LEGO (Duplo) Table

Finished product. Total cost was less than $40

One thing people need to know about me, is that I rarely come up with an idea on my own, but I can copy Just about anything. As the quote reads: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". Be flattered that I copy you and if you don't want me to copy you, don't splatter your awesome creations all over Pinterest, because I am there and ready to pounce! With that said, I always give credit where credit is due.  

Several months ago, I saw a  "pin" of a super cute LEGO table on a blog called Fussy Monkey Business.  A super talented gal makes all sorts of awesome creations. I just knew I had to make one of these. I am sort of obsessed with these vintage  "high - low" tables that pop up every now and again. I have painted two and every time I ran across another one, that LEGO table ran through my mind. I came across the perfect table a few weeks ago and picked it up for a cool $15. 

The weather has finally turned minutely cooler and I was anxious to get back in the garage and paint. The LEGO table was the first thing I tackled. Mountain Man was at the cabin, so I took it to work with me one day and asked one of our kind hearted maintenance guys to cut a hole in the top. My excitement turned out to be a mistake. NOTE: If you ever make one of these, be sure you are wise enough to have a basket picked out BEFORE the hole is cut. duh! Finding the right basket or container was my biggest challenge and am still on the look out for just the right one. I love, love, love painting things red but I didn't want to be too much of a copy cat :o) and make it identical to Fussy Monkey's, so I bought a sample jar of Valspar, Boo Boo Blue and did a homemade chalk paint.  That cost $3 so my total cost was now up to $18 and some change. I went to Toys R Us and bought a 15" x 15" LEGO building plate and almost fell over when I saw the price. $18.99 + tax! I suddenly remembered why my kids didn't have many LEGOS growing up. We simply could not afford them.  As I walked up and down the FOUR isles of Lego merchandise, I felt like a bad mother, that I deprived my kids of something special growing up. So many cool things to build! 

Suddenly, a little voice in my head reminded me that thanks to my sentimental husband, we still had a bucket of LEGO Duplo building blocks in the attic that my son received as a gift over 26 years ago. My daughter played with them as well. My LEGO table quickly turned into a Duplo table and I decided to surprise my daughter and grand baby with it for his first birthday. I swapped the LEGO plate for Duplo (same price) and dug the blocks out of the attic. Due to my eager beaver decision to cut the hole before I had a basket, I bought (and returned) several baskets trying to find one that filled the hole just right but ultimately settled on a plastic bucket from my craft room (I love shopping at home!). It is a blah semi clear plastic so I wrapped the top with some yellow duct tape to give it a little fun color. 

 

Mom and Dominic are both very happy with it. If he becomes a LEGO enthusiast when he is a little older, it will be easy enough switch the plates out and SHE can buy his LEGOS!  Thank you for the great idea, Fussy Monkey!

Happy Birthday, Dominic! Grammy and Grampa love you and your mama a bunch.

A New Type of Paper Project For Me

Elmo Invite!

Encouragement Cards

This weekend, I am attending our annual STARS retreat in Kerrville with 40 women who we have been preparing and praying for the last 10 weeks. I made these cards as my love letters for each of them. Totally different than any card I had made before but I am mostly pleased with them. I knew I wanted to use an old hymnal that Mike had found in the attic but when it came down to chopping it up, I got kind of sentimental and decided to scan a hymn and make copies. I distressed the copies (first time) with Tim Holtz' distress ink then stamped a flower on top, added a little bling and  finished by adding Mathew 11:28 to the inside.

Peace and Pretty Paper!

Robyn

Happy Anniversary Horace and Darlene

Horace and Darlene celebrated 15 years of marriage today. I used my new Stampin Up owl punch and made this little card for them. (H-Man has his eye on Darlene! Isn't it cute?)

Need to to go. I am working on 40 special cards for an upcoming event next week. I have a lot to do! 

Peace and Pretty Paper,

Robyn

Under Construction

Please pardon my blog mess. I was attempting to add the super cute background and header Cheryl created for me and I have totally destroyed my layout. Ho hum... I'll brush up on my HTML and get it up and looking pretty tomorrow...hopefully.

Peace & Pretty Paper
Robyn

Ornament

 

I made these ornaments for each of the girls on our Florida getaway. I cut the letters out with vinyl and cut some scrapbook paper circles and put them in the bulb. Easy schmeasy!

