Project: Crayon Wreath

Posted by Kelly in Projects, Uncategorized March 17, 2012

I saw this crayon wreath on Pinterest and thought it would make a cute suprise for Emma’s Kindergarden teacher. Emma absolutely adores her. Its so simple and cute. And of course we had to add our own spin on it, adding some “bling”. We picked up some supplies and got started.

I took two ebroidery hoops, one slightly smaller than the other and placed them one inside the other, like this…..

Then we started laying the crayons out across them (without the hot glue first) to make sure they would fit. I ended up needing about 68 crayons…I started with a 64 box, so I had to steal some from my daughters stash. Once we got them all on, I lifted up each crayon putting a dot of hot glue on each hoop, and layed the crayon back down into it.

Here it is after they are all glued on….

I printed out the teachers name on card stock with a colored border to kind of make them resemble alphabet blocks.

I cut them out and used Tacky Glue to glue them to the crayons. Once I did that, Emma and I started to add BLING! (My favorite part!) Check out these tubs of pure FUN!

Once we decided where we wanted them placed, I hot glued them down. Added a ribbon at the top to hang it from, and that’s it! It was a lot of fun, and Emma had a BLAST helping me! Here’s the finished product…

Mermaids and Painting

Posted by Kelly in Emma, Projects, Uncategorized March 8, 2012

I’ve mentioned before how Emma has such a great imagination and creative ability. She absolutely loves to draw, color, glue, paint, glitter, tape, whatever! Some of the things she comes up with are amazing, and other are….well…..let’s just say, they give me a good chuckle. Emma and I recently did a little painting. Here she is getting down to the business of art 🙂

All I did was put a base coat of acrylic paint on two canvas pieces that I have a “vision” for creating. I’m not going to tell you yet what it will be, because I’m not exactly certain at this point myself…but I have an idea in my head. And I’m gonna go with it. We’ll see how it translates onto the canvas…..

I haven’t “painted” since I was a TA (teacher’s assistant) in my middle school art class, which I LOVED. And no, I’m not counting the interior and exterior house painting I have done. That’s not fun painting….it’s just work, mostly. Ick. Anyway, my basic idea stemmed from a project tutorial that Ashley from Lil blue boo has on her blog, but then I started thinking……that I want to take it in a different direction….so we’ll see how that turns out. And hopefully I don’t strain any strange hidden muscles during my painting sessions. I know what you’re thinking….strain muscles? PAINTING? But yeah, it IS possible. (Haha). I’ll keep you posted on the project as it progresses.

I also want to share a conversation Emma and I had earlier the same evening. I picked her up from the Boy’s & Girls Club after work. She hopped in the car, got buckled in, and then asked me…

Emma: “Mom, what do mermaids eat?”

I got ALL excited!! OH OH OH! I KNOW this one!! I confidently replied “Fish….clams…oysters…”.

I figured that answer would be sufficient because I’m positive that’s correct. (I’ll have to verify next time I bump into a mermaid). However, it wasn’t. In typical Emma fashion…we must know more…..details, details…give her details!

Emma: “Do they cook it?”

Me: “No”.

Emma: “Ew, gross. Can’t they cook it in the sun?”

At this point, I’m not willing to dive any deeper into this conversation on mermaid cuisine, so I am now starting to throw out “I don’t know’s” and “Sure, I guess” replies……

Me: “I don’t know honey. I guess they could if it was a sunny day”….

Her reply was perfectly simple….

Emma: “It’s always a sunny day, except for when it rains”.

🙂

Where’s the weight machine for THAT?

Posted by Kelly in Life and Times, Projects, Uncategorized March 7, 2012

I grew up snowboarding, waterskiing, and knee-boarding. Despite being fairly athletic, and in shape during those years, I would always have those horrendous first days of each season, where my muscles felt like they had JUST been discovered for the first time EVER. I could have snowboarded my heart out all winter long, dropped my snowboard and hopped directly on the knee-board, and would not be able to walk or reach a box of cereal from the cupboard for the next three days. No matter what, you simply use a completely different set of muscles for each sport.

I discovered this weekend, that this also apparently applies to (although I wouldn’t really call it a sport…) spray painting. Yes, I said spray painting. I started a small project I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’m doing a photo collage in the hallway, with some of my daughters drawings turned into photos, mixed in with some cute pics of her, all in white frames. So I took a bunch of old plain and painted wooden frames, dismantled them, and began to spray them. I’m not a “seasoned” spray painter, but I figured I should start with primer. Right? Sure. About ten minutes into it, the can stopped spraying. The directions say it’s an “any angle” spray can. They lied. I tried all the tricks suggested to see if it was clogged, to no avail. So, I decided to scrap the primer idea and go straight for the painting, (By the way….I am not a real patient person, probably something you should know). I did two coats. I don’t know how long it took exactly to do the spraying, but they turned out great! The next day, I was fine, but the 2nd day….ohmygoodness…my hamstrings (the muscle that runs the length of the back of your thigh) were tighter than a gnats arse! And my thumb and pointer finger were aching like you would not believe. Really? From SPRAY PAINTING? Clearly, I need to focus on a couple different muscle groups the gym. Point me in the direction of the hand muscle machine please? Haha.

I’ll show you the collage when It’s done (after I complete physical therapy….only kidding). For now, here is my first batch….