Busy Getting new sites pulled together!

Haven't posted recently because I've been working on starting a new astrology group on Google groups and CafeMom as well as the new blog that ties into it! I also finally got around to working on my MySpace page, it's only taken me 10 months to do something with it! Needless to say, I need to get my website updated and to start prepping for my only craft show left this year! There may be few posts for awhile but I'll try to at least post some pics now and again!
PEACE!

Cleveland Metropark Zoo Photos

Finger Paints Recipe

If you store this airtight in the refrigerator it should last longer. Happy painting!


Homemade Finger Paint

1/2 cup flour
2 cups water
1 tablespoon glycerine
2 teaspoon lemon extract for preservative
small screw-top jars
Wilton food coloring paste

1. In a saucepan, mix flour with a 1/2 cup of water to form a paste.
2. Add the rest of the water and cook over low heat until thick and clear, stirring constantly.
3. Let cool. Add glycerine and lemon extract. If mixture is too thick and does not spread easily, add a little more water. Divide and pour into smal, screw-top jars (baby jars are great for this). Add food coloring to tint.
Store in airtight containers. Refrigerate for longer shelf life.

Cleveland Metropark Zoo

We are blessed with a beautiful day today so I am going to take advantage of our zoo membership and take the Bug to the zoo. If you have never had the chance to visit the Cleveland Metropark Zoo, you really should schedule a trip, it is truly a wonderful place! As for me, my favorite animal would be the Snow Leopard. Of course, I also love the Persian Leopard, Pygmy Marmoset and Slow Loris (can you say Tai Chi? It is so fascinating watching the Slow Loris move!) I hope to take photos. If we actually get any good ones, I'll post them!

New Item Preview!! Homemade Finger Paints!!

Here's a photo of the finished finger paints. I still need to paint some lids and label them but I'm still testing the new formula to make sure they will last for a long time if kept sealed at room temperature!
Colors-top: (L to R) Galactic Blue, Black Hole, Comet Purple

bottom: (L to R) Mars Red, Golden Sun, Vulcan Green, Meteor Orange

40 obscure things about me!

In honor of my upcoming 40th birthday, I thought I would post 40 obscure facts about me that most people probably don't know( yeah, I know...that IS what obscure means!![see number 5]:-)

1. I love Tim Burton films(Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is my favorite but Big Fish reminds me of my dad before he died so it's my sentimental favorite)
2. I'm Godmother to my best friend's daughter, Brigid (and they call me her fashionable godmother)
3. I love John Cusack( Too bad guys like him don't exist in the real world!)
4. I'm fiercely independent and have been since an early age(and it doesn't make marriage easy)
5. I love to read the dictionary when I'm bored...okay, even when I'm not bored!
6. I've studied astrology since the age of 20(give or take a year, my mom studied since I was a small child!)
7. I went to CCS-CAD (Center for Creative Studies-College of Art and Design in Detroit, MI)
8. I was disappointed as a little girl (2 or 3) when I found out the cherub 'sculpture' was not a decoration for my bedroom but part of the swag lighting in the bathroom. [My dad built our house and he had the pieces for the lamp in my unfinished bedroom;-(]
9. My first nail polish was dark purple
10. The first song I remember liking was Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water"(heard it at a wedding when I was about 5)
11. I have 1 older sister, a brother-in-law, 2 nephews and 2 nieces
12. I'm pigeon-toed (although as I've aged it doesn't seem as noticeable unless I'm very tired)
13. I have an astigmatism with one ovoid eye and one cone shaped eye ( well I did mention obscure facts, didn't I?)
14. I took driver's ed at 16 but didn't get my license until I was 22(my family didn't have a car I could practice with and take my test in)
15. I was in 2 car accidents in 2 months(to the day, March 15 and May 15) when I was in high school. Both times other people were driving but it spooked me into thinking I was jinxed and would die in a car accident before I was 21(so I was superstitious)
16. My Grandmother died the day before my birthday, my uncle the day after my birthday (not the same year...Thank Goodness!)
17. Out of 18 biological aunts and uncles only 2 remain (both aunts on my mom's side)
18. I'm 50% polish and 50% mutt(German, Scottish, English, Irish and Dutch)
19. My hair was spiked like Robert Smith of the Cure when I was in my late teens and early 20's (and they are one of my all-time favorite bands)
20. I looked up to and wanted to be like Cyndi Lauper when I was in high school and I still admire her.
21. I loved Danny Elfman (and Oingo Boingo) back in high school and still do.( WEIRDOS UNITE!!)
22. I've always chosen my friends on the quality of their character and remain loyal to my menagerie of friends ( whether I am still in contact with them or not, they are still my friends!)
23. I like cats better than dogs
24. My childhood cat, Spottie and my single life cat, Teddy, were both born on July 4 (and to date they are my two favorite cats although my current cat Oscar ranks up there too!)
25. I met my husband on E-harmony
26. I love all spotted big cats(snow leopards, ocelots, Persian leopards, jaguars) and Lynx
27. I love Canada and would love to live there someday
28. When I was a teenager I used to go down to the lake at the end of our street (it's a little one called Erie...) and I would imagine that my real family was across the way in Canada (sure I look like my mother but when you are a teenager and not so happy you imagine a better place, mine was Canada)
29. My favorite sport is HOCKEY!!( I have a hierarchy of NHL teams) but I didn't like it until I was 26ish
30. I wanted to go to New York City(Parsons) to be a fashion designer
31. My current dream life is to have a small Christmas Tree Farm/boutique in New Brunswick (Michigan would be okay too!)
32. My favorite color is deep vibrant red (but until recently was purple..I go back and forth between the two)
33. I love Moose
34. I managed a music store for 7 years ( and always liked Annie Potts character in "Sixteen Candles")
35. My first boyfriend was Brian Hood and he worked at Record Carnival (and he was probably the nicest boy I ever dated)
36. I love Chucks!
37. One of my favorite places is the Cleveland Museum of Art
38. House cleaning is definitely not my forte
39. My favorite car was a used '94 red Acura Integra
40. I would love to meet Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra or the Dalai Lama

