My girls!

I mentioned that this is Hannah's senior year.  She got to paint her parking spot, and she did a fabulous job!  I helped her come up with the idea.  I was hoping she'd do something with some meaning.  When discussing this with her sister, we decided she is very much like the Queen of Hearts in Alice and Wonderland sometimes.  She hand drew this with chalk and then painted it for like five hours straight.  In fact, she squatted the whole time and couldn't feel her feet for more than a week.  She literally collapsed several times because she couldn't feel her feet.  So she learned a valuable lesson, and hopefully will take breaks next time.

This is a screenshot.  I still need to get a picture of her with her spot.

Hannah has also been running a little side business where she sells dog portraits that she draws.  One of my mom's friends ended up having her draw every dog she's ever had and hung them all up.  Here is the screenshot of her dog wall.  I am super proud of her!

Genevieve dressed up like one of her favorite teachers for "Dress like a Teacher Day" during Homecoming Spirit Week.  I snapped a picture right before she walked out the door in the morning.  I was seriously amazed at how much she nailed it though when I saw the school's Instagram post.  She straightened her hair and wore a different pair of glasses (not prescription) to complete the look.  The only thing she was missing was the Doc Martins.

Her teacher is in the middle of all the students that dressed up like her with the lanyard around her neck.  She complimented Genna on her outfit being so similar to her own.

 

Landscape Art Contest

The homeschool group that we are apart of had a landscape art competition.  All of the kids entered a piece.  I do not have Judah's available to put on here, but here are the rest of them.

Hannah's

Drew's

Bob's

 

Genevieve's

Isaac's

And the winner is this cutie!  Bob at age 6 won the 6-12 year old category with his moon/landscape.  The only help he got from me was showing him an example of how to paint the moon on YouTube, telling him what order to layer the paints, and recommending adding the strip of green at the bottom to make it an actual "land"scape.  He won a gift card to a frozen yogurt place and he is so pumped!

And the other winner is this pretty girl!  She won the 13-18 year old category!  (I had to reach way back to find a picture of her almost alone, so this is way back in the fall.)  She got a Fandango movie gift card.  I'm a proud Mama that the Smiths swept the whole contest.

Here is the screenshot of the page with the winners.

My Birthday: Way Back in February

It may be hard to see in these pictures, but Luna is also on top of me between Bob and Drew.  Either everyone loves Stuart Little or Mommy, but probably a little of both.

 These pictures were from another day of my birthday week and not actually on my birthday.  For my birthday the homeschooled boys and I were able to go to Mass and see some friends afterwards.  I received some special phone calls.  Brian made me an appointment to get a massage and foot scrub that afternoon.  The piano teacher canceled for the evening and so we were unexpectedly able to go to dinner as a family.  We had Mexican food since chips and dips are my all time favorite.  I don't even have to order a meal.  I'm happy with chips, salsa, and a margarita!  It was a nice day, but it was late when we got home and had to say our Rosary in the car driving home for dinner so everyone could get to bed. 

Hannah's painting of the view out my kitchen window in Germany- I tried to get her to put "Jack and Jill," the horses on that hill in the painting, but she wasn't confident in her horse painting skills enough to try it.

My children all made me beautiful cards and paintings.  There were many Thor drawings on the cards.  ;) Hannah painted my view out of our German kitchen window (from a photograph,) and I feel like I am really there when I look at it.  Genevieve painted me the view from our balcony off our living room in Germany.  So beautiful!  What talented daughters I have!

Genna's painting off our balcony in Germany

Creative Kids

Bobby made this Nativity Scene with the Kinex pieces.

Judah made Mickey Mouse with the Kinex.

The week before the big snow, Genevieve had her art show at school.  Bob was her subject for this piece so we took a picture of them both in front of it. 

And I forgot to include this picture that we took of the girls' basketball team after their last home game of the year.

 

Because Art is What We Do Around Here

Really, it's the main way that we pass our time these days.  Our breakfast table has become a painting center.  I ended up buying a craft cart with drawers so it all can be put away quickly and easily.  The girls come up with new projects all the time and Drew is just as crazy about painting as they are.  

This full set of PJ Mask characters, I made for my nephew as a Christmas gift..  

Drew painted these with minimal instruction.  The glare on the apple isn't from the camera.  He's getting really good.  He is definitely a perfectionist and will redo things many times if he's not satisfied with them.

