I Made It Monday...

Back to back 

"I Made It Mondays?"

Uh oh...

Apparently I was on a blog-cation last week.

And again with the toy animal crafts?

Uh oh...

I am also apparently somewhat in love with toy animals.

My apologies for the broken record of it all. 

I've made lots of these little boxes along my way.

Some for Birthdays

This one was all about the little recipient Fiona

and some for new babies

This one was for my niece Paige's new bebe.
 Whose name was "Rowan" according to her Momma,
but not so much according to hers Daddy.
Perhaps the R scrabble piece was the determining factor? Hmmm...

Today I decided to make some animal topped boxes

with a more monochromatic feel.

Let me give you a brief warning.

This project has the ghastly potential of overwhelm,

 as the materials and application of those materials

are arduous.

Here goes... 

Toy.Box.Paint.Paper :)

Can ya handle it????

This really is one of the most easy peasy projects

that I've eva eva made. 

(that has actually resulted in a worthy craft...)

Choose your animal and your box

Then

choose your paper and your paint

I painted the horse and the lid with craft paint.

Then modge podged the paper to the actual box (container).

Then set it all aside to dry. 

The horse needed a few coats to look good and covered.

When everything was dry,

 I glued the horse to the box

and just like that your craft is done!

Word to the wise.
Remove excess glue  prior to taking picture, geesh

I added a little painted trophy to this one

So off you go, shoo

Go get your craft on...

I Made it Monday...

Last year I found a big bag of 

vintage alphabet blocks

at an antique store.

I loved them.

I really wasn't sure what I would do with them,

but the idea of littles from yesteryear 

playing and building with them...

Why it was simply 

 too much for me 

to resist.

After the blocks sat in a jar for far too long,

I finally made this little concoction of 

Alphabet Blocks

Toy Animals

Bingo Markers

and

other small letter blocks

...with the idea that 

I would put something 

on each block 

that began with the letter 

on each block.

E is for Elephant

and 

I is for Indian

 I made about 15 for a show I was in

Bijou Market

and they sold.

I made about 15 more for the next show I was in

The Beehive Bazaar

and they sold.

So I made a few more today

and again I am hooked.

But with pretty much X's and Y's left in the jar.

(any thoughts on toppin them apples?)

not much progress can occur.

So...

 the hunt has now commenced 

for more vintage alphabet blocks.

As the new ones just won't due.

too shiny  too clean  too perfect...

Revisiting the 80's...

So today I was at Target

(no way, you're kidding me, get out...)

 browsing around the jewelry section.

They have some neat stuff if you dig around a bit.

My eyes immediately went to these...

immediately followed by the drop of my jaw...

As a youngin' in the 80's in Upstate N.Y. 

these were all the rage.

We made and traded them constantly.

I remember making most of these "friendship bracelets" 

for myself,

which kinda takes away from the whole "friendship" thing.

Anyway...

Everyone wore them, boys and girls alike,

and you NEVER EVER took them off.

Which basically meant we wore them until the wet dog stank drove our parents to take scissors to our wrists.

I remember one summer 

when we were in Nantucket,

 my sister Spring and I added cool rope bracelets to the mix. 

which of course just made our wrists 

like, even more like, totally tubular...

"They" say if you wait long enough 

everything comes back into style.

Let's see.

 Well, I know that

Neon is back (who'd a thunk)

  Susan at FRESHLY PICKED does neon masterfully

Colored jeans are back (I had a purple pair of Guess ones, with a button fly, oh my)

These are far more flattering...

photo from google images

and leg warmers are back for sure...

image from cherylclubwear.com




Big round glasses are back. (I rocked the Clark Kents in junior high)

 

And the piece de resistance...

Nope, sorry.

Flock of seagulls and claw bangs, 
 not this time.

The 80's called, and they want their hair back...

I made It Monday...

I have been wanting to make some sort of hot air balloon 

for eons.

I've seen them at craft shows around town, on etsy, 

and of course on pinterest. 

Paper Mache hot air balloons

Fabric hot air balloons

ornament hot air balloons,

the ideas are endless eye candy.

I have a small obsession with paper honeycomb.

(yeah yeah, add it to the list of small obsessions right?)

I am captivated by it.

I picked up lots of red and white honeycomb balls

 at Christmastime at (you guessed it)Target.

That place is getting hip to freaking everything!

Since I had a plethora of them,

 and red and white is fitting for Valentines Day, 

I decided to finally make a hot air balloon.

My sister Leslie (who is the queen bee of tag lines) gave me the idea of "love is in the air"
quite fitting...

This whole project came together really quick.

I used...

1. Paper honeycomb ball

2. bakers twine

3. little vintage bride and groom

4. some sort of "basket"

(i covered a little container with paper)

5. some tinsel garland

6. printed off the banner and circle on the computer

Hot glued it all together

and 

VOILA... 

A super cute and super easy Valentines Day

Hot Air Balloon.

love is totally in the air...

Live at Velour...

Dre has been taking guitar lessons 

for about 4 1/2 years.

I'm not sure who likes it more, him or me.

I always make Dre play and sing for us, 

I love it and I always tear up.

I am so crazy emotional when it comes to music.

It really doesn't take  much at all 

perhaps a note or two,

for me to get a quick lump in my throat. 

Dredans guitar teacher is Jeff Jensen

and we love him and he is awesome and we love him :)

Jeff has a band,

 so for the kids' recital

his band plays back up for the students.

