ve ever experienced. One I never thought could actually happen until, well, it did.
Given that she was my 6th pregnancy (7th baby–we have twins in the mix so you can do that math on that), I got every cliche comment that comes with having a lot of kids. One of the most was that this baby would come fast once I went into labor. I can’t tell you how many times I was told over and over again with each new pregnancy that this baby would come fast all for it not to happen, making the waiting game even longer. So with Norah, I didn’t want to get my hopes up that anything would happen sooner so I tried to give myself more realistic expectations of when he or she would come. (we didn’t know her gender until she was born, btw).
Her due date came and I was so ready to not be pregnant anymore. I’m so thankful to have pretty easy pregnancies, but any mama knows that once you get to the point of not being able to see your toes or bend over to put on your own shoes, you’re in the home stretch and those last few weeks are pretty much the worst.
Her due date was April 28th, but I kept telling myself (given my history with births) that she’d most likely be coming in May. The week of her due date came and I was starting to feel some slight contractions here and there, which was normal for me and nothing I thought would send me into labor anytime soon. On the morning of her due date after our oldest kids headed to school, I was hanging out with Dash and Penny in the backyard while Shane was doing some work on our skoolie. (another story for another day, but if you have no idea about our skoolie, here’s a snippet of that story here).
While he and some guys worked on the bus I kept having milk contractions here and there and the rest of the day pretty much went like this.
Once lunchtime came around I had hit my wall of exhaustion (as I normally did in the middle of the day) and had to go lay down for a nap. I slept a couple hours before waking up to more contractions. Now I was starting to wonder if I’d go into the hospital that night or sometime the next day. The way things had gone with my other births was that contractions would happen pretty slow and steady until my babies would come in the middle of the night. So I figured this one would be the same, if not very similar.
The girls came home from school and my sis-in-law offered to have them come hangout with her for a bit to give me some more rest. It was about 4 in the afternoon now and I was pretty sure at this point we would go into the hospital sometime after dinner, but still not feeling much of any “real” contractions yet. Meanwhile, Shane decided he wanted to grill and make a nice steak dinner for us before heading to the hospital (my husband's a keeper :)). He started making dinner while I had the kids get ready to head to their aunt and uncle’s house.
Before Shane took the kids over there I had them all gather up on the couch to do a little video of us together saying our predictions of whether we thought the baby would be a boy or a girl. (we’ve always been surprised with each of our kids to find out their gender at birth). The time on the video said 4:38pm.
After the video Shane got the kids out of the house and I decided to pack a bag "just in case". A few more contractions here and there, but felt like it was no big deal. Shane made it back home to finish up dinner and after seeing me leaning over on the bed breathing through another contraction, he asked if we should get going. I said I wanted to eat the dinner he made and then we could head out.
Another part of all of this was that this time I decided I wanted to get an epidural, I had never had one with my previous births and I wanted to just give it a go and relax this time. I knew I needed to get to the hospital with a good amount of time before the baby would come to get it, but again these contractions weren’t feeling like anything urgent just yet.
Shane was sweet and took the time to make our dinner plates all nice and I was excited to eat. I came to the table, one more contraction before sitting down, he looked at me like “uh i think we need to go.” I took one bite of the steak and a picture of us eating together at 5:16pm (that you can see below). After that I decided ya, we should probably head over now. So one bit into our fancy steak dinner, we left it all on the table, grabbed our things and headed to the hospital. I started texting friends and family letting them know we were on our way, asked them to pray and that the baby would probably be coming later in the night.
A few more contractions came and went throughout our 13 minute drive to the hospital and I was starting to breathe slower through them. Shane says he knew at this point that the baby was coming sooner than I kept telling myself. I remember sitting at a light and the second it turned green I yelled, “go go go”. We were a few minutes away now and it felt like all of the sudden the contractions were coming on quicker and stronger. I kept saying I wanted the epidural now and to hurry. He knew now that we needed to pick things up. We pulled up the hospital front doors at 5:48 pm and he parked as we got inside as fast as we could. Shane left the car behind to get me to the room so I could get that epidural asap like I kept asking for. I stopped twice before making it to the elevator to breathe and cry through the contractions now. The elevator felt like a good place to lay down and give birth at this point. We made it to triage where my midwife was waiting for me. I had a contraction walking down the hall and she made her way to me, knowing I was pretty close. In my head, I kept thinking this is just the beginning of a few more hours I’ll have to go through so I said again I just want the epidural now.
