rainbows and books

 this art journal thing is pretty awesome.  i'm really enjoying myself.

found this quote on pinterest...turned it into my own work of art.  i like this...it's good to remember.  the hard times, the scary things, the unknown--they all lead to the good things in life.  new experiences, new people, new chances to learn.

another idea from pinterest--these are my children's hands.  optical illusion....they bring color and life and a thousand shades of emotion to my life.

and this one is just self-explanatory.  :)

anyone else out there use an art journal?

5th birthday

today my little buddy turned 5.

exactly five years ago at this moment, i was holding my brand new baby boy...only 3 hours old.  and marveling at the tiny creature that had come from me.

today i held my big five year old...and marveled at how grown up he is.  how intelligent, and sweet, and sensitive...and that he came from me.

i am so proud to be the mother of this amazing little boy....who isn't so little anymore.

five years old.....

art journaling: the beginnings

a few days ago i decided that i was going to start creating more art.  i've been a bit more prolific with my art production in the last few months with my painting (more on that in another post), which is awesome, but pulling my paints out and getting everything together isn't very convenient sometimes.  hauling a sketchbook and prismas around is more so.

i've posted about how much i love pinterest before (it's a creative person's paradise).  after seeing examples of art journals i decided i wanted to create my own.  many of the art journals i've seen are very beautiful--and very elaborate!  i don't have hours a day to devote to an art journal entry, not to mention the right kind of sketchbook and supplies.  so i'm doing an art journal MY way, with my choice of materials.

this sketchbook is a really nice one--and one that my AP art teacher gave me when i graduated high school in 2004.  (yes, i've been holding on to it that long!)  when i opened it up there were two drawings in it (rather ugly ones, i might add).  out they went.  i typically don't like to rip pages out of bound sketchbooks but i made an exception in this case.  it has probably 200 pages of plain paper in it.  perfect.

my choice of media is pretty typical for me as well--prismacolor pencils (both standard and verithin) and sharpies.  i LOVE sharpies.  colored sharpies, black sharpies, thick sharpies, thin sharpies, angled sharpies, paint sharpies, fabric sharpies....i love how smooth they are on paper, and the way they smell, and the brightness of the colors.

and thus my art journal was born.

this was my first page--an illustration of what is most important to me.

it is true...what i love most about my home is who i share it with.

my handsome, genius, hardworking husband.  my sweet, intelligent son.  my spitfire, loving daughter.

my home wouldn't be HOME without them.

Zero!

 As my followers will know, I happen to love all things Tim Burton.  (How can you not?)  One of my favorites happens to be one of Burton's classics: "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  Released in 1993 when I was at the ripe old age of almost 8, I loved it from the first time I saw it.  Jack Skellington, the lead character, had a faithful companion, his dog Zero.

Meet my new faithful companion, my dog Zero.  He is a 3-month old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

My kids (and hubby, although he won't admit it) love him, too.  He is sweet, and smart, loves to chew on things (especially his stuffed animals, tennis balls and water bottles) and chase our cat.  He just doesn't understand why she won't play with him.

Everyone who sees him falls in love with his big ears and permanent smile. 

I love my corgi!

Bucket List #2

continued from here...

26.  finish my kids' scrapbooks

27.  play roller derby

28.  mail something in to post secret

29.  put blue highlights in my hair

30.  own as many animals as i can--including a giant fishtank

31.  have another baby.  before i'm 30.

32.  inspire someone to do something great.

33.  figure out what i really believe about life and religion, without worrying about what anyone else thinks.

34.  hire a maid to clean my house top to bottom while i sit on the couch and read a magazine and drink an ice cold coke.  pretend i'm a millionaire.

35.  find new friends and be comfortable in our new home--we are moving cross-country in two months.  acclimate to a totally different region and culture of the US, and support my hubby in graduate school the way he needs and deserves.

and congrats to hubby for being accepted into such a great masters program--he will be studying applied cognition and neuroscience.

TWO MONTHS and we are moving.

ack.

pinterest pretty much rocks

 my title says it all.

in addition to the millions of amazing items i get to look at (think art, creepy but intriguing items, jewelry, funnies, etc.....some of which i should post some time), pinterest is full of awesome tutorials and inspiration for craft projects.

behold...the craft projects.

the "love" message board
i really loved this one.  hubby and i always need new ways to be mushy with each other.  so i took an 8x10 photo frame that i had and made a background using scrapbook paper, sticker letters and ribbon.  velcro and a dry-erase marker later, and we had our message board.  i hung it just inside the door to the garage, which is a high-traffic area in our house.  hubby and i leave little messages to each other, like the one below:

 

from me: i love you because raphael is your favorite "engine turtle" just like me!

