mermaids and moss

her very own camera

A certain little girl has been requesting her own camera for months, possibly longer. Sometimes I let her take photos with my phone, but I get nervous that it will get dropped, especially with other little friends grabbing for turns, too. I was looking a bit for cameras on-line the other morning, and my husband mentioned that he still had his old polaroid camera. So, he dusted it off and went to the camera shop to buy a couple packs of expired film. And voila! Our girl has her very first camera.

She used the first pack of film to document our family and home. Taking portraits of the cats, the new garden, her father...

And all day long, she kepting tell me how it was the best day of her life.

After many requests, I stitched up a stack of little books for her to fill. I've made these before, she fills them so quickly with birds and families and lists of things. I also gave her access to my treasured washi tape. She loves it. Me, too.

blankets, pom poms and kids

We had a great holiday weekend with my father. He was visiting from Ohio for several days. We kept him busy playing games, going for walks and hikes and visiting pretty gardens and playgrounds. The kids always love to see him.

I've been making lots of progress on the many-colored granny square blanket. I've finished crocheting more than 86 squares together!! I really might finish this blanket... this year.

While I was making dinner the other day, my daughter convinced her pop pop to bring a large bag of pom poms down from the closet shelf. I'd been saving them... for something... maybe a pom pom garland? But she found a much better use for them. I love the colors. And I can always buy more, right?

easter past

[ 2007 ]

[ 2008 ]

[ 2009 ]

[ 2010 ]

[ 2011 ]

the egg making

[ Happy Easter! ]

a treasure

[ yesterday morning began with a gift from my little girl ]

[ that revealed ]

[ a secret message ]

tulips for me, monster valentines for him

Enjoying my pretty pink tulips. They are my Valentine's gift to myself. I carry them from room to room... in the kitchen when I'm doing dishes, in the living room on the coffee table, right now. They brighten up the house. They're like Christmas lights in December.

With all the Valentine making going on in our house, I was so happy to see the little guy come up with his own creations. He filled the inside of his cards with little families of heart creatures, sometimes called monsters or spiders. They were all his idea. And he's drawing! Little tiny legs. I love it.

friendship bracelet love

This year, my daughter and I decided to make a friendship bracelet for each of her thirteen classmates. We've had fun playing with the pretty pinks and purples and reds and oranges. My daughter has the "four" stitch down, but I admit I've been doing most of the making. She's very supportive though.

Klaus the cat has been especially thrilled with this project. He magically appears the millisecond his super cat ears hear the sound of string gliding through fingers.

I've been having so much fun doing the chalk photos [here and here] that I decided to continue with this theme. Sadly, my son refused to take part in this photo session, and I didn't have any candy on hand for bribery. For his cards I'm using photos of chalk hearts that I drew on the driveway. His classmates are three. I'm sure they won't mind.

I had leftover gold paper and translucent envelopes from our holiday cards. We made use of a cute Martha Stewart heart punch and some fancy heart glitter... so much fun to "craft" with, or I mean sprinkle in envelopes, and spread Valentine cheer onto other friends' floors. I'm sorry. Not really, but don't be mad.

a rose garland

five points on a snowflake

It's January, it's kind of cold, the days are short and the nights are long, and normally, we would be in the midst of snowstorms and ice storms and frosty worlds. To get into the spirit, the kids and I have been making snowflakes and hanging them in our windows. We even enlisted our little neighbor from across the street to make snowflakes. She hung them in her windows, too. We have a common snowflake bond... it's kind of sweet.

I stumbled across this tutorial a couple years ago. It gives very clear instructions with lovely illustrations on how to fold a 5-pointed paper snowflake. My daughter and I put together a little photography version of snowflake-making. Expecting to see snowflakes in your windows soon.

little birds at work

Some of you may remember that long, long ago I was a printmaking major in college. I once spent my spring break commuting 40 minutes [each way] on the bus to my campus printmaking room just so that I could have the presses all to myself. Later, the printmaking teacher was let go [some sort of scandal with the head of the art department] and sadly the printmaking room was replaced with computers. I switched my concentration to graphic design in the hopes of finding a thrilling and creative career after college. Ahem.

Recently, I've been so inspired by the beautiful stamps that the artists Geninne Zlatkis of Geninne's Art Blog, Maya Donenfeld of Maya*Made and Melissa of Tiny Happy have been making. And then I was thrilled to see Merrilee of Mer Mag's recent Christmas tree project with tiny, little finger prints. I decided to combine the two, hoping to provide a fun little project for the kids and I to do together. We're planning to give these cards to their classmates.

After drawing my pinecone, I carved my pinecone stamp out of a Speedball Linoleum Block [much fancier than the old gray slabs I used to use]. I had planned to use the gold fabric paint that I had from the superhero capes, but it didn't print so well. I decided in the end to use a tube of my acrylic burnt umber. I'm suspecting that ink might work better, but paint is what we have at the moment. For more tips on how to go about carving a stamp visit Geninne's tutorial on hand carved stamps.

My daughter really enjoyed using simple lines to draw different types of birds: sitting, sleeping, flying, sitting on nests. It's been fun to see what she'll come up with next.

Have you been working on any fun holiday projects?