Happy Birthday to my Sister!!!

I'm going to love on my sister, Jeannine, today.  It's her birthday and she turns...wait, I'm loving on her I guess I should leave that part out.  Not that she's old or anything.  She is my YOUNGER sister. 

Here she is!  Isn't she beautiful?!?  You might know her as Jeannine from The Concrete Cottage.  Yeah, she's an amazing decorator and crafter.  She is my inspiration for so many things.  She has such an amazing eye for detail...it can make an older sister a little green with envy...if I didn't love her so much.  Here's just a little taste of who she is...

Little Sis!!!

She's the youngest of three, the most brave and daring and full of mischief!  Oh, that's our brother Charles in the middle there.  What a bunch of cuties we were!!!

Lifetime Friend!!!

We were the Maids/Matrons of Honor in each other's weddings.  I have best friends, but she has been my lifelong friend.  We've spent many nights laughing together, fighting with each other, crying together...just living life together.

Wife!!!

Hey, she can keep this guy in line...what more can I say...LOL!!!

Mom!!!

These beautiful and handsome rascals are hers.  They're every bit their mother's children...and I love them immensely!!!

Baby Lover...or in other words NURSE!!!

She always loved hospitals.  Why I never knew, but she always did.  We always fought over who got to hold the baby...whatever baby might be around.  And now she gets to spend time in the hospital holding babies!!!  Yeah, I guess she ultimately won that fight huh???

My Inspiration!!!

She wrote a blog post the other day revealing her newly decorated craft room.  In the post she had a picture that caught my eye.  I have a chalk board (a copied idea from her) that I love to decorate (also because of her), but I have difficulties getting the chalk to cooperate.  I've been looking for chalk pencils (do they even make such a thing...I haven't found any yet), and in this one picture my sis had a bowl with a piece of chalk and a pencil sharpener.  BRILLIANT!!!  I tried to copy her...yet again...today and failed!  Why?  My sharpener didn't have a large enough opening, and I couldn't find one of those cheap ones that all students have with the smaller and larger openings.  I needed it for this project.

See, if you ever go into my sister's kitchen you'll find all kinds of cool jars and such with chalk board labels that you can write the contents on.  In this new way of life I have to make all sorts of things you'd normally just buy in the store.  Things like salad dressing, mayonnaise, caramel and chocolate sauce...and you need something to put them in.  That's where Hobby Lobby comes in especially when glass is 50% off.  And since I have that lovely machine called a Silhouette Cameo (thanks to my sister who taught me what it was) and access to chalkboard vinyl, I could make labels on the lids to mark what's in the jar.  But, since I didn't have sharpened chalk to help me write neatly this is what I ended up with...

At least it works to identify the contents...and that is the whole purpose isn't it!

So, Sister, thank you for inspiring me, for broadening my crafting horizon, for being my friend, for being YOU!!! 

I love you...Happy Birthday!!!

Jennifer