May Artwork

Nature Girl created this crayon rubbing landscape in art class today. I just love it! The textures are perfect for each section of the landscape. This one is definitely a keeper. I'm thinking I might even frame it and hang it in my office. Of course the last piece I did that with cost me $70 for custom framing. I think I can buy a regular old frame for this one. Phew!

Nature Girl takes pride in her artwork and even took this picture of the paper mache piggy bank she made in art enrichment at school. She already owns several piggy banks so this one is purely for decoration. The paint has peeled from the plastic cup used to make the snout so we have been planning to re-do it. We just haven't tackled that yet.

Lastly she shared this apple doodle with me. I have to say my first thought was dang that's good! And my second thought was I'm going to copy that and start drawing my apples like that. Is that wrong to steal an art idea from your 7 year old? Ha, ha! I hope not. I don't think she minds as she likes to draw and craft with me and feels very proud when she's created something that is better than mine. She's competitive and a perfectionist.

I just love to watch her create and see her art growing. Not only is it a great way for her to express herself, but it's something she feels really good about. I've framed a few pieces, hung other pieces on the fridge and I've saved a lot of her artwork in a box with her school papers for her to look at later in life. I often wonder what else to do with her artwork. What do you do with your kids artwork?

May Friday Night Sew In

Tonight I worked on some fairies. This is a flower fairy I made for myself out of recycled wool. It's very simplistic and looks more like a bumblebee than a fairy but it makes me smile. She's destined to live on the desk in my office/craftroom. Now if only she was a cleaning fairy, she could clean up the craft mess or file my school papers while I'm asleep or at work. That would be great!

I worked on another fairy that looks nothing like this one but I can't share it as it's for a swap. Plus it's not quite finished yet. I'll post it after I mail it off to my partner.

A Few Firsts

Guess who learned to tie her own shoes???? That's right Nature Girl can tie her own twinkle toes now. She was surprised and happy when she finally accomplished this feat(sorry for the bad pun, I couldn't resist.)

Look at these sweet little feet. I snapped a picture of her first successful shoe tying experience. I was excited for her. Shoe tying seems to be one of the skills kids are losing or are greatly delayed in accomplishing these days. Honestly I have 4th graders who can't tie their shoes. So I'm thrilled that Nature Girl has finally mastered tying her shoes.

The last of our firsts is this rhododendron. We've lived in our house for eight years now. This little rhodie was here when we moved in. It hasn't grown much over the last 8 years, maybe tripling in size, so it's not very big. It hasn't bloomed either. We're very excited that it is blooming for the first time. I think all of the lawn fertilizer my husband has put down over the last three years is paying off.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's time to celebrate the joys of being a mom. Being Nature Girl's mom is the most amazing thing! I love being her mom and look forward to every moment of it. I'm very blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful little child! So today I celebrate my fortune.

I hope today, is a celebration day for you too. May your Mother's Day be filled with sunshine, flowers and love! Happy Mother's Day!

April YOE - Bird's Nests

April's YOE theme was bird's nests. When I read the theme announcement, I knew right away what I wanted to make. This month I signed up to swap and was partnered with the fabulous Melinda C. Melinda is super talented and creative!

This is the marvelous package Melinda sent to me. The bird's nest is on a clothes pin so it can clip to the tree. She also sent these amazing tags she made and this bird pendant. Not only did she create these amazing goodies but she did it all while moving into a new house this month and having to search through packed boxes for craft supplies! Thank you Melinda for the extra effort!! I love my goodies!!!

Here are the bird's nest goodies I sent to Melinda. As you can see I couldn't resist making another felted wool bird but I made a nest for it this time. I love this little guy. Remember my birds in a tree doodle? I used it to create some greeting cards for Melinda and found these cute bird salt and pepper shakers. As I mentioned before, Melinda just moved so I thought they'd be a good housewarming gift. I made a wire birds nest that could be a pendent or a key chain but my absolute favorite is the green tree ornament I made.

I few months ago I was looking around ETSY and found a valentine tree pendent. I fell in love with it. When I heard the theme I knew that I was going to try making one. So I gathered up some brass wire and a brass ring I had, then set to work. I just love how it turned out. I made it specifically for Melinda but loved it so much that I was a little sad to think of sending it off. Over spring break I remedied this problem. I made myself a wire tree ornament.

I wanted an ornament that felt like spring. Cherry blossoms came to mind immediately. Many years ago my husband and I lived on a street lined with cherry trees. I loved driving down the street in the spring looking at all of the beautiful cherry trees in bloom. So my tree ornament is a cherry blossom tree. I love it!

Wondering about YOE? You can check here to see the items everyone else has been making at YOE. Here's a little YOE little preview. May's theme is flower fairies. I've already started thinking and searching for some inspiration. I have an idea to try in a new media. Let's see if I can pull it off.

Cinnamon Buns

Over spring break we met a friend at a local restaurant for breakfast. This was lots of fun as we enjoyed the company and had never been to this restaurant before. Nature Girl loved this pig chef. He's holding a gigantic cinnamon bun.

After we finished eating Nature Girl broke out the creamers and created breakfast sculptures while the grown-ups chatted. Then we ordered a big cinnamon bun to go for breakfast the following day and headed on our way.

The next morning we heated up our big cinnamon bun for breakfast. As we were sharing it, Nature Girl says to me, "Why do they call it a cinnamon bun? It doesn't look like a butt." I cracked up! I told her I wasn't exactly sure, but maybe it's because if you eat to many it will make your butt big. Then we had a good laugh!

Spring Flirty Apron Sent & Received

This is a bit of a picture of the apron I made for my partner. I mailed it off today but forgot to have my husband or Nature Girl take a proper picture of it. This was my one handed self snap shot of it. I really need to get a dress model so I can photograph the aprons I make. The funny thing about this apron is that for once I actually followed the pattern to the letter and didn't deviate or do my own thing. That's hard for me, I suffer from creative-itis! Creative-itis is a disorder where you think you can tweak things a bit to make them work better for you. It often results in extra time using your seam ripper, lots of curse words, frustration and learning things the hard way.

For the Spring Flirty Apron Swap we had to include three tuck-ins with your apron. The challenge was to match the items with your partner's initials. I used fabric scraps from the apron to make a few of the tuck-ins. I made my partner a rug mug, a wire bird's nest pendant/keychain, a quilted kite and I sent along the Sunday Dinner apron pattern. It's the pattern I used to make her apron. I had a hard time sending off the kite as I love it and so wanted to keep it to hang in our craft room/office. But I sent it on it's way today. I hope she'll like the package I sent.

But don't feel too bad for me because we got apron swap mail yesterday! Isn't the wrapping beautiful! It's funny how pretty wrapping makes it even more exciting to open the package to see what's inside!

Deidrea sent two aprons, one for Nature Girl and one for me! I love Nature Girl's expression here as she opened a box with a sweet treat shaped like a diamond ring. She's already wearing the apron Deidrea made for her.

Spring is finally in the air here. The new aprons and the spring weather lead to dancing and horsing around in our front yard and this upside down moment. The neighbors probably wondered what we were up to! Thank you to Deidrea who sent us this wonderful apron package! Nature Girl and I loved the package! The aprons are unique and beautiful!! Thank you!!!!