Smile And Wave

Mother's Day

These two have permanently changed me in so many ways. My heart will always be bigger, my stomach less flat, and my mind always slightly distracted by where they are and what they're doing. For the past (almost) seven years I've had to think about their needs before mine and Brett's, plan around nap times and potty breaks, think three steps ahead to make sure I catch the potential safety hazards, all the while hoping I was staying in the moment long enough to see them as they were.

They grow so quickly.

These two treated me to an adventure up a creek and an afternoon in the backyard with only one timeout needed and hardly any whining while we drove the alleys of downtown Colorado Springs in search of a shaded but colorful backdrop. I got all the dandelions on our hike, a new ironing board cover (I asked for one), and Chinese takeout. There were no pedicures or naps or fancy shopping trips but I got what I am always craving these days - time as a family adventuring in this pretty little part of the country.

Our extended family got some happy news when my cousin and her husband announced they were expecting over the weekend! They had a long wait for their twin girls that they had through in vitro and were told they had about a 1% chance of ever getting pregnant on their own in the future. Turns out that 1% chance is due in December! So happy for you, Sarah and Jason! 

I know Mother's Day isn't easy on every heart. There are so many ways to ache over both being and not being a mama (yet). While we've had a little heartache in the past with an early miscarriage and are coming on two years of wondering if this month is the month, I am so thankful for what we have right now. 

Thankful and hopeful. 

-Rachel

Outfit Details: Dress, Target. Shoes c/o ModCloth, Necklace c/o Moorea Seal. Watch, gifted. Ruby's dress, vintage. Skinny jeans, Target. Shoes, Payless. Sebastian's vintage shirt, gifted. Cords, Target. Shoes, Old Navy.

Giveaway: A Little More Color from Crayola

Thanks to the lovely folks at Crayola, I've already got the kids' Easter baskets filled and stashed for Easter morning. We go through a lot of art supplies these days thanks to my little Impressionists and since we're still tripping over new toys received (and thoroughly enjoyed) at Christmas and on Valentine's Day I'm really thankful for the opportunity to give them what my friend, Mindy, calls consumables. The sidewalk chalk and bubbles will surely come out on our next warm afternoon and the Color Wonder pads will help keep boredom at bay until then. 

Along with the Crayola Wonder Pads, Crayola Chalk, Crayola Outdoor Colored Bubbles Big Wand, and Crayola Crayons, they sent a $25 gift card to Michael's to help me create the ultimate Easter basket. Along with supplies to fill in their baskets I picked up some butterflies to adorn Ruby's handle and some scrapbook paper to make a little banner for Sebastian's. The plastic eggs are full of bubblegum and I also found a few smaller treats I knew they'd like.

I love the way their baskets turned out and how colorful they are. I know the kids are going to flip out when they see all of these goodies waiting for them!

The best part is that Crayola is going to send the same products to one of my lucky readers! One winner will receive all of the items pictured below plus a $25 Michael's gift card to help fill their own basket. 

To enter for a chance to win:

* Leave a comment below sharing what you're most looking forward to once Spring arrives. 

For extra chances feel free to do the following and then comment again letting me know you did.

* Tweet about this giveaway from @Crayola on @RachelDenbow.

* Like Crayola on Facebook.

I'll choose a winner on March 6th so that Crayola can send out your prize in time for Easter. Please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if a link is not available.

Thanks to Crayola for a chance to enjoy these products!

-Rachel

Note: The Crayola product, gift card, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by Crayola.

Valentine's Day 2013

This Valentine's Day was so different from last year. Last year we were having brunch with our dear friends the morning after our going away party at Red Velvet and then headed back to our house to pack for our big move. This year we're about to mark a full year in our new city. 

My friend, Jessa, and I had planned to do it up real good for our boys' class V-day party since their Christmas party consisted of celery, apples, and popcorn at their desks while the class next door had paper chains hanging from every wall and Christmas music playing while they all danced around the room. Thankfully, his teacher welcomed our enthusiasm and we spent the two days before the party gathering and making.

I reused a lot of things I had leftover from Ruby's pink and red birthday party but made extra garland from felt squares, a garland of love letters, some felt hearts to hang from the ceiling, and a fringed felt heart for their class door (seen on our mantle mirror). There were balloons and healthy treats in the mix and Jessa made the best cake pops I've ever had. It was so fun preparing for it because I knew the kids would enjoy the extra festive feeling of their room and I really wanted S to have the same kind of party memories I have from elementary school. We had some great room moms! I still remember you, Mrs. Donahue!

