Birthday Week

Addy’s birthday is Tuesday but this whole week is a grand bday celebration.

Saturday we checked out two local craft fairs. The hit of the day was Leia’s Barbie sunglasses. She’s so stylin’. 

Today we hung out with The Rock.

Leia and I made custom-scented candles 

before joining Rachel and Addy at the paint tables. 

Rachel knew what she was doing,  

and Addy had a good grasp of color theory,

but Leia and I

just followed the written directions

and hoped for the best. 

First attempt

Rachel wasn’t crazy about her first attempt 

Finished tree

so she went rogue and redid it her own way.

Not bad for our first try, eh?

So much fun. 

Silly faces

Grumpy

Showed Grumpy Jackie how to make dots 

with the back end of a paint brush

 Sad rock 

and suddenly had Happy Jackie

and a pan full of emotional rocks. 

New house motto - “paint your grumps away.”

Monday Fun Day

Our Monday travels are on hold now that Leanne is back in school, but we can still pack the day with fun. 

This week, we did tissue paper painting,

first with Jac 

and then with Leanne. 

A fun art project where you need only paper and water?

 Top 2 are Leanne’s, bottom are Jac’s 

And get pretty finished pieces?? We’ll definitely do this again. 

Leanne made porcupines for the first time. It’s one of Pop’s favorite meals and the girls love having it for school-day lunch.

And that hole in the middle? We were testing for “doneness”. Honest. Pay no attention to the full mouths just out of camera range. 

All that and we still had time (barely) for Leanne and I to ‘paint’ our nails with Color Street. 

So easy, a 9-year-old can do it very nicely. 

Barn Quilt #5

Barn quilt #5 is finished.  

We dropped this off in its new home on our way north last week. I love how cheerful this one is. I tried to talk Reyna into choosing a third color - maybe purple or violet for the corner squares - but now I think maybe she was right. 

Snazzy

When it came time to hang my barn quilt on the back fence, I figured four nails, big hammer, done. 

Which might have been the case if hubby wasn’t a woodworker with a garage full of snazzy tools.

Instead, we have a “French cleat”,

where the angled wood pieces on the barn quilt fit neatly, and very securely, into the angled pieces on the fence.

Our howling Fall winds will blow down the fence before they get this thing to move. So snazzy.

Barn Quilt #4

When I decided to paint a flag design, I knew I wanted to make three -

one for me, one for Vickie and a slightly different one for Wenona and her husband. 

I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. And I think she liked it too.

Pumpkin Painting Party

We love Halloween and decorate almost as much as we do for Christmas. 

So how could I pass up painting pretty pumpkins with a pack of my favorite peeps?

The painting parties are held at local restaurants, which usually works out well . . . 

but today a youth soccer team party bumped us from the indoor dining room to the outdoor patio.

Did I mention today was windy, with temps in the low 90’s?

And that a second soccer team decided to have their party - with awards! and cheering! - on the sidewalk right beside us?

I felt bad for our teacher, having to compete with wind and noise, 

but we had a blast anyway.

Can’t wait to do it again. Indoors. With air conditioning.

 Leia’s nod to Nightmare Before Christmas 

 Leanne’s

 Mine

 Marie’s

 Mary’s

 Teacher’s sample