Our family room bookshelves/catch all area
taken with my new lens...(amazing!)
full of books,
McCoy pottery,
and masterpieces painted, drawn and sculpted by our girls
Meg's daughter, Jane, and my Jane had themselves a little swap. These super crafty girls had been working on their goodies for a few weeks and sent the packages off last Thursday. Sadly, I don't have photos of the package that arrived. (Call me a bad blogging mom, but the camera battery was dead and I didn't have the heart to make my sick kid wait to open it all.) You can see it all here.
Jane was so excited and very happy with the goods! She loves her hot dog buddy and "J" shirt. Jane also sent my Jane a cd full of great music. We've been rocking out in the car!
To see what we sent off, head on over to flickr.
Thanks Jane (and Meg)! I'd say the whole thing was a hit!
We spent the weekend resting. And did I need it. I am finally feeling better and so are the girls. Taking naps and being lazy have a way of making a sick girl well. So do margaritas...
My favorite recipe:
2 oz. lime juice
1.5 oz. tequila
1 oz. Cointreau
1 scant tablespoon fine sugar
Pour into a shaker filled with crushed ice. Shake well. Serve over the rocks into a salted glass. Makes 1.
I got back into the crafting groove and spent some time sewing. The girls decided to embroider: a t-shirt for Kate and a gift for Jane.
I am in love with this smiling tree Kate drew.
And I am very impressed with Jane's design and her even stitching. It's amazing the difference four months makes.
Happy Monday!
By Jane and Kate for their cousins
for Finn
for Evan
for Miles
for Ian
Technical assistance (scanning, printing, ironing the transfers) by Mom.
In an effort to keep the girls busy so I could get some stuff done, I set them up with some of their own crafts today. This one was a big hit at the Brownies meeting a couple of weeks ago, so I pulled out the leftovers and Jane showed Kate what to do.
What you need: styrofoam craft balls, fabric scraps (cut into strips), straight pins, sequins and ribbon.
You start by wrapping the fabric around the ball and securing it by pushing a pin through a sequin. Jane did this with no problem. Kate need some help wrapping the fabric.
When one fabric strip is finished, start using another one and wrap in the opposite direction. My girls like the sparkles so the more sequins, the better! When you've covered the ball and are finished embellishing, add a ribbon to hang it.
The best part? My plan worked - the girls were busy for at least an hour. And I only had to add the ribbon. The rest they did on their own! Jane even went back later and came up with this "doll."
Pretty great, huh?
As for me, I am still crafting. And cleaning. Then crafting some more. With a little shopping thrown in to spice it up. The to do list is long, so I am going to take a little blogging break. See you all in a couple of days!
Three out of the four members of our family have birthdays in the next 3 weeks - everyone, but me. Kate is up first so we spent the day making favors for her party.
Ta da! Soap!
We had a great time making these letter soaps. I melted the glycerin blocks in the microwave, Kate chose the colors, mixed them up and I poured the hot liquid into the molds. The best part? It is super easy to clean up afterward. Just use water! Tomorrow we are finishing off the goody bags and then Saturday is party time. She can barely wait!
Draw, cut, glue, color, write - this is what my kids like to do. They are creating all the time. Today started out with some Halloween-themed post-it notes turned into portraits.
Mr. and Mrs. Cat by Jane - I love the title and artist tag cut out of an index card.
Mr. Frankenstein by Kate - I think those are braces on his teeth.
Their friends, Bailey and Lilly, brought them each a blank notebook when they came over for a play date this afternoon. Everyone in this house loves a new notebook! They took their notebooks outside with a box of markers and a bag of crayons and intermittently drew and played for three hours.
Jane's outdoor nature study - funny how many of these things are not natural at all...and that phonetic spelling always makes me smile.
Jane's self-portrait - in reality, she only has about three freckles all on her nose.
Kate's drawing - of what, I am not sure, but I love the color combination and she did tell me she was practicing some lower case letters. Not too shabby for a 4 1/2 year old.
When their friends left, they moved inside. I found this in Jane's notebook.
And when they were finished, they left this behind:
I will admit that the mess drives me crazy. It is constant. I feel like once we get it cleaned up, it reappears almost instantly. However, I am so happy that they are creative and that they enjoy exploring different crafts that it really doesn't matter. Not a bit. They have so much still to learn and so many different doors open to them. My wish is that they never lose this curiosity and creative spark. I hope that they always will want to explore new media and new subjects. That in some way, shape or form, they will always be artistic. I know it will serve them well because it has for me.
We spent Friday and Saturday trying to stay dry. The amount of rain was crazy - at one point I heard that we got five inches in four hours. And it kept raining and then raining some more.
Everyone in this house was a bit restless. The girls were bickering and getting on each other's nerves. I was in an especially foul mood starting Friday night when I realized my weekend plans were not going to pan out as I had hoped. To top it off, I was having small issues with the Olives, no doubt exacerbated by my state of mind.
I took a shower and cleared my head. When I came downstairs, the girls were collaborating on this:
Jane made the horse and Kate promptly made some grass for grazing.
Amazing how some popsicle sticks made me smile! The day got better with the end of the rain, the arrival of the babysitter, and a date with my man.
Isn't it great that the movie tickets were the color of sunshine?