The afternoon I was supposed to take everything to his classroom to set up I got a call from the nurse's office saying Sebastian had a temperature of 104. I felt bad for the kid. He was going to have to miss his Valentine's Day party and all the fun of exchanging Valentines with his friends. I wasn't about to pull out of party decorating, though, so he got hauled back up to school with Ruby and his carpool buddy and they helped set the party table and played with balloons while I got tiny electrocutions every time I lifted a ceiling tile to hang garlands. It made me feel better that he was still able to take part in a small way.

On Valentine's Day we putzed around the house and got a few fun packages in the mail from family far away before heading back to school to pick up Sebastian's valentines and take our decor down. His teacher said the kids loved it and he appreciated it despite some of his other male teacher friends giving him a hard time about all the pink and red. We were able to bring home our decorations and string them up in our own space to finish off the day with a shrimp stir fry and plans for a date night the following day.

We also got to enjoy the fact that Brett was at home with us to celebrate instead of being away with work responsibilities. A vague timeline that I was dreading for months when we moved here has come and gone and his job is keeping him stationed here in town for the time being. It's been a small sigh of relief but I also know not to get too comfortable with anything the Army decides as things can change so quickly. For now, I'm learning to be so grateful for the time we've been given. 

Almost exactly one year here in our new town. That blows my mind. I still feel like we just got here. 

Did you do anything special to celebrate V-Day? Ruby bedazzled her giraffe. 

-Rachel

p.s. Some have asked how I made the garlands and fringed heart. For the garlands I cut felt squares in half, folded the top edge over some braided twine, and stitched it down before cutting fringe up to the stitch line. I spent a lot of time at the sewing machine but it's almost mindless work after awhile and there's always netflix. Plus, they're reusable and great for birthday parties. For the heart I got some felt yardage, cut out a heart, cut strips of felt that overlapped the edges and were about 5" wide and stitched them to the heart shape at the top before cutting fringe into them. I made sure the next layer of felt covered the stitch line until I got to the top. Then I cut four holes in the top of the heart piece but under the fringe to string twine through to hang it on the wall/mirror.   

All You Need Is Love

Thank you for visiting Smile and Wave time and time again, sweet people. I am thankful for your presence here and all of your encouragement and support throughout the last six years. I hope your Thursday is special and inspiring and that you feel loved. 

-Rachel

Straw Bunting DIY

I was making a himmeli last week and had a ton of pink and coral straws leftover and suddenly I realized I could string up a bunch of triangles and have a new kind of bunting! I love that it's got negative space, is three dimensional, and won't get easily ruined in storage or if used outdoors.

1. Decide how long you want your bunting to be and multiply by three to get your twine length. I used pink twine from Lowe's but you could also use embroidery thread or really thin rope. You just need something thin enough for two pieces to fit through a straw. You'll also need three straws for each triangle. I used 6" coral straws for the bottoms and 4.5" pink straws for the tops. I placed my pink straw on first and then two coral straws and pushed them to the left end. 2. Then I bent my straws around to arrange a triangle shape. 3. Take your long end and string it back through the top straw as shown. 4. Add your next triangle in the same order of size/color and restring that long end through the top to get your next triangle. Continue until you're out of room.

I hung mine up with glittered tape from the Martha Stewart line and cut little triangles into the ends. I found my straws at Target but you can find darling striped and spotted ones on Etsy or large party stores. Spray painting is always an option if you can't find the perfect shade of mint!

 Now, go make some bunting.

-Rachel

Sweet On You Valentine Inspiration

I hadn't been excited to decorate for Valentine's Day until this week and then it hit full force. We've never sent Sebastian to school with handmade Valentine's because he's always wanted Star Wars or Transformers themed cards but this year I got him hooked on the idea of making them with honey sticks! He loves them so I knew if I brought some home and explained my idea we might be able to turn it into a fun project to work on together. 

I made a little prototype for him to give him an idea of what I was talking about and then used my heart template to trace 26 more onto manilla filing folders. His job is to cut them out and write the names of his classmates on the front and I'll help with adding the arrow embellishments and punching holes. Ruby has already colored a few to send off to relatives. 

I made the straw bunting to hang in our dining room (find the DIY here). It's such a fun alternative to paper or fabric bunting and can be used for almost any occasion by switching out colors. The mini cupcakes were from a local shop, Cupcake Girls. I bought a dozen and then dipped a few in bright pink sprinkles from the Target $1 section. I loved how they looked with the dark berries. I split them with the kids and we had ourselves an early Valentine's Day treat. 

There are so many darling Valentine's Day decorations floating through Pinterest right now. If you need some inspiration you need to see what Alison has been working on, some of what Merrilee and her littles have been making, a handful of cute card ideas, and I think Ruby would flip over these! 

Are you hand-making any Valentine's for someone special this year? 

