Lifebook Lesson - Week 2

I am having such a great time playing with all my new art supplies and have thoroughly enjoyed my first 2 lessons. This week the teacher did a piece of art with circles, paint and lots of doodling. this was my interpretation of the class carrie style. Can you tell I have Disney on the brain. We we're supposed to be there next week, but after we heard that "thunder mountain" was still down for refurbishment we are changing the dates. Thunder Mountain is me and my hubbies all-time favorite ride. Hope you enjoy my new piece.

Game On Challenge

I have recently joined 59 other people to do a 6 week health challenge. We started this on Jan 6th, this last Monday. So I am on day 3 today. We have certain things we must do everyday that allot us points. Here is a break down

• We have to stick to a meal plan of our choice (I chose a no sugar/no white flour plan)
• We must drink 3 Liters of water a day (no soda.. I usually have a coke almost everyday)
• We must workout for at least 20 minutes a day x 6 each week
• We must accomplish a new healthy habit each day (mine is to floss/brush 2x a day)
• We must meet our goal on breaking a bad habit each day (only playing games on the computer no more than 1 hour a day)
• We must get 7+ hours of sleep each night
• We must report or contact other players each day

So far I have had a perfect score each day.
I joined this challenge to try to get healthier, I am hoping to have a baby one of these days and would like to be healthier when it happens. I have always struggled with my weight and am tired of putting of helping myself. I miss out on too many things because of being overweight or get embarrassed in certain situations (good example: when trying to ride the bat at the Lagoon, I had to squeeze into the seat, barely making it)

So I am motivated and on my way to a healthier me.

Christmas all year Round

Christmas time is such a special time of year. One most of us enjoy. Not only are there presents, parties, food, love and family time. I think family time is one of the most precious parts of christmas time. So as a family what can we do during the christmas season to be able to enjoy this special time together. Here are some ideas

• If you enjoy singing. grab some christmas songbooks, bundle everyone up, a list of friends you would like to go and visit (you can also go to neighbors, an old folks home or hospital) and either get walking or snuggle up in your car and head on out. 
• 12 days of Christmas.. pick a couple or 1 terrific family and put some goodies together and drop them off every night for the entire 12 days. most people start this tradition on Dec 13th and end Dec 24th.
• Decorating... in my family decorating the tree is usually a family night, we put on a christmas movie or music and trim the tree. the little ones love helping put on ornaments. 
• Go to the theatre. My husband loves "the Christmas Carol". We went this last year as a family and enjoyed the live theatre and the meaning that this particular story teaches us. 
• Go to the theatre (you probably thinking you just said that one) This time I am talking about the movies. We dressed up and went to the movies. We had a blast going to see Frozen in 3D. Can you tell we loved the glasses. 

When it comes down to it though. any time spent with family (or friends) is good.

Thanks to our host: 

http://www.kingofchristmas.com/

Artificial Christmas Trees http://www.kingofchristmas.com/category/artificial-christmas-trees/
Pre Lit Christmas Trees http://www.kingofchristmas.com/category/artificial-christmas-trees/pre-lit-trees/ 
Unlit Artificial Christmas Trees http://www.kingofchristmas.com/category/artificial-christmas-trees/unlit-trees/ 
Giant Artificial Christmas Trees http://www.kingofchristmas.com/category/giant-artificial-christmas-trees/ 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lifebook 2014 - Lesson 1 "Find your guardian and word of the year"

My sweet hubby for our 5th Anniversary bought me an art class called

 Lifebook 2014. This is a art package that lasts the whole year.  Each week we get a class on a Full piece, technique, color lessons, mixed media practice and so much more. The first class was scheduled for Jan 1st. But as a surprise our lovely host Tamara Laporte posted the class yesterday on the 31st. I stayed up last night celebrating the end of the year and beginning of a fantastic new one, sitting in my craft room creating my first piece of art for my life book. she turned out wonderful and the lesson was really well done. 

Check back each week to see what new piece of am working on each week.

If you want more info on the Lifebook 2014 classes check it out:  http://www.willowing.org/life-book-2014/ and the great thing about it is, wonderful lessons for a really decent price. 

I had so much fun with her. :)

Christmas Series Day 30 - Peanut Butter Popcorn Tree

On the 30th Day of Christmas

Santa brought to me

A great idea to add to your goodie plates!

So I am sharing it with all of you

Today I am personally posting :)

My gift to You is a post on

 "Peanut Butter Popcorn Tree"

Here I am posting the last post for my Terrific Christmas Series. 

We had a lot of great bloggers share some wonderful christmas ideas. 

For the last post of the series I am sharing with you a post of a family tradition. Growing up when we would put goodie plates together for family and friends we would love to make peanut butter popcorn and shape them into trees.  Then once they were shaped we would decorate them with gumdrops. 

This year I wanted to add a little bit more to my trees, so I added licorice ropes and a peppermint pat tie cut into the shape of a star and placed on top.

To make a batch of peanut butter popcorn. 

Get your popcorn popper out and pop 3 quarts of plain unsalted, unbuttered popcorn.

Add a up of chopped up walnuts to the dry popcorn in a large bowl.

Before making the peanut butter mixture clean off a counter or table and lay down waxed paper.

