Happy Thanksgiving!

"I'm awake!!" "Haha! Yes you are!!"

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great meal with friends and family! Then we spent the night at Nini's and Grandpa's house. E was so happy to have time with her cousins. They had a cute, little cat named Nugget who she really took to. She spent most of the evening feeding him food and petting him. She was so giddily happy, she'd just laugh and cover her face every time she saw the cat. It was so sweet! This morning, she's happily playing with the toys at Nini's while we eat a home cooked breakfast and watch TV. I'm so relaxed I just want to go back to bed...

I have to work this morning, then I'm going to take some much needed time off. I'll be back on Sunday or Monday, and by then we should have our Christmas tree up! Also, we're taking E to her first movie today -- Frozen! I'm so excited! Last but not least, I have some fun craft ideas for the week ahead and hope to have some free downloads available if you want to join us in our art endeavors over at A Happy Muddled Mess!

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and are slowly coming out of your turkey (or tofurkey) comas today!

Marker Watercolors

I thought E may be tired of painting today, but she was happy to get out the brushes. At first she just tried to drink the paint water, but she was more interested when I started drawing with markers then using water to brush the marker ink across the page.

I was impressed how quickly she picked up different brush techniques -- smushing it into the paper, letting the water drip off the brush, and splattering water on the page. She loved watching the water react with the marker ink and bleed into the paper.

I drew the brown vines and let her do the rest!

A Happy Muddled Mess

Super happy to unveil our new, little "sister site" -- A Happy Muddled Mess!

As mentioned in my way-too-long Facebook post, I hope to grow it into something BIG!

Here is my little blurb about it!

Ok, ok, so I promise that I didn't *exactly* create another entirely new blog... I only *kind of* did. After spending a good chunk of time in the recliner last week, I made myself settle on some type of long term hobby/business model that I could grow and develop as my life changes. My life has always revolved around art and music, so why not develop that and share it with E and others, in a much more significant way?

So, for starters, I made an art journal site for me and E, with plans to turn it into a business in the long run, when life calms down a bit... to eventually integrate some different programs, events, local participation, and community outreach -- to put myself out there more. I resisted doing this, even publicly advertising YMIS, because I felt I had no direction. I think this site is better focused on what I want to do long term, even though I haven't entirely, 100% figured that out yet. I'm closer, and that's a huge deal for me!

And, for now, this site is just a platform for those long-term plans... Sorry for the huge post... just thinking "out loud" a bit.

Anyway, YMIS is still going strong and will still be where the majority of my writing lives. But our art projects will live on our new site where I hope others will join us in creating: A Happy, Muddled Mess!

Mixed Media Mashup

Since this is a short week before our 4-day Thanksgiving weekend, E and I are just creating some mixed media art.

We made two abstract pieces this afternoon using some miscellaneous art supplies -- stencils, markers, pencils, and watercolors. E scribbled, and I colored in the shapes!

I used a toilet paper roll dipped in paint to make circles. I also loved how the watercolor blended with the marker. I'm already planning some fun watercolor activities for E that involve just painting over our marker drawings on watercolor paper.

Next week, we're going to be making prints from all different objects found around the house. Can't wait!

If you want to share your own kid creations with us and other readers, use #HMMartsubmit in your Instagram captions. Your images will automatically appear in the slideshow on our home page!

Granny Square Advent Pockets

I wanted to buy E a special advent calendar this year, but we're going to be broke until the first week of December... Such is life!

In the meantime, I decided to make some crocheted advent "pockets" to hang on the Christmas tree -- E can take one off the tree each day of December and find a little "prize" inside -- a piece of candy, some stickers, etc.

My hope was to make 24 pockets altogether, but I'll most likely only finish 12 and have to refill them halfway through the month. Ah well, if I make any more compromises on this project, I'll be left with an advent ball of yarn.

I considered doing a tutorial video for these, but there are quite a few good YouTube tutorials for granny squares. I made mine about 3" x 3" and stitched them together using basic slip stitches around the outside (leaving one side open, of course). I'm sure you could also sew these together or use any type of stitch you prefer for connecting your crochet pieces.

If you have any other questions about how I made these, feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email!