Redecorating: A New Family Activity?

So far we have discovered that Ammon likes to rip off wallpaper. Both boys LOVE to paint, especially with the roller. There is something magical about paint and a brayer...gee I wonder where they get THAT from! Anyway, Eli likes to pull out old carpet foam from underneath carpet staples with needle nose pliers! He was having a ball and did not want to leave the new house! The living room looks great...I picked out a nice buttermilk white color for the walls. It is neutral enough for the landlord and has a little yellow in it for me. The good news is that we ripped up the carpet and the hardwood floors are in GREAT shape! I am so excited about hardwood floors. I am also thankful for my husband who has a great attitude about the whole thing and pulled up all of the carpet and carried all by himself outside. Needless to say his two sons think he is the Hulk. Especially since he grunted the whole way to the garage. He did not turn green...a little red from being hot, but no green. I guess that is what radiation does to you and not humidity. I think my boys would have flipped out if their dad turned green like the Hulk. Their eyes were already popping out of their heads when dad picked up the entire living room carpet and padding by himself. I should have taken a picture of that one!

So I am going to attempt to go to sleep. I am still pondering over curtain colors and rug possibilities. I know must be rough, right. By this time next week I will be blogging, making art and sewing in my new house. Toodles!

Busy Day

Oh it has been a busy day today...a little packing, a little shopping for paint and stuff, a little painting and a little ripping off wallpaper. Oddly, I sort of enjoyed ripping down the wallpaper. I think it is sort of destructive, so there for fun...like demolition. Even my Ammon liked it! He thought it was "kind of like unwrapping a gigantic present." What a great kid! Eli wanted to help paint, which he did briefly, but was then taken by stacking up paper cups and knocking them down. It is fun being three! I am now officially excited to move in even if I cannot do all of the redecorating I would like to right now. I can learn to be patient...plus I have LOTS of sewing and fabric ideas for the house! I love being unemployed :) Now I am off to bed. I can feel my forearms getting sore from painting all of the trim. Good night and more updates to come tomorrow!

Moving Day is finally here

Well, dear bunny readers, moving day is finally here! It cane sooner than originally anticipated, but that is fine. Better than later, right? We picked out paint colors, which is SO hard for me because the landlord said only neutral colors. I am not a neutral colors kind of girl. I like them, but I prefer big bold color. I do have a few tricks up my sleeve, though. I was thinking that the first pictures I post on here should be before pictures and after pictures. That would be fun!

Also, I am SO excited about swapping hand printed fabrics in this swatch swap started at Jezze Blog (just go to the sidebar for the swatch swap post). I have already been contacted by four other artists and cannot wait to start printing on fabric! Check it out...it is so cool! Quite frankly, my head is spinning right now in surface design land. I am not in packing world right now, which is where I need to be. Sigh. Once the moving dust settles and the paint is dry I am going to contact others in this group to swap with. I love, no wait L-O-V-E, Jezze's idea about making a patchwork quilt out of hand printed squares of fabric!

I am back and I should be packing

I just got back from spending the weekend with my dad. He is moving out of state soon to start a new job. It makes me a little sad, but I know that this is good for him and my mom. I am bummed that my boys will not get to spend as much time with their grandparents, but their is always vacation time, right!

I just signed up for a bag swap over at Itching 2B Stitching . I do love bags. I participated in the fabric swap she hosted, which was great. I received so many fabulous fabric scraps its CRAZY! I see a fun crazy quilt or something in my near future...or should I say after I pack up the house. Moving stinks but at least I am going to all hardwood floors and air conditioning. Oh and the best part.....my very own art studio! I KNOW IT'S GREAT! I am really hoping that I will fully use this space instead of always occupying the dining room table.

So my new to do list is this:

•pack
•pack
•pack some more
•spruce up this picture less blog ( I know I keep saying this, but I will, I promise!)
•get a website going for my artwork
•start an etsy shop or something
•drink LOTS of tea
•artwork...lots and lots of artwork

Love you bunny readers!

