Five Minute Friday: Beautiful

It's Friday and Fridays are beautiful as writers gather from all around the world to join Lisa-Jo Baker in Five Minute Friday.

Today's word prompt: Beautiful

Summer is beautiful. With its sunshine and bright blue skies, with the thermomater hitting the 80's and 90's. With flowers in abundance and gardens bursting with produce.

Summer is beautiful. With sprinklers and bathing suits, water balloon fights, with freeze pops and dripping ice cream cones.



Summer is beautiful. With family reunions and visiting the grandparents, time with the cousins, and swimming in grandma's pool... a week too short.



Summer is beautiful. With friends over to visit, with bonfires and S'mores, with glo-sticks and games of volleyball ... or croquet (if only my property was flatter).

Summer is beautiful. With iced coffee and trips to the air conditioned library or the kids movies for $1 at the movie theater. With trips to the park and playdates.

Summer is beautiful. With lazy mornings and late nights. With Fourth of July celebrations... picnics, fireworks, all things red, white and blue. With baseball games and apple pies, and fresh berries...

Summer is beautiful. Summer is Fun!

Community Conversation: What is your favorite thing about summer?

Happy Birthday, America

Independence Day
Fourth of July
America's birthday

an excuse for a parade, a cook-out, and some fireworks!!

and a huge dose of gratitude for the country I live in, and those who defend it!!

and because I don't have time to reinvent the wheel... or write new content on this busy day...

Here are three fun patriotic-themed posts from the past.

Red, White, and Blue handmade cards

Flag Wreath (one of my favorites)

Patriotic Toes

Community Conversation: What are you doing special for the Fourth of July? and I'd love it if you were so inclined to leave a comment on one of my old posts... :)

Patriotic Yarn Wreath

So excited to be joining PinFTW with Mommin' it Up again this week!  And I've got a great pin for you, perfect for Fourth of July... so get on it today!!

This is a pin of a pin of a pin. (in other words, there is nothing new under the sun), So obviously "Everybody" is doing it... which totally means you should too! But only if you have a few TV shows to catch up on or a really long movie, because it's kinda time consuming depending on how OCD you are! :)

So you start with a straw wreath and red, white, and blue yarn.  Keep the straw wreath wrapped up in it's plastic covering otherwise you might have straw sticking out all over! I got all my supplies from Michael's but a week later I found a straw wreath (still wrapped) at Salvation Army, so now I have to find another wreath idea for it! :)

Then you want to ball the yarn because it will make it so much easier to wrap around the wreath. (and it looks so cute when it's all balled up). If you don't know how to ball yarn, check out this tutorial. I would have done it myself with pictures, but I'm left handed so that might have been confusing!

And then you find another good TV show to watch and start wrapping, and wrapping, and wrapping!

Punch out some stars (I did 13) and adhere with a hot glue gun. Make note, hot glue guns and yarn are not forgiving, so make sure you know exactly how spaced out you want your stars before you start!

I just used a simple ribbon and hot glued it to the back (not pretty but you can't see it when it's hanging)

Then hang it and enjoy!!

 

and using Pinterest Works for Me!!

and linking up to Made by You Monday.

Patriotic Toe Nails

So, I'm basically midlife... w/o giving away my exact age!  :) and I'm in danger of a midlife crisis...

But my conservative background prevents me from getting a tattoo or any outrageous piercing. Every October, I think of dying a portion of my hair pink, just to be rebellious... and it's for a good cause!

So when I saw this fun idea from Family Fun on Pinterest, I thought maybe that would be a little "dangerous."  I know, I know, I'm pathetic....

And I liked it so much, I couldn't wait for Fourth of July. So I painted my toenails for Memorial Day!!

Here are the supplies you need: red nail polish, blue nail polish, and White French Manicure Pen ... and a top coat to keep it all from chipping.

I know it's pretty self explanatory, but here's what you do... Paint toe nails of one foot blue, and the other foot red... Then use your french manicure pen to add stars to the blue, and stripes to the red, and seal it all with a top coat!!

 AND THEN, your thrill your little girls by painting their nails, too!  :)

So, not exactly midlife crisis crazy... but it made me happy!  So pin this great idea for Flag Day... or Independence Day!!

And it's Patriotic Week at The CSI Project... go check out more great patriotic ideas there!!