(little buddy calls them "engine turtles" instead of "ninja turtles.")

i even drew a picture of raphael's head.  hubby added the cape and pectorals.  hehe.

from hubby: i love you because you're trying to be a better wife/mother.

aw, what a sweetheart.

the jet-pack

lately, my little man has been obsessed with everything space.  from buzz lightyear, to mickey's clubhouse rocket, to watching "the universe" on tv.  we even made an awesome construction paper solar system to hang from the ceiling in his room.  he got a space shuttle for his birthday, and anything he can get his hands on becomes a rocket.  so when i saw this on pinterest, i knew i had to make him one.  (and princess, because she'd like one too.)

the tutorial i linked to previously was more inspiration than a how-to for me.  i did a lot of things differently--cheaper, faster, and longer-lasting.  i saved some 2 liter coke bottles (we go through quite a few of those in our house, since i'm addicted to coke, hehe) to use.  the tutorial suggests priming and spray-painting them silver, but i hot-glued foil to them.  faster (i didn't have to let it dry) and cheaper (i already had the foil and hot glue).  i also used red, yellow and orange ribbon for the flames instead of the crepe paper the tutorial used.  i knew crepe paper would be destroyed almost immediately with my kids.  the ribbon can't be ripped, and it was less than $1.50 for it.  i used black grosgrain ribbon for straps, attached the bottles to a piece of cardboard (also wrapped in foil) and used another piece of black ribbon to hold it all together.  the blue ribbon i added so little buddy would know which one was his--the one i made for princess has ribbon with flowers on it instead of blue.

talk about a hit!  the first day, little buddy had me pick him up and "fly" him around the house at least fifteen times.  princess didn't care as much, but i'm glad my little boy likes his jet pack.  and they're pretty cute, if i say so myself.

the spiderweb eye makeup
so, as most of you know, i'm nuts about halloween.  and anything that could be considered spooky, creepy or macabre.  (i don't do anything too gory or horrifying, and i absolutely refuse to watch scary movies.)  so last halloween when i found this i loved it. 

hubby's work has a huge halloween bash every year and they turn the office building into a giant trick-or-treat alley for the kids of the employees.  i got an awesome skeleton bride and groom shirt at walmart that had spiders and spiderwebs on the sleeves, put plastic spiders in my hair, and did this to my eyes.  took a few minutes and looked pretty awesome, in my opinion.

this is not my eye, for two reasons: my photos did not turn out that great, and i don't post pictures of myself on this blog.  :)


the felt christmas tree and ornaments
i saw this idea in october and made it to put away for christmas.  it was so cute!

i don't know about those of you with little ones, but my kids have a fascination with christmas ornaments.  they don't stay on our tree.  for christmas last year (2010), the ornaments migrated up the tree until the bottom third or so was totally empty by christmas day.  this year, the kids helped me make this felt christmas tree.  this was "their" tree, and they could play with the ornaments and redecorate it whenever they wanted.  so anytime a little hand touched an ornament on the big tree, we redirected them to their own tree.  it worked pretty well, i think.

this project was inexpensive, too.  green felt (i think i got a yard and a half, and it was only about $2) and a package of multicolored felt squares (about $5ish, i don't remember exactly), hot glue and glitter puff paint.

i cut out the tree from the big piece of green felt.  using my cookie cutters, the kids helped me pick out shapes.  i traced them onto the felt, cut them out and glued them to circles, stars and hearts.  embellished with a little glitter puff paint, and voila.  felt sticks to felt, so i didn't have to add anything to the back of the ornaments.

it was a lot of fun to make, and the kids really enjoyed picking out their favorite shapes.  we even traced their hands for a couple ornaments.

the popsicle stick snowflake
this was a fun one the kids could help with when they were so bored they were driving me crazy....darn that winter snow.

get a package of popsicle sticks (we used the big ones....i would advise the little ones, because we really had to maneuver to get the door shut with the big ones).  paint them white (this the kids loved doing).  we cut out round pieces of cardboard in different sizes (see pic), painted them white...hot glue, hot glue, hot glue and a giant snowflake was born.  i tied a piece of ribbon to it that we already had to hang it on the door.  it ended up lopsided and not as cute as the one in the tutorial, but hey--it was fun and my kids loved it.  plus it was something cute to go on our door in between the christmas wreath and valentine's wreath.

