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An Elegant Christmas – I Win Again!| A Custom Christmas Photo Shoot and Card Design | Photography

January 25, 2011 By Laura 8 Comments

Every working professional photographer is bound to have them. Those photo shoots that are just a little more challenging than others. I have to say, I’ve been pretty blessed, because more times than not, I walk away from the end of a shoot thinking, “Cake.” But I have had the occasional high school senior boy, who is ‘so not down’ with having his photos taken > but his mom is making him. They can be a challenge at first, but I have always been able to work that age. Shortly into those shoots, they realize hanging with me is not all that bad after all, (because I’m cool after all). They find they are relaxed, laughing, and actually having a good time. They forget they had planned to hold onto that difficult attitude, through it all. Or there is the baby who didn’t take their usual nap that day, decide they are hungry, and isn’t feeling happy, or co-operative. Like most babies, I go into it knowing they will need time, comforting, and patience. (I have had 4 of my own, and 3 of them at once. I’ve had a little practice there.)

So yes, it happens, where sometimes, I need to give a little more of myself, to make a successful shoot, out of a rough start. In the end, we’re all very happy with the results.

Now, every year, I have this one particular client who hires me to have a Christmas photo shoot of her 2 little girls. I design their family Christmas cards, which is important to her, and she also places a healthy print order. (Well anyway, I require my clients to have placed a minimum order, before they qualify for card designing.) I truly love this client, and I love her girls. I have posted about all of their previous shoots, in this section of the blog, before. After 4 years of working together, it seems we have established a firm procedure:

The little one (above), Little A, sucks the life right out of me for awhile, we finally get down to some quick and serious happy business, and in the end, it is one of my absolute favorite shoots of the year!! Every year. That’s just our annual routine, in a nutshell.
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The oldest girl (above), Big A, is a dream. She is unbelievably polite, sweet, charming, co-operative, and a-ma-zing-ly patient with her little sister. I also know she is also extremely smart, because I can see the wheels turning in her head, behind her eyes, when I talk to her. She is so well-spoken. She is beyond her years, I think. A little beauty, with manners I can really appreciate.
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Her little sister, on the other hand, (in the background) is a challenge and a 1/2. I love her too! Honestly, I do! But even at home, she rules the roost, so to speak. I also love working with the girls’ mother, because she makes no bones about our annual situation. She understands my position. I think every year, our little one becomes just a tad more difficult. Notice, she is not wearing any tights or shoes? She refused to keep them on, and it was cold out. Freezing. The mom allows me to use these struggles we have, with humor. (As you’ll see.) She also buys prints, of our most difficult moments, with her Little A, because she knows someday, they are going to be so treasured. Real memories to share!

The difficulty can go on, for who knows how long. But I never give up, because 1) I am committed to making my client happy, 2) I want that order, and 3) this particular shoot, is always a seriously beautiful ending. Hard to believe, but true, nonetheless. It’s like giving birth. No matter how difficult the labor, you forget the pain, once you hold that baby in your arms.

(Ok, I have to admit, I have never forgotten the pain of my own labors with my children. I can go back there in my mind, in an instant, still. Maybe, because I refuse pain meds when in labor, so my head is all there. But, I’ve heard many other mothers say the pain of labor is quickly forgotten. I can certainly agree that it is worth every bit of the pain, in the end. The same is true when doing this shoot every year.

Oh, it does tend to go from bad, to worse….

It was during this moment, as she screamed bloody murder, and I hadn’t gotten a happy shot of her yet, that my infamous words came out:

“Come, Lord Jesus.”

These are the words I say, when I need some savin’, because I am about to lose. my. mind.

For the first time in 4 years, I was concerned I was really not going to be able to work it out this time. That the whole shoot was going to be a complete bust. It had been 45 minutes of absolute refusal from my sweet girl here, and we were losing time and light, fast now.

But Jesus came, and saved me, just as I called. Something absolutely miraculously magical happened……

Our town of Plymouth has a power plant, and every rare now and then, the sirens go off over loud speakers, throughout the whole town. A really high pitched, constant, annoying sound, that suddenly sounded much like a famous reindeer we all know! ; ) Oh yes….I went there:

I let out a big <GASP>, and with that, said, “OH NO, Little A! Listen!! Rudolph is coming!! He is wicked upset that we can’t get these pretty photos of you, for your Christmas card! What are we going to do?”