-Rachel

The Last of Christmas

I almost didn't take photos of our Christmas decor before putting it all away but I knew I'd regret it later. It's almost entirely different from last year's decor in our last house, although I did use some of the same elements. I wanted to continue to use things I love but organized some in a different way to suit a different space. I filled in the gaps with handmade or thrifted pieces and ended up really happy with it in the end. 

I made our stockings last year out of some beautiful Melody Miller fabric paired with some pretty flannels and solids but they just didn't fit with the dark fireplace and pink and gold color scheme so I used some leftover felt from the banner and garlands and made some new ones. I just used the old one as a template for the largest size and made gradually smaller sizes. Then I stitched them together at the sides and hand-cut the designs before gluing them to the front with tacky glue. I'm keeping the old ones but only because I think they're so pretty, not because I'm sentimental. My grandmother gave my mom ours from when we were kids and they put up the same stockings for our kids at their house every year. I love that idea but I think I get too hung up on how we're in a new house almost every other Christmas and everything changes. Do you use the same ones every year? 

I thrifted all of the deer one at one time but these white ones got a makeover with some glittered antlers. The faux antlers in the center of the mantel had their tips done as well. I had a handful of white bottle brush trees and then bought some of the green ones they sell at Michael's and bleached them. I had some trouble with the larger ones so I only used the smaller ones this year.

The angels were all thrifted a few weeks before Christmas. They just kept showing up at thrift stores and I realized I loved them. The choir boys are a similar style and I picked those up after Christmas but had to put them out for a bit when we got back home. The faux snow globe has a vintage tart tin turned upside down with an old angel ornament similar to ones I had as a kid. Her wings were broken so I hot glued some tinsel to her back to make wings and then glued her to the tart tin and added some faux snow. 

I'd searched and searched online for a cement lawn deer like the one above for months and always kept my eye out when driving around town for those kitchsy lawn ornament stores but to no avail when I finally saw one at one of my favorite old flea markets outside of Joplin, MO on break. Our car was already full so I had to scoot my seat back as much as Sebastian could stand it and placed it in the floorboard of my seat. Then I climbed in with my legs stuck through it and had to drive with my purse, laptop, camera, and quilt on my lap. It was a site but I would've tied it to the roof to get it home. We were ablel to offload some presents and ship some back home in order to repack a bit and free up my seat again. Ha! Ruby always loved the one at the Red Velvet shop so now she has her own deer pony to ride. I imagine he'll be a part of our decor year round instead of just at Christmas as I first intended.

We had twinkle lights strung in almost every room and our front porch was kind of incredible at night. It housed the kids' tree that we cut down in the woods and had some more vintage ornaments in red, white, and gold but it bit the dust while we were away and the floor in there is covered in needles so no porch tour this year. I also had two vintage deer cut outs that I planned on hanging in the kids' room but just never figured out where. Next year, they'll be up for sure.

Christmas at our house looks a little different every year but I love that we have enough elements of what we love, things we've collected over the years, and handmade bits that feel extra special to keep things feeling both sentimental and fresh. Sometimes figuring it out all over again each year can feel like more work than it's worth but I'm always so glad I put in the effort in the end.

Okay, that was the last of the Christmas posts. Promise.

-Rachel

 

We Stop For Snowball Fights

There was snow on either side of the highway as far as we could see on our drive back to Colorado through Kansas so we did the sensible thing and exited down a country road to have a snowball fight. We had easy access to our snow boots and warm clothes to change into so we played until we could play no more and then stripped them down into dry things and hit the road again. 

The kids ran off to talk to the cows and Ruby got her mitten stuck on some barbed-wire so I hauled it over to save her and then turned around to see a big hay truck parked behind our Volvo. The owner of those cows had stopped to see if we needed anything and then told Brett some of those cows were ornery and mean. She got a kick out of the fact that our city kids were so intrigued by her herd.

I'm not sure we'll see that much snow all at once here in the Springs so it was fun to watch the kids enjoy it. Ruby's little legs sunk down in it so that it was almost up to her knees in some parts. It was a great way to wear off some of that pent up road trip energy.

We've got more snow here in the Springs today with single digit temps. It makes the whole town so beautiful and everyone, although freezing, is a little more friendly. Today we're back from a trip to the YMCA after a week of being sick and have grand plans to fold and put away all the laundry and take down most of the Christmas decor. Wish me luck!

-Rachel

Christmas in Missouri

Outfit Details: Dress, ModCloth. Cardigan and tights, Target. Wedges c/o ModCloth. Belt, thrifted.

We've really enjoyed being back in Missouri this Christmas. We're making our way back to Colorado after some time in Oklahoma to see my family but we're going to soak in all of the Midwest we can before then. 

Have you ever felt so closely attached to a place that you can smell the air and be flooded with feelings and memories? It's been good to be home.

-Rachel

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We hope your family is having a special time together today. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

-Rachel