hey diddle doo dad!

it's me again...the pretty cousin....i promised i'd keep this here blog jumping so what better way to do it than a cow actually takin a leap over the moon? i am still fightin with that damn ribbon collection of mo's so i thought whenever mo and i haven't had time to write much, i'd blog up some o mo's projects. this one is a toy box she painted for mini featuring our all time favorite nursery rhymes. she's been workin on her nursery rhyme doo dads for about a year now and we all have been beggin her to include this original mo art in the collection...i thought maybe if i outted it here on the blog she might be forced to do so.

mo and i have always loved nursery ryhmes...see...we never read much when we were little cause queenie always had her nose poked in a book so we felt if we needed to know anything, she'd be able to tell us. that way we could spend all our time doin art and chasing the boys and learning the important things in life by actually experiencin em. the combination of experiencin and askin queenie worked out pretty well cause mo and i both ended up in all the classes for the smartie pants and you know, mo ended up on that t.v. show for whiz kids when she was only like 7 or 8.

anyway, queenie had all the nursery ryhmes memorized early on and would recite em to us over and over. then mo and i would pretend to be in all of em for days at a time. we let queenie be lil boy blue since she would refuse to move except to adjust her crown or turn a page in whatever book she was readin. we caused a few problems along the way...like when we decided to see what actually happened to humpty by dropping mama nita's eggs from her roof and then were unable to put them back together or when we convinced our cousin larry to pretend to jump over the moon and he broke his arm. we got confused on some minor details too...like, it wasn't until mo painted the toybox for mini that i realized the dish wasn't STEALIN THE SPOON...altho...i am not so sure that my way isn't what the guy who wrote it really intended.

so...back to that ribbon for me. i hope mini's toybox is a bit o inspiration for you. i'm hopin mo will turn this old art of hers into doo dads and include directions for using em for creating heirlooms to pass on down to your grandkids...and that your ancestors will be fighting over for long after you and me and mo are gone!

mo & jo's easter bonnets

i thought i'd finally get those pictures up of me and mo in our new easter bonnets - the ones we discovered back while lookin for REAL pink foam rollers. as you can see, i finally found a hat that allows my bouffant to bouf on up and out. typically i am forced to cut a hole right smack dab in the middle so as not to crush the whole thing but seems this chapeau was made with me in mind! and mo was able to find one that came with enough flowers so she wouldn't have to drag out those poor pitiful ol tired crepe paper flowers again...they don't have much life left in em as it is. she certainly got her money's worth outta of em time and again so there's really no need for her to keep ploppin em on everythin in sight.

i have also posted up some old pictures of our egg hunts of long ago. we always had two egg hunts on easter sunday. one at whatever trailer park i might be residin at and another on the other side of the tracks with the fancy relations on mo's mom's side of the family. that's probably where mo inherited her fancy egg huntin genes...although you'd think mini's daddy got some from my side o the tracks cause the first year he was given the job of the egg hidin he just took the big bins and dumped em out on the front slopin lawn (it's called a lawn on this side o town instead of a yard) and let the eggs roll where they may. as you can see from that one shot, with me and mo and queenie smack dab in the front, that's how we did it in the trailer parks cept most times they were just pitched out from whatever window was open and closest to wherever the egg hider was watchin t.v.

that trailer park way of egg hidin led to quite a feud the year our neighbor big elviseen didn't use the plastic ones and didn't bother to boil the real ones....i guess it was cause she said she was doin the hidin a few weeks early to get it over and done with but everyone thought she was just doin some trailer park terrorism in retaliation for not bein invited to sing at the annual bond raisin event that year. for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of livin in a trailer park in the south, the bond raisin event is a time honored tradition where all the trailer parks have a big o festival and raise money to be used whenever someone gets arrested and needs bond posted. then one member is appointed to be in charge of the postin for a year at a time. the month my mom held the job was one o the most excitin of my life as i got to travel all over the county, mostly in my jammies, goin to different places to post bail. we only did it for a month though cause she refused to also drive the bail-ee back to the trailer park and therefore most of the bail-ees ended up back in jail.

