Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Now That's Thumbthing

Welcome back to the second day of our Highlowaha Virtual Baby Shower.  This week we are raving (and ranting) about all things baby.  Most notably, we are celebrating nine women - all of whom are expecting babies sometime in the next six months.

Melanie, Sara, Kimberly, Allison, Johnanna, 
Michelle, Erica, Kelly, and Molly

First follow-up to yesterday's celebration of the Ox and all things related to the Chinese New Year.  Of the 30 red envelopes containing various amounts of cash (ranging from .25 to $20.00), 20 envelopes were selected, totaling $40.75.  Check you mailboxes to learn of your winnings.  I will eliminate some of the suspense by providing one clue, as it is a little too ironic not to share.

Only one of the envelopes had a $20.00 bill inside.  Of all 19 people who could have won the $20.00, it went to Kristen  - who selected the name Alexis.  Kristen, for those who do not already know,  is the hostess with the most-ess, helping to make this week's baby shower happen.  In doing so, she is having to endure the challenges of working with me at a distance.  Bottom line... she deserves her $20.00 and then some.  Congratulations, Kristen!   

I'm kicking myself.  When Matthew was a baby and in child care, he frequently came home with pictures made from either his hands, feet, or finger prints.  Though I kept most of them, I made a mental note to do it better the next time.  Then came Jack.  I became fixated on the idea of an image a month matted and then framed, in one large picture, to hang in Jack's bedroom.  It was May before I knew it and I'd already missed three months.  Jack didn't enter child care until he was a year hold and by that time it was way too late.  My dreams were dashed... again.

But you!  You could do it.  Your babies aren't born yet.  You could start planning now, using the imprint of your baby's foot in the hospital as the very first.  Ghosts, butterflies, turkeys, reindeer, flowers, and the list goes on.  

Mind you, I thought this was a great idea years ago.  Then, a few weekends ago, Cheryl and I headed to a Sunshine Glaze, a pottery place in a neighboring town.  We were there on official Super Bowl Throw Down business, but while Cheryl was busy masterfully painting the winning bowl, I couldn't help but wander around.  Now I think the idea is better than great.  Take a look... 
This is a flower pot made from children's thumb prints.  
Perfect Mother's Day gift!

Reindeer made from your baby's feet 
It's never too early to begin thinking about the perfect holiday gift.  

Gather your kids, nieces, and nephews 
to grow your own beautiful plate

What an angel!
How about this for a Grandparents Gift?

Sure these make great gifts, but you could also steal the ideas and create your own image-a-month to matte and frame for your child's bedroom or play room.  The key is to plan ahead, making sure you're not getting your first imprint the morning you child shoves off for college.  That, come to think of it, a finger print of another sort!!!

I have a small book of thumb print ideas I would love to give away.  You know... to get your ideas flowing.  How about this?  Use your creativity to make me a thumbprint.  Send me a digital photo at cbeeny@lslog.com, by Wednesday night at midnight.  If I have a submission from you, your name will go in the drawing.  

Announcements:
  • People's Award Nominations: There are still some of you we have not heard from.  Nominations will be reviewed within the next 24 hours.  Please take a second and nominate someone for an award - even if it is only one person for one award.  
  • Party-Goers: There are a few of you whose address I do not have.  If you would like me to mail you your Red Chinese envelope, please send me an email at cbeeny@lslog.com, so I can mail it off.
Signing off until tomorrow...

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

YAY for being snowed in and not having classes today! Its a nice break...college never closes. But we got enough last night for them to close! YES! extra time to study and play!!

Have a great day HLA!

Peggy said...

When you take an idea....CASE (instead of STEAL, sounds so harsh)

C opy A nd S hare E verything

Later today, I'll post on my blog an adorondak chair I painted for chair-ity a few years ago. It had a garden sunflower theme and I transferred thumb prints from all the kids in class to make bugs... then I copied their handwritting for their name and painted that below the bug.... I'll search it out and post it after work today!

