Coasterstone GIVE AWAY!

Happy weekend everyone!

Anyone ready for summer?

Beach weather and sand between your toes?

Birds chirping as you "sleep in"

and not waking up in a mad rush at 6am to get kids ready for school?

I am! I am!

Wanted to let you know the very nice folks at Coasterstone and I are 

having a fun summer kick off / give away this weekend!

If you're interested in winning this set of

  FLIP FLOP "WALK THIS WAY" COASTERS

or this set of BEAUTIFUL BIRDS COASTERS

All you have to do is leave a comment here sharing 

*one reason you love summer

*one thing you plan to do this summer

*one place you plan to travel to this summer

*one thing you enjoy doing with your kids in the summer

and/or

*where you plan to enjoy the coasters if you win

Ok, so now you have 5 chances to win.

You may enter up to 5 times...

Please leave comments here before 9pmEST Sunday, June 3rd.

Remember in the meantime,

you can check out all of my designs for Coasterstone 

HERE.

Hope you'll participate and share this fun give away with friends.

The coasters are great and make wonderful gifts...

FABULOUS teacher gift idea!!!

 We have several sets around our house and love them!

Enjoy and blessings on your weekend!

xoxo,

Caroline

*Thanks Coasterstone!

DIY overload!

 With our house renovation and so many design decisions to make 

I've been considering a few great DIY "Do It Yourself" projects.

Wanted to share them here in case it may help any of you 

who may be looking to save money and make some home improvements.

DIY- UPHOLSTERED HEADBOARD:

Trying to decide if my sweet mom and I are going to tackle this project ourselves or hire it out.

We think we're going to take the plunge and if so, you can be sure I'll report back with photos. 

I just confirmed that my very sweet and talented father-in-law agreed to build the frame for us.

I have been researching these King sized upholstered headboards for a while now 

and this one is one of the best tutorials I have seen.

THIS is a great tutorial too from Centsational Girl!
Love her tagline..."fabulous for less"

Love this one too...from One Kings Lane...

hmmmm... so many cool shapes to choose from

DIY- MAGNETIC WALL

We are using this material on a back hallway wall of our renovated kitchen (just outside of the mud room)

and our magnetic wall will be framed with painted moulding. 

Can't wait to hang kid's art and notes here.

The hallway leading to my art studio will be chalkboard paint 

but I wanted something cleaner and neater in the back hall area.

DIY- RUB 'N BUFF

I first learned of Rub 'n Buff here from the fabulous House of Fifty blog.

I haven't used it yet but it sounds intriguing....we can find it here. 

If you haven't stopped by House of Fifty yet, you should... full of great design ideas.

DIY- O'VERLAYS!
Have you ever heard of  O'VERLAYS? 
Really love this idea. I think this product is brilliant.
Great job Cheryle and Danika!
So many of the overlays can dress up an Ikea piece in an instant.
A great way to achieve the same look at a fraction of the cost.
Here are a few of my favorites from their site.

Oh and you'll have to check out their blog where folks have submitted pictures of their projects.
and speaking of stairs...

DYI- DESIGN IDEAS FOR STAIRS!

Considering doing this on our stairs from our basement up to our main level. 

Old pine stairs with painted white brick walls...think a great pattern may be fun.

What do you think?

Here are some clever ideas I found on Pinterest:

hmmm just painting the outer edges gives the impression of a hardwood runner.

my kids would love this idea...

Orla Kieley is always great... 

So many more on the possibility list ....so many great ideas out there.

Feel free to share any of your own DIY projects with us 

on my Multiple Blessings Facebook page here!

Blessings,

Caroline

Brownlow Gifts

Super thrilled and honored to share that I am now partnering with 

Brownlow Gifts, a wonderful family-owned, Christian gift company in Fort Worth, Texas. 

They are wonderful folks who manufacture 

inspiring and thoughtful gifts, many with scripture and meaningful sentiment.

Really love their company history....you can read the story here.

The products will launch in January, 2013...

Stay tuned for design peeks and information as I can share.

