Silly Monster Party

While you may think that I would be into throwing totally elaborate, totally crafty, totally decorated, totally adorable parties for my kids, I really am not.  I see the parties that people put together on other blogs, and I'm amazed at how wonderful they all are.  But I know myself, and I know that I am a perfectionist, and a party like one of those would STRESS ME OUT to the max!  So the two real parties I've thrown for my kids (by real, I mean someone other than family was invited) have been cute, but I've definitely not gone as "all out" as I could have.

 Anyway, all that explanation was just a way to say that here was my simple, fairly easy solution to Noah's request for a "Silly Monster Party".  It came out cute, somewhat crafty, and lots of fun for the kids!  

At Target, we found these monster shirts for the boys to wear (Avery wore some monster pj's that we already had).  Ugh, do you think we could clean our front door a little bit?  I didn't realize how bad it looked until I saw these photos!

I googled "silly monsters" and found several cute monster images that I printed out and  made into a banner.

 We gathered every kid-sized seat in the house (and outside) and put them around the coffee table, along with monster sticker sheets for the kids to play with as they arrived.

 My sister helped decorate a monster cake (inspired by this one).  Isn't he cute?

We got a monster pinata at Target, which was a big hit, of course!  Target has a really cute monster line in their party section- we got lucky with that!

And the funnest part was making their own silly monsters!  I made the monsters from two pieces of felt, then  stuffed them.  They went pretty fast, maybe about 15 minutes for each monster.  I cut out lots of items for the kids to glue on- eyes, mouths, noses, bows, hair, and of course, teeth!  

I printed out the photo at the top of the post for them to get ideas.  Grown-ups helped glue all the pieces together.

 Avery loved hers, and carries around her "Baby Monster" all the time!

And here's the cutest picture of all- all the kids with their monsters!  Aren't they cute?  (Some of the kids had  fake teeth in- they aren't in need of a dentist!)

It was a fun party overall.  Noah had a great time, and so did the kids.  And it wasn't too much work!  But I still have to say that even though it wasn't a whole lot of work, I still was TOTALLY STRESSED OUT!  So it's a good thing I don't get any more elaborate than this- ha ha!

Lil' Vintage Story Books #17

Welcome again to Lil' Vintage Story Books, where we share our favorite vintage children's books!

Today's book is a sweet one called, "Friends Are For Loving".  It's written by Mary Alice Jones and illustrated by Dorothy Grider, published in 1968.

I just love the illustrations in this book- they are truly so sweet!  In fact, I'll just let the illustrations speak for themselves!

So sweet, right???

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My Little Vintage Valentine

While Avery didn't actually wear this outfit for Valentine's Day (I'm amazed at how many articles of clothing she has with hearts on them!  We had plenty to choose from yesterday!), I thought it was an appropriate week to post this sweet vintage dress.

 She just loves hearts, so loved pointing them out to me during the day!

 Yay, hearts!

But then she was done, and off to play!

Dress and shoes were thrifted, jeggings are from Target

I'm linking up here (for Small Style) and here (for the "Heart" photo challenge) this week!

Giveaway Winner!

Hi All, just popping in to tell you the winner of my recent giveway- peggy aplSEEDS!!!  Congratulations, Peggy!  I'll be getting a book out to you soon!

Lil' Vintage Story Books #16

Welcome again to Lil' Vintage Story Books, where we share our favorite vintage children's books!

This week I'm showcasing two books-  "The Gingerbread Man" and "The Runaway Pancake".  They are both Whitman books, published in 1958 and 1951, respectively.  There are no authors listed, but the illustrators are Sari and Ben Williams.

I was going to title the post "Which Came First, the Gingerbread Man or the Runaway Pancake?", but it would have been too long!  The reason is that both these books are the same story, but with a different tasty main character.

The first features an old woman who makes a gingerbread man who comes to life, while the second features an old man who makes a pancake who comes to life.

The gingerbread man meets an old man and woman who try to catch him, while the pancake meets an old woman.

The gingerbread man meets a cow who tries to catch him, while the pancake meets a hen and her chicks.

The gingerbread man meets a conniving fox who carries him across a river, while the pancake meets a conniving pig who carries him across a river.