A few more minutes went by as they got me checked in and I had to sign all the dumb paper they make you sign while you’re birthing a baby (like whyyyy!!??), it felt like forever to finally get into the hospital room. I kept asking if I could get the epidural in and for them to hurry up. We made it to the room a few minutes after 6 pm after another contraction on the wheelchair in the hall and again when I stood up to get on the bed. They FINALLY brought in the epidural thingy to get it started and I felt like they were taking their sweet slow time unaware that there was even a pregnant lady yelling at them to get the needle in already!
I sat on the edge of the bed with the help of Shane and 3 others to help me get up, the epidural needle went in and the next minute another huge contraction came rushing through and I had to lay down. I decided it was best to lay with my head at the end of the bed while the nurses tried to assist me to not fall off. You do crazy things when you’re in labor, I know.
I breathed through the contraction and all of the sudden started to feel the baby push. I screamed “oh my gosh I need to push!!!”. I breathed (screamed) through one more contraction, pushed once more screaming "get it out get it out" until the baby was out (cuz I wanted this to be over with) and in an instant SHE was here. Shane said it’s a girl and I laughed and cried happy tears of relief and disbelief and joy and love for this bundle that came in a flash. Born at 6:13pm, less than a half an hour of pulling up and parking in front of the hospital doors, our 7th baby was here! There wasn’t even time for the epidural to get in all the way, so I didn't get to have that blissful epidural experience so many have experience. Another natural birth it was. Thankfully it was as quick as it was and I didn’t have to endure that pain any longer.
She was perfect and cuddly and beautiful and at this point as we were holding her and still laughing at how fast that all went, we still didn’t have a name picked out for her yet. We just soaked in the moment, relaxed, and checked in with the kids, but didn’t tell them the news. We wanted to all be together before letting them know she was a she.
The next few days actually gave us a little scare. Since she came out so fast there was fluid left in her lungs that wasn’t able to clear while she was coming out. So we ended up in the NICU for a couple days to monitor her breathing and make sure her lungs would clear up on their own. It was the scariest things to go through and I didn’t get to sleep with her the first night in the hospital which was torture. Shane stayed with her while I tried to sleep, but of course it wasn't possible. I tossed and turned all night thinking of and praying for her.
It was a weird thing not knowing what her name was right away. The name Norah was a name I had loved since high school after falling in love with Norah Jones’ music and thankfully Shane liked it a lot too. After finding out that it means light, I loved it even more. We waited it out until the next day to make it official just to make sure we both were really loving it and almost 24 hours have her birth we decided she was Norah.
We hadn’t talked about a middle name yet and since all of the kid's middle names are family names I thought of Jane (my grandmother’s middle name) or James (my brother’s middle name). I actually loved James at first and didn't think Shane would be up for it. Surprisingly he loved James the most and I was so excited to tell my brother after we made it official. That was a moment I'll never forget.
The hardest part next to naming her was deciding whether her name would end with an ‘H’ or not. So I did what any artist mama would probably do and wrote out both names on napkins in the hospital room. After writing them over and over again I decided which one I liked writing more and which version looked prettier on paper to me. I love writing “h’s” and I loved the way it looked next to the name James! (if you’re an artist yourself, you know what I mean!) So there it was.
Norah James Kuyper. A spitting image of her big sister Sage and our 3rd baby with deep brown eyes and hair like mama.
Three days after she was born we finally got to come home. The kids had a hard time understanding why we had to stay so long and were missing us all being together really bad. Once we made it home, their sweet affection for her was something I’ll never forget, I cry just thinking about it now. There was a calm and peace in our living room that afternoon and I couldn't stop smiling and thanking God for this gift, watching it all in front of me.