And once again, many thanks for joining me on this journey.

I continue to feel so grateful that I am a small part 

of creating art for products which encourage faith in today's home.

Blessings,

Caroline

Skipping church/Doing church

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend!

We did...nice to sleep in a bit, put some sweat equity into the house, 

swim at the pool with friends, cook out, etc.

I love my husband for so many reasons but one of them is because of his big heart.

Saturday night he said, Tomorrow morning I want to have a family meeting with the kids and tell them...

Let's skip church and go "do church"-be the church!

Let's prepare lunches for the homeless and go deliver them.

We did and it was awesome; can't wait to do this again soon.

We split up into teams...some went shopping and bought bread, peanut butter, Goldfish crackers, 

granola bars, apples, candy, toothbrush kits, mouthwash, paper bags, bottled water. 

We also typed out three scripture verses and a message and then the girls decorated each one.

An assembly line was created and they made sandwiches and bagged it all 

making sure each one had every item inside.

Bottled water was iced down in a cooler too.

Soon we were ready to go.

We ended up in the uptown area and we were able to give a couple of lunches away 

but actually had trouble finding folks. 

We thought many may have already headed to the shelter so we also moved in that direction. 

We landed at Urban Ministry Center which is a wonderful place in Charlotte. 

Our boys have served there before through our church youth program so it was familiar to them

and it was a great place for us to make sure the lunches landed in just the right hands.

I was so interested to see the art room...have had this place tugging at my heart for quite some time.

They have volunteers help with the homeless with art instruction each day of the week.

The program is called ARTWORKS 945

What an incredible place!

I would love to help here in some capacity...we'll see what God has in store for that.

We enjoyed looking at all of their creations.

If you have time, watch this video ---called "The Right Thing To Do, 

amazing and heart wrenching 

about how Urban Ministry is helping Charlotte's homeless. 

Powerful, good stuff.

So it was an amazing day of skipping church and "doing church" instead. 

I hope we'll do more skipping and more doing soon.

As it always seems to be the case when serving in the name of Christ, 

I believe we end up being blessed far greater than those we set out to bless.

Really blessings all the way around.

xoxo,

Caroline

Memorial Day!

Many blessings to you 

this Memorial Day!

Today we remember all who have served

who have sacrificed so much.

We give thanks to those who have made a difference

and for those who continue to make a difference 

for our country!

Amen.

Blessings,

Caroline

hydrangea heaven

Jumped all over the chance to have a mini photo shoot at my neighbor's house when she called and said...

"You have got to get your camera and come see the mixed color hydrangeas in my yard!"

Not sure I have ever seen a full cluster with such color variation.

S T U N N I N G!

I examined each bloom, each petal, each center in awe.

perhaps I have a special love affair with hydrangeas 

since I carried these in our wedding almost 18 years ago this June.

These flowers are so sweet and beautiful

and make me completely inspired to get painting again.

Those tender petals scream "watercolor" to me.

Oh praises for spring-almost summer 

and the opportunity to witness His majestic creation 

through something so simple as the flowers in our own back yards.

Grab your camera and take a look around yourself...

Have a glorious weekend!

xoxo,

Caroline

C.R. Gibson-new licensing partner

Thrilled to share some exciting news from the studio. 

I am partnering with C.R. Gibson 

-designing a few goodies which will be launching in January 2013.

Stay tuned for details as I can share. 

Have always loved everything this company makes and so honored to be working with them.

You can hop over here and check out their company history and website.

As always, many thanks for being on the journey with me.

Blessings,

xoxo

Caroline

New originals at FABO

Here are a couple of new original pieces available at FABO.

©Carolne Simas

It's one of my all time favorite verses and a good reminder:

Faith is being sure of what we hope for 

and certain of what we do not see. 

Hebrews 1:11

and 

                                   The Lord your God is with you,   

 the Mighty Warrior who saves. 

He will take great delight in you;    

in his love he will no longer rebuke you, 

    but will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

©Carolne Simas

Making art with His word makes me happy.

Blessings,

Caroline