crafty love

whew! we have had a busy, fun morning of crafting. we are gearing up for celebrating the birthday's of two of my precious nephews and, of course, valentine's day!

i have a jar that i keep broken crayons in for crayon recycling. i've been so inspired by all of the people around the blogosphere making heart shaped ones for valentine's day! we decided to make some this morning for a valentine party the kid's will be having at church.

i set out some stamps for buddy to use on his, and i was pleasantly surprised to see that he preferred placing the heart across the entire stamp pad and pressing down. my first extinct was to tell him to stop, but when he pulled it off, it made the most beautiful stained glass effect. we decided that was the best method, and continued in that fashion.

i learn so much from my kid's. like in this instance, the letting go, seeing what happens, crafting from the gut- what freedom!

we set some of the crayons aside for my nephew quinn. he is turning two, and this boy LOVES to color. moonpie made him a little bag for his crayons (on her very own sewing machine-that post soon to come) and a book of coloring pages.

i was first inspired to make these little coloring books when my grandmother brought back two hand drawn coloring books from amish country. i fell in love with the simple line drawings of farm life on those pages, and wanted to replicate that feel. it is clear that moonpie is the resident artist in this home, so she has taken over the task of our handmade coloring books. she put so much thought into each of the drawings for her little cousin. i just know that quinn is going to love it!

quinn also loves books and shoes. check out these great vintage wooden shoes (and books) i found for him at our thrift store:

and here's what we cooked up for baby jack. he turned the O-N-E this week, and i can hardly believe it. i was honored to be in the room when jack was born and can't get over that it happened a whole year ago. he's getting his very first pair of monkey britches:

and some bean bags in coordinating stripes. my favorite thing about these little bags is that the alternate fabrics i used are all from jack's great-grandmother's fabric stash. i hope he enjoys all of the textures and squishy barley that his big cousins poured in for him.

we are off for the weekend to celebrate!