Christmas treats

I needed a Christmas cookie for a party tomorrow and I came across this idea from Pinterest. It is referred to as "Christmas crack" ...I suppose because it is so addicting. I must agree with this and it is so tasty! All it takes is a layer of saltine crackers, a mix of butter and sugar, chocolate chips and other toppings...I should have put red and green sprinkles on top!

organizing boxes

We get these special cereals when we are at our camper.  They are such a cute size and I saw this idea on Pinterest.  I used chalk paint and a white chalk pencil to create it. The possibilities are endless on what you could use in them and how you could decorate them!

Macramé

Every few months the Renwick Gallery has a craft happy hour.  September's theme was macrame.

Macrame is a form of textile produced using knotting (rather than weaving or knitting) techniques.  I did a wall hanging rather than a plant holder.  The picture below shows what I started (but didn't finish).

A few weeks later I did a simple wall hanging using colorful yarn.  There are many tutorials including this one on YouTube.  ~ JM

The primary knots of macrame are the square knot.

A simple wall hanging I completed at home.

Plant Photography

I'm lucky that my office is two blocks from the National Mall. When there is an opportunity to escape during lunch I hang out in the various gardens located on the grounds of the museums.

Click on this link to view an article for tips on photographing plants.  Some suggestions that are mentioned include:

• Check out the other visible parts such as the leaves, fruit, and bark;
• Play with light, focus, and composition;
• Focus on shapes, textures, and symmetries;
•  Experiment with black and white, zoom in and zoom out, find the abstract.

Below are the pictures I took.  ~JM

Capturing the large width of the palms as they provided shade on a sunny hot day.

Admiring the difference in texture and color of the various plants.

Experimenting with light and dark to capture the sun's rays shining on the unique shape of the roots.

lemon and lime squishies

Squishies are so fun!  My daughter and I thought we would try to make some.  We found this idea on Pinterest.  We got squishy basketballs from Michaels for 1 dollar. We cut them in half and used fabric paint to decorate them.  It ended up being quite a few days process due to needing so many coats of paint to cover up the basketball colors....but we like how it turned out!

Drawing Figures

I posted before of the area museums offering free drawing classes of their art.  At the National Portrait Gallery the focus was on the exhibit "Portraits of the World: Switzerland".  For more information on this exhibit click here.

The teacher stated, "If you can draw basic shapes you can draw anything".  The human figure is basically spheres, cylinders, cubes, and cones. ~ JM

Femme en Extase (Woman in Ecstasy) / Ferdinand Hodler / 1911

Using shapes to draw.  My drawing is on the right.

Using shapes to draw. My drawing is on the left.

candy dogs

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was too cute to pass up! The body is mini twix, the snout a Hershey kiss, feet are chocolate chips and the tail and ears are made with tootsie rolls. :)