Cloudy Days

Yesterday, it was sunny enough for the first half of the day. Annalise and I went on a nice walk through a nearby neighborhood and she attempted to pick any flower or leaf she could get her little hands on.
When we got back, she napped for 2 hours. For some reason, she's taken to sleeping on my pillow. Doesn't want her dad's pillow, doesn't want her own, just mine. Look at that sweet face!

So, while she was napping I had to find some quiet pursuits. I read for a while and then decided it was a craft kind of day. I made a cute little silhouette of Annalise.

First, print a picture of the person's profile.  (And use a lot of alliteration.)

Next, paint or color in the picture. I initially wanted to use black spray paint, but when I went out on the balcony it was really windy and I didn't want the maintenance people to see bespeckled walls and tattle on me to the community manager. SO, I grabbed the biggest sharpie I had and colored it in. It worked remarkably well. It's one of the two sided markers: a fine point and a huge point(?).

Then, once it is all colored in, do a layer of Mod-Podge. I used the regular matte finish.
If you use plain printer paper instead of photo paper, make sure you paint the mod-podge from the middle towards the edges or else they roll in on themselves.

You'll need a frame for the finished product. I have a shadowbox that I got from the clearance bin at Michael's about 3 years ago. It was a whopping $0.37. It's from the Martha Stewart collection.
I love Martha.

Once the silhouette is all dry, you can frame it or do whatever you want. I wanted to take a picture of it IN the frame but it was obscured by the flash, so here it is in the frame, but without the lid.

I think it turned out pretty well for my first try.

And here is a picture from this morning. Annalise is ADDICTED to tea. I rarely even let her taste a sip of black tea. Generally she'll drink the Stash Tea Lemon and Ginger or the Celestial Seasoning's Sleepy Time tea (so, really, not even actual tea at all).

I made the mistake of letting her taste my morning (sort of) latte and now she is hooked.

It's Tazo Awake tea with 1 packet of Sun Crystals mixed with 3 oz of skim milk and a touch of vanilla extract. (sounds more complicated than it is).

So now, no matter where I put my cup, she's constantly trying to get to it.