A very girly order...

It's Monday and I think this week will be a good one :) Over the weekend I received an order for a custom ladder trinket chest. The buyer described her niece as "a diva in training" which meant this trinket chest was going to be super girly... just what I love!

All of Sunday was spent working on the ladder chest and getting it just right. Papers of pinks, greens and yellows were used, flowers were put on the knobs and the little girl's name was put down the edge. And I have to say, when it was all done, I loved it! I think it this little girly trinket chest is my favorite by far :)

Here are a few pictures of how the ladder trinket chest turned out for little Gianna :)

My Tiny Space...

It's been a miserable day today, tons of rain and now it's super duper humid outside. So, I decided that since I have done all my errands and chores for the family I work for, I would work on my living space. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I am a live in nanny and have a small studio/apartment in the family's house. I feel like I am constantly cleaning and tidying up stuff. My boyfriend thinks it's because I have too much stuff in a too small of a space. And I am thinking that he is right. The space was good when I started working 8 years ago, and held everything nicely and neatly. Over those 8 years though, I have accumulated more furniture, started a craft business and got 2 cats. So, in order to solve my space problem, I am going to start a major cleaning project. Drawers will be gone through, closet will be emptied, magazines tossed, and anything I haven't touched in months will be gotten rid of! Or at least that is the plan... hahaha :) There is one other reason I need to do an over haul cleaning of my area... my boyfriend might be staying with me for a little while he looks for a new apartment or house. I, or should I say we, will need all the free space I can muster up in my tiny area.

So, with that said, I am off to do a little cleaning before heading out to pick up kids. I hope you have a fabulous day and wish you tons of smiles :)

New Project and Kids off for the Summer

I know I haven't been on here in over a week, I have just been super busy with my job (kids are out of school so I now have no free time) and I have also been working on a new project. I have started making coasters out of tiles with either using stamps on them or doing gel transfers.

Jonny's last day was this past Tuesday... He was done at noon. When I walked up to get him I was surrounded by Jonny and his friend Lachie. Jonny wanted Lachie to come over for the a playdate. And how could I say no to him on the last day of school. I took them to get pizza, then water ice to keep them happy. I had to go to the market after that and they were great helpers. I would tell them what I needed and they would go find it. It was like a treasure hunt for them! Then when we got home, they played outside, went swimming, designed and made a coaster set, went and played tennis, made cupcakes, and finally watched a little tv while having dinner. They spent 6 and a half hours together and got along the whole time. It was a good day for those two... hahaha. And apparently Lachie told his mom it was one of the best days ever... That's a pretty big standard I now have to live up to for a playdate... hahahahaha.


The coasters/tiles have been a challenge for me. First let's go with the stamping. I read a lot about stamping tiles and coloring them in. Everyone said that you needed to bake the tiles after stamping to heat set the ink. I did that. Then I went to color in the image with chalk. Well, apparently heat setting does not completely dry the ink, because it smeared on my first tile. Into the trash that one went. On my next try I colored the whole tile with chalk, then stamped over it and baked it. The ink was still a little wet to the touch so I sealed it with one coat of an acrylic sealer. The seemed to set the ink and still allowed for the tile to absorbed some of the moisture from anything set on top of it. So I think I have figured those out. I just need to figure out how to make the chalk darker when I am coloring in the stamps. Any suggestions?

The second type I have been trying is doing a gel transfer onto a tile. Over the weekend I tried it with a print from an inkjet printer and one from a laser printer. Everything I had read said that the laser printer would work best, and well it did. I have also read that using photo paper and an inkjet printer works well, so maybe I'll try that next week. Since I do not have a laser printer, I decided to try using some of my scrapbook paper to do a gel transfer, and what do you know, it worked out really well. After rubbing off all of the pulp until just the image was left I covered the tile with epoxy resin. They look really good and once I get the edges all smoothed down they will be ready for the show on Saturday.

Jonny is done entertaining himself so I am needed to come up with something for us to do... hopefully he doesn't say no to every suggestion I have ;-) I have included a couple of pictures I took this morning of the two tiles I used the gel transfer process on. They are still a work in progress :) I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday and have something fun planned for the weekend!

~Jennifer :)

My Absolutely Adorable Little Niece

My sister sent me the absolute cutest pictures of my little niece Madeline yesterday. Plus it doesn't hurt that she is completely adorable with her big blue eyes and head full of hair. She is bigger and cuter in every picture that I see of her. It does make me sad though that I am so far away from them and only get to see little Maddie (that has become her family nickname) in pictures. But hopefully I'll get to see her this summer!

The pictures though say a lot about Maddie. In every photo of her she is alert, eyes wide open, expressive and happy. I think she is going to be a very smart little girl. And I do think that my sister will get her wish of knowing what a little her will be like! I hope she's ready for that! ;) My sister and brother-in-law are doing a wonderful job in being new parents though, and I don't think Maddie could really ask for better ones.

It was the photos that made me want to write this post, so I thought I would share two of them (with my sister's consent of course)...



This one is one of Maddie in the bathing suite that my mom knitted for her. My mom told me that when she saw the photo she got tears in her eyes... She is such a proud grammy!

And here is one of Maddie wearing the headband that I made for her to go with the necklace that I made my sister for her first Mother's Day. She is just too cute!!

This brings me to the end of this entry. I have to get back to my nanny job and also finish up a frame for my mother that she requested for a photo of Maddie. I hope you have a fabulous day and that wherever you are it's cooler then it is here in PA today... the high 80's and humid... fun ;) Here's wishing you a cool day!

~Jennifer :)