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I'm headed off to LA tonight for tomorrow's GAP Kids event at the Grove. And I'll be updating you on how the trip and crafting is going all on Instagram. Right now, while frantically packing, I'm having visions of the beach, catching up with dear friends, scouring Mood Fabrics and Michael Levine's...and thinking about what I can stuff in my luggage from Trader Joe's to bring home.
Should be fun fun fun!
xo
Mer
 I can't believe we will begin our Shine On crafting weekends in just two days! I seriously can't wait!! If you live in the LA area please do stop in at the Grove and say hello! I'd love love love to meet you and see so many of your little artists!
Our first activity will be geometric art! You're little ones will be able to create and bring home a fun and bright, colorful, striking work of art. It's easy and the pay off is so great!
We will be doing geometric art from:
10AM - 1PM
And if you are not in the LA area, please drop on in on any of the following GAP Kids locations:
New York: 54th & 5th
San Francisco: Corte Maderta
Chicago: Sheffield
Boston: Burlington Mall
Miami: Georgetown
Philadelphia: Newton Center
Dallas: Dallas Galleria
Toronto: Eaton Center
If you do attend at any of these events I'd LOVE to hear how it went and to see pictures!!! I'd love to do a round up of all your little Picasso's on my blog after each event, so bring your cameras and share! You can also stay in the loop with GAP's Facebook Shine On Saturdays event page.
Hope to see you there!
xo
Mer
As usual we had a fabulous time at my family's Fourth of July reunion in Colorado and as usual, we went all out. This year we decided to go with the birth of America, 1776 theme and the end result was nothing short of amazing. My mother created a lovely patriotic environment complete with homemade lanterns out of tin cans, cuddly quilts to lounge on, a perfect thrifted fabric for a photo backdrop, red white and blue treats to bring with us to the fireworks show and so much more!
 Our summer has been rather busy so we decided to just reuse clothing and
costume items that we have created and utilized in the past. My sisters however,
well they took this theme and ran with it, making darling dresses for their girls...and even themselves (you can check out my sister Lorajean's pin board for the event here)! My older sister Daryllyn made a gorgeous yellow gown for herself and topped it off with a fabulous white wig. Her little darlings were just as impressively decked out.
 My mother sewed all of the little girls cute little white bonnets and my
sisters adorned their hair with ringlets. Everyone just looked so
great.
 In fact, everyone was asked to pick a particular person on early
American history and not only dress the part, but come up with a mini
skit or an informative piece of sorts sharing a bit about that
historical figure. So we had a Davy Crockett, a Danial Boone, a Betsy Ross, a Paul Revere, an Abigail Adams, and more! It was extremely hot this year so aside from dressing up, we didn't do a whole lot. Typically we have a number of games and activities but after dressing up, eating and take a number of festive photos, we all then ditched our warm costumes in favor of swimsuits and my parents pool. Because of the number of fires in Colorado this year, all personal fireworks were banned. Our local communities larger fireworks were also cancelled so we traveled to a near by town to see a few overhead fireworks there. It was a great ending to a fun and festive day!
 We did miss having Jon along for the trip and many mentioned missing his playful, actor, "life of the party" contribution to to the reunion. But aside from missing Jon, the boys and I had a fantastic time. In fact, the Littles have had a hard time transitioning back to our day to day summer life without a mob of cousins to run and play with.
Oh and I discovered that the secret to getting a moody "Count of Monte Cristo" look from my 6 yr old son is to pull him away from all the fun and ask him to pose for the camera for a few minutes. And oh will he stare you down...barely blinking...and refusing to crack even the slightest of grins... I have to admit, I was sort of impressed with his resolve and had to try not to giggle when after at least 10 clicks, he didn't budge at all. I'm seeing stubborn teen in a number of years...Oh boy. But man do I love that kid! 
 (First off, a big Thank You to all of you fabulous readers who were able to retrieve my lost post via Google Reader! I can't tell you how happy this makes me! xoxo.)
We
are back from our annual 4th of July reunion in Colorado. We had an
excellent time but are very happy to be off the road, at home and in our
own beds. Unfortunately Jon couldn't join us this year as he's acting
in a play and has other work that he couldn't break away from. So I
decided to take the 8 hour drive out to Colorado on my own with our two
boys (Oh yeah, and at 6 months pregnant). Crazy you say? Well I do
agree, but in someways this was one of the best road trips I've had with
the boys. Why? Well in addition to having a little help from above, I
think some serious preparation and planning (and the chance to caravan
with my sister's family) did just the trick.
