Birthdays

Today my daughter turned 9. so for the next month I have a 12 yr old, tow 9 yr olds and two 7 yr olds, none of them twins. My daughter and step son are exactly 11 months apart to the day, so for 1 month a year they are the same age. And my son and step daughter are just under 5 months apart, so they are the same age for 7 months a year.

I always make a special cake for the kids birthdays, and for todays I did a cute gummy bears at the beach scene/theme.

I cut out a section of the top cake layer and filled it with a mix of blue and green jello, and added gummy sharks. The floaty tubes are gummy peach rings and of course gummy bears. I used marzipan for the beach blankets, ball, sand pails and scoops. The sun shade is a small truffle paper on a toothpick with gummy pieces securing the cup. I used a tooth pick broken off to make the footprints in the sand. It was pretty fun to make, and the kids liked it too, jello AND cake!!

Tomorrow I take my first official polymer clay bead making class. Which is being  taught by my RL friend Elaine of   http://www.tooaquarius.com/ She has wanted to teach me for a few years, so this should be fun. Later in the week my 2 eldest daughters are taking classes from her as well on making critters. I may post about it tomorrow, IF I remember my camera. I am awful for forgetting it and wishing I had it.  I'll try to remember to put it in my back pack for tomorrow.
C'ya!

makin' stuff

I am still trying to create a little free-er, and more art inspired. This bracelet uses several fillet crocheted triangles in different sizes and metal colour, copper, gold, silver. Originally they were layered together as a pendant and earrings. I decided to attach them all together for this asymertical but geometric designed bracelet, after ripping apart a few older pieces that have been in my stock for a few years unsold. I kinda like this new design it's fun and funky and I hope this new direction will sell, time will tell right?

This is what the triangles  pendant and earrings looked like before. yeah my photography has improved a lot in that time too LOL!!

some of my new work is still similar but showing more of the crochet work, less simple chaining.

I am rather liking the lacy disks behind the beads look right now.

Currently I am working on a pull tab bowl using hand spun and dyed wool I got at a farmers market. I'll be sure to show that one off when I am done!

Family stuff

I have been rather busy with the family lately. My middle daughter Kaylens birthday is in Aug, so if she wants any friends to come to the party we have it in June. I always make the kids special home made cakes, and she wanted a flower garden with her name in roses and gummy worms all over. I have very little skill with icing technique. So I used skills learned from polymer clay sculpting that my friend Elaine of Tooaquarius taught me and used marzipan to which rose extract and red food colour was added. The girls liked it.

The same weekend there was a big annual Picnic in the Park, a family fun day, with games, food and live entertainment. My eldest daughter was a volunteer face painter and got to paint her littlest brothers face.

And the museum put on a mock trial and used volunteers from the audience.... yeah they picked me. I was told to improv my lines if I wanted, so I hammed it a bit. It was fun, and a nice end to the day.

Alyia, our youngest daughter had her friend birthday party this past weekend, she asked for a unicorn cake, which is much easier than the rose garden was!

And I leave you with the PS2 family airband, Kaylen is in the back on drums, Alyia is our lead singer, Braydon and Geran are our guitarists, Adaira isn't in the photo, I guess she must be the manager, LOL!! Note the rockin' PJs onstage!

Makers

Ok so recently i joined a local group of knitters and crocheters who meet twice a month at the library. I am the only crocheter so far and I crochet odd stuff, but it's a great group!
And I joined a weekly crafters group meeting on Tuesdays called Tuesdays with Laurie: Meet other makers http://swiftcurrentmakers.blogspot.com/ at the art gallery, which is in the same building as the library. We have met 3 times and on 2 of them there was a film crew for the local TV stations. It's a lot of fun and although new there's a variety of crafters including Elaine of Tooaquarius http://www.tooaquarius.com/. Laurie Wagner whi is the education co-ordinator of the gallery is the head of the group, and she does amazing work needle felting, there are 2 collage/asemblage artists, a painter, and several people who have stopped it to look and say hi but don't stay and craft with us.
Now my church has a group of crafters who want to meet on Fridays, so I will be a busy lady with 3 different crafting groups. Should be fun as they are all quite different.
Well I do have a 2 day show this weekend I suppose I should get off the 'puter and do something today... although a good soak and a book is tempting too...