If you could have only seen the look of surprise on her face, and the stammering of panic. She got herself together so quickly, wiped those tears, turned her whole attitude around, and gave me every bit of that star quality she’s got, with a smile, that I work so hard to get out, every year:

Of course by now, the sun was blasting on my spot. But I was going to take what I could get, and quickly, at this point!

We moved on to the next little spot…..

She was freezing, and a little tentative once again, but workable….

In between their beautiful smiles, was Little A’s leariness of her sister, behind her. She has a real serious aversion to her older sister. Hey, we all know they will be best friends some day, most likely. It’ll be a beautiful thing! But right now? Little A can actually feel the compression of air, on her shoulder blade, if her sister leaned in to close to her, and she would scream her pretty little head off!

So this is where, I show multiple similar shots!! My camera was going off like a BB gun, because I didn’t know how long this was going to last! And it was getting darker, rapidly. I was bumming a little, because I did have another spot or 2, that I wanted to shoot at with the girls, prior to this one. But I knew we had lost serious time, so I had to prioritize.

I got them smiling and giggling with my antics and non-sense talk. (Really…there isn’t much I won’t do, if I need to. I’m in full fool-mode, sometimes.)

But I can’t take all the credit. My oldest daughter {A}, who is often my very helpful assistant, was right behind me, and really got them laughing. As similar as these photos seem, I just love the progression of their expressions….

I am beyond happy at this point, and the mom is relieved!! You know what is so comforting? The mom always says every year, “If you can get ONE good one, I’ll be happy!” God bless her. I have SUCH higher expectations of myself. I mean…..I know I can do better than that!!

My heart is full of joy at this point, and I just know, these photos are going to be beautiful – because these girls are!! Look at them!!

Check out Little A’s tongue sticking out! She does that all of the time, when she is laughing, and I love it!

Here’s a question for you……..Have you had any idea where we might be doing this on-location Christmas shoot? Any guesses at all? Yes? No? Maybe?

Well here’s the answer:

Yes, the cemetery. I scouted high and low, for a new creative place to work with this family this year. If you’ve read the past posts with this family, I have full creative license, and I love that! So, I always want to keep it fresh and new every year. I admit, I was a little nervous to tell the mom on the phone: “I did find a great location I want to use. It is going to sound crazy but, you know….I see ahead of time in my head, how I am going to work it. I’d like to do your Christmas shoot…..in the …..cemetery.” <Mom laughs.> And then she says, ‘That does sound crazy! But I trust you! I trust you!! Every year, no matter what, it is all beautiful in the end. You always work a miracle, and that’s why I keep coming back to you!’

Boy was I relieved, because I had nothing else to suggest by then!

And now, is their resulting 5×7 folding Christmas card. Imagine…it was printed on heavyweight pearl paper, with a glossy finish. I SO wish, I could put one in your hand right now, because they were DIVINE! The color, the depth, and the shimmer of the print beneath that glossy coat. They just look flat here, compared to the real thing. But….still lovely….

THE FRONT OF THE CARD.
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OPENED: THE INSIDE SPREAD. (Their name blurred for privacy.)

And the back, I always have fun with…..

The mom LOVED the back!! As always. She said it was CLASSIC! That’s what I mean…..she is so great to work with. Her girls have grown on me from the very first shoot with them, and it has been beautiful to watch them grow. I know Little A will get easier in time. I’m willing to bet, that extra spunk and spirit, will take her great places in life. If all else fails, she always has those adorable dimples to fall back on! Her big sister has a bright future too. No doubts about it.

Until next year!!

(I’ll be sharing more sessions, soon, if you are enjoying these? But I’d like to share some of Michael’s lettering work too, first. )

* I hope you enjoyed a peek into this photo shoot!

(If you don’t want to miss what is coming up all over the blog, be sure you follow our page on Facebook! *See sidebar, to follow us!)