I'd
love to share a few tips (some learned the hard way :)) for traveling
across country with young kids (particularly if are traveling by
yourself!).
TIPS FOR ROAD TRIPPING WITH YOUNG KIDS
- Evaluate your needs and devise a plan.
How old are your children? Do you have an infant/baby? Are your kids
potty trained or are some in diapers still? What are their needs and how
can you address them in the best way possible both ahead of time and
while on the road? For example, my oldest, 6 yrs, needs a lot of brain
stimulation so I prepared a lot of dot to dots, mazes, math activities,
etc. for him. Whereas my youngest, 3 1/2 yrs, needs a best friend play
toy at all times and needs to snack constantly, to stay in a good mood.
So I made sure I was ready for both of these things and more. After
evaluating you might end up deciding that being the sole driver just
isn't in the cards for you at this time. But then again, you might
decide that you think you (and your littles) are ready and want to take
the plunge! And you might just find out, like me, that it was totally
doable and worth it!
- Separate the trip into shorter, manageable sections.
This doesn't mean you have to stop at each "section" of your trip (but
then again you might need to for feedings, diaper changes or bathroom
breaks!) but you can have mile markers where you pull out a new toy or
coloring book, etc. When Jon and I drive together on long trips we
typically have the rule, no videos until after dinner or when it's
getting dark. This encourages the kids to engage in their planned
activities while it's still light out and day dream while looking out
the window (a very important part of a road trip, if you ask me).
On this trip however, as I was driving by myself, I told the boys that
they could start watching videos after our "middle of the trip" mile
marker, Little America (where we would be also be meeting up with
caravanning cousins for a short while). This helped me out as I wouldn't
have to worry about entertaining them for such long periods of time and
by making this clear ahead of time they knew what was coming and how to
mentally prepare themselves for how the trip would play out.
- Involve your kids in the pre-planning. Let
the Littles get involved with the plan up front so they are not as
thrown by any surprises. For example, we had our boys earn money for a
toy from the dollar store before the trip. They then each picked out a
couple of plastic Power Rangers who quickly became their inseparable
(and eventually armless) road trip companions. We also took them to the
library where we picked out books on CD as well as movies on DVD. I like
checking out movies from the library because it's something our kids
have never seen so they are engaged and excited about it, but it's not
as expensive (or even free at some libraries) as purchasing an entirely
new show. I then throw in a few tried and true beloved shows from our
home DVD library if all else fails. We also let them come with us while
picking out snacks but make sure that they didn't break into any
of it until the trip. Yes they got antsy and complained, wanting the
yummy thing right then but I held strong and didn't let them have any of it until
we got on the road. You could also work together to make a number of
homemade snacks and treat which is a really great way to go. If I did
this again I'd love to pick out some of my pinned snack ideas to make
such as these, these, or these (we had candy buttons on another trip and my boys loved
picking them off and eating them. They quickly became my "oh no, the
boys are starting to lose it, time to break out another sheet of candy
buttons" trick up my sleeve). This is a fun idea
as well. I think keeping these things "special" along with knowing what
sort of snacks they had in store before the trip started helped them
look forward to the long adventure ahead.
- Make or purchase accessories that will help your trip run smoother. This year I finally made another travel desk for Little O as well as an art portfolio case
that could be used a top the desk and then placed within the underside
pocket (where the board is) for storage. I then stuffed them full of fun
games and activities as well as blank paper, markers and colored
pencils. These were then slung over and stored on the side of their seat
arm rests, making it accessible whenever they wanted it. As my oldest
is more capable of helping himself and his brother out, I also put a bag
full of additional books, games, tag readers, etc. between their seats
so that they could help them selves out when they needed a change of
entertainment. I also made sure that the boys each had a water bottle
full and available at all times. I kept the snacks in a box in the
captain's chair and passed them back when needed. Both my boys can now
unwrap their own drink box straws, string cheese wrappers and more,
making things that much easier (hooray!).
- Don't forget to assess your needs for the trip.