the easter egg garland
we put up our easter decorations a few days ago, and i realized just how few decorations we have.  i also decided to weed out some of the, uh, not so cute decorations...and we had about a million mismatched plastic eggs.  so i kept the nice ones for the easter bunny to fill, and used the rest to make this garland.  so, yes, the garland is mismatched, but i kind of like it that way.

i used the skinny skinny ribbon that is about .50 a roll (i already had it) and threaded it through the ends of the eggs.  most of them already had the holes, and in the rest i just poked a nail through the ends.  at the ends of the strands, i used ribbon i already had to make cute bows.  it adds color to our living room and i think it looks good.  (plus the easter bunny appreciates the lessened cost of filling all of those eggs.)

the easter egg wreath
i have to admit this is one of my favorite ones.  i already had this idea in my head before i saw it on pinterest, and then seeing it just made me want to do it even more.

 most of these wreath tutorials require a wreath form.  the foam and styrofoam ones are actually pretty expensive at craft stores. so instead, i cut out a circle of cardboard the size i wanted.  the eggs came from walmart--less than $5, and i got two different sizes.  i started by gluing two rows of eggs on the base, then a row on top in the middle.  the eggs i had left over i glued in random places to fill it out.  pink ribbon--i already had it--glued to the back as a hanger and in a bow on the front.  super easy, super fast, and really cute.  it is so fun and bright on our front door.  i LOVE the way it turned out.

there have been other fun projects from pinterest, but i'm not always great at taking photos. 

any of you find some fun things on pinterest that you've made?  please share!  i always love a good project.

luck o' the cornnuts

 for a lot of people, st. patrick's day is kind of a non-holiday, unless you drink.  then it's a party.  but since i don't drink, you'd think it's probably not such a big deal...except that it always has been in my family.

st. patrick's day is my mom's birthday, so we always celebrated it growing up.  we decorated for it, when most people don't.  we also always had boiled corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes (YUM).  this happens to be one of my most favorite meals EVER.  i absolutely adore corned beef and cabbage.  i could eat it every week and never get tired of it.

but i digress.

since i moved out on my own, got married, had babies, i never had st. patty's day decorations.  two years ago my mom gave me this cute little train thing...leprechaun pulling shamrock cars that have candles in them.

 last year i visited the dollar store and purchased this banner:

 

and some garland.  half went over the window and half over the front door.
 

 this year, half of the garland went over our sliding door and the other half was used for these beauties:

 i also visited a craft store this year.  using the garland from last year (plus one more), the kids and i made cute shamrock garlands for our stairs and to go over the piano.  i bought a package of foam shamrocks and st. patty's day stickers (total cost for all things was about $10).  the kids helped me put the stickers on the foam shamrocks, then i hole punched them and put them on the garland.

 these photos totally don't do it justice...they really look so cute.

 also new this year....a wreath for the front door.  (i'm big on wreaths lately.  i love them.)  the inspiration came from pinterest, but the design is my own, as far as i know.  i bought a wreath form (it's a flat particle board one, about $2 and waaaaaaaaaay cheaper than the foam ones) and wrapped it in yarn.  that took quite some time, because i got the biggest wreath form they had.  then i cut shamrocks in different sizes out of felt.  (in the photo the felt all looks the same, but it's not.  some of it is plan green, and some of it has glittery sparkles in it.)  using hot glue, i attached the shamrocks, alternating glitter and plain.  turned out very cute, although i wish the wreath form wasn't flat...i think it would have been cuter if it was round.  (i wasn't about to spend $15 on a round wreath form, though.)  with yarn, felt and wreath form, it cost about $6.

 when it came time to figure out what to wear, i realized that i don't own anything green.  i have a few shirts that have a few tiny green accents...but that's not fun for such a green holiday!  trip to WalMart....my cute sweater was on clearance for $5.  i decided to get the kids plain green tees instead of the st. patty's ones for a few reasons.  first, they were cheaper ($3).  second, they can wear them more.  and third, the st. patty's day ones left in their sizes were ugly.  i also got one for hubby, that is a handsome polo ($8) and he can wear it a lot, too.

to make them st. patty's-licious, i got a package of 6 little buttons at the craft store for $1.  the kids loved these and we can reuse them every year, because my little ones won't grow out of buttons like they will t-shirts.  (don't you love our face decorations?)

 we were gone most of the day, so dinner for the kids was fast and easy.  green milk and green scrambled eggs (they really loved that...food coloring to the rescue!), green grapes and celery. 

 tonight i'm making corned beef and cabbage....i can't wait!

i hope you all had a great st. patrick's day!  we had a very fun day full of good luck and family time.  no pots of gold, though....maybe next year we'll strike it rich.