Egg Carton Mini Muffins

Being home all day with nowhere to go...such a shock to my system nowadays. It wasn't all that long ago that I was home most days with my preschoolers or babies, and domesticity ruled my life. But now, such a rare treat. I am still continuing not to work (you know, by the Uncle Sam definition of 'work' not that every-Mom-knows-it's-a-real-job definition of 'work').

This year since the kids are now both in school, I'm finding myself busier than ever. Volunteering at school, running the kids to vision therapy, karate and dance classes, overseeing the coffee ministry and singing on the worship band at our church, hostessing a weekly small group, and attempting to get to regular exercise classes. Oh and packing cute lunch boxes.  Whew.

But today Charley had a cough, so I cleared my calendar and stayed home with him and did domestic things. Like finally washed our stinky comforter.

I also had a stroke of genius about mini-muffins and egg cartons, which led me to our little project.

First we painted some paper egg cartons to be all holiday pretty.

Then I made some mini muffins (don't ask for a recipe, it was just Jiffy mix with dried cherries added)

Then we put a dozen mini-muffins in each egg carton and will later delivery them to our neighbors. Ta-da!!!

*Disclaimer- my coughing kid did not touch any part of the food process and washed his hands well before painting the cartons. Plus he's not really that sick, so I feel confident in sharing these muffins. I'm not a horrible virus spreading neighbor...I don't think.

Our Annual Thankful Tree

This is our fourth year making one. It's so so easy and a nice visual reminder to be thankful all the time.

My old blog posts tell me that every year our thankful tree looks a little different. This year we're going for simple. And on a high mantle as there are often baby guests in our house.

How to make this amazingly artistic conversation piece? Cut down some limbs, remove some leaves, cut some shotty paper leaves, and write what you're thankful for. Look at  it and be amazed at your own craftiness.

Ta-da!!!

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus" 1 Thess 5:18

Feeling Spidey

Tessa has been studying spiders all month in first grade and is officially both in love and obsessed with them. Fortunately for her, she had a visual display on spiders do at the end of the month. It could be a poster, pictures, a fake habitat or anything you want.

So while we were home today recovering from illness (and on fall break) we dug out a shoe box, some materials from the yard, glue and paint and went for it.

An old fashioned diorama.

They had to chose a spider type and Tessa chose blue tarantulas. Did you  know there was such a thing? Me neither.

Tarantulas build burrows instead of making webs. Didn't know that either. So we made a little burrow out of a red solo cup, some glue and dirt.

Another thing I didn't know before today was how to spell tarantula. See first grade projects are educational for everyone.

There's our blue tarantula in his burrow with some sand, rocks and other assorted leaves and such all provided by our yard. Gotta love free materials.

Well not totally free....we did buy all of those things aside from the leaves I guess.

I thought we'd be making blue tarantulas out of paper until Tessa told me she had some in her jar of toy spiders.....and I'll be damned, she did! Lucky for us they fit perfectly into our habitat.

Of course she then told me that that was the reason she CHOSE blue tarantulas, because she had some already. And of course I told her she was a genius.

Sunday Afternoon Doodles

I'm not trying to sound boastful when I say that our family doesn't know how to be lazy. It's true we really don't. Part of that comes from just having a full schedule of activities but most of it comes by design since we like to do lots of things...have lots of hobbies, serve in many roles in our church and keep the kids plugged in with cool things to do.

I mean personally...I love a good day of TV watching and snack eating, but I live in a household of people who can't sit still so by default, neither can I.

Usually on Saturdays we sleep in a bit but Jeremy is often at the airport by 9am and Tessa at ballet by 10, then we fill our afternoon with assorted errands and chores. On Sundays it is very rare that one or both of the adults in our house isn't at church by 8am, rehearsing with the worship band or running the sound board.

But Sunday afternoons....ah Sunday afternoons. We nap, we watch movies, we rest. 

Sometimes we cook on Sunday, sometimes we don't. Today we enjoyed a rotisserie chicken courtesy of our local grocery store. And also the new super cool coloring book that Tessa and I picked up at the Children's Museum.

It's intricate and crazy and Tessa and I passed it back and forth while watching Hook.

Two interesting facts....my husband has never seen Hook and I have always held my writing utensil on the wrong finger, as evidenced by the picture. No use in changing that now, I'm an old dog. 

