Valentine's Freebies {Part 1, DIY Love iPhone Cover}

I'm so excited about Part 1 of my series of "Love" Freebies for Valentine's Day!

Back in November I upgraded my smartphone to an iPhone and began searching for a nice looking cover. I wanted something fun and stylish but didn't really want to commit to anything expensive as my tastes tend to change on a whim. So I opted for a clear cover that was on sale at Staples for $10 — with the intention of putting my own design inside the cover.

Fast-forward to February and I finally got around to giving it a try! It literally took me 10 minutes or less. I found a tutorial and template online, printed it out, trimmed it, cut a hole for the camera and inserted it into my case. When my husband saw it, he asked me when I bought a new iPhone case. Score!! He thought I spent money on it!

My gift to you is a template to create a Love-themed cover for your iPhone 4s, iPhone 5 or Android phone. All you need is a color printer, a sheet of card stock or matte photo paper (that's what I used), and a clear phone cover. Then follow the directions on the PDF. It's really as simple as trimming and inserting it inside your case.

Download your templates for iPhone 4s, iPhone 5 or Android.

If you aren't into making a custom phone case, don't worry! I've have some more freebies and printables lined up for this week. Please subscribe to my blog by typing your email address into the box to the right so these goodies will show up in your inbox!

Enjoy!
Erin

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Take 25% off any print in my shop. (LOVE25) Offer ends Wednesday, February 5 at 12 a.m.

1 Corinthians 13 {Love Always}

Check out what's new in my shop. Just in time to decorate for Valentine's Day! {Or to celebrate an engagement, wedding or anniversary.} Available now in four colors. Check it out!

"Love always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:7-8

 

 

 

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Do Small Things with Great Love

Abide in My Love

Brand New Prints + Holiday Kick Off Sale {SAVE 50%}

I've been hard at work this month preparing some new prints to go up on my Etsy Shop. Take a look!

HOLIDAY PRINTS

O Holy Night

Names of Jesus (Isaiah 9:6)

NAME PRINTS

Colossians 1:9-10 Chalkboard Print

Matthew 5:16 Custom Dedication Print

ADOPTION

John 14:15 Print

(50% of sales of this print will be donated toward Bobby & Kyla Mitchell's adoption fund.)

HOLIDAY KICK OFF SALE: 

Take 50% off your total order when you shop November 29 - December 3.

COUPON CODE: THANKFUL 13

Need something customized? Contact me to place your special request.

My Christmas shipping cut off is December 13.

Thank You God for Thanksgiving! {Printable}

Thanksgiving happens to be my husband's favorite holiday. What's not to love about turkey, football, family and being grateful, right? Every year throughout our entire marriage we have spent Thanksgiving in New Jersey at his parent's house. Yes, this family likes their traditions!! So it's no surprise what our plans are this year! Since I don't host, I don't normally go all out decorating for Thanksgiving.

This year, we are heading down to NJ a bit earlier than normal. My mother-in-law had surgery recently, so Tommy is helping his dad with all the cooking. YES, I got a man who can cook a mean turkey and stuffing! How did I get so lucky?!

So, since the rule of our house is that Christmas decorating doesn't begin until Thanksgiving is over (although I do secretly listen to Christmas music — don't tell!), this year I'm getting into the spirit of celebrating my hubby's favorite day! And my new-found love for all things pumpkin flavored is helping!

A favorite activity we've started doing with our three-year-old is the Thankful Tree. We gather sticks from our yard, place them in a vase and then hang tags on the branches that list things we are thankful for over the past year.

Some of Levi's tags are our tree say:

Thank you God for ALL candy. (We still have way too much Halloween candy in this house.)
Thank you God for Keane and Annika (Two of his best buddies)
Thank you God for Thanksgiving.
Thank you God for George & Clifford. (That's Curious George, of course!)
Thank you God for my favorite cars.
Thank you God for Red Lambs and church. (Red Lambs is his class at Community Bible Study)
Thank you God for wearing shorts and shoes.
Thank you God for playing with my dump truck.
Thank you God for Daddy, Mommy & Silas. And Kirby too!