How awesome is that?

This year Jeff exceeded all expectations 

and booked out

Velour Live Music Gallery

in Provo.

SERIOUSLY???

Like this place is legit!

(the Neon Trees had humble beginnings here)

I wanted Dredie to do a Justin Bieber song,

he politely refused...

He played and sang Rocketeer by The Far East Movement.

And it was awesome.

                                

The lights wreaked havoc on my pictures

Our cousins The Jackson's live in Provo 

so they came over to rock out at the show.

We love them. 

I took the violin and piano growing up, 
and I hated both. 
I did the least amount of practice that was required of me,
and I had panic attacks come lesson time because
of that minimal practice time.
I begged and pleaded to quit, cried, made deals,
all of it.
My Mother finally let me quit.
In that way only a parent can do,
she calmly told me that I would regret it.
And I do...

The gift of music is a beautiful thing.
Music soothes me
  and nourishes my soul. 
It can take me back instantly to a time or a place.
Like how when ever I hear Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins or James Taylor,
I'm flashed back to Connecticut in the 70's 
listening to my teenage sisters belt out the lyrics to
What A Fool Believes, This Is It, or Fire and Rain.
OR
how "It takes Two", by Rob Base and DJ Easy Rock
completely takes me back to New York.
 Like right back to the commons at my high school. 
Music is a powerful thing.

This recital was Dre's last,

and I'm severely somber about.
He's off to college in the fall
and guitar lessons will come to an end.

Uh oh, here comes that lump...

A Seven Year Old Smith...

I say it every year,

and I'm saying it again.

I can not believe how old this little chap is getting.
5 was the beginning of the end...

Starting Kindie (real life actual school)and loosing teeth. Although at five I still felt like he was a baby. 
A "big" baby, but a baby nonetheless. 

Then came the 6's.

Starting first grade (all day long school? Way realer than kindie)
and so grown up he could wiggle and pull out his OWN teeth

...gangsta!


Now here we are at 7.
SEVEN!!!

Still rockin' it out in first grade and 
growing in REALLY large marge big boy front teeth.


I had big intentions for his first legit friend birthday.
We always do family parties 
but Smith really really wanted a friend party this year.
(I know...his first at 7, I'm rude...)
I thought we'd have some grand shindig 
at some way overpriced event center 
with tokens and rides and prizes. 
(and when I say prizes, I mean that trash behind the counter that in real life cost 50 cents but in "token price"
ends up being around 15 dollars...yeah, pretty much a racket)
With all this circling in our minds...
we opted for an old school at home party,
complete with musical chairs and noise makers.
Lots of party games, cake and friends
(that we didn't have to sell a kidney for, for the price of admission to said events centers)

In Smiths own words,
"That was a weally coo pahty"
(still workin on them R's)

And how stinkin' cute is this little 5 dollar bill
origami shirt one of his friends gave him?

So Smith is seven, and he is officially old...

A Film Festival at Sundance...

Last week was the annual 

Sundance Film Festival.

We eat up this time of year.

Thousands descend upon our little Utah 

to take part in all that is indie.

Filmmakers, writers, celebs, everyday Joe's 

and absolutely everything in between 

are here.

The film watching 

(and the people watching)

is superb.

We are still reaping the benefits

of Will's involvement with the festival a few years ago.

We went to the Skull Candy event...

blurry :(

and saw "Drake" 

who was far to big for his britches...

We ran into Ronnie from "The Killers,"

who we met a couple years ago at Sundance.

 Will walked right up to him and started talking to him

 like they were old chums.

I was not interested in embarrassing myself 

so I hung in the shadows.

He waved me over, and so I went.

 Ronnie totally acted like he

 remembered us.

Will has a certain je ne sais quoi with people, 

so I'm not really convinced of his recollection. 

Regardless,

he is one cool cat

and

"The Killers" are Killer. 

We had an "IN" for the Chef Dance dinner

which was unbelievable!

Famous Chef's from all over the world come and prepare 

crazy fancy 5 course meals.

I was very brave and tried everything

(as my usual palette is pretty bland)

You sit at really long communal tables

so the company and conversation was diverse to say the least.

After Dinner,

One Republic was performing upstairs

 so we walked up to 

Park City Live

and listened to them.

WOW...

are they ever an awesome live band.

The cello player,

oh my word.

Boys and girls,

you may think only geeks take orchestra,

I'm here to tell ya, 

it aint so!

After the show,

in true Will fashion,

he started talking to the band 

(once again)

like they were old chums.

This boy kills me!

One Republic is from Colorado,

and the guitarist Drew Brown

(I'm enrolled at name dropper University, 

just in case you were wondering)

graduated from Boulder high.

That gave Will all the ammunition he needed! 

They immediately started giving "pounds" and talking shop 

about how all the "cool kids" are from Colorado

and the even cooler ones went to Boulder high.

Pretty funny and surreal all rolled up into one.

Then we went to the B.E.T party

and I met Affion Crockett

from Nick Cannons "Wild'n Out"

(yep, still enrolled)

We met and talked to lots of indie "film people"

and Will made lots of new contacts.

His gift of gab often proves beneficial, 

people just like him!

We've all heard, 

"It's not what you know, but who you know."

I don't really like it, but it's pretty much true.

...the art of shmoozing is a powerful thing.

So,

Au revoir Sundance Film Festival

we love you,

until we meet again...