painted tote

the boys helped me paint a canvas tote to give to Nana for Mother's Day.  they loved making it, and it was fun to do with them.  Leo was so cute while we were making the flowers, too.  after each fingerprint he'd say "it's so pretty!"

we did fingerprint flowers and footprint butterflies on one side, and I wrote their names and ages underneath their heels.  I used two paint colors together on each fingerprint to give the flowers more interest, which is easiest to see on the orange/red one in this pic, but it really made the bluebonnets pop.

I wanted to duplicate the same scene on the other side, but the boys ran out of steam so we just did some handprints on the two front pockets surrounded by a few flowers, and I doodled the rest to fill in some.  I really want to make myself one, so maybe I can get around to that before they get too big!

micro macrame

I saw some really cool micro macrame on Knot Just Macrame that was beautiful!  I could only ever wish to make stuff that nice.  I had recently seen a video on a leaf friendship bracelet and thought I'd try to add beads to it and see how it went.

I had to mess around with it, but I finally worked out a color and bead pattern that looked like what I was going for, and once I figured out the first one the second one was easier to put together.

these were fun to make, and I like how they turned out.  I wish I had more time for more of all the things I've been doing lately!  I'd really like to make some more of these... maybe I'll move this to the top of my when-I-have-nothing-to-do list ;)

foot frints stool

Leo and Jack helped paint a step stool for my mom for Mother's Day.  they really liked painting, and it wasn't as messy as I thought it might be.

it rained the day I needed to get this done, so I spread out a disposable table cloth left over from a party onto the kitchen floor.  I let Leo do most of the painting because he had more patience for it than Jack did.  they held the brush and I helped dip it into the paint so I could control the amount they were putting on.

we did each color as a layer, so Leo started with a green base coat, switched to a smaller brush and did blue, then Jack did a little purple, and Leo finished it off with some gold.  I did their foot frints (this is how Leo says it right now) and edges in black.

they both loved the foot painting part and they were very cooperative, which I was not expecting, so I think I'll try some other painting projects with them this summer.

photo pocket mirror

I found some pocket mirrors at Michael's and thought they'd be really cute gifts for Mother's Day if I put pictures on the fronts.

I peeled the front part off - this wasn't easy and I had to be careful not to scuff the outer rim, which I did on all but one of them no matter how hard I tried to avoid it - and cleaned as much sticky off the inside as I could.  that turned out to be a waste of time because it didn't really matter if there was residue on it.

I printed off a photo slightly smaller than the inside of the indent, then laminated, and trimmed it to size.

then I put doubled sided carpet tape (found it at Home Depot in the flooring department) on the back (that stuff was super sticky!) and stuck it to the front of the mirror.

it wasn't exactly how I imagined it, but it was still cute!

babycakes

 

Matt and Leo got me a Babycakes doughnut maker for Mother's Day :)  they had them on sale at Kohl's and I pointed it out to Matt while we were dress shoe shopping not long ago.

I don't think I'd use the box mixes again, and until I find a good recipe this might end up just being used to make quick muffins or pancakes, but they cook up fast (6 in about 3 minutes) and are really cute. 

I made a scratch recipe I found online - not good at all despite what everyone said about the recipe :( - then I did the cinnamon sugar and chocolate mixes I got with the maker.  the vanilla base with cinnamon sugar topping was alright.  I ran out of the mixture halfway through the doughnuts, so I dusted the rest with powdered sugar.  I wanna try the vanilla recipe from scratch and see if it's better than the boxed mix.

I think the best was the chocolate, but not because they resembled anything that of a doughnut besides the shape, but because it was like eating a chocolate cake :)  they were Leo's favorite, too.

I wanted to see how a muffin mix did in it - pretty much tastes like a muffin.  my favorite doughnuts are glazed blueberry cake, and if I could adapt a mix to make my own I'll be... well, super fat, but happy while I'm eating them, anyway! ;)