new picture of finished watercolor paints!

Monarch Butterfly Emerges from Chrysalis

Holden Arboretum - Frogs and Waterlilies

Holden Arboretum Photos

New Items!!

Today I'm hoping to introduce a couple new products.

First on my list: Safe watercolors for kids. Made with pantry ingredients but they definitely won't want to eat them! They will come in a palette with a paintbrush.**Finished! (see picture> Paints are drying, will be packaged and listed over the weekend!)

Next: Silly putty. Although I haven't figured out the packaging.

Also: The bug observatories should be ready to post, I have to go through and figure out what is and isn't ready but I believe I finally have everything together. The scanner needs to be hooked up to my PC and if I can get that working, the graphics can be scanned.

Finally: I'm also trying out my new recipe for finger paints, I'll still have to see if they are stable enough to sell (you sure don't to buy want stinky finger paints!)

There are a couple other items, as I make them I'll take photos and edit this post with pics!

Also, I have a scheduled post with more pictures of the Holden Arboretum. It's scheduled for sometime between 12 and 1pm. Enjoy the photos!!

photos from my garden: 7/16/08

More Holden Arboretum

tell me what entertains you

I just received a comment that you want to be entertained by the blogs you visit. So! What entertains you? Obviously, my blog is about my life as a mother and artist so what would you like to see? I will definitely post any photos of my adventures with the baby, lovely sights around Beautiful Cleveland(it really is a lovely place)and the like but is there something else(read: wholesome) you would add?Let me know, leave a comment. I may not publish it but I will read it and try to add things to the blog you may like to see!
Thanks! Kelly

The Holden Arboretum

AARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How frustrating! I've just spent the entire day trying to figure out WHY I can't access etsy. I can't access any part of it and it's not sending my etsy mini feeds to my other pages. VERY FRUSTRATING!! I'm a very lucky mommy, my little one has been patient all day, playing by himself for a good part of it except when we went outside to water the garden and walk up and down the street! Hopefully, we will have whatever bug in my machine that may be causing the problem, worked out by tomorrow!

Birthday Boy

The highlight of a first birthday party! It was a great day and the only low point, besides the balloons getting tangled on the way outside, was the scraped nose. (which was really no big deal)
His cake was yummy, but didn't look over the top due to the high humidity which caused the sea anemone to self destruct over night. The good thing about working in a bakery for 1 1/2 years is I learned how to quickly decorate a cake so it looks presentable, and quite honestly after the homemade frosting separated the night before the anemone fell apart, I was pretty impressed with how good the finished cake did look. Best of all, it tasted great, which, let's be honest, is way more important!

Winding down

I love the culmination of anything. Case in point, the little boy's birthday party.
If you have been reading along, I tend to get carried away with plans of what I'm going to do. Everything starts out so grandiose in my creative mind, then reality sets in. The husband doesn't come home from work on time and doesn't call to let me know when to expect him, the dog needs to go out more often than normal, errands take twice as long as planned, the baby won't take his naps and all creative plans fly out the window. The bright side, and the part I love the most, everything still comes together, I'm usually a whirling dervish trying to get done the absolute essentials(in this case, the birthday cake) but everything does come together. Sure it's less grand than anticipated but I'm the only one who knows how grand that truly was and there's always next time. My 35th birthday party was a prime example of this, I had truly remarkable images of what it could be. It wasn't the image in my mind's eye but it was well worth the effort and memorable I would think to many of our guests. Same with our wedding 3 years ago. In that case, we were tight on cash so I had to do WAY more than I would ever take on again (feeding 35 people when you are also the bride probably not the brightest of ideas!!) But the reality of that day was many of our 35 guests commented on how wonderful our wedding was and that it was one of the nicest they had attended to date. Not because it was over the top but because it was down to Earth, accessible and heartfelt. The handmade aspect was minimal but added to the overall simplicity and lets be honest, allowed us to keep our costs down.(our entire wedding and honeymoon cost us less than $1500)It also allowed us to offer a menu we could not have afforded to get catered. We served Cantonese BBQ pork, tri colored asian slaw, dim sum, rice, vegetarian spring rolls and they were all homemade and very, very yummy! Basically what I'm saying is what's essential is what ends up coming together and all that extraneous stuff falls by the wayside. The same will be said of my little one's birthday party, but truth be told he is the most important part of the day (and the best thing I ever made and we all know I really had very little to do with that, I was basically a condo for 9 months)!