Where did the week go?

So what happened to the days in this week? Wow did this week fly by! I really did not accomplish everything that I wanted to do this week...oh well. There is always the next week, right?! We have been busy with birthdays, I have been busy sewing bags for birthday gifts and, yes, a little packing. Just a little. I cannot wait to be settled into the new place. Then I can concentrate on things like posting pictures on my blog and sewing more things and playing with ink and pencils:0) I really do wish I was Mary Poppins and could simply pull everything that I need out of a bag. Oh, and I could fly by holding onto my umbrella. That would save a LOT of money on gas.

New Art Supplies = More Procrastination on Packing

Wow...I went shopping today with my Hobby Lobby gift card. I bought a new set of watercolors (to design 82% serious's invites), a new package of oil pastels (just because I do not have the 36 count), a cool new drawing pencil and pencil sharpener (again for 82% serious's invites), a fabric remnant (it's really great fabric), some embroidery transfers (why I have no idea; I just liked them and they were 23 cents) some blank canvases (my attempt to get the boys to make some cool art for me) and a fun, chunky basket to put stuff in. The best part was that all of this was either on clearance or on sale. HOT DOG! I love new art supplies. Sigh. Oh the possibilities......so if I go MIA for a while, you know where to find me. Packing, duh ;)

I should be packing....

Yes, I should be packing right now since we are moving in two weeks but instead I am writing a new post...I can't believe I went this long without posting. Geez! Anyway the photo shoot at the zoo went great. I took some really great pictures of the giraffes, zebra, ostriches and monkeys. Oh, and the peacocks. I also took the boys to the zoo on Saturday for some more photos; that one did not go so great, but I did get some funny pictures.

I bought all of the fabric for the BTRS Sewing Swap for the placemats and napkins. I am hoping that these will be really easy to make, although I am not good at mitered corners, yet. That is my optimism that one day I will be good at mitered corners.

I have a real itch today to do some printmaking or sketching or something. I have to design a website for my hubby and some wedding invitations for 82% serious. So, with that being said, I will go and eventually pack. Maybe.

Thankful Thursday

I am going to continue in the tradition of 82% Serious with the Thankful Thursday post. I think they are a WONDERFUL idea! So what am I thankful for? Well, several things, actually. First up, my wonderful boys. They are so sweet. Ammon wrote a song this morning called "Dinosaur don't bite my finger off." He got out his little red and white Fender, yes he has his own Fender and not a yucky toy guitar. After all, Dad is a musician so nothing but the best. Anyhoo, he wrote the lyrics and started writing the music! No staff, just a bunch of quarter and eighth notes all in a row below the lyrics. It is still a work in progress, this creative process does take time you know, and I will keep you updated. After that the boys and I headed to the zoo where Eli got to spend his $1.00 on giraffe biscuits. I love seeing him smile when he feeds giraffes! FYI two giraffes were standing cheek to cheek and actually tongue wrestled over the biscuit that Eli fed to one of the giraffes. It was, quite possibly, the funniest thing I have seen in a while. Most of the moms thought it was gross. Not me. The boys and I bent down closer to get a better look. It was bizarre, funny and fascinating all at the same time! I wish I had my camera. I am planning on going to the zoo by myself on Friday to take some pictures of all the animals for Eli's new bedroom in the new house. Hopefully I will see some more tongue action....oh that sounded a lot worse when I actually typed it. Sorry.

