This is our life blog

Summer pottery

2015-06-24T16:10:00.003-07:00

At the end of the school year, Ella's class made pinch pots in art class and each student got to bring his/her finished pinch pot home. When I saw Ella's I thought this could be a fun activity we could do together in the summer, so I went to the store and bought some clay.

We had a lot of fun making pinch pots but we also made other things like flowers, printed leaves, and pots with faces. I was so excited with this that sometimes Ella was already done with it and I still was giving details to my creations.

Here are some pictures.

Ella's flower which she says is not finished yet.

My pinch pot with a face. I've never worked with pottery before so it's still dusty. I'll have to research if there's something to coat it with so it would have a more finished look.

This one is painted and I gave it a gloss glaze after (The gloss glaze works only after painted).

I made this one because I saw something in a store similar to this, not very similar, really. I used a drinking straw to make the holes.

Maybe not as much as I did, but Ella really enjoyed making pottery.

Diy outfit

2014-08-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Hi! Today I'm posting this not-so-easy-to-make outfit. To be honest, the pants were a little bit hard to make. I started them with the help of this video and to finish them I needed the help of my mother in law. Sewing pants is the hardest thing to do! On the other hand, the shirt was super easy.

Modeling my DIY outfit.

I transformed a plain white t-shirt into a cute tank top by cutting the sleeves and screen printing the front. Its not perfect but i did wear it to go out.

I didn't have any ink in the printer so I traced the image from the computer with tracing paper and a marker, then I cut it with an x acto knife.

Summer Crafts

2014-08-08T17:13:00.002-07:00

I made the perfect craft for the end of Summer. They're cute, inexpensive and have a bohemian flare. Yes, they're barefoot sandals, simple jewelry for your feet. It reminds me of Indian women or women from old Egypt. The project was very easy and simple.

I chose earthy tones and wooden beads. (I have many of these).

An here they are. Perfect for the beach or the pool. I wear them at home too.

I also took some time to make a variety of stencils for t-shirts and bags. I made some of Ella and I favorite animals and things, like this hot air balloon, I love it and plan to make a shirt like this for myself. The hardest part was probably sewing the shirt because I ended up doing it by hand, I have to get the hang of that sewing machine.

I will be posting some other crafts soon. See you later!

Flora and flower crowns

2014-06-21T10:19:00.002-07:00

Finally, after some retouching here are the pictures with the flower crowns.

Flower crowns

2014-06-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

When I was going to get married back in 2007 I wanted to wear a flower crown, I even went out to find out prices and when they told me that it was $50 dollars for a flower crown made with natural flowers I decided to wear natural daisies lined up in a row held with bobby pins. It was a new country for me so I didn't know where to buy craft supplies to make it myself.

I guess that is something that I always wanted to make and finally, a few days ago, I decided to do it. I bought FAKE flowers. I don't like fake flowers but it made more sense for this project since Ella and I will be wearing them for a photo shoot that Ramon is going to take us.

I bought four clusters of flowers, flower tape, and florist wire. The total was $9.25 dollars.

I wrapped the wire around my head twice making a circle then I cut the flowers and secured them with wire. The last step was wrapping the tape around the circumference so the wire didn't prick my head.

Ella chose pinks and I chose yellows... predictable.

The end result was great, we can't wait to take our photos.

Beautiful Ella.

The fish

2014-05-28T18:57:00.001-07:00

I have been changing the art I had on the bathroom walls for something more updated and water related. I started in my bathroom with the lady siren illustration I made with acrylics and a sharpie on a piece of brown paper. Now, I move on to Ella's bathroom. Obviously it had to be something more juvenile and naive.

I drew a background of water using color pencils and a black marker then I drew a fish on another piece of paper. I cut out the fish and pasted it on top of the background.

This was a fun and easy 20 minute project. I loved the result. On to the next artwork.

Siren artwork

2014-04-30T18:53:00.002-07:00

I'm trying to update the artworks I have in the bathrooms, so a few days ago Ella and I sat outside to paint and draw. I took that moment to make an artwork to hang on the bathroom walls.

On a brown bag paper I drew and painted this siren, which I'm very proud of, and put it in the frame that came with this picture on the left top.

