Easy to Make Watercolor Cloth Napkins

Last week, I gave you all a little sneak peek to this project when I revealed my embroidery hoop chandelier. I was part of a thrift store challenge, where another blogger went shopping at a thrift shop {on a budget of course!} and sent me a box of goodies that I could create with. I saw a few things in the box that automatically shifted my brain into creative mode, the embroidery hoops were one of them, the plain cloth napkins were the other.  I'm excited to share with you how I used paint in my cabinet to create these watercolor napkins.

I started by gathering my supplies. I love garage sales, and tend to hoard craft supplies. There is nothing worse than being stalled out in the creative process because you have to go hunt down supplies at six hundred different stores!

Obviously, the paint brush was from a garage sale and as you can see, my thrift store napkins were $2.99 {and gifted to me}. I always have a stash of paint on hand in various colors because you never know when you are going to need it. I think I picked these up as samples at SNAP blogging conference this year. As you can see, I hadn't settled on the color palate I was going to use just yet. I ended up using only 3 colors, but the glory of this project is that you can use any paint you want to match any color palate that you have. I also used paper bowls that I could throw away because that makes clean up easy!

You want to start by wetting down your napkins. You don't want them dripping wet, just damp. I rung out the extra water.

I took a few drops of my paint and added it to my bowls. I used water to dilute the paint and used my brush to stir it in. I knew I wanted the blue to be bold, so I didn't dilute that one quite as much as I did the purple. Think 3-4 drops of paint to 1 cup of water. You will have to experiment on your own to get the winning combination for your project.

I have a work surface that is made for crafts, so I didn't cover it up, {You can read more about our removable table top here} but if you aren't so lucky, you might want to lay wax paper down to protect your surface. I found that the paint wiped right up with no issues.

I started at the bottom of the napkin, laid it out flat, and began brushing my paint on using the same up and down direction. I sort of eye balled it on how far I went up on each napkin with each color.

After adding the blue, I added the green and blended them at their meeting point. Then I added my final color. I didn't want to go all the way to the top, I wanted to leave some of the natural off white color on the napkins.

I took each napkin and laid them outside to dry in the sun. It was a hot day, so it didn't take long at all. You could also throw them on low in your dryer.

 I love how they turned out!

Each one is a little different and unique.

This was such an easy inexpensive project and I was able to use materials I had on hand. Those are my favorite kinds of projects! 

dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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Open Your Child's Eyes to Poverty- 5 Ways You Can Get Started

I'm raising three white children in a middle class home in a suburb of Seattle, WA. We live in a gated neighborhood where there is nary a sign of any real want. Sure, we see tents along the highway in the city where homeless camps have been set up and we pass by, make eye contact and smile at those men and women holding signs at the intersection, but how do we really help our kids grasp the reality of poverty when we are so far removed from it.
Several years ago, I read a quote by Shane Claiborne, in his book Irresistible Revolution that says "the problem is not that American Christians do not care about the poor. The problem is that American Christians do not know the poor"
How true is this! We care when we know. When we hear about true need and crisis, American people are quick to step up and help when they can. But how do we get to know the poor and the needs of those in poverty?
Poverty in America looks very different than poverty in developing and third world countries. My hope is that our children will have a larger world view that includes people to the ends of the earth. So how do we open our children's eyes to poverty? I'm sharing five ways today that I hope will help you know where to start.

I've been fortunate enough to have traveled to several developing nations like Uganda and Zambia with World Vision and have seen the work being done in communities that are dealing with extreme poverty {those living on less than $1.25 a day}. When I've come home, I've shared stories of the people that I have met and my children have heard from me how different their lives are from those children on the other side of the world. 
But it doesn't take traveling out of the country to have a conversation with your children about poverty. 

Be Prepared

Kids ask questions all the time. Sometimes those questions come when you are least prepared to give an answer. When my kids were much younger, I was approached by a homeless man outside of the store asking me for a few dollars. I smiled at the man as I juggled bags of groceries and kids in my arms and responded that I don't carry cash. When my kids and I got in the car they asked why I lied to the man. 
Be prepared for a response. If we tell our kids to help those in need, but when someone in need asks for help and you don't help them, what explanation are you going to give to them. I could have been taken off guard and launched into a whole explanation about bad choices and addiction {which isn't always the case} but instead I told them that we don't give money directly to someone on the street, but that we do give money to community programs that can help those in need. 

