We celebrated Father’s Day last Friday because I worked all weekend.  We had a jolly ol’ time.

Daddy went for a long bike ride while we painted, stitched and baked.  It was a good time, but the best part was when daddy came home and we  shared all our goodies.

Painting by I-guy, age 4

Painted frame by Super E, age 7 (almost8)
A real picture of daddy with the kids was put in the frame.

Patchwork Coasters for Daddy’s tea & water

And finally Strawberry Shortcake. (click on the picture to see recipe links)

A great way to end a very sweet day.

I’ve been itching to get back into my paint, dreaming up ideas throughout my entire trip.  Super-E is deep into Harry Potter right now (book 5) which gave me and the little guy some painting time together.

He watched closely at what I was doing and tried to follow suit.  He is so cute with his careful little brush strokes.

I came up with this~ inspired by this barn. You may have seen it. I dream about it often.  The print is in my shop now.

We are planning another paint date for tomorrow. I can’t wait!

A little pun for you.  Just feeling a little goofy, and tired this morning.  Maybe I’m feeling an adrenaline high from all of the positive feedback about my show.  The nervous queasiness is there making a slow and steadily increasing presence.

I was alerted by the MSL producer of my show that the Martha Stewart Show doesn’t air on CBS everywhere.  So please check her website on the left sidebar where is says, “Local Show Schedule” and enter your zip code.

Now an update on my sister’s surgery.  It all went really well.  She was very nervous, but a little IV sedative did the trick.  She only received local anesthesia and had her right eye covered while they worked on her left eye.  She could actually see light, movement and tools while they were working on her own eye!!!! Isn’t that totally crazy and creepy at the same time?

Hopefully her body will accept the new cornea and not try to reject it. Keep your fingers crossed for her. All of your good thoughts, prayers and kindness has helped so much already.

I sent her a little care package to help aid in her recovery.  An eye mask, an aromatherapy eye pillow with lavender and three eye patches.  She asked me for the eye patches because she will need to keep her eye covered for several days. Maybe she can coordinate them to match her outfits when she goes back to work.

Tomorrow is the last day of school, so we have been making little end-of-the-year gifts for Super-E’s friends.  Just simple little bookmarks make from cereal boxes that I found at plumpudding, via crafty crow.  We might add something else if we have the time.

My husband was in charge of doing a scavenger hunt for the kids, which he quickly handed off to me, of course.  At 9 o’clock the night before leaving, I whipped up some little activity books for the kids.

…..…

The best part was decorating the fronts.  The kids did an amazing job.

The inside was full of little activities that the kids could do on their own, with a buddy or as a group.  They certainly didn’t need it.  They directed their own play through out the weekend and had a great time. But, there were a couple of lulls and this book helped out a bit.  Some of the pages were completed, but mostly the kids wanted to run around the grounds exploring.  Still, it’s something to do if you are needing a more organized direction to pull a group of kids together for an outdoor activity.

Inside pages included:

1. page 1, 2. page 2 & 3, 3. page 4&5, 4. page 6&7, 5. page 8&9, 6. page 9&10

*Let’s go on a scavenger hunt
*Let’s use our senses
*Let’s draw
*Collect leaves for leaf rubbing
*People Hunt
*Write or draw pictures of all the animals and/or insects that you’ve seen (not shown)
*Write or draw a picture of you time at the reunion(not shown)

The reunion was so much fun. Lots of eating, playing, visiting and a whole lotta sun. So great to meet so many wonderful family members and watch new generations connect.

Just a wee bit a green over here for St. Patty’s Day.

by mummysam

I am feeling so much better.  Slept the whole night through.  No coughing interuptions.  No kiddo interuptions.  It was sublime.

I love being able to breathe deeply and fully without fear of coughing.  Ahhhhh! It is so good to be better again.  Especially knowing that I was able to help myself. Too bad I had forgotten that in the beginning of my week long cold spell.  I will try not to forget again.  Thanks, by the way, for more well wishes.  I am incredibly curious about the neti pot now.  I remember someone talking about it in college (over 15 years ago) and being totally grossed out by it. But now, I am very intrigued.

Anyway, I wanted to share some pretty green things in my home that I am loving right now.  The top picture is a teeny piece of art from my sister, bought on etsy from mummysam.  I love it and will eventually frame and hang it on the wall somewhere (along with many other prints I need to hang).

The second picture is of a paper white bulb that my mom gave me in December.  It’s so pretty, I want to get more.  Why haven’t I ever done this before?

Lastly, we had to have a little bit of fake green food today.  Rainbow cupcakes with green frosting.  I let the kids mix the colors and spoon up their own little rainbows.  I also made Irish Soda Bread and this amazing stew.  So good!

Happy St. Patty’s Day!!

Hey, has anyone noticed that I’ve gone from the bird theme to a super hero them?  Both are in the flying realm.  Hmmm, I wonder if this means anything. Maybe I need to fly somewhere….a tropical island maybe…or another country for a long vacation.  Yeah, I like where this is going.

Ahem, anyway, I went ahead and made those thank you cards into art for the kid’s room. I trimmed up my stamps a bit to make them print cleaner and I did a kind of paper collage thing with them this time.  It looks great in their brightly colored room. I made several extra and they are in my shop… just in case.

I’ve never shared their room with you have I?  It’s always a mess, that’s probably why.  Maybe someday I will.  Probably after we get that old baby matress that’s propped up against the wall out of there.  Baby mattress? It’s from I-guy’s baby years, which seam ages ago. Why it is still in there, I have no idea. No more babies, if that’s what you are thinking.