Never has life felt so fast than it did once we started having kids. Never has life felt like a blur and fuller and more beautiful all at the same time. This gift of motherhood is one I don’t take for granted. And I’m still in awe that I get to be theirs.
It will be two years in August since we brought home Birdie (the name we’ve given her) and it’s hard to believe it’s been that long. What is even crazier is to think back on all the obstacles and stories we’ve gone through to get to where we are now. We’ve parked it at at least 5 different places around Phoenix, spent endless hours researching and coming up with designs, asked a million questions to people who have gone before us, and had multiple instances where people would work on it for a little only to leave us hanging. We literally had a guy drop it off at our house tell us he would see us in the morning to continue working on it and never heard from him again. We’ve had people come and go and promise big things, getting our hopes up and leaving us disappointed and back to square one again. Needless to say there have been lots of tears shed over the course of this project too.
We finally had some good momentum going on the last place we had it being worked on and once the biggest things were done, like plumbing and electricity and wood work we brought it home to button up all the loose ends and get it finished. Although, it’s hardly been just a “buttoning up”. Many more unexpected details have come up as they always do with projects like this, but we are getting there little by little.
I thought for this post I’d share some of the inspiration behind the design and what we came up with for the layout of the bus. A few things I knew from the beginning that I wanted were for it to be aesthetically pleasing, feel cozy and comfortable in every part of the space, and have STORAGE EVERYWHERE! Part of the fun for me has been coming up with all the creative ways to put these things together. We drew up multiple layouts at the beginning, measured things multiple times, put tape and markings down all of the inside of the bus until we finally came up with what felt best for our family living in it for weeks at a time.
The feeling I kept coming back to that I wanted for the overall design was a comfy, cottage feel. I pictured us being tucked away on the bus in the woods camping or next to the beach and kept dreaming of a place that felt like a little cozy home that we would hangout in with the beauty surrounding us wherever we were visiting.
Now, I’m no professional interior designer, but I love putting things together that are beautiful to me. I also love the process of deciding and picking out all the pieces that I think would come together for the look and feel of what I’m wanting and would want others to feel as they enter the room. These are all just my ideas with the use of my own two eyes, nothing fancy or “by the book” by any means.
So here are some pics of the layout we came up with, the process the bus has been in and a couple different inspiration boards I threw together to get started on the areas in the bus I was dreaming up.
I also have this Pinterest board here I’ve been saving and pinning over the last couple years to give more insight and feel of what I'm going for.
Although the journey of it has been so up and down, I’m so glad we’ve stuck it out and are so close to traveling in it soon.
Tell me what you think in the comments below!
This fresh bouquet is bound to put a smile on her face and is still my all time favorite, especially on a framed maple canvas!
The Birth Flowers collection makes for a meaningful gift to bring in beauty and meaning to her home. A sweet gift that will hold space for significant moments for her
A simple quote as a reminder to find joy in the simplest moments
These pack of jotters also make for a good gift so she can take flowers with her wherever she goes!
This desk planner can be used whenever without waste, a must have for any busy mama
Any mama could use a few more journals to write down all the little things too and these ones make for some really cute ones!
I hope these were fun for you to look through and gave you some ideas on what to get your special mama this year.
One thing that we’ve kept as a sort of family tradition with each pregnancy is waiting to find out the gender until the baby is born. I’m a natural lover of surprises so that element of it is one reason why, but since we hadn’t found out with any of them before it seems fitting to keep the tradition alive.
It’s been so fun to hear all the votes from the kids as to what they think or hope it will be…
Penny (our 2 year old) keeps saying “is a boy and girl”.
We’ve got 3 votes with the oldest girls for it being a boy.
Sage (our 4th daughter) says she wants it to be a girl but thinks it’s a boy.
And Dash has told me repeatedly that if it’s a girl he’s not going to play with her. He’ll only accept a boy! Although he’s got the best big brother heart so I’m sure that will change if he happens to meet another baby sister.
We will shortly find out in the coming weeks and I’m excited to have you along for the ride of our big family life. I don’t take a second for granted that I get to be a mama, let alone a mama to this many amazing kiddos. Sure I’m exhausted to no end, but I honestly wouldn’t trade this privilege for the world!