It took us a couple of hours to get just right and I actually really enjoyed it. It's kind of like art therapy. A coloring book for grownups!

Tomorrow we'll get back to the weekly grind of work, school, household duties, pilot lessons, hosting our small group, doctor appointments, exercise class, piano lessons, worship band rehearsal, chauffeuring, volunteering at school, gymnastics class and cooking and cleaning and cooking and cleaning and cooking and cleaning. Oh wait, I guess I'm just referring to myself now? But for today...we colored.

Summer Tie Dye

If you were to ask....why tie dye?, I would say two things. First off that sounds like a Dr. Seuss book. Secondly, if you have to ask then you clearly haven't spent 10 weeks at home with a 4 and 6 year old. For cheap entertainment and something to do, that's why!

I've never tie dyed anything before so Tessa was our guide. She did it both in Kindergarten and at camp.

We did tank tops, Charley underpants and a pair of white leggings for Tessa (ps- nylon does not absorb fabric dye well)

Ta-da! Beautiful new underthings and pajamas. Just cause, that's why.

Pottery Creations

We finally stopped by and picked up our pottery creations from Tessa's birthday party. Ta-da! They are both piggy banks and by coincidence, both aquatic in nature.

I'm thinking that the kids and I may go back this summer just for fun, or maybe some lady friends and I will go WITHOUT kids and have even more fun. They have all kinds of plates, mugs, switch plates and other houseware items. Everyone better look out when their birthdays come around...the Benningtons may have found a new art medium!

Sharpie Manicures

Tessa and I have found a new favorite way to do nail art. With sharpies!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

(Okay mine is 5 days old when this picture was taken...not exactly perfect)

I just applied a coat of color (pink for Tessa and grey for me) and adorned us with purple Sharpie polka dots. Let it dry and apply a heavy clear top coat. Ta-da! I might need to invest in a bunch of different colors so we can have more fun with this.

5 Trees and Other Artsy Things

If you would have asked me two years ago if I was an artsy person, I would have given you a resounding NO and a laugh. I guess I probably still would...but looking around our house, it suddenly seems that we are artistic.

I really like it. I like the decor and character that the walls of our house suddenly have.I've always been a fan of unique decorating. I have nothing against people who buy wall  hangings at Target. We have our own share of that as well. I just like it when everyone's house is different with their own pictures, creations, collections of what they like.

It would seem that we like paintings of trees, which is really by coincidence. I've done 'wine and canvas' five times now and all five times have been some sort of tree which is funny because they do lots and lots of types of paintings there. It just happened that way.

My first ever painting is the one on the top, of a curly cue tree. I did this in the winter of 2011. The one below that was my third time at Wine and Canvas, when my friend Stephanie from CA came to visit. California Redwoods....fitting, huh? The little tiny canvases there are something the kids made once with Mom. 

(By the way, a shout out to Stephanie who is a weirdo that doesn't use Facebook but I know she reads the blog sometimes. Hiiii!!!)

This one is actually Jeremy's painting, that we did on a double date to Wine and Canvas with another couple. There was a duplicate of this that I did which is in Mom's house somewhere. 

The purple Lorax trees are from my fourth time at Wine and Canvas, the first time I took Mom. It fits perfectly in our purple guest room.

Then I went off book and made my own painting of our grapevine. This is the first time I ever tried doing something on my own without a teacher's guidance. Not too shabby, but not amazing either. Wall worth? Sure, why not.

A couple of weeks ago Tessa and I had our own inpromptu art class on a Sunday afternoon. The bottom one is her's and aside from me tracing the shape of the moon, she did the rest all herself just by copying me.  I decided to hang them together.

And this is my latest painting from last weekend when I did Wine and Canvas for a fifth time with Mom and Whitney. This is the hardest one I've done, but with the best result I think. 

I *may* be close to sharing paintings with other people, especially if I could recreate this one. Maybe there's a certain newleywed in NYC who could use some wall art. I don't know. We'll see. 

Even though painting is new, we've had photo art around here for years....

  Here's a wall in our bedroom full of photos taken by us (aside from the one in the middle which is a special family picture that belonged to Jeremy's grandpa).

