IlluStory

My niece Bailey is turning 9. This weekend is her birthday party, and I won't be there to celebrate. I won't be able to watch her open gifts or blow out the candles on her cake. Instead I will mail her a card, ship some gifts and call her afterward to find out how it all went. Birthdays aren't an easy time to be a long-distance aunt.

I've been searching for the right gift for her birthday. BarnesandNoble.com has a nice feature that allows you to search for toys, games and books by age. As I was searching for gifts online I stumbled upon Illustory -its a way for kids to write and illustrate their own story. It comes with the pages to write the story with room to draw the photos, markers for the artwork and a postage paid envelope to mail the manuscript.

The bound and finished book is returned within a few weeks, a professionally published version of your child's story! What a great way to express creativity and have a memorable gift. Bailey loves to tell stories, I think this is a great way to preserve one of them in a nicely bound book! I thought this was a nice gift idea and wanted to share. 

I hope she likes it!

Painting Pottery

Today, my nieces and I were able to get in touch with our creative side. I took them to an art studio where you can paint pottery. I've been wanting to try out this place for a while and I was excited to be able to finally take the girls there. 

They had lots of things to choose from; they had everything from cups, bowls, plates and serving platters to little animal figurines. They even had the plates that go over your light switch that you could personalize for your bedroom!

The hardest part was deciding what to paint. I wanted something functional, like a serving dish but wasn't feeling artsy enough to freehand an interesting design. I finally picked out a little frog:

Bailey painted a puppy:

And Hannah painted a cheerleader figurine done in the colors of one of her favorite teams, the Buffalo Bills:

They have to be glazed and fired in the kiln before we can go pick them up. We can't wait to see the finished product!

This was a fun creative activity and made for a fun day!