The girls found this idea of stripping and painting old CDs.  These are Genevieve's.

More of Genevieve's

Hannah's CDs

Hannah's CDs Again

There have been many baby's announcements lately.  I made two so far and am already in the middle of the third, and I still won't be finished with baby gifts!

What a cute model!

I embroidered one of them.

I loved this llama pattern, perfect for a surprise gender!

Hannah received a box of miniature canvases.  She got right to work.

I requested that Genna do some of her ombre colors on these difficult to paint shells, and they turned out beautiful!

This angel rock, I painted for my mother's collection.

I painted these two when I had the idea to do each of our patron saints on a shell.  It wasn't easy.  I haven't started anymore yet though; too busy sewing.

The I added some peg doll saints to my Etsy shop, CaeliEtTerraCrafts and the St. Brigid dolls already sold out.

St. Brigid

St. Gertrude, patron of cats and gardeners

St. Josephine Bakhita with Our Lady of Sorrows medal around her neck

I also put up St. Alban up on my shop, as well as my Divine Mercy image, and my peacock drawing.  I am currently working on a drawing of St. Joseph since this year has been dedicated to him.  I also have in the planning stages a set of famous black women peg dolls.  Busy, busy!

Bazaars

We have been painting shells since we got back from the beach with such a nice haul of big, beautiful shells.  The children have worked so hard to paint a whole bunch of them to sell at the Homeschool Children's Bazaar.  Genevieve also has been making cards with her watercolors and hand-lettering skills.  Genna's cards were blowing down a lot and we were limited in space with our card table.

Wheeling and Dealing at the Bazaar

The problem we ran into with this year's bazaar was that we didn't have much foot traffic.  Nearly all of our shoppers were also selling stuff at their own tables.  This was mainly due to the pandemic and people not wanting to come out just to shop.  (We did have it outside for this reason.) There was a bunch of kids excited to make money off their goods and not wanting to spend all that money on other kids' tables.  However, they did buy some things.  Drew priced his shells super cheap and painted more shells than anyone else, so he did do the best monetarily.  Bobby sold his two painted shells, solely utilizing his charm and dimples.  Genevieve had him advertising for her and paying him a percentage of each sell.  It was a good lesson in business!

Don't know why these pictures came up upside down and sideways, but these are Drew's shells that he didn't sell.

Judah's shells

Hannah's shells

Isaac's Shells

Genna's shells- I have no idea why I don't have more pictures of her shells.  She had many, but this is all I can find.

I started an Etsy shop back in November.  My shop is called CaeliEtTerraCrafts and you can see what is available currently here.  An opportunity came available for me at our church to rent a table at the Christmas Bazaar.  I was hesitant at first because the initial investment was high enough to make me wonder if it would be worth it in the end.  I ended up splitting a table with another homeschool family to save some money and test out the waters.  Here are some of the items that I brought to sell.

Our Lady of Guadalupe- I drew the angel at her feet and decoupaged it onto the wooden peg.

Blessed Carlo Acutis- He has a hand-painted monstrance.

St. Faustina- She is painted with my drawing of the image of Divine Mercy shrunk down and decoupaged onto the doll.

Our Lady of Lourdes has painted roses on her feet and is holding a rosary.  

All, but a couple of my peg dolls, sold at the bazaar and most of them have since sold on my Etsy shop.  I brought the kids' shells that didn't sell at the children's Bazaar and I brought my own as well.  Here's two of mine.

In the end, I had very little inventory left to take home which is exactly what I wanted.  The ornaments sold out early.  The mugs were almost gone.  I sold both of my remaining 5 nativity scenes at the bazaar;  the other three had previously sold on my Etsy shop.

My table at the bazaar with my friends

My half of the table

We learned our lesson at the Children's Bazaar and put Genna's cards into a binder with their envelopes.  She sold a bunch and was very pleased!

 

My hand embroidered, memory foam-stuffed "Our Little Lady Doll"-  This one is Our Lady of Lourdes and you can see the detail of the three dementional roses on her feet in the following picture.

My second "Our Little Lady Doll"- Our Lady of Fatima has gold trim in her crown and on her veil.

I am currently working on Our Lady of Guadalupe "Our Little Lady Doll" to add to my shop.