Last Minute Mom's Day Gift

Paint a glass vase!

I did this project with my Daisies group at church last night. The girls had so much fun!

The paint is a special acrylic paint specifically for glass & ceramics. Not that I do much glass painting, but the paint I picked up last year at Joanne's (when I made those Happy Birthday Plates ) seems to work WONDERFULLY! ! After you've painted your piece & it has dried, just stick it in a cool oven, turn the oven to 350 degrees & set the timer for 30 minutes. That's it! The girls had a completed Mother's Day gift by the end of class.

There's No Place Like Home....

Hello!!!!! I'M BAAAAAAACK!!!! And I am SOOOO gonna make up now for the last few posts without photos. Here's some adorable sparkly shoes my oldest wee one got for Valentines Day. I thought this pic went along well with the title of this post. And then, my youngest wee one wanted her shoes part of it all too. You can totally see their personalities even in their footed attire. I love these feet!

The glass painting last Tuesday at my MOPS meeting went well. I think so anyway. I was beaming with cupcake pride as my original cupcake design was copied as lots of the other moms had trouble coming up with ideas for a design. Yay for cloned cupcakes! I made a plate that, instead of saying "Happy Birthday", said "Sweet Day" so it could be used for more special occasions throughout the year. I gave it to my 3-year old niece for Valentines Day, along with a felt "E" for the firts letter in her name. And, though you can't see it very well in the photo, I also attached a cupcake soap I purchased from Sublime Dragonfly. This scent was Pink Cotton Candy.

I also bought 2 soaps for my daughters: Chocolate Buttercream & Mint Chocolate Cookie. I SWEAR I saw my daughter take a lick of the mint chocolate cookie one. But, she said she didn't. (Said the sneaky little girl with suds on her top lip.) But, the scents ARE amazing! Sublime Dragonfly even has a PB&J cupcake soap. The soaps in the picture are actually in the process of being used. That's why they look so.....used.

My girls even got into the glass painting action & painted plates for their preschool teachers as Valentines Day gifts! I'm actually excited to paint vases, cake plates, cute little saucers & mugs...

Oh, one last Valentines Day thingie! My fam was at our old house & we get a knock on the door. One of the little neighbor boy's was standing there & asked to see my girls. He's 5. He gave my 5 year old daughter this Valentine card....So cute! My daughter made him a card in return & daddy walked the girls down the street to give the midget suitor a cookie, a valentine & a card.

OK, I lied. One more V-Day bit. Here's a pic of a tulip's private parts. My hubby gave me & the girls our very own bouquet of flowers.

I have been showered SO sweetly since moving into my new home. As we were cleaning & painting last week in our new home, a neighbor brought us cinnamon rolls--handmade! I use the canned version, so this was a special treat indeed!
And a couple ladies from my MOPS group (Mothers of PreSchoolers) have brought us meals--unexpectedly! I am just surprised & loving the thoughtfulness! I've never had anyone do this kind of thing for me before. It's sort of weird & cool. These people are definitely seeing me in my raw state. Pajama's all day, no makeup, hair a mess. It's my unpacking attire. Glamour is not at the top of my list this week. Or next. And come to think of it, unpacking's not really up there on the list either. Hm....

The moving went well though. I am super tired. And there are boxes everywhere. Sometimes I know I SHOULD be unpacking, but I just walk by the large mound of boxes that I'm sure really do create some sort of hazard & just shrug & say, "Eh" & keep walking by. But, there is a sweet note on each & every box in our house: At our old house, I would pack up the boxes & when I was finished my 5 year old would write "DONE" on the top of the box. HAHA! If the closed box with the tape sealing every opening might not have given me any hint that the box was ready to go, the word "DONE" sure helped! And the backwards "D" is just precious.

And here's my art studio! This is the "BEFORE" & "DURING" shot. The "AFTER" shot is still to come. The walls & ceiling are painted in the same color & it just looks TONS better! I'll be unpacking this week & figuring where things go. I'm excited to have a place ALL to myself! I'll make sure to get pics of the progress.

I used my dishwasher for the first time last night & the girls & I shouted "Hip Hip Hooray!" like a million times because it is so fun to have dishwasher. I love my new home SO much. It has lots of cuteness potential. OK, I better go & [not] unpack. Goodnight! I love being back! I've missed this LOTS!!!!

