Paper Flower Crowns

It's been raining here. A lot. We've gone to the library, done our target and Costco runs, built forts, had dance parties, and read every book we own at least three times. But on about my fourth reading of "George and Martha: Round and Round", I decided I'd had enough. With Lukas down for a nap and Cora plopped in front of the TV.... I got my craft on.

I had been wanting to make paper flowers for a while, and a rainy day seemed the perfect reason. I loosely followed these tutorials from Craftberry Bush: here and here.

Cora's crown was really easy, I cut party streamers into petal shapes and glued them around a florist's wire stem. Voila.

My crown was a little more time intensive. I cut the petals from gift tissue and then dyed them using water and food coloring. Not more difficult, per say, they just took longer because of drying time. These gift tissue flowers were really pretty and delicate. It was a fun project!

Cat Print

Our days are full. Full and crazy and happy and sad and silly and EXHAUSTING. I've mostly accepted the fact that this is a stage of my life that leaves little time for hobbies (or friends or exercise or personal hygiene). At the end of the day, after the kids are asleep, Eric and I collapse onto the nearest piece of furniture; if we're lucky, we have a glass of wine and a chat. Most of the time, we we watch an episode of something on Netflix before dragging ourselves to bed (Person of Interest is awesome, by the way).

However, a couple of Sundays ago, I was able to carve and print a little linoleum block. It was a quick carving job, and my printing skills are rusty (though I was never that good at printing in the first place), but I really enjoyed myself. It felt really great to do something for myself, by myself. 

Thanks, Eric, for herding the children.  

Since then, I've been using our Netflix and chill (actually chilling, mind you) evenings to sketch. I might not have enough time or energy to do major projects right now, but I've been enjoying practicing being creative. It will be all too soon before the kiddos are in school and I have far too much time and energy on my hands. And I have a feeling that will be much worse than my current lack of both. 

Weirdest Hobby Yet

Remember this (very dramatic) post about my love for fiber art? Well, I've tried very hard to ignore my desire for wooly wall-hangings, but to no avail. My love for them has, in fact, grown. So much so that I've started making my own! Ha! And it's stinking fun! I've made a few sample pieces, just practicing the different kinds of weaving stitches? methods? and then I finally made this little one using actual colors and patterns and planning. My goodness, they take a lot of planning!

So far, I've loved curling up by the fire of an evening and weaving my little heart out. It's really relaxing.

This little guy is pretty strongly inspired by Maryanne Moodie - I really like the geometric shapes she includes in her work.

My Version of Secret Holiday & Co.

Have you ever had a moment when you're in the store/art gallery/whatever and you're like, "omg, look at that cute/cool/trendy such-and-such, I could totally make that in ten minutes, and I can't believe they want (insert ridiculous seeming price here) for it." NO? Well I have that thought ALL THE TIME. For example:

This is the work of Secret Holiday & Co. These banners range from $65 to $85 and there is a huuuuge waiting list for them. Huge. It would take years to receive one because, as far as I can tell, they are produced by one lady who makes them by hand in her spare time.

So I decided to make one. The silly thing is, I don't even really like them that much. I think I was more annoyed that I could make this thing for less than $10 and that there are apparently thousands of people out there that want one and are willing to pay a ridiculous amount for them.

I felt a little weird just copying these banners exactly - I made my banner a little differently shaped and I tried to come up with my own verbiage... but that ended up being a total bust. I knew it would go in Cora's room so I wanted it to have some good advice like, "Be strong and courageous" but "courageous" is a stinking long word and wouldn't fit. "Brave" fits perfectly. I thought of doing a fruit of the spirit, but "Love, Joy, Peace" sounds like a Christmas card and, guess what, "Be kind" is already a SHCO banner. I should have just said, "Mama knows best." Omg that's brilliant; I wish I had thought of that sooner. Danggit.

Anyway, my finished banner turned out fine - since I couldn't pick one phrase, I made it double-sided; that way I can flip it over and be doubly indecisive. I just hot-glued the letters on instead of sewing them and now I'm wondering if I can peel them off and change the words around..... because "mama knows best".... at least the second time around....

Sewing Miffy

I'm always dreaming up sewing projects that are far above my skill level; I usually go buy the fabric and then it sits in my sewing drawer, intimidating me, until I forget about it or decide on another, even more unattainable project. I've been trying to break this cycle by practicing my sewing skills on little projects that can be pieced together in less than a day. The first of these was a Miffy pillow (the first that was successful, anyway). I think it's pretty cute if I do say so myself. 