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How to Make Beautiful Winter Ice Decor for Your Yard

January 20, 2011 By Laura 10 Comments

In mid-December, I had decided that my yard was looking all too-blase’, for me. There was snow, so that was a plus. It just looks so bleak and dead, without snow at least. But it really needed more than just……white, everywhere. It bothered me more this year, because I had seen, what I was missing, before. You see, at the end of 2 Autumn seasons ago, Michael and I had cleaned out the garden beds, and thrown down winter rye seed. By the time the first snow had fallen that year, beautiful bright green rye was coming up out of the snow in all of the garden beds in the front yard. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it all winter. Three perfectly snow covered, raised rectangles, elevated out of the blanket of snow on the ground, with beautiful, spring-green grass poking up out of it, everywhere. It always looked, just beautiful.

But this past Autumn, we threw it down the winter rye seed a little too late. It was already too cold to germinate and grow. I was so mad at myself, for waiting too long. And I’ve suffered for it. I haven’t looked at our front yard, without grumbling under my breathe about it, once this winter. I miss the bright green rye. It’s looked so….lifeless out there, without it. Fresh fallen snow is always pretty. But the rye just added so more.

The week before Christmas, I was thinking about how I could add some pretty out there. So I decided to try and make some ice molded sculptures, adding pretty things to it. Then I could place them about the yard, on railings, in my empty garden beds, and on the walls out back outside our school windows, where the birds spend the day coming and going.

I started with some store bought bags of cranberries, and some oranges as well. The rest, I got from our yard. (Alright….some from the neighbor’s yard too. But, we manage the property, and I was pretty sure she wouldn’t care. Or ever know. lol). I found 2 kinds of berries on sticks. Holly berries, and……what are those dark ones?? I’m not really sure. If you know, maybe you can tell me.
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I also tried to gather a few different kind of pine branches and sticks, for variety.
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From the kitchen, I gathered containers in as many different shapes and sizes as I could find. I was especially excited about the triangle pizza slice ones! I also got some tuna cans that had been washed out, and put downstairs for the next garbage day.
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Then the fun started. We sliced up some oranges, started pulling pieces of pine off the big branches, and started arranging things just-so in the containers.

Who is WE, all of a sudden?

Me, and {O}. She is always right there, no matter what I am doing, asking to help. “Would I be able to help?” It’s her most used sentence, and it always has been. She’s so nice to have around. She makes my second cup of coffee every morning too. She peeks in my first cup about 50 times, just hoping it is time to get me more. Now the boys are trying to cut in on her morning gig, and she’s not having it.

Oh…I’m getting off topic I guess. So….

….she was really enjoying doing this project with me. She was cutting stuff with the big knife, arranging every piece with love, and feeling like such a big girl. Designing and crafts is her thing, anyway.

We had a lot of fun, trying to make each arrangement a little different than the others.
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As we finished each one, we put it out on the deck.

They looked so pretty, all together, against the wet deck that brought out the grain in the wood. I was more excited than ever, just imaging how beautiful they were going to be. But they weren’t done yet.
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We had to fill each container with water, being careful not to disturb our arrangement too much.

Is it me, or are my old and vein-y hands making it into a lot of blog posts lately?

Lovely!! All that was left for them now, was to freeze! So we left them right there, for them to do just that.

And we waited …. day, after day, after day.

Christmas came, and went, and they still sat there, unfrozen.

Yes, a little technical difficulty in my plan. One should check the weather report, before one decides to make a 100 frozen ice sculptured outside, huh? A little warm front moved in, out of the blue, after weeks of being frigid cold out there. Sometimes, they would start to freeze, and I would get all excited. This would be about 2:30 a.m., when I got up to put more wood on the fire, and I just had to run out there, and check if they were freezing yet, in my nighty.

But the next day, the temps would climb back up to 36 degrees or so again, and it was back to square one.

(Sigh.) The round tin pans were starting to rust!!

But then finally, they froze enough….

Taking them out of their containers, one by one, was like opening a gift, every time.

Each one a unique surprise.

I thought they were so beautiful.

Don’t you think so too?………

This one was still partially unfrozen, but I didn’t mind much. It was still pretty, so I laid them in the garden beds.
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Many of them filled my flower box.
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Others I just plunked in the snow, on the railings.
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I loved the pitcher ones. I put those in my garden beds too. The spring greens sticking up looked like it belonged there.

