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This week I'm teaming up with good friends, and fellow toy enthusiasts!, Meta, of One More Mushroom and Stephanie, of Simply Radiant, to share with you some fun gift guides. Earlier we shared our girls wish list/gift guide with you, (you can view Meta's here - so adorable! drooling over that dear doll), and today we're sharing what we are dreaming up for our boys (although a number of these items are gender neutral).
So this knight print - I'm just dying to get it for their room. And I can't even begin to imagine the elaborate things that Little O and A might create with these fun blocks. We are record fanatics around here and I seriously love this player. This logical game is right up A's alley and I'm pretty sure Little O would never leave this teepee (aren't you just crazy about the colors?!). And I can only image the fun that the boys and their papa could have with this. A would be "over the moon" about it I'm sure ;). And are you not dying over this fox scarf? Little O might actually stay warm this winter if he could play with his winter gear.
**and for an update on sweet baby M, well we are still in the hospital (she has RSV) but hope to go home tomorrow as she's doing much much better! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.
I'm headed off to LA tonight for tomorrow's GAP Kids event at the Grove. And I'll be updating you on how the trip and crafting is going all on Instagram. Right now, while frantically packing, I'm having visions of the beach, catching up with dear friends, scouring Mood Fabrics and Michael Levine's...and thinking about what I can stuff in my luggage from Trader Joe's to bring home.
Should be fun fun fun!
xo
Mer
 I can't believe we will begin our Shine On crafting weekends in just two days! I seriously can't wait!! If you live in the LA area please do stop in at the Grove and say hello! I'd love love love to meet you and see so many of your little artists!
Our first activity will be geometric art! You're little ones will be able to create and bring home a fun and bright, colorful, striking work of art. It's easy and the pay off is so great!
We will be doing geometric art from:
10AM - 1PM
And if you are not in the LA area, please drop on in on any of the following GAP Kids locations:
New York: 54th & 5th
San Francisco: Corte Maderta
Chicago: Sheffield
Boston: Burlington Mall
Miami: Georgetown
Philadelphia: Newton Center
Dallas: Dallas Galleria
Toronto: Eaton Center
If you do attend at any of these events I'd LOVE to hear how it went and to see pictures!!! I'd love to do a round up of all your little Picasso's on my blog after each event, so bring your cameras and share! You can also stay in the loop with GAP's Facebook Shine On Saturdays event page.
Hope to see you there!
xo
Mer
 Head over to Handmade Charlotte for our latest summer craft project - our easy DIY Dry Erase Framed Gallery. You'll completely approve of this kind of coloring on your walls!
**Update: Giveway Now Closed**
So you might have noticed the blog has a few lulls every now and again. This typically happens when things get a little crazy around here. You see, in addition to crafting, blogging and the typical mom stuff (soccer camp, art camp, music class, oh my!) I more than likely have a number of exciting illustration projects on my plate. And so I thought, instead of hiding out when this happens, why not share a few of them with you?! I do have an illustration blog, that is quite neglected and not at all updated regularly, but I think I might try to merge some of these things onto Mer Mag. What do you think? Would you be interested?
 At the moment I'm working on a super super fun project! I can't disclose what it is but it involves horses and I just can't wait to share it! I also have a number of other book projects going on that are just so cute and so much fun! If you are interested in looking up some of my work, I illustrate under the "pen name" Tuesday Mourning. Long story but basically I just loved the name and enjoy it when artist personas are as whimsical as their work.
You might have noticed from this blog that I love children's toys and so when I have the opportunity to illustrate for companies like Mudpuppy, working on great projects such as these fun finger puppets and flip draw book, I'm just head over heels! I'm crazy for this kind of stuff, aren't you? And I have to say, you should get some, because they are so much fun! And better yet, super affordable. The finger puppets are only $6 and the flip draw book is $8! Perfect birthday gifts, if you ask me.
 And guess what? I'd love to share some with you! I've decided to gift a set of finger puppets and a ballerina flip draw book to one lucky reader. What do you say?! Just make a comment mentioning one of your favorite creative summer activities and I'll enter you into the drawing to win these fun gifts! And if you like "mer mag" on facebook and I'll enter you in twice! (I know, I'm seriously a slow poke when it comes to social networking - just joined Instagram this past week - so I'm finally getting around to really sharing mer mag on facebook :)).
You have until Friday to enter. I'll then Announce the winner on Monday, June 25th!
