it's time to fly.

Over the weekend we decided to build some kites.  I love the way they turned out and especially like when kites look homemade rather than look like a commercial.  I found this tutorial online (which is excellent and easy to understand) but I wanted to have a more fun, colorful kite...so I changed a couple of things.

Supplies:

masking tape (we used blue painters tape because it was less boring than regular masking tape)

thin plastic tablecloth (the disposable kind you get for a party; pick a color-they are only $1.50 at walmart)

tape measure

roll of string

33"-1/8" wooden dowel

36"-1/8" wooden dowel

scissors

pocketknife

18" of cute 1 1/2" wide fabric (3-6 strips)

spray glue

Step 1:

Make a mark 10" from the top of the 36" wooden dowel.  Make a mark at the 16 1/2" mark (middle) of the 33" wooden dowel.

Lay the 33" dowel on top of the 36" dowel so the the two marks are touching and form a cross.  Wrap the midpoint with masking tape until it the two pieces are held together.

To make the middle of your kite stronger where the two dowels meet use white string and wrap the middle tightly.  Then wrap again with masking tape.  (I think this is one of the hardest parts about building the kite. It's not too difficult you just have to keep at it until it feels pretty secure.)

Step 2:

Cut a notch at the end of each dowel.  Make sure that you cut in the direction that string will go around the kite.  In the video tutorial link above he says to do the notches first.  I did that on my first kite and then it was almost impossible to line up all of the notches so that the string could run around the outside edge of the kite.  I think it's easier to make the notches once you have the kite frame put together. 

To make the notch place the dowel edge on a cutting board, using your pocketknife make a downward slice through the end going in the correct direction that the string will be able to wrap around the kite frame to make a diamond shape.  Repeat until all four ends of have a notch.

Step 3:

Wrap string around the outside edge of the frame to form a diamond.  To keep the string from falling off my kit frame I put a one inch piece of tape over the end of each dowel.  Very tightly make a knot on the bottom end of the kite. Secure it with a 4" piece of tape then wrap the tape with more tape.  it will add a little bit of weight to the bottom of the kite to that the kite will stay vertical.

Step four:

Lay the plastic tablecloth out on a flat surface and the place the awesome kite frame on the tablecloth.  Cut around the kite frame leaving at least 1" of extra space between the edge of the kite frame and the cutting line.

Spray the glue along the extra 1" of space, wait for 20 seconds,  lift and fold over the 1" piece of plastic tablecloth over the string frame of the kite.  Repeat for each side of the kite (this gets really messy! you'll want to make sure you've placed your kite onto newsprint or something that the overspray of the glue won't ruin. If you put the kite on to newsPAPER the print will come off on the kite.

Step five:

Tie a 6' piece of string to the bottom of the kite frame.  Tie pieces of coloful strips of fabric.  The tail helps your kite to fly and be the right weight for the wind.  If your kite won't stay up take a couple of strips of fabric off the kite, if it's getting whipped about by the wind you may want to add a couple of strips of fabric to the tail.

Step six:

Tie your kite flying string to the cross section (middle) of the kite frame. (We made our kite flying string from left over bits of dowel and just wrapped string around the middle of the dowel piece to create a way for each of the kids to have a way to fly their kites at the same time.)

Now you're ready to Go Fly a Kite!

*extra idea:  we were thinking about making some cute designs for our kites (which may change their weight too much...we'll see) by making flowers or butterflies out of paper or cardstock and spray gluing them to the front of our kites to add to the happy factor.

good. LIFE.

a little letter.

This post is for all of you people out there (and I've met my fair share of them...in fact, for a little while, I was one of them) who think Valentine's Day is the lamest holiday on the planet.

This is an Open Letter To All Valentine's Day Haters:

I love you.

Maybe it's just the candy talking or maybe I overdosed on sour patch kids, white/pink/red m&ms, and carmel filled chocolate (I may have eaten that much candy yesterday...)...because even though it's not Valentine's Day I am going to proclaim my love for you.  I loved you yesterday and I'm saying it today, too.

Oh Dear Valentine's Day Hater,

You do realize that no one said that Valentine's Day is the only day that people are allowed to celebrate their love for each other, right?  People who celebrate Valentine's Day also say 'I love you' in many other ways on all the other days of the year, too.  And for all of you single and unattached people, no one said that Valentine's Day had to be a strictly romantic lovers holiday.

So instead of going with all of the cliched and stereotypical versions of Valentine's day we go with our own version around here.  We make it the holiday we want it to be and now I love Valentine's Day....

For all of you who think it's lame that someone is making you pick one day a year to show your love for your one true love:

1. Decide every Valentine's Day that you will use it as a reminder to give and show love to your one and only true love(s) everyday this coming year.