Whether you are teaming up with another driver or going solo, you can't
forget to evaluate your own needs for the trip. I mean, if practically
every responsibility is going to to fall into your lap, you need to make
sure you are happy, comfortable and excited about the adventure you
have in store! Being 6 months pregnant I had make sure that I stayed
well hydrated, had lots of healthy snacks (as well as the essential sour
gummy snacks that keep my senses alert) and had opportunities for
breaks to get out and stretch my legs (which the kids needed as well, so
it worked out great!). I also needed to be engaged in the audio books
so I had some say in what we finalized when going to the library before
hand (Being a YA/Middle Grade illustrator,
I'm quite the fan of these books so I was more than OK with a younger
sort of book. You might have work something out when you can listen to a
more adult book, perhaps while the kids are watching shows or have
fallen asleep). Make a number of mixed CD's with music that will engross
you and keep you alert and awake. I love songs that bring me back to
past times in my life. Waxing nostalgic amidst stretches of red rocks,
prairies and endless road can be quite fulfilling. This is also a great
time to plan fun projects and brain storm about the future. I can't tell
you how many young adult "novels" I've written in my head while road
tripping. Maybe someday they will amount to something :). I also found
that Instagramming the trip made things much more bearable for me. I was
able to keep Jon in the loop and not feel so alone on this long journey
(you might notice that a number of these pics here are from Instagram.
I'm new to this world but if you want to follow me you can find me at
mer_mag).
- Be willing to roll with the punches. As
you can probably guess, traveling with kids requires a certain amount
of flexibility. Fights might break out when you least expect. They need
to go to the bathroom just ten minutes after visiting the last rest
stop. They claim to be "bored" with the unending amount of activities
you have planned for them (many of which they haven't even bothered to
look at!), etc. For I us I decided that I was going to make this trip
about the trip itself, and not just the destination. So when all
else failed, we found a random place to stop, get out and photograph the
beautiful scenes before us (Oh and I brought a long a digital camera
for the boys to take pics themselves. The giggled for a good 30 minutes
taking pictures of each other legs, noses, etc. while in the car. I
highly recommend this for kids who can work a camera).
Stopping
and taking breaks actually ended up being one my fondest experiences of
this trip. We were able stop at one my favorite landmarks, the little
white church in Virginia Dale, CO. My friend's grandfather actually
built this darling church and I have wanted to stop and take a closer
look at it for some time. Yes making these types of stops adds time to
the trip but for us, it turned out to be completely worth it.
 When we finally did arrive at my parents in Colorado we jumped right into to the pool to relax and cool off!
 We
were so ready and excited for all the 4th of July festivities to begin.
And I what a fun time we had! I can't wait to share our story and all
of our pics with you, which I will be doing so very soon!
What about you? What works for you when traveling with little ones? Do you have any helpful hints on how to make things go smoother? Or some funny flops, if nothing else :). If so please share. I know we'd all love to hear them!
 Hi Friends! So I just experienced a blogger's worst nightmare occur (OK, I'll scale back on the drama as it's not all that bad). I had just composed a long and lengthy post about our road trip to Colorado (which took all morning!) complete with great tips on how to travel with kids, etc. And guess what? Yup, it's gone. It's been deleted without a trace. I was trying edit some text and then everything went hay wire, and then it was gone. I tried everything I could think of to retrieve it but I'm pretty sure it's lost for good. I've never done text a head of time for a blog post in a Word document but I just might start doing this now!
Well anyway we have been happily home from our reunion travels and are trying to play catch with all that we have to do here at home and with work. I'll be posting again soon about all of our fun 4th of July festivities. And like always my family went ALL out, so you won't want to miss it!
(In the mean time, you can see a few more pics from our travels on Instagram. You can follow me at mer_mag if you wish.)
 I have to give full credit to my cousin Crystal for this summer fun idea. For the Mudpuppy giveaway she commented:
"So this
summer me and the kids made a summer fun jar so I don't have to be as
creative everyday. Each week they pick out an outing, a food to make,
and an activity to do at home and we make sure we do all three that
week. "
Crystal I LOVE, love, love your idea! So of course we had to implement it here in our home as well.