My Little Holiday

Ahhh! Yup, that was nice, mostly.

Last week my hubby and I went to the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. http://www.templegardens.sk.ca/ It was great, day 1 we did shopping, some in Regina (1/2hr drive) some in Moose Jaw, luckily hubby is an enthusiastic shopper. He went to the hard ware shops and such. I went to Micheals and got some swarovski crystal for family pride bracelets i wanted to make and they were on sale, yay( see photo of mine) and , I bought jeans that were 1 size smaller than usual ON SALE!! then just to amaze myself I found the brown heels I have been looking for. For me shoe shopping is a nightmare, I have wide feet and VERY high arches, but i got shoes, and... they were on sale too!! OH WOW!! Good times folks, can't tell ya the high. I found stuff and everything i bought was on sale, how amazing was that? Then we had supper with a couple he is friends with, and she ordered a set of jewelry based on the bracelet i made for my hubby, score! Then a dip in the pool before bed.

Day 2 I bumped into a friend, and we had lunch. ends up she wanted to order a custom set of my antler jewelry for her moms B-day! double score. Then it was off for massages, and the guy working on my husband was from my home town and had been a client of mine when i was doing massage work, cool. went for a swim. Then the yummiest meal ever at the best place to eat I have ever been too. Hopkins dining parlour is a restored old mansion with all sorts of antiques. And apparently it's haunted by the orginal owners wife, Millie Hopkins But nothing creepy has ever happened and I have been there several times and have NEVER had anything that wasn't amazingly tasty. http://www.2020website.net/p-hopkins.html Then the pool. the pool is a fed from a natural mineral spring and is as warm as some hot tubs, it is also partially outdoors. when we went into the outdoor part the steamy mist was fairly thick making it seem more private than it is. also my hair actually froze! And there was a family with a couple toddlers and the kids were wearing touques! Ha, only in Saskatchewan do you need a touque to swim! Too funny!

Then we got a call from the guy taking care of our pets... the darn cats tipped over the filter in the fish tank and flooded the flooring and leaked downstairs all over the carpeting. he happens to have a wet vac so he got the carpet for us. but the lamanent(sp?) floor upstairs... will need to be replaced, not immediately, but it is somewhat damaged.

Ok so next morning we are having breakfast and my mom calls, my daughter who happens to be diabetic is having stomach aches and her blood sugar is very high. Si I give the sick day info and call back in a couple hours, she feels better, sugar still a bit high, managed to eat a few crackers. Now i am a knot of worry, so call back around noon, and she was OK. So then we went on a tour of the tunnels under Moose Jaw, some were used as Al Capponnes hide out, and some were used by the Chinese immigrants. very educational. then another dip in the pool, supper and off for home. It was a good few days, but the floor is a downer. Oh well we had a good time.

The Weeknd of Company

Phew!! What a busy couple of days!!

My good friend and fellow etsy artist Elaine (tooaquarius.etsy.com) and her daughter were down for a visit. As it was her B-day and her daughter is a good friend of my eldest daughtetrs we had Chloe over for a 2 night sleepover Fri and Sat. At the same time my in-laws were down to visit and they haven't seen the kids since before Christmas!!

So Sat afternoon (Valentines) we took all 6 kids to the hotel where the in-laws were staying and went swimming, and then we went out for burgers. That evening the kids played and the adults played a board game and chatted.

Sun we took the kids and In-laws to church, and then out for a brunch smorg, and good thing because I don't think I have ever seen the kids so hungry!! The 5 yr old ate way more than I did!! That evening we had a pork roast supper, and then I brought out the birthday cake, a white chocolate cheesecake with whipped cream and strawberries. Elaine must have liked it because I got several thank-you s and tiny little thing that she is had 2 helpings ( gotta tease ya, sorry) That night Adaira slept over with Chloe at E's hunnys house , who happens to be my hubbies best friend (cool no?) Today (mon) is Family day, Adaira was dropped off at 1:00 ish and Elaine and Chloe headed for home. I am a bit tired and wish we could have visited (crafted with) with Elaine more, but oh well maybe next time won't be so busy.

Happy Birthday!!