Christmas Crafting

It's almost Christmas! This year the girls and I found a really fun and easy craft project. It's probably all over Pinterest but I don't have a Pinterest account, so I feel special. Please don't burst my bubble. :) We decorated mugs and jars with Sharpie paint pens!

Here are some of our tools:

We picked up Sharpie brand paint pens at Home Depot, some scrapbooking letter stickers at Michael's, and plain mugs at the dollar store.

We stuck the stickers on the mugs and jars, and then used the paint pens to draw around them. For the jars, we also put stencil-type simple designs on paper on the inside of the jar, then traced it on the outside.

Once we had the outlines, we filled in the rest of the design. The dots look really cute, or you can color it in, or freehand draw... whatever you want! Once your design is done you bake it to set the design... start with the jars/mugs on a baking sheet in a cold oven. For glass, bake 20 minutes at 300; for ceramic, 30 minutes at 350. Then let it cool and you're all set! I took one to work yesterday with my breakfast in it and washed it afterwards and no paint came off! I think you could probably run it through a dishwasher, but I don't have one (aside from Aaron) so I can't say for sure. :)

Don't they look great?? Super easy and fun!

Weekend update

Long time no blog! Life has been even a little busier than usual around here... hence the long silence. In early November I took a new position at the bank, so work's been keeping me busy! It's a lateral move, but with more growth potential than my old position. I've also changed locations; instead of working in downtown Minneapolis, I'm in a suburban location now. I'm very happy with the change, but there's definitely a learning curve/adjustment period that's been taking up a lot of time and energy. Hence the lack of blog posts!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Gramma Liisa's house, and are now getting ready for Christmas! Every year FACA (Finnish-American Cultural Activities) puts on a Joulu (Christmas) celebration, which was this past Saturday.

There's a Joulutori (Christmas marketplace), children's Christmas movies and activities, a delicious dinner, and a sing-along of Finnish Christmas carols and songs. This year, a group of kids from Suomi-koulu performed songs and dances during the dinner and the Joululaulut - including Maisie!

Isn't she the cutest little Joulu tonttu (Christmas elf)? And Grandma Liisa made the vest and skirt she wore - she got a lot of compliments on them!

She had a lot of fun dancing and singing - she really loves performing for an audience!

On Sunday morning, I realized we hadn't been to the Science Museum in a while, and their butterflies exhibit was closing soon, so we had to go check it out! Maisie's not a big fan of any kind of insects, so Ella and I went to the butterfly house without her and Aaron.

There were a ton of Monarchs in the butterfly house, and the Omni theater movie is also about Monarchs - their life cycle and migration. It was really interesting and I learned a lot from it!

Ella is a huge fan of all kinds of insects, so she was happy to let them crawl all over her. She's very careful not to touch their wings and is very gentle. She loves all kinds of insects, and has talked about wanting to be a scientist who discovers new kinds of spiders when she grows up.

So, that was our weekend in a nutshell! How was yours?