sincerely yours, dena

One of my favorite holidays is Easter. I remember as a kid how much fun it was to hunt for my basket early Easter Morning. I still carry on the tradition, kids, adults and pets. This year we had 2 house guests that got to share in the fun. I’m not afraid to hid in challenging places. Everybody knows who’s basket is who’s by the picture on it. Rubbles found his basket first this year.

I did a lot of web trolling before embarking on this project. I knew the magnetic paint had been well test and well received. The white board paint on the other hand has had mixed reviews and some alarming blog entries. Some whiteboard paint has to be wiped off within 24 hours or it becomes permanent. One web suggestion was to use shower fiberglass. Since I wanted a magnetic version, that wasn’t an option for me. In Lowe’s paint department I found a version put out by Rustoleum. I’m happy with the results but if you are going to homegrow your whiteboard I suggest you read the following tips first.

Tips:

• Sand the wall. Sand it good, sand it real good.
• Lots of coats. The paint can lies. It says 3-4 coats and they are full of crap. I put 10 coats of magnetic paint on. The stronger your magnets are the better.
• You are under a time constraint. You have 2 hours to paint once you mix the white board paint together. Don’t make the same mistake I did and in the last 15 mins cake the paint on and walk away. Cake the paint on and check it every 2 mins and roll over it with a relatively dry roller to avoid dripping.

• Trim it out. Because the paint lines will never have clean edges (no matter how good a taper you are) it’s good to paint and fire up some trim around your board. I used leftover door trim I found in the basement.
• Ink Jet printable magnetic paper is expensive. To save money, save the magnets that come for free on top of phonebooks. Sticker paper is a whole lot cheaper, print on it and stick it to the freebie magnet. You can use the magnets for every month things like: the days of the week, month name and reoccurring events (trash day) so you don’t have to rewrite it every month.
• Hide all permanent markers. Guest are idiots and don’t read before they write. Mitigate your risk by not keeping any other markers but dry erase near by. Once I feel capable of drawing straight lines I’ll use a permanent marker to draw in my calendar grid.

I’ve found a new home in cyberspace where the neighbors are super friendly and creatifiic! Country Living Magazine’s website allows you to register within their forums, ask questions and get inspired. Need convincing… just check out Little Girls’ D-Ring Ribbon Belt Apron by Sommer Designs

Current forums include:

• Antiques & Collectibles
• Decorating
• Home Improvements
• Women Entrepreneurs
• Crafts & Simple Projects
• Gardening
• Outdoor Living
• Recipes & Entertaining

We saw a little kid wearing a t-shirt in JFK airport that had “Lock up your daughters” on it. I instantly thought of my lady killer nephew. I’m glad I buy white onesies & T-shirt transfers in bulk. I threw a lock on it for effect.

While on vacation we stayed in these cute little cabins. The front door was facing the windward side so it required the help from a door stop to keep the door propped open. Camp Skyland used rocks found the on campground beach then added a personal touch with acrylic paint.

Here’s my intrepretation with only the materials i had in my craft station. I used the mouth as the card opening and signed there.

Some ‘mom’s to be’ hate baby shower games, who can blame them? Here’s an alternative game activity that everyone loves: decorate baby onezies for the little one.

Here’s a picture of the one I made.

You can attach ribbon using liquid sewing which can be found at any craft store.

Things you’ll need:

• Assorted ribbon
• Iron on letters of different colors and shapes
• liquid sewing
• iron
• white onezies of different sizes
• Iron on transfers (print out ahead of time on a ink jet printer)

Looking for unique Red Sox baby gifts? Check out SupahFans.com. They have these cute little onezies that say “Entering Massachusetts 2007″ on the ma’s traditional town signs.

Help Shane Bernier’s birthday wish come true. All he wants this year is to break the world record for most birthday cards received. Not to much to ask considered he’s been fighting acute lymphoblastic leukemia for the last 3 years.

If you want to send a card here’s the address:

Shane Bernier
PO Box 484
Lancaster, Ontario
K0C 1N0
Canada

One of my signature gifts at baby showers is a red sox (or insert fav team) jersey embroidered with the Baby’s last name and year of birth. Here’s one I made for Baby Jack born last July.