Talk About It

Don't be afraid to have a discussion about poverty. None of us has all of the answers, if we did, there wouldn't be poverty. The goal of talking about poverty is to encourage empathy. Express how it makes you feel sad that those people living in a tent don't have a warm bed to sleep in at night. Talk about how happy you are that your children have a doctor to go to when they are sick and that they have clean water to drink and that not all children have those things.

Do Something for Someone Else

Last year, I wrote Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Volunteer as a Family and Where to Start. It's always been very important for us to serve together as a family. Your kids may have their own ideas of how they want to help. Be open to listening to those ideas. Maybe they want to donate some of their unused toys to a homeless shelter or while they are school supply shopping they want to buy supplies for a child at their school who might not otherwise have any. 
Maybe you want to put together blessing bags as a family so that when you see a homeless man or woman on the side of the road, you have something to give to them. A blessing bag is a Ziploc bag and can include non perishable food items like granola bars and water bottles as well as personal care items like a toothbrush and shampoo. Or you might want to spend an afternoon as a family at a food bank sorting items or make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that you can distribute to the homeless nearby. 

Experience It

Turn off your water for the day and see how difficult it is to not have a home with running water. Take a walk with buckets to your local water source {it could be a drainage pond or a puddle nearby} and walk home with the water. Eat a simple meal of beans and rice or even consider skipping a meal {elementary age kids can skip breakfast} to see what it really feels like to be hungry. Consider getting your older kids involved in the 30 hour famine. Spending some time experiencing the effects of poverty can help open your kids heart and mind to a new understanding of the poor. 

Our sponsored child Moses at his home in Uganda

Sponsor a Child 

One of the greatest things we have done as a family is to sponsor a child through World Vision. We started sponsoring Moses more than 5 years ago and we now sponsor a young girl named Sheila as well. World Vision has children available for sponsorship in nearly 100 countries. 
When we started sponsoring Moses we got a packet of information about him and his family and the area that he lives in. There was also information and even videos of our sponsored children on the website that we could watch. We write to our sponsored children and they write back to us. We love to receive pictures and letters and hear how their life is improving because of our monthly donation of $35. It's been a great way for our children to think about someone their age that is growing up in very different circumstances. You can find out more about child sponsorship here.
We have also found these books helpful to share with our children as they have gotten older.  
Under the Overpass is a book about two guys who decided to break free from their middle class lifestyles and see what it was really like to live on the streets for five months. It was an eye opening view for how we respond to those men and women that we see on the streets.
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore A story of two men from two very different backgrounds forming an unlikely friendship.
Interrupted by Jen HatmakerThis was a great book sharing how to live on mission right where you are.
The Hole in Our Gospel by Rich SternsThe message in this book challenged me to live differently and opened my eyes to change my world view.
We enjoyed watching this documentary on Netflix as well.
Living on $1 a Day Follow the journey of three guys living on $1 a day in rural Guatemala. 
I would love to hear about some of the ways that your family helps to open your child's eyes to poverty in your backyard and around the world. 
dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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Embroidery Hoop Chandelier

A few months ago, a team of bloggers decided to get together for a thrift store challenge. The challenge was set to get paired up with a blogger who would send you a box of thrift store find(s) under $15 and you had the liberty to create whatever you wanted to create with those items. In case you missed it, you can read more about the challenge here.  

Today, I'm going to show you what I created with one of the items in my box. It's a project I've been wanting to make for quite some time. I'm so glad the challenge finally gave me the kick in the pants to make this embroidery hoop light. I love how it turned out and it's been a great addition to our back patio on our warm summer nights.

Let me take a second to refresh your memory. These are the items I received in my thrift store challenge box from Carol at Refurbish 360 Blog. I had a few ideas in my mind, but I kept going back to my original idea of making an embroidery hoop light. In fact, I had already purchased the lighting package from IKEA last year with this project in mind. I just hadn't gotten around to doing it just yet.

I started by using some Minwax stain in Bombay Mahogany. The same stain we used when we made our removable plank top table last year.  I put on two coats of the stain. I also had my IKEA lighting kit {if you don't have an IKEA close by, this light kit is really reasonably priced as well} and twine on hand. You will also need a lightbulb {I love the look of the Edison bulbs.} This one is a fantastic deal.

