Accidentally-on-Purpose Candle Art!

Accidentally on purpose I made some pretty awesome candle art- if that's what you would call it! I was doing some sort of craft that had to do with tealights, the little candles that float on water, and the craft ended up as burned paper in the trash. Sad, since I was pretty excited about it! :( but then I lit the candles while they were floating on the water, dyed the water blue, and let them sit for a while till I had to clean it up. But when I let the water out of the sink I was using, it let out a bubble of air or something that tipped over one of the candles, and the melted wax hardened in the cold water it splashed into without me noticing. Kai was watching me, and afterwards he said: "Tia, that was so cool! It was so awesome that it almost made me pee my pants! We should do that again!" I just thought: good thing that it didn't make him pee his pants.... I didn't attempt to do that again, but then he did it on his own with the other candles.... and they weren't extravagant enough to make him as excited as the first time. So we made accidentally-on-purpose art today. And it was fun. :) Here are some pretty pictures:



Pretty awesome... but all my mom said was, "That just looks like chewed gum..." Have you ever made something cool or (if with food) yummy? What was it? I'd love to know! :)

Anthropologie Inspired Tutorial: Lace Trapeze Earrings!

So I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday with a friend and bought a TON of stuff! (Okay, maybe not a ton, but at least a couple of pounds! :o) I was working on a project, but didn't have everything I needed for it. That's right. I didn't have jump rings. I know, some of you are probably thinking, of all things, she didn't have jump rings! So I got a pack, and this morning I finished these cute earrings!
I found the originals at Anthropologie, and decided to try making them. It was really easy, and I'll tell you how to do it, but I kinda forgot to take pictures while I was doing it...

You'll need a small jewelry chain, lace, jump rings, glue, acrylic paint, and earring hooks (sorry, I don't really know what they're called!)

Cut a shape out of the lace, and make sure you do two!

Dilute desired color of acrylic paint, white as one color. I did pink, pinkish white, and cream.

Paint bottom of lace piece, and let dry. Try doing the solid color, blend with the second color, then finish off the top with the white/cream. It also might be helpful to apply enough paint so that it stiffens the fabric and doesn't curl when you wear them.

Cut two pieces of jewelry chain and connect both ends of the pieces with a jump ring, but slide one end through the earring hook before you connect the last jump ring (there should be a part on the bottom for this), if that makes any sense. The picture should help.

Poke holes on either side of the lace and put the jump rings through.

Close the jump rings and put a little bit of glue on them so that they won't break the lace and fall off.

Try 'em on! :o)

I took a bunch of pictures with these, and decided that I liked this one. A quail laid an egg underneath the playground in our backyard, and let's just say that it hasn't hatched yet. Made us pretty sad, but they've done that three or four times now, and all of the others hatched- we've seen them running all over the place! Haha hope you like your earrings! If you didn't understand part of my tutorial, please leave a comment!

Flower Earrings

So, I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of my locker, but here is a tut on the flower earrings: First, you will need Tacky Glue* , a toothpick, a butter knife, earrings (flat topped- you can get these at Roberts, made especially for crafts like these), and Sculpey or other sort of polymer clay.

This tutorial may seem confusing (and sorry, the pictures are kinda bad), but it is SUPER easy. I made at least five or six pairs after this :o). First step is to roll a ball of sculpey out and cut it in half. It should be about the size of quarter- maybe a bit larger, but it all depends on how big your earring pieces are, and how big you want your earrings to be.

Next, you'll want to cut a small chunk out of one of the pieces of sculpey, and roll it into a snake. Then you flatten the 'snake' out, and curl it into a swirl like a burrito. This will be the center of the flower.

After that, continue to cut small bits of sculpey, roll them into balls, and press them flat, then flattening the edge a bit more.

These will be the petals of the flower. Keep doing this until you don't have any sculpey left. When that's done, press the petals onto the center of your flower, smoothing out the bottom with the toothpick. It will make it sooo much easier when you have to glue the flowers to the earrings!

Bake according to package directions.....

Then glue to the top part of the earring.

