What's on the calendar 9 months before April?

Wow - I didn't realize we had so many friends and family with April birthdays! In addition to this gift, we attended three other birthday parties this month where gifts were required (plus I still owe a gift to one of my blogging buddies, and another friend)

I am still on a fairly strict budget, so couldn't go all crazy. First up, a gift for a boy from Hank's day care

All items shown were re-gifts, but thought the bright colors looked cute together. I was too lazy to hunt for a piece of ribbon to attach the tag so I used a silly band instead :)

Next, a gift for the girl who received the upside-down apron last year

She had a horse riding party (hence the toy horse) and the color theme was black, white and hot pink with polka dots. Her mom had asked me a question about making candy jars as favors prior to the party, so I took the jar idea and ran with it. I made a large jar gift for the birthday girl using little bits and bobs I thought represented her. I bought a few items for $1 each at Walmart, but otherwise had everything on hand (sad, I know...)

During our trip to Arizona we were able to attend a birthday party for a nephew

I don't think I have mentioned it here, but I have been doing a very scaled down version of extreme couponing. I am totally reliant on blogs like Money Saving Mom and Hip2Save to indicate where the deals are an coupon matchups, etc., and don't have the know how to find all the wonderful deals on my own. I will show my first month's haul and the intended purpose for the items bought shortly. In the mean time, I was able to score a Buzz Lightyear Operation game for just $2! Walmart had the game on sale for $5, and there was a coupon in the paper (also still online) for $3 off an Operation game. You will note that the Amazon price is still over $13 - score!!

Finally, I guess this isn't technically an April birthday, as the baby is due next month, but I made a little monkey themed gift for a baby shower gift for a cousin

This ended up a little more pricey than intended, as I had to re-think the theme when an element ordered online did not show up on time. I scrambled to put the blanket together with mostly fabric on hand, and was pleasantly surprised to find a monkey printed sleep sack and toy during my last minute trip to Target (I had the unused sheet, the same one the mama-to-be registered for, in my gift bin).

May is still pretty heavy in the birthday department, but perhaps we can catch a break come June :)

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Favorite of the day: Seeing downtown LA from the top of Los Angeles City Hall

Working on: May wreath ideas

Happy Easter!

Hope it was a good one!!

Bunny Trail Mix

Thanks to my mom, I found all of the components to make Nina's bunny trail mix.

As a reminder, here are the components and what they represent:

Ears: Pink & white candy corn

Nose: Jelly beans

Whiskers: Pretzel sticks

Muddy paws: Chocolate covered pretzels

Tail: Mini marshmallows

All packaged up to give out to the cousins at tomorrow's Easter festivities!

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Favorite of the day: Another good restaurant

Working on: Still relaxin'

For the day care set

I first saw this idea on Dollar Store Crafts to make carrots using disposable icing bags and cheddar crackers. I made a few up for Hank's day care class.

I used the Target brand Chickadees crackers, but Annie's bunnies would have been cute as well.

The bags were presented to the class in an Easter basket from last year. I heard they were a hit!

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Favorite of the day: Queen Creek Olive Mill

Working on: Relaxing

Coloring eggs

We used White Rabbit dye again (much deeper color this time)

and rubber bands

and they were served in vintage egg cups.

(though I thought the kid would get a kick out of making these, he didn't truly appreciate the eggs until he took his first bite -- I don't think he had had hard boiled eggs as a toddler. Suddenly he was enamored with the colors, the egg cups, everything.)

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Favorite of the day: "The" eggs of the season

Working on: Getting it all done

They are good eggs

My work family is like a second family to me. We are a small group, and have some very strong personalities amongst us. Despite our quirks, we find ways to come together and support each other.

I like putting together little treats for the folks I spend a majority of my waking hours with for the holidays and special events. For Easter, I filled plastic eggs with flavored Tootsie Rolls. I cut out orange feet from cardstock and mounted the egg on with a glue dot. I was going to draw on an entire face, but was pleasantly surprised to see two "eye holes" left over from when the eggs were made. All I had to do was draw on a beak :)

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Favorite of the day: A "must do" if I can source all the materials!!