anyway, that shot in the upper right is of elviseen's trailer and the big sign she slapped on the side of it every year afterward. in case you got bad peeper's it announces that there is a bunny eatin dog residin inside the trailer with her....if you look real close, you can actually see the bunny eater peekin out the back window.

i also included up there, for you to envy, some of the eggs i have painted for mo over the years....her favorite is the one with the mac and cheese all over it and i'm sure i don't have ta tell you which one i prefer! that pretty lil card is the first ever i sent mo - back when were bout six or so - i added the lil bows just tonight. since then i have never missed an occasion sendin mo a card, even when we have been together. she has all of em and many end up becomin doo dads so you've probably seen some of em.

that middle picture is from one of the fancy egg hunts we attended at mo's mom's la tee da relations. that's me and mo in the front row on the far right and that's queenie, in her ever present crown, right above the aqua net egg. if you look really close you can see she was once again the winner of the whole darn hunt and won the big ol doll as the prize. she always won cause all the lil kids heard she was gonna marry the prince of england and could one day behead them if she wanted so all she had to do was hold her basket out in front of her and they plopped all their own eggs in it. mo and i never gave her ours though cause we didn't give a hoot about being beheaded....plus queenie knew if she took our eggs we'd do an early demonstration for her on beheadin, using her fancy hunt prize as the example!

sorry it took me so long to get this blogged up for you. after that bird flu bloggin, i was afraid mo preferred i stay away from the blog but i should'a known it was okay...i might be more wreckless in spoutin off when i blog but we're so much alike, in the end she knows it's okay.

alright...gotta go help mo in the doo dad den. she got some fancy ribbon racks that amy from inspire rec'omended to us and i promised to rack the ribbon. until mo gets all her webmistress chores done, look for me back here again soon...i'll try to keep this thing hoppin till she returns!

proof the bird flu really exists!

it's me again...mo's cousin jo...the pretty one. i was wrong about junior and dickie....at least about the impendin bird flu. mo's mailbox was filled to the brim today, people sendin along this shot - of these poor birds who had fallin victim to the dreaded disease in a florida trailer park. i don't know who to credit for the sad shot but will add it if anyone sends it to me...whoever had to take this shot and force themselves to view this sad scene in person deserves their hard work to be credited!

i have always thought you can tell someone's true character when they can admit they were wrong about somethin. and if nothin else, i am full of character. so...i'll say it again...i was wrong about junior and dickie inventin the bird flu cause they don't like birds. now, if i can only find reason to prove me wrong concernin all the other things i think of this duo, i will be delighted to deliver my sincere apologies for those too, here on mo's blog.

along those lines....since my last spin in the blog created such a stir, i have to admit, i had no idea you had to be so careful about what you blogged about here in blogtown...if i had known politely speakin your mind was such a no no, i would have stepped much more carefully. mo never told me that you could say what you want but only if you remained within the politically correct mode. guess if mo doesn't get all those pesky site and squirrel and rat problems (yes- the rat is back) taken care of soon so she can resume the bloggin, i'll just hafta turn the mo blog over to mini and sign up for one of my own so i don't have ta worry about mo thinkin i took things too far in one direction or another. my last bloggin may have created a stir and even ended up on the bird flu site - my latest claim to fame - but i fear if mini takes over you readers may just be bored to death reading about her appearance concerns. i guess that'll be okay for those who let my writin put em in a snit cause seems to me they like their blog dished up the same way all the time. me and mo can't be counted on for that....no one has ever accused either of us as bein borin!

