One Person's Trash {Etsy Giveaway}

"I love to give a new life to used objects, guitar strings one day, altoids tins next" -Ellen Montoya

My friend and Liam's former art teacher has a super fun Etsy shop called O.P.T. One Person's Trash. Ellen takes items such as snapped guitar strings and cassette tapes and gives them new life as bracelets. She also makes gorgeous earrings and necklaces, candles and rings.

Ellen has some really great stuff on her site and her inventory is constantly changing. In addition to her great reuse of materials for the products she sells on her site she also takes great care to make the packaging from reusable goods when possible.

Now the fun part, you can enter to win your choice of any one item in her Etsy shop. All you need to do is leave a comment. The winner will be chosen at 11:59pm on May 22, 2011.

Good Luck!

Short & Sweet

I am thankful for all of the love in my life.

Read more of what Ellen has to say at Open-Ended Art for Young Children.

Candy Bugs

(Since I'm out of town and not sure what my Wi-Fi options will be, check out this crafty post from my friend Ellen. You can read more of her artistic ideas at  

Open-Ended Art for Young Children)

 

Art and Cooking Combined

To Make the Candy Dough:

Pour one can of condensed milk into a bowl. Add one tsp. of Vanilla flavoring. Slowly mix in Powdered Sugar until you get a doughy consistency.

For Paint:

Add a few drops of food coloring water, mix in powdered sugar until you get a paint like consistency. 

This activity was done by one of my camp counselors and kids LOVED it. We did a similar activity last year, instead of bugs we made planets. 

Ellen

I want to share two stories about being a mom, one positive an one not so positive, because that is what being a mom is about…good and bad times.

I’ll start with the bad…well really more like depressed. About one week after my C-Section with my first son, I called my friend to chat. As soon as I heard her voice, I started to tear up and just started bawling uncontrollably. I didn’t even get one word out before she said, “Yeah…post-partum sucks!” Suddenly, with just those few words, I felt so much better. Just that little bit of acknowledgment that although many have great deliveries and bounce back quickly, just as many have a tough time physically and emotionally, helped. After many weeks, and many, many conversations with good friends, and many, many tears shed on my husband’s shoulder, I slowly adjusted and have loved every minute of being a mom since (Ok, maybe not EVERY minute.) Even though I am fine now, the memories of that initial distress are still with me. I wish, along with all of the “what size is your baby now” facts in the “What to Expect” book there was more than one brief entry about “The Baby Blues.” I wish, for all expectant moms out there, that there was a truly honest and inhibited account of the range of emotions women can go through. I sense that things are changing, that women are more willing to talk about their Mommy experiences good and bad. Maybe after decades of “Working Mom” magazines, and the “you can have it all with ease” mantra, women are starting to cut themselves a little slack. I hope so!

Now, for a positive story. During the same time as the story above, my mother-in-law came to stay with us for thirty days. Many of you may be thinking, “that sounds awful, I wouldn’t my mother-in-law staying with me for 30 days.” For me, it was a blessing. My mother-in-law is a blessing; she taught me so much in 30 days about how to be a mother. For those of you that know me, you also know that my mother-in-law does not speak any English. I speak Spanish at around a pre-k level (maybe pre-pre-k.) Somehow, she managed, and still manages to communicate to me the secrets of being a loving, reliable, strong, stable and giving mother. I love my husband, but am truly grateful to know his mom.

And finally, an image, I call it “Warm Babies in the Morning”