So, here's a 5x7 printable to get you into the spirit of Thanksgiving — or really any day! Because this Thanksgiving and throughout this Christmas season, I want our family to focus more and more on thankfulness and giving and less on STUFF.

And since Christmas is almost here, I wanted to pass along an interesting blog post I stumbled upon last week that really challenged my thinking about Santa, materialism and teaching our boys about the greatest gift of Christmas. I know, it seems a little over-the-top, but it's a great perspective! (I don't follow Jen Hatmaker regularly, but I know enough about her to know that she is the real deal.)

Finally, I'm really, really trying to hold off until after Thanksgiving, but I'm very excited about some Christmas prints that will soon be available on Etsy!! Ok, here's a hint: Isaiah 9:6. Of course I'll let you know when it's ready as a download from my shop!

Shirts for a Worthy Cause {Adoption}

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." James 1:27

"I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." John 14:15

Do you have a cause that is close to your heart? For me, it's adoption. {And it just so happens to be National Adoption Month.} While my husband and I don't have any adopted children, it is a huge part of our extended family – my husband's cousin (who is like a cousin to our boys), two of my cousins and our niece and nephew.

Emma Betilehem and David Shashigo, our niece and nephew, have a special place in our hearts and our among my son's most favorite friends. Cousins are the best! And these two are so fun to be around!!

And what's so exciting is that these two cuties will soon have TWO more siblings, and my boys will have two more cousins to laugh and giggle and play with. My husband's brother and sister-in-law, Bobby and Kyla, are waiting for their travel itinerary to meet their twin baby girls – Sadie Tseganesh and Eliza Dinknesh. The girls turn one this month, making them just two months younger than our youngest.

Not only is this national adoption month and Sadie and Eliza's birth month, it is also (hopefully!) the month Bobby and Kyla will get to meet their babies! Unfortunately this time around, the process has already taken 2+ years, and they will be required to make two trips to Ethiopia and won't bring their babies home until their second trip in Jan/Feb 2014.

Here's where you and I come in. Do you have a heart for adoption too? Do you want to share the message of God's love for all orphans and His promise to care for them? Are you excited that God is using families like Bobby and Kyla's to rescue these precious children?

I would like to invite you - friends, family and maybe even some of you whom I haven't even met - to help Bobby and Kyla in a very small way with their travel expenses (can you imagine the cost of 4 round trip tickets to Ethiopia??)

I spent some time last week designing this super cool shirt to support their adoption. And we tried to keep it affordable for the whole family! We are currently taking pre-orders for these shirts, which will arrive in time for Christmas!!

Available in sizes 2T - 3XL.  Gildan soft style. Dark Heather Grey.
Toddler: $10, Youth: $12, Adult: $15
$5 flat rate shipping or choose local pick up.

Cash or check is accepted as we want as much as possible to go directly into their adoption fund!  Pre-orders will be taken through November 25 and after that a limited quantity will be available through my Etsy shop. 

If you want to order a shirt you can contact Kyla or email me here with your size. Or leave a comment below!

Thank you for supporting a worthy cause to give Sadie and Eliza a loving home where they will have two parents and a brother and sister who love Jesus with all their hearts!

Erin

Fall Mantle {DIY}

Last weekend I finally took down the birthday decorations from Silas' 1st birthday party - a whole month earlier. It was a fun celebration!

I asked my mom to make Silas his own teepee, so went with the cowboys and indians theme.

While I love fall, I don't normally get around to decorating my house for the season. And last fall was such a blur with a new baby, that I did absolutely nothing in our new house.

This year, I was inspired by walking into a friend's house on a pretty fall day and seeing her very cute version of this framed "Fall" collage in her entryway.

So one Friday afternoon I ignored the piles of toys covering every surface of my house and the food caked onto my kitchen floor. With the help of my 3-year-old assistant who is an expert with tape, we made just one part of our house pretty – the mantle. Levi was so sweet and told me, "Mommy, it's so pretty!"

This makes me smile every time I walk into the room!