This approach to summer fun works really well for us. I often get super busy with work while it seems like our friends are gallivanting off to swim parks, camping trips and more. I've been feeling really bad for my little guys and have worried that their summer just isn't turning out as fun and exploratory as I'd hoped it would be. So when Crystal mentioned this idea, I thought, "Hey! I can do that!" This simple approach satisfies my little ones need for structure and planned events (especially my oldest who has been ansty non-stop ever since school let out) and also allows me the freedom to chose when the events/projects work best in my schedule. I don't have as much pressure to do something extravagant every day and the littles love looking at our calendar, looking forward to what is coming up next!
To make our summer fun jars we used old pickle jars (we are pickle fanatics here), covered the lids with decorative paper and affixed a label for each summer fun item, reading "LET'S GO, LET'S MAKE, and LET'S EAT."
If you'd like to do the same, I've made some jar labels for you to download here.
 Each Monday evening, during family night, we have our kids draw out one slip of paper from each jar. The kids then love looking at and discussing what types of things we have in store for us that week. In our "LET'S GO" jar I've put in outings to local hot spots as well as things we can do closer to home such as "have a BBQ with friends." In our "LET'S MAKE" (which could also be called "LET'S DO") I've placed a number of prompts for us to get creative such as "make a summer scrapbook" or "learn a new skill".  Our "LET'S EAT" jar has been a huge hit (notice the explosive amount of papers in the jar). I decided that I'd finally do something with all the delicious food pins I've been collecting on Pinterest. So I printed out several pages of pins, cut them up and then placed them in our "LET'S EAT" jar. This is so popular we actually ended up pulling out two food items, one sweet and one savory each week (I ended up making another savory jar, not shown here).
*(You could also use this Pinterest approach for your "LET'S MAKE" jar. Just
print out all the DIY's you've been saving up and start doing them! If you need motivation to
get started, take a look at a few of the pins from Mer Mag).
 The kids love looking at what we have in store to make and eat. Somehow it's so much more exciting than just reading it. For example, take these delicious Mint Brownies from Brooke of Inchmark. I've been dying to make these ever since she posted about them! And now they have been drawn and placed on the calendar. We will be making them today!
 So when we draw a food item from the jar, we then go to back to Pinterest to get the recipe. All the ingredients to make that item then goes on our shopping list for that week.
The kids loving doing this and I love that they are learning a bit about shopping and cooking (and if I'm really ambitious I can give a little lesson about money on our shopping trip).
 And it may be a bit late in the season (unless you are in Cali where school just let out for the summer) but we finally made our summer calendar. My mother would do this for us each summer and we loved visually looking forward to trips, events and fun summer activities. It really made summer SO much fun. To make ours I simply took a piece of black poster board and divided up the space into squares with decorative washi tape. I then used white oil pastel to write in all the dates and days of the week. From there we simply taped it to the wall with more washi tape.
And when the boys draw something out of our summer fun jars, we choose a day of the week and then have them tape up the paper right to the calendar. They love it!
And now we need to prepare for our big summer fun activity... our annual trip to Colorado for the 4th of July! We are so excited! To see some of the great summer reunion fun we've had in the past, take a lookly lou here, here, here and here. This summer we are going with a traditional 1776 white wig, Betsy Ross type of gala. No fireworks though, due to all the fires in Colorado :( but I know we'll come up with something just as fun. Apparently my mother is making little white wigs for all the kiddos and I just can't wait!
We've been doing a lot of drawing and painting around here. Little A is getting older and is more capable and willing to really learn how to draw and Little O is just over the moon to do whatever his brother is doing (and of course loves getting his hands on any sort of messy, colorful, creative substance - and doing it in your undies...well, does life get any better for a 2 year old?). Because of this we decided to get a family annual pass to the LACMA this year. After attending for the first time (thanks to Tim Burton!), I knew right away that we needed to bring along a pad of paper and pencils for the Littles to soak it all up (Little A drew his first Jack Skellington interpretation on a museum brochure and I was over the moon).
I've been wanting to create some sort of art/drawing carrying case of sorts for the littles for sometime now and after this recent museum trip, I knew it was time. I thought it would be fun if Little A had some sort of ownership involved with the carrying case so I had him paint black circles onto linen that I would then use as the outside of the portfolio.  I will confess that he did lose interest in this after a bit so I helped fill in a few spaces. This then got him right back into it and grabbing the brush back out of my hand for him to finish up.  I then proceeded to sew the portfolio carrying using this new "custom" fabric.  I pretty much just made everything up as I went along (so there are a few rough patches here and there) trying to accommodate all the needs of sketching and painting on the go.