For his 30th, I made Jeremy this framed pic of all four of our grandfathers in their young adulthood. I'm hoping someday he catches on and makes me one of our grandmothers. Or maybe I should just drop the hint harder. There, I dropped it. Some other old family photos hang nearby

I took these barn photos when we first moved back to IN just because I loved seeing old decrepit barns everywhere again. They made me happy. I actually sold a few of these in the distressed frames, believe it or not.

Not really 'art', but here's our photo wall of fame in the hallway. If you're in our family....you're probably on there. Slapped into all kinds of mismatched frames and hung with careless abandon wherever they fit. Eventually we'll hit the ceiling or move to another wall.

Here's Jeremy's Christmas present, a photo of our own grapes printed on wrapped canvas with a verse I glued to it. He cried and I laughed at him. That's the way we exchange presents.

Is this art? A handmade menu board that I LOVE already. Made with glue, magnets and scrapbook paper on a cookie sheet and already saving our money and sanity. Having all of our recipes/dishes printed out on the cards is a HUGE helper for me since I'm not so creative in the kitchen.

Here are some shells from the Outer Banks vacation, glued to a cardboard B. Simple souveneir.

Nobody made or distressed these, they are just old. They those little things that you put in the corner of crown molding...uh, you know, what are they called? Who knows. Molding corners. I picked them up at an antique shop for $2 many years ago and slapped them on the wall. 

Here's Jeremy's art. Our giant cross made out of our grapevines. We have one, our friend has one, and now there is one hanging in the foyer of our church which kinda makes us feel famous. 

There's only enough vines to make about 1-3 crosses per year, so if you'd like one we can put you on a waiting list. Or you could buy us a vineyard and make short work of this. 

Tessa's caught the art but a little bit too.....

For her 100 day project for school, we made this awesome poster displaying 100 pieces of dog food.

I was a little paranoid that it looks like I did the work for her, and I swear I didn't. I did trace the shape of the dog with a sharpie but she did all the painting, gluing, cutting and writing. Definitely her masterpiece.

Rosie's trying to eat it as you can see. Dog ate my homework?...no seriously! Hayden literally chased us out the door and into the garage when we were loading up for school this morning. 

So our art continues to grow, and maybe I'll start to share some with other people if it's decent enough. I really enjoy it and to think....I didn't even know I did until two years ago.

Just goes to show you that even old dogs can master new creativity. Just don't turn their food into art.

Before it's Packed Away: My Favorite Christmas Balls

I had every intention of writing a blog post during December, giving a virtual tour of the pretty decorations in our house. I was going to show you my favorite things, new and old. Handmade, antique or from Target.

And as I was boxing up Christmas stuff this morning. I realized I kinda forgot.

I do love all of our Christmas pretties but by the time New Year's comes, I am MORE than happy to whip out the boxes and clean the place up. It may sound strange but putting away Christmas stuff and re-setting the house is one of my favorite things. A sign of a refreshed house ready to face the new year.

I thought it was a good chance to show off a couple of my favorite things, before they get boxed up. One of them is my beaded ball ornaments. When we first moved into our house and didn't have much decor stuff and only a tiny apartment tree, Mamaw gave me a load of some old ornaments she had collected from garage sales and antique stores.

Those ornaments really are my favorite because they are mostly old and glass and really cool. And there's one with Elvis's face, which is in my top five of favorites. They used to live only on the top half of the tree but now that the kids are a little older and can handle breakable ornaments pretty well. They even hung most of them up this year. Finally!

But these come apart really easily even in adult hands, so I keep them in a glass trifle bowl.

I actually keep these out all year round and frequently get asked if I made them. They are simply a bunch of push pins and beads stuck in soft ball ornaments, and no two are alike. But no...I'm definitely not that patient. I have no idea who made them, which make it kind of extra cool.

I know who made all of my Santas. Mamaw! We get a new one every year, hand made from molded plaster or some other crafty method. Here is the 2012 Santa.

And here's my whole collection from year's past. One of my favorites is from the year we got our first dog, Hayden.

While I put the Christmas things away, I got out some of our new pretties that were Christmas additions. Like these oil and vinegar wiener dogs from Mike and Jess. I seriously love these guys.

And my two bird on a wire ceramic vases from Mom are gracing the mantel where my harvest bough used to hang. Ready for a new season!