{thoughts on mother's day}

With Mother's Day coming up on Sunday I'm feeling a bit nostalgic. It will be my 4th year {5 if you count the year I was 9 months pregnant} to celebrate motherhood, and looking back to see how far I've come and how far we've come as a family is pretty mind blowing.

I wish I could go back and tell the mother of newborn twins me how amazingly fun parenthood would be.

How filling your heart until it feels like it can't hold anymore love it will be.

How there will come a day when you'll have time to put on your makeup, dry AND CURL your hair, go shopping alone without feeling guilty, and feel good about your body again.

Because that time is now and these past four years have molded me into a person that I never thought I would be and I am so grateful for that.

Would I want to go through that first year again?

Not really, to be honest. :)

Although now I would at least know how to change a diaper.

Goodness how blessed I am to be the mom of two smart, beautiful boys who blow my mind everyday with the things they do and say. What a journey it has been.

From my first unofficial Mother's Day, when the boys were still holding up shop in my ginormous belly {I had over three weeks to go here!}...

To my first real celebration...

To #2 where they were a bit hard to wrangle for a photo...

And #3...

I can't wait to add a photo for #4.

{DIY Urban Outfitters Wall Art}

I'm so excited to share this DIY art project with you today!

For awhile now I've been drooling over some wall art from Urban Outfitters, but they don't have it available anymore, and it was way out of my budget. Soo...I decided to make my own!

Here are the easy steps and inexpensive items I used to create my knock-off Urban Outfitters art.

I started with a 24 x 30 inch canvas that was a freebie from my Mom {thanks Mom!} and 20 nature photos that I cut down into 6x6 square. I played around with the layout until I found one I liked...

Then I mod podged them onto the canvas...{took this photo at midnight so my apologies for the poor lighting.}

 And ended up with this...

And for the final step I took a roll of this stuff..

Stained glass foiling tape.

It is basically copper tape and such an easy product to work with. Just peel the backing off and stick! And it can be molded around the edges of the canvas for a really great finished look. I outlined all of the edges of the photos with it and put it around the canvas edges. Here is the finished product...

I turned out exactly how I had imagined and is the perfect art piece for our entryway...

And I love that I spent about $5 total for supplies. Here are a few close-up shots...

It is the perfect finishing touch to the new look in our entryway. I love how the colors tie into the vignette on our entryway table...

And it is a happy greeting as we walk down the stairs...

So what do you think? Have you completed any DIY art projects recently? I'd love to see them!

Questions about the products and techniques I used for this project? Check out the FAQ!*

*A kind blog reader pointed out to me that I should give credit for the photos I used, and she is very correct, especially with all of the views this project has received. However, when I did my google searches for photos, it didn't occur to me to save the original sources {lesson learned!}. It was never my intention to copy someone else's work, so if you recognize one of the photos I used as your own, please let me know and I will of course list your credit in this post.

Linking up with...

{instagram friday}

Friday, oh how I love you. :) Time to link up with...



Since I've been a bit picture happy lately I'll just pick a few of my faves from the past week...

I baked. From scratch. Seriously. *Recipe here* I added frozen blueberries. Yum.

SO excited about how the boys' birthday party invites turned out this year. Oh if I could do this stuff for a living!

DIY art project that I started on last weekend. Hoping to finish it this weekend!

A trip to Meijer is never complete without a pony ride. :)

Embellishing finished hats for a craft fair I'm doing on the 15th.

Trying to eat better breakfasts...I had this four days out of five this work week.

Landon loooves to wash his hands. The more batman soap, the better.

Found this really cool tree root on a walk around the neighborhood.

Iced grande decaf non-fat 5 pump vanilla latte. Yum.

What has your week looked like?

{enjoy the silence}

Well, hello there friends.

Its Thursday.

And I've been thinking a bit over the past week or so about this blog...and what I've been talking about and sharing lately.

And what I haven't been talking about.

While I have really been enjoying participating in WIWW {What I Wore Wednesdays}, linking up my Instagram photos, and sharing a few home decor projects, I feel like my real life has taken quite a backseat on here.

And my blog is called This Girl's Life for crying out loud. Something just isn't right here.

