Doing our small part to help MEND...

Jerry and I have been talking about doing something as a family to help out in the community during the holidays for a long time, but unfortunately we haven't been able to or to be more honest, maybe we just hadn't made enough of an effort to figure out what to do.

This year I was determined to make it happen and I recently signed up the five of us to volunteer at an organization called MEND (Meeting Each Need) for their Christmas distribution which happened this past Sunday, a week before Christmas.

MEND's headquarters is located in the city of  San Fernando and has a beautiful building in which it receives, distributes food, clothes and other necessities to the local needy families and the homeless. 

MEND was started by a local man and his wife out of their garage which has grown tremendously, and it is going on over 20 years of service in the San Fernando Valley. They have only 25 employees and 80% of their workforce are volunteers! Amazing!

Their mission statement is inspiring...

We signed up for a 4.5 hour shift on Sunday, not truly a long shift in the big picture of everything that MEND does, but we hope we did our small part to help out. Jerry and I felt strongly in wanting the boys to open their eyes during the holidays to see just how lucky they truly are when there are others who need more than they do.

Our first job was to sort a a huge bin of canned goods into their appropriate boxes so they could store them accordingly to later make take home bags for the homeless.

 
 We actually got this done fairly quickly as we were paired up with other volunteers that were there from Kennedy High School. So the next job Mikey and I got was to break down cardboard boxes, flatten them out and put them together for them, and clean up around the warehouse. They take these boxes and recycle them locally and the money they receive from recycling, they use to buy more food or supplies to support their services.

 This was Mikey's favorite job. Mikey loves boxes because his imagination turns them into a million other things. He kept saying how cool this box and that box would be for this or that project, but he worked hard to help get this done.



The rest of our shift was spent helping with the distribution of gifts and food to those needy families that had applied for help earlier in the year.  Families had started lining up outside earlier that morning and were let in a few at a time and led around by a volunteer helping them choose toys and other gifts for their families this Christmas and were also given 2 boxes of food for a holiday feast.
 
 
Mikey and I were given the front door post to help those families coming in and directing them to the appropriate spot inside, and holding the door open for those volunteers carrying out each family's boxes out to the curbside.
 

That's where Jerry, Christian and Danny were then scheduled to work. They were outside helping each family on the curbside to mark their boxes with their names and put their boxes into their cars. It was raining and it was hectic but I watched my boys work really hard at helping each family out. 

Mikey even got into helping them out too.  It felt really good to watch them having such a good time. You could see how good they felt as as well as the other volunteers did as they helped out with smiles and wished each and every family a Merry Christmas as they left.

After our shift was over, lunch was offered to the volunteers as they closed for an hour to get ready for the second shift of families coming in the afternoon. We thanked them for letting us help out and we assured them we'd be back next year, if not sooner and more often. It was a great experience.

We all left with high spirits as it had been a very special morning for all of us. We were all happy to have helped out such a great organization, but more importantly we knew that those families we saw were going to have a nice Christmas after all. Everybody deserves to have a special holiday.

If anything it helped the boys realize that Christmas is much more than about "what's in it for them." Its about giving and giving of one's time to help out someone else, and more importantly that its more about family and being together during this time. They loved that we had done this together as a family and I know that they will remember this experience for a long time.

If you're interested in helping out MEND with supplies or volunteer time, please see their website to find more information on how to get involved.


From my corner to yours...

May your family be together in all that you do this holiday season, and may we all do our part to MEND one family at a time.

Baby Shower turned to Pinterest....oh the ideas!!

Hi there again!

So in this post I am going to give credit where credit is due because a lot (if not most) of the ideas we we used to decorate/enhance the baby shower I got from Pinterest! For all intense purposes, I could technically say that this turned into a Pinterest baby shower...Lol! Hey, just being honest! ;)

This won't be the last time I say this but...I LOVE Pinterest!!

As for many people I know, Pinterest has become the go to website for ideas for all kinds of things. For crafts, recipes, event planning etc., and ever since I knew that I could possibly be planning my niece's shower, I started collecting ideas. That in itself is something I love to do!! This baby shower was my chance to finally get creative all over again, see these ideas come to fruition, and as always have tons of fun in the process.

The best part about getting ideas from here is the ability to take them and then make them your own to fit your theme as you see fit.  I'll be talking about as many of these as I can and you can click on the highlighted words to see the exact link as to where I got the original ideas, and maybe you'll find some of your own favorite ones.

Some of the ideas I picked up over the months were a tea party favor, a baby mobile and some paper pom poms. The paper poms are always a very pretty way to decorate. They were super easy to make and can actually be surprisingly inexpensive to make. I was able to make a whole bunch out of one pack of multi-colored tissue paper from the dollar store. Yay!

That's what I love about a lot of these ideas...They don't take much to make them come alive.

In regards to food, its all about presentation, right? Part of the fun is trying to make the table as pretty as possible. So Pinterest has some fantastic ideas as to how to display your food, and I took advantage of some as I didn't want to disappoint.

