Project idea: Memory Garden Rocks

Looking for a gift idea for that hard to buy for person?  Or, want a way to remember each year in a special way?  Try this simple & unique project- Memory Garden Rocks

We created painted rocks for each member of my husband's family to give as a Christmas gift to their parents.  The rocks represented something special about that family member that year or show special artwork from the kids.  We also put the family member's name & year on the rock.  These rocks will be placed within the landscaping of my in-law's.  We saw this idea at the family cottage of one of my sister-in-law's; they had painted rocks for each family member and set them in the landscaping in front of the cottage right before the entrance.  It really caught our eye & got us wanting us to do this for our family.

MATERIALS NEEDED:
3-6 inch in length rocks (the family collected these throughout our camping and beach trips last summer)

Exterior acrylic paint in many colors (I was able to get this paint at Hobby Lobby, but any general crafts store would have it.  Hobby Lobby had a nice kit with many colors in a small amount so that we could really vary the colors we used.  It is important that the paint is for exterior so that it can stand up to the weather & outdoor elements.)

Exterior clear coat (again, purchased right at Hobby Lobby located by the other paints)

Paint brushes & sponge brushes of various sizes

Sharpie marker (for smaller writing on the rocks)

DIRECTIONS & IDEAS: 
Some of the family got together for a "rock painting party" at our house this fall, which was fun!  It was also nice because then we were able to get out all of the supplies & spread out newspaper on the floor & let the kids paint!  Others in the family painted their rocks on their own.  Either way, we all had great results!

We painted one "center rock" that was in yellow to tie the other rocks together & to put the year on it.  We brainstormed & googled possible quote ideas but finally decided on "Our Family Rocks!" which has a double meaning (pretty clever- I didn't think of it so I can say that!).


Center rock for the Memory Garden

 We all approached this in a different way.  The younger kids enjoyed being able to paint freely; then after their artwork dried, their mom painted the child's name & year on the rock. 

Some of the older kids painted something to represent the family, like this family tree with hearts instead of apples on the tree (the year is painted on the side of the rock).


The family tree rock painted by the 15 year old in the family.



A summery picture on this rock painted by the 10 year old in the family.

Some of the family got very creative with their rocks, such as these below.  After one of the younger kids painted all over his rock, his mom blended all the colors together to get the brown.  After the brown dried, she painted his name on the rock to look like the ties on a football.  Can you see the name on the football strings?


Ethan's football rock

The following creative rock was painted for the youngest member of the family, so we thought it was appropriate that the baby of the family had the smallest rock.  Her mom painted her name as birds in the sky.  Can you see the baby's name on the rock?


Baby Mary's rock (see her name as the birds in the sky?)

Because this is a very large family, there were many more rocks.  I just shared some of them in this blog.  Each child had their own rock.  Each couple did one rock.  Here is ours for my husband & I--  this rock represents a few different things about us as a couple.  We love biking & it was something we had done competitively as a couple when we first started dating.  On the side of the rock, I painted "rock and roll" which again can have a few meanings.

OTHER IDEAS for this project:
We did this gift for Christmas, but it would be a great gift idea for anytime like Valentine's Day, Mothers Day, a birthday, etc etc.

For this project, we had about 25 people in the family that had rocks for themselves so that will fill up a landscaping area pretty quickly.  I loved this idea so much that I wanted to do it for myself, but I only have two children so their rocks wouldn't fill up much space in our landscaping.  What I'm going to do with them is to have them each paint a rock each year to represent something about themselves that year.  After a few years, it will be neat to see how they have changed and grown over the years (I wish I would have thought about this a lot sooner in their lives but better now than never).

I hope this project idea inspires some of you to try the Memory Garden Rocks.  It was a fun & memorable project!

New recipe: Chunky Greek Salad

We've all been faced with this cooking challenge..."bring a dish to pass" to a family gathering, work function, or party.  Since I'm not very confidant in my cooking skills, I put extra time into finding that perfect dish.  Recently, I was asked to bring a vegetable salad for my hubby's family's Christmas.  I decided upon making "Chunky Greek Salad", which was a recipe I found in the Good Housekeeping magazine, June 2003 issue (I make a hobby of pulling recipes out of magazines to try in the future & organize them in binders- that's another post!). 


This dish was a hit!  It made a large bowl, was very fresh and tasty & healthy!  Adults & kids liked it- the kids just picked out the veggies they didn't like.  If I was making this just for my family of four, I would probably half the recipe because this did make a big dish.  Here's the recipe & my tips:

INGREDIENTS: Fresh & healthy ingredients!  I was able to find all of the ingredients at my local small-town grocery store.  Here's a pic of some of the main produce in the recipe-

Dressing=
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice (I squeezed my own fresh.  It took less than one lemon to get 2 TBSP of lemon juice.),
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coursely ground pepper (I love my Crate & Barrel salt & pepper mills!  Perfect to use in this recipe!)

Salad ingredients=
1 pint grape tomatoes, each cut in half
6 cucumbers (about 1 1/2 pounds)- unpeeled & cut into 1" by 1/2" chunks (I used 3 large cucumbers)
1 large red pepper, cut into 1" pieces
1 green onion, thinly sliced (I actually used 3 green onions & this didn't overpower the salad.)
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted & coursely chopped
3/4 cup (3 oz) crumbled feta cheese (optional but I did use feta cheese in the salad because we love it!)

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a separate medium sized bowl, combine oil, lemon juice, salt & black pepper.  Mix together with a fork until well blended.

2. In a large serving dish, add tomatoes, cucumbers, red pepper, green onion, and olives.  Toss evenly until mixed.  Drizzle dressing mixture onto veggies & toss evenly. 

If not serving right away, cover & refrigerate for up to 6 hours.  Sprinkle with feta to serve if you'd like (I added the feta right away when I tossed the rest of the salad.).  Toss again before serving.

SO YUMMY!  SO HEALTHY!  Enjoy & let me know what you think!