you know...the day i did the bird flu writin, triple the people stopped on by than usually do....even so, i promise to try to walk the straight and narrow when i drive the blog from now on cause nobody likes to see grown women stoop to name callin - specially just cause they don't like the way someone else says or does somethin. mo and i don't ever let those silly people who stoop to such things bother us cause every time somethin or other we are up to creates the name callers and doo dad bashers to let themselves get all worked up, we end up with even more new friends than normal comin around mo's blog and moland and we like that! seems in all their efforts to make us look bad, they are really doin just the opposite....people only find out about mo through word of mouth and those ol mean words work just as well in the end as all the many nice ones people say too!

looks like i get to keep the keys to the blog a bit longer so i will finally post up those shots of me and mo in our easter bonnets next!

not the bird flu

...it's me - mo's cousin jo - the pretty one...probably the more talented one too but you wouldn't know that since i don't feel the need to show off on the worldwideweb daily. i like showin off in person myself...but i didn't come here to yakityak about myself this time - altho i know you wish i had! i tell mo all the time she should have let me be the figurehead of the mo monarchy but she says i need to get more doo dads under my belt before mouthin off like i am the better doo dad dispenser... i think when i finally am able to share my talents with the worldwideweb i'll have ta call em jo's jewels so they won't get confused with mo's doo dads...altho if they are as fabulous as those roses i made outta my squirrel eaten pink sponge rollers there will be no way they'll get mistaken for anything but mine!

oops...sorry...i get so excited when i take over the steerin wheel of the blog that i forget why i came in the first place. i'll try to stick to the point...which is...mo is sick. the sort of sick where the house could be taken over by aliens or ME and she could care less cause she feels too bad to open her eyes to rescue mini, gigi, tink or mini's daddy. i am not sure what the ailment that has taken hold of her is but i have an idea. and it's not cause she works all the time doin doo dads and dealin with mini's doins and keepin mini's daddy from drivin us dottie and if not any of those, doin good deeds for anyone who deserves em ( i didn't add myself to that list cause i only enhance her daily life and am in no way a drain on her energy)...all that could probably make someone develop a deadly disease but not mo. no...i do believe she is debilitated due to some dire flu.

i don't think it's that bird flu. i don't even think i believe in the bird flu just yet. i mean....it seems the only time we hear alot about that bird flu is when that o junior who has been misplaced in the white house finds himself in hot water and thinks he can divert our t.v. watchin minds from the misdeed du jour and the best way he knows to do it is to make us think there is a deadly disease flappin it's way to a sky near us any minute. i mean....thanks to junior's direct underling, dickie, we KNOW the crazy group runnin the country HATES birds. in fact, i'm of the mind that the reason, while tryin to kill some of the dangerous flyin creatures, he turned and shot his shootin partner is that the shootin partner discovered this bird flu plot and threatened to expose the whole thing and in a panic he just shot him before givin the whole thing much thought.

plus, we have seen over and over again that neither junior or dickie can be trusted to tell the truth....so...why wouldn't they lie about cute feathery creatures turnin into deadly flu carryin vehicles? i am not sure how this bird badmouthin ties into all their other schemes but it'll come out sooner or later...unfortunately most all their dumb deeds come out LATER. i do believe, though, i read somewhere once that when junior was a lil boy he was almost scared to death stayin up late, watchin t.v., and endin up watchin hitchcock's 'the birds' on the midnight matinee. maybe that's the simple answer to his hatred of birds but whatever it is, mo doesn't have the bird flu.

now...she may have some form of squirrel sickness though. we have had quite a time lately with that tracy squirrel livin above the doo dad den. tracy squirrel now has a batch of mean lil toddler squirrels that she sends out scurryin all over the property to gather things for her. they plum ate my pink sponge rollers to bits and ran off with my bright red cover girl lipstick. then one o the housekeepers told us that when she walks up the driveway toward the house to come to work, at least one of those squirrels jumps up on her and hangs on for dear life and won't let go til she gives it all her change. she has since said she will not be doin any duties that require her to leave the house and makes someone drive her up and down to the street each day. i made her walk up one more time just to prove this unbelievable story to me and was able to snap a shot of it. i had to donate the change to give the squirrel for her to do it though.