Who would of thought of a powdered doughnut cake? So simple and sweet. I just made the fabric roses a little different and out of colors that matched our theme colors to add to the cake. The fabric roses are also something I made months ago and are easy enough to make while watching tv and then have them ready when you need them.  I also made some extra roses to hot glue around a baseball for another centerpiece. The ideas are endless.


The veggie cups I have seen been used at parties before. They are just as pretty and colorful as they are practical for your guests to enjoy.

We also put out mozzarella skewers that are always classy and add a little color to the table as well.  They were so popular I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of them, but you can check out the link to see what they look like.

This watermelon baby was just genius!! I just HAD to make this for the shower. Its was just too dang cute and soo different. You can make it out of any size watermelon, but I used a small one so it would fit in the salad bowl. I used an orange for the face and grapes for the eyes.  I went ahead and added a fabric bow to give it that baby girl touch of course, and Marilyn's little girl, Mina, was kind enough to share her binky with us for the final detail. This was a big hit with everybody.
 






The original tea bag party favor I saw was for a bridal shower and I just changed up the paper colors to match our colors, and actually machine sewed the pocket on each individual card instead which gave it a different detail. Then I embellished them with scrapbooking supplies I already had to make each one different at the end. I also found small silver plastic spoons at the dollar store that I put in each tea cup on the tables, but you could add them in the pockets of these favors instead. Totally cute!

The original flower mobile idea I saw I had absolutely loved and knew I wanted to make one for Baby Fea's room. I just took the colors I knew Casandra wanted to work with and made different colored felt flowers held together with buttons. It was actually easier than it looks to make and I loved the way it came out. Again this is one of those ideas you can do at your leisure and put together in a short amount of time.  I figure they can use it as a mobile over her crib or just as a room decoration, but they loved that it was all made by hand. .

I was already on a sewing kick and I had decided early on to make them a gift from another idea I picked up a while ago...a portable baby changing pad and burping cloths out of fabric and terry cloth towels. I have made a few of these already for other friends and I'm hoping they have put them to good use. After making a few, I've figured out the sewing logistics, and they are actually pretty straight forward to make. I making them different for each baby by varying fabric choices and adding little details including adding 3 pockets at the bottom so they can store diapers, wipes and even a bottle if necessary. I made the burp cloths from contrasting fabric/colors and it made a "pretty in pink" set for Casandra (or Sergio) to put in their diaper bag to help them be fashionable and practical on the go.

 

There was one extra one thing we did make on our own which was a baby library crate. Marilyn and Ellen wanted to start a library for Casandra and Sergio's baby girl...such a cute and practical idea. So we requested for all the guests to bring a new or gently used book to start off her library and had them write their well wishes on the inside front cover so that they'd always know who gave it to her. So then we bought a wooden crate from Michaels, painted it white (fyi-2 good coats) and I added some of the same felt flowers that I made for the mobile so that it would all match in her room.   As Casandra opened her gifts and collected books they were placed in the library and they were able to take it home after ready to go. Then as the baby grows, they can add more crates and make it a nice storage unit. 


Honestly, there are tons of other ideas I could have probably done, but I picked the main ones I wanted to do. There is only so much time for all of it, and I believe there will always be another opportunity to put that idea into play.  Having said that though, I was apparently accused at the shower for getting all of this done because I have too much time on my hands...UUMM, yeah, not soo much!

Those of you who know me, and are busy moms too know how busy I can get with working part time, 3 boys on my hand, sports, homework and everything else that a mom does. However, I will say that when it comes to crafting, I will and do make time for it because I LOVE it, and because I know myself enough that when I get an idea in my head, I'm not happy until I get it done...it also takes a little planning, so that's what I do! So if I know ahead of time what craft I want to make or re-create I take a few steps at a time to get it completed. I have to do it this way! I get materials ready one day, I set it out the other, I cut out patterns all at one time, and then I take advantage of any down time I have like in the evenings (as I mentioned above) when I'm watching tv and do what I can then. This system works for me, and I'm able to get a lot done this way, but over time.


Soo there you are! All the ideas I used directly from Pinterest. I would love to take credit for most of them, but they weren't mine, so I won't. But I can share them with you like I just did and hope you enjoy them one day too. Remember that the links I posted should guide you back to the original blog location of the idea, and you'll find that most of these blogs supply more detailed instructions and even patterns to make these ideas for yourself.

How can you go wrong? My point is, crafting and being creative isn't impossible to do, you just have to find what works for you.

Do you have something coming up that you want to find ideas for?  I'd love to see what you guys come up with. Its all about sharing ideas and learning from each other, right? I think so ;)

Thanks for stopping by and from my corner to yours...I hope you have a Pinterest kind of week!

Get creative!

Foto Friday ~ Emotion

Its Foto Friday, and the theme for this week is...

