Pinterest Fail.

So mistake #1 was thinking that I was capable of replicating even the simplest of Pinterest FOOD ideas.  Give me a CRAFT project and I'm all over it.  Let's just say I'm NOT known for my cooking.

Today was Max's Sharing Day at preschool.  One of the many fun things he got to do was provide today's snack for his class!

I'm all about quick and easy (and not very creative when it comes to food) and Max is fairly picky, so this deceptively easy and cute idea I saw on Pinterest seemed like the perfect idea.

Have you seen them?  The grape caterpillars all over Pinterest?  I do not dare post the image by itself on our blog because it would inevitably get pinned and my, oh my, would people would be disappointed when they arrived HERE!  Just type "grape caterpillars" into the Pinterest search box and behold the cuteness.

You skewer a line of green grapes, adding 2 mini chocolate chips with a dab of white frosting to make them stick for the eyes.  Easy right?

Mistake #2 - Do you see a red grape caterpillar anywhere in the links above?  No.  But Max at least thinks he doesn't like green grapes, bu loves red ones, so we decided to use red to make our caterpillars.  Turns out they're just not as cute as bright green caterpillars.

I was doing SOME thinking about this and no way was I going to give preschoolers sharp skewers or anything else sharp, so I figured that coffee stirrers would be the perfect thing: not sharp, a good length for 4-5 grapes and skinny enough to work.

Mistake #3 - What I didn't anticipate with the straws: they make grape 'poops.'   The fleshy inside part of the grape goes up into the skinny straw - 5 times - and now you've got these wormy-looking, wet and wiggly poop-like thingies inside the straw, sticking out the end a bit.  If you pull it out? ......EW.  I envisioned psychologically scarred children who were turned off grapes for life, or at least a LOT of inappropriate potty talk at the snack table.

see the gross little grape poo up in front?

Mistake #4:  my choice of frosting.  I bought a tube of white gel icing, thinking that its small applicator was the perfect size.  Turns out gel frosting doesn't ever set up. Instead, it stays uhh.... GEL-like.  Imagine that.

Mistake #5:  Deciding to use mini m&m's (Max's favorite candy) instead of chocolate chips.  Sounds more colorful right?!  Oh, it IS, and it makes the white gel frosting turn all colorful too!

I attempted to prop my caterpillars against each other on a cookie tray so they wouldn't roll, precariously balancing the m&ms on the top, fixing them periodically as the m&ms and runny, color- streaked frosting slid down the grapes.  I put them in the fridge hoping the frosting would set up over night.

Fast forward to 2 am.  I've been tossing and turning for 3 hours, my brain occupied by 100 other unrelated thoughts.  Got up, got some milk, checked on my caterpillars.  Frosting still had not set up and they just looked pitiful.   So it was time to cut my losses.  OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

a gruesome sight: caterpillar heads, plus some other stuff I pulled out of the ends of straws.

Luckily I had extra grapes, so I replaced their heads with plain grapes, put each in a snack baggy and called it a night.  Well, 2 hours later I called it a night when I finally drifted off at 4am.

I really thought about just throwing them all away.  I also thought I was going to feel the need to explain these plain looking grape caterpillars to the preschool teachers in the morning.  But it turns out when you've only had 3 hours of sleep you're not really all that concerned about what kind of impression your grapes make any more!

**You can find and follow our Things With Wings Pinterest boards at http://pinterest.com/thingswithwings where we will be NOT be pinning cute food ideas, but we WILL be pinning lots of fun artsy craftsy homey ideas!  

Sparkle.

Art by Green Girl Laura

This little light of mine....I'm gonna let it shine.

...And sparkle, and twinkle, and maybe even bedazzle!

Everybody's got at least a glimmer.

We all started out shiny and clean and new and sparkly.

Then we got a bit tarnished and dinged up, dusty and muffled just by living life.

Sometimes it's been easier and safer to pull down the shades and pull up the blankets and hide out, waiting for I don't know what.  Sometimes we've disguised our lights so that it looks like everyone else's.  Sometimes we've let other people have control of the dimmer switch. Sometimes circumstances beyond our control have dampened our spirits beyond what we think even God can fix.  Sometimes we've forgotten or gotten too busy to rekindle the flame. But I think we all still have a spark inside of us that is just waiting to reignite.

That Spark is the kind of joy that only comes from God.  And God has made your sparkly light different than everyone else's, special and unique, created just for you but meant to be shared.

He can bring that tiny little spark back to a blinding and dazzling light!  He can redeem ANYTHING.

Do you hear me?  ANY THING.

Whatever it is that makes you uniquely you, let it ALL sparkle.  Make a decision to shine.  Choose it again and again every day.  Don't let any one or any thing ever dull your sparkle again.

Don't hold out on us now; no one else on earth can give your particular shine to the world except for you.

It is your gift to me, and mine to you.

So what are we waiting for?!  Life's way too short!

Let's let our lights shine.

RIverssance 2012!

Join us for the 25th annual Riverssance Festival of Fine Art!
This weekend - today and tomorrow - in Davenport, Iowa!

More details on the Midcoast Fine Arts website!

