Preparations for the GREEN holiday - Part II

St. Patrick's Day wooden Rainbow

Sometimes people are asking me where I get my creative ideas. It is hard to explain. Let's have e look at the chain of thoughts that led to our latest arts & crafts project:

A couple of weeks ago my dearest Facebook friend Beth recommended an iPad app called "Stack the States". It contains several games around the shapes of the 50 states of America.

"So what do the profiles of Texas and Minnesota have to do with an Irish holiday?" You might ask. Bear with me, I've got a point.

In one of the games the background picture changes from the Capitol in Washington D.C. to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the four President's faces in Mount Rushmore, SD, - and the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, MO.

Unlike the other places, I have never been to St. Louis, and this game made me put this city on my mental "places to visit list". Until an opportunity to fly to Missouri comes up, I thought it'd be neat to have our very own little arch at home. It is March, we are talking about St. Patrick's Day a lot, so the arch in the back of my head and the rainbow, symbol of the Irish holiday, came together. 

Unfortunately I am not very skilled when it comes to handicrafts. Also math was never my strong suit, so the equation that the architects in St. Louis used wasn't really helpful:

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Can you blame me..? But I am a person who knows people! They live behind bars and therefore have a lot of time to implement my ingenious blueprint:

Ok, let me explain. I live in an area where next to us regular folks in our town houses there are also about 180 inmates residing in a penitentiary. Bad guys who committed murder, sold large amount of drugs or molested children. 

Now I am not saying those are my buddies, although I have met some cheerful Caribbean guys. How come? As a board member of a local women's charity, I have had a rare chance to visit the jailhouse. Upon that guided tour we were told that the inmates do some work for outside buyers. So if you have a thousand Christmas cards that need to be put in envelopes, you bring them to the reception area (that's how far you usually get - unless you are a lawyer or a family member with a visitor's pass), and the guys do it for a small fee. 

Also they run a groceries store for the public. Well, the inmates don't actually work at the store, but they produce yogurt, jam, wine, vinegar and the like. Every Wednesday you can choose from a large selection of savory and sweet pies. We like to call them "killer pies". But I am zoning out.

So they made my rainbow! And it fitted into my trunk. I bought acrylic paint and waited for a day off. Today was the day of the days, and Colin and I grabbed our paintbrushes and colored away. 

We were having a great time. I kept thinking how lucky I am, having the opportunity to work part time and spend the other days with the little guy and do stuff that otherwise I wouldn't have a chance. I told my husband and he said "you are right, you are lucky". 

Let's look at it this way: by making an effort to have really cool St. Patrick's Day stuff (next on the list: a pot of gold. Oh, and the shamrock cookie cutters have arrived, so I can smell baking in the near future) the LUCK of the Irish will come to our house. RIGHT?

Speaking of baking. I discovered the cutest Rainbow Cupcakes recipe.

In order to arrive to a conclusion let me encourage you to play lots of iPad games. They really foster creativity! My latest thing is "what's the word". Heard of it?

I am still stuck with this one. If you have the answer, please let me know!

Read about our St. P's party here!