They brought comfort and a smile to my face, and relieved my longing for the sight of my winter rye.

When it’s warm enough again, and our ice creations melt away, the little critters around that we enjoy so much, will be delighted with the berries and oranges our ice left behind.

I hope you’ll try making some yourself, if your climate allows. (I do recommend checking the weather forecast – unless you just happen to live where it is always bitter cold this time of year.) It really is another great, easy, and fun activity to do with your kids. Or alone! Please send us a photo if you make some!!

I think we’ll make some more soon, too. It really is enjoyable to do. I’d like to experiment with some other natural ingredients. Maybe strawberries, raspberries, blueberries…..oh, pinecones!! Those would look nice. Do you have any other ideas? Let me know. I bet we could get quite creative with this.

Ice is so pretty as it is. I could get obsessed with this.

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Heart Strings / A Valentine’s Craft

January 17, 2011 By Laura 49 Comments

If brilliant colors make you happy, and you love fun projects, then this Valentine’s craft is just for you! We’re showing you just how to do it, step by step today!

While my home is not completely decorated for the upcoming ‘month of love’ just yet, I knew it was time to get to some Valentine crafting! I happened to see this craft from Martha Stewart Living, and was inspired to try it ourselves, with a spin or 2 of our own on it. By melting crayons in between wax paper, and cutting out hearts, some very cute Valentine’s decor can be made! That Martha is a clever one, huh? ( Or, her creative team – whatever. lol.) You can make this craft as quick and simply. or as involved, as you choose, and I am going to tell you the ways how.

Supplies needed:

Crayons, with paper removed (This craft is a great way to use up those old broken crayon pieces!)
A sharpener with a fat hole.
*Wax paper
Clothing iron
Brown craft paper, or brown paper bags (Just a protection layer for ironing.)
Hearts stencils or cookie cutters (2-3 sizes is nice.)
Pen or pencil
Scissors
Scotch-like tape

* DO NOT substitute parchment paper for the wax paper. It is not the same thing, as parchment paper has teflon in it.

Other optional supplies, depending on what you want to do with your crafts decoration:

White cotton twine and food coloring. (Simplified option: thin ribbon in white or any Valentine color.)
A clothing hanger, or a long tree branch

I intended to hang our hearts once they were done. So instead of using some satin ribbon (which is simple and faster, if you want to go that route), I had this vision of hanging our hearts on dyed string, that varied in color. So, with a roll of white cotton twine, and some food coloring, this is how I did it:

heart-strings-valentines-craft-1 In a plastic container, I added some red food coloring to some water, deep enough to soak the roll on it’s side to the cardboard roll core. I just let it sit for awhile, while I did other things, until I thought it soaked through all of the layers of twine. Then, I made orange and yellow soaks as well, letting a different side of the roll sit in each.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-2 I loved the results! How pretty is that?

I knew as the twine was pulled off the roll, the layers would get lighter, but that too would only help the variations in the string colors. Now, all of this string is not going to dry on the roll all the way through, any time this year, but that’s o.k. You’ll be able to use the string damp just fine, and it’ll dry hanging.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-4 But while the string roll was soaking in various colors, the kids and I got to making our hearts.

Pull off a piece or 2 of wax paper, fold in half to make a good crease, and then open back up. . . .

heart-strings-valentines-craft-5 What size piece you use depends on how many hearts you’ll want to make. Remember, you’ll only be able to get hearts out of one half, as it will be ironed together soon, with crayon shavings in between.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-7 Grab your old peeled crayons, and start choosing some great colors for Valentine hearts. No need to stay with strictly traditional colors, such as red and pink. Try some purples, raspberries, and even oranges and yellows!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-8 Now, if your old crayons have been kicking around together for some time, as ours have, they are going to have yuckity-doo-dahs all over them. Even as a kid, with me and my sibling’s bottomless bucket of crayons, I hated this.

