Cereal Box Mosaics :)

I have been saving and cutting up my cereal boxes into little 1/2" squares and sorting them by color into old jars for the last few months JUST so I could try this project out.

I thought my niece would love it, but it turns out you have to have a little more patience and artistic vision than a 7-year-old girl with no sleep really had.  She just wanted to doodle more than glue and put all the pieces together.  :)  But it gave me a chance to try it out on a smaller scale, and now I know that I want to do a much larger version soon!

Gather cardstock, some plain ol' school glue, and a paintbrush (to brush the paint more evenly across your paper, totally optional), and of course a pencil and your mosaic tiles.  :)

1) Just cut a piece of cardstock to the size you want. I recommend a 5x7 for the kiddos, anything bigger is very time-consuming.  Plus you can frame it this way.  :)
2) Draw a decently large image of what you want to make...mine was a moon, Caida's was a castle.  You want to make sure you don't have too many details, larger shapes are better since each mosaic tile is 1/2" square!
3) Paint a layer of glue over the top inch or two.
4) Start laying down your tiles.  Go piece by piece, row by row, and just put the color that MOST belongs there to make your shapes.  Of course the image will be pixelated--the smaller your image/artwork, the MORE pixelated it will be.  And the cereal box pieces are almost NEVER a single color, but that's okay.  That adds to the artsy aspect of the whole thing.  It will still be awesome, I promise.  :)
5) Cover the whole page with tiles as best you can and let dry.  Image will be stiff.

Here's my moon, with blue/purple/black sky:

And here's Caida's unfinished castle...at least you can tell she had a colorful castle, blue sky, and green grass.  :)  She just didn't have the patience to finish.

I think I'm going to add mosaic to my trio hot air balloon art vision I have for my guest bedroom.  More posts on that to follow.  ;)

My Sharpie Mugs :)

I've seen the idea of writing on oven-safe dishes with Sharpie and baking it to make it permanent ALL OVER PINTEREST.  (Draw what you want, bake at 350 for 30 minutes so it "sets" and you're good to go.)  So I thought I'd try my hand at it this weekend, since my apple cider kick left me wanting LOTS more mugs around the house.

I also saw THIS POST (tutorial included) via Pinterest and had wanted to try it out.  So I killed two birds with one stone and did the design on the Dollar Tree mugs.

I'm in love.  :)

SO FUN.  I even like the semi-unfinished look with white spots in the middle.  And it's cheaper than our favorite paint-your-own pottery place (we already have a couple dozen Sharpies so really it was just a $1/piece for the mugs or plates from the dollar store)...I want to make two more in different color schemes so we have a "full set" to share when people come over.  :)  And I think a personalized dish set is suddenly very affordable as a Christmas gift/stocking stuffer!

The darker pink did come out of the oven a little different (faded purple-y) than the rest, not sure why...maybe because it was a knock-off brand of Sharpie?  Dunno.  But it's still very pretty and floral in the end, which is what I was going for.

NOTE: These are NOT dishwasher safe after you've baked them--most people in the comments say that at least half your design will come off in the dishwasher or even with a brillo pad or something like it.  So gentle hand-wash only. You may even want to write that on the bottom of your dishes.  :)

Happy crafting!

Haircuts and other little things that made up my week

In no particular order... :)

 

Caramel apple cider...MMMMMMMMM...my saving grace this week.

Haircut after my eye exam!  (New pics to come of my new glasses when I actually get them next week!)  15 inches went to Locks of Love, and then they cut off a couple more inches as they styled it.

This is what it looks like usually...I will dye it soon and the grays will be gone, too.  :)

Flute practices!  I'm in a flute choir AND doing a flute duet for a couple of musical numbers for stake conference next month...and playing the piano...and singing...I'm tired of practices.  ;)

FHE this week was learning the 10 commandments with hand actions and posting them on the blog.  (The other one.)  :)  This is largely what made me want to cut and dye my hair. :)

Work with this beautiful girl!  It was a rough week with both of us not feeling our best, but we made it through!  Our ward is fasting for this little girl on Sunday, so if you want to join in (her name is Katherine) feel free!

So excited to have new glasses next week and stop the headaches! 

David Boudia came to our school and gave a motivational speech today.

I'm about a thousand years behind on project 366.  *Sigh.*  AND the FHE blog.  Maybe in between the craziness of this weekend I'll catch up a little...

I have roughly 743 ideas of crafts I am hoping to do soon.  Maybe I'll even post them.  :)

And the usual: primary stuff, dogs, housework unfinished, visiting teaching, etc....  :)  Maybe someday I'll be amazing and on top of things.  Right now I'm just excited to have survived this week, migraines and pinched nerves and cramps and stress and business and all.  Here's to a (hopefully semi-) relaxing weekend and a better week to come!