 I love how random every day household items, such as painter's tape, can become the perfect teaching/learning/artistic tool for kids. After I put up A's "Happy 6th" sign with painter's tape, he was hooked. He started spelling out his own words and taping up numbers right and left.
A has of course been able to count for some time (he's in the 100's now) but he got so much fulfillment out of creating these numbers and words in tape form. And I love how in turn this helps Little O learn about counting and the joy of learning. (Oh and A told me he purposefully forgot the "5". I think that's
code for "I turned the 5 into a 6 on accident and I don't want to take it all down and do it again just so that I
can fit in the 5 that I forgot" :) ).
 I now want to purchase a set of colorful masking tape and let them have at the walls. Brings a much more temporary approach to "coloring on the walls".
And what's better than a little freestyle monster drawing after some constructive math time? According to the boys, not much I tell you. Not much.
 Hello friends! So we all know it's helpful to drop a few hints before
Mother's Day to let our loved ones know what would be extra special for
us, right? And Daily Candy Kids is here to help us out! Today they were so kind to mention my individual pencil portraits, found in my shop here, as a great suggestion for Mother's Day. And I couldn't agree more!
For more information on how the ordering process takes place hop on over to my illustration blog to read more and see some great before photos and after portraits. And don't delay because slots for Mother's Day portraits will fill up fast, so order yours today!
Friends, I've been dying to share this gem of a book with all of you! Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids, by Jenny Doh, hit the shelves on April 3rd and I've been waiting until after all the Easter holiday fun was over to introduce this book you. If you are not already familiar with this new title, you are in a for a treat! It consists of 20 craft bloggers who focus on creating with kids and share one project each that you can do with your little ones. I feel so honored to have been selected to be amongst this great group and know you will love the book as much as I do.
If you follow this blog at all you'll know that I'm just a bit passionate about creating art and crafting with your kids. It has added so much to my life, and to the life of my kids. And what a treat it is to read all of the wonderful thoughts and experiences about creating with your kids from the many other bloggers in this book. I really was inspired to work hand in hand :) with my Littles, all over again!
The other contributors featured in this book are:
I was lucky enough to meat a few of these ladies in person at ALT, such as Dana Willard of MADE and Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte and they are just as inspiring in person as you will find them in this book and on their blogs. Many of these other bloggers have inspired me and my kids in days past and many others have been a treat to discover and explore for the first time. Here are a few spreads from our chapter. It was so fun to really explore and express how I feel about creativity and cultivating it in the home.  There are some fun shots from our South Pasadena home that I miss from time to time. (I especially miss all that space in the kids room!).  And there is a shot of how we ended up storing our geometric floor puzzle. (We adhered it to the wall with Velcro which made for some great movable wall art! And then when we wanted to have more free reign and play with it on the floor, we simply removed the tiles from the wall and placed them on the floor in fun and interesting patterns).  And for our craft contribution, Little A and I show you how you and your kids can make a personalized keepsake pillow from an original drawing, fabric and a bit of embroidery floss.  We loved working on this together and still treasure this pillow! If you are interested in perusing the many creative activities found in this book (which of course you are!) just leave a comment and I'll enter you into the drawing for a free book! And I'd LOVE to hear something creative (big or small) that you and your little one(s) love to do together. You have until the end of Wed. April 18th to comment and enter the Hand in Hand book giveaway! From there I will randomly select a number from the comments and reveal who has won the book a week from today, Friday, April 20th.
Are you running around crazy realizing that you have yet to purchase Easter candy, egg dye and various other Easter hunt amenities, and have absolutely no idea what your Littles will be wearing on Easter Sunday? If so, you're not alone. I'm right there with you. But I can help...at least just a little bit. Forget some of that candy and fill up those plastic eggs with some free downloadable Easter stickers that I illustrated. Your kids will love it and you'll enjoy forgoing some of that after-sugar shock.
To get started you just download the free printable stickers and print them out on full sheet label paper (found at your local office supply store).
You can then cut them up and place them in plastic eggs or have fun with it and hide them in a crepe paper surprise ball! (or surprise "lemon" as mine turned out to be).
A group of us got together last night to make some of these for our Littles and it was so fun! Read more about it here on Sarah Jane's darling blog (and be sure to download her adorable little bunny puppet while you're at it). Surprise balls are so fun and not as much work as I would have originally thought. It's an endeavor I'd highly recommend (especially amongst friends).
And as for the stickers, well my Littles have really enjoyed playing with them and have created identities for each character. I just gave them some paper, crayons and the stickers and let them go at it. And for about 15-20 min they were happily self-entertained. I'd say that's a success.
