Re-organizing: Day One

I really need to take the Christmas tree down, but I told DH I was going to do it tomorrow and his post-Christmas depression will spin out of control if I do it another day. So for now, I’m doing some redistributing of kids’ toys. I was in their room last night looking for something and it was crazy. Stuff piled everywhere – they couldn’t even get to their nice, neat bins.

And then I looked at those bins and realized they probably didn’t care, since most of it was toys they had outgrown. So I decided to take a rack of bins downstairs for the Viv to play with. She’s loving having tons of new toys. I emptied some bins so her new Christmas toys will be able to go in some too.

Now I just need to clean off my desk and take Christmas crap up to the attic. Sigh.

Christmas Cupcakes…

I asked for a set of piping tips for Christmas. I didn’t get them. So I marched myself into the craft store and bought what I wanted. Actually, the set I asked for had ones I didn’t need, so this worked out. I wanted a huge tip (that’s what she said?) for piping frosting onto cupcakes, mainly. DH tells me I have the baking and frosting part of cakes down, so I should work on my presentation.

So I practiced on family, because what is family for, right? I took cupcakes using my favorite yellow cake recipe. I made a simple buttercream (you know, butter, powdered sugar and milk – I don’t usually use vanilla because…well, I tend forget it so I pretend it’s on purpose). Then I testing my new piping tip. LOVE!!! My cupcakes now taste and LOOK awesome. I picked up some sprinkles at Target for 75% off. Here’s what they looked like:

And they tasted good too.

Scout Tuesday

I’m all over Scouting this year. I’m my 5 year old DD’s Daisy leader, my 7 year old DD’s co-leader/cookie mom and my 9 year old son’s assistant (to DH) den leader and pack treasurer. Since I spend every Monday and Tuesday coming up with projects for some type of scout or another, I thought I’d share one of my projects each week. Coincidentally, our meetings are also every Monday and Tuesday (the girls alternate Mondays, the boy is every week). I don’t think I could do it if I couldn’t procrastinate.

This week is our service unit’s cookie kickoff – which means it’s Cookie Time! Girls from all over our county will be at a party to start the cookie selling season. I thought it would be nice for my Daisies to have a troop shirt to wear to the party. The Brownies might actually do a version of this shirt later.

This project can easily be transformed for any use. My 7 year old's preschool did a similar project for Earth Day - they took white shirts and drew circles to represent the Earth in the middle and gave the kids blue and green paint.

Preparation:

I bought a pack of t-shirts in a size I thought would fit all my girls (all three of them). It actually is probably a little small for one of them, but as her mom pointed out, the next size up would be enormous. I picked out plain, old acrylic paints from my craft stash in each of the colors of the Daisy petals. I had to buy a few to fill in, but I had most of them from a project my older DD’s troop did as Daisies.

I also grabbed some old t-shirts for smocks to keep their clothes clean. I used a combo of paper plates and old plastic lids for paint palettes.

Step one: The Design

I printed out the Daisy petals from ScoutingWeb (scroll down a bit). Then I cut out the petals (I figured out that if you only cut out half, you could flip it to do the rest – saved my hands from cutting so many tiny petals – yay for the lazy way!). If my printer wouldn’t freaking jam every time I try to print on cardstock, I would have done this on nice heavy paper.

Then I went into Word and played around with WordArt to get a curve and found a font that was nice and thick, but still fun. I cut out the letters the first time and destroyed the outside. You can certainly trace around each letter, but then you have line them up and I’m lazy. So I reprinted and cut out the insides and made sure the surrounding paper stayed intact. It was much easier to trace the inside of the paper.

Step Two: Preparing the Shirts

I took a sheet of cardstock and put it inside each shirt, so my Sharpie wouldn’t bleed through. I left it there when I was done tracing so it would be ready for the girls to paint later.

Step Three: The Meeting

At our meeting I set up drop cloth on the tables we use. We have a very nice church that allows us to meet, so I don’t want to mess up their space. I put out one color for the first girl, she filled in the right petal (actually some were wrong, but that’s because I got my book out to check if I had all the colors I needed and left it on my table – I’m good like that) and passed her paint on to the next girl. We continued until they were all painted in. Then I let them fill in our troop number with whatever colors they wanted.

This is my DD’s. I think it’s adorable. The messy petals and letters give it a charm that can only be achieved by little fingers.

Final Cost:

I only have three girls, but this is still an inexpensive project – or at any rate, much less than having troop shirts printed somewhere.

I bought:

• A pack of 5 undershirts - $6.67.
• Four packs of 4 sponge brushes - $4.00
• Dropcloth - $3.50
• Paints - $3.00 (I had the rest on hand or mixed them at the meeting – this could cost more if you don’t own any paints)

So for under $20, we had troop t-shirts. And the cost wouldn’t have gone up if we’d had two more girls. So $4/girl. A little more than I like to spend on a regular meeting, but for troop t-shirts, a fair price.

Digi Saturday…

Two years ago, I made my mother-in-law a photo calendar for Christmas. She loved it and it replaced all other calendars in their home. So I made her another one last year. It was very well received again.

When it came time to get Christmas gifts together this year, I didn’t really have it in me to make one up. Then I got a last minute deal at VistaPrint and realized that my in-laws are creatures of habit – meaning if I didn’t make her a photo calendar, I’d definitely hear about it. Of course, the problem with gifts that are habits is that on Christmas morning it was more “Oh, here’s my calendar” than any sort of excitement about it. Not that I think that means it’s unappreciated, but when Season One of Murder, She Wrote gets a bigger reception than photos of one’s grandchildren, I’d say the bloom is off the rose.

But I made the calendar – throwing together some rather sloppy digital pages (to me, at least. I’m sure she loves them). While I was doing it I realized I didn’t need to buy special calendar toppers. I could just scrap from some 8.5 templates I already had or just scrap an 8.5x11 page.

So in the interest of working on relocating my creative mojo, I laid out a few sketches for calendar pages. I’m thinking that maybe, MAYBE, if I work on them as each month occurs, I won’t be scrambling next Christmas and I can just drop my pages in and print.

Here’s my finished page for January 2012’s calendar. Yes, 2012. I doubt I’ll have many other months done on the first day of the month, but I was just working on the page for this, so I quickly got my pics together and finished it.

I used the Peppermint Creative free kit and my own template. If you want the template, you can download it HERE. Ignore the January 2011 in the file name. I got all confused working in advance like that.

Is it too early for a New Year’s Resolution?

Normally, I’m not a fan of the Resolution. The very idea that I should only make positive changes in my life on January 1 sets me off. I can change any day of the year. Just because I start a new calendar doesn’t mean anything else is actually new. Except the year I write on checks. That always gets me until at least February.

I’ve made resolutions in the past, but mainly to say that I’ve made them. I don’t care if I keep them or not. But this year I just feel like I need a push. A gentle reminder to get up and live. It’s possible that I have some mild depression after my grandfather’s death. I acknowledge that. But I don’t really know what to do about it. I can feel that I’m not myself – I feel disconnected from my life. It could also be that I’ve been fighting a cold since about the same time as his funeral. Or both. You know, now that I mention it, both seems right.

Allow me to talk to myself while I figure out my goals for 2011.

1. This one is most important to me right now. Rediscover creative mojo. I need to make something. To that end, I will post a creative project either completed or in progress every Friday in January (and maybe some other months). I need to sew, digiscrap, take photos, etc.

2. Get photog business going. Keep motivation. I’m not quite sure yet how I’ll accomplish this one. To begin with, though, I will post one photo a week (day to be determined).

3. Establish/maintain order in my home and upgrade decor. I’m getting there, but I still need a push. So I’m thinking of posting one before and after per week – of something small. I’m not a huge household project undertaker right now.

4. Tie up loose ends.

5. Finish what I start.

6. Believe in myself.

Thanksgiving Baking…

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s been an eventful past month for me. My grandfather, who had been ill for over a year, died after a five-day bedside vigil/living wake (if you knew my family, you would interpret that in a very positive way). I have much to say about him and the last days of his life and his entire life, but I’m not there yet.

Where I am is preparing my list for Thanksgiving baking. With my grandfather’s death and subsequent activities, I haven’t been home much until today. So this morning I started gathering my list of things I’m baking. My father-in-law has ordered two pumpkin pies. My mother-in-law offered Mrs. Smith’s. He said he wants Mrs. C’s – meaning mine. I always make a pumpkin roll for each of the houses on my visiting list. And then this year I desperately want to try this: Cranberry Shortbread Bars.

I love to try new baked goods and Thanksgiving is one of those times I can experiment. My family is huge and if everyone just takes one small helping, it’s gone. And if it goes fast, I know it was good. If it’s still sitting there, it’s off the list. I’m also not a fan of pumpkin items or pies, so finding something seasonally appropriate that I might like is a challenge. So I’m hoping the Cranberry Bars make the list.

Well, I leapt…

I have been planning to start a photography business for years. Between baby #4, moving and adjusting to a new area and my total lack of confidence, I’ve put it off. But something a friend said clicked for me last week. Our budget is tight. Completely without wiggle room. It sucks. If I can do something I love to make it a little looser, I think I need to.

On Monday, my mother-in-law left me an urgent message on my answering machine. She needed to discuss something with me. I’m thinking…crap. What now? Turns out she has been looking for a job (I knew that part), but found one for me instead. So her plan became instead of her applying for a job, I could and she would stay home with the Viv. Tom and I have been in favor of this plan since we moved here, so we’re not really opposed to it. But it would impact our life in so many little ways. Like my not getting home from work until 6, having to run out to lead Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts at 6:30, go to arts council meetings at 7. I would have to organize like crazy.

So instead I put myself out there as a photographer. So far only a few family members have taken me up on it, but they’re still different faces for my portfolio, so it’s a start.