So because I have had particular issues, long before I was a blogger, I have had a trick for this crayon problem. And since you came to this blogger with issues blog, I’m going to share it with you. : )

heart-strings-valentines-craft-9 Just lay the crayons down, one by one, on some scrap paper, and rub the yuckity-doo-dahs away! I found this is also a good way to test what the color really looks like!! Some crayons when used, do not look anything like the shade of the actual crayon! So deceiving.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-10 Old crayons, like new: Yuckity-doo-dah free!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-11 To make crayon shavings, you need a sharpener of some kind. Our little hand pencil sharpener did not have a hole big enough for a crayon, so we used my make-up one! Thanks Lancome!

Now….you’ll need to iron on your table or other flat surface, so I highly recommend putting down some crafts paper to protect your surface, from both melting crayon, and the heat from the iron.

On top of the protected surface, lay your open wax paper pieces.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-12 Over only one side of your wax paper piece, sharpen your crayons and let the shavings fall onto the paper. Each of my our kids did their own, and had their own unique colors combinations, which was going to make for a nice variety of colored hearts.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-13 Some of our crayons were metallic ones!! So that was adding a whole new element of pretty!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-14 Make sure you cover the whole side with shavings pretty well. Brush any pieces in from the very edge though.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-15 Fold over the empty side of wax paper, onto the side with the shavings.

Now, Martha’s directions say to fold up each open side some, to keep the melting crayon in. But, I didn’t want to waste any space, as we wanted to make lots of hearts, and some on the bigger side too. So….I just made sure I was working on my brown paper bag. (We also had other craft paper taped to cover our surface under that.)

heart-strings-valentines-craft-16 Now, after putting brown paper on top of your waxed paper and shavings, you can start ironing. What setting? Good question!! See, Martha said on a ‘medium setting’. But guess what? Our iron doesn’t have a medium setting! So I set it between silk and wool, ; ) …. and adjusted the heat up or down from there.

As you can see, some oils from the crayons may seep through the wax paper and the brown paper. It doesn’t cause any problems. Just make sure you clean the surface of your iron off when you are done with this craft, so it doesn’t transfer to your clothes! What a hot mess that would be! (Note to self: Clean surface of iron from crayon craft!!) (By the time I decide to iron an article of clothing, I’ll have forgotten I ever did this craft with it.)

As you iron, you’ll want to keep peeking, to see if there are more shavings that still need melting in areas.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-17 Heavy in crayon wax…..but nice!!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-18 The next kiddo went with a lighter layer of shavings, for a new effect. Or, his hands just got tired from sharpening the crayons.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-17 They were looking good!! Just holding each of them up to the light, I could tell this was going to look super cool when we were done.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-18

I couldn’t wait to see what this one was going to look like, all melted.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-21 LOVE!!!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-22 Now, you may notice some bubbling or wrinkling in areas. I’m not sure why this happened sometimes. I was guessing maybe it was too much heat at times. But since this was a fun crafts class, and not our Science class, we weren’t going to waste time running tests, to figure it out. We decided it was a cool effect, and embraced it.

Next, came tracing hearts onto our waxed pieces, and cutting them out with scissors.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-19 We used simple heart shaped cookie cutters that we had, in 3 different sizes. Just trace them using a pen or pencil, and then cut out on the heart shaped line. I used a pen, and because I was using it on wax paper, it wouldn’t really write, which I preferred anyway. I was able to see the tracing indention well enough to cut, just by tracing it a couple of times. * I did not take photos of tracing and cutting. I have faith you get the picture.

Nor did I take photos of exactly how we did the rest of our crafts. BUT……Once your hearts are all cut out, there several things you can do with them:

1) The easiest thing you can do, is just put them on your windows much like window clings, using a little transparent tape! The hearts have a stained-glass look, and they would be beautiful with the light coming through, and the colors so radiant.

2) Another option, is using pieces of thin cut ribbon, tape one end to the back of each heart, and tie them to a clothing hanger at different lengths. Instant Valentine’s themed mobile!!