Tell me in the comments below what you think we’ll be adding into the mix… A boy or girl?
Ps. If you’re on the hunt for some new baby items I’ll create a post of some of my most loved ones in the following weeks. Here’s a few from my shop that I’ve made as well for any new mama in your life.
The beginning phase of our 40ft. school bus renovation, Fall 2020
THE BACKSTORY
We joke that this was our big 2020 covid purchase, like I’m sure many others made during that year to feel a little better. The dream of us traveling the country with our little family someday has been in us ever since we first got married.
A few years ago I was invited to be a vendor at Magnolia Spring at the Silos so we saw the opportunity to “test” this dream of ours by renting a motorhome to make the trip to Texas. Even though there were quite a handful of ups and downs we experienced through the trip (especially with 5 kids in tow at the time) the answer was still a yes for us. In fact, I’d go as far to say that it made our dream to travel the country grow even more.
Shane and I had been talking about taking a long trip to get out the summer heat for a while and started loosely talking about the idea of renovating a motorhome or camper. The more we looked into that idea the more we realized doing this with a motorhome wasn’t lining up with what we would need to accommodate our little (but big) family. Fast forward to 2020 a friend of ours introduced us to the Skoolie trend and a couple months later they stopped by our house to show us their minibus they had purchased to renovate (aka, their skoolie). It was a fraction of the price of buying a motorhome and the thing was completely empty and ready to be fully customized.
In that instant I said to Shane, half jokingly, “This is what we need!”. My heart kinda jumped a little at the thought of getting to design and customize a mini mobile home for our family, but honestly I didn’t think much of it when I made the comment. If anything, I thought it was still a far off dream that maybe would come when our kids were in high school.
A month or so went by and I started noticing Shane searching google and craigslist for school buses for sale. Something to know about my husband is that once he gets an idea in his head 99% of the time he’s going to make it happen–which can be thrilling and scary all at once, haha! But again, I thought it was a long shot (and a big investment for us if we actually went through with it) so I didn’t hold on to the idea too tightly.
Another few weeks went by and before I could fully wrap my head around the fact that we could actually do this, Shane was making his way up north in the middle of an Arizona summer heat to purchase and bring home our school bus, which we now call “Birdie”.
It was all so quick and also a little too easy to not pass it up. Once we both were on board with doing it, it made so much sense to do it now. It was in mint condition and already gutted on the inside, so the process had somewhat already been started. It seemed like an easy win to jumpstart the renovation, thinking “oh 5-6 months and we’ll be one the road with our family in no time”… so we thought.
THE WHY FOR OUR FAMILY
Like I mentioned, traveling with our family has been a dream of ours for a long time. For us, it's about giving our kids the opportunity to experience the world outside their comfort zone, to be together intentionally as a family, and to make memories with them they’ll hold onto for the rest of their lives.
Both of us traveled a lot in college and a lot more in our first year of marriage and we would both say that these experiences were some of the most life-giving and maturing parts of our lives. To be able to sit with others different from us, hear stories, and enter into their culture and world a bit was a gift and blessing that can never be bought or manufactured.
Something we want our kids to grow up knowing and understanding is that this life is not all about us, but more so about the beauty of getting to see, know, understand, and love others. It’s about the beauty of going through experiences that may be hard and stretching. And the gift that traveling together brings for our relationships when we make intentional time together.
While traveling the world with them is still a dream in my heart, starting with this project feels like the next right thing for us. Not to mention it’s the most practical for a family of our size and kids' ages.THE WHY IN SHARING WITH YOU
I felt this part of the story was important so you understand my heart in letting you into this project with us.
Like I said above, for a while I wasn’t sure if sharing it made sense or aligned well here. I’m pretty intentional about the things I share with you and didn’t want this project to be something that felt like I was flaunting it or randomly talking about a cool side project with no purpose behind it.
In a nutshell, I wanted to make sure that I was sharing this in a way that felt in line with the reason I share everything here–to inspire a life full of creativity, intention, and beauty.
