Painting Terra-Cotta pot

In this DIY art project, I show you how to create an eye-catching painted Terra-cotta pot that even your kids can help you with.

Tape the pot with painter’s/ masking tape. We used thin 0.125" for the first pot. Trim off the excess tape with scissors.

 With a paintbrush, paint over the tape to create your diamond pattern. Don’t use too much paint, cover the the first layer and apply the second after drying. My daughter even used old nail polish for some diamonds :) .

 Remove the tape, touch up any imperfections and enjoy!

Bubble Birthday Invitation

Today, Anya and I made  Birthday invitations for her Birthday Party.
We decided to make our own one-of-a-kind cards :) Anya was a designer, I was a supervisor and a photographer :)

All you need are:
- white card stock paper (or any thick white paper)
- food coloring
- straws
- bubbles (liquid) 
- small dishes 
- printer (optional)
- scissors or paper trimmer
1. Cover your table with old news papers to protect the surface of your table. Put on latex gloves. Pour small amount (1-2 table spoons) of bubble soap in small dishes. Add 4-6 drops of food coloring in each dish (one dish for one color). Mix the coloring with a straw. Have a separate straw for each color.

Grandma's Garden- Crayon Art

It's hard to find a good present for our grandma (actually, she's my mom, but Anya's grandma).

"I have everything," she says always.

Ok, we will not buy a present, we will make it!

My mom has a beautiful garden in Russia. She grows everything there: potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, apples, strawberries, black and red currants, gooseberries... and it's not all. Her favorites are flowers. Her garden is full of flowers.

My mom's birthday is in February. No flowers yet :) Well, we will give her a garden of flowers made of...crayons!

To make a piece of art, we used canvas (12"x12"), crayons  (we used 3 boxes to pick only greens), artificial flowers, glue gun and hair drier.

Glue crayons to the edge of canvas with a glue gun.

Turn canvas upside down so crayons are pointing down.

Tonto Natural Bridge

Last week, in October break, we decided to go to Kohl's Ranch, near Payson, which is not far from Phoenix. It was our second visit of that place. The weather was very nice. We went down to the Creek. To tell the truth, I wanted to see my "old friend"- an apple tree. Last time I noticed  a lot of small green apples on it. Now, this beauty had a lot of pink apples on it. Some were on the ground, touched be animals ( or worms?).

I took  good -looking one with me to the hotel. Anya, my 7 y.o. daughter, looked at me as I was crazy.What? Did you ever tried wild organic (!) apples before? O my! This one was really good. Anya trusted me and made a bite :) Then, my husband tried too. He agreed that this "free" apple was really GOOD!.  You know what?  Next early morning, we went down to that apple tree, shook it, and gathered a couple of pounds of yummy apples. I will tell you what I did with them (stay updated).

Happy Egg Hunt!

To be honest, I do not celebrate Easter (besides, I am not a Christian), but I color the eggs with my 6 year old daughter. It's kind of fun for her. Moreover, she likes the idea of the Egg Hunt.

When I was a child, every summer I spend 2-3 weeks in the summer camps, where our leaders (вожатый) made Treasure Hunt for us. It was fun! The idea is to find one treasure (usually it was a bag with candies and cookies). The leader gave us a note where we could find...another note ...After finding this note we knew  where was ...another note...and the next note...one more note...may be one more note...and the last note with location of the Treasure!

So, tomorrow is Easter, and Anya will go for Easter hunt in our house. I will hide 11 eggs (it's how many we dyed today) with a note on each egg:

I will give Anya a note where the first egg is hidden (it will be, for example, my bathroom). In my bathroom she will find egg#1 with a note "In dad's bathroom". She has to go there now to find an egg with "in Anya's closet" note, and etc.The last egg does not have to have a note (or, may be it can have "The Last Egg" note)

This game does not last long (well, it depends of the kid's age and how well the eggs are hidden).

But I know for sure, you and your child will have fun hunting!

Happy Easter (or Sunday at least)!

April 1st :)

April Fool's Day is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday:)

Today I just wanted to share with you some of my daughter's "pearls".

Anya (2years 10 months), who has a 'secret' pet-name 'froggy',  lies between me and her dad. Peter kisses her and they lie hugging each other. Then he asks her:

-Anya, are you my little 'froggy'?

-No, I am your skunk!( and let off)

My Pets

I love animals, and I have five of them now.

Since I was a child,  we always had cats. So, I am a cat-person (mostly). I don't want to say I hate dogs- once  I had a puppy, Alsatian, and she was the smartest 'person'!

When I moved to the USA, my future husband had two cats, which was kind of unusual for me because  my family always had only 1 pet... Peter and Stripy- two sisters. Yes, Peter was a 'girl'. By the way, my husband's name is also Peter, his father was Peter, and his son is Peter - why not to call cat Peter, right?

Well, this is Peter the Cat