Valentine's Day 2012

What a fun Valentine's Day we've had! This year was the year I actually remembered to put out all the cute Valentine's decor I've collected over time (for the first time, seriously!) and thanks to Pinterest.com, I've also felt compelled to do a little "more" with this silly little holiday for once. So we did!
Micah filled out and took her own store-bought Valentine's (The Muppets) to school this morning (along with candy for her class). The littles had parties at Mothers Day Out so I let Haven make little treat bags for her friends and attach her store-bought Valentine's (Disney Princesses, of course) to each of them. She had the best time with this! I realized at some point (okay, yesterday) that I had forgotten to buy Stone any cards for his class so after scouring Pinterest and surprisingly coming up empty-handed, I came up with the idea for hand-made owl magnets! I know the other five 18-month olds were SO impressed....

Here's how I made them:

 I free-handed everything except the eyes (I've never been good at cutting circles) which were about the size of a dime, as shown.
Stone really had a good time watching, I mean helping: 

I used Elmer's glue (not usually my glue of choice but out of sheer laziness I didn't want to look for my Tacky Glue or hook up my glue gun for just scrapbooking paper) and I put them under a paper file to help them dry:

Here are the finished products, before magnets. I really really wanted to laminate them last-minute but remembered I don't have a laminating machine (boo.) so I just stuck magnets from a magnet strip on the back. (Don't forget when using magnets from a magnet roll to bend and mold the magnet pieces with your hands to make sure they don't bow your paper.) 

Who knows if any of these will actually appear on the refrigerators of Stone's classmates, but we had fun with it!

At least they will enjoy the candy inside the treat bags, right?
More to come on our yummy Valentine's dinner!
 

Crafty Craftiness Giveaway!

I'm going to give this whole blog-giveaway thing a shot! Since OBVIOUSLY I'm not a super-awesome blogger, I figure I can at least redeem my lame blog by giving away something for free! I have been working on some fun things lately for a few friends that I wanted to share, and now, GIVE AWAY something! 

My super awesome photographer, Hollie Peacock of Peacock Photography asked for something cute for her playroom "with owls" on it, she said, and of course after I swooned because of my crazy psycho love of owls, I came up with this (above).

It was inspired by the canvases I made for Stone's nursery:

They looked a little plain, so I later mounted them to an antique window pane and tied them up with burlap (of course) and ribbon. I liked this effect MUCH better. I'll have to take a pic at some point when I'm not using sleep time to do things on the computer. Which may be never. Not sure.

I seem to have lots of friends having babies, so I've been pumping out baby signs for the hospital door:

This is for one of my sweet Premier jewelers, BreAnna. I've done 3 or 4 others in the past couple of weeks, one in particular for my sister Jessica who had my sweet baby nephew Lincoln Crue just recently! Love him! He is just precious! So handsome in fact that I passed out at the mere sight of his awesomeness. True story. Give or take a few details...but I digress...That's another blog entry...

 How fun are these double bow holders for the daughters of my friend Lucy? I think I need to remake Haven's single bow holder to one of these fun ones!

I needed a cake stand at some point and have since bought one, but this one is still a favorite of mine. I made it and now I'm addicted to buying fun plates to make even more! Want one? Let me know! I'll hunt for your perfect fun plate and make you a cake stand! :) If you say pretty please.
I got this idea from Pinterest (of course!) and made a set of these coasters for my friend Stephanie Roy and a set for myself (my favorite way to give gifts apparently...) and I love them:

 Okay and lastly--I LOVE this! One of my favorite passages:

 Want one? All you have to do is leave a comment below, and share this blog on Pinterest or Facebook and let me know in your comment! I'll randomly draw a winner and make you a board like this, or with a different phrase/passage on it if you'd prefer. But do it asap, because I'll choose a winner by Monday!

Thanks for sharing and have an awesome and yummy food-filled Super Bowl Weekend! 

**Disclaimer: If this turns out to be a big giant fail and the only people who leave comments are the 3 people who EVER leave comments (my sister, and my sisters-in-law Anna and Corrie) then I will just have to give you all 3 a happy because you're all my super awesome favorite followers! Okay, disclaimer ended. This is just so I don't look nearly as lame as I probably will end up looking. :)

***Added 2/07/12 at 10:47 pm: Annnnnnndddddddd the winner of my Crafty Craftiness Blog Giveaway is...... (drum roll please)......... Paige Smiley Richardson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My random.org generator picked YOU Mrs.Paige! You can decide on a wooden plaque like the "Make a Joyful Noise" one or a set of fun coasters like the ones featured on my blog! Let me know, girl! And CONGRATS, thanks for reading! :)***

Merry Christmas from the Barkers!

Well, another year has almost come to an end, and WOW what a year! I can honestly say that this year has been one of my top 3 most challenging years of my entire life and yet God has revealed Himself to me more obviously this year than any other year. I am amazed. And humbled. And in awe. And humbled. Did I mention humbled? I am apparently enrolled in The Humility University in a never ending pursuit of a degree in lowering one's pride that I seem to never be any closer to earning. However, this year, God has made an impact in my life, my marriage, my family...and I am so grateful!
Have you ever noticed that when you can see faults so clearly in others that its the very thing that God is nudging you to evaluate in yourself? I seem to be oblivious anytime God supposedly "nudges" me. So instead, He just smacks me in the head with my life lessons. But hey, I am glad He takes the time to teach lame ol' me lessons in how to be more like Him because I still fall so short.
And so all that being said, WHAT A YEAR! Praise the Lord for His mercy!
Among other things, God has strengthened my marriage to a level I never imagined! God has blessed my life and home with 3 of the most precious children who color my life daily with their distinct personalities and craziness! Our church finally after almost 12 years has moved into our very own church building! Our "new" home finally feels like HOME and I love being here more than any other place in the world. Gary and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this past October, and Gary surprised me with a romantic trip to Miami for the two of us. On the traveling front, we skied in West Virginia, vacationed in Cancun with Gary's company and on a cruise to the Caribbean with my company, went on an AMAZING family trip to Disneyworld in October and several other fun adventures. My precious (and first!) niece Lucy Kate was born in February and my sister announced she was pregnant with my 2nd nephew due this next February. My sister Melanie got engaged, my brother and sister-in-law got their very first house, my dad took a part-time job with our church, my brother graduated with his doctorate and is now a pharmacist and so many other changes along the way. My amazing Opa passed away just months ago and my heart is still so sad that he is no longer with us, but his strong legacy will last and last!
So I guess that wraps it all up and yet doesn't even wrap it up a little! But here's to 2011, whom I'm not sad to see go in so many ways, but was a year in which I learned much and grew lots. Thank you Lord for this year!