The Charm of Straw Hats

I have this small, accidental collection of straw hats. I love them! Each one has special memory associated with it. For the past few years most of them have been stored away, but this Spring I thought I would get them all out so that I can enjoy looking at them. And they're handy so that I can grab one on the way out the door on a sunny day!

Going clockwise from the top right:

The one on the top right was purchased at a charming little Victorian shop where I worked for a few years. It's part of a collection of Mary Engelbreit hats that were produced. I love the fruit!

The one below is from Jamaica, purchased at an outdoor market. It's handmade, excellent craftsmanship. I've had it about 20 years now.

At the bottom left is one that I picked up on a very sunny day in Annapolis, Maryland. It's gotten the most use~I love it!

The middle one on the left is from Hawaii. I bought it on my first trip there in 1993 and, yes, I carried it all the way home on my lap in the plane.

On the top left is one given to me by a sweet friend. I love the wide brim on it~so cute!

I never really planned to have a *collection* of hats and who knows if I'll ever have anymore, but I love these and enjoy wearing them occasionally.

This post is linked to Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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