Remember! You don't have to keep every piece of artwork. Post them on the fridge and take a picture of them, better yet, put your kid on the fridge too, holding one of the pieces of artwork snap it and print it.... 18+ years of artwork and papers, you can't store it all (they'll just toss it when you give it to them as a going away present!!)

Kristen Giger said...

I love the flower pot idea...I"m sure that would make an excellent Mother's day gift for the grandmother's, too!

When I was little my grandmother has a wall in her house where she measured all of her grandkids. It is nice to look back at all the tick marks on the wall and see where we had our growth spurts and when we started to "level off." Since the time of the "original 5 grandkids" great grandkids have been added. What a treasure that wall has become!
We now have a wall in my parent's house reserved to chart Jennifer's growth. We try to measure her on her month birthdays, although we've been off a day or so here and there. That is the only wall in the house that will never be painted again!

maureen said...

Just checking in HLA. I do a lot of thumb print bugs with my younger girl scouts. They think its a blast but I havent heard if their parents were keeping it. I have several ceramic pieces my kids made out of clay. I was just looking at a fish my son made and saying how you could see all his little finger prints in the clay under the paint. He was soooo little.

I must say Claudia your ideas "never cease to amaze me"

Katie said...

Happy snow day from Virginia, too!

You can also make a butterfly with finger and thumb prints. The index finger is the body of the butterfly and thumb prints make up the wings. That's one project I did with my 2 year olds when I worked at the preschool!

lindsaymarie said...

this reminds me of the handprints i did in pre-kindergarten for mother's day! my mom still has them on her wall, my little four-year-old hands and my name in huge "i just learned how to write" letters. i still like to put my hands up next to them and see the difference... it isn't as big as you'd think, i have very tiny hands, still!

(i am trying to focus on how cute all this hand/feet/thumbprints are and not on how jealous i am of those who have snow days, send the snow up to jersey, please!)

Anonymous said...

A snow day? Seriously...how much snow do you REALLY have Cassie? We get feet of snow up here and still no snow days...geesh!

I think the finger prints are pretty cute! My mom had my hand prints and my picture up in the kitchen for years. I think she took it down when they painted last year...but I'm sure it's up somewher else i the house.

The frame had my hand prints then my preschool picture in between them. It said something like "these little hand, and this specile smile, will stay in our hearts a long, long while".

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Tera and all you other Northerners... If you don't think Cassie P has the right to a snow day, then what will you think when I tell you many of our Texas schools are closed today? We were supposed to get freezing rain and everything is closed in anticipation. I did my normal morning routine ... coffee and all and the roads all looked fine to me!

Since so many of us are hunkering down for the day, how about this? Let's continue to brainstorm all the fun shapes our kids could make with their hand prints, finger prints, or thumb prints. Katie jumped in with butterfly. Any others?

Anonymous said...

Happy Snow day from DALLAS!!!

How's that for you. Really the University is cancelled so I'm hanging out at home with Lily.

I love the handprint idea. My friend posted on her blog her twins (boys) and their penguin plate made of foot prints for Christmas last year...it was super cute. I'll try to find it but picture the heal as the head...

Anonymous said...

HAHA yes, we actually have a snow day...about 5 inches of snow, but also freezing rain and sleet which is continuing all day. i guess it made the roads bad. IDK, i havent ventured outside yet; im still in my pajamas and i have been up for almost 5 hours already...LOVE IT!

Katie said...

Come on, Tera! You lived in Louisville long enough to know that 2 inches of snow constitutes enough snow for a snow day and today they got about 6 inches!

As for here in Virginia. I'm willing to fully admit that we do not have enough snow on the ground for school to have been called off. I think what they are fearing most is the ice/sleet/freezing rain that is coming later this afternoon. We could have had school this morning, but who wants to do that?!

Anonymous said...

suffice it to say I'm embarassed...heel not heal

Anonymous said...

suffice it to say I'm embarassed...heel not heal

Anonymous said...