After your hoops are dry, start by sliding all of the embroidery hoops inside one another. I used three on the inside and then one went down to support the middle. Start wrapping your twine around to hold your first meeting point together.

Slip the middle ring around and wrap that in place at the meeting points as well.

Once you have all your meeting points wrapped, take our your light kit and decide how far down you want your light to hand inside your hoop. You will take your twine and slip it around like shown at the spot you want it to meet with your hoop.

As you can see, the twine was placed about two inches up from the light base.

Secure the cord to the side of the embroidery hoop point that you consider the top.

My husband helped me find larger twine to wrap the cord and secure the lighting wire in place.

He is more of a boy scout than I am and knots are second nature to him. He ended up leaving a loop at the top so that there was a place to hang the light on our patio when it was complete.

After the light was complete, it found it's place outside on our back patio.

I think it looks pretty great above this seating area.

Having this lighting has made us linger just a little bit longer outside and enjoy the warm nights just a little bit longer.

In fact, we have even fired up the charcoal BBQ and created some signature S'mores and enjoyed some amazing family time out back.

I was so happy to finally get this project that's been floating around in my head made. It's one of those things that I have enjoyed so much now, I wonder why I didn't make it sooner!

I also took the set of napkins that Carol sent and made some watercolor cloth napkins. I will have the full tutorial on that soon, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peak.

Take a second today to check out some of the other Thrift Store Challengers and see what they came up with!

dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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How to Clean Your White Converse {or Canvas} Shoes

I recently picked up a pair of white converse shoes at a garage sale for $2. They were filthy dirty but my 14 year old daughter insisted that I buy them so that we could match since she has a pair of her own. Who can say no to being a "twinsie" with their teen daughter? Not me, that's who. So I picked the shoes up in the hopes that I could revive them from their dingy dirty state that they were in to a clean looking white pair the way God intended. Or at least, the way Converse intended them to look.

It's hard to get a really good look at the before and after, but I think they cleaned up really nicely. In fact, I'm pretty darn impressed with myself and wanted to share my tricks with you.  It's nearly impossible to keep white shoes looking white for long, so if you own a pair of white canvas shoes, this cleaning technique may be your new go to.

I started by removing the laces in my shoes. I could buy a new pair of white laces for a few bucks but I'm cheap and I like to salvage what I have, so I decided to take my laces out and see if I could make them look new again. I ended up putting them in a small plastic bowl filled with a mixture of the same cleaning concoction that I will be telling you about. It worked great and the laces looked new again too!

I have a sink in my laundry room, but if you don't you could use a bucket. I put a quarter scoop of Oxiclean, a quarter cup of laundry detergent and a cap full of bleach into my sink filled with about a gallon of cold water. You want to use cold water so that you don't set any of your stains. I used my toothbrush to swish and mix around my cleaning mixture.

Use your toothbrush to start scrubbing. I started with the rubber around the edges

and then worked my way up to the canvas.

I scrubbed the shoe on the left and hadn't gotten to the shoe on the right yet. You could soak your shoes upside down in your cleaning bath for a bit if the stains are really set in. I actually didn't have the time to do that and think that the end result still turned out great.

I took my toothbrush and dipped it into another scoop full of my Oxiclean. I used that to scrub around the canvas on my shoes before I threw them into my washing machine. I washed the shoes on cold with a small amount of liquid bleach and a little bit of laundry detergent.

Once the shoes are washed, you don't want to dry them in your dryer, you want to let the sun do the final step of whitening them. I read that some people find that their canvas shoes turn yellow as they dry in the sun. I didn't want that, so I took paper towels, wet them down until they were moist and laid them on top of the canvas.

After a few hours, your shoes will be dry and they will look almost as good as new!

I was really impressed with the process and have no idea why I almost didn't buy this pretty sweet looking pair of Converse. I'm so glad my daughter talked me into it. Now we can be twinning!

dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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A Complete Collection of Summer Beach Reads

I love to read. I must confess though, with the distraction of my smart phone, I tend to read more articles and less books. Though with the longer summer days and vacations planned, I do like to have a list of books that I know that I will love. You know, sometimes you take a risk on a book and it pans out, other times, not so much. I wanted this complete list to be the kinds of books that you would ask your girlfriends to give you on Facebook and then devour because they were just that good.  Are you ready for it? Get ready to make your own list! I promise you, these are some good ones!