The boys and I had a fun weekend working on some artwork for their room. We've been in our new place for over six months and I think it's high time we got something on the walls, particularly in the boys room. I wanted to do something simple and graphic, and most importantly, something that the boys themselves could do, pretty much on their own. So we came up with a circle punch art idea.
We started with several 1 1/4 inch circles punched out a various types of patterned and textured papers. Little A (5) was especially good at punching out the circles and did quite a few of them on his own. Little O (3) did a few as well but had to have help pushing the punch.
We decided to make our artwork based on a couple of 28 ¼" x 40 ¼" IKEA RIBBA frames that we had. So we cut a large sheet of white poster board to fit nicely in the frame, at least 1/2 inch larger, on all sides, than the mat window measurements of 27 ½" x 39 ¼".
I then proceeded to measure out where we wanted the circles to go. I made little dots for where they boys could place the circles. I measured 1 3/4" between each one (I liked how the spacing looked at this distance but you can do whatever you feel looks good based on the size of your circles).
I then let the boys place the various circles on the marked grid.
And let me tell you, they had a lot of fun doing this. I never know how they will react to certain craft projects and i was a little surprised at just how into this one they got. I think they really loved the freedom of it and how easy it was to figure out. They took turns placing the different circles (we are just laying them out at this point to see how things look, we didn't glue them down until the very end) and were delighted to see how things slowly came to life, the more circles they placed.
Little A was very particular about not using the same colored/patterned circle in one line. He also would notice if we didn't have a lot of circles in a particular color/pattern and was quick to punch out a few more so it would be more even. Little O was less concerned about that and just loved placing as many circles as he possibly could. Their different approaches definitely stressed each other out but we worked it out together. I also decided that we would do two of these so that each boy could have more ownership over one than the other and so that we could put each one over their beds.
Once all the circles were laid out we talked about how we liked the look of things. I'd ask them questions such as "What do you think about all these blues and yellows together? Do you think we should space them out more and replace some with different colors and patterns?". I'm a big believer in helping your child see shapes, colors, patterns and just the general design of things. I think kids gain more confidence from an art project that has some limitations, helping them learn about good design, than I do from a free for all (which is, I concur, an appropriate approach for certain projects at certain times).
Once we were happy with the overall layout of the circles I had the boys glue them down (using the "dot, dot, not a lot" mantra), which they LOVED. We used simple Elmer's glue because that is what we had and to keep things easy for the boys, but you could use glue sticks or glue dots or really any type of adhesive you prefer. The boys took turns as to who would glue and who would place the circles. They loved each job immensely.
Once everything was glued down and dry, we placed the finished artwork in our frame. The boys really loved seeing their work presented with such prestige.
They also loved looking at particular circles they placed and were quick to point them out.
And like them, I'm so happy with the experience and how well the final product turned out. We did the second set of circles shortly after this one and I can't wait to put them above the boys beds!
(oh, and if you are thinking, "Little A needs a bit of haircut", well don't worry, he took matters into his own hands and snipped off the back of his hair yesterday...so no more mullet...and after a bit of repair...and a little lecture...it all ended up looking A-OK. Oh and we cut Little O's bangs so he can see now. :)).
I wanted to share the gifts from our Christmas 2011 zero-dollar-gift-exchange earlier but I'm afraid I caught that pesky flu bug that I was so hoping to avoid. But I'm now alive and well and ready to jump right into the new year! If you have been following my blog you know that Jon and I have been doing a zero dollar (or at least in principle) gift exchange for the past couple of years. We decided to keep on with the tradition this past Christmas as we have really loved the thoughtfulness and creativity that has come out of it. And this past year did not disappoint.
For my gift to Jon, I wanted to do a portrait of both Jon and I together, something I've wanted to do for some time. In 2009 I painted a portrait of Jon using Acrylics and I had promised him that the rest of the family portraits would be coming along shortly thereafter so that we could have a family portrait wall. Well...that's still in the works. I did, however, manage to create a watercolor portrait of the two of us holding a banner that reads "together forever". OK, maybe a little cheez for some, but I have to say it holds special meaning for us. We celebrated our 10th anniversary this past year and it's been a time to reflect upon this great journey we are on. So many of our friends have struggled to stay together and many have divorced. We know first hand that marriage can be hard at times. Yes, even we have had our times of trial, but we have vowed to stick it out, through thick and thin. And this past season I have so enjoyed reflecting upon all of our wonderful, magical and magnificent times together...and was so thankful that we both have made the commitment to stick it out, so that we can continue to have more of these moments...pretty much for forever. If you haven't already been introduced to the blog, A Blog About Love, authored by a darling friend of mine, Mara and her husband, then you had best be on your way over. It offers so much insight on what it means to truly love and to truly be happy, no matter what is going on in your life (Both Mara and Danny had previously been married and they share their journey and love story on their blog). Here is one of my favorite posts to get your started. Consider it my New Years gift to you, it's that good!
