Photoshop & Subway Art

Oh, the things you can do with Photoshop! Confession... I have absolutely no idea how to edit a picture I've taken using Photoshop. Sure, I'd like to eventually learn but for now I just leave those tasks up to the Hubby.

Recently I have been really interested in the subway art I've been seeing everywhere. During the holiday season I downloaded a free print from eighteen25. Check it out! LOVE IT!

They have one for Valentines Day, too.

These are so great that they inspired me to create one that I could leave up throughout the year. I've seen a lot of "family rules" subway art, but we don't have a whole lot of that in our family with a toddler and two part-timers. Instead, I came up with the idea to just have the print reflect us as a family; as in what we like to do (or eat) together and where we've been. Whatdya think?!

Mister Mischievous

My little Mister is sick, yet again. Apparently, due to his allergies, he is a little more susceptible to the respiratory illnesses that have been going on around these parts. He was perfectly healthy for a period of about two and a half weeks and now we've got the runny nose and cough going strong again. And since I tried to wait it out for a week in hopes that it would go away on it's own (yeah, riiiight), he also developed a slight ear infection. Looking at him running around like a wild man, you wouldn't really know he was sick until he came over to wipe his boogers on you and then coughed in your face. Yeah, he's sweet like that.

So, on Monday, we spent half the afternoon at the pediatrician's office. We waited for two hours. Yeah, you read that right. Two hours in a tiny room with a toddler. A toddler who had not had a nap. It was not fun and I have photographic evidence of the shenanigans* this kid was getting into.

Everything started out fine. First I gave him snacks to keep him quiet while we checked out the mural on the wall.

After pointing out the frogs, dragonflies and bunny rabit 4, 5...80 times we decided to read a book.

Then he started to get a little bored. He decided to practice getting on and off the chair a couple hundred times. Notice he is swinging his legs trying to scoot himself up and onto the chair seat.



After that, he moved onto to trying to open the door. Have I mentioned that the kid can open doors now? Yeah, not cool!

When I got onto him for trying that funny business, he moved onto running from one end of the room and banging on the wall to running back to the door and giving it a good bang, too. You can imagine how much fun that was. Every time I stopped him and scolded him, he let out a high-pitched, "Ehhhhhhggggh! Uhhh Uhhhh!" And so, although normally the thought of my child laying on the floor in the doctor's office would totally gross me out, this time I just shrugged my shoulders and sighed.

I understand having to wait in doctor's offices, I really do. That being said, I would have much rather spent that two hours sitting in the waiting room where there were other kids, toys and a TV. Nobody wants to spend that amount of time trying to entertain a toddler in a shoe-box sized room with nothing more than a couple of books and a cell phone! I'm tired again just thinking about it! I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's a good thing he's so damn cute!

* In my head, that word is always said with an Irish accent a 'la Super Troopers.

Project 365: Week 3

Told you I would get to this sooner or later!

Sunday, January 16th

 Haeden is an avid reader, you guys.

Monday, January 17th



 Practicing his downward dog pose.

Tuesday, January 18th

 Will trade smiles for cookies!

Wednesday, January 19th

 Drumming on the hamper.

Thursday, January 20th

 Blocks in Haeden's room.

Friday, January 23rd

Red-shouldered hawk on the light post outside Mom's house. She's afraid they'll eat the dog. hehe

 Saturday, January 22nd

Napping in the dining room?! Hey, if it works...

*** I may or may not have cheated this week and taken more pictures on certain days and forgotten to take some on others. You'll never really know...

Craftastic Weekend

Last weekend was not very exciting. In fact, for the most part, it was downright boring. I had hoped to get out of the house and maybe go to the zoo, but it was wasn’t ideal weather and my older stepson was playing catch up all weekend with his school work. I’m not kidding, he pretty much ate, slept, showered and did homework. It wasn’t fun for any of us

The only good thing about such an uneventful weekend is that, Mama? she gets stuff done. I did the usual weekend cleaning, a little extra organizing and even had time for crafting! Since Haeden is pretty much constantly all up in my grill, I can only craft when he is sleeping. I made the most of that time this weekend and finally finished up my first cross-stitch project. I am in love with these and can’t wait to get to the craft store sometime this week to stock up on more thread so that I can get on with the next project.

I also broke out the felt and tried out a couple of new flower designs. The flatter flower is so darn quick and easy that I made three of them. I had seen a similar design on etsy and figured I could make it myself with my stepson’s trusty circle template. These flowers are pretty much self-explanatory. The second flower I made into a pin and am wearing it today. I’ve already gotten several compliments and I have to confess, I love being able to tell people that I made it myself!

For the second type, I'm including directions (sorry, no photos).

1. Cut out 6 flower shapes approx 3 inches in diameter. You will also need to cut out circular piece for the back and two leaves (optional).

2. Take each flower and place a dot of glue in the middle and fold over. Then place another dot of glue in the middle and fold over once more.

3.Arrange four of these on the felt circle so that the straight edges are touching. Then you will glue the remaining two in the middle so that they are sticking straight up/ one resting on each side of the flower. This makes sense when you are actually in the moment, I promise.

4. If you decide to use a flimsier type of fabric you could push the two top layers down and glue a pretty bead or button to the middle to give it a little extra flair. You can then either glue to a pin back, alligator clip or headband.

And lastly, I finally found the time to create the subway art inspired print all about our little family. It was simple and fun and I promise to post a picture of it later this week! Also, still to come is last week’s Project 365 photos!