An Update from a Super Brave Customer

Thanks so much to all of you who came out to ARTapalooza yesterday!   We had such a blast! And the weather was perfectly gorgeous.

We'll definitely be sharing some pictures with you soon of our newest designs and our booth, but in the meantime, we wanted to share this exciting update we got from someone you may all remember from last year's ARTapalooza!

It was a huge surprise blessing to get a visit from Emily, who had her heart and lungs transplant almost a year ago now and is doing wonderful!!!  At last year's event, you may remember, we met Emily for the first time just as she was getting ready to go in for her long hospital stay to await a donor.  She bought something from us to put in her room to help her be brave.

You can read her story here and here.    She ended up waiting 2 1/2 months (in the transplant wing) for her donor and had a long stay afterwards to recover.  She's doing amazing now, but I'm sure it was a long road!  Can you even imagine?!

So THIS year to celebrate and to encourage she bought a new piece for her friend to have in her room while she is still waiting for her transplant.

The piece she picked out has the perfect message for someone who is waiting:

"Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen."

God is so good!  How humbling it is, how thankful we are to get to do this job, and how we love Him more and more to get these glimpses of His work!

Feathers

I've been working on a batch of feathers and showing you the progress along the way, via facebook.  I finished them this afternoon, and although I know that nobody's around on Friday nights because most people have LIVES, I just couldn't wait to show you how they turned out!

I started out with some leftover pieces of thin plywood I had laying around from another project.  Doodled around with different feather designs and settled on a shape I liked.

Cut my feathers from patterned paper:

Added layers of paint and messages.

Drilled holes and hung them by wire, but they still needed something more.  So I added an eclectic mix of ribbons, yarns and old lace from my stash:

I'm happy how they turned out!

Using Up my Paper Scraps

 Remember how I showed you this picture on facebook of some 'canvases' that I had started working on? This first layer was made by putting together a whole bunch of leftover strips of different patterned paper.  

So pretty!

Everybody wants to know what I did next!  Since this picture got so many great comments and questions, I decided to show you the process from start to finish!  Many of you thought they were very pretty as is - and I agree - but that was not the end I had in mind!

Here's what my unfinished wood looked like at the start:

Then I went to my scrap stash where I keep leftover pieces from other projects that I think I might be able to use someday.  I noticed I had accumulated quite a few long skinny strips!

So I just randomly mod-podged them to my boards.  There are strips of vintage dictionary pages interspersed on every piece too.

In progress:

Almost there:

Done!

This one is my favorite!

Lampshade Make-Over

I found this lampshade, so thought it could be a great sun hat. Not really. So I had to come up with a better plan!!!  Here it is "In the works".  I'm still adding thingies on it. It's going to hang over my art table at preschool.  -Connie (Mama Winger)

**UPDATE!
The lamp shade/mobile for Mama Winger's preschool classroom is done!

Also, take a peek at these cute owls she made for her classroom.  The kids' pictures and names will go on their tummies!

DEMDACO's New Website!!!

DEMDACO, the company who we work with to bring you "This Thing Called Family" just recently launched their new website!

Here's the website description of our line of wall art + home decor:  

(Makes us grin!)

This Thing Called Family from DEMDACO Studio

This innovative collection of versatile wall art gives new meaning to the expression Words of Wisdom. Families will love to share their most meaningful sentiments with each other through the artful typography and scrapbook-inspired design of these folksy wall words and plaques.

SHOPPERS, now you can easily find a retailer in your area that carries our line, by going here! 

RETAILERS, if you want to carry "This Thing Called Family" in your store, there's a new website for you here!!!!  You can contact your local sales rep by clicking on the "account executive" link in the upper right hand corner.  

How cool is it that our "Simply Amazing" owl board with pegs is one of the three scrolling background images?!  

*CURIOUS FOLKS: you don't have to be a retailer to just browse through the DEMDACO brands and learn about all of the different lines and the artists who design them. 

(We're a part of DEMDACO Studio. )  

We are so blessed and honored to be listed among so many of our kindred spirits.  You can read about Kelly Rae Roberts, Holly Christine of Joyful Devotions, Caroline Simas of Multiple Blessings, Leigh Standley of Curly Girl, Dee Kasberger of Urban Soul, Melody Ross (aka Brave Girl's Club) of A Little Bird Told Me, and we could go on and on!  It's very cool to learn a bit of their stories and why they do what they do.

Here's our sweet 'about' section.  :-)  They called us a "mother-and-daughters artist force!!!" yup.

Also, very interesting is the about section for DEMDACO - they beautifully put into words why we love working with them so much: their mission, their philosophy on doing good business and their understanding of the connection between the artist and the buyer/gift receiver. 

Thanks, DEMDACO, for being so good to us!

New Art Up For Grabs on Etsy!

Poor neglected Etsy shops have been sitting empty long enough!

Last night I listed 8 houses, (2 of which already sold! weeee!) and 6 pieces of wall art!
Each piece is unique, one of a kind and handmade by me, Jill!

Go check it out!

http://etsy.com/shop/paperprayers

-jill

BIRDS!!!

WOW! Look what just flew in at Things With Wings! A whole flock of birds of another feather!

