Mom's Trophy

Look what I got from Mr. Ryan my 7 year old.


He bought it with his own money...total cutness!

Caught In The Art

My oldest son took these pictures of me working in my studio today...it's such a mess right now it's hard for me to focus. I really need to spend a day getting it straight but I get distracted with all the great stuff around. Focus Jen, focus!

I am putting some old artwork on wood frames for a friend as a gift. These are her favorites so I thought I would surprise her...can't wait.

Type C

Here it is...betcha didn't guess it was a cup of coffee. I know it's strange to make the coffee pink but I was in a pink kinda mood. It's a small chunky piece measuring approx 4X8" on a wood frame I made...yay!

Type C
cut paper, dye ink, paint, adhesive on wood frame

Violin Artwork For Sale

Up for sale is my cut paper artwork Violin On Red. It's on a way cool wood frame I made. It's a nice chunky piece with lots of paint, dye ink and paper goodness.


It's listed in my Etsy shop

Something New...

Here is some new art I started on today...can you guess what it is going to be?

Love His Laugh!

Even after being married for fifteen years my Jason still has the best laugh ever! He is watching some BBC comedy show and it's cracking me up hearing him laugh. Unfortunately, I don't get British Comedy. I tell my boys all the time that they will never find anyone that loves Daddy more than me....sigh...I'm blessed.

All Done

I am completely done with all of the ornaments I made for my friend Jennifer. I really hope she likes them (fingers crossed)! I enjoyed making them so much I might make some for little me because my husband was a very large fan of them also. So I ended up making ten ornaments all together and they are all double sided. I especially love the extra large chunky glitter!

So basically I used 10 round blank paper mache ornaments you can get at any hobby store...if you can find them. They typically sell out pretty fast but I just got very lucky and snatched some up at a Thanksgiving sale.


then with lots of paint, dye ink, paper, cutting and glitter they look like this...

Working On Ornaments and A Cookie Toast

I have been working trying to get Christmas gifts done. I've been working on ornaments and artwork for friends. Everything is coming along great and will be all done with time to spare...YAY!

I decided to have an image on both

sides. So with my car one side has the Christmas tree and the other side is a gift. It's hard to see in these pictures but I used all cut paper, dye ink, paint and very large flakes of glitter.

I have many more I will share later but I'm still working hard on them....


Last but not least Jason made his wonderful chocolate chip cookies so we had a cookie toast as a family

Big Tree + Little Truck = Hummmm

Someone explain to me what these people were thinking?

Freaky Good

Check out Burt Simons paper artist work...totally awesome! Yes, it is paper.

You can read more about Burt here on his website.

Enjoying The Season

Enjoying this season is sometimes hard for me. I love this time of year but I have found I get stuck on the fact that it goes by so darn fast! Knowing I'm like this I had to make a conscious effort to get over it. I love getting out the decorations, holiday music and looking at all the lights on the houses. Oh, not to mention I love the mailbox this time of year because I get all the wonderful Christmas cards from friends and family. So I am making the most of this Christmas season regardless of my desire for it to last three months.

My husband and I decided to put our oldest son in charge of taking all the pictures this holiday season. Jared loves the camera and video camera like you can't imagine, constantly taking videos and pictures. So in order to keep him from getting bored (he has Autism) on our outings we put him in charge of photography.



Here is a picture he took of us...do you see me? Yeah, I couldn't get him to scoot back to take the picture. We went to Galveston Texas to see The Polar Express in 4D and of course my boys loved it. I kept getting sprayed in the face with water...it was like I was sitting right in front of that darn sprayer (they say it's a water mist). Also you experience wind, a neck air blast, snow, bubbles, steam, leg ticklers, scents, enhanced floor lighting, and seat vibrations. It's cute and all the kids in the theater were all so happy.


What's Christmas without a light up display of Patrick from SpongeBob Squarepants?


Moody Gardens Festival Of Lights...thanks Jared for doing such a great job taking pictures and making great memories.

