Awesome Log Cabin.

This is a project that my friend Jen made for her daughter's school.
She turned a cardboard box into an amazing log cabin.
The paint job is fantastic and the house is finished with window treatments and Sinead's art work decorates the walls.

Now that's talent!!

Mr. Kurt Rocks.

We saw Mr. Kurt for the first time a few years ago as he was playing at the Tarrytown library and we already thought he was very good.
Over the years, the kids have gone to to see him play many times and when it comes to chidren entertainers, few have the patience that he has and last night at the New City library was no exception.
He always gets the kids involved in his concerts and John had a blast showing off his voice!

Mr. Kurt treated the boys to an autograph session.



He even sang duet with Grace when everyone was gone, how awsome!!



So don't forget to check out his website: http://www.kurtgallagher.com/ and take the kids to see him, he rocks!

Tying the knot.

I have been wanting to experiment with decorative knots for quite a while but never got to it so as I had a few minutes to myself this afternoon, I dug into my craft box, came up with some nylon rope and started practicing.
Here is what I came up with.
My first lanyard:

A funky looking thing that I might use as a keychain. I made it to practice a monkey fist knot:

And a small lanyard bracelet that I thought Grace would want to wear but she didn't want anything to do with it because it didn't have Elmo on it!!

If you're ready to catch the bug, the internet is full of ressources. Have fun and be carefull it can be quite addictive.

Next stop Etsy!!



The scariest job.

No matter how dangerous your job is or how much of a thrill seeker you are; no task, no job, nothing is scarier than raising children. Before they even take their first breath we worry about our kids. A million things could go wrong during the pregnancy. The birth itself is a frightening ordeal. And from the moment we welcome our little cherubs to this crazy world we can't stop worrying. The first few weeks of a new born can be nerve wrecking, especially with the first one. We get home from the hospital with our tiny bundle of joy after getting a few minutes crash course on how to handle him. Quite frankly, a kid getting a hamster will get better instructions. Anyway that's it, you're home, clueless, tired and stressed out. He's crying! Why? Is he hungry? Wet? In pain? He's sleeping! Is breathing? Is he breathing too fast? Too quickly? How about SIDS?
And this is just the beginning people. Kids get ill, sick, they get hurt, there is trips to the ER, hospital stays. And these are just a few of what I would call "natural" dangers. Then we have to worry about peer pressure and bullying. And as they grow up they're involved in more activities and we have to worry about more peer pressure and we also have to think about child abuse, and risk of abduction...just read the headlines, there are a lot of sick people out there.
Wow! It's enough stress to make the most level headed parent become totally insane. One solution would be to get cloned and miniaturized so I could be with each one of our kids every second of the day (no, not to spy on them, the need to spy will come later) just to make sure that they're safe.
Until that happens, we stick to plan B.
We educate them as well as we can, we teach them how to be safe, we try to be good role models and most importantly we keep telling them that they can come to us for anything. And we can only hope that they will.
No, parenthood is definitely not for sissies!

Halloween Deco: Walking Zombies Sign.

This craft is fairly easy and quick to do.
I started with a square piece of wood that I spray painted black.

With some 5/8inch wide masking tape I laid down the outline of the sign.

I spray painted a coat of orange and since I am looking for a rugged look I made sure to let some of the black paint show through.

Using some 11/2inch wide letter stencils I laid down the marking in the center of the sign.

I spray painted the lettering in black and voila!

Using the same method I made these two decorations as well.

Mother's Day fun at the Bronx Zoo.

Mother's day project: From Dollar store find to personalized charm bracelet.

On my last trip to the Dollar tree, I had picked up a 12 pack of dice. I didn't really know what I was going to do with them but I knew I would come up with something.

Sure enough a few days later I decided to personalize a dice with some pictures of the kids. Because of the size of the dice, I had the pictures printed on a small scale (9 pix on a 4x6). With a utility knife I cut the pictures to fit the face of the dice and I glued each one using Mod Podge. Once dry, I applied a coat of Dimensional Magic on each side leaving each side to dry over night (yes, it's time consuming but well worth it!). When all the sides of the dice were complete I glued a Y bail to a corner. I do not have pictures for each steps because of some camera issues but here are a few shots of the finished product.

I decided to make a charm bracelet for Eileen for Mother's Day and the dice will be one of the charms. Since Eileen and I like to play Scrabble, the other charms will be 3 Scrabble tiles with our Children's initials. I glued an Aanraku bail on the back of each tiles with superglue. For the bracelet used some "Natural Chic" rubber thread. I looped it three times and used some small jump rings to hold it together. To close the bracelet, I heated the ends and "soldered" them together. All I need now is a nice gift box.