Now you're done!

Note: the Tacky Glue I bought didn't keep the flowers on the earrings, I don't know if that is the case, if the brands of glue are different, or if the earrings weren't the right kind of metal that worked with the Tacky Glue, but anyways, just try to keep that in mind.

Anything in the World

GIVE ME A NEW POST TO READ- ANYTHING!!!!!!
Okay, I had to do a new post, since I DEFINITELY have things to talk about.


Fine. I DO have things to talk about. If one day you ever want me to post about something, I'll do it. But I haven't had any topics lately, or any that I'd take the time to post about. I finally finished decorating my locker today ;-) and I figured out how to make rose earrings that look like roses. And my birthday is coming up! YAY!!!! (and I've been working on personal progress- now that my neighbor who's in the beehive presidency is here:0). The End. cause i gotta finish these dumb cookies that are taking WAY WAY WAY too long. never mind. love y'all. see ya! :-)

Three News' (I don't actually think that's a word;)

I think I just started a new hobby: sewing. I always thought that it was way too confusing, "How do people do it?" answer: simple, sign up to 4H (if you are still a kid that is;). That's how I learned! We made skirts (which I was able to sew the elastic the night of... woo- hoo!), then after I went camping, I made this... a CUTE pencil bag! Or a pencil box, but I don't think it's very box enough to say so.

Above shows the magnets I put inside the brim.

Just a random picture of the inside...

and another of me holding it up. Just so you know, the ribbon switches/alternates sides (however you want to say that) on both sides.

I also used fabric glue to put some ribbon on it just in case the magnet plan didn't work. All in all, it only took me about a half hour to sew. Even though I had to change colors of thread and pick out the old one when it ran out. My news is: one, I learned how to work a sewing machine. Two, I made a skirt. Last but not least I made my own pencil "bag" with no help!
Thank you for reading my post!
Tia

My New Talent

So for Ari's Birthday party, I needed to figure out how to make balloon animals. They're really fun to make, and most are simple!

Here is my latest "accomplishment"..... The Flower!

Kai had to "smell" it for my picture above.

Come One, Come All! These Puppets Are Wonderful!

During Spring Break our class had to make our own sock puppets. I did an alien named Mars, and then decided it was too much fun to just do one! I made a pizza chef for Kai, and the first thing he said I had to put on it was the mustache. I guess that's how he remembers them! I also made an artist, and started working on a pirate.

Sorry, I didn't get a picture of Mars, and these photos are a little bright. Right now, Mars is at school right now. I haven't finished the pirate yet . Oh well!

Monoply

So, today we played Monoply, and Kai and I were winning, I had already said this, because of the talk in either general conference, or in sacrament meeting: 'I just don't know how to lose!' So now, about an hour later, he's in there winning like crazy. Maybe next time will be my turn to win!

Pulla

On Saturday, Ari and I made Pulla, a Finnish coffee bread (from Finland, and no, we don't drink coffee with it- try hot chocolate). We did 3 cups of gluten, and the rest whole wheat flour, we also added a bit more milk in the end, and sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on top. You can see that the loaves were pretty long, so I had to take three different pictures so you could see the braiding (which, by the way, we did four way braiding; take the first bunch of dough, and go over on one, under next, then over last). Here's the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Finnish-Pulla/Detail.aspx

My Homemade Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!
I know it's tomorrow, but the parties are always the day or days before. This year I made my own valentines again. I just get tired of the same ones every year, and they aren't the kind I'd want to use. They're always too goofy, or otherwise, Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana (who I'm not a fan of). That's why I like to make my own. You can decorate them however you want, and you don't have to make them super fancy either. Remember, people always just throw away the valentine, and keep the candy. Sooooo..... here's what mine looked like. I kinda ran out of time- couple days before to be exact. I did almost every color combination you could imagine. There were only two left over. P.S. (They weren't all Snickers ;)

Bookworm

Today I finished a book called: The Looking Glass Wars.
I borrowed it from a neighbor, as well as Pillage, by Obert Skye; the same
author of Leven Thumps. I also borrowed The Alchemyst-Secrets of
the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, by Michael Scott. Both are really
great books; but if I had to choose one, it would definitely be The Alchemyst.
The Looking Glass Wars is by Frank Beddor, and it's another version
of the story Alice in Wonderland. It has a few blood and gore parts, but
they weren't so bad that I had to put it down. I liked it, and the
author is making a trilogy out of it, so I'm gonna see how those
turned out. Hope you'll try them!