I am also thankful for Thursday because that means Nathan comes home from Greenville. I cannot wait until we get into the new house and I do not have to be by myself all week. It is a lot of work and I now have a much deeper respect for single parents everywhere! Plus I just miss the guy. Ahhhh! He really is great, you know. In more ways than one ;)

And last, but definitely not the least, I am thankful for fireflies! I SAW ONE JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO OUTSIDE THE WINDOW! I know what the boys and I are doing tomorrow night...we are going to catch a huge jar full of those little buggers! I can't wait. I wish I knew of a way to make a lamp that glowed like a firefly and the light would flutter like they do. That would be beautiful:)

$1.00 for Eli

Today my little Eli earned his very first dollar helping Daddy and Ammon pick up pop bottles and put them into the car to get recycled. He was SO proud of his dollar bill! I asked him what he was going to do with his dollar that he earned. I said he could save it to buy an Iron Man toy (which he keeps trying to negotiate a purchase of) or he could get ice cream at Mooville (they have a pig named Darla who LOVES to eat ice cream cones). He said no to both of these, surprisingly. So what, you may wonder, did my little Eli want to do with his dollar? He said to me, "Mama, I want to go buy a giraffe biscuit at the zoo. Let's go...I have money." So sweet. I bet tomorrow when I take him to the zoo that the biscuit he buys will be the best tasting biscuit those giraffes have ever eaten! I must make one note here...not only did he earn the dollar but then proceeded to look around the house for spare change. So far he has $1.25.

Aprons, an ulu knife and granola inspiration

I received an apron from the Feathered Nest Summer Apron swap. It came all the way from Alaska, along with an ulu knife! I have never used one of these before, but man does it look cool! It says on the package that you can skin a walrus, whale, caribou or fish with it as well as chop herbs and veggies and stuff. Wow! I am not planning on doing any of those things in the near future, except for the herbs and veggie part, but that is good to know. I cannot wait to chop up some herbs or something. The apron is fun, too, I just have never received a knife in the mail before! The apron is a cute little half apron with ruffles and two pockets. I like having two pockets on an apron. They are both very handy. Get it. Handy. Ha, ha, ha.

I also finished my apron for that swap, too. It is so cool...I did not want to send it. Good thing that I bought extra fabric! I'll just have to make one for myself. It even got the cool seal of approval from my husband! Now that is saying something. At any rate I used the Amy Butler half apron pattern again and the fabric is pink with surfboards all over it. I used brown trim and then did a lot of stitching in light pink in the brown to make it look like waves. It is so fun! I promise to post pictures...I have to figure out why my printer is not talking to my Mac. They use to be the best of friends and now it seems like they are ignoring one another.

I also had some inspiration while eating my delicious granola and yogurt for lunch today. I topped it with blueberries and a sliced up orange. I was munching away when I looked into the bowl and thought, wow, what a beautiful combination of colors! So I think my new kitchen at the new house will be inspired by the granola bowl! I guess you never know when or where inspiration will strike...sort of like lightning.

What took me so long?

I cannot believe that I did not write about my new fabulous apron from the Sassy Apron Swap! What was I thinking! Well, it is great and I have been wearing it all day since I got it on Thursday. The funny part is that it TOTALLY matches my other apron from this swap, which I find very funny and kind of cool. A while back I bought this ultra cool hook to hang my aprons on when we get to the new house (I did mention that we are moving, right?). I can picture them now, all lovely hanging from my vintage-ish hook from World Market. Don't aprons rock? I really think that my food tastes better and that my cleaning efforts are more germ and dust free as a direct result of wearing aprons while doing both tasks. At least we can pretend. Speaking of aprons, I have to sew my other one for the Feathered Nest Summer Apron swap.

FYI I must have a ton of ants in the yard because the peonies are HUGE I tell you!

Warm Fuzzies

Today was Ammon's last day of first grade. I was cleaning out his backpack and stumbled across his writing journal. I asked if I could read the stories and was given permission to do so. There was the usual story about Spider-man, Batman, Power Rangers and even a story about baking cookies (which sounded delicious by the way). I was surprised to see a story about making pirate quilts. It was actually an instructional or tutorial type thing. He gave a materials list, which consisted of only fabric and colored markers, and then a few steps, which, in a nutshell, were cut the fabric, color on it with markers, have your mom sew it and then put it in your bed. If only quilting were that easy! I guess I have to finish those pirate quilts soon...they are half way there, or maybe a third done is a more honest estimation. At any rate I was tickled to see that Ammon wrote about making pirate quilts and that it meant that much to him. As I have said before, and I will say it at least one hundred more times, I love that kid. He is SO great!

