Little Bird Cages

Sometimes I buy stuff that I really shouldn't.  Yep.  I see it at a yard sale or thrift store and think to myself, "maybe I could paint on that?"  These wooden panels were such an example of my binge buying.  I found them at a yard sale for a steal but they sat....sat....sat....perhaps even got moved to the storage unit sat...until recently I looked at them and it hit me.  They looked like a BIRD CAGE!  And voila!  A painting series began.  See:

This one is the odd man out...but I just had to use this sketch from my sketchbook.  And the words, well they mean a lot to me these days.

I hope you start your Valentine Week off with loads of JOY and LOVE......the Horne house sure is!

Orange You Glad You're Here? (a birthday)

Yes, we still do birthday parties in our house.  In fact, we tend to go all out for parties at our house.  My favorite by far was William's 9th Birthday where we hosted a SPY party.  It was so cool....I made the invitations in reverse so parents had to read it in front of a mirror. hehehe... There were lots of mustaches involved with that party!  We've done maybe one for each of them somewhere other than our own home, but I find when I ask the kiddos, they prefer the ones at home.  Hey, I love the chance to have guests....small and large!

William turned 12 this year.  Wow....I know.  Seems like yesterday he arrived in the middle of an ice storm.  We were afraid we'd not make it to the hospital!  In Georgia the world shuts down in ice and snow ya know.  Here he is though, age 12.  And he wanted a sleep over.  Cool.  So we invited 5 boys plus him.  Woohooo!!  This was the yummy food buffet table:

The theme for the party.....well at 12 you are a little over Bob the Builder and Lego parties.  So we went with a color scheme.  Guess which color?  Orange you glad you stopped by today to see all this?  Hahaha... (on a side note, I CAN NOT get a decent photo in this part of the house.  Irritates the heck out of me.  These photos I was so excited about sharing and dang if they aren't all kind of icky.....)

Since we went with an orange color scheme we scoured the store for orangey treats...the giant gum ball machine balls with movie treats in them were a HUGE hit.  Seriously 12 year old boys still love fun stuff like giant gum ball machine balls!

I put silly orange jokes all over the food table for fun.  William thought that was a little corny, but hey, I was on a role with the decorations!

I'd seen the Mason jar glasses all over the Internet and decided it was a fabulous idea!  I mean, who hands a 12 year old a sippy cup?  In our new house, we don't allow drinks on the new carpet....but at a sleepover you kind of have to break the rules.  So this was the solution.  And can I just tell you, the boys had a fit over them!  "These are so cool Mrs. Jenni!!  Can we keep them?"  My friend Amber used her magic machine to cut the vinyl letters for them.   I wrapped the jars with layers of paper and filled them with orange soda and ginger ale ice cubes!!  Yummy.

So what do you do with 6/12 year old boys?  Well, first fed them hot wings (William's choice...ironic that they too are orange), hot chicken dip and queso dip.  Then you send them outside with flashlights and fabric napkins for capture the flag in the dark.  You are very thankful that A.  it's not 20' outside and B.  it's not raining.  Because outside running around is a wonderful idea for 6/12 year old athletic boys!!  Then at 10:30 PM you surprise the boys and tell them to get their shoes on because........we are going BOWLING!!  Yep, Billy and I loaded the gang up and went bowling until midnight.  We are cool parents, right?? (or crazy...not sure on that one yet.)

Once we got home all the boys grabbed their giant balls full of yumminess, their sippy cup...I mean mason jars, and all the other stuff from the buffet and headed up to the movie room.   We'd rented Transformers for them to watch.   By 2am...it was quiet. (except for Lily and Billy's snoring)  I decided it was finally safe for me to fall asleep as well.  You see, one particular friend, whom we've known since inutero was threatening pranks.  And well, pranks and I do not like each other very much.  So I had to BE sure he'd indeed fallen asleep prior to pranking.

So, from what I hear from Mommies and boys....a very good time was had by all.  I never heard fussing, whining or fighting.  Which was cool.  We have Mailey's sleepover tomorrow night....which I am sure there will be a little more drama.  They are girls (8/10 year old girls).  So wish me loads of luck and patience.

Oh...and in case you were wondering, yes I took a 2 hour nap Sunday afternoon.  haha...

