Sophia makes her First Communion on Sunday*, and I am possibly more excited than she is! It's a huge and very significant step in her life. As Paul and I are her CCD teachers, we're thrilled to see how these girls have grown in faith over the past few years. Since we just had their last class of the year, I had to make some presents. :)

This is what I made for each girl. I printed each one out, backed it with 2 larger colors of paper (in Sophie's case, white, and then light blue), and framed it. The crowning touch was the addition of a 3D glittering white and silver flower scrapbook sticker to match the white and silver butterflies each girl decorated her Communion scrapbook cover with. (We also printed out a version of each that went inside the scrapbook as well.)

While I would love to claim that I am a super-genius in dreaming this up, I'm really reworking a picture my mom gave each of us when we were kids. We each had our name and its meaning, done in calligraphy, and a Bible verse underneath it that went with it. That hung over my bed probably until I went to college and it made a great impression on me. My name means "a shining light" and my verse was "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16) I was happy to pass that along to Nora in our class, whose name means the same thing!

We had 10 in our class, but here are a few others to share. I loved doing this project, and will be giving our other friends making their Communion this month their names as well.

*Hello! Where did the time go?

Waitaminute! HAIR?! I hear you cry. What the heck happened to the watercolors?! Where's the paint? All in good time, toasty ones. Right now, my plate is completely full and dripping over onto the table and onto the floor (...and then my poor meeeatball.... rolled out of the dooor. Sorry. Couldn't help it.) Next month is May, and God willing, I will be painting every single solitary day in May and sharing about it. As for the rest of April, I'm going to try to finish posting about other things that are done (school play logos, tshirts, posters, and DVD work; any other paintings from Christmas I haven't posted yet; design stuff for Sophie's Communion) throughout the rest of the month.

So.


I've gotten a few comments on the hair - how do I do it? How can you, too, let your curly side free? Here are some steps to claim your curls (or reclaim them, as the case may be.) My hair, as if you couldn't tell, is extremely thick, coarse, and tends to be really dry. You'll need conditioner, gel, two old tshirts, and some clips.

• Wet hair thoroughly. This is all about moisture, and locking it in. 
• Comb through conditioner. This is the One Condition - you could also start with their NoPoo, and follow it up with the One Condition. And yes, the names are cutesy. I put up with it because the products are awesome. I get it all over my hair, making sure there's lots on the ends.
• Let it sit a bit while in shower (you know, doing other showery things.)
• Rinse, but leave some conditioner in.
• Turn off the water, and lean over at the waist so that my hair all falls forward. 
• Squeeze some water out by hand - like in the video, scrunching my hair as I go but not pulling on it or twisting it.
• Work 2 handfuls of gel through hair & squeeze. My hair needs a lot of coverage, it's pretty wild. Yours may not need as much, experiment and find out what works best for you. Note also that I don't buy the Deva brand of gel, Tresemme works great for me, it's much cheaper, and I can get it at the supermarket. 
• Squeeze with cotton T-shirt to remove extra water. Not a towel! Regular terrycloth towels are too absorbent. They also say you can use paper towels but that would not be environmentally friendly as I'd go through a roll every time I washed my hair. So... go find that old team-building t-shirt, and squeeze the water out with that.
• Work 1 more dollop of gel through hair & squeeze with hands.
• Squeeze again with T-shirt to remove extra water.
• Plop hair in dry T-shirt for 45 min - 1hr. While it's up, I'm packing lunches, making breakfast, and getting the kiddos out the door for school. You know. Life.
• Remove T-shirt from hair, bend at waist and shake out hair, flip up.
• Arrange curls around face so I can see. :)
• Clip at crown for height so that hair doesn't dry in a Rosanne Rosanadanna fashion. You can get these at the supermarket or drugstore, they're very inexpensive.
• RESIST THE URGE TO TOUCH YOUR HAIR. The less you touch it, the better it will look.
• Leave clips in as long as possible while working, or driving, whatever. Take out, shake your hair and look gorgeous!

Some videos: Plop it like it's hot!

The Deva 3-step

This is at the day job.... one of these days when I clean the studio, I'll snap a photo there too. What's in your workspace?