Bubble Mania!

Today Ari and I blew up water balloons again... it's just too much fun!
This picture all started this afternoon when I was playing with bubbles,
the sink filled with water, and the balloons. Then Ari showed me a trick on how to make
the bubbles faster...... it worked a little too well!

Here's an up close on a leaning tower of overflowing bubbles.

If you ever want to try this at home, it's not messy.... it's actually the
exact opposite! We used straws; any kind would work, but we preferred the double black
straws. They're a bit smaller, though.

You'll also need a cup. We used plastic and Styrofoam.

Fill the cup (or cups) half way full (or half empty ;) with water and bubble
solution. "Miracle Bubbles" worked really well. You can also use
liquid hand soap. A few squirts should do.

Next you need to fill a sink up with water..... we plopped in the balloons then.

Put your choice of straw into the cup, and blow! You might
want to do it over the water filled sink, too! Most everyone knows that
this is bad manners at the table when you're drinking, but in this activity, your cup can
overflow! Not to mention the water balloons- soon you won't be able to see them!

Have Fun!!!!!

Sleepover Craft

A few nights ago, we had a sleepover at
Keaton's house, and it was so fun! One of the
things that I did (thank you Aunt Kira!) was
make flower clips. I took a couple pictures (which are above).
It was really fun to make them, and even more fun
to make the English Toffee and brownies for the
New Years party. The top one is the
one I wore yesterday. The one I wore today
was one of the red and white ones, I made two of those
so that I could wear one, and Ari could wear one, also for pig tails.

Thanks again, Aunt Kira!

An Idea for FHE

Here's an idea for FHE that I got from my primary teacher.....

1. First, go to http://www.sugardoodle.info/mambo/.

2. You should see gray buttons right below the top part of the blog.
click on the one that says "Primary Manuals"

3. Then click on the Primary 5 manual (anyone can go back to being that age).

4. Scroll down, and click on lesson 38; Brigham Young Leads the Church.

5. Next, click on (there's going to be a lot of clicking :) number seven, Apostle cards.

6. At the top, click on "open Apostle Cards in English".

7. Print, and you can have each family member try to match the pictures to the name and facts.

Enjoy!

More Yard Pictures, With a Hummingbird

These types of flowers are one of my favorite, mostly because of the color.

This is probably one pf the best Zinnias (let's hope that's right) at the time.

This is a Bumble Bee on a Marigold (the Marigolds are pretty much taking over
our yard- it's very pretty in the summer)

This is a pic I took of a hummingbird I think last month.
It's at the butterfly bush.

New Recipe

My mom and I made a new recipe a while ago, I finally remembered to post about it. It's called Vanilla Shortbread. We got the idea from all the vanilla beans we have. You pretty much just make shortbread, but add about a half a teaspoon of milk, and a few vanilla beans (make sure to scrape them really good, it's worth it!). I also made lavender short bread about a month ago. You can see the recipe here, at the bottom of the page. And yes, I was wondering about this too, you add the seeds as well; they won't change the flavor. The wands turned out pretty cute, too (Ari made one at her activity days a while before).

Air Filled Water Balloons

A while ago, I pumped up a bunch of water balloons. With a basketball pump (it actually was
waaaay easier- I should try it with balloons at b-day parties).

Then we rubbed them on Kai's hair, and stuck them on Ari. It seems like she didn't enjoy
the ones on her face. Sad for her- she couldn't move until we said, "Done!"

They did it to me, too. As well as Kai. He kept pointing out spots he didn't want them.
Until we told him he could shake them off in the end. Then he was happy!