412 An Ornament Exchange, A Tree Trimming, and Cheapo Crafts

Last weekend Katie participated in an ornament exchange with her two best friends, Kaitlyn and Mia. Kaitlyn's mom came up with the idea to have the exchange, and she is the one that hosted it.
As usual we put off buying our ornaments to the last moment, and when we headed to Hallmark at noon last Sunday we were in for a rude awakening ... Hallmark does not open until 1. Luckily there is a Marshall's just next door and they had really cute and UNIQUE ornaments. I will never complain about shopping in Marshall's. I love that store! It satisifies my need to save money and get great bargains, and it always feels like you are on a treasure hunt.
But I digress ... we found the perfect ornaments for her swap (and a couple for her teacher and one for Katie). We had to rush back because we were already a little late for the start of the party. I am so glad I decided to walk in with Katie because I was able to snap a couple pics. Who could resist taking pics of these beautiful best friends?!They had stuff laid out for the girls to make their own bags of trail mix, though I think the majority of the mix was Jelly Belly jellybeans.And of course the main event ... the ornament exchange. Katie got really cute ornaments, and /i think the other girls liked their ornaments, too. Katie got Mia a penguin glass ornament and Kaitlyn a high heel shoe ornament. Katie had already given Kaitlyn one of my handmade owls, and Mia got one of her own as well.This is Katie's ornament choice ... the other ornaments were this same type/style.Tuesday night we finally brought the tree out of the attic and began to decorate it. The kids lost interest rather quickly, and they spent the rest of the night trying to get on the Naughty List. I did love Connor's choice of the first ornament to hang. That Santa has been a part of my Christmas for as long as I can remember. And yes, Connor is wearing his Halloween costume. Ironman gets into the Christmas spirit, too.Katie went for a more recently acquired ornament.Wednesday afternoon I got a sudden urge to craft. (Oh, and I had my follow up appointment with the doctor about my meningitis and encephalitis on Wednesday. Doc gave me the all clear. It will still be awhile before I am running at 100%, but I am on my way) I did not have the sudden urge to go too far out of my way to craft (and I didn't want it to cost a cent - you know, other than all the stuff I have already bought). To be fair, that is rather easy since my dining table looks like a craft room gave birth to triplets on it. I gathered up a few supplies I had just lying around. A couple plastic ornaments and a stack of chipboard coasters that have been lying around forever that were begging to be Mod Podged fit the bill exactly. A couple old books that I didn't mind mutilating and my box of random buttons and I was ready to play. It may not be high art, but I had fun ... and when Katie and Kaitlyn joined in they had fun, too.Of course Katie hid from the camera (she is the blue blur in the background) so you would never know she was having a blast.Katie made the next two ornaments.Connor made this next one all on his own.Those plastic ball ornaments were hard to cover, but I love the result. Just Mod Podge and some book pages torn into wee pieces. Thank goodness the pieces are tiny ... I would hate for someone to try to read it. Yes, I used an old Lavyrle Spencer book ... And I couldn't resist the urge to use a bunch of buttons to cover another ornament (we used E6000 for the buttons)Okay ... so I might have a slight button addiction.
So ... that was a little picture heavy, but it was full of Christmas goodness. Hope everyone's holidays are shaping p to be wonderful!

286 Published and Painting

Well, I had a picture published in a book, and Katie was the one that was painting, but that seemed like a really long title.
Okay, so it isn't a book you can run out to the nearest B&N and grab with your latte, but you can head on over to Blurb and order a copy. I am going to copy and paste the description of the book from the Blurb site, it is so much clearer than any of my explanations!

"Picture Hope: An Invitation to the Journey" is a collaboration among Shutter Sisters and celebrates the start of Picture Hope – the grand prize winning photography assignment submitted by Jen Lemen and Stephanie Roberts in the "Name Your Dream Assignment" global photography competition sponsored by Lenovo and Microsoft. The book introduces the Shutter Sisters' vision and approach for "Picture Hope" and features an inspiring collection of visions of hope captured and shared by our extended community of Shutter Sisters.
All proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to compensate the individuals Jen Lemen and Stephanie Roberts feature in photographs, videos, and stories throughout the 12-month Picture Hope assignment. We sincerely thank you for your support and look forward to taking you on this journey with us. To follow the journey visit: http://www.shuttersisters.com/picturehope
Images in this book were graciously provided by the following Shutter Sisters: Tracey Clark, Karen Walrond, Kate Inglis, Sarah-Ji, Maile Wilson, Andrea Scher, Irene Nam, Paige Balcer, Julie Evans, Taheerah Davis-Zabate, Erin Casey Carmack, Liz Farina Markel, Sue Thompson, Rocio Alberich de Castro, Sandra Lundy, Heather W. Turner, Hilde Wegner, Kristin Zecchinelli, Chelsea Fisher, Carrie Jackson, Heather Plett, Daniele Giombi, Jen Farnam, Dawn Angileri, Summer Stetter, Brittany Sivyer, Tonya Doughty, Patience Salgado, Tracy Collins, Meredith Winn, Alison Fechtel, Kimberlee Kenner, Shelli Bond Pabis, Christine Sneddon, Ester Bartolomei, Kelly Sauer, Emma Biskupski, and Kate Albright.