Feast on the First Day of Fall!

I love when weather, calendars, health, and our financial situation all work together to make up a perfect day!  I think, aside from the cleaning I have yet to do, this has been and will be one of the most perfect days of 2012.

The Feast of the Hunter's Moon is a BIG part of that.  Even when it's hot or rainy and muddy we always have a good time.  It was especially perfect today, with a high of 59 and eventually literally not a cloud in the sky, to kick off autumn with a bang.  Here are some pics:

The entrance.  :)

Deer head man.  :)

I didn't buy this shawl, but I LOVE it and am going to crochet myself something akin to it someday. :)

The scariest tent for me...I don't like fur anyway, and I REALLY don't like animal heads on top of sticks!

If we ever have a baby, we'll buy one of these.  :)  $22 seems pretty reasonable for an actual papoose, made by an actual Native American.  :)

We look awesome.  Hahaha. 

My soaps!  Pumpkin pie for fall, peppermint for winter, lilac for early spring, blackberry sage for late spring/early summer, and citrus splash for late summer.  Can't WAIT to start using these TOMORROW!  Mmmm....

The jugglers.  The main reason we go every year.  :)

I also really love these little old ladies and gentlemen that make up the duclimer gathering.  :)

Just outside Wea Village (the Native American section, really).

Paul found this awesome little knife.  It's really quite gorgeous, actually.  The picture doesn't do it justice.

Typical Indiana.  :)  Love.

And tonight: an autumn bikeride, leftover chili (any good recipes out there? Mine was only so-so), pumpkin brownies and caramel apple cider.  Let the best season EVER begin!  :)

A little catch-up (katsup, ketchup, whatever :)

I was gently chastised by my mother-in-law about not having updated anyone in a while. :)  We are still here in Indiana, keeping busy.  So here's a *little* of what we've been up to lately, in no particular order.

 

Sunday bike rides.  Obi LOVES them, but this particular time she wasn't with us.  I'm still trying to make a little puppy sling so I can take Voodoo with me (she's a little too heavy for the basket).

After realizing I wasn't drinking much water for a whole week (it wasn't good...), I am now on a strict self-imposed schedule.  I have to drink two of these a day.  And I monitor myself to make sure I'm getting the requisite amount in a spread-out time so I don't just have to pee all day long.  :)

Okay, this picture ended up sideways.  Anyway, Paul has started a side business making websites for people.  It's a pretty sweet deal and helps to bring in some extra money to help pay off our many debts faster.  Downside: now even when he's home he's working all the time.  But not hard-core, so it's okay.  Anyway, he gives the website to people on their own personalized USB drive.  Pretty awesome, isn't he?

I don't have all the ward activities and meetings pictured, but we've had LOTS this month especially.  Relief Society meetings, two primary activities, new member social, activity days, primary program prep, choir practices, musical number practices (flute), missionary correlation meetings, primary presidency meetings and home visits...not to mention home and visiting teachers and such.  And that's just the *official* activities.  :)  They keep us pretty busy this time of year with all the turnover in our ward whenever school starts up again.

I saw these markers FOREVER ago, but they were too expensive to buy.  But Walmart had them in the 50 cent bin this weekend!  WOOHOO!  I got the whole set for $4...which is about how much ONE marker cost before.  They smell awesome (well, like any other smelly marker, really), and they are nice and fat for small fingers.  I plan to keep them until I have a classroom and use them as incentives (like "write with a marker for a day" kinda thing).

Of course, work is awesome.  I work with the sweetest little girl ever, bar none.  My heart breaks for her, but then there are moments like this (with her little swarm of followers and sweet girls who play with her at recess even though she doesn't talk and licks everything) and I feel really happy.

Of course, remembering September 11th.  Hard to believe it was 11 years ago already.  I took this picture partly for project 366, but also because I thought it was a little ridiculous and strange and funny that on a day when our paper is covering 9-11, a heated abortion debate, and the new President of Purdue coming for a visit, right smack in the middle of the front page is a pic of a dog "driving" a car.  No story it relates to, just the random pic.  Oh, Lafayette.  :)

 Of course, we cuddle with our puppies and such.  We've been trying to take them out more now that it's not 80 million degrees outside, so they get tired a lot more often now.

 This is me at work.

 This is Paul after work.  He is helping me design my dream home that we will never actually build.  :)  But some days you just gotta dream.

We also finally have insurance so we both have had eye appointments...yay for seeing again!  :)

 

So this pic pretty much sums up our lives right now: