A baby shower, a book, and how Mod Podge = one of Satan's Minions

I hate Mod Podge.

And paper.

And they hate me.

And anyone who tells you that they LOVE Mod Podge is most likely paid to say so.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning:

In November I flew to Idaho to throw my Sister-in-Law, Deb, a baby shower.










Deb didn't want any games at this shower, so I had the "brilliant" idea to combine the guest book with the activity.


This is what I came up with.


We would make an alphabet book by having each guest draw a picture representing the corresponding letter of the alphabet.
They would also sign a guest list that would make up the back cover of the alphabet book.


And it worked.
And it seemed brilliant at the time.

But then I started assembling the book.

I had forgotten that paper hates me.

And I didn't know then that Mod Podge is evil.

First I bought a board book online that claimed to have 14 pages.
I thought this would constitute 28 pages front and back.

No, this meant the book had 7 pages.

So I had to order another one.

But that wasn't a big deal.

I fused them together with white duct tape.
Things were still good.

But the Mod Podge would either smear the colored pencil,
smear the permanent marker,
or warp the pages.



I tried spray glue.
Didn't work.


In the end, I had to treat each page with a spray finish before Mod Podging it in and then adding a sealing layer of mod podge on top.

I still had troubles, but it was adequate.

It took me a long time, because I had to wait for each page to dry.

But I was patient.

And then, one night, it was very cold and very damp

and I guess I wasn't patient enough

because THIS happened:

The pages were irreparably stuck together.

And I cried.

I cried because I destroyed 5-year-old Gracie's drawings.

I cried because it had been four months and the book STILL wasn't finished.

And I cried because Mod Podge is evil.

Thankfully, I have my husband's amazing artistic talents to draw me some new pictures and salvage the book.

See? He's awesome.


And, thankfully, every time I got frustrated I could think of my darling niece, for whom I am making this contraption.

And my frustration dissolves.

Valentine Trees

Happy Valentines!
I hope you all had sweet ones.

I thought I would post a picture of the Valentine decorations I made this year, since they are going to be put away next week.

I made valentine trees out of some sticks, tiny clay pots, and some valentine picks I found in the dollar section of Michael's.

The whole project took me an hour.

The hardest part was finding the sticks.

Not because sticks are hard to come by around here, but because I had to get them out of a drainage ditch near my home, and I was embarrassed every time a car drove by. I'm sure I looked a little crazy rummaging through fallen tree branches.

On to the pictures.

The first few are showing the trees in their 'natural habitat' (a.k.a. on my mantel).

Then I moved them into my kitchen to get some better lighting on them so you can see the details.
I think they're cute.
They make me happy, at least.

I took a lot of photos and I don't feel like wading through them to separate the very best from the pile.

Sorry.

Kitchen Makeover!

My kitchen chairs were covered in white fabric. And they were hideous.

Since my kitchen is decorated in different shades of blue and green, I went to the fabric store with the intention of staying within that color scheme.

Then I saw this fabric, and I bought it.

Hooray for spontaneity!