The Handmade Dress

(I now sell everything you need to do henna in my etsy shop HERE !) Many of the pictures that you see here were done by my super awesome baby sister, Rae. Before kids she decorated cakes at a bakery, those skills transfer VERY well for applying henna! (henna day 3, by Rae) There are as many henna recipes as there are fish in the sea. Okay, so maybe not quite that many, but if you are just starting out it can be pretty confusing. It can be so complicated that it takes hours or days to make a batch with expensive ingredients, or it could be as easy as using a few things out of the pantry and spending a few minutes mixing and you are done. I use a VERY easy and no fuss recipe with all natural ingredients because it is safe for children. My kids love henna tats as much as I do so I always make it this way. At the end of this post I will include a list of links to all of the supplies that I use, you may want to check those out.  (henna dry paste, by Rae) ...

By last night I was in desprate need of a quick craft project. The de-stressing kind where you don't think too much you just DO. I did this little sign.... And when I got done I hung that sucker above my front door! Mama is done with sick, and she's taking a stand.  xo, Sam

I'm still trying to decide on a color scheme for the illustrations! I think I've narrowed it down to these three variations, but I'm tired of thinking about it. What do you think? I hate when I get hung up on the little details because it keeps me from getting the real work done. But then, the details are the fun part aren't they? I think this one is my favorite. I really like this one too, but I'm afraid that the details will get lost in all of the colors....I really like the colors though. Then there is this one, and now that I'm showing you I'm wondering what I liked about this one in the first place... Can you see how bad I need you? Which one do you like best? Edited to add: How do you like this? It's brighter but you can still see the details well. I think it's probably my favorite so far. Better?

We now have a new header for the adoption blog too. Yay! It was really starting to bother me that the two sites looked so different. I didn't want them to match but I did want them to "feel" like the same family. The new header tells a little story of us. On the right is our home with us dreaming of more children and on the left is an orphanage with our children dreaming of a new family. There is a whole world between us, but there is a little broken and crooked path that connects us. I seem to have most of the kinks worked out in the shop too (all but that pesky tutorial button! Why does that button have to be so rebellious?? It will only work on the Home page..that hateful button has been driving me nuts for days!). I would love to hear some feedback from a few Mac users. The new program promises to behave nicely with my Mac friends, we shall see about that. If some of you Mac-ers could look over it and drop me a line I would really appreciate it! Now about Miss Iris...

I am always seeing these little pictures in our wood floors and tile and sometimes I wonder if other people can see them too. I have asked Ben before if he can see them but he usually looks at me like I've grown another head. I KNOW I'm not the only one! Tell me I'm not crazy! Who else does this? It's actually a lot of fun, kind of like finding pictures in the clouds - I was so good at that when I was a kid. So when I saw this little funny today I thought to take a picture of it and draw in the lines that I could see so everyone else could see. So... Can you see it? I love how it looks like they are on the beach and you can see the horizon. LOL! I may have to delete this post later so people don't think I've gone completely mad. LOL! O.K.....Little Miss Crazy Pants is going to take a nap now... . Edited to add: I'm so glad I don't sound like a total loon! I have so many more of these around my house, maybe I will share those too!

We didn't go anywhere except the candy store and nobody came over (Ben was at the fire station- we celebrated Monday night by going to the book store and dinner) and it really was perfect. At the candy store we got the ingredients for hot dogs, chocolate, and Diet Sunkist. Then we came home and spent the rest of the day watching movies and I practiced drawing some more. The kids were so sweet singing "Happy Birthday" at least six times. We watched one of my favorite movies from when I was about 11-12 "Wild Hearts Can't be Broken". They loved it! And now I remember why it was one of my favorites, it is such a good clean movie. (By the way it was an "Watch Instantly"movie on Netflix- I love the instant ones.) These are the drawings I did today. It was a lot of fun and I feel like I did learn a lot. I did the one of Molly first, then Tim needed one, and you know what happened next. My little Madeline came up and sat right next to me and...

...So I'm taking full advantage of it! NO SCHOOL TODAY, we will be going to the candy store (AKA the gas station) for some chocolate and a Diet Sunkist (and maybe some of that white cheddar popcorn too), then there will be lots of laying around, watching movies, reading books and drawing. I'm kind-of on a drawing kick again, except this time it's not coming so easy. I am way better at more life-like charcoal drawings and this time I'm in a whole other world! I have been trying my hand at digital drawing with my computer in photoshop, it's fun....but I'm not very good at it. I feel so dumb! I went to two different book stores last night trying to find a book on digital drawing and I only found one, and that one was so far over my head I didn't even get it. I have never been great at tech stuff -or drawing for that matter- and I feel like there is so much that I don't know. If any of you have any recommendations for books, websites, blogs, anyth...

Yep. For what seems to be a second of my life, but was really two months, I was consumed by drawing. That's why I had to quit! I have never been soooo addicted to something in my life! It all started when I saw this man on the street (when we visited the mountains) drawing portraits for money. I asked a few questions and bought a book- of course! My drawing career lasted 12 drawings. I was way to obsessive about drawing, it had to be perfect or it would just eat at me (and not one was ever perfect). For those couple of months laundry, dishes, food(!), and even occasionally poor hubby took a back seat. I couldn't think of anything else! But I remembered these drawings today and I decided to share them with you. I can still look at these charcoals and see exactly what I hate about each one, but I am over it! These are all copies, I had to give the originals away or I would never stop working on them. LOL! This is my brother Simon, he was number 5. I am sure you know old A...