Celebrate Mother's Day Everyday

What you'll need:

* 1 package of craft sticks, size of your choice
* White craft glue
* Pony bead or buttons
* White acrylic paint (optional)
* glitter glue (optional)
* Craft jewels (optional)
* Paint brush
* Wax paper

How to make it:

1. Lay several craft sticks on the wax paper, next to each other and touching. Be sure to line them up evenly.
2. Use two more craft sticks and glue on top of the others, one at each end, to hold the rest together. (See photo) They will look similar to a fence or log raft.
3. Use two more craft sticks and glue ends of stick to the ends of the sticks that are already in place so that they create a square. Keep repeating this alternating process to build up the sides as high as you would like.
4. Make the lid by repeating steps 1 & 2 above.
5. Let everything dry completely.
6. You can leave your box plain or choose to paint it. You can also add a shiny effect by painting on a layer of glitter glue over white paint.
7. Glue a pony bead to the center of the finished lid as a handle.
8. You can further embellish your jewelry box by decorating it with craft jewels.
9. If you don't have a pony bead, find a couple of matching buttons and stack them with glue.

Tips:

* If you would like to make a ring holder, use miniature craft sticks. For a larger box use jumbo craft sticks.
* Use a black permanent marker to write your child's name and the year on the bottom of the box. This makes a great keepsake for your memory box!
* Craft sticks are readily available at any craft store and discount department stores. A frugal option is to save popsicle sticks in the summer, wash them then use for crafts after they dry.

directions taken from Kaboose.com

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.

-Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

Because I feel that in the heavens above
The angels, whispering one to another,
Can find among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I have long called you,
You who are more than mother unto me,
And filled my heart of hearts, where death installed you,
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother - my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are the mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
But that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul that its soul-life.

-Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Charm your Child!

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."

- Washington Irving