My new Custom Boutique Website!

My husband has done a great job designing the functionality of my site.  I did all the graphics and of course I design and make all the clothes!

Look and see:

http://www.thoughtponds.com/

Plum Polka Dot Perfection

I just listed a new custom outfit on ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360248082719

Thanks for looking!

Recent Studio Photo Shoot

Prayers for Layla Grace

http://laylagrace.org/

Such a sad but touching story, prayers for her and her family...

Fun Characters With Your Computer Keyboard

This should work in any Windows word processor, text editor, browser or email client.




1. Make sure your keyboard is in NumLock mode.

2. Hold down the ALT key and enter the number on the numeric keypad. (Note that many laptops have a blue FN key that changes a set of keys, also with blue numbers on them and usually in the 7-8-9-U-I-O area, into a numeric keypad.)



for ☺ 1

for ☻ 2

for ♥ 3 <===

for ♦ 4

for ♣ 5

for ♠ 6

for • 7

for ◘ 8

for ○ 9

for ◙ 10

for ♂ 11

for ♀ 12

for ♪ 13

for ♫ 14

for ☼ 15

for ► 16

for ◄ 17

for ↕ 18

for ‼ 19

for ¶ 20

for § 21

for ▬ 22

for ↨ 23

for ↑ 24

for ↓ 25

for → 26

for ← 27

for ∟ 28

for ↔ 29

for ▲ 30

for ▼ 31

Mod Podge Suncatchers

I love getting ideas for fun and easy kids crafts from other bloggers. 

One of my favorite mediums to work with is decoupage aka Mod Podge.  I found a great blog for decoupage projects and the the first one we tried was the suncatcher. 

Find it here on Mod Podge Rocks!

We started out by glueing together our "petals".  The kids did this in whatever shape they wanted.  You need to make sure they are level so the Mod Podge doesn't leak out too much when you pour it in the petals.

For this entire project we used items that we already had on hand...basically making it FREE!!

I had purple, blue, and white tissue paper.  No one wanted white so we used the other two colors, purple for girly and blue for the boys!

We cut the tissue down to size and then placed it on a plastic bag.  I wanted to make sure that the suncatcher didn't get stuck on whatever it was laying on to dry.  The plastic bag made sense because it could be peeled off later.  I also had the kids do this on cookie sheets so they could be easily moved from the table for drying...which took about 3 days.

We mainly used beads in the design with a bit of sparkly ribbon that I cut up to make little bitty pieces.  You could easily use sequins and glitter but we were sticking to the free method!  :)

Notice the small amount of leakage around the edges...this is why it's important to get it level when glueing.  Also it's good to have two sets of hands when pouring the Mod Podge in.  One person can hold down on the design while the other slowly poors.

Here are the finished products!!

and each artist with their creation:

We used these as teachers gifts!  We paired it up with some delicious chocolate, afordable and thoughtful!

Next time we will make some to keep.  I am thinking we will use some of the seashells we found on our beach vacation this past summer!

Melted Snowman Cookies

I saw this awesome idea for melted snowman cookies on Stacey's Sweet Shop blog and decided to try it myself!

The kids helped....here's pickle...

and Lyly...

J baby will be helping next week when we make them again for his Christmas party at school...he was out playing today!