I <3 Cakes!

We live in an apartment, so we don't have much space to take cute outdoorsy photos, like this one by Picklepud or the super talented Jillybug. (seriously, if she ever put a book out of her photos, I would buy like 3!!) And we're too lazy to do a full patio-garden, like our mom.

So...we decided to do a mini-version that could stay inside! We started with a large banker's box that Ally cut the front down on and then spray-painted a brick red color. And then we hit up Hobby Lobby and found some cute flowers/stems (all on sale...never buy regular price there!!), and some stones for the little path, some mossy stuff (which is messy and a PITA but so cute when you get it done) and a little wooden wheelbarrow (barrell?) and ladder (we already had the bench). Oh, and some more little flower pots and teeny-tiny birds to stick in the trees.

Then I got to paint everything, while Ally laid the stone path and grass. I think I got the better deal! :) Once we were done and totally covered in paint and glue gun strings, we started putting it together. Sticking those flower stems in the little bitty pots was hard!! I should have glued them in or something cause if you're not careful moving them they go *poof* and explode all over the place! Several times...

Anyway, here's the finished result...what do you think? I think it turned out really well...and the Cakes like it =) Lily, Sophie, Soda and Nellie got to try it out first.

My favorite part is the wheelbarrow exploding with flowers. And the stone path.

A closeup of the path and part of the tree. Ally laid the stones for the path first, then the moss and then went back and lined the edges with bigger stones to kind of stamp the grass down. It really helped.

The "gazing ball" lawn ornament. (A pretty marble I got in a swap!)

(Pixie outfits and Nellie are custom Polly-Jane creations!! Also, lots more pictures in Jenn&Ally's Flickr on the side!)

Just sittin' on the front porch...

I had the best time last week. On Wednesday I went to visit Ricky and Vickie... my brother and sister-in-law...and it was so relaxing and I enjoyed our visit so much...they live about 2 hours from me and seems I never go see them often enough. They live about five miles outside of town and at night ohhh it's so quiet you only hear the crickets and maybe a way off barking dog...hope it was a dog!

I was sitting out on the porch that evening just rocking away and of course you don't turn on the ceiling fan light cause then you'd be swarmed with bugs ...so I'm sitting there and I looked out across the acre of yard and I'm looking through the trees and I can see the glow of eyes, several pairs of eyes...and all three dogs of theirs were close to the house...Eeeeeeeeee....went in the house really quick...that's really creepy for a city girl...

I'm a paper girl...

Hi, it's Jenn!! I wanted to post a few of my favorite things and projects...I am more of a paper girl; I don't sew, nor do I really wish to learn how. I do like fabric, but am not nearly as obsessed by it as my mom and sister. You should see the hordes of fabric they have!! It's ca-razy. But, I guess the same could be said for my paper supplies. :) I make a lot of cards and bookmarks, I've done ATC swaps before and made journals, tried doing scrapbooking and didn't quite finish it (although I got pretty close!). Pretty much whatever you can think to do with paper, I've done.

This is probably my favorite set I've done, the fairytale cards. The paper just makes me so happy, especially the fairy one. It's got bits of glitter in the paper so it shimmers when you turn it and I decorated them with ribbon and fancy-schmancy buttons. Love!

This is the first set of ATC's I ever did...my Mod Squad. lol...and they are probably my favorite too. I should have saved one for myself. I used paper and stickers and raised epoxy stickers...and bath bubble things. Yep, the blue and green dots are bath bubbles. I got them in a supply swap once and for some weird reason decided to glue them on some paper and see what happened. They didn't disentegrate and stayed put, so I started using them! And they smell pretty too. :)

After paper crafts, I'd say jewelry making is my passion. I mostly make necklaces and tend to lean towards long, dangly, "charm" necklaces. I *love*love*love* keys, skeleton mostly but any will do, and use them on nearly every piece. If you have spare keys just hanging around, send them my way!!

This necklace was started with the flowery ring I found in an antique store...I cut the back off and turned it into a necklace brooch. All the keys are vintage too and I then added some updated embellishments. My aunt actually bought this one and if she hadn't, I probably would have kept it!! (Even though I don't wear gold!)

This is one of the more modern pieces, again using keys, and my second favorite material, those dangly baubles. So shiny, so pretty, so already put together!! lol...

So there you have it...some of my favorite things. :)

Worked on several things...finished none...

Hey I'm Penny, the mom. This is harder than I thought... I worked on several things today and finished none...how's that? Some days are just like that, I suppose and not necessarily a bad thing. There are days that if I only do a few things or part of some things eventually they will come together.

I did sort through my embroidery threads and color coded them, they look so pretty.

I started crocheting a new wash cloth, I bought two new colors of Peaches and Cream cotton thread, I just fell in love with. One's called Orange sherbet, reminds me of a dreamsicle...my favorite...the other is a bright orange called Sunburst..such beautiful colors...I enjoy crocheting it's very relaxing to me.

Everywhere I go I have this zip-lock baggie with a ball of my favorite yarn and my crochet hook in it...whether I'm waiting at doctor's office or riding while my sweetie's driving in traffic...just makes me calm and happy...

Our First Post!!

This is going to take some getting used to. =) Where to start? Okay, introductions. We are a mom and two daughters and wanted to share a blog about our crafty projects, crafty fails, craft rooms, crafty finds, and in general, all things crafty. :) Penny is the mom, Jenn (that's me typing) is the oldest daughter and Ally is the youngest. We will each probably do our own introduction posts later on.

We thought we'd try doing a blog together to get a broader range of topics and such...plus I don't think one of us has that much to say all by herself!! On that note, I've pretty much run out of stuff here!

Oh! Our name! "Our Genes Are Crafty"...well, we've inherited a lot of craftiness from our mom and I think that will show a lot in later posts. We also inherited an extremely overactive imagination and a tendency to get a little scatter-brained without a list. So, we felt "Our Genes Are Crafty" described us quite well. And to end this first post, I was going to show you a picture of us from a long time ago...but there aren't any on the computer! One of us is always the camera person!! =) Soon, though, soon.