Puppets and Easter Bunny toys!

This is a recycled rock candy stick that I painted to make a cute little Easter bunny creation.

This was a variation on the theme. I made this with a paper mache box and a dowel rod I rescued from a wall cloth calendar.

Here is the puppet I made at the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre yesterday with my boys. I was going for an Irish lass but the boys thought she looked liked the Poison Ivy from Batman.:)

This is what the place looked like from the outside. (close up shot of the way cute Owl)

The front of the theatre, it is located in the town of West Liberty, Iowa. (Click on picture to see the detail better)

The boys and I had such a great time at the Puppet Theatre working on our finger puppets and the foam core stage. They each got their own stage to decorate and they made several puppets. I absolutely love doing things with the boys. The cost was $10 for each kid. Parents were free!

What do you like to do with your kids? I'm always looking for ideas. Especially those that don't cost and arm and a leg to do. :) Spring break is next week, yikes!

My Frida and a shot at cake decorating

This is my version of Frida. My husband asked who was the Asian girl with the unibrow. What can I say? I was trying for ethnic but I guess I didn't quite capture the hispanic element. Anyway this is my donation to the Art Center.

This is my Dad's contribution. Can you tell he lives to fish? He calls this one Mighty Muddy.
This was my attempt at Dr. Seuss style fish. This was my cake to decorate for Dr. Seuss Night at the kids' school. It was a challenge but I was pleased for my first attempt at cake decorating.

This is my friend Nicole's version of The Cat in the Hat. Not her first cake rodeo. Isn't she good at this? We both had Dr. Seuss books to look at but we still had to do it freehand.

I was asked by my sister to do a painting for the Muscatine Art Center Mosaic Art Project. They sold 300 canvases for $5 each and people took them home and painted them then they brought them back. The artist gets the $5 back and the art center is doing a blind buy for $20 for each artwork. My sister said there were a lot of wonderful pieces donated. They will be on display in the art center I think on the 15th of March. In April there will be an Artist Reception where they will serve refreshments and give everybody a chance to discuss their art. My Dad and I each took on a 6"x 6" canvas and I think the results turned out pretty good.

The next thing I took on was a Dr. Seuss birthday cake. My friend baked the cakes and crumb coated them and then brought them to my house for decorating. She made one white and one chocolate. The chocolate had chocolate mousse in the middle and her Swiss butter creme frosting was delightful! I decorated the one with the fish and she did the Cat in the Hat.


I went to Michael's over the weekend and bought another canvas. It is a 5" x 5" Gallery style with 1 1/2" stretcher. Trying to find the right thing to do on it. It was about $7 on sale so I want to do something really cool on it. I've got a couple ideas and as soon as I get off the computer I'm going to try my luck at it. Check back to see what I come up with.

Now I know why experienced Bloggers use...

Tooter Puff is in "time out". See next picture why.

She didn't think I would find out who made this mess in the kitchen.


This is where she came from.

I loved these pictures from the post I deleted so I decided to put them back on for the fun of it.

Okay so I was so excited to see that someone left me a comment aout the Monster doll I made for my niece's 6th birthday. I clicked on it to see what it said and it had an appeal for money or art to be donated to someone I've never even heard of before. I decided to delete the entire post to get rid of the unwanted comment. If people are in a real jam I am more than happy to help but how do I know this wasn't just some computer savy spammer.

A Game for Bloggers and a coupon link to TGIF

I just read The Spotted Sparrow blog about Googling your name with a needs in front of it. Choose the top five and post them to your blog. Here goes Heidi needs: attention, more privacy, to finish her latest novel, one more drink and a trainer. It is almost a complete list!

Let me start with attention. Lets just say that with kids in school full time & married to the same man for almost 15 years I could definitely use more attention. The privacy thing is true too. We built a house last year and I still haven't decided what curtains I want for my bedroom and bath. Next is the novel thing but I don't think I have one in me. One more drink? Why not? And a personal trainer well, I could stand to lose 2, 3, or 20 lbs. I'm too cheap to hire one tho.