Working on: A shower gift

Easter basket: Art basket

It should come as no surprise that with the focus on art projects as of late that Hank's Easter basket this year would have an art theme

(There is also a Snoopy slant thanks to our recent trips to Knott's)

The "basket" is a caddy we can use to store art supplies in the dining room. I use one of the bins from his closet for storing art supplies, but hate leaving the bin out in the dining room to clutter the space. The caddy will look a little more intentional.

I bought a few higher quality art supplies, including P'kolino pencils and crayons, Clementine paint, and Magic Mud. I found canvases for $3 each at Big Lots. The Snoopy items were found at Big Lots and JoAnn. One more thing I need to pick up this week is a color wheel.

Hope this leads to even more fun art projects!

Previous Easter baskets from the archives:

Vintage sewing basket
Basket for a baby + colorful favors

Nature/Outdoors themed basket

Flat pack care package
Motorcycle themed

Tiki themed
Quick and easy for kids
Kids Gardening Easter baskets plus here

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Recent favorite: These are so simple and cute!

Working on: More gifts

Art Methods: Positive and negative space

For this art lesson, teaching positive and negative space, I had the project in mind, but admittedly didn't have any great ideas for how to "teach" it to a 2-year-old. Regardless, Hank had fun throughout the project.

First, we started with this library book that Hank picked out. We had not been to the library for quite some time. I felt very bad about this once I saw how excited Hank was to go through the children's section to pick out books, play with the puzzles and games in the children's area, and read his "liberry" books nightly. Regular library visits officially added to the agenda.

In any case, the book is probably meant to share with infants who would appreciate the graphic quality of the black and white works. It is great for any age though, really - even adults - as these are real art pieces done in a unique, graphic style. In looking through the book, I tried to point out how some features are well-defined (positive space), and they stand out from the white background (negative space).

Other times, it is more difficult to tell which part is the dominate aspect of the art piece, and which part is meant to around or behind the main focus of the piece. In this lino cut by Josef Albers, the white spaces formed by the intersecting lines are still very much part of the main focus of the drawing.

To complete our piece studying positive and negative space, we took a white sheet of paper and added stickers. I offered the letter stickers to Hank, but he said he wanted me to spell words (he chose the words).

I then asked him to cover the entire paper in red paint.

I was surprised that he stuck with this part, but he seemed pretty committed to fill in the entire sheet. As we were painting, I would ask him if he saw shapes with either the red he was painting (he painted over the stickers first) or the white that was left as he painted.

We left the sheet to dry overnight, and then I took off the stickers. Again we talked about the spaces that were left by the stickers, and how the white - formerly just the background - now stands out to us.

Hank's assessment - I want yellow!

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Favorite of the day: Seed starters

Working on: Shopping on a budget

Mail call!

My blog friend of many years, Barb, has sent another one of her famous flat rate boxes!!

She really gets her money's worth -- this box was heav-y! What was inside. Well, there were the mandatory tiki items

including two Maori tea towels from New Zealand!

There were some crafty items

including two pattern sets to make on-the-go art cases, some cute trim, a full bag of stencils, and cute bird-shaped clothespins.

A few mousie items

including ornaments for this year's traditional tree.

And a few miscellaneous fun items

which were by and large confiscated by the kid. The battery powered candle (which you can really blow out!) is the new favorite toy around these parts, and the Japanese sponges are in the bath. Mama did save the candle, and the chocolate, which is dark chocolate with chipotle and -- Pop Rocks! Actually quite delightful.

Thank you so much, dear friend, for your friendship over the years and for sending these lovely boxes. Especially since this is YOUR birthday month, and I owe YOU a similar box :)

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Favorite of the day: Modern tiki house!

Working on: Work treats

Easter egg wreath

I salvaged the grapevine base from last month's wreath to make a new version for Easter

The idea to wrap eggs in yarn came from this post (via Dollar Store Crafts). I believe the ones used in the post were plastic. I didn't want to risk burned fingers using hot glue to wrap the eggs, so I used paper mache versions from Michaels instead

and white glue. Well -- using white glue left a lot of glue shreds on the eggs, so that is the trade off, I suppose. In any case, I am pretty happy with how the wreath turned out.

I used a mesh ribbon from Cost Plus and twisted raffia for a bow

Happy Easter!