Jon's gift to me was nothing short of incredible (he always surprises me!). OK, so to give you some background, we recently got hooked on the first season of Project Accessory. Jon's not a Project Runway fan (oh, but I am :)) but he was not only able to tolerate Project Accessory, he actually got rather into it. He couldn't get enough of all the welding, metalworking and so forth. So for his gift to me he decided to do a little metal jewelry working of his own. Cool right? But just wait until you hear where he got his supplies...
We spent Thanksgiving with Jon's family this past year. After Thanksgiving, he and his brothers have a tradition of going out to the shooting range with all their no-longer-in-season pumpkins and have a marksmen competition, leaving no poor pumpkin unscathed. Well, my creative husband was thinking ahead and when he saw all of the discarded brass rifle cartridges lying on the ground, he quickly picked them up and pocketed them away for future creative Christmas endeavors (he was SO much more on the the ball than I was!). He and his brother later took them back to the shop and cut, sanded and pounded them down into beautiful rectangular brass scales. He then drilled holes in them and connected them with jump rings and attached a chain to hold them all together. And the result was nothing short of amazing! - and dare I say a little dangerous? (And almost nearly free!).
And if that wasn't enough, he wanted to have a go at a brass cuff (all the rage on Project Accessory this last season) and I love the result. Oh and he threw is some amazing earrings he made as well (not pictured here because I was starting to feel really pathetic for not making him more gifts...OK, not really, I just didn't get a photo of them). Yeah, I'm one lucky girl. Together Forever is sounding pretty great, right?
And for the boys, well I wanted to make them as least something for Christmas. I didn't manage to sew their pajamas this past year and the boys asked for things in the ballpark of Lego Star Wars and Super Mario Bros...neither of which have inspired much creativity in me yet, so I didn't have anything creative in the works for them. But it just wasn't feeling like Christmas if I didn't make something for them. You see I grew up with a full scale Santa's workshop going on in my house in the month of December and let me tell you it was pretty darn magical. My father made us girls 2 doll houses and 1 doll castle, a full blown model train and table for the boys - just to name a few projects- and my mother was always at her sewing machine making dolls, doll clothes, play clothes and more. So I just couldn't finish the year out without making something for my little ones. And this little mix-n-match up block set is what I came up with (highly inspired by my Easter mix-n-match-um pals).
To make these we went to Home Depot and purchased a 4x4 fencing post which Jon and his brother Steven then cut into 4x4 cubes. Jon then sanded them down and I painted on some fun little pals. It was, not surprising, a little young for Little A, but Litte O still really enjoys it and I love what it looks like in their room.
It was a fun and creative Christmas and I'm already chock-a-block full of ideas for 2012!
So I've been a busy, busy bee this past month. In between a number of illustration projects, preparing for a move and trying to keep my littles entertained in the California heat, I've managed to squeeze in a 2-day, day camp that I just happened to be in charge of planning and carrying out. The camp was for girls ages 8-11 and I couldn't have asked for a more ideal age range or group of girls. This age is the most common demographic for which I do much of my illustration work for and I love it. These girls are not jaded, are full of life, ready and excited for the future, are amazingly resilient and willing to see the good and beauty in everyone and everything. In short, I love these girls and had a fantastic last couple of days.
It was such a treat to see how each girl would light up when seeing her creation come to life and to realize just what she was capable of. I also really loved seeing a sea of flower adorned heads bobbing up and down throughout the camp and most every girl proudly brought along their newly sewn tote bag to the field trip on the second day. All in all it was a great success!
Now that the camp is over, we have loved having the tote bag around here as well. It makes the perfect library bag for little A.
 On our bag we varied a bit from the Purl tutorial and used an old elastic belt for the handles (which worked great!) and then I added the stitched "x" marks where the handles are attached. I was also fond of the illustration that I created for the camp flyer and thought I'd offer a print variation of it for you in the shop! Enjoy!
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