So just to be clear, no, I’m not becoming a tiny home renovation blogger or travel vlogger or even an expert on skoolies (please no! haha).
Another aspect to this was that this journey has been one we’ve been on for almost two full years now and like I said before, I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to share at all. The amount of stories and stresses and tears that we’ve gone through to make this dream of ours happen has been more than I can write in a single post. So I held off until the timing of it felt good and right and real, not trying to make something happen and put it out there in the world when in the background this project wasn’t getting off the ground.Little by little we were making progress and were feeling like we were gaining momentum with getting this done. I started to feel like I could finally share about it soon...until a curveball hit us once again. It was another night of Shane and I processing the roadblocks we were coming up against and tears were streaming down my face as we weighed the options of giving up on this or moving forward. We decided that logistically we were too far along to turn back now and that ultimately deep in our hearts the outcome of seeing it through would still be worth it in the end.
And that’s when the “why” behind sharing this project with the world clicked for me.
Going after your dreams doesn’t come easy or without obstacles or pain or sacrifice. It doesn’t happen in a day or a year for that matter. Sometimes it takes sitting down with your spouse to look at everything from different angles with open hands knowing you may have to give it up or take a new direction.
Sometimes it takes listening to others and letting them give you perspectives you can’t see. Sometimes it means being open to the journey of how you will make it happen knowing it may look different than how you thought it would play out originally.When we keep our heart focused on the bigger picture, choosing to go through and do the hard work, and trusting in the end that it will all be worth it, we may even experience the outcome better than we had ever dreamed before.
My hope and purpose in letting you into this is that you would start to look at your life and see the opportunities you have to go after your dreams and deepest desires. You’ll learn things, grow deeper, dream bigger, and look back with gratitude on the journey that produced these outcomes. More outcomes that came along the way that you never saw when you started, but ones that you wouldn’t change for anything.
Although we are starting to see a light at the end of this project, we still have a ways to go and continue to hold it with open hands. I’m excited to take you on the rest of this journey with us and when I share the next post about it I’ll take you through my inspiration boards, the way we needed it to function for our family and probably a story or two from this long long journey that is so laughable you may not believe it really happened. (but I assure you, it did!)
I'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and tell me what you think! :)
Thanks for being here friends!
As I think about how I’ll rearrange and clean it up, these words come to mind that I want to stick with: clean, bright, warm, cozy, inspiring, organized.
For now, here’s a few ways I like to keep the studio cozy to help me get work done.
Inspiring tunes:
If you didn’t know this about me already, I love a good playlist. And listening to one that gets me in a good and creative mood is always a must. Although my music mood can change depending on the day and how I’m feeling. Like, one day I’ll be humming along with Ella Fitzgerald crooning as I paint and the next I’m singing and dancing with T-swift or Bieber with a smile on my face–not ashamed. Yes my music taste has a big range and I’m quite proud of that, thank you! ;) haha Anyways, there’s something about putting on good tunes in the background that helps set the tone of the moment and gets me focused on what I need to get done. I shared a favorite playlist at the bottom so you can follow along and listen too.
Feel good smells:
I’m all about creating an environment that stimulates all the senses in a cozy and calm way. Smelling something fresh and nostalgic as I paint helps bring calm to my working time and gets the creative juices flowing. I go back and forth between a seasonal candle I’m loving or diffusing oils that I need.
An organized planner:
I’ve used a lot of planners over the years–and need them to help keep me on track. As many times as I’ve tried to stick with a digital planner, there's something about the tangible writing in one that helps me remember and get it done better. I use this one I created currently in my studio for keeping all my projects together and in order.
So, Here’s a peek at my little desk where I create from with the bright window next to me surrounded by artwork from my kids and messes I’ve put off for months. Come back next month to see the progress as I start to tackle this project. In the meantime, follow along on Instagram when I share more peeks and ask you for feedback.
In the meantime, enjoy this playlist to bring some calm to your day.
