Maddy's an artist!

Maddy is doing advanced Art as part of her International Baccalaureate program. Not only is she progressing really well (due to her very hard work) but she is loving it too. She has such a tough curriculum in her Junior year - I'm so thrilled she has found joy by connecting with her inner artist.

WPS Art Show

The Art Show at Maddy's High School was really impressive and we had a great time :)

Mike and I were so proud of Maddy's contributions...

Maddy's pottery house blew up in the kiln so she redesigned it to look 'burned out' and called it "The Blitz" - how stinkin' creative! The art teacher said he'd never seen a student do that before :)

Some of the older students are pursuing Art as a career and had some amazing work on display. Here were some of our favorites...

I loved how they shared their journaling too...

 Great grand-daughter and great grand-mother :)

Thank you Windermere Preparatory for such a great Art department :)

Inspiration Journal #1

I loved week one of Donna Downey's online Inspiration Wednesday course. I picked 'bravery' as my word for 2015. I have so many goals and dreams for my life and I really want to focus on being more brave :). It felt great to express myself through art and capture it in my Inspiration Journal :)

I tried modelling paste for the first time to get some texture on the page...

And added different color glazes...

Maddy joined me and created some beautiful art using stencils...:)

Happy New Year! Here's to more art and more bravery!

Maddy's shelf

Maddy has done such a beautiful job of her desk shelf decorations for her bedroom...

 

 

So cute!!

No sew knotted blankets

Inspired by her cousin, Ali, Maddy wanted to make a fleece knotted blanket. Her very first one turned out so beautifully...

 

...that she couldn't wait to make another one with Mya...:)

 

Great job girls!

Bleach painted shoes!

Maddy and I found this craft idea on the amazing Alisa Burke's blog (link here!). I was really thrilled with how mine came out!

 

It was really simple. I bought some imitation TOMS at the local drugstore...

...and doodled on them with a paintbrush dipped in bleach...

 

 

I love them!!

 

Inspiration Journal class with Donna Downey!

On the way to a family event last week, I was able to stop by Charlotte, NC to see the amazing Donna Downey again and take one of her classes at her studio! (Donna's blog here!). The studio is absolutely beautiful and Donna is as gorgeous as ever :)...

The Inspiration Journal - Creating a Visual Diary class is a 3 hour mixed media/art journaling workshop. Donna's website describes it perfectly:

"A hands-on exploration of your inner artist as we work together creating your visual legacy. The inspiration journal has become the hallmark of my creative play and growth as an artist. This workshop promises to challenge you to look at yourself as a creative soul and will encourage artistic growth with each page you complete. "

I really enjoyed experimenting with new products and techniques and feel a whole lot better about 'letting go' now. The ladies I worked with were all so helpful and talented and it's so inspirational to work in a classroom surrounded by Donna's work...

Donna is a really fun instructor too - she always makes me giggle :)

I worked really hard and felt very proud of my 'war wounds' at the end of the day :).

Big Cat necklaces

This was a really quick and easy project and Maddy loves her new Big Cat necklaces! First we bought these wood squares from Michaels, painted them in different colors and let them dry...

Then we printed out pictures of Maddy's favorite big cats, cut them out, glued them to the dry wood squares and squeezed paper glaze (or diamond glaze) over the top...

At first they look a little cloudy but the glaze dries clear over the next 24-48 hours...

The pieces that we stuck on the back with hot glue to allow you to attach to a necklace are called bails apparently. Not sure why our Michaels doesn't carry them but we had to buy ours online from http://www.etsy.com/...

And here are the finished ones - Maddy loves them and has one to match every outfit!

Ring pull bracelets

Apparently there's a girl at Maddy's middle school that is suffering from bone cancer :(. Some of children in her class have gotten together to raise money for their friend's medical treatment. To do this they are selling bracelets they have made out of soda can ring pulls! Evidently they are selling like hot cakes (to boys and girls:)) and there's a huge line of kids at their makeshift sales booth which sells out every day! The bracelets are so cool and I can only imagine how proud the parents must be of their special daughters :)

Maddy's American Girl 'Big Cat' bedroom!

Maddy made a bedroom for her American Girl doll, Kaya. In true Maddy-style the bedroom had a "Big Cat" theme, complete with educational posters about the plight of her favorite animals:). She also used a portable reading light to make a lamp that would turn on and off. Great job Maddy!

Pilgrims Cake

Maddy and I have been obsessed with Cake Challenge and Cake Boss lately. I used to hate getting up on Monday mornings but now that the new Cake Challenge is on each Sunday night - we get up an hour earlier and watch it together on Tivo while we get ready for the day. I have to admit, Monday mornings are now one of my favorite times of the week (and watching 'Dallas' reruns as a family on Monday nights :)) Anyway we decided to give it a go for ourselves, did a bit of research online and were really thrilled with our first effort for Thanksgiving!

Some lessons we learned...

* Fondant cracks and dries really quickly - zap it in the microwave to make it easier to work with but for no longer than 5 seconds or so since it becomes really gooey and sticky if it's heated for any longer than that.
* Wax paper stops fondant from sticking to the table but makes it difficult to roll it out. Try flour, icing sugar or confectioner's sugar instead and you can wash it off with water afterwards.
* Keep your equipment on a separate counter so that you can grab whatever you need quickly and still have a large work surface. We were drowning in 'stuff' and really struggled to stay organized since we had no idea just how much space we would need!
* Making a fondant cake takes a lot longer than you may think (2-3 hours for this one but we were very slow). That said, the good news is that the cake itself is good for about 3 days if refrigerated and you can always freeze them too so you don't have to make the cake on the actual day.
* Enjoy - we thought it was a lot of fun!!

Give fleece a chance...

After I lost two hours of my life last night trying (and failing) to get the brand new (and hardly inexpensive) sewing machine to sew fleece, I woke up this morning and decided to call a pro. Mum had no idea and then I remembered the internet. Apparently this is a fairly common problem and if you don't want to waste time with an extra foot or a new wheel or something, you can just put tissue paper under the fleece fabric and simply tear it off afterwards. It worked like a treat and we made our first fleece toy today which Madison hasn't put down since :).
Good times x

And another a couple of days later...