Here's Miffy:

And my Miffy model, of course:

If you're wondering about Miffy, she is book character created by Dutch author and illustrator Dick Bruna. You can learn more about her here. 

Postal Paper

I had a couple of small gifts to send to the nieces and nephew (I don't want them to forget entirely that I exist), and instead of just shipping them off like a normal person would, I had to go and turn the packaging into a project for myself. But really, why the heck not, it's not like I'm doing anything else right now....

I carved a little stamp and then printed it one zillion times on a tube of postal paper. I doubt my brothers (or their children) will notice, but I had a lot of fun and I think the finished product is pretty dang cute. Even if I do say so myself!

Dyeing

I dyed some fabric last night! Not only was it fun, but it turned out really, really well!!!

I bought a half yard of white quilting cotton, and a couple of dye baths and an hour later I had two little rows of colorful scraps.

I began the night by carefully sorting out my supplies in the backyard (a cat is not one of them).

But then I read the directions on the dye packet and had to move everything indoors. A hose and a bucket just wasn't going to cut it.

A few recommendations to anyone that may ever dye something:
1) Wear gloves. Yes, it says on the package, but don't take that as just a suggestion. WEAR THE GLOVES.
2) If you drip any dye onto your kitchen counter or floor, WIPE IT UP IMMEDIATELY. No matter how much you hate your kitchen now, you will hate it even more when the pink formica has green polka dots on it.
3) If you do forget to wipe something up immediately, pouring a bit of bleach onto the dyed spot can help remove it. Just make sure you remember to wipe up the bleach afterward, don't leave it there as you will invariably put your elbow in it and spread it all over your favorite workout shorts.

So why the dyeing, you ask? Well, I've always wanted to make a quilt (and to experiment with dyeing fabric) and making a teeny tiny baby quilt seems like the perfect project to learn on.

I think a tonal quilt of triangles would be pretty and graphic....

.... but I'm thinking a strip quilt or something with large, haphazard geometric shapes would be more doable for a beginner. Especially for someone who can barely sew in a straight line (and that's with a sewing machine).

I have more dyeing to do (which I'm looking forward to) and a whole ton of quilting (which I'm terrified of). If the quilting doesn't work out, I may just haul my freshly dyed cotton over to my mother-in-law and plead with her to sew the strips together. Wish me luck!

Easter Weekend

I'll say it again, three day weekends are where it's at.

The weather here is finally starting to feel like spring, so we spent most of our weekend outside. Eric moved the gas line (in preparation for our new back door), and I did a few little projects around the house.

The first was inspired by these planters from West Elm Market. I really like black pots (which are super hard to find) and I've been wanting some herb planters so this was the perfect opportunity. I bought three terra cotta planters from Home Depot, and an hour later, voila!

 The only thing is, chalkboard paint is like...three times as expensive as regular paint so I used cheap, black matte paint for the first few coats, and then re-coated the rims of the pots with chalkboard paint.

And then, on Easter Sunday, we had a few friends/co-workers over.

It was really relaxing. I'm looking forward to more spring weekends ahead!

Goals

I set some goals for myself this week; not New Year's Resolutions, per say, but just some little creative practices I'd like to get better at or do more frequently. The goals themselves shall remain private, but I will probably show little snippets of projects along the way. Step one of goal two includes making icons. That's me in the top left. And my friend, Chrissie, in the bottom left. She has a lot of hair.

Wish me luck in my super secret endeavors! :)

Over the Weekend: Mountains of Snow

I love snow! Sitting by our big picture window, looking up at the rims and drinking tons of hot chocolate is my idea of the perfect day. And if there's a sexy man out there, shoveling the driveway, the view gets even better.

Me-ow!

Besides shoveling, we went for a walk, played with the cat, made a silly pillow (see below), watched football at a friend's house (Broncos, what happened?!), watched football at our house with friends (mmm, pizza), made some really good halal chicken (recipe here) and played three games of skip-bo (in which I beat Eric soundly)....

Design Sponge told me how to make these silly little pillows, and while these will probably live in a closet for a while (maybe I will let people's children drool on them when they come over?), they were really fun to make and totally helped me practice my less-than-stellar sewing skills. Funsauce.