A Studio View

Just thought I'd give you a view of the studio in work mode.  I told ya I work in multiples!  One day, one day...one day....I will remember to take photos of the whole studio remodel so you can see the end results.  But here's a pretty good glimpse.  It's super magical down there!  We'll be trying it out as a workshop studio this weekend for Mailey's party.  All her friends have asked me what they are making....why?  Hahaha....I can't wait to set it up for art making for her friends.  :)

I can't believe the pink sofa doesn't have a four legged on it in this photo.  The cats love the sofa.  See the tiny pink chair with painting on it?  That would be Mailey's....I guess she needs her own easel.

I use egg cartons at school for paint trays.  Super great idea....so I decided to try it at home and love it!!  The paints actually don't dry out in a day either.  Can you tell my palette of preference?

Lots more paintings to share over the next week....I hope you'll come back.  Follow on facebook for newest posts or follow me up there on the right hand side at the follow button!  I love to know who's joined the journey!

Valentine's Day Vignette

I suppose all the new blogs I've found and the linking up has made me giddy for decorating a wee bit for the season.  Yep.  Wee.  In the entrance to our home I have a  favorite piece of furniture and the lovely lady Isabella(my mannequins all have names, yes they do).  And well, this area just seemed a perfect fit for a little Valentine's Day sprucing up!  You'd a thunk the PINK dining room would have been the perfect spot.  Well, it will be for our special dinner!

So onto the decorating.  I really have to share what was made and where I found some of these puffy heart goodies!

 1.  the banner:  Michael's has the new $1ish bin area at the check out and well, that is my new favorite spot to check for little crafty ideas.  Low and behold they had colored crocheted doilies!!  I had been wanting to do something with those, I don't really know why, but just have.....and so I bought pink for V-day.  I also bought that day a lovely patterned paper and the most amazing glitter paper to layer on the doily.  At school I used our die cut machine to make the LOVE letters.  Then back home Mailey and I cut large circles from the paper and ran the sewing machine around and around connecting the doily and the paper.  We used double stick tape to attach the letters.  To string the letters together we simply sewed the doilies to the velvet ribbon.  Voila!  Instant banner.  Add a vintage U to the display and it's just about perfect!

 2.  the hearts:  Always on this dresser are our sweet heart collection of leaves and rocks.  I love to display them in the bottles we've found at Pawpaw's house.  The puffy heart on the wall I made using a fabulous technique.  I'll share that later.

 3.  Lady Isabella:  I was piddling last weekend in an antique store when I came across the pink satin apron....ok....seriously satin for cooking?  This was some fine lady's apron I suppose.  You think she also wore her white gloves while baking?    And the 4 stranded pink beads....OMG....I had....to....buy.....

 4.  the ultimate love letter:  So the white card above with the heart embossed on it is our wedding invitation.  I was a printing major in college.  In the intaglio class I made a series of probably 8 small heart plates and used them to create many prints.  When getting ready to make our invitation I decided to not go the traditional creme with raised black letters invite, nope.  Instead, the printers used my plate to emboss the front on an amazing deckle edge white paper, with the inside a letter from mine and Billy's parents asking the guests to attend our wedding.  I puffy heart that we did this. 

 5.  the little wreaths:  As a child, my mother made little curtain ring ornaments for her tree at Christmas time.  She painted the rings red and green, attached her favorite plaid ribbon then placed a photo of my sister and I in the opening.  I loved looking at them every year to see how much we'd grown.  This Christmas I had intended to do the same for my kids, but alas time slipped out from under me and I didn't get it done.  But ever clever, I decided to make them for the Valentine's tree!  I love, love the way they turned out.  And seriously am thinking of making a family tree soon.  I just have to track down the photos of everyone.  I used my camera+ app to take and edit the photos in the grunge mode.  The kids look a tad scary ghostly, so I may change the photos out before I put them away!

Overall, I just love seeing this vignette when I walk into the house.  It makes me smile.  And yep, in case you are wondering, I have already begun the Easter vignette in my head.  teeheeeheeee....

Give Yourself Grace

One of the paintings headed to Trinity Spotlight in Art.  If you've a chance to attend the show, I highly recommend it.  It is truly an amazing collection of work.  I always feel humbled to be there amongst the giants.  Lots of new originals are headed to the how.  I am very, very excited about that. 

On a side note, I was thinking a tad about the words I stamped on this particular painting.  I stamped them yes, but really didn't give much thought to the words at the time...but I always feel led to stamp the words I do.   That makes no sense...or rather makes me seem wackadoodle, but literally I just feel  led to say things in certain paintings.  But typing this I realize really and truly, grace is something you can not give yourself, but rather is a gift given from God.  Perhaps I stamped the words to remind myself that the gift is indeed there.  Waiting for me.....to accept.