but the worst incident so far happened right when i was takin this picture of mo and is when i think mo mighta caught some sorta squirrel sickness. we were gonna take some pictures of the bisque eggs for includin in the directions to make em - the ones mo posted the other day - so we took em outside to lay em in the grass for a more realistic montage. and right when i was shootin the shot here of mo doin the egg placin, outta nowhere one of those tracy squirrel toddlers came barrelin toward mo, grabbed the bisque egg and took off. in all the melee seems he made a little scratch on mo's hand.

don't get me wrong - i am not tryin to follow junior and dickie's seemingly diabolical deed in disaster creatin by makin it seem all squirrels are bad or will make you sick. but just so happens that change payin housekeeper called in sick the last couple o days - says she has some sort of flu. maybe it is just a co-inka-dink that she and mo are both sick and were both victims of the squirrelly antics here in moland but it's worth considerin!

anyway...that's it. just wanted you to know mo hadn't abandoned this here blog or any of ya'll who have written her...she'll be back as soon as she feels better. until then i may just hafta keep doin the blog steerin myself. maybe tomorrow i'll hafta show you the eggs i have been paintin up for the kids while mo is out flat. she would never ask me to of course but i thought i'd help where i can. i must admit i'm pretty good at the egg paintin thing and think you'll wanna do some like mine too. so unless i get lots of comments left here askin me to stay away, i'll do just that.

thanks for stoppin by to see what's up here in moland...hope you aren't too disappointed at findin me, jo - the pretty one - here 'stead of mo!

a few good eggs

so here are a few bisque eggs i have painted for one of mini's annual egg hunts. i always painted one for everyone that came which made it sort of difficult if an extra child showed up....somehow though, nobody ever left without one with their name handpainted by me on it!

what these eggs are is what you get when you are makin ceramics but after only one firing. if you have ever gone to one of the ceramic places to make somethin, this is what they give you to paint on with their special paints...then after you do, they fire your art with a glaze. well - these here eggs never get fired that last time...which means they are PEEERRRFECT for doin all sorts of paints and pencils and glue and stickers etc. etc. on because everything will stick to em. i like to paint mine with acrylic paint first...all different colors...then i set em all up in the egg cartons they ship em to me in and sit down surrounded by every art supply i own and start makin em all pretty.

as i paint each step on each one, i set em in those old fashioned egg holders - like deviled eggs used to be served in. anything will work though. i like to hold the eggs while i paint but sometimes my hand gets cramps after a while. the first year we had the egg hunt i told mini how bad my hand hurt - she always sat on a teeny lil animal print couch under my art table while i worked until she wouldn't fit any more - she was only two at the time but knew exactly what i needed....she went a got a blob of her playdough, covered it with saran wrap and punched it until it had the perfect sized dip for me to set the eggs in. this worked so well i have used the same blob every year to set the eggs in when my hands get too cramped up to hold em while i'm paintin on em.

i use a lil of everything on each egg....maybe some stickers if i am really pushed for time, always paint with a double ott brush, colored pencils, glitter and a fine point sharpie. one year i even printed out all my art real tiny and decoupaged it on in combination with everything else. once i get em all the way i want em, i slap a coat of shiny acrylic on em - anything will do - even modge podge.

right before each hunt, all the eggs are put on the wheatgrass covered front table - i'll put more shots of it up next. i always let the wheat grass flats hang off the table so it ends up lookin like a lil egg covered hill. the table is in the entry way and everyone goes there first to see what i painted on their egg. i love nothin better than visitin someone and discoverin all the eggs i have painted for that family, in a place of honor, displayed like they were ancient treasures. i have had many 911 calls along the way too - some egg broken into many pieces by accident and lots of cryin and beggin me to try to put it back together. where the kings men failed, i always succeed - altho i have had to cheat a time or two and just make a new one from scratch.

