Happy Laundry

With 5 active children, I do a lot of laundry. I'd say I spend at least 5 hours in my laundry room each week. For some reason, some of my worst attitude moments are spent in this busy room. Perhaps it is due to my dislike of folding. Perhaps it is due to the fact that 5/6 of the people that I wash, dry and fold for do not thank me for my efforts. (The one that thanks me is my sweet husband, Todd.) In fact, some of those 5 people actually moan and groan when I give them a basket filled with clean clothes freshly folded for them to put away. Yes, it is true. I know you can't believe it.

When I was a child, I never moaned and groaned when I found a pile of clean clothes on my bed. And I never, ever was so lazy that I just dumped that pile on the floor for a few days then swept it up and put it into the dirty clothes pile again. Never. I was a perfect child. When I found a pile of beautiful laundry on my bed, I would first put it carefully away making sure not to ruin any of the folding that took my mother so long to do. Then I would run to her joyfully singing her praises. I would make her a cup of tea and massage her feet as she rested from her labors. Yes, that is what I would do. My mother might have a different memory of my childhood laundry escapades, but since she isn't writing this post, we'll just stick with my version, okay?

Back to my laundry room...because I have some seriously ugly thoughts in that room, I knew that I needed something happy to spruce it up. I needed a reminder of how laundry is a way for a momma to show her devotion for her family despite their protests. It is an act of love that goes unnoticed (that is until it doesn't get done because that momma is sicker than a dog or tending to a newbie.) It is really part of a higher calling and I'm grateful for that.

I made this Oh Happy Day! banner to hang over the window in my laundry room. I love the bright colors and cherries. They just make me happy even when I'm crabbily folding and folding and folding.



Materials: Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker papers, brads, stamps, breadless tags, mini-album and craft flags; acrylic paint; ribbon from Michaels and Target; American Crafts pen; Harmonie buttons; DMC floss

Believe it or not, C's jubilant smile in the picture was completely unplanned. He just happened to be in the area when I was taking pictures and asked me to take a picture of him. Sometimes the best things are totally serendipitous. In my opinion, he totally makes the project shine.

Here are close-ups of each flag.

I did this project for a review on The Scrap Review of Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker products. Boy, it was fun to work with her stuff! I love her sense of humor.

I spent the entire day Saturday at a paperclay class and had a wonderful time. As soon as I finish my Santa, I'll post more about that lovely day. In the meantime, I'm on ScrapScene again with my glitter ornament project and I just found out that I'm going to be published in Scrapbook Trends in May! Yeah!

It really is a happy day! Now, off to fold and fold and fold...

xoxo

Bethany