Bronx Zoo

Last weekend we celebrated the birthday of a very sweet 2-year old by going to the Bronx Zoo.  It was a lovely cool day with sunny blue skies.  Hubby and I tried to take lots of photos of the animals, but honestly some of my favorite photos were the ones that we took of family.

 This final photo cracks me up.  

By the end both boys were completely zonked from all the fun. 

Sharpie on shoes

In high school I used a lot of Sharpie markers and white out pens to decorate my clothes and backpacks.  Inspired by this momma's post I felt the urge to pull out my trusty tools again and doodle on a pair of shoes. 

My triangles were a bit... erm... wonky.  But, I had lots of fun and now Baby Chuck will have a one-of-a-kind pair of shoes just in time for fall.

Crapty Fridays- Making stamps out of styrofoam plates

I'm a jealous crafter.
For the past couple of months I've suffered from envy...fruit and vegetable stamp envy.

Whenever I see other crafters using produce like apples or potatoes to create beautiful stamps, I always think, "Gee, that looks like fun.  I wish I could do that."  I then go to the grocery store intending to buy and carve something beautiful.  But once I make my way to the produce section I can never push myself to actually do it.  I'd much rather eat food then craft with food.  Potato stamp.... or creamy potato salad? (Yum.)  Apple stamp... or healthy and crunchy snack?  (Double yum.)  My hunger beats my crafting intentions every time. 

Since produce stamping is probably out of the picture for me, I've turned to another option:  Styrofoam bowls.  We had a couple of random ones lying around.  I was going to toss out, but then I felt the strong urge to crapt.  (Tee hee.)   Here's what I did:

I drew and cut out shapes to act as the stamps. I also cut out large rectangles to create stamp handles.

I used plain ol' Elmers glue to glue my cutout shapes to their respective rectangle handles.  (Note: I made sure that my rectangular handle was thinner than my shape.  I didn't want the handle to be part of the stamp too!)

To "ink" up my stamps, I painted craft paint onto them.  Then, I repainted the stamp each time I made an imprint. 

I'm glad I went with simple shapes because my craft paint kind of squished and oozed underneath my stamp.  A lot of my imprints were far from perfect, but I'd think that adds a certain crafty charm, right?  I'm unsure whether this activity was similar in any way to real fruit and vegetable stamping, but it was the perfect crapty project to help me get over my stamping envy... for now.

How would you crapt with a used Styrofoam plate? 
What should I crapt with next??      

Hungry Caterpillar Party Part 3

Here are the last of my party photos. 

(We didn't have an actual photo-booth set up, but the guests were still able to play around with the props.  Don't they look so gosh darn cute?)

Hungry Caterpillar Party Part 2

Click here for directions to make your own fruit balloon garland

Special thanks to brave hubby for holding the pinata while kids swung wildly with their bats.

I found it hilarious that the kids brought multiple bats to hit the pinata.

Can I be honest with you?

I initially didn't want to throw Baby Chuck a party.  (Does that make me a bad mommy?  Hopefully not.)  I didn't want a birthday party because I figured Baby Chuck wouldn't really remember anything... so why spend the money or put the effort in?  (Ay, I'm so cheap.)  But then I changed my mind after talking with some relatives.  It only took a bit of convincing and Pinteresting before I was on-board.  (Anytime there's a craft to be made, count me in!) 

Looking back I'm really glad that we did it.  Hubby and I got to celebrate the fact that we kept a baby alive for a whole year.  Wowzers.  Tita Tina, Ana, and I got a chance to craft.  Yes!  Baby Chuck will have lovely photos to look at one day.  Hooray!  And our young guests got a chance to let loose and enjoy themselves. Score!

You know what?  Here's my deep thought of the day:
There are so many tough and sad things in this world.  Life would be better if we threw more parties and celebrated. 

(Thanks Sam for taking these beautiful photos.)