 "Emotion" 

I've been wanting to share some pictures that fit this theme perfectly, but I didn't know how to share them until now...

One of the first projects I worked on this year was a scrapbook for some dear friends named, Lisa &  Alex and their baby boy, Asa. I haven't shared the pictures of the scrapbook yet because we wanted to give her the album first to avoid spoiling the surprise. The scrapbook is a very delayed baby gift my friend, Jen Counter, and I promised Lisa last year! Jen is this fantastic photographer (she's awesome), and she took some beautiful pictures at Lisa and Alex's baby shower and some of Lisa during her pregnancy.  My part of the gift was to put those amazing pictures into a scrapbook, and unfortunately it took me almost a year to get that done for her (Asa turns 1 in a couple of months!) . The great thing was that we gave it to Lisa last week when she least expected it, and her reactions were just great! So I happen to take some shots of her as she flipped through the book.

They exude Emotion!

First off I I have to say it that it makes such a difference to scrapbook with beautiful pictures, so I want to share a few pages in the book so you can see what she is reacting to...

 Here are her some of her reactions... Enjoy!

 

Don't you love it!
You can feel her excitement and her surprise as she flips through each page.
She was so cute!

To be honest, I wish the quality of the pictures had been better, but the lighting was bad in the coffee shop, and it affected the look a little bit. However, I wouldn't trade them for the world as long as I can remember her reactions like this.

It was a wonderful morning for all of us! Jen and I gave this too her with a lot of love, and we were soo happy to see how happy it made Lisa. She told us it was the best gift she had ever received. Awww...soo sweet!

Lisa and Alex, we hope you enjoy it always!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Foto Friday from my corner to yours...

Linking up at...

      

      

February Photo A Day Challenge Pictures... (Day 15 - 21)

Ok, so this week was a disaster!! I feel like I'm losing steam...I didn't shoot the themes on the right days, they were a hit and miss, and my strategy of having my pictures planned out...yeah, well not soo much!!

The only thing I did do this week that I hadn't done much of lately, was take the majority of my pics with my SLR. So I got some practice in with that camera and that felt really good.

Otherwise, I am going to share the picture themes as they came to me in random order...

 Technology

 This little gadget of technology is what I have been depending on to complete this photo challenge. It helps me get my pictures from my phone to my computer to this blog. I love it because its compact and it recoils on itself so its easy to keep handy. Technology is amazing!

Long Exposure (320sec)

Ok, so this was one that totally stumped me. So as I am still learning, I really didn't know what a long exposure was until I looked it up, and from the examples I saw I needed a Ferris wheel, a fountain, waterfall or a traffic jam to get a good shot. I had none of those available to me! So I came up with this in my kitchen sink (good grief!!) I honestly would love some constructive criticism on this one, and some tips on how to even set up a "real" long exposure shot. I would appreciate any help...Thank you in advance!!

 Silhouette

Its been kind of gloomy this last week so as soon as the sun came out I tried to take advantage and got this shot. I thought it was actually kind of cool! Reminded me kind of an 80's Band record cover, but its just Danny, Mikey and lil' ol me in the middle.

Something Orange

This was easy!! My hubby gave me this beautiful orange coat for Christmas and I'll admit that at first I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to enjoy it since it looks quite bright. However, orange seems to be in at the moment, and the more I wear it, the more I love it! Its unique and different and I've been able to coordinate a few outfits with it. I can dress it up or down. LOVE IT!!

To nicely organized in here

Everything that was stuffed in here

Something I bought
We went to IKEA this weekend and this is another store I love just stepping into. There are just soo many cool little things you can get for dirt cheap and feel like you've rearranged your life. So one of the things they had this time were these cool blue compartment boxes. It was $3.99 and I didn't even know what I wanted it for, but I just knew I wanted one! Silly I know, but it was so cute! So I quickly remembered that I needed to organize my sewing stuff  which was all shoved in to the little box on the left, and sure enough it was a perfect solution..

  My Shoes or (My Boots rather)

"These boots were made for walkin'..." Oh, Hi!  Lol! Anyway, I usually have a really hard time buying boots because of my darnbigcalves, but having found these, they have become my 'go-to' shoe this winter. Do you have a favorite pair??

Bokeh

Defined as the quality, amount and SHAPE of the blur in out-of-focus areas of an image. Another skill I am glad to have a chance to practice. I got these 2 shots in that I was happy with. Maybe my favorite shots of the week. 

A Faceless Self-Portrait

I'll be honest, I took this about a week ago, but I didn't need to use it, so I'm using it now!

You know what?...This random recap format was a lot more comfortable for me. Not having the pressure of doing the exact daily theme on the exact day felt more natural.  I feel like sometimes the themes just don't work on a specified day, so I think I will keep going this route. I will keep with the list for the week, but as it comes naturally and fluidly for me.

So on to the last week or so of this challenge. How have you been doing?? Let me know.

Thanks for checking in!

From my corner to yours...