Tutorial...or NOT Tutorial? THAT is the Question.

This is not the key to my heart. I'm MOVING! My fam has lived in our current house for 4 years, since we moved up to Washington from Arizona. We're getting cramped & need space. I'm so excited! We'll be able to take things over in a leisurely manner. It's only 5 inutes away & it's a house that our landlord just moved OUT of. There's a GIANT room in the basement that will serve as my art studio, the office & the girls' playroom. I've always pictured a space where I can be creating....my girls are in the same space doing their thing....we're all happy, singing lovely songs in 3-part harmony.....flower petals are falling from the sky.... HAHA! Anyway, the only MAJOR sucky thing is Mr. WhiMSy love & my bedroom. It's in need of some love. I'm on a makeover mission. I'll totally do a "before" & "after" picture thingie!

Now for my tutorial...or not...thinigie. I totally didn't intend for this to be a "how-to", but after I realized how many pics I took I realized that it sorta looks that way. It's that time of month again (no, not THAT time of month) when I need to prepare crafty goodness for my MOPS group--a gaggle of about 35 ladies, all mommies. I really do enjoy this because it gives me a chance to try new things & that's what this project is--new. I'll be glass painting, something I always thought would be fun to try. In fact, I believe I saw a blip in the most recent issue of Country Home magazine with drinking glasses painted with sweet flowers & filled with fresh picked blooms.

The picture above is pet peeve #1. Woops, I mean STEP #1. One down, 34 to go... You're supposed to wipe them down with alochol & THEN wash. But I forgot the alcohol part. Great start Nikki.

These are the paints. I did a lot of running around today to Craft Warehouse, Michael's & JoAnne's Fabrics (**hi reindeer!....Sorry, inside joke.**) to find what I needed. These were bottles of paints for $1.99 at JoAnne's. The other paints I saw required ventilation--which we don't have in our facility, OR they required 2 coats of paint with an hour dry time in-between each coat--& I have barely an hour to do the craft. So this was MY best choice. And you can mix colors, which is nice. UPDATE: Several people have written to ask about the paints so I thought I'd provide a close-up of the bottles. They look EXACTLY like acrylic paints, but they're made for glass & ceramics. A little goes a loooong way! And don't get the paint too thick or you'll just end up with a design full of unattractive bubbles. The paint is waterbased & non-toxic. It is not meant to come in contact with food, which is why I painted the design on the BOTTOM of the plate. I've used mine & washed it & is still perfect!! For other MOPS Creative Activities Leaders, I would suggest also providing the moms with magazines, or, print out birthday clip-art to give them ideas of what to paint.

One tiny bit of info that is important is that these paints are not food safe. And, we're painting those fun "birthday" plates used for those special days. My idea was to paint the BACK of the plate. I don't know if the surface will get scratched or what. My cool-beans idea of the day was to use a dry-erase marker to draw my design on the FRONT of the plate. I'm fine with painting freehand, but when writing letters backwards, NOT so good. I ended up wiping this design completely off because I realized that I should have done the fine little details first, as in this next picture...

Cute polka dots, cute cupcake trim & I painted cute dark brown lines on the cupcake "liner".

Everything else was painted in after the small details dried. The photo doesn't show so well, but there are streaks in the paint--for that "handpainted " look.

The final details were the large yellow ("lemon custard" to be exact) polka-dots. The back doesn't look so pretty. But no one will see that. Well, I guess they will--YOU just did.

Set in a cool oven, bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, let cool in oven & then take out. Or you can air-dry for 3 weeks. Isn't it cute?? It is hand-washable (although I have not washed it or used it--I'm kinda nervous!) & is dishwasher safe on the top rack. My girls LOVE it & want to use it right away. I guess I should make an UN-birthday one so we'll get more use out of it.

*To see the "Sweet Day" plate I made my niece (which looks exactly the same, except for the wording, click HERE.)

Geez. Another late night post. That's how I roll most of the time. And what a LOOOONG post too! I'm out of blog breath. Tomorrow though I'm going to reveal my dad's super surprise for his birthday. I'm excited for him to get it! Oh & I can't wait to buy cute things for the house tomorrow while the girls are in preschool & I have mommy time! YAY! No more blabbing. I gotta go!---Project Runway is starting soon!