3) You can take it to the extreme, like we did…..

heart-strings-valentines-craft-23
Michael went out and found us a really long and fairly straight tree branch, that would meet the length of our sliding glass doors. Then, to work in a comfortable manner tying our hearts on it, we set 2 chairs very far apart, and rested each end of the stick on the top back of each chair. Using long pieces of our dyed string, we wound one end around the stick a few times, and taped the dangling end to the back of each heart, at different lengths.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-24 Yes, you could just tie it on quickly, but I knew I would love the look of our pretty, hand-dyed string, wound around this rustic tree branch. And I was right.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-25 It was worth ll of my efforts. It may not be worth it to you. Also….my girls helped with this some.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-26 If you’re wondering how we hung this long tree branch adorned with colorful Valentine hearts up high and across our slider glass doors, I’ll tell you: Michael screwed a long screw into the backside of the stick on each end. Then we simply used those little tight-clamp thingies, and clamped them to the curtain rod bracket. See? No permanent damage anywhere.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-27

They colors really look beautiful, hanging there, even as I look past them, through our window into the snowy scene behind them. There are often squirrels out there frolicking in the snow (o.k. …finding the fallen bird seed), and birds at the feeders, eating.

We think the critters rather appreciate our Valentine decorations on display.

I love coming in our front door, and seeing them swaying in the breeze across the room in front of us. I can feel the love in the air. It makes us smile.

The colors of love are a beautiful thing.

Let them shine, shine, shine.

(Love this craft idea? Share the link on your Facebook! Your mom-friends will love it too! Or….*pin it* to one of your boards! ; )

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Fun Word and Picture Puzzles: Building Important Skills | Elementary Homeschooling

January 10, 2011 By Laura 2 Comments

I know I’ve blogged about puzzles before. But, that was puzzles of a different kind. I believe all of the studies, that all puzzles, are just good for our brain – young or old. (People, or puzzles, for that matter.) They can help keep our brain active, quick, and sharp, and God knows I could use all of that. (Ask Him!)

So when a puzzle sort of exercise came up in my triplet 8 year olds’ Language book, we ran with it. Puzzles come in many different forms. Any exercise, of trying to figure something out, can be considered a puzzle, in my book. It’s the search in your head, for a solution – whether it be for a problem in life, a jigsaw, or 17 Across. Regardless, I love puzzles. (OK, I actually do not love the jigsaw kind. They are o.k. on occasion. )

As I was saying…..when a puzzle sort of exercise came up in…..uhhhh, my 3rd grade Language Arts class ( <—solution! ; )… I was thrilled. Because, puzzles are beneficial for the above stated reasons. But these particular kind we came up to in our daily lessons, I saw how they had other benefits to offer, after accessing them. Here’s in what other areas: Comprehension, and following directions, through reading words that direct one’s actions, is pretty important skills for our kids (yours and mine, collectively speaking), to develop. Right? Kids especially, need to have opportunities to develop these skills, to continue succeeding in their advancing education, eventually in the workforce of their choosing (if they want to keep their job), and naturally for everyday occurrences in the process of living. That’s what these exercises, I called puzzles, would help develop. But…..it just-so-happens, they are FUN too! And as I have always said, having fun is always the best way to learn!

So, without too much more chatter, I thought I would share with you first, the two puzzles my three 3rd graders did, show you their results following them, and then welcome you to print them off for your kids to do, if they are in the appropriate age range, and would like to do them, too. (But I have to tell you, I’d enjoy doing them myself. So if you are inclined to print them off for yourself, I won’t tell a soul. ; )

Puzzle ONE

1. Draw a circle.
2. Draw an upside down ice cream cone above and on top of the circle. ·
3. Draw a half circle on each side of the big circle.
4. Draw a U in the big circle.
5. Make two dots over the U.
6. Make one dot lower than the two dots, but above the U.
7. Make a circle on the point of the upside down ice cream cone.
8. Make a W under the big circle.
9. Color your picture!

WHAT AM I?

If directions were followed carefully, the drawing should look something like this:

That is just one of my student’s puzzle solution /drawings, after following the directions. Of course all 3 of them had similar results, with only slight variations. But all were correct in terms of following the directions correctly.

* If you would like to print off the directions to this puzzle, just click on the link above named ‘Puzzle ONE’, or click here. It is a downloadable and printable Word document, if I did it right.

