Defying Gravity

{He landed on his feet, I just didn't catch that on camera}

{This one made me laugh, "♪♪ Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting. ♪♪ "}

{My wild princess}

{The silly dog looks more worried than she does. We've declared him the most un-photogenic dog on earth. It is pretty much impossible to get a nice picture of him.}

After so much cold, snowy, and wet weather it's kind of hard to keep their feet on the ground now that it's warmer and sunny out.

My Love

When I was 23 he told me he loved me. I didn't believe him. I was scared. No, I said, you are infatuated with me. There's a difference, I said. You might think you love me, but really you'll get over it soon enough and then you wont want to be tied down to me. I'll get old, I said. My belly probably won't always be flat. I'll get wrinkly. I won't always look like this in my jeans. I get hormonal, and can be short tempered. You might end up resenting me and our kids, you'll want out, I said.

 I resisted. And he pursued me. I love you he said. I will always love you. I will love you when your belly is full of my babies, when your skin is stretched so tight it feels like you might burst. I'll love you no matter what size jeans you wear. Ideally, you will get old, he said. If our lives go exactly according to my plan we will both live to see our great great grandchildren. We will be old and I will love you. I will love every wrinkle on you beautiful face. I love you no matter what and I always will. He convinced me. I did not know men could love so much. I really didn't understand the amazing capacity he had for loving me. I might not yet.

He loves me. He loves me and thinks that I am beautiful. He loves my body, even after my once flat belly has curved to cherish and grow 6 children. Stretched and scarred, he thinks I am beautiful, maybe even more so now. I look up to find him watching me, smiling to himself. When I have spit up on my shirt, and my hair hasn't been washed and I am almost in tears from exhaustion or frustration, he loves me. When I was so tired with early pregnancy that I could barely function he came home after a long and very hard day at work, and offered to make dinner. His scrambled eggs have saved us from starvation more than once in those early months. My freckles are now divided by a few more wrinkles, and he kisses each one of them. He comes up behind me while I am cooking dinner and spins me around to dance with him while singing me love songs. He works so hard, so that I can stay home and care for our children.He starts and ends every single day the same, always with a kiss. He provides us with a wonderful life, full of love and laughter. He loves me just the way I am, unconditionally.  He has sacrificed so much for me, all of us, and yet he never complains. He shares his dreams with me, he whispers to me in the darkness, and tells me how he loves me and how he can't wait to be old with me, and how much fun it will be when we are surrounded by all of our children and (hopefully) many grandchildren.

I feel so privileged to be the one he chose. He is my one and only, my heart's own love. It still amazes me that he loves me the way he does.

Happy Valentine's Day my darling love.

New Window Star Tutorial with printable pattern

I love making window stars out of kite paper. The way they seem to glow as the light shines through the translucent paper is almost magical. I've been wanting to share this wonderful new kind of window star with you for a while now, and with the end of winter nowhere in sight at the moment, today seemed like a great time to do it! (Is it just me or does this winter really seem to be dragging on and on and on. My husband and mom assure me that I feel like this every February.) Well, I guess that is why I enjoy my pretty window stars even more at this time of the year. They give us something bright and happy to look at when almost everything outside of our windows is grey and cold and hibernating.

♥Our Valentine inspired window star♥

For this tutorial you'll need paper. Each star is made from 10 individually folded stars. We used this kite paper from Palumba, but many natural toy retailers carry it. (Not an affiliate link, just informational!) You'll also need a copy of the pattern I drew up.  (The link for the pattern is {now*}at the end of this post.) I've included 2 sizes for the pattern so if you have the 6.25 inch square kite paper like we do you can simply print out the pattern and the largest size can be used with a whole sheet of paper with the least amount of waste possible. The smaller sized pattern has been made to work perfectly with the same size paper that has then been folded into quarters to make approximately 3 inch squares. And lastly you'll need a pair of scissors and a glue stick. 

First you'll need to cut our your pattern and then cut out 10 pentagon shapes for each window star you'd like to make.

Matthew helped me make our stars. This is a great project for bigger kids. 

After you have your pentagons cut out you'll need to make the creases for your stars. I've included lines on the patterns to show you where to fold the stars.

Next you'll need to make a small cut into the center section between each of the points of the star.

Fold each of the flaps you created on each point inwards to turn your pentagon into a star. 

Once you have all 10 stars folded you can decide how you want them to be arranged in you window star.

Next you'll need to place the star (flap side up) with one point facing you and 2 points facing away from you. Then you'll need to open  up one flap on the top left point as shown above and then fold up the bottom point of the star so your window star will have that lovely wreath shape. Repeat those steps with all of your stars. 

Now look at the picture above. You'll need to take the unfolded flap and tuck it behind the star to it's left. the point just below the one with the flap will then be tucked under the folded up point of the star to the left. Once you have those in place you'll want to fix them there with a bit of glue. (I really do find that glue sticks work wonderfully with this kind of paper)

Continue following the last steps connecting all of your little stars to form the big one. 

Once your window star if formed, you can glue down each of the folded up flaps. If there are any remaining flaps that don't seem to want to stay folded down you can glue them into place as well. Sometimes I do, but if they are staying nicely in place I don't worry about it. 

TaDa! You can now hang your beautiful star in the window for the light to shine through. (We use a bit of glue stick to hang our stars. It washes off easily with a bit of warm water when your ready to take them down.) 

Aren't they lovely?! I just love bright happy things. And these window stars make our winter view so much more cheerful! 

♥♥Here is the link for the pattern!♥♥ 

You should be able to open it and print it out onto a full size piece of paper to get the appropriately sized pentagons for your stars. 

Somehow I got distracted just as I was going to publish this post this morning and forgot to include the pattern link...oops! But now it's fixed...so that's good! 

Sharing with Linda for Creative Friday and Skip to my Lou.