These were made for my niece Jasmine.  They are button bracelet bands.  Made simply with elastic (the underwear kind), buttons and blanket stitch around the edges to keep the elastic together.  I found the elastic at a fabric-by-the-pound place, which sells mostly trims and weird poly-synthetic blends.

They suit her perfectly because she is a girly girl to the max (or maybe it just seems that way since I’m constantly surrounded by boys). It just so happened that these bracelet bands matched her dress.  Well, I guess that’s no surprise.  The chances that she is wearing pink are pretty dang high.

She looks like such an angel. Grab a camera and she’ll do any pose you want.  She knows all the moves.

I also made her a peggy family.  Her brother got some super heroes peggies.  They were quickly painted during the wee hours of the night, before we headed north for the weekend.  Everything was well received.

1 serger + 1 yard fabric = 2 super hero capes

In case anyone with a serger wants to make super easy, super fast, super hero capes. It’s cheap too.  1 yard of symphony broadcloth on sale for $1.99, felt .25 and a roll of ribbon .99, for a grand total of $1.65 per cape!!

If you don’t have a serger, see option two at the end.

For 2 capes, you’ll need:
1 yard of lightweight cotton fabric
40 inches of ribbon cut into four-10 inch lengths
1 piece of felt (I used that new recycled eco-felt, also found at JoAnns)
A serger
thread (multi-color or coordinating color
regular sewing machine
drafting compass (or string/ruler & pencil )

Diagram is not exactly to proportion

1.  Fold the fabric into quarters (you will be cutting two capes at one time). Use the diagram above and cut out capes. I used a pencil and string to make my own drafting compass for the rounded bottom and this for the neck.  This fancy contraption would work too (I secretly want one of these).

2.  Set your serger on rolled hem setting and hem around all edges – neck, sides and bottom. Repeat on second cape.

3. Cut out 4 felt strips (2 for each cape), 2 x 4 inches each.  Round off one edge on each strip.  Now cut 4 squares, roughly 1 x 1 inch and trim with pinking shears if desires.  Place square over ribbon edge and sew onto strip.  Sew other end of strip onto cape with a simple zig-zag stitch on a regular sewing machine.

Option one:

Add a circle of white fabric to back with double-sided iron-on interfacing.  Stitch around the edge and let the kids decorate with markers or colored pencils.

Option two:

If you don’t have a serger, you can do a rolled hem on a regular sewing machine by doing a double fold along the edge, press and then sew.  Or you can make one cape out of both pieces by sewing them together along the side and bottom edges, leaving the neck open to turn right side out.  Use bias tape  to close up the neck.

Now watch your kiddos S O A R ! ! !

This is for  a generic super hero party.  We have only been very mildly influenced by “real” super hero TV or products. We only “kinda” know about Superman, Spiderman, etc. What we do know is that we love to be super fast, super strong, and super duper powerful. Also, when planning this, we had a couple of things in mind–Fun, low cost and earth friendly, etc.

1.  Invite all your little super hero friends by making your own invites~ print out as postcards or send as e-invites.

2.  Make/use reusable and earth friendly decorations. I made a colorful fabric bunting and printed letters on 3 x 5 colored paper and stapled to a long ribbon.  We can re-use these for future parties.  I also bought balloons which my kids LOVE.  After a little research, I found out that balloon are naturally biodegradable.  The ribbon however, is not. So, we used cotton yarn instead.  Read this to learn more.  We also used plastic cups which we wrote each child’s name on and they took home with them.  I couldn’t bring myself to buy disposable plastic or paper cups and the earth-friendly kinds are quite pricey.  In the end, I decided that it was best for the kids to have something they could use over and over again.

3. Games and Activities. The kids were just happy to be together and played with very little direction from us big people, but we did do a few things to make it more fun and interesting.

I made 10 capes with a white applique patch on the back for decorating.  The kids personalized their super hero emblems with markers.  They loved this!!  I also made bean bags for the kids to play with and take home.

Other super hero games:
races- for showing super speed.
throwing bean bags– measure distance and accuracy.
Spidey says- shows listening skills and agility (Spidey says, hop with one foot, etc.)

4.  Party favors:

I sent each child home with a small fabric bag filled with some non-plastic goodies.  First, I made super hero peggies – these were so much fun to make, but they were time consuming, so I enlisted the help of etsy to find some fun party favors.  The crayon stars are from demulcentarts, and the super hero pins are from Little Momma Erin. You can alos find some great naked peggies HERE.

5. Eat good food. Can you believe I forgot to take pictures of the cupcakes!! They were vegan, from this great book, and sooo yummy! I-guy specifically asked for vanilla cupcakes with white frosting and sprinkles.  That is exactly what he got.  I also made chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles and those were quite yummy.  Chips, dips, salsa were on the spread as well.

Super I-guy and the gang had a great time and couldn’t have asked for better weather.  Mid 70s–Perfect!

I think I’m finally coming out of my funk.  I have some things half done and am feeling a crafting frenzy coming on.

I did manage to make these earrings on Sunday.  They are made out of 36g brass metal.  Leftover pieces from making new metal birds.  I cut out the shape I liked, pressed lines into the metal and then heated over a flame to make them rustic.  I like how they turned out and am amazed that I didn’t burn myself as I am very prone to burn accidents.

I also got some new jewelry, not made by me.  The earrings are from jeweledmonkey.  I bought these and these from there too, courtesy of my wonderful mommy.  The pretty bird necklace is from a local shop.  They make me feel a bit more fancy.  Something I feel I have been lacking over the last year.

And today, I went hunting for used jars (school science project) and found this old typewriter for $3!!!   The kids played with it for HOURS!! The tape still works a teeny bit and I’ve found more on line. This could be very helpful for my little guy in learning the rest of those tricky alphabet letters. Q,W,V,M,N, D & P can be so confusing!