First Timing Acrylics

A few months ago Christa Millard gave me a box of paints that her friend had given her that she thought I might enjoy. Christa is very talented in art and this summer she was so nice to start a painting with me. It is going to be a beach with little beach hut things on them, a copy of a piture from IKEA. Anyways, the canvase was started with the basics but life has come and taken all the free time that used to be. She gave me the paints to just doodle and practice with and finally I had some free time today to try them out. They are all legit acrylics and they are SO cool! I've never used anything besides water colors and they never turned out good at all. So here is my doodle from today. It is a lion and I really worked on layering and rough shadowing... I think it actually turned out kinda cool.

Secret Santa HoHoHo

Annelise and I are a part of a club called Hands Up and it is a sign language group. So beautiful and fun, talking with your hands is, hands down, one of the coolest ways to communicate. This week for the meeting we did a Secret Santa. Now, I have always been wary of gift exchanges, especially with people I don't know very well, beacause sometimes one person may put alot of work into the gift they give but not receive much effort in return. Loving scrapbooking and cutsy stuff as much as I do, I decided to make my Secret Santa buddy some cards.

Alas, receiving candy in exchange was a little disheartening at first, but then I realized that it really doesn't matter. This is why I spend money on this paper and inks and stamps and buttons and such. So that I can make and share things. Anyways, it's no fun to be a scrooge.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope that we are all filled with the giving christmas spirit!

Christmas Party Creativity

On Wednesday December 16th the YW are going to be having a christas party and since I am in the Presidency and get to help plan this kind of stuff I volunteered to make the invitations. I absolutly love to do these creative kinds of things. So last night my mother took me to the scrapbook nook after her cub scout meeting and she (along with the super nice lady Emi) helped me pick out the stamps, colors, ribbons and chalk pad color.

Real quick, here is the story about Emi: I went to the scrapbook nook back in september and I had been wearing my Personal Progress Medalion and she recognized it and commented about it. Turns out she is LDS too and I thought that that was SO cool! When I went back last night she was there again and so I asked her for help with some of the color scheming and such.

Last but not least, I found out about the coolest thing ever! So there are little acrylic stamps but they have no back or wood on them. Turns out that you purchase acrylic blocks and the stamps work like window clings and they stick to the acrylic block when you want to stamp. Then when you are done you just peel it off. It re-sticks and is fine and the best part is that the acrylic block you mount it on is clear so you can see exactally where you are going to stamp! No more guessing and messing up! It is genius and I am so greatful for wonderfully smart people who invent brilliant things like that that I get to pour my money into :))

Anyways, here is what I spent my night till 11 pm doing:

So here are the pictures from quilting attempt day 1. Annelise came over to work on her's and Jenni Warner came to give us the low down. As you can tell, we didn't get super far, but it is super hard so it's okay. You have to make sure that there are no patterns and that the different fabrics arn't close to eachother. There was a drama showcase that night as well so our time was limited. Anyways, here they are!

Here is my sewing station. My mother kindly let me borrow her machine!

This beautiful piece of beautifulness was created by Jenni Warner who is the person helping us make this style of quilt for ourselves. Thank you much :)

Annelise laying out her quilt. She picked 10 different fabrics which was a really good idea. It's a ton easier to spread them out and make it look random.

One of my rows. It's coming along SLOWLY


Hopefully we'll have more time soon to get this thing laid out and sewn. Until then, wish us luck!

The Maloy Family Christmas Photo Fiasco '09

Today we took our yearly Christmas family photos and they were actually fun! There were no tears (except for a few seconds of Josh's faked crocodile doobies) and we actually got some pretty cool ones. Here are some of our favorites. Just a side note, my Father said that that the real one are not allowed to be posted till after christmas :( So hopefully I'll get those posted soon!

This one is my personal favorite! I love the lighting and everyone's faces :) The one we're sending is a very close second though.
It's Alex, what else is there to say?

All of us peeking out from behind the Christmas tree that we finally finished decorating today. It's my Mothers, so it looks extra beautiful and has all the pretty ornaments.

The practice for our fight scene, which is the one we're sending around. Alex was such a good victim :)

lol... me.

Our first practice picture. The only layout with rebel. We've had some not so good pictures with that dog... lets just say that he wasn't being held right and he was "exposed."

Josh and his failed attempt at fake crocodile tears. As soon as we pointed out that Father should take a picture his sadness dissolved and giggles took it's place. Good times :)

Tommorrow Annelise and I will be starting our quilts with Jenni Warner. Wish us luck and I will do my best to get some pictures up and get them posted quick like. Until then, aidue!