i am sure if you make some of these for your children, they will treasure em forever - no matter how they turn out...but i'm pretty sure you'll get egg-cellent results. be sure to send me some shots if you give em a try...and email me or jo if you need some help. oh - i emailed the faces out but lost track at some point and got confused...so if you didn't get yours yet just email me again and i'll send em along.

plastic eggs ala mo

here you have a basket full of cheap o plastic eggs...i think they cost about 99 cents for a bag o 12 so they are REEEEAAALLY cheap! i like to do up white ones like this as i can never get colored ones to look exactly like i want... but maybe you can succeed where i can't so if colored ones suit you more, give em a whirl!

all you need to make em fancy like this you probably have in your house right this minute....some thin ribbons, a hot glue gun and a batch of goodies like buttons and teeny flowers and such. the only part that takes a lil thinkin is attachin the ribbon in a way that they will still open but are attached in the back. you can decorate em where they won't open and they are just as pretty - but if you wanna stuff em you'll wanna take the extra care to make sure they will open wide. one year i even put the invitation to the annual egg hunt in the decorated eggs and wrapped em up all pretty and mailed em!

so - here i go attemptin with my bad instruction givin skills to tell you how to make some....take the egg apart and start with the bottom and wrap a piece of ribbon around horizontally. snip it where it meets in the front. i like to hot glue it just a teensy bit above the edge so when the top is put on you can't see where it connects to the bottom. once the first dab o glue is dry, put the top on and attach another piece of ribbon vertically. to do so, attach the beginnin part of the ribbon at the front edge of the egg top and then drape it over the back and all the way back around to the front...now glue the end a bit over the horizontal piece...now the egg will open but is attached in the back by the ribbon.

the rest is the really fun part....just decoratin the top! you can add a lil bow and then whatever else is in your scrap box. the ones here have bitsy flowers and buttons but i have done em with lil charms and teeny plastic animals and just about anything else that can be hot glued on! you could even use ric rak instead of ribbon.....like everything else i think up, there are no real rules and you are only limited by your imagination!

i apologize (seems like i'm doin that alot!) for not getting the faces out to all of you yet...i wanted to print em out first to check the size and just got my new printer up and runnin....i will get em out by the mornin for sure so don't give up on me yet! and if you have some questions about any of my bad instructions, just email me - i promise my feelins won't be hurt...chances are you won't be the only one!

oh - and some of you are still lookin for the busket instructions...just look down below as i reposted that day's blog and added em to the original text. okay - i'll shoot for gettin the bisque ones up next....

thanks for stoppin by....see you tomorrow!

..and now for the easter cans

so here is what you can make if all you have are some empty soup cans...or if you want, adapt these lil canned guys onto the bigger paint cans. my photos of these weren't that great so i hope you can see em well enough. for those who have emailed for the bunny face, i'll include these faces too just in case you wanna try them too. i will try to get those out tomorrow! and be sure to email me and jo if you need some help. i am still scannin the eggs and will try to blog em up next...altho, when jo and i went lookin for the dern pink sponge rollers, we found the perfect easter bonnets so i may just have to show those off before getting the egg-structions to you.

thanks again for stoppin by and not givin up on me while i was away so long. i'm baaaaaack in blogland now and plan to stay!

mo's easter busket

oops...sorry i haven't blogged up the egg-formation for you yet! i am tryin to scan in the best of the best of the thousands i have painted so everyone might find at least one they wanna copy. so while i'm at that i thought i'd show you a cute lil doo dad'n idea for mo's egg-cellent doo dad easter busket. and i'm a bit later gettin the egg-structions up for you cause i tried to change the background for the moland and turned the whole dern thing black. i have nothin against black except when it is just black and nothin else can be seen.