I must be off now, my other fabulous boy, Eli the giraffe fan, is telling me to type "the end." I love my little red haired stinker. So, here it is...the end.

She's rambling again and this time it's about ants

Yet again I am caught blogging into the wee hours of the night! I do have a confession to make...I broke my no sewing after 10 pm rule. The thing is the project turned out GREAT! I made a bag from Lotta Jansdotter's book "Simple Sewing" and used leftover linen fabric I have had for awhile. The best part is the giraffe patch on the front!!!! I used one of my test strips from the linoleum block that I carved. It is TOO cute and only took about 1.5 hours. I think I need one, too. I decided to make this bag for Ammon's teacher as an end of the year present. Tomorrow we are going to go shopping to fill it with stuff that Ammon picks out. That should be interesting!

Anyway I MUST post pictures soon and jazz up this blog-o-mine. I am truly sorry for repeatedly saying that I am going to do this but isn't the white space and san serif font just ever so lovely and clean and simple? I could go on and on and on about white space. And typography. Sigh. I enjoy the white space, but I am wanting some images. Back on topic...I took some photos today to post here. I am so excited; they are of the peonies that are just beginning to bloom. I got one great one with ants crawling all over it. I am hoping to take some more shots tomorrow with even more ants on the flowers. I am hoping that they will be more open. Sweet. I can't wait to cut a bunch of those flowers and make my table look like photos from a magazine. I will remember to rinse off the ants outside, though. Ants usually do not appear in magazine images about interior decorating. Did you know that peonies need ants in order to bloom?

In conclusion, I think that my Thankful Thursday (started by 82% serious) will be for ants. Without the ants, there would be no peony blooms. Or ant farms. Or ant eaters. And that, friends, would be a bummer.

Pause

Oh dear bunny readers, life must go on pause soon! It has been crazy over here. I had to take Ammon to the doctor's because he slammed his thumb in the car door. Thankfully it is not broken and he got to see an x-ray of his thumb which he thought was "totally awesome." I went out of town for most of the weekend to spend time with my parents at a horse show. They will be moving to Texas soon :( Then my car got hit in a parking lot!!!! AAAHHHHH!!! This was just a minor fender bender. No real damage. Just paint scratched off the bumper, which is plastic and not cracked. Phew!

Anyway my last day at work, as you are well aware of, was Friday May 30. It was a great day, complete with pizza, presents (which were unexpected and greatly appreciated...I do love getting presents) and a fabulous cake made by my friend Chris. It was chocolate mint and was divine! It made me aware of how much I meant to them and how much they will miss me. I must make a very conscious effort to stay in touch with all of them. They are a great group of people.

So far the stay at home mom thing is going great, too! The boys are fun but challenging. It was nice being home with Nathan all day on Monday, since we do not get to spend too much time together anymore. I also got my apron done for the Sassy Apron Swap ( see the sidebar) and have all pieces ready to send for the fabric scrap swap! I received a HUGE stash from a lady in Kansas, which I am going to turn into something fabulous! I also have my first commissioned bag to work on. My mom wants me to make her a bag for her birthday with my giraffe block print on it. She saw my samples hanging to dry at my house and fell in love with the giraffe.

Well I am off to fold laundry. Hooray. Maybe I will work on a website and some illustrations instead.........oh I almost forgot. Ammon keeps praying to God that he will get super powers, specifically flame throwing and x-ray vision. These are the powers for his super hero he created during art class today, Starfire Boy. Starfire boy sort of reminded me of a cross between The Human Torch from the Fantastic Four and Superman. I love that kid!