My Pyrography Chickadees were featured on Christy by Hand blog!!

i would really like to get into pyrography more!  ggrrr!

thanks, Christy, for featuring my birds along with other awesome pyrography goods from etsy!

Christy by Hand

Fun with Pretty Rocks

We went to the flea market on Sunday.  The only thing we bought were these beautiful crystals.  They were $2 for 2 scoops and I though Dot made a good choice for her one [inexpensive] item she could buy.  She was immediately intrigued by the large glass container full of these multi-colored bits.  She held the bag of them in her lap the whole ride home.

We didn't get around to playing with them until the next day but she has really enjoyed them!

Dot really liked to hear the sound they made when she poured them into this metal bowl.  We sorted them by color, talking about the different patterns, shades, shapes, textures.

We used these little plain wooden pill boxes I have all over the place to sort them and Dot's favorite part was pouring them out again into the metal bowl!

We also examined the sizes of the rocks.  We had some tiny tubes made for holding glitter which we filled with as many rocks as we could noting that some would only fit in at certain angles and some would get stuck.

We also did a little role-playing where I was the magic lizard from Alexander and the Wind-up Mouse and she had the task to find me a purple pebble.  There are only 4 or 5 amethyst stones in the whole lot so it was no easy task.  When she did find one I said, in my best magic lizard, "the moon is round, the pebble is found, what is your wish?"  And Dot said she wanted to become a lizard like me!  It was very sweet.  But now she wants me to talk lizard every time we play with these rocks...

I would really like to find a nice book with big pictures of rocks and minerals like these so we could find out what their names are and how they were made.

Mermania!!

Another rainy day so we looked to the blogs for some inspiration!  Thank-you Filthy Wizard for your incredible play-dough mermaid kingdom!  We were not nearly as ambitious but we made good use of those mermaid dolls I have been making!

Dot went from sitting in her chair to standing on her chair to sitting directly on the table top to play with our underwater mermaid castle.  The merfolk decided the roof was the best place for sleeping and all the maids climbed into the big shell for a nap.

Here is Dot sitting on the lap of a real mermaid ;)

rainy days

The rains are back!  After over a decade of drought I am so glad to see them. 

And, of coarse, it is great fun to play in the giant puddles!

Our 4th of July was a dud but I have never been a fan of fireworks, anyway.  We did play in the banyan trees downtown of a little while.  I tried to get Dot in the backyard to see what we could from there but she would have nothing to do with it.  Apparently the grass was too itchy.

home-made lip balm!

I have been meaning to try out making some of my own lip balm for a while.  I am tired of buying expensive lip balm and it seemed like something so easy to make after the beeswax wood rub.

I didn't follow any recipe on this one!  It is just my wood rub remelted and coconut oil added.  It came out better than I hoped!  Hopefully I will be selling it soon!  The little wooden containers can be kept and used.

Restoration Project!!!! Matryoshka Dolls!!!!

I am very excited about this new project!  A friend of mine asked me to restore her husband's matryoshka dolls.  They belonged to his grandparents and he has fond memories of playing with them as a child.  I was a bit apprehensive when she first asked me.  I collect matryoshkas and all the ones I have are painted in what looks like water color washes that would be very difficult to repair.  But the ones her husband has are different.  They are painted in mostly solid, primary colors!

I think I am really going to enjoy this project!  I love mixing colors and matching shades.  I hope to make these little dolls look happy again so their little girls can enjoy playing with them like their father remembers doing when he was a child.

Custom FAU OWL

I got an order for several dolls a while back and thought I should get a move on making them or my patron might forget about me!  She doesn't need them untill Christmas so I have plenty of time to complete the rest.

The first one I completed was a Florida Atlantic University Owl.  It really gave me a lot of trouble!  The lettering was so hard for me!  I just couldn't get it perfect.  I made the 'eye-brows' and beak with paper clay.  When I look at the photo the imperfections are screaming at me.  Luckily, I don't think they are as noticable when I am looking at the real thing (or I would go crazy and start all over again!).