anyway...this picture here is of what i call a busket...sort of a combo of a basket and a bucket you see. i've been makin em since i was about mini's age and decided to make a big batch of em for mini's third annual egg hunt...you wouldn't believe the amount of kids who show up for an egg hunt with nothin to put their hunted eggs in. i thought i'd get a batch of buskets made and then i could drag em out for the no-basket kids every year....i never considered that those who borrowed the buskets would just go on and carry em home! then, they'd show up again the next year without anything and expected me to provide them with a brand new busket. as you can guess, i started havin to make more buskets every year....so unless you wanna do the same thing, make some up for your family and be sure to tell everyone else to bring their own!

i'm sure just by takin a peek you can figure out how to make one. just go to the hardware store and buy some paint buckets. if they don't have em in white, just travel a lil further down the aisle and grab some white matte spray paint and paint yours white yourself. once it is dry, you can draw the face on with a sharpie...you might wanna do it in pencil first to get it the way you want. i will try to make a pattern of this one's face and have jo email it to you if you think you need it. just pop her an email to moscousinjo@mac.com. you can use some graphite paper to transfer it on.

after you use the sharpie to draw the face, paint the nose area in pink acrylic pain and dab in some color for the eye. for the cheeks i just used a sponge dipped in the pink paint and the mooshed it around with my thumb. for the girls i used a hot glue gun to add a ribbon necklace with a lil gold heart and for the boys a lil bow tie but they don't need either. if you want you could even cut out felt or fabric to make the face - there are no rules here for makin your busket...except maybe that it needs the handle!

to make the ears i ripped up some old white sheets in strips about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. then i snipped both ends off old wire clothes hangers - the parts the shoulder hang on - and sort of bent the wires in the shape i wanted the ears to go. you can use any ol wire or even pipe cleaners - just nothin so thin it will poke thru the fabric and hurt lil fingers. drape the sheetin over the shape and either sew the two sides together or if i was really short on time, i just hot glued em together. i then sponged a bit more pink paint in the middle of em and hot glued em to the inside of the busket. if you're gonna add some doo dads to the outside like flowers and ribbon, hot glue the ears to the front as they'll stay on better bein as your child is gonna be puttin his hand in and out. and be sure to cover all the wire well.

on this one i hot glued bunches of my crepe paper flowers and then wrapped a wide piece of ribbon around and hot glued it in the front...then stuck on a big ol ribbon in the front. you can use any kind of artificial flower and i have even used moss and that krinkled paper. anything you decide to have flop over the bow will be fine.

now, i have said many times on this blog that i am the worst at writin out instructions...it's why until now i have hesitated sharin any of my craftier projects. but i figure what i leave out you can always ask me to tell you in the comment area or via email.

it's a real easy lil somethin you can create that will make lots of hunters really happy...and once you've crafted up one, you'll be thinkin of all sorts of other things to make...like one painted orange and with a jack-o-lantern face for trick-o-treatin...or line a busket with plastic, cram in some of that green floral foam and jam it full of fresh flowers for a centerpiece! i also have some lil soup cans made to look like a baby bunny and a sweet lil chick...i'll try to blog those up next...and then finally the bisque eggs and THEN..the cheap ol plastic ones i made so pretty no one could believe they were plastic!

queenie recently sent jo and me a batch of pictures of the us when we were lil and took egg huntin quite seriously....so along the way i may just have to blog up some of those and tell you about our egg-citin egg-ventures growin up. one year jo and i were so dead set on beatin queenie - who won the hunts every year - that we had practice hunts about once a week. queenie still won all the prizes anyway. i've invited her year after year to attend our annual egg hunt but she's always too busy flittin around on her knowledge quests to come. i think she's just afraid she'll lose her crown to me and jo - and nothin scares her like the thought of losin her crown!

signin off for now...i do so hope i can fall back into the bloggin...feelin the need to give you some egg-formation is just the thing that could get me goin again after my long hiatus! and please - if you make any buskets send me some shots of em and i'll put em here on the blog for all to see!