Just one more thing Click here: T.G.I. Friday's® Worldwide - Buy One Get One Free . If you and your honey need a cheap date this would work. The coupon is buy one dinner and get one free. It expires on March 1st. No need to sign up for anything just print out the coupon and forget about doing the dishes. Hope all of you are having a great day!

Back from Vacation

My son got chosen to pick out an alligator for this alligator wrestler . Of course he picked out the one in the middle. Do you happen to notice where this guy is holding the gator? Right by his neck! This is super scary to me. I wonder what his mother thinks of him doing this.

We just got back from our Florida trip. We stayed at Vacation Village in Orlando/Kissimee. The weather cooperated with highs near or just above 80 and sunshine everyday. What luck that was compared to last year when we went to the Naples/San Marco area and had to wear our winter coats. I have decided I love Florida. I am actually looking forward to moving there for the winters when my husband can retire from work. It truly is the fountain of youth. My boys had a fabulous time at Universal's Islands of Adventure. Their favorite ride was the Spiderman ride. It had great special effects! The Universal Studios park I liked a little better because it wasn't all about the rides. I started to get a little green from the Jimmy Neutron ride and the Simpsons ride made me want to toss my cookies. But the very best part was Gatorland. It was our second trip back to Gatorland. They have absolutely huge breeding gators there. They claimed to have 100 females and 30 males in their breeding marsh. My oldest loved the white gators they just got in from Louisiana.

Getting back

Officially last week was the week from well you know. When someone you love has been there everyday of your life and then suddenly isn't it can be a hard thing to swallow. My grandma passed on after being on this earth for 83 years. I wish I could say she had more good days than bad but I don't know if it would be true. She suffered from mental problems throughout her adult life. Mental illness wasn't understood so much in the 1950s and she was given harsh electric shock therapy. She would come around for a time but would eventually need to be recommitted for more treatments, drugs and therapy. She was the loving Mom of my Mom and three other wonderful "kids".

We (my boys and I) were on our way to the nursing home to say goodbye but were just a few minutes too late. We formed a circle around her after she had just passed and said prayers for her spirit. The pastor had asked if anybody had anything to add. My oldest son said he would like to thank great-grandma for being such a wonderful mother and he knew she had been because she had raised such a wonderful kid. He looked at my Mom with love and adoration in his eyes.

During the eulogy my sister had prepared she said Grandma "wasn't her role model on how to live a perfect life but rather on how to live when life wasn't perfect."

Dad's Birthday,Free Time-the kids are back in school!

This is a bear I made from a pattern last year for Valentine's Day. I think it is a Country Stitches pattern.

I think this is a Christmas angel turned angel of love. Again I made this from a pattern, (All Through the Night?) I think. I stitched little hearts on her wings.

I bid on a similar painting on eBay and didn't win the auction. This was my first attempt since middle school (I didn't take one art class in high school) of painting.

Here is my sister's masterpiece. This is a handed down recipe from my Dad's mom. Its his favorite cake and according to my sister very time consuming. It was delicious last night when we celebrated my Dad's 67th birthday a night early. Happy Birthday to my great Dad! Thanks for inspiring me to take on new challenges. There isn't anything this man can't do. He was a Navy sailor, former shops teacher and entrepreneur. This man loves to fish for bass and bluegills and he can cook them too! He is a devoted family guy who loves his 5 grandchildren!

This is one of the most special places to my family and I'm sure lots of other families in our area. This is the Old Mill at Wild Cat Den State Park near Muscatine, Iowa. Its even more beautiful in person. They have also moved a one room school house close by where you can see how they taught kids before central heating, computer labs and school cafeterias. Very interesting indeed to see the differences between schools today.

I was a little sad to see the kids winter break end but it was time for them to get back. They had seventeen days off! I know my oldest was rearin' to get back. The little ones not so much...

Enjoy the free time when you get it...it doesn't last THAT long.