And finally, well, I'm sure you can guess what happens next!

I really am curious about how these stories came about- we've all heard the story of the gingerbread man, but I've never heard of the runaway pancake!  Regardless though, my kids love them both!

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Vintage Kitty, Re-Styled

You may remember this ADORABLE kitty cat jumper from this post.  I love it so much that I want her to get as much wear out of it as possible, even in the cooler months!

So we've re-styled it for a Florida winter!  She's wearing a little striped shirt and skinny jeans underneath, with coordinating socks and shoes.  And it's just as adorable as it was during the summer!

And how much do I love her hair in these little braids?  So cute- it reminds me of how my mom used to fix my hair when I was young!

She's been loving her little thrifted tricycle lately.   And she's actually really good at pedaling!  I don't think the boys pedaled until they were at least three...

Vintage jumper: Oliver's Forest    Striped tee: Walmart    Skinny Jeans: Thrifted (Gap brand)    Shoes: Ross

My giveaway is still going on!  If you'd like to win a copy of my book, leave a comment on that post!!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

 My sweet Noah turns five today!  Happy Birthday, Buddy!  We love you!

More Questions Answered (+ A Giveaway!)

 Hi Guys, I thought I'd answer a couple more questions you had for me, this time about my book.

For those of you who are a bit newer to my blog, you may not realize that I wrote a book a few years ago.  It's called "The Art of Personal Imagery", and I'll just show you a little bit about it before I get to the questions.  It's about doing scrapbook/collage artwork that uses PERSONAL imagery vs. generic imagery.  In my opinion, using personal imagery elevates your art to a much more meaningful, insightful place than it may have been before!  Here are some sample photos of the pages:

So anyway, I often get questions about the book, and thought I'd share a couple here.  

Michele asked:  Will you be writing another book? (I really loved your first one!)

I get this question a lot!  But my answer is "probably not".  And really, the reason is because I frankly don't think I have enough material to fill up another one!  While my artwork has certainly evolved since I wrote the first one, I don't know that it's changed enough for me to have enough "new stuff" to write about!  The process I use for creating is still pretty much the same, and I can't think of what else I would add.  So until I can come up with enough new material, there probably won't be another book...!

The next question is from Daniele, who asked:   My question, is how did you start out and end up with a book deal?

This is also a common question, and I don't know if my answer will really help any of you, since I sort of came about my book deal in a "lucky" way.  The lucky part is that I have a good friend who is an editor at Northlight Books.  I discussed the idea of writing a book with her, and she told me to write up a proposal and send it to them.  So that's what I did.  The proposal was approved, and I got the deal!  I don't know if my friendship with her had any weight, but for any of you who are interested to write a book, I'd probably recommend you doing the same thing I did!  

However, I would have to warn you that (at least in my experience) writing a book does not necessarily mean you get to do things your way.  The publisher has a tremendous amount of say about the content and format of the book.  I'm very happy with the way my book came out, but it certainly wasn't the same thing I had envisioned when I originally thought about it.  In fact, I didn't even come up with the title or have anything to do with the design of the book- that was all done by the editors!  

Thanks for the questions, guys!  

So, you may have noticed the word GIVEAWAY in the title of this post!  I figured that since I was talking so much about my book, I might as well give away a copy!  Hooray!

To be entered, just leave me a comment on this post!  That's all!  

I'll draw a winner next Sunday, Feb. 12th!

Lil' Vintage Story Books #15

Welcome again to Lil' Vintage Story Books, where we share our favorite vintage children's books!

I really love today's book.  It's "Time for Everything" by Norah Smaridge, illustrated by Sharon Kane, published in 1972.  I found this book while doing a search on Norah Smaridge, who also wrote this book.   I love the way she writes- her prose reads so smoothly, but with a such a nice rhythm! 

 This is a sweet, sweet book explaining what sorts of things you can do in certain amounts of time.

 The things she chooses to illustrate the amounts of time are just perfect for children to understand!

 Love this little girl drawing a cat!

 Wow!  Three sandwiches!  Go, Susan!

 None of our playground have jungle gyms anymore- my boys would LOVE one of those!

 The kids like hearing about all the animals who are doing things while they're sleeping!

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