Thinking About Easter!

I have been slightly distracted from that which I should be focusing on, getting ready for Easter. Over the weekend, I finally broke down and bought a serger and I have been busy playing and sewing. I am also going to make my first attempts tomorrow to do some screen printing. I have my screens all ready and I am excited. I am sure there will be a bit of a learning curve but with some practice; I should get the hang of it.

I am excited about Easter this year and I have been so blessed in my life and especially this past year. It has been a bit of a trying year but I give thanks to God for the trials because, I have grown and learned a lot about myself and how to be more patient with others.

The kids are doing great and growing like little weeds. I had been looking back through the past few years of Easter photos the last few days and I am forever amazed at just how fast they grow. So, this is a reminder for me to still stay focused on enjoying and spending every minute I can being as much a part of their little lives and days as possible.

I have a list of things to do this week and I am glad that the next few days will be bringing sunshine and warmth. I need to buy some mulch and work on some flower beds and get ready to stain the playhouse again. I also want to put out a few plants in the little pots around the playhouse for Easter which means a trip to the local nursery is on my list this week as well as tossing some mulch. It will be much needed exercise.


A photo of the kids on Easter of last year.


Once the Easter holiday has passed, I can get back to creating. I think it is time too to pull the easel back out of the closet. The little guy has ask Mamaw to paint a few Spider Man paintings for his room and when Doddlebug heard this, she has requested some Little Pet Shop character paintings. I have plenty of canvas and paint and I think painting cartoons are always fun. It shouldn’t take too long once I get started. Maybe a few hours in the afternoons and I should have them several. I will be sure to post those photos when I get those painted.

Just in case I do not post again before Easter let me say, “may your Easter be special and blessed, spent with family and friends in remembrance of the love that God has for us all.”

Happy Easter!

The Fox And The Child

Before you preview it, you might need to pause the music player at the bottom of my blog.

I have to say, the five dollar bargin bin of DVDs at Walmart sure held a great treat for us. We found the movie "The Fox And The Child." We had not seen it before but it looked like it may be a good little movie for the kids so we bought it. We finally got around to watching this movie a couple of nights ago and was such a sweet little movie. It ranks up there in our opinion with "A Stranger In The Woods." I was so excited that we acutally found a movie in that bin well worth five bucks for a change. My gal really loved it she is six. She worked the next day on drawing a very neat picture of the fox. I would have scanned it and shared it here but it was a gift for her teacher at school and she took it to her before I had a chance.

It is a wonderful movie and if you have young children or grandchildren, they will love this movie for sure.

Learning To Use A New Lens

Well, I finally got the lens that I have been wanting for such a long time. It is a 1/4f 50mm Nikkor. All the reading that I had done on the lens suggested that it was a great little portrait lens. I started playing around with the the other morning and took a few photos of my grandson. He was in a good mood and willing. I didn't get to snap off very many to test it before he became tired of process but at least I had a chance to get an idea of what the lens can do. I loved the clairty and color that shown in his eyes when I zoomed in to take a look.

I am looking forwad to setting up a little makeshift portrait studio in my living room. I have some great windows that will add wonderful natural lighting. I also have the fabric needed for dying some backdrops. I will be doing that on our next nice day outside. I found a great how-to article at DIY Photography on creating your own backdrops. I also need to hit a few resale shops and look for some nice old vintage drapes or bedspreads to use as backdrops. Some of those could add great texture to the photos I think.

My grandaughter recently had a little accident while turning a cartwheel. She fell and cut open her eyebrow and they used adhesive to close it up at the emergency room but it has yet to start coming out of her brow. I do hope it starts coming out soon. I want to take photos of her and she is a very good model for me and will pose for as long as I need her to. She gives me lots of time and some cute looks. I have taken a few photos of her with the adhesive brow and all my eye does is go straight for that brow. I will be waiting until that heals before taking more photos with her. The down time will give me time to get the other things together that I need too to make my little home studio. I am also looking forward to getting to work with the new lens outside as well. I am exctied to see what it and I can do out of "auto" mode.

I also have been doing a bit of sewing for my granddaughter. Making a few summer outfits and shorts. She is in a size 7 now and I am just not impressed with most of the clothes on the market in a size 7. I think most colthing I see is just not age appropriate for our young girls these days. I always said, once she moved out of 6X I would be doing a lot of sewing for her. Good thing I enjoy sewing.

Below are a few more of the shots that I took of my grandson with the new lens. If you have any pointers using a 50mm, I would love to hear them.

Blessings To You All!




Here's a photo of my gal with the gash in her eyebrow from her cartwheel accident...Just for you Joy!

I heart faces contest entry.

Warming Up
You can check out all the cool contests at http://www.iheartfaces.com

I am going to give this a shot, see if I can figure out how to do the entry but the theme of this contest is bundle up.

I think the photo of of my gal warming with hot chocolate after playing in the snow might be a good one. Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Read across America day is today, March 2nd. Today at school, the kids were allowed to wear their pj's and they get to listen to books being read to them all day. It is to be a truly relaxing and fun day.

I wanted to add to my gal's fun by making her a very special pair of pjs. I made her a pair of THING 2 pjs. It was pretty easy. I basically just painted her shirt with acrylic paints mixed with fabric medium and stitched her a pair of pants out of red fleece. I was a bit stumped when it came to the blue fuzzy wig until a walk through Hobby Lobby provided me all that I needed to make this whole outfit come together as well as finding the materials for the wig. I made the wig out of a baby's jersey knit skull cap and blue boas. It took longer to stitch those boas down than it did to make the rest of the outfit.

My gal really loved how it turned out. I was so glad. Hope you like the photos. I am looking forward to hearing about how her silly fun day went. I can't wait till she gets home.

Silly Thing 1 & Thing 2 socks were a must.