I think it looks really cute in our bathroom. Now I want to make another original ocean related artwork for Ella's bathroom.

The fairy garden

2014-03-21T17:23:00.002-07:00

For some weeks we had planned that when mom arrived this time the three of us would make a fairy garden for Ella.

And that's what we did on Wednesday afternoon.

Welcome to our fairy garden. We love that the sculptures of the characters were made by mom.

Yes, I went crazy with the pictures because I liked different angles.

This was a fun activity to do together, we wont forget the experience and we loved the result.

Little sculptures

2014-03-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

Once again I have my lovely mom here visiting. We love it when she's here as much as we love her creativity. She molded and painted these four cute fantastic sculptures for Ella and me.

Mom made for me the garden gnome, because I love the chubbiness and the big nose of these little characters. For Ella she made a boy, a girl and a garden fairy.

We have great plans for our little sculptures which I'll be posting pretty soon. In the mean time look at these pretty little creatures.

The boy and the girl. (Mom made the girl's skirt look like a flower and the boy is holding a white rabbit).

My garden gnome. I love it.

Deconstructing an apron

2014-01-29T10:49:00.001-08:00

OK, so remember that fabric I bought a long ago with which I made Ella's headband and skirt. Well there's still plenty of it, so with Ella's help I made her an apron, for those baking days and painting projects.

The pockets are made with an old pair of jeans Ramon can not wear anymore and on one of the pockets I sewed a colorful cupcake that once was part of a shirt.

Ramon's jeans.

The new favorite Christmas ornament

2013-11-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

This year I thought it would be a good idea to make another original Christmas ornament for the tree but this time with an image of Ella. I thought about doing something with photography but then I decided to make her silhouette.

I took a picture of Ella and used Photoshop to vectorize it and turn it into a silhouette.

I printed the silhouette on the computer and cut out the shape to make the stencil, then using the screen printing technique I transferred the image applying red paint on a sheet of white felt.

I cut out circles of the white felt with the red silhouette for the front and green empty circles to sew on the back.

And finally I sewed the two parts together with a red thick string to hang it on the tree.

I only made four but I wished I'd made more. The good thing about screen printing is that with one stencil you can make many more things of one design. I kept the stencil to make some more of these ornaments for the tree.

A school's fall project

2013-10-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Now for fall, there's a pumpkin decorating contest at Ella's school. The contest consists in decorating pumpkins as storybook characters. Ella and I thought we could participate in this one. We just needed to buy the pumpkin and the rest of the materials were already at home.

Painting the pumpkin.

As always, I look for a low budget project with a nice looking result. Here is our pumpkin.

Our storybook character is Junie B. Jones.

Ella had been reading books about this funny character lately and we thought it was a good idea to make her our pumpkin.

Ella and her Junie B. Jones pumpkin.

Great week

2013-07-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Last week was great. It was Ella's 6th birthday, my mom and my sister came to visit us, I made a photo session for CathyCat products with my beautiful sister and I started making some new products for CathyCat designs, lets see how that goes.

While my sister was here I took the opportunity to take ourselves a "Now and then" picture. I remember seeing this idea in a picture book at the bookstore and I always wanted to do it.

I loved this idea and now I want to do it with other pictures we have.

Here's a picture of Ella on her birthday.

She loved the crown I made for her.

Trying the crayon heart project

2013-06-12T16:43:00.001-07:00

Ella and I made a crayon project that is all around the Internet, I found full instructions here in this blog. They made this project for Valentines day but we made it because we wanted to do something with all those hard to hold old broken crayons.

We loved the result of an easy and fun project. You can color with the hearts and they are easy to hold and many different colors will come out of just one heart.

Mouse pad makeover

2013-04-23T13:46:00.001-07:00

I sometimes wonder why black is the predominant color in technological gadgets and accessories. There should always be a variety of colors to choose from for these things. Nonetheless most people don't mind this. Ramon was using this black mouse pad for his new computer (which is black too) and one day while staring at it my idea light bulb turned on.

I took that fabric I used for making the inspiration board and cut a square, then glued it with Mod Podge. That's it. Too bad I can't paint the computer.

