Brandy Ink

The Christmas Gala

This Saturday is the local Christmas Gala. It's a place where small businesses can buy tickets for their employees and then everyone comes together in one place in the end. There will be cocktails, appetizers, dinner, and dancing. It's going to be a wonderful evening. I am treating my two employees and their spouses to it, and we'll celebrate the season along side 240 other business people. Fun!

Not only will I be there with my business and employees, I am also one of the people helping with the Gala. You see, part of the proceeds from the night will be going towards my youth group Beyond Wild. Because of that.... I've been in charge of making all of the centerpieces for a whopping 32 tables. Since flowers are really not my thing, I decided to have the kids at Beyond Wild make some really cool crafts... and then I wrapped them up using a funky black and white theme. They are going to look lovely as centerpieces! Plus, at the end of the evening, they will be auctioned off to the people sitting at the tables without them knowing what is inside. This will be a great fundraiser for Beyond Wild,and, a fun way for people to give a mystery gift to their friends or family at Christmas time.

I was also in charge of organizing a silent auction for the night. I went around town for the past few weeks asking for donations from all of my favorite local businesses and NOT ONE person said no. How amazing is that? I love Creston. Beyond Wild will be making 100% of the profits from the silent auction. Yay! I'm stoked. I hope we raise loads of money so that the kids at Beyond Wild can continue to come for FREE.

If any of you out there are attending the Gala this Saturday, make sure you check out the wonderful silent auction and be sure to bid on a centerpiece!

Crayon Cookies

For Family Night a few weeks ago, we made Crayon Cookies. What??

Okay, well if you're like us, you've got oooooodles of half used crayons in a box somewhere just crying out for attention. You know, the kind of crayons that no one is EVER going to play with because a brand new box of crayons is always way more enticing.

We started by peeling them.

Keiryn loved the wrappers so much that she put them in a Ziploc bag and told me to keep them because she wants to use them for a future art project. But, I threw them away while she was sleeping.... shhhhhhh.... if I kept every idea she's ever had, we'd need a building the size of Walmart to store it all!

Then, we sorted them into colors... I have no idea why we did, but we did. This step holds no value later on but it looked pretty.
Then, we put them in the muffin tins. Which by the way, we used those rubbery kind of ones. I don't think tin muffin tins would work. These work good because you can bend them to get the cookies out.

I have no idea why my children were dressed like jail birds. This was not part of the plan.
Once the muffin tins were full, we baked them in the oven for 15 minutes on 230 degress. And voila! Sooooo cool!
Now, who doesn't want to give these old crayons some lovin'!?

Tie-dyed Skirts

While we were camping, I surprised the kids with Family Night. Our project for the evening: Tie-dyed skirts!

We started off by soaking the skirts for 30 minutes in a pre-soak. This is suppose to allow the dye to adhere better to the fabric in the end.

Here's what the skirts looked like before we dyed them. I bought two skirts for $12 at Fields. Sweet deal.

After we soaked them, while they were still wet, but rung out well, we put on the elastic bands. The kids just did whatever they wanted for that. No rules.

Then, we mixed up a few colors and let er' rip...

It was a really fun process, as you can tell by the look on her face...

Just a side note: if you try this at home, do it outside. It's SUPER messy!!

Once they were done adding their colors, we let the skirts sit for a couple of hours. Then, we took off the elastic bands and hung them to dry overnight.

And in the morning.... VOILA!

The kids were pretty proud of their creations and so was I. I almost wish I had one for myself!

Photo Challenge Day 3

Vodka pedicures?

Okay, so if you dip newspaper in vodka, and then press it on your toes... 
Voila! I mean, who knew right? Some may say this is a horrible use for vodka, but I chose an article from our local newspaper and realized later on in the day that I had the Mayor's name pressed backwards on my baby toe. Ha. Cheap thrills.

(You might want to put a clear coat over top though because it rubs right off if you're not careful.)

Little Girls T's

These are the cutest little T's. Seriously. I used to make t-shirts at my print shop, but I stopped making them last year. I cleaned up my shop on the weekend (thanks for your help mom!) and I found some old t-shirts and also some old transfers that hadnt' ever been used. From those, I put together some cute little girls t's.

These t's are fitted, and meant to fit snuggly, and cute.

Email if you're interested in any. They're only $7 each. I'm taking them craft showing for the next two weekends, so get one while the gettins' good! I only have a few.

Valley Girl (in tiny print on the back: Creston BC)

Size 4  Available colors: purple, blue

Size 6  Available colors: purple, pink

Daddy drinks because I cry

Size 2  Available colors: pink

Size 4  Colors available in that size: purple, blue

Size 6  Colors available in that size: purple

Baby Sleeper  Size: 6-9 months. Green plaid.

Brunette, the new blonde.

Size 4  Available colors: purple, blue

Size 6  Available colors: purple

Color chart:

                                    Pink                   Blue                  Purple

Breakfast TV

Well, we're finally home from the Make It show and we had an incredible time. I've lots to share this week.

The first morning in Calgary was spent on the set of City TV as the girls enjoyed their TV debut. Pictured above are the girls, and to their right is the host of the show, and to their left is the awesome camera guy who by coincidence, is the husband of one of my all time best friends (who we stayed with while in Calgary). It was super handy to have him as the camera man because the girls felt totally comfortable and at ease having someone they knew on the set. Thanks Nick for zooming in on my art and going that extra mile for us!

The TV interview went great. I only had a couple of minutes to talk. The girls did a short demo on how they make their cards and then I stuttered through a bit of a story on us but I was so nervous, that I completely forgot what I had rehearsed for the past week and kind of spit out some random sentences in a panick to try and say what I wanted to say before my time was up. I now know that being a television star is NOT my inner passion, nor do I excel at it. But, it was a wonderful experience and thanks to Make It for making it happen for us. The girls loooooved it. And I mean, how could they not? Most people live their entire lives without being on TV. They're pretty darn lucky.

I am still trying to get a hold of the three minute segment video to show all of you, but below is a link to a small promo piece they did on the girls that ran throughout the day to advertise Make It. Again, once I have the three minute video I will post it. I think you have to be signed into facebook to be able to watch this video but I really don't know what I'm doing so I hope it works!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

 

Production House

Well, things haven't really settled down for me at all, but, I feel like I'm getting on top of things.... well, almost. My employee has come back to work (yay) and I've been working a lot of overtime and I feel like it's all going to pay off. Especially when I'm in Mexico next week with my feet up. Yay! I'm soooo excited.

After being asked, I have agreed to submit an article to a magazine about the girls, and their card making business. So, we're in full card making production around the house trying to plump up their inventory in case people want to buy stuff after reading the article!

They are so proud of themselves. I love it!