Birthday cake

Let me just say, just because you are capable of doing something doesn't necessarily mean you should do it! Case in point, my boy's cake topper. In hindsight, I wish they made a Finding Nemo cake pan that I could have decorated with my little star tip and we'd be done. Oh no, that would be too easy. My topper has taken on a life of its own. I have started recreating a coral reef, while it is fun, I have a one year old I have to keep entertained and engaged. This is not an easy task while covered in gumpaste! It really goes back to me and why I have to recreate the actual environment in Nemo and the only answer I can come up with is that I can. So going back to my opening sentence, just because you are capable of doing something doesn't mean you should do it!

Christmas Elf!

Here is the prototype for my holiday Christmas elves. He was made a few years back so I need to fix him before listing him on etsy.(bzlittlechristmaself.etsy.com) It will probably be after Monday before I can repair him and touch him up (he seems to have gotten a bit beat up in the 3 moves that we've made since his creation) I also want to fix his nose(it needs a bit of rhinoplasty, seems a little too flat!!) and his forehead has a couple wrinkles I want to smooth out. But he's cute nonetheless! I hope to do some girl elves and more boy elves to list within the next month to month and a half. I'll post their photos here first so check back occasionally!

Watercolors!

I have the palettes for the kids watercolor paints and I hope to have them listed within the next few days. I'm still working on the boy's birthday cake and have my wedding anniversary in a couple days so I probably won't be able to get much more than that accomplished before Sunday. I always think that I can get so much more done than I actually can! I guess I do get a lot accomplished, it's just the things that I don't plan on getting done or the things I forget to schedule the right amount of time for. Like errands! Today it took us nearly 3 hours to get all our errands done! That's just ridiculous! Oh well, it's time to turn in for the evening, after all our running today, and working out in the yard, I'm a wee bit tired! Sweet Dreams!!!

New Items!

I'm working on new play items for my shop. I may have finally worked out a recipe for finger paints that won't go bad too quickly and I'm hoping to offer watercolor paints for kids also. To keep the finger paints from spoiling I need to add something non-edible but I'm also testing an edible preservative. Still will be a lot safer for our kids than the mass produced varieties out there!
I'm also almost done with my bug kit. Having problems with the printing sequence on my publication so once that's hammered out I'll post it on etsy! Also, If I can persuade my husband to hook up the scanner to my computer I'll re-post this with the graphics!

so here I sit blogging.....

The other day the crazy poopous (yes, the dog, Dharma) either got spooked by the sound of my husband entering her lair (the dining room) or excited (since he is her favorite playmate) and pulled my charging laptop to the floor. NOT GOOD!! I thought we lost it for good, but since my hubby is a geek, he was able to revive it. Only problem is it's a little more beat up than it was. I had been organizing my files because I had also had a virus scare a few weeks ago (it ended up being something to do with avast and firefox and compatibility) The last time that happened he had to blow my hard drive away and I had to start over after burning all my info to disc. So long story short, here I sit organizing my files and burning all the current information, pictures and projects to disc. Hubby did make a copy(ghost?) of my machine but I figured I better make sure I have hard copies (well a disc) with my info too. So here I sit hoping that the cd-r will actually have my info on it after waiting umpteen minutes for the burner to do its thing! Did I ever mention technology is overrated, nice but overrated! Yeah! the second time was a charm! Now I need to burn those baby pictures 2 more times! Have to keep the grandparents supplied with all the photos they can possibly have!

birthday preps and a monkey on his back

Well, I'm trying to make headway on the little one's birthday cake. Here's a picture of my first (failed)attempt at royal icing coral. I need to thicken the icing a little more. It was very damp yesterday so I think that's why it didn't work well. Very soupy! Today I hope to find a store open that has fondant or marzipan so I can start making his Nemo and Squirt cake toppers. Also, the bug and I went to the store yesterday and I let him walk on his own. I bought him a monkey backpack harness with a leash of sorts, yeah, I know, some people think it's ludicrous to put a leash on your child but I worked in a mall for years and I think it's more ludicrous to let your child run out in front of you unattended!! He loved it! He walked the entire perimeter of the superstore and tired himself out! Here's a picture of Bug with his monkey on his back!

a new adventure!

OK, my baby turns 1 in about a week, give or take a day or two. I splurged! My little one LOVES to go on adventures, usually they are of the errand variety but for his birthday I bought him a front mounted bike seat and bike helmet so when daddy's away at work, mommy and boy can play.Now mind you, I haven't biked for awhile but I used to and quite honestly I missed it. I think it is good to show your kids an active lifestyle and lately mine has been anything but! SO! Bike we will. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm sure the bug will love it, I'm just hoping I don't give myself a heart attack peddling an extra 25 pounds around!!:)