Here’s another:

Puzzle TWO

1. Draw a big circle.
2. On the left top of the circle, draw an upside down V.
3. On the right top of the circle, draw an upside down V.
4. Draw a big W inside the circle, near the bottom.
5. Above the center point of the W, draw an O.
6. Near the left side of the W, draw a V lying on its side with the point of the V toward the W.
7. Near the right side of the W, draw a V lying on it’s side with the point of the V toward the W.
8. Near the middle of the circle, draw two small circles beside each other.
9. Color your picture!

WHAT AM I?

Here’s the results of this puzzle, by one of my student kids:

fun-word-and-drawing-puzzles-for-elementary-age-kids-hoeschooling

*Again, if you would like to print off the directions to this puzzle, just click on the link above named ‘Puzzle TWO’, or click here. It is a down-loadable and printable Word document, if I did it right.

The kids had such a good time doing these, that I thought I would keep working with these puzzles a little more, but put their own writing skills to use. In fact, I was reversing their role, from puzzle solver, to puzzle creator. I gave them the assignment, of each writing their own puzzle directions. Then later, they would have the opportunity, to solve each other’s puzzles the other 2 had written. They loved the idea, and had a great time doing it!!

SO……I have their puzzles, that they wrote themselves, to offer you too! I am displaying them in this post, (as their handwritten papers, which I scanned) but their titles are down-loadable links for you too! Now this time the downloadable links are PDF documents, and they are just what you see below – handwritten by the kids. Why? Because I totally did not feel like typing them all over. I think they are readable enough for you to figure out, and they have some endearing homemade character. Especially, my spilled coffee stain, on {S}’s paper. ; ) Just keepin’ it real!

J’s puzzle

O’s puzzle

fun-word-and-drawing-puzzles-for-elementary-age-kids-hoeschooling-4 –

S’s puzzle

fun-word-and-drawing-puzzles-for-elementary-age-kids-hoeschooling-5

You and/or your kids, may have more fun than you think you will, doing these puzzles. If you do, I will take total credit for that. You may also have less fun, than you think. That will not be my fault. I am easily amused, and often presume everyone is as easily amused as I am. : )

If you do download the kid’s puzzles, or follow them from the computer, YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE FUN? (Or, you know, I think it would be…). Letting us know the solution you came up with, for each kid’s puzzle!! What does your drawing look like? Let us know in the comments section below, afterward. Don’t worry. We’ll tell you if you are wrong! ; )

Hope you enjoyed this post! And hope you enjoy the puzzles too!!

Don’t sprain your brain, now! ; )

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Midnight Snaps (Festive Cookies for New Years Eve)

December 30, 2010 By Laura 20 Comments

My kids and I were trying to come up with some themed food for New Year’s Eve, and {JM} came up with this great idea, right off the bat: Cookies that are designed like clocks! (Oh, to have his quick, 8 year old brain!)

Right away I started trying to figure the details, and decided to start with homemade Gingersnap Cookies. To design them, we went with a white icing that hardens, and a bit of chocolate art. The design process does involve some intricate detail work, but if you enjoy the creative process and have a little patience to work with, they are worth the effort! Your party-goers will be impressed with these festive cookies, you made!

First, I’m going to start by giving you this basic Gingersnap Cookie Recipe. This post is not featuring how to make the cookies, with step by step photos, etc., but how to turn them into clocks. So, using the recipe below, bake some cookies and let them cool before getting to designing.

Participating Ingredients for Gingersnap Cookies:

3/4 shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add the egg and beat until light and fluffy, then stir in the molasses. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add to the egg mixture, and stir until well blended. * (See foot note below). Roll bits of dough into 1 inch balls. Dip each ball into sugar and place on cookie sheet, sugar side up, about 2 inches apart.

*Now, being the first time we made these, we did indeed use 1 inch balls of dough. However, we found that the cookies were pretty small to work with, and it was difficult making such tiny chocolate numbers! So……we advise that you make cookies twice the size, using 2 inch dough balls, and putting a little further apart on the cookie sheets. That way, your chocolate numbers can be made larger, and it will all be easier to do.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies have spread, and cookies have cracked. Let cool on wire rack.

They are delicious straight and plain, for sure! Crispy on the outside, a little softer on the inside, and amazingly good! Surely no one would notice, if just one, was missing. ; )

Again, these are small cookies, and we recommend having bigger ones to work with.