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

I read The Paris Wife {another good one to add to your list. It's a love story about Ernest Hemingway} and devoured this one. I'm pretty enamored by any book set in Africa and this one didn't disappoint. The strong willed independent lead character Beryl Markham was a record-setting pilot caught in a love triangle. 

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes a commuter train on the same route every day and one day she sees something shocking. She gets thrown into not only the investigation, but she also gets thrown into the lives of everyone involved.

After You by Jojo Moyes

This series of books by Jojo Moyes are the quintessential beach reads. They are easy to devour and have you hooked on the characters and invested in their lives from the very beginning. If you didn't read Me Before You, start there.  This book is the sequel to what happens as Lou finds herself moving on after the death of someone she loved.  I also loved this other book by Jojo Moyes, One Plus One. It's another easy read about a single mom that's been dealt a hard hand and how she is doing her best to make the most of it.

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

Fourteen year old Joan is unhappy at home doing all of the work for her father and her brothers instead of being able to go to school like she would want. Her father punishes her by burning her books and she runs away in search of a better life. She thinks that she can find it by becoming a hired girl who actually gets paid for all of her cooking and cleaning. 

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Like The Hired Girl, this is another young adult book that I really enjoyed. It's about a young girl that has been orphaned trying to find the courage to move to Montana on her own to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim. It's a race against time and bad weather to try to finish the tasks needed and get the money to stake her claim to own the land. I look forward to reading the sequal Hattie Ever After.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Kate gets the call at work to come pick up her teenage daughter Amelia at school only to find that when she gets there, that it's too late. It looks as though Amelia has jumped from the building committing suicide. But Kate doesn't believe it and this is a story of a mother who goes to great lengths to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn't save. If you liked Gone Girl, you will love this one.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

I loved the other books by Liane Moriarty {Big Little Lies and The Husband's Secret} so I knew that I would like this one too. It's a story about a mom who wakes up with amnesia realizing that she's lost a decade of her memories. This book follows her as she reconstructs those events and does her best to remember why she thought she was happily married but now she's currently in the middle of a divorce.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton Disclafani

I just read this book on vacation and could not put it down. In the middle of the Great Depression, 15 year old Thea Atwood is cast out of her home under mysterious circumstances. She's sent to an equestrian boarding school and has to come to grips with the events that made her parents see no other way but to send her away and break up what seemed like the classic all-American family.

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

A young widower is doing his best to keep his beloved bookstore afloat. He's cranky and cynical and depressed but his life changes when he gets an unexpected package.  There is unexpected hope and redemption for AJ and I think you will be rooting for him from the very beginning.

The following are a few that I always recommend. These are those books that if people ask me what my favorites are, they rise to the top. If you haven't read them, you should.

Where the Wind Leads by Vinh Chung

This is the real story of a family forced out of Vietnam in the aftermath of the war.  It's a story of a refugee family and the miraculous events that led them to a small town in Arkansas.

The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

A young couple takes on the position of lighthouse keeper on an isolated island. A boat washes onto the shore with a dead man and a living baby and Isabele, having suffered several losses, longs to have a child of her own and against her husbands better judgement begins to raise the child as her own. 

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

I became invested in the characters lives and don't often find myself in tears as I read a book but I was sobbing by the end. It's the story of an unlikely friendship and second chances.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

This is the memoir of a girl growing up with an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother in a coal mining town in West Virginia. It's a fascinating read. 

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

In early 19th century Charleston, Sarah is give a handmaid named Handful for her eleventh birthday. This book follows their journey over the next 35 years as they strive for a life of their own.

A few books that have been recommended to me and I have on my list are:

The Fixer by Joseph Finder

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

11-22-63 by Stephen King

The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepety {actually, this author has a few books I have on my list}

Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freedman

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

I always love adding books to my list. Do you have any that you would recommend?

dislaimer: this post may have affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing through them, I may receive a small commission. These small purchases help me to continue to keep writing content and creating at Holy Craft. Thank you!

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