Creative Energy

In the months leading up to Ben's birth, I did quite a lot of painting and sewing. Since we did most of his nursery by ourselves, I sewed his curtains, his bumper pads, the crib skirt, a quilt for the wall, etc. I also painted the mural on the wall. (Pictures here.) I enjoyed every bit of it, but the pressure to have everything finished before he arrived, coupled with the exhaustion that comes with pregnancy had me pretty worn out.

After Ben was born, I didn't sleep for four months. At least that's how I remember it. Doing anything crafty was WAY out of the question because I tried to spend any "free" time either feeding myself or showering. He's almost six months old, and I just now have my act together enough that I feel like I can justify clearing the cobwebs out of the doorway to my craft room.

A few weeks ago, I made this binder cover. I'm not gonna lie, it unleashed something inside of me. Months of pent-up creative energy came pouring out. I wanted more.

This weekend, I made a prayer jar for Ben. I found the idea on Pinterest and loved it. Although we are already in the habit of saying prayers with Ben every night, they usually sound something like, "Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and my nice house. Help me to sleep well tonight. Amen."

This prayer jar is filled with tongue-depressors with the names of all of our family on them. Every night, we'll let Ben pick a stick (which he LOVES) and we pray for the person or people on that stick. So far, it's been a big hit. I love that it will teach him to pray for others on a regular basis.

First, I painted all of the tongue-depressors. The main reason I did this was because sharpie usually bleeds on wood, and I wanted to avoid that.

After the paint dried, I wrote all of our family members' names.

Then, I just threw the sticks in a mason jar and tied a few scraps of fabric around the top. I originally painted a green square on the jar where I could write "Prayer Jar," but the paint didn't adhere to the glass and it wiped right off after it dried. I quickly gave up and just scribbled with sharpie directly on the glass.

The great thing about this project was that it only cost $1.27 because I already had everything except the tongue-depressors.
Note: Look and see if there is paint that adheres to glass.

Yesterday, Ben helped me make this crayon monogram for his room.

Okay, he mostly just tried to eat the crayons and I had to wrestle them out of his hands and mouth between hot-gluing them down on the card-stock, but we still did the project "together."

So, those are our crafts from the last few days. I'm starting small, but it feels great to be getting my mojo back!