Peace & Pretty Paper,

Robyn

Cards, Cards & More Cards

I have made more cards than anything else lately...and used every stinkin one of them. I love giving hand made cards. Need to go, I need 40+ for an upcoming project. Will I make it? I hope so!!!!

My Productive Day

Some ladies get together up at church once a month and scrapbook. I decided to join them today and invited the lovely, Cheryl Gembler to join me. It was a relaxing and fun day. (I always have fun with my rock star friend!) My card stash is quite low and I have tons of paper so I decided to make cards using scraps and left over supplies. These are some of my better creations from today.

Cute little (free) digital stamp cupcakes....I love to color!

The inside sentiment...I LOVE it!

Scraps and a rubber stamp.

Such a happy card!

I wish I had some more of these scraps. I think this card came out quite nice. The sentiment is a rubber stamp.



I love this little guy! He is a digital stamp I colored wih copics.

Peace and Pretty Paper,

Robyn

 

Happy Birthday Alicia

A Bumble Bee For A Baby Boy

A sweet friend is having her first baby any day now and I have been meaning to deliver this night light for William's room for sometime. I thought if I posted a picture of it, she will probably see it and then I can't drag my feet any more! It is stinkin heavy! His room is bumble bees and light green. I thought this would be a nice addition. I put the light in the top so she can use it as a bank later if they like. It is big - 9"x 9" (did I mention heavy?) and I backed it with a pretty green paper - the photo doesn't show that very well. I hope L-J likes it!

I have finally started working on goodies to take to Florida next month. Those are top secret...I will post those pictures after the big trip. I'm getting excited!

Peace and Pretty Paper,

Robyn

Getting Back to My Roots

I have been trying to get back in touch with my creative side lately. I have been doing some crafting (but need to do MUCH more) and a little bit of baking. Hubby's birthday was last week so I made one of his favorite desserts. Cream Puffs! Very easy and I was quite impressed with the outcome! I have been asked to make them again, and I will. I have made a note to bake a little longer next time - until a little more brown.
I have included the recipe from www.lafujimama.com  in case you would like to give it a try.

Fuji Cream Puffs

Makes 10 large cream puffs (or 20 medium, or 4 dozen mini cream puffs)

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter (4 ounces)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

3. Bring the water to a boil in a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add the butter.  When the butter has melted, add the flour mixture all at once and stir vigorously.  Cook and stir until the mixture forms a ball that doesn’t separate.

4. Remove from the heat and cool slightly (about 1 minute).  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one until the dough is smooth.

5. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough about 2-inches apart onto a greased baking sheet.  Or transfer the batter to a pastry bag with a round tip and pipe circles about 2-inches in diameter and about 1-inch apart onto greased baking sheets.  Bake the puffs for about 30 minutes until they are golden brown and puffy.  If the puffs are medium-size, bake for about 22 — 25 minutes, and if the puffs are mini-size, bake for about 17 — 20 minutes.  Remove the cream puffs from the oven and cool on a cooling rack.

• Almond Cream Filling
• 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• I teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• Mix together vanilla instant pudding mix, cream and milk and extract. Cover and refrigerate to set.

Diaper Wreath

I made this wreath from disposable diapers for one of my favorite people at work. Joy & Brad Hamann welcomed Jax Kinnick Hamann to the world on Thursday, November 18th. He is a big guy, 9 lbs 2 ozs and 22" long. I cant wait to hold the little guy! I saw one of these while looking for ideas for hospital door banners online. It was super easy and fun to make. If you want to make one and need some tips, give me a holler!

Peace & Pretty Paper,

Robyn

Do You Remember Me?

Hi Friends,

It has been 88 days since my last post and almost that long since I have even looked at a blog. I considered deleting my blog for a short while but yesterday, I was scrolling through my previous posts and realized I want to start crafting again and blogging about it as well as the happenings in my world. So as soon as I finish this post, I am heading upstairs to see if I have any creative juice left in my tired old body.

I will try and quickly catch up where I left off on July 12th, 2010. My lovable, sweet little brother, Jody finally went home to be with Jesus on August 22 at 11:29 pm. As I have said many times before, he was so weak and was losing the fight to live that he was so admired for his whole life. We were not with him when he took his last breath but our heavenly Father was there to guide Jody to his new home. The hospital staff tried to revive Jody but thankfully, he went quickly and he wasn't coming back to his life of illness, loneliness and pain. He is now whole and pain free, for that I am very thankful. I am also thankful for God's perfect timing and allowing me almost a full year with Jody after being out of his life for such a long time. I am so grateful that he is finally in heaven but I am (still) much sadder than I thought I would be. I am still working on closure but realize I have a long road ahead of me. I need to get back in my craft cave and start creating again. I know that will help with my depression.

