Framed Family Hands

I love the way this pin turned out! Such a simple idea and so cute! As the original blogger pointed out, it’s an inexpensive idea as well!
My husband, silly man that he is, questioned why I was doing this pin when I had already done a handprint pin only 4 months ago. I answered him “because it’s our hands!”
I’ve always had a thing for hands. For some it’s the eyes, or the lips, but I’ve always been fascinated by hands. You can tell a lot about a person by their hands. Chiara has picked up on it too, as she keeps holding her hand up to mine, asking, “do you love my small hands?”
I’ll probably do something like this every year until Arthur’s hand gets bigger than mine. It won’t take long, as I have small hands and my children are growing too fast!
This was a very simple craft for me, I have a ton of scrapbooking supplies, including paper and stickers. I did have a few false starts, trying to use the stencils of the kids hands I used for their valentines.

The picture may be a little difficult to see, but the easiest way I found to do this was to start with the smallest hand. Lay the next biggest hand over that outline, keeping the hand outlines lined up. It makes a better visual if the fingers line up, at least mostly.

After you have all of your outlines, cut out the biggest hand and trace it onto your chosen paper. Then cut down to the second largest, trace onto chosen paper, cut again, etc..

When you’re done, you’ll have a hand family like so. There’s no rules about the paper you use, just pick patterns or colors you like together.

Then choose a background in the size of whatever frame you’re using. I cut mine to 8×10, this left plenty of room at the top for the family name as well! If you have someone in your family with a hand big enough to palm a basketball you may need to go 11×14.

You may have nicer hand writing than I do, if so you could hand write the name at the top, but I wanted to go a little fancier than my handwriting would allow, enter my sticker collection!
You can barely see it in the first photo, but I wrote the year at the bottom of Chiara’s hand. For posterity’s sake, put the date on!
Happy crafting all!

Christmas Family Photo

I’ve mentioned this before, but I love Pinterest. Not just for the ideas they have posted, which my blog is based on, but for how it sparks your own creativity. The original idea for this photo came from here, and it depicts two young children in a bed, dressed in jammies, oversized ornaments on the bed and they are reading a book. I fell in love with it!
I started by buying a prelit strand of greenery from Walmart and wrapping it around my headboard. I love my bed frame! We put on our most Christmas-y bed sheets and comforter and dressed in our jammies.
We used the book The Polar Express as it is a family favorite and the edition we have is beautiful.
I set my camera up on a small tripod and positioned my family with the book opened. We took many photos, as little kids are prone to wiggle. I didn’t want to use the flash, keeping the light muted. No fancy techniques for that, I just unscrewed a few of the lightbulbs in our ceiling light to get the right light levels.
At first I tried getting everyone to look at the book, but quickly realized Chiara couldn’t handle it. Arthur and Tony were watching the book, Chiara needed a focus, so we smiled at each other.
After I finally got the winning shot for our Christmas card, I wanted to try another one, for fun.

I loved the way this turned out, although I did have to do a little fiddling around to lighten it up. I don’t know what I will do with this photo, but it turned out so beautiful, I’m sure I’ll find the perfect spot. I love how close we are in this one moment in time. I think this is why I love taking photos, because a moment can never be recreated exactly. You can come close, but never perfectly recreate, but a photo can at least preserve the moment forever……..

Thankful

This photo was taken last Christmas Eve, but it’s one of my favorite family photos. It felt like we were the only ones in the world that day. All the snow was fresh and clean, the air was chilly, but not too cold to be out and everyone was in a happy mood. I was able to use one of the posts to set up the camera with the timer, so yeah me!
When you work retail, it’s so easy to let the consumerism that takes over the holidays ruin it for you. It seems like every year, they start playing the music a little sooner, the Black Friday sales start a little earlier and it becomes more and more about, buy, buy, buy. If there is one thing I hope to teach my kids, it’s that the holidays are about family.
Don’t get me wrong, my kids get some fun things from Christmas! After all, they have grandparents! LOL. They get so excited about their new toys, like all kids do, but they are so excited when we are spending time with each other, and actually focused on each other.
I do try not to judge how other people raise their kids, and when I can’t help it, I vent to Tony in the privacy of our home, but so many people are worried about showing their kids how much they love them with things, or society is teaching our kids that they HAVE to have this or that to be cool. I’m so afraid that my kids will ever develop that attitude.
Thankfully, Tony and I both come from families with similar feelings toward the concept of family. You spend time together, you do things together, you experience things together. Even the day in the photo, it was chilly and obviously there was snow, but we had so much fun walking around, watching the ducks and playing on the frigid playground equipment. I think part of the reason I’m such a photo nut is because they capture memories. Once a moment has passed, it’s gone, except for the memory. I hope one day the kids will look back on these photos of their childhood and remember that we spent time together as a family. They may not have had the most stylish clothes or the newest game system, but they will always know how much we love them.
I am just so thankful all the time, but especially around the holidays, for my family, the one Tony and I have together and the ones we came from that allowed us to forge such a strong one of our own. Our friends who help enrich the lives of our children and us by sharing these experiences with us. Take some time this holiday season to step away from the commercialism and appreciate what you already have. Enjoy the moments before they pass you by. Snap mental pictures, or real ones, to savor the memories long after the day has passed.
I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the food and companionship and if you must shop during the insanity, or work as I do, please be safe, but don’t forget the real reason of Thanksgiving. It’s not the sales, it’s a time to slow down and appreciate what you already have.

Pity Party

I have a few things on tap for activities I’ve already accomplished. However I’m engaged in a pity party tonight so I can’t quite work up my normal enthusiasm tonight.
Have you seen the commercial of the balding father and son eating pudding? The father is explaining how work and life are so stressful and he needs the pudding. That’s how I feel right now, only I have no pudding.
Life isn’t exactly where I wanted to be as I’m approaching 30, but I’m pretty happy with myself. I may not have the position I want at work, but I have a job that pays the bills and experience that gets a little more varied every day. The real highlight of my life right now is my personal life.
I have a husband who is the love of my life, and I was lucky enough to meet him early in life. I’ve known him since I was 13 and I’ve been with him since I was 18 years old. We have 2 amazing children who just amaze me a little more each day, even when they frustrate me.
Today is one of those days that I am so thankful for my family. I was denied the opportunity to even interview for a position that I have been working for for the last 10 years. It sounds whiny, but I have never interviewed for a position that I didn’t get. Now I’m being denied the opportunity to interview because of the way something was phrased.
I feel like I’ve almost reached the top of the rope and someone just doused it with oil, and down I slide.
Sorry about the downer, but I needed to voice some frustrations, and the internet is such an easy listener!