Now on the stove in a pot, turn your stove onto medium high heat. Add  1 cup sugar and 1 cup of karl syrup. Stir the 2 ingredients until the sugar dissolves and it is bubbling (make sure you continually stir through this process so it doesn't burn). Once it is bubbling, take off the stove and add 1 cup of crunchy peanut butter to the mix, continuing to stir. Last ingredient is 2 1/2 tsp of vanilla adding it to the mix. 

Now pour mixture on top of the popcorn in the large bowl and stir until peanut butter mixture covers all the popcorn. 

Dump out onto waxed paper, separate and let cool slightly.

Before popcorn has completely cooled shape into trees, balls or whatever shape you would like. 

Christmas Series Day 29th - Bead Wreaths

On the 29th Day of Christmas

Santa brought to me

A great idea for an ornament!

So I am sharing it with all of you

Today I am personally posting :)

My gift to You is a post on

 "Bead Wreath's for your Tree" 

I wanted to add more color to my tree. but I had a hard time finding oranges for my tree. If you walk down the christmas aisle in walmart you can find every color BUT orange.

 So I found some nice glass beads and pearls These are very easy to make. String the beads & pearls onto clear fishing wire and tie off. Add a ribbon where you tied off (to cover the knot) and add more to it. 

Supplies: Beads, fish line (or wire) & Ribbon

These cost me .75 each if not less.

Christmas Series Day 28th - Kids Santa or Shepard Beard - with Free Tutorial

On the 28th Day of Christmas

Santa brought to me

Shauna as a "City 2 Country"

Her gift for us is a post on a

"Kids Santa Beard or shepard beard

 free pattern & tutorial"

Check out Shauna's Blog Here

My mom has an amazing gal in her church that creates fantastic crafts with felt like felt food, kids play activities and such. Yesterday I got an email telling me she had a free pattern for a kids Santa beard. I thought ...Awesome, I have been meaning to make some beards for my kids to wear when they sneak items on porches during our family Secret Santa. As I got materials together I realized I had different colors to make beards for shepard/wisemen costumes as well. I have 4 kids and decided to make one of each color: White, Black, Brown and Blonde. The white one is all white, but all the other ones have 2 colors to give it more contrast. They turned out SOOOOO good and the pattern was simple. The kids can wear these beards at our church Christmas party since they need to dress up as shepards!

Here is her blog with the FREE pattern

http://www.buggabugs.blogspot.com/2012/11/diy-santa-beard.html?utm_source=Email+Created+2012%2F11%2F19%2C+11%3A52+AM&utm_campaign=Santa%27s+Beard+Newsletter&utm_medium=email

Check out her shop BuggaBugs out on Etsy.

She is having a Buy 3 patterns get 1 Free sale on Black Friday

http://www.etsy.com/shop/buggabugs

Christmas Series Day 27 - Monogram Christmas Ornament

 

On the 27th Day of Christmas

Santa brought to me

A great idea for personalizing your tree!

So I am sharing it with all of you

Today I am personally posting :)

My gift to You is a post on

 "Monogram Christmas Ornament"

 

 

Monogram Christmas Ornament

I am so excited to finally be able to use some of my Tim Holtz Grunge Packs. These packs hold either a page with each letter of the alphabet or each number 0-9 and some fun shapes. They also come with different textures embedded into the top of them. The ones I am playing with today are just smooth. The fun thing about his grunge product is that it is as thick but can be twisted, scruntched and still keep it's form. 

So today I am making a Monogram Christmas Ornament for my tree. 

I Chose and H for my last name. I thought the top right H would be the coolest to work with.

Now that I picked my Letter I grabbed some of my Luminarte in Red. You can use regular paint or whatever you have on hand. 

I think dabbed red on the top of the H, let it dry and then covered the back. Make sure you also get the sides. 

I decided that I would like to put a little embellishment on my H and chose Holly & Berries. So I took a piece of the scrap grunge and outlined 2 leaves and a couple berries with black marker. (if you are nervous about the black marker, start out with pencil until you end up with a design you like, then outline it with black marker.

This is what they looked like once they were cut out. I did 2 berries together and 1 by itself. I did this because I want to layer my berries for an awesome 3-D look.

Taking some green shimmer metallic green paint. Again you can use whatever paint you like.

and I also grabbed some coppery/gold beads from Martha Stewart.

I painted the berries cranberry red, leaves green then added some clear glue to the top of the berries and added the gold beads.

After layering the leaves and berries onto the H.

Add some ribbon so you can hang it and there you go.. you have a personalized monogram ornament.

 

Christmas Series Day 26 - Christmas Nativity Ornament Tutorial

 

On the 26th Day of Christmas

Santa brought to me

Shauna as a "City 2 Country"

Her gift for us is a post on a

" Christmas Nativity Ornament Tutorial"

http://craftynightowls.blogspot.com/2012/12/sweet-christmas-nativity-ornament.html

 

Christmas Series Day 25 - Reindeer Handprint Art

On the 25th Day of Christmas

Santa brought to me

Ariean as a "One Krieger Chick"

Her gift for us is a post on a

"Reindeer handprint art"

Check out Ariean's Blog Here

 

http://onekriegerchick.com/2013/12/16/reindeer-handprint-art/