Hard Cider Labels

Eric and his buddies brewed some hard cider, and I made a few labels for our personal stash.

They have yet to name this tasty treat.

Weekend of In-Laws & Infections (and no, they're not the same thing)

The mother and brothers-in-law made it into town Friday night, and, after staying up far too late and drinking far too much wine, I finally succumbed to the cold I'd been warding off for nearly a month. So whilst the in-laws headed to a wedding reception (which, having been moved without their knowledge, had them traipsing all over the eastern part of the state) I laid around the house with a box of tissues and  art supplies. I wanted to try to do a simple screen print, but after laying out my design, I discovered my screen was far too small and ended up just making a paper cut. That way, I still have a design to hang and, when I finally have a screen large enough, I will have the paper cut with which to burn my image onto my screen. Perfecto.

Lookit I Made: Lino Prints, Papercuts, Chairs!

I'm glad things are coming together so nicely at home, because my hopes for Seattle are vanishing before my eyes.

First, I was informed that the behemoth red truck will NOT be making an appearance. There goes my dream of bringing home lovely furniture. Then, I was told by my husband that a stop at ikea (for a couple of sheepskins, a blanket, picture frames, and a rug) was out-of-the question because he has some MUSEUMS to go to. MUSEUMS. Gosh darn learning. 

Sigh. It stinks, but, realistically, the cost of driving that beast out there would have been ATROCIOUS, and there really was no guarantee that I would have found something worth hauling back in the first place. As for ikea, we can go the next time we're in Denver. It makes more sense to wait and do it sometime when our car isn't packed with man flesh. 

I'm just a little disappointed. Hopefully there will be lots of walks and days filled with cute little shops. That would be fun too.

But I digress. 

I've been working on some stuff. I finally finished a couple of prints I've been working on forevvvver. You would not believe how difficult it is to find white paper in Billings. Not ivory, not off-white, not cream. White. And then getting that piece of paper home without crinkling it....especially when you have a watermelon rolling around in the back of your car....even more difficult. 

The smaller one is a lino print, and the larger, geometric shapes are paper cuts. I kind of wish I had done them the opposite of that - airplanes as a paper cut, shapes as stamps. It would have been cool to have some texture in the shapes, I think.

Yay for more pictures that I probably won't hang on the walls!

This brings me to my most favorite project in the history of the world - my chairs! I have had soooo much fun sanding and oiling and waxing and upholstering these things. Uh. I seriously want to do this forever. So. Much. Fun. So far, I've completed two of the four.

I ended up getting some linen to cover the seats (sale! only $6!), and while I'm not the best upholsterer, I think they look pretty sharp! Hurrah for me!

Shall I show you "before" pictures so you're more impressed?? This is what they looked like when I first got them:

The seat backs were by far the worst. They were really faded and had quite a few nicks and gouges in them.
This is after I sanded the heck out of them:

And this is after being oiled:

This picture does not do them justice. It's amazing, but after being oiled and waxed, these chairs practically glow in the sunlight. And they're so silky smooth....

A side-by-side comparison:

I'm really proud of myself :) I'm having so much fun!

 Here they are hanging out in our freshly painted dining room....

Now to find a table! And a rug!

Lookit I Made: Sneak Peeks

Hiding out in the basement where it's cool, eating popsicles and watching The Bachelorette, I've had a lot of time to work on projects. Here's a sneak peek:

Lino prints and paper cutting! Finished projects coming soon!

Lookit I Made: Foxy

I've been trying to blog every day, but I totally forgot yesterday because I was too busy watercoloring!!!!!! I have no idea what I'm doing, but it was a lot of fun to mess around and see what I could make! Mostly, I just made foxes.....

Foxyyyyyy.....

 There be a lot of them. I need lots of practice, you see.

 Baby fox!

 Another baby fox!

 Papa fox!

Ope, another baby fox

Big fox!
Go me!

Lookit I Made: Coat Hook

Ok, I obviously didn't make this. I can only take credit for staining, sanding, buying and bossing (ie: telling Eric to screw the knobs I purchased into a piece of wood).

Not super fancy; but the coat hook I actually want (see the image of this reproduction Eames below), is $100. Our DIY one cost...$15? Maybe? The most expensive part were the knobs. 

$100....
or
$15....

For now, this will do just fine!