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Summer Lovin

Hi friends! I hope you are all staying cool, which is very hard to do when it's 108 degrees out, I know.  There are so many things I want to be spray painting right now, but even at dusk its in the 90's so its not happening. I can't believe summer is already coming to an end :(.  Did it not just start?!?!  I am usually so ready for summer to be over and the heat to go away, but for some reason, I think it's just going too fast and I'm not ready for it to end this year. OK the heat I could definitely do without, but not the summer just yet.  I'm usually always wishing for the next season, in the summer I wish it was fall,  Winter I wish for Spring and so on but now I really just want to stop and soak in the time and not wish it away.  Carter is getting so big too fast, it's like once he hit 3 he became so grown up and independent.
Everyday is more and more fun with him, as he has his own personality. I thought I would share some pics of our summer fun. 
Riding his bike before it got too hot, he keeps saying I wanna take my training wheels off! lol might be a while on that on buddy. My heart can't take how fast you're growing up.


On the weekends we like to go get pizza downtown, the streets are so quiet on the weekends, we will walk around looking in the old buildings trying to envision what life was like decades ago when they were built.  For Fathers Day I made Jamie this picture with all his boys "hand" prints on it ;) It took a few tries to get the dog's to look just right, as you can imagine.  Marty, our little dog, his pencil legs will never not make me laugh.


These are our other kids, Weezy and Marty. Of course they go by many other names too, Wizard, The Martian, Weezo, Martini... and so on.  Marty with is constant smirk, feeling perfectly happy in the 100 degree heat, and Weez playing in a rare moment of energy. That dog loves to sleep.


This Forth we stayed in town instead of going to my sister's house in Dallas like we usually do.  Carter and my nieces played in the sprinklers and ate popsicles. 
After one run through the wet grass, it was stuck like glue to Carter's feet, to which he then sat himself on the swing determined to get it all off, before going further with any fun.  He is one boy that does not like to be dirty! lol  
The kiddos with the shirts I made, I love making them shirts! If I had time I would make a shirt for them to all wear every time we saw each other lol.  They just look so cute all matcy and personalized ;) One of these days they will probably be embarrassed for having to wear stuff like that, but until then they will look cute! For these I used old shirts I found at the Goodwill to make the letters and embellishments.  I used heat transfer and just ironed the cut out letters on. Very Simple.
Jamie and I spent the weekend with our friends who live a couple hours away, it's always fun hanging out, we have been friends for so long and have been through pretty much everything together, Im lucky to have such great best friends, hence the Friendship Bracelets I made them ;) 
Jennie, Me, Jessica, Katy


As the summer comes to an end, I think back to summers when I was a kid and they seemed to last forever, I forget that, from Carter's perspective the days and weeks seem like a lifetime. I wish for his outlook as the last few weeks go by before we enter busy school and fall schedules. I want to soak up the long days and not miss any of the small moments. I hope you all try to do the same! 


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recycled necklace {friendship bracelet}

Lately I have seen so many cute DIY bracelets going around, and I have been wanting to do one for a while.  I just didn't ever want to buy all the supplies to make them, then only make one, and the leftovers lay in my craft closet forever.  This happens a lot, I always have a bright idea of a project, get the supplies and only use about 1/3 of what I bought.  As you can imagine I have quite a stash of scraps! Paper, fabric, yarn, felt, the list goes on and on.  So to help the cause, I have held off as long as I could to make these cute little friendship bracelets.    I finally couldn't take it any more, but instead of buying chains and hooks, I just went through my jewelry box and used old necklaces that I didn't wear anymore! 

The only supplies I did buy were the colored hemp and the end clasps to hold the strands together.  I also used pliers to close the clasps and scissors. So I only spent about $5. Sweet!

So what you need:
hemp or other string
clasps and rings
old necklaces
scissors 
pliers 
This was SO so easy to do, and really didn't take that long to do, I made 4 of these, it took maybe 30 minutes to make each one.  I just worked on them throughout the day and after Cart went to bed I really cranked them out. :) Ok so lets just talk about my old necklaces for a minute, I never actually wore the one in the middle, the one with the shark tooth and feathers, yea, I always try to buy "cool" stuff then never have the guts to actually wear them when the time comes lol, but this time it worked out since I was able to give it a new life ;)

First off, I cut 3 strands of 3 different colors, fairly long, about 14", since I wanted it to wrap around twice, but I have really skinny wrists, so how ever long is up to you.  Then secure each end with the clamp clasps, this is where I used the pliers. 

Then I used a ring to hook through the three clasps and the chain.
I taped the starting end to the counter to hold it in place, then braided the strands together with the chain added to one of the colors.
After I got it braided the length I wanted, I taped the end to keep the braid together while I added the clasps to this end of each strand.
After I got the clasps on, I cut off the excess strands and hooked another ring around the clasps and chain.  I added the original hook from the necklace as well to clasp it together when you wear it.
That's it! And since they ARE "friendship" bracelets, I had to give one to my girlfriends, right?!  I just doodled out their names for a quick tag.  I LOVED making these, for one they were super easy, and didn't take a lot of patience or skill to do, and another, I just love the mix of textures and colors.  


I hope I have inspired you to turn some of your old jewelry into something else as well! :)


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