"Love is a Verb" art print inspired by an all time favorite of mine, John Mayer
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hand lettered prints from songs I was inspired by || "One Plus One" art print (left) and "People Let me Tell You" art print (right)
It got me wondering why I love doing this so much. Music has always been an inspiration and intertwines with everything I paint and create for the home, whether it’s the lyrics or the feeling that comes when listening to it. So many feelings and memories can be attached to music, it can bring us back to a moment in time that speaks life into us again, reminds us of our best memories dancing in the car or in the living room with our kids. It brings me back to making music videos with friends in college (wait, am I the only one that did this?!). And it can connect with us in our heartache and pain, making us feel like we’re not alone, giving us hope to keep going and to seek the beauty that’s waiting for us.
And that’s why it fills me up to create these for others. To give people something that could bring beauty and comfort into their day. To help them connect with the songs the way I did or give them a reason to find hope in whatever they’re going through.
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So this post is a bit like sharing those burned CDs back in grade school with you. I’m going to start sharing them here seasonally on the blog to give you something that I hope will bring beauty and comfort to your every day moments. It’ll also be like a peek into my studio as you listen along to the tunes I'm playing in the background as I paint.
If you’re like me and just want more good music in your life make sure you get on my email list here to get them monthly– along with a lot of other behind the scenes content I share only with my email community.
Since it’s February, I’ll start off by sharing the newest one I created sweetly titled “Adore” (and yes it’s a a great one to listen to as you browse the Valentines mini collection I have in the shop right now).
Play it in the morning sipping your first hot cuppa, or in the car for a long drive, or low in the background as you make dinner for your loved ones. It’s a feel good mix with sweet songs and lyrics to make you feel all kinds of love this season and to remind you again, you are worthy of love and you are worthy of beautiful things!
Click here or the image above to take you to the playlist on Spotify
Leave a comment below and tell me some of your favorite music you love to listen to so I can add them in too.
I hope you enjoy it, friend!
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I titled the collection “Adore” because I wanted you to have a sense of adoration when you looked at this collection as a whole and in turn adore them even more as they are placed in your own home. I hope you can feel the love poured into these paintings and given to you to experience the comforting feelings they bring and remind you of the beauty your life is worthy of.
This collection is full of pieces that are our most loved items, a few from our vault that I have put away for a bit but have since been requested a few times to come back– like this painting I created a few years ago. I also added in a few more pieces that I painted recently that I think fit perfectly within this curated collection.
photo above features "More than Life Itself" print in 8x10 and "August Blooms" in 11x14 framed maple canvas
Here’s some snippets of the new prints that are brand new to the collection and the meaning behind them:
“More Than Life Itself” a phrase my parents always said to us growing up and that I continue to say to my own kiddos now. This print also hangs on our wall among the little gallery wall I put together in our bedroom here you can see in the picture above. A sweet sentiment to gift for Valentine’s day that will still be just as sweet to read over and over again all year through.
“Worthy of the Loveliest”, a quote I wrote down when I thought about the truth that so many of us need to hear as we are walking the realities and pains life can bring our way. It’s easy to get distracted that our life isn’t worthy of meaning or beauty, but I hope this simple phrase brings a bit of that light and hope that reminds you in the times when distraction looms, that you really are worthy of the loveliest things.
"I Simply Adore You", I don't think it takes much to tell the ones we love how much we care about them. I think of this quote when I watch my kids playing or doing something I think is the cutest thing in the world or when I think of how much Shane makes me laugh when he's fully himself. To tell them we adore them just as they are can say and mean so much.
“Blooms for you” I painted as I was dabbling with new color palettes for this year and it came out in these florals and blooms that I thought brought a loveliness and brightness to the collection.
"Colorful Hearts", the last of the newest prints is a playful and colorful piece that is perfect for any kid's room or nursery for an extra pop of color and fun.
A handful of greeting cards are available in the collection that have continued to be best sellers. I also added in these jotters I thought could make a simple and sweet gift for your best gals for celebrating Galentine’s day too!
So, whether you're celebrating the holiday or not, I hope you find some pieces among this collection that can adorn your walls and make it feel a little more like home as you hang them. Meaningful pieces that you'll love and adore for many years to come.