A Trip for Sanity's Sake

Sometimes you need a trip just for the sake of a trip and to get away from real life. And that's what I did a couple of weeks ago. I packed myself and some craft projects I needed help with and headed to Felicia's. She can work wonders with projects.

I don't have a lot of pictures because the kids were in school. Mostly I have pictures of project progress. We worked on two dollhouses and three stools!

Felicia working her magic.

The inside was really horrible. The whole thing was painted dark brown and black when I first got it. It took a full bottle of paint remover gel. Then I started painting it Christmas colors.

Then Felicia added all the cool paintings and lettering.

And I added a lot of things inside both for looks and in some cases to hide the dark areas in the corners where I couldn't get the old paint off.

And these two plain brown tables became the tables in the photos below.

It was a really short trip. Here are the few photos I have of the kids, three of the girls and Miguel, one of Felicia's grandchildren. We also took a ton of Larissa as my book character Kia in my YA book which will be released through Elk Lake next spring/summer. They were interested in actually using our photos, but they say the resolution is too low. Too bad I don't have time for another trip! I work every Sunday and cannot miss any so it makes for a short trip anywhere I go.

Being Your Best

RoseKidz has a special deal on my first Christian Girl's Guide. It's discounted, plus there's a free download. Check it out HERE. It's a good summer read.

It has:
stories
puzzles
quizzes 
crafts
and a lot more fun!

Building Stuff

Some of us have been taking advantage of the free building workshops for adults at Home Depot, and the free ones for kids at both Lowes and Home Depot. We did them a couple of years ago, then stopped for a while, and then started up a couple of months ago.

Here are some of the projects.

Lowes had cars to make from kits the first three times. 

There's a patch for each completed project.

They made a butterfly house at Home Depot.

Jessica, her mother in law Lisa, Jasmine and I went to a women's workshop at Home Depot. We removed slats from a wood crate.

 Cut it in half with a power saw.

Put the slats back on and added legs to the two halves to make a vegetable stand.

Mine is actually right here in my writing area holding the books I'm using.

Then Lowes had a birdhouse project.

Tyler hung one of them in a tree.

In the next few weeks, the kids have an Angry Birds birdhouse at Home Depot. Jessica, Lisa and I have two womens' ones at Home Depot. Jasmine is joining us for one of them. Tyler, Jessica, Lisa and I are doing two general ones at Home Depot.

If you haven't tried the projects with your kids, give it a go. They may love it. And it's a good bonding thing. It's something Rick does with them. And it's free.

Here is the link to sign up for the Angry Birds birdhouse. You can check for it in your area by zip code. HERE

The women's ones are HERE

The general ones are HERE

And the Lowe's ones are HERE

Let me know in the comments section if you've done any of them or if you plan too.