Search Results for: blog showing off the lights of your life

Make Your Own Photo Puppets

Ever since my 3-year-old daughter saw “Curious George Goes to the Hospital” on video she has been on a puppet kick. (In one scene George puts on a puppet show for the sick children at the hospital and my daughter falls down laughing each time she sees George with puppets on his hands and feet.) The first time she watched the tape I made her a set of sock puppets so she could put on a show “just like George.” But, recently I found an even better way to create hand puppets that feature your favorite photos. They are more … Continue reading →

Showing Off the “Lights of Your Life”

My mom refers to my daughter as the “light of her life” (she says the same about my brother’s son) so what better way for her to remember her little beacons than to decorate her home with their smiling faces… on a candle. Photo candles—-they are the next picture project we’re working on this holiday season. If you are visiting this blog for the first time, I’ve been spotlighting a number of ways you can display your favorite pictures and simultaneously create a treasured gift this holiday season. Today’s project is photo candles. For the purposes of this blog I … Continue reading →

Life Imitating Art: My Marriage and Friday Night Lights

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I could relate to an ordeal that Tami Taylor, a character on NBC’s Friday Night Lights, was going through. She and her husband were having a commuter marriage because he had accepted a coaching job in another town. Still in Texas but about two hours away from their home. She stayed behind so that her daughter could stay at her high school with her friends and so that Tami could keep her job. Being apart while a spouse is working elsewhere was something I could definitely relate to. Except in my … Continue reading →

Patience at Christmas

One quality needed in any marriage is patience. Especially at this time of year patience is a necessary ingredient when instead of showing love, many people seem to be impatiently pushing past others and not wanting to take time to talk because they are so busy. On Friday afternoon Mick and I decorated our Christmas tree. We put the wreath on the front door, the nativity scene in the window, a Christmas tableaus sitting on the coffee table and a few scattered baskets of tinsel and pine cones, but hadn’t done anything about lights. Come Saturday Mick and I decided … Continue reading →

Teaching Kids about Earth Day

I have always said that it is important to teach green ways and social consciousness to the kids. After all, they are the future! So with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, you may want to start teaching your children to be green with a few of these ideas: * Teach children to turn off electronics such as the computer and television when not in use. * If you live near stores, take the children for a walk there instead of driving. * Teach children to turn off the lights when they leave the room. * Start … Continue reading →

Stress, Weight Gain and Depression in Adoptive Parents

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“At least you don’t have to deal with the ‘maternity forty’!” chirped a colleague while I waiting for my third child’s arrival from Korea. Adoptive parents frequently hear comments like, “Oh, you’re doing it the easy way”. Now, having had a difficult pregnancy myself, I’m inclined to agree that MY adoption process wasn’t as difficult as my pregnancy. But I was blessed to have had the choice both to conceive and to adopt. Remember that many adoptive parents have been dealing with the grief of infertility. They often feel that their dreams of a family are at the mercy of … Continue reading →

Photo Add Ons

The title might seem deceiving… this post does not discuss embellishments that you can add on to your photos; rather I wanted to provide additional information on topics I blogged about in previous articles. Here’s more info on: PHOTO SORTING When I mentioned that I sort photos chronologically and separate them per event or occasion I failed to mention that I flag some with Post It notes. Doing so reminds me that a certain picture is frame worthy or scrapbook worthy. However, I should note that you should never adhere Post It notes to the front of your pictures. Always … Continue reading →

Creating a Photo Mosaic

I’ve been intrigued by photo mosaics ever since I saw a poster-sized picture of Snoopy hanging in a St. Paul bookstore and realized it was actually an arrangement of thousands of tiny tile photos. Ever since then I have wanted to create a photo mosaic of my own. That was more than five years ago and only now have I gotten around to making my dream a reality. At first I tried to make a photo mosaic on my own. There are hundreds of applications that allow you to do so on your own for free on Macs or PCs. … Continue reading →

What Have I Done to My Marriage? – Part Two, The Meltdown

In a previous article I wrote about some behind-the-scenes drama I’ve been enduring with the big changes in my marriage. Drama that could have threatened it even this early on in our new arrangement–-if I’d let it. I’ll get to the part about the salvation strategies I employed in another article, but first I’ll give you an idea of why I needed to call on them at all. Honeymoon’s Over Today marks a week and a half since my mom and I returned home. (Well, to my existing home and what is becoming her new one.) The first few days … Continue reading →

Photo Fun with Kids

My daughter is amazingly crafty for someone whose mother has trouble sewing the buttons back on shirts. That’s why when it comes to tackling arts and crafts projects I tend to stick with ones that include as few steps as possible. For the past five months my daughter and I have been working on various photo projects for my grandmother. After she suffered a massive stroke she was moved into an assisted living facility and her room was in serious need of some personalized decorations. I detailed some of the ways we spruced up her room in previous blogs and … Continue reading →