"Home Work"

Yes, you see it right. The craft-a-holic was in the news paper! Thanks to Nancy Degennaro for interviewing me for an article she was to write about moms who work at home! I think it is awesome that the word about work at home moms is getting out. We work harder than I think most people will ever realize!

Nancy also decided that she was going to use me for the photo to go along with the article and it turned out great! Ethan was so stinkin excited that he was going to be in the paper! The photographer came over to take a photo of what a normal (actually very busy and hectic) day at my house looks like and that involves Ethan! He has been waiting all week for the paper to be printed. When we picked up a copy we were very surprised to see we were on the FRONT PAGE of the Lifestyles section and the photo was HUGE! It was exciting to see though in print! Oh and not only is it a HUGE photo but my face is covered in flour from baking which Ethan also thought was the funniest thing ever!

Above is a scanned copy of the paper and you can read the full article HERE!

A Future Craft-Aholic???? I think so!!!!!

So my BESTEST came over this morning to learn how to sew! I have to say, I was ALMOST as proud of her as I was of my own children when they want to learn my crafty ways!! We have done many crafty things together in the past like scrapbooking and jewelry making but sewing was new to her, and I have to say ... for a first timer (heck even not for a first timer) she did GREAT! The curtains she made for her baby's nursery turned out amazing and I can't wait to see what they look like when they are hung up! She is also an AWEWOME painter too and maybe one day she can teach me her tricks as well. You can see her work HERE.

HORRAY FOR BABIES AND NEW NURSERY CRAFTS!!!!

Spring Art At It's Finest!

Ah yes, I am a proud mother of one of the artsiest kids around! My little boy Ethan spent weeks at preschool preparing for their annual spring art show! Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends get to walk through the colorful hallways filled with paintings, photos, sculptures and other various works of art made by 1-5 year olds! It is such a joy to see what these kids can do.

Ethan was proud as a peacock to show us what he made and I was one proud mama seeing everything he has done! Here are just a few of the amazing pieces of Art that we got to view!







Aren't his creations Wonderful?!?! Here are some photo of the wall displays as you walk through the preschool. All the kids worked so hard on this and we just loved being able to be there so that the kids could show off to everyone all their hard work and creativity!

Rainbow Cuppies!

Well tomorrow is my birthday (well technically today since it is after midnight) and since I am the cake baker around these parts I normally don't get a cake unless I make it myself. Instead of making myself a cake this year I decided to treat my kids classes to rainbow cuppies with green frosting! The kids got to help decorate as well which they always enjoy doing! Normally I am an all natural no artificial colors sort of girl but seeing that tomorrow is a special day (my birthday and St. Patrick's Day) I decided to go all out with a rainbow (literally) of colors added to cake batter and baked up into adorable multi-colored cuppies to celebrate my favorite day of the year DUH!


After tomorrow is over there will be about 50 kids with artificial colors running through their veins. Kids bouncing off the walls and giggling from the sugar high. So right now I just want to say "sorry" to the teachers that have to deal with these little monsters after they eat these cupcakes!

On a side note a good friend of mine (Mandy-Bona Fide Mama) had a friend contact me about an article in the local paper about work at home moms which I will be featured. I am super excited about it and get to do a fun photo shoot on wednesday for the paper! I will update on that as it happens. Hopefully we will get a cute photo out of it and educate everyone out there on the trend of work at home moms that has been catching on quickly!

March = National Craft Month!

Wow how awesome is that! Not only is March the month of my birthday, but my birthday is also St. Patrick's Day (which I have to say is a pretty awesome birthday!!!) and the best part of that is that March is ALSO NATIONAL CRAFT MONTH! I am seriously the luckiest girl EVER! My favorite color is green and EVERYONE gets me something green for my birthday (hmmm ... wonder why) and crafting is my passion and I happen to be born in the month that every craft supply ever known to man (or woman) is featured and put on sale at some point throughout the month!

On that note I just took the order for a leotard today and the little girl picked out her colors (orange with silver straps) it is going to look so cute! Hopefully I can start on it tonight when the kids get into bed! Then I have cupcakes to make for St. Patty's day for Ethan's preschool class. They will be rainbow cake with green frosting and a rainbow sticking out of the frosting. I am insanely excited to make these because I have never made the rainbow cake batter before and am excited to see how they will turn out, and excited to see the kids reaction when they bite into a cupcake and it is 6 different colors!

So for now I leave you with a cute craft you can do with your kids for national craft month.

This pretty rainbow is so easy even little ones can make it. It’s perfect for teaching kids about colors and improving dexterity.

What you'll need:

• 1 brick of styrofoam
• 1 each purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red chenille stems
• 15 purple pony beads
• 18 blue pony beads
• 23 green pony beads
• 27 yellow pony beads
• 32 orange pony beads
• 36 red pony beads
• Bag of cotton balls
  

How to make it:

1. String pony beads onto chenille stems, matching the colors. (i.e. string green pony beads on green chenille, purple pony beads on purple chenille, etc)
2. Start with the purple beaded stem. Center the beads on the stem and trim the ends of the stem leaving about 2” on each end.
3. Find the center of the Styrofoam block and insert the two chenille ends into the brick, forming an arch. Hint: use one of the pieces of chenille that you cut off to create the holes first, pull them out then insert the beaded chenille into the hole.
4. Repeat step 3 for each beaded stem, in the rainbow sequence (next is blue, green, yellow, orange, and red).
5. Glue cotton balls all around the bottom of the rainbow to form clouds. Cover the Styrofoam brick with cotton balls.
6. When cotton balls and glue are dry, stretch and gently pull the cotton balls to cover any exposed Styrofoam edges.
   

Tips:

• If making several of these (i.e. class or preschool project), cut the bricks in half. This will give you twice the supplies as a full brick is not necessarily needed.
• Find large bags of pony beads in multicolored value packages at craft supply stores.
• Show small children the ends of the chenille stems so that they know there are pointy edges.