2. Celebrate more than just your significant other.  Create special memories for the significant people in your life...mom, dad, brother, sister, children, grandma, grandpa, etc.  In your world, change the definition for Valentine's Day. Do something for the people you love that you really wouldn't do the entire rest of the year.  For us, I let my kids eat candy for breakfast on Valentine's day.  And it's a big deal.  They look forward to it every year.  We get all of their favorite candy and cover our kitchen table in it. They get to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

*A couple of other extra special things that we do:  I get up while the kids are still sleeping and with my ninja like stealth I make pumpkin heart shaped muffins (this is something I don't do the rest of the year...the getting up extra early part...). I set the table with all kinds of fun heart festive-ness and write them a love note (I do this everyday of the school year so I try to make it extra long) or some creative version of a love note (this year I got a heart box for each of them and wrote a bunch of little snippets on lots of different colored pieces of paper, each with a sweet thought about them, compliment, or bit of gratitude for them,etc.).

For those of you who think you can't celebrate Valentine's Day unless you have a significant other: 

Valentine's Day can be the day of the year that you decide to create a day of random acts of kindness or mindful acts of kindness for the people you love like your mom, dad, brother, sister, friend, grandma, grandpa, etc.  They will love your love...even on this forced, lame holiday. :)

Here are some specific ideas:

*choose a service project that you get involved in on every February 14th.

*write letters to thank significant people who shaped your world

*give a surprise visit to someone who doesn't get visitors (a person in a nursing home who has no family or friends that visits them)

*hand out notes of gratitude at work to those you appreciate

Valentine's Day can be whatever you want it to be.  There are no set rules as to how Valentine's Day has to be done...and if you think that there are set rules then it's time to break them...or you can just keep hating Valentine's day. :)

the end.

(steps off soap box)

(*gotta love that we are mixing holiday decor around here...the girls' birthday party decorations are still up, too!)

meet kaya.

Back in the spring we had a perfect American Girl Book Club party.  The weather was blue skies and puffy clouds and just right temperatures.

When we arrived and saw the life-sized Teepee the girls were so excited.  I knew before the big day that is was going to be a great party.  I had no idea that we would be next to a pond on acres and acres of land.  The location itself was so much like the place Kaya's family had set up the temporary village. 

We sat around talking about what it would be like to be Kaya, to have responsibilities for the younger children, weave and make beautiful beaded things, cook dinner, go to the bathroom outside, and cook dinner for your family over a fire, eat mostly roots, berries, and the deer the men would kill. 

We also talked about how important it is that you create the story of your own life.  You get to choose how it plays out.

Everyone crowded around the table to eat fruits, beef jerky, salmon jerky, and nuts.

The girls even got to create their own bead bracelet by learning the ancient art of beading.

My favorite part was when the activities were over and the girls ran around the land, waded into the pond looking for tadpoles, finding blue robin's eggs, swinging in a hammock, giggling, discovering, exploring, and completely unaware that the world was moving at the speed of light everywhere else on the planet.

We stepped back in time and walked and played with Kaya for those couple of hours on a Saturday in May.

storybook. LIFE.

incontent.

Is that a word? Or is it malcontent? discontent?

Sometimes our little family gets the "I need" or "I want" -itis.  It's a terrible condition to live through.  There's a lot of whining and complaining that goes along with it.  Some feelings of "I deserve this or something even better" are common side effects.  People find it difficult to be happy and may take their feelings out on their brother by giving them dirty looks. Other side effects include frowning faces, sulking, wishing you had more money, and otherwise completely ignoring all the cool stuff in your life.

We have a board in our kitchen (it's made from those square magnet boards at Pottery Barn...we use four of them together) that is an always evolving, ever changing thing. Fingerprints optional.

It started out as my inspiration board for how to decorate my studio and our house. 

I got tired of looking at that so I took everything down and called it the joke board. Anyone that wanted to could write a joke and post it on the board.  Many of them were 6 year old humor that made no sense what-so-ever and because they made no sense they always made you smile and most of the time you laughed. There were others that didn't make since that were created by 9 year old humor and so the 13 year old had to walk past the board and every time he saw them would have to say things like, "Why would anyone even post that?  It doesn't make one bit of sense. My jokes are awesome."  And so that would make a person laugh and roll their eyes and so...it was a joke board (in more ways than one) for a little while.

Now it is a Thankful Board.  I bought a whole bunch of different colored post-its because I thought a quilt-looking thing would look pretty darn snazzy.  Anyone that wants to, anytime they want to, can write a little something on a post-it and stick on the board.

It's a homemade remedy for "I-want-itis".

snazzy. LIFE.

surreal.

This morning I had the opportunity to appear on Charlotte Today and share my thoughts on photography as well as some tips on taking better pictures.  My friend Lisa Brownstead {she's a yoga instructor and owner of Pretty Postures} connected me with Colleen, who is the host of Charlotte Today. 

I've never been on TV or anything like it and I have to say it was so fun to see the behined-the-scenes and getting to chat with Colleen.  I had no idea that everything was so low key and laid back...at least that's the way they make it look!  It seemed like each person on the set had perfect timing and knew just how to make every little moment run smoothly.  Everyone was so friendly and available...you can tell that they all enjoy working together.

I had so much fun being on the show and meeting so many really wonderful women.  {If you need some tips on what the best bra is for your summer wardrobe there's a segment for you, too...and if you want to hear a beautiful story about forgiveness you won't want to miss that tidbit either...well, just watch all of the little bits...you won't be sorry...}

To see more family lifestyle sessions...click here.

Thank you so much Colleen and Lisa for such a great and fun opportunity!

crazy. LIFE.