Toothpicks and q-tips and bleach, oh my!

Yup, it's almost Pesach, which means I've been neglecting you, my little bloglings, in order that I may bleach the living bejillies out of most everything in my house.  This evening, my trusty razor blade and I excavated the cracks and crevices of the stove, bringing forth all manner of unspeakable gunk.

Right now I'm itching to clean the kitchen table so I can dress it up in the mind-blowingly fabulous oilcloth I finally scored at my local JoAnn's...

... but first I have to reassemble my poor candelabra, which got completely dissected, cleaned, and polished this evening.  (Note---this was not so much a Passover chore as a "Good Heavens, who was President when that was cleaned last?" chore, but all of the kids were really excited to take on the task.  For the first ten minutes.  Then, guess who futzed with it for an hour and a half?  Why, yes, that  would  be me.  How clever of you to guess!)  It looks better than it has since we brought it home from the store, but (naturally) a piece went missing during The Great Cleanse, so it's all kinds of wobbly.  Not cool.  And the kids are all sleeping, so I can't even bribe them into tracking down the wayward nut.  Nuts!

In other news, my littlest sous-chef did some onion peeling earlier.  She was appropriately garbed for her chore. (Yes, I totally wear these while I'm chopping onions.  When I had contacts, my baby-blues were impervious to onion tears, but now I'm a regular wuss.  I slip these stunning goggles over my shades and look perfectly ridiculous while I'm chopping---and not crying.)

The classes in my studio are coming along really well.  Last week we made puzzles and did some printmaking.

I'm looking forward to a new batch of girls' workshops and a ladies group at the end of the month!

Before I head back to the salt mines, here's a peek at the annual Pre-Pesach Picnic:

Happy Blog-day to Me and a Goody Bag Giveaway

I almost missed it.  And then, this afternoon, I remembered that my wedding anniversary (17 years today!) is also my blogiversary, and I figured it would be sporting of me to post something.  So here I am, looking at the big oh-two.  Two years of throwing it all out there, and being amazed and delighted at what's come back.


To celebrate, I've decided to have a little give-away, but I haven't gotten around to deciding what I'm giving away.  Let's call it a goody bag, and assume that there will be some kind of jewelry and an assortment of goodies thrown in, because I'm cool like that.  We'll open it up to everybody---location notwithstanding--- and you can enter by leaving me a comment on  this post.  You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook for an extra entry, blah, blah, blah.  I'll choose a winner in a week---on the evening of the 26th.

Oh, and on an Always Greener note?  My Not Your Mother's Upcycled Giftbox was featured over at Chopstick Lady and Love2Upcycle.  Virtual high five!

Not enough paint in the world.

I've been playing around with my booth setup all week, getting ready for my show on Sunday.  This is what it looked like this morning, before I decided to ditch the little corner shelf on the right and go with my original idea---reusing some windows I picked up at ReStore (my favorite place in the world) a few weeks back.

They look like this.

Well, they did before I knocked out all the glass.  Despite hubby's instructions to carefully cut out the caulk, then remove the glass panes in one piece, I headed to the trashcans after roughly four minutes of painstaking progress-less-ness and resorted to this.

Which was messy and nerve-wracking and not a little bit stupid, but yielded the quick results you know I crave.  I did a bit of tidying up afterward with a razor blade and some pliers and the orbital sander, but all in all it was relatively painless. (Look, Ma!  No band-aids!)

After being sanded and patched and primed, they looked like this.  And then, of course, I ran out of spray paint.  (Again.  The guy at Home Depot is certain I'm a graffiti artist, despite my fervent assertions to the contrary.) So now I'm off in search of some more Dark Walnut.  And then I'll be back, to show you the finished product, I hope.

But before I go, here's the original hardware, all primed and waiting to be painted up shiny.  You like?

Make It Easy:Etsy Educationals

Okay, Guys---I've been suffering from serious blog withdrawal as well as the general excitement/trauma of a very long roadtrip my brood, but I'm back, and I've got something uber-cool to share with you.  A month or so back, I was invited to join in on a nifty blogging project called Make It Easy, a series of crafting tutorials hosted by talented, artistic and generally fabulous (and humble) bloggers. We're going to show you how to create 11 unique and beautiful items ~ there will be one tutorial every day for the next 11 days ~ and we really hope you will find some inspiration to get your craft on!  (Did I just say that?  Nah, I'm being profoundly lazy, and scamming some of the write up I was fed.)  Forgive me---LONG week.  But you get the idea, no?

There will be one tutorial a day, posted on the blogs below.

At the end of the series we'll have a an ebook available for $1.99. All the tutorials will be in this one convenient download that you will be able to print off and read over and over, if you're obsessive like that.  Or you can read it once, and make stuff.  Your choice. If you download it from littlegreenbums, I score the $1.99.  Which could very well allow me to buy nearly half a coffee, and you know how I feel about coffee.  (Right.  That's my sales pitch.  No more from me.)

Anyhoo, I've been remiss in my bloggy activities since our arrival at camp on Sunday.  Finally managed to get hooked up this morning, and the shop is open again!  (Seriously uncomfortable, this "vacation" business...way glad to be virtually back.)

Real post to follow soon, detailing the agonies and the ecstasies of road travel with rugrats, the glories and pitfalls of our new home away from home, and Rachmy's astonishing capability to contract poison ivy within 24 hours of arriving in camp.