I knew it!!!!!

Hoda and Kathy Lee just announced that a study (Journal of the AMA?) has found that crafting makes you calmer.  :) !!!!!

So much for planning ...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hello, again!  Not much blogging lately, but there has been an abundance of (as my friend calls it) "the business of life" and volunteering.  There was some crafting.  And, holiday crafting is the best!

This year, we all sat down at the beginning of October to discuss our Halloween plans.  The kids decided that they were too old for trick-or-treating and thus, did not need costumes.  I asked my hubby if he was dressing-up for work (he starting working for the current restaurant chain in Sept., 2011 but didn't dress for the holiday last year).   He thought he would only be working with the construction crew for the location he will be opening at the beginning of the year and wouldn't need a costume.  So, I was off-the-hook - no costume shopping or constructing.  I did buy a bunch of pumpkins and we planned to carve Skylanders characters and One Direction logos.  The pumpkins are still intact.  So, we will be roasting them and cooking some yummy recipes, instead.

Last week, my son was invited to help pass out candy at his friends house and had heard that there is a student costume contest at lunch today.  So, we dug out a packing box from the garage, bought some styrofoam bowls and found acrylic paint.  Easy peasy!  

Of course, if one child has a costume, so must the other.  I bought some knit fabric (I'm soooo thankful it was on sale at JoAnn's) and sewed a "Gangnam Style" outfit.

Hubby has been helping out with a location that is between managers and guess what he brought home last night.  He's lucky that he found something that fit!

What will I wear?  I'm going out to the garage to look for my witch's hat.

Are any of you dressing up for Halloween?  Don't forget your flashlights, glow necklaces and reflector strips tonight.  Have a Happy Halloween!

Crafting holiday gifts

When I was shopping for party shoes for my daughter, I saw these silver sandals.

I thought they were cute and they were discounted to the amazing price of $5.99.  I couldn't pass up the deal.  But, I didn't think the feathers were my daughter's style.  

So, I removed the feathers with my jewelry pliers and added fish hooks ($2.99 at Michael's).

My daughter passed by, as I worked on this.  She liked the feathers more as earrings than as sandal embellishments.   So, these will be holiday gifts for her friends.

I ended up with sixteen pairs of earrings and a pair of sandals.  Not bad for about $10 (we pay 9.25% sales tax in Santa Monica).

Have you begun your holiday gift crafting?

Sunday Snippets

Monster Days

We survived!

Have you had those days when every commitment and invitation occurs?  Today was one of those days for our family.  Morning swim practice, reffing a soccer game, soccer game, snack mom, college homecoming, swim meet, friend's Bat Mitzvah and another friend's Bar Mitzvah.  We whittled the list down (skipped homecoming, morning practice and the afternoon swim meet) and squeezed in some fun, low-keyed activities (hanging out with a neighbor kid, stopping by hubby's work to try the new menu and cocktails with some old friends) and a few parent-child connections.  Whew!

Why is it that "When it rains, it pours" is so true?  Or, do we choose to bring out the truth in that statement?  I think today's schedule was my choice.  I'm always trying to give my kids the opportunity to socially develop and seem to push aside my calm and sanity for that opportunity.  Looking at the list of events, I think that choice was OK for today.  We all had a good time and didn't feel the exhaustion until we settled back at home.  Again, whew!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow being catch-up, relaxation and family connections.  Maybe a little crafting, too.  :)

Feature Friday

I finished the melted crayon and fabric flower project.  It was pretty easy and I think it turned out to be cute.  

I had seen melted Crayola crayon art on Pintrest and I knew it was something I could do.   Most of the ones I saw had the paper wrappers still attached.  I removed the wrappers, as I used any crayons we had (my kids had at least 6 different brands and many crayons were used).  I did purchase a box of Crayolas, to completely fill the bottom of the canvas.  Another alteration was using acrylic paint for the background.  Without the paper wrappers, I used KrazyGlue (the instructions I saw on Google called for hot glue) to attach the crayons to the canvas.  I turned the canvas upside-down, propped it against a lined (leftover vinyl tablecloth) wall, and melted the crayon with my embossing tool (you can also use a hairdryer -- it just takes longer).

Originally, I had wanted it to look like a meadow against the sky.  After I consulted my resident artist, I added the flowers, using Jessi's instructions at http://practicallyfunctional.net/2012/06/fun-fabric-flowers/.  The only change I made was to not iron the folded fabric, before gathering.  I used a batch of scraps from my daughter and some leftover buttons.  Since I wanted to use all of that scrap batch, I made quite a few and turned some of them into ornaments for our Christmas tree.

Have great weekend and Happy Crafting!

Not much crafting today

Made a few more flowers...shopping for party clothes, instead.  Kinda fun.  Wish the purchases were for me.