We made a pocket on the left hand side for his pad of paper and another large pocket on the right to hold any drawing/activity books he might be interested in at the moment.  Then on top of that right hand large pocket I created several little pockets for his colored pencils (his preferred medium at the moment) and a set of watercolors.  He really loves it and has taken to drawing several items from his step-by-step drawing book (a score for 50 cents at a school fair!).  And now that we are off on our annual June and July road trips to see family and friends this little portfolio has really come in handy.
If you want to make one yourself, I'll be posting instructions when I share Little O's art portfolio with all of you, so stay tuned!
Hope you are enjoying your first month of summer and, for those of you in the states, are gearing up for a great 4th of July!
So I thought it might be nice to get you all that travel desk tutorial I promised you before the summer was over. Maybe you can squeeze in some sewing time right before your last road trip of the summer. This might seem pretty extensive but I promise that it's easier than it looks! My sewing skills/vocabulary/etc. are still novice so I apologize if some of the steps don't make sense. Hopefully the pictures will help.
1. Start with a board (any size you like). I used masonite but if you are intending to use this in the car it might be a better idea to go with a thick cardboard of sorts, or something softer than masonite, for safety reasons.
2. Measure the fabric so that when folded there is just enough room on the top and bottom of the board for seam allowance. Leave as much room on the sides as you like for folding over pockets.
3. Make loops for pocket closures (you can use bias tape or ribbon if you like) and sew them on the inside of the folded fabric.
4. You'll laugh but I can't remember what 4 is for. I say just ignore it.
5. Sew around fabric leaving opening for turning.
6. Turn fabric inside out.
7. Baste or mark area where board will be. Sew handle on to whichever side you want the top to be (you can also do this earlier like the loops in step three). I just realized that my drawing has the handles in different spots but I'm too lazy to fix it. Just play around and put it where you want it.
8&9. Sew on pockets (turning and sewing edges under ahead of time). I used large coat size zippers and sewed them straight onto the pocket fabric. You can also add a pencil pocket to the side.
10. Sew on pocket for board leaving opening for board to slide in and out.
11. Hand embroider initial to lower right corner (or wherever you like).
12. Fold up pockets and sew shut.
13. Sew buttons on for loops to close.
14. Sew pillow pocket. You can make this as deep or as shallow as you like. Sew sides at an angle.
15. Turn inside out.
16. Sew pillow pocket onto desk leaving opening for stuffing. Stuff pillow. Sew closed.
17. Insert board. You are done now ready to use your new desk!
*I also keep coloring and activity books under the board for storage. You can also add a metal sheet on top of the board for magnetic activities. Another variation would be to sew plastic on top to make it easy to wipe clean if used for eating. This is something I might do later.
I hope this was helpful. If you have any specific questions along the way I'll do my best to help you out. Happy sewing and last minute traveling!
**Oh and a big thanks to Ohdeedoh and Cafe Mom (and any other kind bloggers) for posting about Little A's desk!
I shalln't be going anywhere fabulous this year. No trips to Florence or Athens or Nice...sigh...but I'm not going to let that stop me from planning the trip of my dreams. In fact, I think I'll go this weekend. First and most importantly it's got to be full of delicious, imaginary details that I simply must jot down in this exquisite Travel Journal. And being early summer the weather will be sunny with a slight breeze, making this layered ensemble perfect for the hot and cold spots I'm sure to hit throughout my day. I'll travel light making sure everything will fit into this weekender bag that I will make the night before taking flight.
After a wonderfully exhausting day of exploring and devouring I'll curl up for the night in some little hamlet off the beaten path or perhaps, since the weather will be just right, I'll spend the night under the stars right on the beach.
Of course I will write elegant letters home and fill the envelope full of tiny paper treasures for my little boys to play with. I will tell them the tales of the land and speak of how I can't wait to come home and tuck them in at night.
It will be just what I need to start the week fresh and inspired. I can't wait.
Wishing you all a delightfully make-believe weekend.
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