I simply used 8x10 frames and cut my patterned paper to fit. The letter are printed on cream cardstock, trimmed to 5x7 and taped to the patterned paper. Place it in the frame and you're done!

{The frames and pumpkins are from Michael's. I dug through my piles of scrapbook paper  to find some fall patterns. The branch (bittersweet?) was a find on our walk on the bike trail. And my favorite, the sweet family photos were taken by my very talented friend and local photographer Denise Gammell. I guess we need one of all four of us now!}

Want to make your own fall collage? Download the 5x7 letters I used here.
{Print two letters per sheet}

~Erin
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Something new is coming in November! Subscribe to my blog so you don't miss it!

Love Each Other Deeply {Printable + New Shop Items}

Last weekend my husband gave me an amazing gift - 48 hours of time away with 40+ other women from our church on a retreat by a lake in New Hampshire. The weather couldn't be better, the company an activities were fun, the speaker was inspiring and the best part is there was no cooking, cleaning, disciplining, diaper changing, etc. for two full days. Perfection. Of course we didn't get all the extra sleep we had planned on, opting for late night conversations and a sunrise hike instead. But that's what happens when you enjoy the people you are with.

Fourteen of us who went on the retreat are in the same "life stage" — all mothers of preschoolers or elementary-aged children. For some of us, it was our first trip away from our children and husbands.

As a community of moms trying to raise our children to know and love God and love others, it was refreshing to have time beyond play dates to invest in true friendships. We need each other for support through this stage of life and for encouragement as we strive to be the wife, mother, friend and child of God he calls us to.

And I did something new for this trip! A friend has been telling me for some time now that she'd love to wear a t-shirt designed by me. (What a great friend!) I was hesitant at first as this is new territory and it's a lot of pressure to come up with a cute design! But I loved the collaboration that went into this shirt and how it turned out! Who knows, maybe I'll be making more of these in the future! (By the way, the same friend told me I better offer the shirts in my shop and blog about it!)

We chose the verse I Peter 4:8:
"Above all, Love each other deeply." 

It's perfect because that's what we do as mothers, wives, daughters... we long to love and be loved deeply. I love that she suggested an anchor, not just because we were at a lake but because it's a reminder of the hope we have in Christ — an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast — and the command in Scripture to love our neighbor as ourselves...not on a surface level, but going deeper and truly loving those around us — extending grace and mercy — because of the grace and mercy we receive from Jesus Christ through a relationship with him. It reminds me to actively look for ways to reflect Christ to each other, valuing one another and offering help in times of need. Because we all have needs from time to time!

I just keep thinking — what a blessing to be part of this community of women!  Some are "old" friends and some I'm just beginning to get to know.The 4-hour drive gave us lots of time to get to know each other on a deeper level. On the drive home, besides getting lost, four of us shared our "stories" with each other — what we were like before having a relationship with Christ and how we are different after we accepting His free gift of grace and allowing Him to change us on the inside. Now that's going deeper! I think a friendship changes when you learn how she came to know Christ as her Savior. There's a deeper level of trust when you are honest about what your life used to look like and even how God is continuing to mold you as a Christian. Each story was so different! That's the beauty of it! God created us all differently, redeemed us and brought us down different paths to the exact place where we were on that retreat, investing in friendship and community.
 

 {Gotta have a group shot!} You ladies rock!

And a huge THANK YOU goes out to our amazing, selfless husbands for holding down the fort at home!

{Side note} It was my sweet Silas' first birthday while we were away. (We had a party the weekend before the retreat.) This is what my family did to celebrate his special day — a hike to Heublein Tower. I missed my boys and LOVED the squeals and hugs when I returned home. Daddy was proud that he "proved" he could handle them on his own. Do I see another getaway in my future?! ;)

Thanks for letting me share about my weekend and my latest project. If you've never been on a retreat, you should do it!! If you think you could benefit from joining a supportive community, here's a great one!

Love the anchor shirt? You can get your own here until they sell out. (Limited quantities.)

Want a 4x6 printable of the anchor design?
Download it here.

An 8x10 version of the Anchor Print is available in my Etsy shop.

~Erin