First I'd like to say how incredibly honored I am to have received one of these babies:

• Give thanks to your award-giver,
• Tell people seven things about yourself,
• Pass on the award to 15 bloggers that you think are fantastic.

Alrighty, seven things.... let's see....

1. I am a shy, quiet person.  Really.
2. I cannot commit to a favorite color.  I try, but fail miserably.
3. I love to sing, and hopefully with get the nerve to do so in public.  Someday.
4. I am very unorganized.  I don't even know where the rest of my desk is right now.
5. My dream house is somewhere on a lake.  ::sigh::
6. I'm terrified of falling from heights.  Being up above my comfort level makes my feet ache.
7. I love being barefoot.

There!  I didn't think I could come up with seven, but that wasn't so bad.  And now to pass on the award...

1. those northern skies
2. Sweet Little Smoothie
3. Sparta Savings
4. rust & ruffles
5. Punkin Patterns
6. Pink Tea
7. Majestic Street
8. LollyChops
9. JunkFest
10. Handbags*n*Pigtails
11. Green Submarine
12. A Creative Life
13. Crafts & Sutch
14. Craftopia
15. Mich L. in L.A.

There they are! 

For some reason, my kids are always losing socks, so I have a bunch of pair-less, lonely socks in the sock drawer.  Here's something to do with them, to make them feel loved again:  Make sock bunnies!


Awwww :)

You'll need:

• One lonely sock
• Corn kernels
• Tiny elastic bands, like the size for braces or braids
• Glue- I used hot glue and plain white glue, but other craft glues would probably work, too
• Scissors
• Funnel
• Material for eyes, nose, mouth, and tails

Start with your sock(s).


Take your funnel (I rolled up a plastic place mat and taped it into a funnel shape), and pour in the kernels.


Pack them down into the sock, and when you've got what looks like a chubby little bunny body, take and elastic and wrap it around the sock to close it off.





Place the funnel back into the sock, and pour in some more kernels, this time using less to make the head.  Again, use an elastic to tie the sock off at the top.

Now grab your scissors and cut down the middle of the top of the sock, to separate the ears.





Then cut each half to look like a bunny ear.





Now comes the fun part, where you can let your (or your kid's) imagination run wild.  I used mat paper for the eyes and nose, but felt, buttons, embroidery thread, beads..... pretty much anything you like, can be used.  I attached the eyes with hot glue and the nose (because it was so small) with white glue.  For the mouth I just used a sharpie and drew in on.



Add a fluffy little tail to the back...




And that's it!  The girls and I whipped up two of these in about 20 minutes.  They love them!

Not much of an intro on this one, so let's just get right down to it :)

Here's what we're taping and painting today- a striped vase:




It's got a neat 3-D/ layered effect going on.  Here's what you need:

• Glass vase, any shape or size
• Spray paint, two colors
• Painter's tape
• Razor blade or sharp craft knife
• Plastic bag
• Ruler

First, make sure your vase is clean and dry.  Then wrap the outside with a plastic bag and secure with the painter's tape... like so:





I wanted the top edge to be the same color as the inside, so I left that untaped.  Now take your vase outside and spray paint the inside.  I chose silver for mine.  Make sure to spray lightly so you don't create any drips.  This may take a few coats to cover completely, and let the paint dry between coats.  Once that's dry you can take the tape/bag combo off.





Even at this step, it looks pretty nice.  Anyway, onto the next step.  For my stripes, irregular and uneven ones (for those of use that don't want to do math & measuring...), cover the entire outside in painter's tape.  Like this:





Then take your craft knife and ruler and cut straight lines from top to bottom, and remove every other strip of tape.  Here's what you end up with:





Now you're going to take it outside again, place it upside down, and spray it all over with the second color of paint.  Like this:




Again, it may take a few coats, so let the paint dry between them.  Once it is completely dry, it's time to take of that tape.  Carefully.  What I did was score alongside of each piece of tape with my craft knife, just to make sure the paint didn't peel up along with it when I pulled the tape off.





After all of the tape is pulled off, it would probably be a good idea to spray the whole thing with some sort of sealer.  I skipped that step, but I'm sure I'll be regretting it later on.  Anyway, when you're done, you've got a pretty striped vase!  Or whatever design you come up with!  Awesome!  Great!  Alrighty, enough of that.