Well, I survived Brett being out of town this past Wednesday-Saturday. And am proud of myself actually!!! All went well, nobody killed each other (read, Owen and I,) made it to work on time both days, successfully bathed both children at the same time, ran errands and managed to keep everyone fed all with relatively low stress may I add. Success!!!!
It probably helped that Friday night I was away for the
Craft Social. Thanks to Ryan (Owen's Godfather) and Mary for babysitting:) And thanks to
Kristin for joining me! We had so much fun.
For $25 you got to make 2 things and there 15 projects to choose from. Our goal was to learn some new techniques. We chose glass etching and silk screening.
At the glass etching station we were able to make 1 to 2 votives. One way was to have the majority of the glass be etched and the other was to have only the design be etched.
First we chose a template.
One of Kristin's votives had a "t" with stripes. For this one, she wanted the majority of the glass to be etched so she cut her design out of contact paper (use scissors or an exacto knife) and applied it directly to the glass. Make sure you run your finger over the edges of everything to ensure the design is firmly next to the glass. Otherwise the cream could leak under the contact paper and ruin what you've created.
For my mostly etched votive, I chose to place butterflies on the glass with little dots in between.
For the versions where only the design was etched, you need to take a strip of contact paper long enough to wrap around the glass. You then cut out your design. My advice for anything circular would be to use a punch. And you want to make sure your knife is sharp because it can be a little tricky for more detailed design.
After this step, we painted on the etching material. It was really easy. But, you do need to wear gloves and be careful because it contains acid. I got a little bit on my fingers and it stung for about 30 seconds but luckily didn't do any damage. You want to be very generous with the cream to ensure all of the sections are etched.
You let the etching cream dry for 5-10 minutes.
Here are the finished products. They turned out great!!!! Our second set turned out really cute as well.
The next project was silk screening. At first we weren't going to do this one, because neither of us was going to invest in silk screening equipment. But, this product they were demoing means you don't have to buy any equipment! It's called
Simply Screen by Plaid.
Basically it's a stencil with the screen built on and they give you a squeegee type thing to pull the paint with. It is awesome. I can't wait to sit down and think about what to make and then start putting together some Christmas gifts. Super easy and they have all kinds of foils, embellishments, etc. to really personalize anything you create.
Here is what the kit looks like. I chose a fish design and Kristin chose a chandelier.
One you take the screen stencil out of the package here is what it looks like. you can't really tell from the picture, but the white part actually has a thin screen over it.
You simply press the sticky side of the stencil down to the material. At home I would probably use tape to ensure it's really stuck down, but it's not necessary.
Once the stencil is in place, you put your lightest "base" color down on the top of the stencil.
Then, using your squeegee, you evenly (but not too hard) press down and pull the paint towards yourself.
The best part is that you can actually use different colors. Here, I layered on darker colors for the water and flower parts of the pattern.
After that you simply lift up the stencil.
Viola! Unfortunately all they had left was bar towels for material and they don't work as well as a flat material, but it still turned out pretty good and now I know how to do it.
They say the stencil can be used up to 20 times, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort to clean it since the product doesn't cost that much. I guess it just depends on whether or not you want to reuse the design.
Here is Kristin's design ready to go.
And here is the finished product. Fabulous! She added some silver on top of the turquoise which really gave the design some dimension.
And here is an example of a design on a t-shirt material. You can see that it's much crisper.
Can't wait for the next social. I'll definitely go back!
On Sunday my Mom and I had a wedding shower to attend. Her best friend's son is getting married here in Chicago on November 20th. It is all bittersweet because her husband died just a few months ago after battling cancer for 17 years. He was a wonderful man and will be deeply missed.
The event was beautiful and was like a small wedding. 75 women and Mark (the groom) in a ballroom. He's marrying into a Greek family so I guess everything is bigger:) His future family is lovely and the food was wonderful.
Tina's squared (both my Mom and her best friend are both Tina!)
Katie (Mark's sister), Me, my Mom and Tina
Asli (Mark's sister-in-law) and Katie
It was nice to see everyone and spend some time with my mom.
A good weekend overall.
Finally found some apples!
Most of the apples remaining were really low which was advantageous for Owen.
Picking his first apple
Apple Picking
Had to get this shot of Owen eating canned peaces at an apple orchard. Nice.
Maddi got in on the action too. (Don't worry, she doesn't have teeth yet.)
Here are some highlights of the activity section:
Golden Goat Bridge
Goats
Train Ride x 2
Owen deciding he was done with picture taking and threw a fit. We left after this was taken. Pretty funny to me though. 
Owen admiring baby Lily
Jill and Lily
Daddy and Maddi playing
One of my favorite pics!
Brett and the kiddos
All in all a good weekend.
