Lace crowns, angel wings, beautiful multi layer bows and cheesecloth baby photography

After four babies of my own I think I am going into baby withdraw. So to fulfill my needs of babies I photograph them. Make them giggle and enjoy the sweetness of chubby cheeks and goo goo ga. I like to search pinterest for all the latest fads of baby photography.

*I found the lace crown and had to give it a try.
You just need lace, fabric stiffener, paint and hot glue.
Dip the lace in the stiffener let it drip then dry...
Paint it
glue the sides together and store it on a round cup so it keeps shape.
Be ready for a balancing act when you photograph the baby.

*I didn't make the bow. It's pretty amazing and elaborate. The baby's mama made it. She said it is just 3 different flowers put together. The idea is to get different types of material and put them together. so pretty.

* Angel wings cost about $4 to make.
  Just get 2 packages of feathers soft fluffy ones for the top and mid. And long feathers for the bottom. Hot glue them onto a cardboard
I used a baby head band for the straps.

I love this pic. I think the little baby looks like a perfect doll. I like how the cheesecloth frames her beautiful face. This was my first shot with cheesecloth. I can't wait to get a newborn in it. 

Build A Bear fits a newborn?!!

Did you ever wonder if build a bear fits a newborn.... Well yes! I am getting into newborn photography and I just had to try. Since my friend is a huge 49er fan she did not object. :) Pretty amazing how we all start out to be so incredibly tiny!

Such a sweet baby!

Starting these 49er fans young!

DIY Cheer Bows

It's cheer bow time again. Doing 50 bows is crazy. Make sure when you do so many that you buy all your rolls of ribbon on the same day! They don't restock fast enough.

And here are my tips:

I found this type of bow on a blog... at the end when you are ready to cinch the bow together the directions I found was to sew it. A much better idea is to cinch it with a rainbow loom rubber band!

No sewing and you can make lots of bows fast.

Here is a picture tutorial:

Tie a not and then hot glue  it to the bow to cover the rubber band.

Don't forget the coach's baby!

LEGO guy display case in Melissa & Doug wooden box

I made this for my son and he loves to display his LEGO guys with all of their accessories. I just hot glued the legos to the bottom. My son can rearrange the figures any way he chooses. Keeps Legos contained and a nice piece for room decor. I cut up an old LEGO magazine and modge podge the words on it.

Best Swings ever at Christmas Tree farm

 

We enjoyed a picnic and did everything this farm had to offer. Swings everywhere! Sometimes the kids were 8 feet high. Tree cutting $65, wreath making $6, free marshmallow roasting, free tractor rides.
Here are the directions  off Highway 1 25 miles north of Santa Cruz RSV TREES 
FUN for the whole family!

After school Lego Story Starter

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I have been teaching a LEGO story starter class for the fall semester. It has been a lot of fun and challenging. I have 23 students 1st grade through 4th grade. I have them for 1 hour 15 min. Lego story starter is a  hit with the students. They come from a long day of school directly into my classroom and very enthusiastically ready to build. Lego Story Starter comes with cirriculum but I found that it was very difficult to teach the program and build all that lego wanted you to to do in my short time frame.  As the kids got used to the program I made up my own themes. Some of the themes were: favorite activity over summer break, something that represents our school, favorite Bible story, favorite movie, favorite book, Thanksgiving, name etc.
I set up my hour like this: first the kids came in and we talked about what the theme for today.
Then I had kids start building and others on the computers working on the pictures from the previous week and turning them into comics.
The students would build their scenes and then I would take a picture of it. They would then go to the computer and type their comic from last week. After they were finished with both projects they would be able to free build.
Getting the kids to type over build was a bit difficult... they preferred to play.
Lego Story Starter is a wonderful program for fun creative learning experience. It takes a bit of time to get children familiar with the comic program. Once kids get used to the idea of building and telling their stories the process becomes less work and more fun..
The students loved the attention of getting a picture of their project. They would even ask during free build if I could take a picture of their work.

 We did LEGO's idea of the 2 knight and Princess story and the kids worked in groups of three and told their story in 3 scenes. This was a good week of lots of team work and fun. The next week the kids turned their scenes into a comic. It was difficult having 3 kids work on a single computer. The students were very proud of the out come.

**There are over 1,000 pieces in each box. I had 5 boxes in my classroom. Leave plenty of time for breaking down, cleaning the floor and organizing pieces into correct spot.
Clean up was difficult at times....

 I would teach this class again.

Thomas the Train Birthday Cake

Thomas the train birthday cakes can be difficult and elaborate. Here is a simple, fast and super cute cake.
You need:
cupcakes and frosting
Oreo cookies
Graham Crakers
Toy train
An adorable Birthday boy :)


Make sure you have extra frosting for the "glue." Simply make the oreos the wheels and the graham cracker on top for the box car. Load the boxcar up with cupcakes and there you got it an easy and super cute train cake.