Summer Journal writing prompts

This post originally appeared on Design Dazzle in June.


Hello!  I'm Candice from She's Crafty.

I'm thrilled to be back this year for Design Dazzle Summer camp!  

Summer is here!  I'm so happy for the slower pace of life! 

Things are definitely more relaxed around our house and I love it!

With all of the sleeping in, swimming, movie watching, video and computer games

 and general playing that my kids are doing this summer, 

I want to make sure they use their minds a little bit too.  

I don't want them to loose all of the knowledge they gained over the last year in school.  

So I am instituting journal writing in our day.  

Each of my kids picked out their own notebook/journal from the store.  

As much as I would have loved to have chosen their notebooks myself and artfully decorated them, 

I wanted them to be able to take ownership of their journals.  

So store bought it is! (One of the lessons of motherhood is choosing your battles!)

I came up with this list of journaling prompts.  

It is my hope that they will spend some time on each prompt and really think it through.  

My little dude is still working on his writing so I think this will really help his skills!  

Having a journal full of their thoughts, dreams and goals will be a treasure 

for them to look back over as they grow up.  

And hopefully it will be something worthwhile that will keep my kids busy this summer!  

Come see me at She's Crafty!  

Or visit me on Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram.  

A Walk through my Week

How is it Friday already?  

This summer has flown by! 

My kids have been at summer camp all week so I've 

had a few moments to catch up on some things.  

This is what my week has looked like!

I did some updating to the shelves in my craft room.  I still have a few more things to finish in this room and then will post the tour.

My husband and I have been doing some novice plumbing.  

I just have to say, toilets are gross and plumbers don't make enough money.  Ewwww!!

Of course I've been doing some house keeping.  I love having a clean house!

I am taking a class on how to make bracelets from belts.  It's so fun!   

I just got a new camera.  It's so beautiful!!  

I've been studying the manual and playing around with it.  

Are you on Pinterest? follow me here  It's like a magazine at your fingertips.  

I have found some amazing projects this week that have inspired me so!  

(links below photos are to the original sources)

powdered paint

beautiful farm house kitchen tour

fun office space

What have you been up to this week?

last minute July 4th printables

Happy 4th of July!!  

I hope you're spending the day barbecuing, swimming, relaxing and being 

grateful for this wonderful country we live in!  

I'm here sharing a few last minute July 4th printables.  

So if you're like me, and need a little somethin, somethin for the food table, you have it!  

Print these off onto some cardstock, stick them into a frame and you're good to go!

Have a fun and safe 4th of July!  

ideas to fight summer boredom

We are right in the thick of summer.  

We've kept pretty busy so far.  

We've had girls camp, scout camp, day camps and a dance recital along with birthdays, 

meetings and appointments.  

Even with all of our summer activities, I've heard the dreaded, "I'm bored" many, MANY times.  

And while I agree with this article (seriously, go read it) that it's not my job to entertain my kids all day, every day, I thought it would be nice to have a list of things my kids can do.

So if they just can't find a way to entertain themselves, I'm prepared.  

When this cute little guy comes up to me to explain how there is nothing in our house for

 him to do, I can give him one of these tasks.

  There are some fun activities on there, but there are also some chore type things 

that always need to be done.  

I cut the tasks up into small strips and put them into a mason jar.  

Hopefully we'll have less, "I'm bored's", but if not, then at least my house will be cleaner!  :) 

linking up to:  Skip to My Lou, DIY show off, Sugar Bee Crafts, Inspire Me Please, The Party Bunch, Sweet Haute

Guest Post at Design Dazzle

Today I'm guest posting at Design Dazzle.

Stop by and check it out!

4th of July burlap wreath

Today I'm sharing how I updated my burlap wreath

to reflect the 4th of July!

I started with my spring wreath.

I removed all of the butterflies and the S.

Since I used hot glue to attach the felt butterflies to the clothespins, I was able

to pull the felt off to reuse the clothespins.

I picked up some glittery stars at Hobby Lobby.

(all July 4 items were 40% off)

Then I just hot glued the glittery Styrofoam stars onto clothes pins,

and clipped them onto the burlap wreath.

I tied a few ribbons onto a star from my stash.

(I think I picked the star up at Home Goods a couple of years back)

Then I tied some burlap ribbon around the top to hang the wreath.

Happy 4th of July!

Linking up to: Tatertots and Jello

House Tour before and after 10 years later

I found this old scrapbook album the other day.

I put it together shortly after we moved into our house 10 years ago.  

It was really interesting to go through it and see how different our house looks now 

compared to how it looked then.  

There are so many things I want to do with this house that sometimes I get discouraged.  But after looking at and comparing these photos, I feel much better!!

This is what the outside of our house looked like the day we bought it.  

We have put up a fence, planted many plants and a tree.  

Oh the living room.  Wow.  It was so dark and cave like.  

This is the in progress photo.  We had painted, put up board and batten and bought some new furniture.  

This is now.  We how have hardwood floors, a rug and updated furnishings.  So much lighter!

More on the living room here.  

Oh the dining room.  What do you think my favorite color is?  

I'm kind of embarrassed by this photo.  

Now we have new flooring, new paint, new table, new curtains and new furnishings.  

On the other side, I painted over that red and filled up the wall with a large shelf that I decorate seasonally.  

SO MUCH BETTER!!

Here is the office when we were moving in.  

Up until about 6 months ago, this was my husband's office/library.  

Now it's my office!  

I'm still putting some finishing touches on it and will do a post soon.

Our kids bathroom before.  Excuse the photo of a photo.  

Here is what our kids bathroom looks like now.

Here is the master bathroom before.

Master Bath now.  

This is my boys' room before.  This was before our youngest was even born.

Here is the boys room now.  

This is my daughter's room before.  

This is my (almost) teen girl's room now.  

We've updated since that blog post and moved a bunk over futon bed in here. 

Playroom before.  This is when our kids were small and had lots of toys everywhere.

Now our kids are bigger and need room for board games, video games and hang out space. 

I also have a blog post planned about this room.  It's gone from playroom, my office/craft space to the current bonus room.  

Here is what our family looked like 10 years ago when we moved into this house.  

This is our most current family photo.  

linking up to:  Craft Frenzy Friday