4th of July Rosette Headband Tutorial

I saw this super cute headband on Pinterest. You can view the picture HERE. I didn't want to post it without permission. It inspired me to make one of my own for the girls.

Supplies:

Felt in red, white and blue

White elastic 

(I bought my satin elastic from Pamper Your Princess on Etsy)

Hot glue gun

Needle and thread in red, white and blue

Step 1: Cut three strips of felt approximately 1" x 12"

Step 2: Twist each piece of felt

Step 3: Holding one end of twisted felt, slowly wrap felt around center, tuck end piece under the bottom

Completed rosette

Step 4: With a needle and thread carefully stitch through all layers

You can also choose to use hot glue and add dots of glue as you wrap

Ta-da! Three pretty little rosettes!

Step 5: Measure your girls' head, from the back of the neck up towards her ears, to the top of her head. Take that measurement and decrease it by about two inches, sense the elastic is stretchy.

I used an 18" piece for Jilian and her head measures 20". But double check before cutting your elastic.

Step 6: Hand stitch the ends of the elastic together

You should have three rosettes and one elastic headband

Step 7: Starting with the white rosette, hot glue it over the seam in the elastic. Next hot glue the red and blue rosettes in place. You want the rosettes close together, even overlapping slightly because when the elastic stretches, there will be a little space between them.

Finished headband

All ready for the 4th of July!

Because linky parties are fun!

 

A fun and refreshing Summer drink, Italian sodas

The girls and I love Italian sodas! They are so yummy! After spending too much money buying them from local coffee shops I decided to purchase the ingredients for at home treats. They are just as delicious and much cheaper of course!

Our favorite is raspberry vanilla.

Recipe

1 cup club soda

1 to 2 tablespoons (depending on desired sweetness) 

each of raspberry and vanilla syrup

Ice

Stir and enjoy!

I got these super cute mason jar glasses at a new local gift store Pulp & Circumstance for only $3.99 each. I found some cute ones by Party Delights on Etsy, in case you want to treat yourself.  :-)

Prayer Cards...free printable

Life presents us with challenges...plain and simple. And there are times when I feel like there is nothing I can do to help however, I have learned, that prayer is doing something.

Praying for friends, family or those in need is powerful. Yet I am forgetful at times. If I tell someone I will keep them in my prayers, I want to be intentional and follow through with that promise.

To help me do just that I created a simple prayer card. To write the names or prayer requests of those in need. And even to remind myself to pray for my girls and husband. Because if I am not praying for them, who is?

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6

If you would like a copy of these Prayer Cards you can download them HERE.

Living intentionally

Part of living the life we long for is being intentional and focused. So often we fail to make choices that support our goals or the ideal we would like for our lives.

As we all well know, life is FULL. Too full. It is easy to lose site of what we are really living for with the many distractions in life and overloaded responsibilities.

In order to help us stay centered and hopefully guide us to make intentional choices, we are going to write a Life Mission Statement.

Mission statements are often used for business purposes but are very helpful in any area of life.

A mission statement is defined as "a statement of the purpose of a company, organization or person, its reason for existing."**

In essence a Life Mission Statement will help us identify our purpose.

To develop your life mission statement you will need to ask yourself a few questions:

• What roles do I have?
• For whom do I do it?
• What are my priorities within each role?
• Which roles are most important?
• Which roles are a necessity?
• What do I hope for?
• What do I want to be remembered for?

As an example here are my answers:

Roles:

Wife, Mother, Etsy shop owner, Crafter, Counselor, Christian 

Roles in Order of Importance:

Christian, Wife, Mother, Crafter, Counselor, Etsy shop owner

To write a clear Life Mission Statement we must narrow down our roles. Although all of our roles are important, we can not focus on everything. The hope of a mission statement is to help provide focus when life feels scattered.

For example, my Life Mission Statement will include my roles as a Christian, Wife, Mother and Crafter.

Next we need to dream. What do we want to be remembered for? What do we long for?

Here's my dream:

At the end of my time here on Earth, as I enter the gates of Heaven, my soul longs to hear ”Well done, good and faithful servant”, Matthew 25:21. I want Jeremy to think of me as a loving and supportive wife. I want my girls to think of me as nurturing, supportive and safe. Being creative is very important to me, so I want time to create, to establish a home that encourages creativity. I want to have fun with my girls. I want to inspire them to grow into women of God. I want to encourage Jeremy in his walk with Christ.

The last step is to turn our dreams into action statements. By rewording our hopes into actions, a foundation is laid as to what we need to do to live out our dream.

My Life Mission Statement:

To pursue Christ with my whole heart, mind and soul.

To love and support Jeremy so he can be all God has created him to be.

To play with my girls. To be their encourager. To help them learn and grow into women that love Christ.

To create space in my life to allow for creativity and to cultivate an intentional home.

To live a life that inspires others to live as children of God.

As you walk through this process, I encourage you to pray and ask for God's guidance.

I hope this process is inspiring to you!

Once you have your Life Mission Statement written, print it out and read it. Maybe even put it on pretty paper, frame it and put it somewhere you will see it often.

**Wikipedia

My baby graduated from Kindergarten!

May 28th my little Miss Jilian graduated from Kindergarten. I still can not believe that it is over! The school year went too quickly. She was so very proud of herself and is very excited for first grade.

The first day of Kindergarten

Jilian got to led everyone in the pledges. 

Jilian and her friend Jocelyn

Her teacher Mrs. Kwok

After her graduation she wanted more pictures in front of the house.

These poses were her ideas! :-)