Now, once they are cool, you’ll need to whip up some icing. I am going to guess some of you already have a recipe, and I am sure there many variations out there. This one below is the one I started with. BUT, I really needed to add a lot more liquid than it calls for, being careful to keep it a very pretty thick consistency. Really, this is one of those recipes where you need to tweak as needed, depending on how yours is looking.

Note: You’ll probably want to at least make a double batch of this icing.

Participating Ingredients for Cookie Icing

1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons milk *
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon of preferred extract (called for almond, I used vanilla, frankly, because I hate almond. )

* I probably had to add at least 2 tablespoons of milk! But gauge for yourself.

Using a piping bag, we outlined a circle around the edge of each cookie, and filled it in, using the tip to push the icing around some, to help get it all covered.
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The icing is bound to drip a little sometimes, but if you try not to be close to the edge where the fall-off is, you should do o.k.

At the back of the photo above, you can see where we experimented with seeing if covering the whole cookie would be easier. It was just too much icing. So we stuck with our original icing plan.

Allow the iced cookies to set, so that the icing can harden.

*****

Now you’ll need to melt some chocolate to work with, otherwise known as tempering. I should do a post just on this process at some point, but you’ll need to know it for this recipe! So I’m going to share with you a quick tutorial. Now, you may have used the double-boiler method of melting chocolate before, but we’ve never had much good luck with that. Then, we learned a quick and easy trick to tempering chocolate, from Barefoot Contessa – and I am going to share it with you right now:

You’ll need: some milk chocolate -shaved or chips (we used Hershey chocolate chips, which as chips are easier to melt), a glass measuring cup, a wooden spoon, and a microwave.

In the glass measuring cup, add about half of the amount of chocolate that you’ll need. Microwave it for about 15-20 seconds. Take out, and with the handle/ butt end of the wooden spoon, mix the chips rapidly. It will likely need more melting, so put it in for 10 second increments, and stir with the end of the wooden spoon very rapidly after each time, until the chocolate is all melted smooth and glossy. Now, just as the remaining half of your chocolate, and stir rapidly some more. You really want to mix it hard and fast – the more you do, the shinier your chocolate will be.

Now that’s a tip we can all use for life!! Thanks Contessa!

***

Now below is some writing with chocolate tips. Since I didn’t photograph making the teeny-tiny numbers, here below I am using the photos of when we made the words for Jesus’ Birthday cake on Christmas.

We printed out the words on a piece of paper, having laid out the size we wanted, in the font we wanted. Then we slipped that ‘stencil’ to trace, under a piece of parchment paper. Using a fine tip on a piping bag filled with the melted chocolate, do your writing or designs!

As the chocolate cools, it will harden.

Our words came out nice, and when they were hardened, we just placed them on our cake!

Michael and the kids had chocolate left in the bag, and they just couldn’t stop themselves from playing with chocolate some more.

See how you can just pick it up?

So this is the method we used, to make tiny little number and click hands. They were probably only 3/8ths of an inch, so you can imagine it was a tad difficult. Bigger would be easier. This way, doing the chocolate work on parchment paper first, if something comes out awful, you didn’t ruin a cookie or a cake. You just start a new one on the parchment paper, and use the ones that came out best.

If the icing on the cookies is hardened, then use a bit more icing to apply the numbers and dots to the cookie.
Otherwise they won’t stick and stay put.

So here is how our Midnight Snaps came out!! Not perfect by any means. But we think they are imperfectly cute!

Now I realize I am giving you this grand idea, pretty last minute. (lol….lol….). So I wouldn’t blame you, if you went out and tried to find some large, store bought gingersnap cookies, or maybe even molasses cookies, to just bring home and decorate. That would be a time saver for sure. ; )

May you all rock around the clock on New Year’s Eve, (or at least until midnight) and may we all have a Happy New year!

“Come, Lord Jesus.”

But Jesus came, and saved me, just as I called. Something absolutely miraculously magical happened……

Here’s a question for you……..Have you had any idea where we might be doing this on-location Christmas shoot? Any guesses at all? Yes? No? Maybe?

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