I made it to Disney for the annual Girl's Getaway. I laughed a lot and cherish the time I had with some wonderful Christian friends. And after coming back home Mike and I went to Colorado to enjoy the fall colors and close the house up for the winter. I got some fabulous photos of God's beautiful fall artwork and had some much needed alone time with Mike.

I have had some trouble getting back into the routine of my "healthy" eating and activity plan. I had to go to the doctor because I was having stomach pains and not sleeping well. I was pleased to see I am 28 lbs lighter than my last visit in January. I need to get serious again before I lose too much ground. I am back at Zumba tomorrow and heading up to my craft room right now. I missed all of you and your awesome blogs! I look forward to catching up with what has been happening while I have been away.

Peace and Pretty Paper,
Robyn

Colorado Summer 2010

I miss my blogging friends! Sorry I have been gone so long. I hope to get back in my room soon and make some magic. In the mean time, here are some pictures from our relaxing time in Colorado. I'll be back!


Peace & Pretty Paper,
Robyn

Stinkin Sweet Card

I am in a real funk these days. I went up to clean and organize my room but played instead. This Little cutie from Create a Critter makes me smile!


My Blessings:

I am a loved child of God

Finding a form of exercise that I really enjoy (Zumba rocks!)

Having both kids home on Saturday


Peace & Pretty Paper,
Robyn

50th Anniversary Card

My photo doesn't do this card justice but I think it came out quite nice. I printed the words on card stock and the top layer is a wedding photo from Bobbie & Cy's wedding 50 years ago printed on vellum.

 

My Blessings:

Mike is home from a great 2 weeks in Colorado.

A fun day celebrating Bobbie & Cy's 50th wedding anniversary. What great role models they are for the rest of us.

Worshiping with my Concordia family at 11:00 today.

A good visit with Hayley today.

Peace & Pretty Paper,
Robyn

Graduation Invitations

I made these for a great girl who I met through work. She asked me to make her announcements for her upcoming graduation. I think this is what she wanted, I hope she likes them. I made a few thank you cards for her out of left over scraps. NEVER EVER throw away your scraps!

 

 

 

Peace & Pretty Paper,
Robyn

Land of the Free Because of the Brave...

I got this from one of the awesome blogs I stalk. Thanks Lorie! It is very moving, take a few minutes to watch it. Remember to pray for those families that have lost loved ones fighting on our behalf. Also, pray for a safe journey for all the men and women who have made the selfless decision to protect us at home and far away.

I am blessed,
Robyn

Happy Birthday Kristy

I made this and gave it to my sweet friend, Kristy at work today. She and her husband, Kyle told me this afternon that they are leaving in 2 weeks to start another music ministry at a satellite church in Boerne. I'm kinda bummed. Happy for them, sad for me.

My blessings:

+ The opportunity to get to know & love Kyle & Kristy over the last several years at Concordia.

+ Better health and more energy since beginning my healthy lifestyle in mid March (and to have lost 17 lbs as a result of my healthy choices).

+ My family... I miss you Hayley.

+ A fun filled weekend with girlfriends.

Peace and Pretty Paper,

Robyn

Graduation and Just because Card

I made these while watching the Season Finale of Survivor tonight. I am so glad Russell didn't win!


This is stamped with The Angel Company's Funny Farm set. I used miscellaneous paper and ribbon from my stash.  It was originally going to be a birthday card but I think I will use it for some other random occasion.

I cut this with my Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge and made it into a card using Design Studio. It is going to the family of a co-worker that has had a tough couple of weeks. People have volunteered to send meals home with them for the next 2 weeks. Tomorrow, Darlene, Miriam and myself are sending Lasagna, salad andyummy pie. I thought we would include a pretty flower to say "Hi ~ We are praying for you".

This is for my friend Miriam's son, Filipe. He graduated from Concordia University Austin, Summa Cum Laude! He is off to Brazil then Europe this week. I am sure he can use a little extra cash. Have I told you lately that I don't have a knack for guy cards? (I used purple only because it is his school colors)

My Blessings: 

• My Family
• A great weekend

Peace and Pretty Paper,

Robyn