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Favorite of the day: Nothin' yet

Working on: More presents!

One Fish, Two Fish

A little friend is having a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party this weekend. I thought it would be fun to make him a One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish fishing game. Other than magnets, I had all the other items on hand! First I made the fish out of felt.

Next was a vinyl-sided fishbowl to hold the fish. This was a little tricky to make with the fabric sides, but I think it turned out pretty cute in the end.

Then a fishing pole using a piece of a dowel that I have had just about forever. I painted the pole in a fun red and white stripe.

I then added a little tag with instructions for the game, trying to imitate the Dr. Seuss style.

The yarn pompom and red and white paper (from our Whoville Christmas) were recovered from the Christmas storage box.

Though we have a decent Dr. Seuss collection, we do not have this particular book. I think not being familiar with the story is the only way Hank will be able to give this away tomorrow as a gift, since he is enamored with all of the Seussical stories we do have.

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Favorite of the day: Love the sawhorse game :)

Working on: An Easter wreath

Our friends

My best friend from high school has lived in Japan for the past 10 years. Whenever Mother Nature strikes Japan, I frantically send Joy an email making sure she is ok. Most times she assured me that they were too far from whatever had taken place to feel any effects.

(A couple of redheads hit San Fran circa 1996)

Such was not the case with the recent earthquake/tsunami/radiation disasters that struck Japan. Fortunately my friend and her family were far from the source, but very much affected by all that was taking place in the country.

My friend and her daughter, Natasha, decided to come back to the States for some time until things get stabilized in Japan.

We met up this past weekend to go to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The weather was perfect for this fun outing. We made a few gifts to give to our friends, including a hat packed in a little purse with bubbles and snacks, some patriotic conversation hearts for Natasha's brave daddy who is still back in Japan providing humanitarian aid, and a coffee cozy for my dear friend.

(The cool kids)

The kids had fun looking at the animals. In pointing out the okapi's zebra legs to Hank, he was astute enough to notice that the okapi also had a zebra butt. Where did we find this kid?

By the end of the day, the two were hugging like (the kids of) old friends.

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Favorite of the day: ta-da!

Working on: Birthday gift

Art methods: Sculpture

Hank's "art box" consists of the staples: crayons, colored pencils, pens, paper, scissors. Many of these items encourage art in a 2-dimensional way. For a toddler, it is interesting to see how an idea to draw a dragon manifests itself on paper. Fortunately Hank is not at the stage where he gets frustrated that he knows his drawing looks nothing like a dragon, and seems to acknowledge that his skills in drawing and painting are limited.

Hank is, however, a good builder - even in his own eyes. He builds towers and animal-like shapes (even putting eyes in the right place) out of Legos. At the beach, we make tunnels, bridges, and drip mountains. Using 3-dimensional media, his expression of "Look, I made!" does not require his parents to ask the dreaded "Oh, and what is it, sweetheart?" as frequently as we do when he draws us a picture (we do still debate, though, if a piece of toast nibbled just so more resembled a cow or a elephant). Of course we ask him to tell us about any of his creations, but you can tell he is more confident about the pieces he knows look more like he envisioned in his head.

Given his propensity towards building things, sculpture was sure to be a big hit. We are well-versed in Playdough, of course, but this was supposed to be an "art" experience, so I wanted to provide something new. I chose kind of a weird one for our first art lesson - rubbery flubbery dough (the flour I buy is kinda pricey, so I wasn't up for making a homemade playclay dough that day). Rubbery flubbery dough is basically just cornstarch, water, and salt (here is a recipe). It feels like hair gel when it is wet and gumdrops when it is dry. Interesting stuff.

We enjoyed playing with the dough, and making shapes like balls and snakes. I asked questions about what the dough felt like, and what happens when you press on it, etc. Then, I brought out a few items I had on hand to press into it. Hank liked feeling the items on their own, and then pressing them into the dough. Here are our mixed media sculptures

I like that they kind of look like little islands. Hank must have agreed, because he pointed to the one in the upper left hand corner and said There's a tree there. Definitely will be looking for more 3-dimensional art projects to explore! ********** Favorite of the day: How did I miss this place the last few visits to SF?? Working on: Hanging with the girls