Matching Sweater Maddness

I confess, this year I bought my 6 and 8 year old matching sweaters. I have never done this before but I just couldn't resist when I found one of each of their sizes. I think children dressed up a like is adorable but my boys have never fallen into that category because they have very distinct different taste in clothes. In fact they both have had a strong opinion about what they want to wear since they were able to communicate. My youngest has always liked to dress like a skater or a grunge rocker. He does not own a sweater (until this Christmas). My oldest has a thing for collared shirts and he loves sweaters. He is very skinny and tall so he is always cold so the sweaters are just right. He always looks like he is ready to go get the family pictures done. He loved the new sweater I picked.
So when it came time to go visit the grandparnets I asked both boys to put on their sweaters. Mason didn't mind but when Cody had to put his on there was a bit of eye rolling and moaning going on. It was pretty funny. I made him a deal and said he only had to wear it long enough for me to take some pictures and then he could take it off. This picture is one of the cute ones I got. Cody asked his big brother to hop on for a piggy back ride. I think this will be the one and only set of pictures with matching sweaters but I LOVE IT. And.... Cody never did take his sweater off and wore it all day when we were visiting family untll bedtime. Perhaps there is a least one more matching sweater picture in my future

Kids Christmas Creations Are Done

The boys finally got their Christmas presents made and they turned out wonderful.

First they picked out mugs for everyone and then they made "Special Hot Chocolate".

I created the labels on the computer with the names they created for them. Then we dipped coffee stir sticks in baking chocolate for stirring the drink. We packaged everything together and put them in small paper bags. Next the boys created reindeer labels with their thumbprints. They turned out too cute. Then we tied everything with a bow. They are so excited to give away their presents tomorrow and I think everyone will be super happy with them. We did these steps over the last two weeks because I only get about a 1/2 hour of focused work from each child. The great thing about the hot chocolate mix is that is also taste super good added to your coffee. Which is how my husband and I have been sampling it since it was created.

We hope everyone has a great holiday and a very Merry Christmas.

My boys and I created this video using stop animation. It was our first attempt at it and we had a blast. Mason created the whole background and Cody (his little brother) did all the scenery. It was so hard not to change things around but I truly wanted it to be there own creations and they had so much fun. We spent a couple of hours creating it and only ended up with 30 seconds of video. They are already thinking of different things to do next.

Penguin Holiday Card... Perhaps I will pick this one

Here is my newest painting turned into a card. I love all the fun colors so now I can't decide which one to use for my holiday card. The penguin or the snowman? Maybe I should paint another one with both the penguin and snowman. It is available in our shop http://www.gwynnsgifts.com/ and if you are interested in purchases a larger quantity for the holidays we would be happy to give you a discount.

It feels good to get it OUT! My new Christmas Paintings

Last month or so I brought my paintings into a imaging store and meet the man who runs it. He loved my work. I have never heard it call "my work" before so I thought that was really cool. I wanted my paintings turned into greeting cards and he did an amazing job. He matched the colors perfectly and they turned out wonderful. I have just been in for my third trip and picked up the cards from paintings I did for Christmas. I wanted them to have a holiday theme but I wanted something very colorful and cheery. I love the way the snowman turned out and that he looks so happy. I think I am going to use him for our family holiday card. I also am very pleased with my PINK Christmas tree. I always thought it would be cool to have a pink Christmas tree. I have got them listed on our etsy site http://www.gwynnsgifts.com/ and I hope they do well. I am also thinking of bringing them around to the local stores to see if maybe they want to stock them for the holidays. I just finished a really colorful penguin painting that I will share with you when I pick it back up. I would love to hear what you think about the cards.

Let it Snow!

Here is our newest Christmas card featuring a picture that I created. My mom then turned it into this wonderful dimensional greeting card with lots of fun shapes.

The Holidays are Around the Corner

Here is our handcrafted greeting cards that we are offering to personalize for the holidays. We are planning on including your holiday story, your return address and the postage on each envelope so all that has to be done is for you to address it. It is available at our store located at www.gwynnsgifts.com.

The World of Mini Things

I am so excited about a new project we are going to do for ourselves. We are going to try and build a small scale castle in our backyard out of little cement bricks and cylinders that we are creating. We thought it would be really great to build a moat and hook it up to a pump and do a whole little village inside the castle with people and such and most of my family wants to help.

We are also going to create small scale living room scenes at Christmas time. My grandmother used to have one that got brought out every Christmas and you could spend forever looking at all the details that went in to. It was like a lantern size box with plexi glass in the front. We are going to use these wonderful wallpaper samples we got to do the walls and we got fabric to do the furniture. I think it will be time consuming but a lot of fun. I will post some pictures of everything when we get started.