Your right, Katie. In Kentucky, six inches is WAY more than enough to constitute a snow day. The dogs enjoyed lots of warm snuggling this morning before I got motivated to do some much needed nesting!

My mom kept one hand-print craft from each of us and had it framed. Peggy - I love your idea of taking photos of some of the art work rather than saving it all!

Anonymous said...

I think I need to move...

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Kimberly, Allison, and Molly... If you are out there today, please send me your mailing address. I want to send you your Chinese New Year winnings.

My email is cbeeny@lslog.com

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it be cute to make a caterpillar out of thumb or finger prints? Target has a section of baby items based on Eric Carle books, like The Little Hungry Caterpillar. Just last night, I put together a gift set using the book, some toys, and a blanket that also happened to have caterpillars. LOVE Target!

Meeshie said...

i know my mom is planning on doing something with thumbprints and a "Handfoot" (you take your fist on the pinkie finger side and it looks like a baby foot when you add the toes) for a plate for one of my baby showers as a memento of the shower.

and as far as snow goes...its coming this way, tonight actually. i think here in Connecticut we're gonna get more ice than anything, I need to go shopping for food!!

Kristen Giger said...

Dear Rebels:

We northern Yankees would LOVE to send you some snow to substantiate your "snow days." I vividly remember in high school one day when my bus ended up in a ditch on the side of the road...about 5 minutes later we had the pleasure of watching a salt truck end up in the ditch on the other side of the road...no snow day there even though the crews who were trying to clear the streets were having issues. Wimps!! At least duck tape some trays from the cafeteria together and go sled riding or something!!!

We got a heat wave of 41 degrees last week and we were able to take Jennifer sled riding. In fact, we STILL have enough to sled ride after that heat wave!! She had a blast!

My mom still has my hand print in PlayDough in her dresser drawer. The date was poked into the fresh PlayDough with a toothpick.

Anonymous said...

Kristen,
Sled ride? You'd have to have smoething to ride on...all we have is a drizzly rain. I guess they thought we'd have ice today. Oops.

I'd like to point out that the flower pot of Granny's Lovebugs has Jack and Lily right next to one another...how cute!

Other things to make out of fingerprints, handprints, footprints:

An octopus (upside down hand)
A turkey (right side up hand)
ghosts out of footprints (so cute they did this at daycare this year)

Lily's first Father's Day in daycare they made shirts for all the Dads with their feet on the front saying something about "I love getting walked all over by my sweet Lily" or something like that...

Cheryl Houston said...

Being raised in South Texas, I never had a snow day. Claudia emailed me today and asked me if I was at home. HA! I dropped them off this morning and am now I'm sitting here freezing at work. And, I will probably not get to leave early either.

I lived in Park City, Utah for 9 years and snow is their business... no snow day there either. The office manager used to say, "You live in the mountains. Deal with it and get to work." :)

You guys should see all the cute stuff in the pottery shop!! It was so therapeutic painting the bowl. I plan on going back!

Anonymous said...

Hello from Tennesse where it is just icky with rain, no ice or snow here. During Christmas this past year, my sister-in-law and I made a string of reindeer. The head of the reindeer is made from the child's footprint and the antlers from the handprints. We made one with each of the nine grandkids and gave it to their Grandpa. It was a little big but made a great decoration. This is one of those that you might want to take a picture of for keeping I guess.

Peggy said...

Okay, so I know y'all are waiting for me to post the chair I painted with thumb prints on it... I can't find it... right now... but if anyone is truly interested... let me know, then I'll search some more.

I've made greeting cards with the thumb buddy!!!

Thumb-body is thinking of you
Thumb-buddy loves you

You can make a thumb print into anything, ladybug, butterfly grasshopper, bee, doodle bug, bird, penguin, frog.... and two thumb prints can make a heart!!!
If anyone needs help figuring the doodle, I'll give you more ideas!

Footprints have a cute saying too:
My footprints may be small, but my dreams are big.

Just do a google search for handprints, footprints, thumb print crafts/arts.