Can It Be?

Coffee Cup -Vintage Matchbook Covers

I know my world is slowly imploding in on itself because I have discovered I like coffee...well, when it's full of tons of sugar! It started with a trip to Starbucks and the Caramel Macchiato sucked me in. I am SO not a coffee person...I am totally a tea girl. It was one of those very tiring early mornings when a friend suggested coffee. I thought I was pretty desperate so I would give it a go. I have, since that day, had around twenty and not the small ones but the Venti size (in Starbucks lingo that's as large as you can get). However, it's not just Starbucks. My sweet coffee fix has made its way to Panera and La Madaleine. I feel like I have just joined some secret club or something.

Something That Makes Me Smile...STILL

I am not a Tom & Jerry fan but I always thought Jerry's uncle was so cute. His boots totally crack me up and that cute mustache, Froggie went a-courtin' he did ride/Crambone??...gotta love it!

HDTV & The Digital TV Transition

remember these?

HDTV & The Digital TV Transition
I don't really know what this means but I have been hearing about it so much. I honestly don't really care and that's not in a nasty way. I'm not much of a TV person to begin with. Ive said it before and I'll say it again...if it wasn't for my football & baseball loving husband I wouldn't have a TV at all. We were talking about it last night and he was laughing because he knows I wouldn't mess with the whole HDTV Digital converter or whatever it is you "need" to get. I would just say forget it and no more television in my house. Lucky for my children my husband gets the whole thing because they would be lost without Star Wars Clone Wars.

Christmas Decorations and Brownies a Cookin'

It actually snowed in Houston today! Of course it melted as soon as it hit the ground but everyone was very excited. I decided to spark the fireplace and put out some of the Christmas decorations. I also wanted to warm the house and tummies by baking some brownies. What a great combination!

My husband and I have a great collection of Department 56 houses that we just love and seriously need to add some new pieces to.

I have several small trees that I decorate every year. One of them has all the handmade kids ornaments and pictures on it. My husband suggested it a few years back and I've been doing it ever since.

I love this time of year! I just wish it didn't go by so fast.

Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John

Jenn over at Noodle and Lou got me hooked on this song. My husband and friend Eleni can't stand it but I don't care because it just makes me happy. I've always danced to my own drum anyway...thanks Jenn

Christmas Cards Sunday

Here in the DeDonato house we make a big deal about our annual Christmas cards. I start thinking of ideas months ahead of time because I want them to be unique (they always include pictures). This is the design I came up with this year. Today I worked like crazy trying to get my Christmas cards finished. However, I have had several hiccups... first I ran out of printer ink, then my punch broke followed by running out of adhesive and ribbon. I'm a bit frustrated but almost done with all 50. Here is what I have so far...

I think they turned out pretty cool because I was able to get six pictures of us on the front of the card.

Here is how to make the ornament (super simple)

1. pick three pictures for one ornament and six for two ornaments. I printed them on regular copy paper and punched them all out. I used a large 2 5/16" scalloped punch by The Paper Studio.

choose your three pictures

put adhesive only on half of the back of the first picture then place second picture on top. Be sure to line up your scallops.

fold the picture you just placed on top in half

next place adhesive on the folded section and place third picture on top

again fold the picture you just placed on top in half

when you are done this is what it will look like because it will be completely folded

then you put adhesive on the back of the ornament and stick that sucker down on top of your ribbon. Lastly I just used some rubber stamps to stamp the greeting on the outside and inside of the cards.

YAY for being done...almost

Santa On A Vespa...FUN

Check out this ornament I found

I just could not help it dude is on a vespa ...love it!

Vox Pop This Weekend

This weekend some of my original artwork will be for sale at Vox Pop event. It will be on December 6, noon-6pm, or December 7, 2-6pm. I have all twelve pieces packed up and ready for the trip to the event. I am especially proud of these pieces because it's the first time I made all the frames from scratch by myself (thanks Dad for the tools)!

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