Don't forget to leave margin to glue the edges too!

Mini plant pots

2013-03-23T16:38:00.002-07:00

I love small things; small houses, small cars, so you can imagine my reaction when I found these planters at the craft store. I had seen them before online but never live.

I filled them up with dirt and took some cuttings from two of my succulents which I later stuck in the dirt.

Let's just hope they grow!

DIY Shadow Puppets

2013-03-01T07:55:00.002-08:00

A few days ago we were at the book store and we saw some shadow puppets for sale. There were different characters made of black paper and mounted on a wooden stick. Honestly the first thing that came to my mind was to buy it for Ella's nighttime story, but then I thought it twice and said, hey! I can do these at home for no cost!

Fortunately I had some reeds from an old oil diffuser. Perfect for the shadow puppet's stick. They even still have some scent left.

I chose a dark color from my stock card papers to make the silhouette and then started drawing the characters.

Then I cut out the different characters and put a tape square on the back with the stick.

Against the light they're just like the shadow puppets from the store and Zerooo dollars spent!!! Yooho!

Dr. Ella

2013-01-04T16:41:00.002-08:00

Grandma Amelia gave Ella a play doctors kit. This is something that she really loves and plays with all the time. The only thing she was missing is the doctor's coat. So we made one with one of Ramon's old shirts.

I found a red ribbon that supposedly had no use.

Dad's old shirt + old red ribbon= DIY Dr.'s gown.

A Christmas present

2012-12-28T10:30:00.002-08:00

I wanted to make something personalized for Ella to give to her on Christmas morning. So, I made this pillow with a drawing of herself on it. The size didn't turn out how I expected, I'm so bad measuring. I guess it's now a pillow for dolls.

And here is Ella on Christmas morning.

Ella's 5 years old pictures

2012-12-20T07:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took some of Ella's latest drawings to put them up on her wall. Her gallery of drawings and paintings was a little outdated.

Ella's 3 years old paintings.

I arranged them...

And this is how it looks now, with some of her current drawings.

Now her gallery is updated.

Bye bye!!!

A picture frame pin cushion

2012-11-28T07:57:00.001-08:00

Having the sewing machine now I needed to equip myself with materials and sewing tools. I thought that maybe I would be needing a pin cushion but I never really liked the tomato ones. So I took this one dollar picture frame I bought a long time ago and never used, until now.

Then I put some fabric in the frame, just like putting a picture but leaving some extra fabric in the back so the frame could press it.

Next I stuffed it with polyester fibers that I found in the garage and I was done.

Here it is. And the best of it is that is very sturdy and works very well.

A present from mom

2012-11-28T07:31:00.001-08:00

As you know I finally got a sewing machine, a gift from mom. I thought which other best way to thank her than making her something. I made her this headband that probably looks good in the picture but it actually needs improvement on the back. Anyways, it feels good to learn in the process of making things. Next time I'll make it better recognizing what my mistakes were.

Mom wearing her headband.

Ella lost her first tooth

2012-11-18T17:19:00.002-08:00

Today we were playing apples to apples at Abuelita's house, when suddenly Ella looked at me and said: "Mom, it's coming off"! And then she just pulled her tooth out. The "wiggly tooth" had been loose for days.

Its so small! and we can see the other tooth coming. She is very happy and says she wants to put her tooth under her pillow.

Late Halloween

2012-11-18T17:04:00.000-08:00

Halloween came and left. For Halloween Ella was Alice in Wonderland. I wanted so much to make her costume, or at least try to make it, hopefully next year I will.

Now I'm sure it will be easier for me to sew since mom bought me a sewing machine! Yes! My first project was a headband for my mom herself as a thank you gift. Ill post a picture when she wears it. So many things had happened but such a short time to post.

What we have been doing

2012-09-09T16:50:00.002-07:00

It has been a while since I could write anything in our blog. Between some work, Ella's school, errands and... well... life, I haven't got the chance to post an entry. Sometimes it gets busy.

Here are some pictures of our days!

"Three dolls and an elephant". Playing with Ella.

School has beeen great! She is excited and ready to go every day!