"Choose Joy" Pillow Winner!!!

We have a winner in our Pillow Giveaway, folks!

Our "Choose Joy" pillow winner is Barbra Kamer! 

Barbra, email us at paperprayers@hotmail.com and we'll figure out how to get it to you!!!

You all voted for which pillow was your favorite in the whole "This Thing Called Family" collection and it just so happens that the "Choose Joy" pillow got the most votes!  So we're glad that it's the one we could giveaway!

FYI, We chose our winner randomly, using the random number generator.

Thanks, everyone, for playing along!  Y'all are great sports!

Should we do another one next week?

Pillow Giveaway - Vote for Your Fav!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!!


This week we're giving away our "Choose Joy" pillow!  Two giveaways, two weeks in a row?!  Aw, yeah!!!

Choose Joy | 17.5 inches long | Retails around $25

GIVEAWAY RULES:

-Vote for your favorite pillow in our collection, "This Thing Called Family!"  Here's how:

-Look at all the fun pillows below!!!  Click on the pic of the pillow you like best and hit the facebook "Like" button for that pillow!  

-One winner/"liker" will be randomly chosen from the pillow with the most facebook votes - SOOOO it might be to your advantage to share your favorite pillow with your friends and get them to vote too!!!! 

-The winner will receive the "Choose Joy" pillow pictured above.

-The winner will be announced Thursday night, August 9th at 10pm CST. 

-Be fair, please - like only ONE pillow!


Here are the nominees.  Click on your favorite one + "like" :

Good Luck and may the best pillow win!

We have a Lazy Susan Winner!

Congrats to Meigen Fink!  Seriously!

You have won our "Count Your Blessings" Lazy Susan!!!*
We will get it to you soon!!!

Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to enter our giveaway!  So many of you were generous enough to share this giveaway with your friends.  We really appreciate that!

We were so blessed to get a glimpse of all the things you all are thankful for  - even in the midst of some really hard stuff you are finding the blessings.  You get the difference between joy and happiness.  And where true joy comes from.  Y'all are amazing.  Simply amazing.

*(Just FYI: it would have been impossible for us to pick a winner based on who was "most deserving" or whose comment we liked best.  So our winner was chosen randomly, by the Random Number Generator! http://www.random.org/) 

If you want your own lazy susan, there are a total of FOUR different ones in our collection!  Count Your Blessings,  Table Manners, Family Rules and our newest, "Happy Family!"  If you click on each one, you'll be directed to the individual listings for each lazy susan through Clever Shoppers, an online shopping resource that has all 4!

We're going to giveaway a pillow next week!  Will you come back and join us?!  

Lazy Susan Giveaway!!!

 THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! 
COME BACK NEXT WEEK - WE'RE GIVING AWAY A PILLOW!

Y'all voted on our next giveaway and the consensus was nearly unanimous!

One of the most popular items in our entire collection "This Thing Called Family" and certainly the best selling of our lazy susans is this one: Count Your Blessings!  And we're giving it away!!!

It would look marvelous on your dining room table!

This lazy susan is 20 inches in diameter and retails for around $65!!!
And we're so happy to be sharing one with you!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

• Leave a comment here, telling us what you are "counting as a blessing" today.

• For one extra entry, share this giveaway!  Facebook, blog, tweet or whatever!  One easy way to do this is to click the share button on this facebook picture of the giveaway!  Leave a separate comment telling us what you did.

•  Be sure to leave a way to contact you!

We'll choose one random winner on Thursday, August 2nd at 10pm. 


*To be sure that you hear the winner announcement, "Like" our Facebook Page: http://facebook.com/thingswithwings!!!

Want to find out more about our line of wall art and home decor with DEMDACO called"This Thing Called Family?"  Visit our TTCF page for pictures of the entire collection and how to find retailers in your area as well as online.

While the Youngest Winger Was Here...

While the youngest Winger Emmy was here visiting from Austin we were able to have several art days!

Emily has been creating Promise Cards as special orders for quite a few people lately.  They just keep getting better and better, and the orders keep coming!  You can pick the bible verses that you want or she has a list of truths and verses and she puts them together in a unique, one-of-a-kind 4x6 format.  Truth on the front, bible verse on the back. You can put them in your bag, use them as bookmarks, put them on your mirror, stick them on the refrigerator, put them next to your bed to read at night or in the morning, pin them on the bulletin board at work, stick them in your car, or give them as gifts.  TONS of possibilities! 

We got out our paper stashes and worked on some backgrounds for her to then use and run with.

Here's an example of one of her finished cards, front and back:

If you are interested in having her make a set for you, email her at emilyward527@gmail.com
$25 for a bundle of 5. (If being shipped a couple of dollars will be added for shipping and handling.)


 Other projects we worked on together (or side by side!) while Emily was here:

Laura worked on a special order yarn wrapped "B"

One day we worked around Green Girl's kitchen island - showing Emily the magic of mod-podge and sharing some tricks of the trade:

So good for our souls!!! - spending this time together, creating and laughing! 

Maybe I'll wave my new "Be Kind" sign around as a warning when my kids need it.  ;-)