If you love looking at beautiful pictures, most of the photographers listed above have blogs. Or you can check out the Shutter Sister Group on Flickr. I am so honored to have an image in this book!

Speaking of great photographers ... One of my very favorite artist/photographers is Linda Woods (check her blog out). I am lucky enough to also be friends with her, thanks to the power of the internet and Twitter. I could ramble on forever, but the gist of the story is that I sent Linda some thrift store patterns (they were stellar) and she sent me back a sweet Thank You note with one of her gorgeous images. Well, I couldn't just throw it in some plane Jane frame! And of course Katie couldn't allow me to break out the paints without her, so we collaborated on the frame. Katie picked out the colors, with just a little nudge from me. She did try to add in brown, but that just wouldn't do! And then Connor had to get in on the act. He painted a chalkboard with water, but hey! he was happy ... for a few minutes anyway.I did add in the circles, it is kind of a Linda Woods thing. I love how it all turned out!And then Katie had to steal my paints, canvas panels, and my easel. I mean ... she asked if she could paint, and I gave in. The first one she did totally on her own. You can tell by the way the background is bare canvas.The second one, I insisted on giving her a base color (that bare canvas gets me, it is the one thing I can't stand! anything else in art is totally fine, but leaving bare spots *shudder*). So, this is what she started with ... That is not a giant candy corn inthe middle - it is a pyramid. The white blob is a mummy, and the red sky is a sandstorm. Me thinks we watch too much Scooby Doo and the Brendan Frasier Mummy movies.And here is the finished product ... she took care of covering the background this time :)
Now I just need to find some time to escape to my craftroom! And I better hurry before Katie uses up all of my supplies!!

201 Prep work

A Magpie Original! Katie brought this home from school last week. I absolutely ADORE it!Holidays end up being multi-day experiences when you have kids. Especially when you have grandparents that live far away! The Easter Bunny wore brown ... umm, the UPS lady brought an Easter package from Grammy on Friday. And Grammy, being the quick thinker that she is, declared the package to be a Good Friday present, so Katie was able to tear into it as soon as we got back from our egg-dye buying trip.Grammy always knows just what Katie would like! Notice the dollar bills folded up with chocolate. It is like every woman's dream come true!

Connor's basket was, of course, baby friendly. However, he ripped straight into the chocolate. And I am pretty sure he ended up eating all of his peanut butter cups and all of his sisters.

And then we had to dye the eggs. I did not hear about the silk-tie method until too late, or we definitely would have tried that. I have seen many different blog posts about it, but why not go to the craft master Martha for official instructions! And because they are gorgeous, here is another link to Our Best Bites.

I started my boring old-fashioned Easter Eggs by hard-boiling 18 eggs.

We lost two in the boiling process ...

We lost two more in the egg dying process, as well.

Katie chose the PAAS Tie Dye kit (strictly for the fact it came with glitter). It is probably the easiest kit for kids. You get a bunch of plastic bags, put in the dry egg and a few drops of egg dye. Smear the egg around in the ink in the bag and VOILA! Tie Dye Egg. You just sprinkle the glitter on while it is wet. Of course Katie managed to let two eggs slip from her grasp. It was inevitable, and I only got a little mad at the first one. By the second one I had decided it really didn't matter anyway.

I couldn't resist a little Easter Egg Love! And back into the carton to await their fate. And according to Chip, that fate is to be put outside the night before so that the Easter Bunny can hide them when he comes to fill the basket. What kind of crap is that?? Apparently we have just decided that we aren't going to even pretend we are going to eat the eggs. And that led to a discussion about what Easter was like as a child. In my house, we placed the empty Easter basket by the front door and when we woke up it would be overflowing with candy. We usually got some kind of bunny themed product. Maybe a stuffed animal, and of course one time we got the fuzzy bunny bank! Did everyone get the bunny bank? I remember mine fondly :) We would get dressed up, take pictures by the azaleas or on the hill. And then we would head over to my grandparents house to eat and have the Easter Egg Hunt.

Katie's egg hunt won't be as flower filled and glamorous as those of my youth. You wonder where I am going to hide her eggs?? Well, if you had been paying attention you could have figured it out ...