Yarn Wrapping Frenzy

Did you know on etsy if you type the words "yarn wrapped wreath" 313 items pop up for sale?  Wow, I know!  And I could kick myself.  Because  4 years ago Valerie and I made a boat load for our store to sell after seeing the amazing ones this artist gave a tutorial on (ok, the magazine article was written in 2008 so 4 years).   We made them, sold them and moved onto the next crafty idea to sell.  That's how we rolled those days.  But now I could kick myself because they are HOT!!   And for some reason, last week I decided I'd  make a few for my home.  But the twist.......drum roll......I made mine into photo frames.  yeah.  Slap yourself for not thunkin' it before, right?

I love, love the quirky family photo above.  My daughter in her wackanoodle outfit, William the gentle Lily holder and no teeth smiler, Lily looking straight at the camera like a good girl, Billy the other no teeth grinner and me....with a dang square chin grinning ear to ear because that's what I do when the camera peeks at me.   It was taken right after we moved into the new house.  The tag on the wreath says est 1996, our wedding year.  I used two types of yarn over a round Styrofoam wreath, vintage shrunken sweaters for the flowers and vintage letters for our name.  Which on a side note, why oh why did I NOT know about the swirly flower with a glue gun a few years back when I crafted a bazillion felted flowers for shows as below?    Love you swirly easy peasy flower.

Anyhoo, while on the yarn wrapping frenzy I couldn't do just one thing.  Nope, like my painting binges I just can not do one thing....it's wasteful of time in my head.  Yep....So I found some tiny hoops in the closet and whipped up these:

                   

Dang cute....and the kiddos at school loved them!  5th grade girls love cool earrings....I am in like flin with those girls with my earrings.  Yes, that is the trick to getting 5th grade girls to do as you ask and behave.  Cool earrings.  Now the boys, that's a different story.  I've got to brush up on some football talk...I understand there is a big game this weekend  (wink...wink).  Geesh.  I suppose I need to watch it in case they ask me about it. 

Well, I have a few more yarn wrapping projects up my sleeve to share.  They are so stinkin' cute I am thinking about making more and more....oh...and the yarn wrapped earrings will be making appearances in my etsy shop soon.  Very soon.  The wreath, well you can make that!  The problemo will be choosing the YARN!!

The Cupcake Craze...(a tutorial)

Cupcakes....all the craze, right?  I actually made some amazingly yummy (yes, bragging rights good) for William's party Saturday night.  Now, they were not spectacularly decorated by any means.  But yummy in the tummy they were!  The cupcakes below, well let's just say I wouldn't go eating these anytime soon.  But cute worthy they are!  I made these with my students in 4th grade and thought you know what, these would make super fun Valentine Gifts or decoration goodies!  I can totally see cute Valentine love note toppers on them.

To make these cupcakes it is so easy peasy.  Just follow the steps photoed below and add your special touch.  I'd love to see your version if you make some....so email me at jennhorne@ymail.com!

1.  gather materials:  stay-flo liquid starch, heavy duty cupcake wrappers (important to find wax lined ones), newspaper, muffin tin, paints and embellishments, container for starch, heavy duty paper towels
2.  line the muffin tins with your cupcake liners.  then wad one side of newspaper into a ball
3.  soak the newspaper in the starch
4.  place the newspaper in the liner.  this is the base of the cupcake
5.  soak the paper towel in the starch
6.  using a twirling motion place the paper towel on top of the newspaper soaked ball.  you can add more towels for fluffier cupcakes
7.  allow the cupcakes to dry in the muffin tin until completely dry.  mine took several days, but we did this in the winter and they had to be dried inside.  I also added white Elmer's glue around the edges to be sure the paper towel gripped the edges of the liner well.
8.  drying still in the muffin tins

Very real looking, right?  We then added lots of yummy colors to our cupcakes using acrylic paints.  I used the basic .99 paints.  While the paint was still wet we sprinkled the cakes with glitter.  I can see these being magical with just pixie dust glitter and soft pink paint....or pale blue paint.  Oh, what cute baby show gift take-aways!  And party favors....and well you get the idea.  These could created for any number of occasions.  Mine were made using school supplies, which are limited....you however can go bezerk making these pretty tasty treats!

Yes, these were a giant hit with the 4th graders...in fact my 3rd graders are already buggering me that they DO get to make these next year since they will in fact then be 4th graders!!  I love that we created something in the art room that was totally unexpected and really memorable.  I hope you enjoy making a few of these yourself!