Maybe I've been focusing on fashion and beautiful pictures because they are a fun distraction from life. And let's face it...life is hard. It is tiring, exhausting, overwhelming. And mine has definitely been all of those things lately. But it has also been full of love and raw emotion and feelings that I don't even know how to verbalize. {I'm probably going to be rambling a bit here so either stick with me or just leave now while you still have your brain cells in tact.}

One thing that I don't share much, if at all, on here is my faith.

I guess I would call myself a Christian. But I really hate to place a label on myself because if anything, I'm a spiritual person who believes in God. And the golden rule. And the rest I'm just figuring out along the way.


For the past 5 years, I've worked at a seminary. It is a Quaker seminary...which has opened up a whole new {and just as confusing} religious world to me. But let me tell you one thing the Quakers know how to do that I love...

Silence.

Source: entermyattic.blogspot.de via DieTee on Pinterest

They love silence. They wait...and wait...and wait some more to hear God speak to them.

I have to admit this whole silence concept was really uncomfortable to me when I first started working here. We start our meetings with it, and sometimes end them in the same way. I didn't know what to do for the first few months. Close my eyes? Pray? Twiddle my thumbs under the table?

I felt SO awkward.

But now I love the silence. I look forward to it. {what mother of two almost four year olds wouldn't?}

I use it to breathe deeply. To focus on my surroundings. The sounds, the smells, the textures. I use it to become fully present in the moment and give thanks that I'm living in it {even if it is at the beginning of a three hour faculty meeting}.

I've even found myself driving in silence lately. I crave it because my world has been SO loud lately. And not just actual noise...but also so many tasks and "to-do's" cluttering my mind like static that you just can't turn off. I'm finding that even a minute of silence does wonders for helping to quiet that static and help me re-focus.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is a lot more to me than a cute shirt from Kohl's or a great find from TJ Maxx. 

And I need to share more of that with you. So this was a start.  :)

{instagram friday}

Happy Friday friends! I'm on vacation from work today, but I also have a cold. Boo. Taking it easy and relaxing with my boys today. Here is a peek into my past week through my instagram photos.

Linking up with...

1. seeing stars
2. making my purse happy
3. after dinner treat
4. in disguise
5. movie night...Charlotte's Web
6. Sunday waves
7. new green dress
8. driving back to work

1. hello there love
2. splish splash
3. wrinkled toes
4. feather + lace
5. reading material for the next parenting challenge
6. dinner time
7. yucky morning rememdy
8. lazy friday morning

My instagram name is mandy_ford if you want to follow along!

{in the dressing room}

Yesterday my Mom and I had a fun girls' day out. Lots of good food, giggles, coffee and shopping! Our most exciting stop of the day was our new TJ Maxx, which just opened up this past weekend.

To say I was excited about this momentous occassion is a tad bit of an understatement. The shopping in our small town is less than stellar so getting a TJ Maxx is huge people.  HUGE. :)

Wanna see what I tried on? I bought all but one of these pieces...let's see if you can guess which one. {and I know you'll be disappointed because it was one of my faves, but just not practical for my life right now}

First up was this cute green dress...

I wanted to find a dress to wear to an upcoming baby shower and I love this one. It is very comfortable and flattering and of course I love the pockets. It is work appropriate too which makes it even better.

Then I tried on this adorable pink/coral dress...



I looove the cutouts around the neckline and the hem.

Next I tried on this casual top...



It looks like denim in the pic but it is really a light aqua fabric with a bit of a sheen. I love the flouncy hem...so fun!

And last was this top and skirt combo...

The top has little stars on it and the skirt is a really great trouser style with a cuff and wrap tie around the waist.

So which item did I not purchase???

The pink/coral dress.

I know...bummer. I really, really liked it. BUT it was too short to wear alone and I was already going over my spending budget for the day, so back to the rack it went.

I'm actually wearing the star top and trouser skirt outfit today and I love it...it is a lot more flattering than I thought it would be and super comfortable. Here's a close-up pic of the top from my instagram this morning...

I also bought a turquoise {my new favorite color} Nine West wallet for $12 {!!!} and some superhero figures for the boys' upcoming birthday. So many great deals in that place. And SO dangerous that it is literally 2 minutes from my house.

Yikes.