A little redo

The Hugs and Kisses Consignment just wrapped up.  It's the second time I've sold stuff in it and the third time I've shopped it.  For the first time, I went on half price night.  

These boxes were my splurge that night.  Meaning they weren't half price.  However, they were still inexpensive and I've been looking for something like this for their rooms.  

As you can see, they were all white but we wanted to change that.  

So here's our final product.  I think they turned out really good!  And since I used spray paint we already had, our total cost was pretty low.  

A great gift idea

For christmas, my father in law gave David and I the gift of Wine and Design.  We've been there before and had a blast.  This time, David pushed us to be even more creative by doing Picasso like portraits of each other.  At first, I resisted.  I resisted a lot, but he kept on and eventually I gave in.  I am glad I did though!  

Our evening started with a shared bottle of wine and Kinect bowling.  We all needed loosen our inhibitions and get the creative juices flowing! 

Once we got to Wine and Design, we all stared at our blank canvas for far too long.  Except for David.  He's irritating like that.  

My canvas developed a rough facial sketch.  Don't mind the neck.  I sure didn't.  

Then we all added some color.  

We had made an arrangement that the portraits would be a surprise, until they were competed.  

The portrait of David (above) and Billy (below)

These are the two images we had to look at, and go off of.  

Surprise!

The completed works.  

Mine does look like the original, but as David said "It's not his fault they modeled it after me!" ; )

We all had such a good time.  After painting, we walked down to Pierro's and had dinner together, before heading back home.  

When David first suggested these paintings to me, I said no because they didn't "go" with our house and I had no idea where we would even hang them.  I didn't like the way they looked.  After doing it, I couldn't be more proud of our paintings, which hang proudly in our hallway.  What's more, I have the wonderful memory of doing it.  We all laughed so much.  It's was that deep laugh that hurts your cheeks.  

Metal Earth: Gifts

For my father in laws birthday I bought him this: Steam Locomotive.  He likes to put things together. He's got lots of free time (lots!!).  And he likes steam engines.  Perfect gift, right?!?!  

After putting it together recently, he questioned whether I got the gift at "some old person torture store". You can read more about it here: Little Engine Blog

After discussing the difficulty with David, David was inspired to come home and put his set together. For Father's Day, I got him a set too.  His set had 4 landmarks: The Eiffel Tower, One World Trade Center, Big Ben and The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  

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You can see how small the details are.  This plate contains all the pieces for The Eiffel Tower.  

For your information, I found a large selection at Barnes and Nobles, which is where I got there.  After further investigation, there is an even larger selection online.  Think Millennium Falcon.  

It took David about 40 minutes to put together this one.  

It took my father in law two days to put his together.  

In all fairness, the steam locomotive is supposed to be one of the most difficult ones to put together.  

Anyways, all of ours are put together.  It problem took David two hours to put all four together.  They look.  Although Bob griped about the tedious effort in putting his together, he said he enjoyed it.  I'll give Bob this: he doesn't have good eyes and the little pieces do put a lot of strain on your eyes.   

The artist in the house

Hannah's painting

The original, by Matisse

She did this at homeschool co-op two weeks ago.  All the teachers were so impressed with how well she reproduced the painting.  Her teacher also said she she took her time it, unlike all the other kids.   

Puzzles and Pictures

A couple days ago Hannah and I put this puzzle together while Riley was sleeping.  

I told Hannah she should try and draw some of the animals from her puzzle, using the puzzle to help her.  

Her markers are obviously drying out.  However, here's the clownfish she drew.  

Recent Creations

There's a new place in Spring Lake, Noah's Art.  It's similar to other places that Hannah has gone for art but what makes this place different is that it is only for kids. And it's pretty close to the house.  Hannah went last week, for Fun Friday.  

This is what she came home with.  It's designed to look like one of her stuffed animals.   

Hannah's first story

Hannah loves to color.  All the time.  She loves all things art.  She wants to draw and create and color.  Recently, she came to me with this picture that she had created.  

And then she began to tell me a story, about the picture.  So  wrote it down.  

She did this all unprompted.  I love this kid.  

She draws

Hannah did some artork the other day.  I thought she did exceptionally good on her

freehand drawings.  In this first photo she drew jacks, a rocking horse, a stick horse, a drum, and football, a teddy bear and more.  

This is her drawing of the cat in the hat and thing 1 and thing 2.  

And here's a picture of a banana, a pineapple, a strawberry, cherries and some other fruit.  

This kid draws better than I do.  I think she's inherited the Moon artistic side.  

Snowflakes

This has turned out to be a tradition, I think we've done it the last three years.  

I can remember doing this in school, when I was a kid.  You just fold the paper and cut.  The snowflake becomes more intricate based on your cutting.  

Hannah has learned to be really creative with hers.  

These came out much better than any snowflakes I can remember making!  

She's such an intense little artist.  

I should've taken a picture at night, because you would've have seen them better.  

Jewelry Tree and Ring

This was another Christmas present we made this year: jewelry trees complete with a wire wrapped rose ring.  

I collected more sticks from Amy and Tom's back yard, but I looked for one with short sticks going out, that would be good for hanging jewelry off of.  

Then I baked the sticks in the oven for 10 minutes, just to remove any moisture.  

Then Hannah and I took some acrylic paint and painted them.  I went over the branches with paint a few times, to give them a nice smooth texture.  

The base is made from a candle dish and plaster of paris.  If you attempt this at home, just know that the plaster of paris hardens quickly!

Then, to distract from the somewhat sloppy plaster job, we adorned the base with beads.  I used a hot glue gun for this part, which I would not recommend using because the beads pop off easily.  

This ring was super easy to make.  I got the tutorial from here: Tutorial.  

The completed project: