Double Word Score F A M I L Y

I've been on a mission in my home to add a little color lately. My husband and I have very different styles and over the years the one thing we can meet in the middle on is the color brown. We both like chocolate brown and dark woods. Unfortunately that has left us with a very dull interior. We are realizing we need to rethink this plan, so I am out to find ways to add a touch of color in fun ways that will please everyone in our household.

This was our latest project. I saw the idea to use scrabble tiles to write your families name on pinterest, and in my effort to brighten up our home I decided that we would put them on a painted canvas.

This was a great project to do with our kids. While I mixed paints and did a first coat of paint they worked on configuring all our names into a crossword. We ran into a little trouble when we realized that scrabble doesn't come with three B's but my boys quickly rearranged the tiles so that we connected the B's and had enough.

Afterwards, I let the kids paint a second coat and we mixed a little orange and red to create textured background. Then after it dried I helped them place the letters and glue them on.

In hindsight I wish I had put a little bit of separation between the letters so that it filled the canvas better, but all in all I am happy with the way it turned out. It looks beautiful on the wall with our family pictures and brightens up that space just a bit.

If you stop by please leave a comment, We love 'em!
 

Happy to be linking up with the following parties:
Skip to my Lou
Hope Studio
Coastal Charm 
Not Just a Housewife
French Country Cottage 

Birthday Traditions

My youngest had her 4th birthday this past week. Her birthday always creeps up on me a bit because it is right before Halloween. I am the Children's Minister at our church and so this time of year means planning a Fall Festival. With all that going on I have a hard time also planning a birthday party. One thing that helps is having a few birthday traditions. I know that no matter how much planning I do that those little things we do every year are going to make it so special.

Here are a few of our birthday traditions:
We have a special birthday tablecloth that we use for every party. Each year I use a permanent marker to trace my kids hands on the tablecloth and write their names and age on it. My children love this tablecloth and each year the look to see how big their hands have grown.

A few years ago my mom had a birthday crown and banner made by Cassie at Goldilocks Creations. She did an amazing job and the banner and crown match our tablecloth. The banner is made of felt and has clothes pins on either side so it can clip to curtains or window shades. It also has clips between each banner so you can clip pics of the past year to the banner for the kids to look at.

Another traditions we try to do most years is to having the kids make their own birthday cake. Sometimes this just isn't possible but it sure is fun when we can do it. My kids adore being in the kitchen with me and so they can't wait to make their own cake. This year it was a Rupunzel tower cake. The tower is made of donuts and we used M&M's for vines.

I would love to hear from some of you... what are some of your birthday traditions? Check out Potpourri Friday and some other memory keepers at Time Travel Thursday .

Storybook Dinner

This past week I pulled out one of my favorite little recipe books and let the kids help me make dinner. My kiddo's love playing pretend and reading storybooks. I have one child that is gluten and dairy intolerant and so when it comes to recipes I feel like I had gotten stuck in a rut by not trying new recipes very often. Really though, with a little thought any recipe can be easily adapted and so on this day we decided to try some Storybook recipes and also link to Our Simple Country Life and Brambleberry Cottage . 

This whimsical and beautifully illustrated cookbook is Once Upon a Recipe by Karen Greene. We chose two recipes; Thumbelina Burgers and Tinkerbell's Buns.
My son can not have wheat or dairy so we prepared this recipe for him by baking a wheat/dairy free pizza crust until it was nice and crisp. Then we used a pizza cutter to cut the buns out of his pizza crust and for ours we used bread slices. We did not have any tofu for this recipe so used our left over bread and pizza crust for bread crumbs instead. 

For Tinkerbell's Buns we used gluten free pancake mix and almond milk for substitutes. Ours were not raspberry though... they were made with some homemade blackberry jam given to us by a friend, mmmm!

Of course, Thumbelina burgers and Tinkerbell buns are quite small so we had to add tortilla chips as a side item. This storybook dinner brought a little joy and togetherness to our evening. They have been flipping through the book trying to decide what we should make next. I decided that tonight before bedtime we will be making Winken, Blinken, and Nod Tea :)  You can find more gluten free ideas at these blogs, Every Day Tastes and at Yay for Home!