Too Much Time, Too Little Time

School is out and I am running around like crazy! Shuttling kids to and from friends' houses, orthodontist appointments and camp shopping at Target (one of my favorite places to buy things I didn't realize I needed!) And while I find myself with no time to accomplish a lot of big things (like pick all of the things on the list the contractor gave me for next falls' home move project) or exercise, I am in my house with my kids and there friends, don't need to entertain them - just wait on them and clean up after them. I therefore have some time to craft. I sat poolside today while a few boys were swimming and made envelopes out of recycled magazine pages. I just finished up some crafts for a Crafster swap. And I snap silly pictures of license plates while waiting at lights during my taxi duty.


I snapped this for my good friend who is a podiatrist. It says 'CORN DOC'.

Halloween Party

OK, it was for 8 year olds, but we had a great time. My son has been asking me for a Halloween party for the last few years (he has always had and obsession with this holiday). This year I succumbed and let him make invitations. Almost twenty kids attended his 'First Annual Spookfest'> My house looks pretty cool - and my son did most of the planning and decorating. Old masks, costumes and decor created creepy guests in the living room and around the dining room table.

We served Halloween shaped sugar cookies with frosting, icing, and other decorating toppings for a DIY snack; 'finger' sandwiches (turkey on whole wheat bread shaped into fingers with an almond finger nail); jello mold brain; fruit kabobs stuck into a pumpkin with gummy worms;

and a cake that my son decorated on his own. We sliced the cake in half and tucked some gummy worms inside before frosting. He used Milano cookies as tombstones. This crafty mommy has one crafty son!

This was a kind of old fashioned party. The kids ran around like lunatics, we had some Halloween and skull beads on a table to make necklaces and bracelets, and we had a mummy wrapping contest. We'd better start thinking ahead to the Second Annual Spookfest!

Procrastination (Sing it with me!)

I have too many things coming up here in the coming weeks - a bunch of families coming over for a dinner party/get together, a Halloween party that my 8 year old decided to throw, and a leg of a progressive dinner for my children's' school. I have made no plans for any of this. I need to come up with creative snacks and entertainment for a bunch of energetic, sugar laden, Halloween-hyped kids and a lovely seafood dinner for a dozen adults. I sat down on the computer for divine online inspiration and found these cute measuring spoons by Beehive Kitchenware on Poppytalk.

How is this going to help me with my entertaining plans? It's not. They are just cute. And I am procrastinating and surfing the creative websites linking each other for my own enjoyment. No Halloween or seafood recipes here. The spoons do help the cooks. I will be baking my low fat oatmeal cookie crust apple pie for my friends - I just have to find the time to shop and bake in between my art class, substitue teaching Spanish to first graders and shuttling my kids everywhere in the afternoons. I am procrasinating again. Time to find that recipe for dipped pretzel sticks that look like fingers.....

Busy Bee that I am

Back to school blew in like one of Florida's annoying hurricanes. I went from leisurely mornings with coffee and my youngest son to to being the mom taxi virtually overnight. It's all good. Musings....

My friend and I just signed up for a class at the local museum art school. They have so many choices it was hard to choose. We settled on a jewelry fabrication class. I think it was the introduction to blow torches that intrigued me. It starts September 10th - we can't wait.

I have only boys, and even though my mother tells me repeatedly that I am better off because boys are easier (yeah yeah yeah) I am not going to have the opportunity to create a fabulous doll house with a daughter. The cutesy pink crafty creations and Hello Kitty motifs are painfully obvious that they are for me. I am lucky, however, to have creative boys. One son manages to get his school artwork submitted for local contests and the school calendar and doesn't seem bothered a bit to mix art in with his football persona. The youngest is the coolest of all. He parlays his obsession with stuffed animals (that have taken over his room) into many creative endeavors. He writes and illustrates journals and books about them. Takes them places and photographs them (and uploads and saves them on his computer with the freebie giveaway camera his grandfather gave him). He got a new bed over the summer and decorated the walls over it with all kinds of things. Printouts, stickers, box covers from Japanese Godzilla toys, and more. I usually hate stickers and tape on the walls but he actually made it look like an interesting and growing collage.

I received the Vinyl Wall Art (see previous post) today (fast production and shipping!) I have them temporarily taped to the wall before I mount them. These are going to look adorable - and I have a feeling this decorative medium might be addicting.


Another Etsy seller that I like and wanted to share is Artgoodies. They have dish/hand towels printed with great looking motifs, including birds, deer, squirrels and other wildlife as well as cupcakes. They also print the designs on to aprons and little stuffies. I bought some towels for myself then sent a few to my Uncle as a gift.