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Mid July check in

Busy busy busy around here, but not much exciting to report. Gave my mother a ride home during 4th of July weekend. Central CA with temps above 100. BOY was I glad to come home to 60 degrees!  I did join a cupcake themed swap over at Sharon's blog. I mostly bought stuff for it but thought I'd post the one thing I made.

I'd been wanting to do some applique like this. I didn't have a specific idea of what to apply it to, so just made it into a 12x16" wallhanging.  I bought a coloring book, scanned an image, enlarged it to the size I wanted, made 3 copies and cut each element separately. If I'd have used a backing fabric or liner the zigzag stitching wouldn't have puckered like that...hopefully my partner will think it's cute anyway.

I am embarrassed at how dusty I let me etsy shop get! Sweet scrappyjessi bought the pink necklace this weekend and it reminded me that I should list the others I had already made! So I just finished listing some cherry pillows, button bouquets, necklaces and aprons, all at SUMMER CLEARANCE prices. Oh. And these mannequins that I've been hanging on to for a while now.

I hope you'll take a moment to wander over there and see if maybe there's something you just can't live without!

It was 80's week up in here

I was sorting through a box of patterns from the early 80's...things I sewed for both my girls and their dolls, and came across a Bright's Creek children's clothing catalog, circa 1985.

Any of you gals in your late 20s/early 30s relate to this? Melissa thinks the littlest gal on the far right is an actress today. Look at the what the lucky boys got to wear

Do you think there's a chance in hell that the little guy on the left is not a gay man today? Yikes. I can't imagine how he'd make it past the front steps of school even then, let alone today.

I've kept my girls' 10 (yes; ten) cabbage patch dolls all these years because, well...what was I supposed to do with them? Kadence, our two year old granddaughter, recently spied them sitting way on top of a cabinet upstairs and said she wanted to put shoes on them. Which prompted me to dig out the ol' doll clothes chest, wash all the clothes, redress all the dolls, etc, etc. I found myself at Target buying them a bench and I reckon now we're starting all over again.

I was looking on the local craigslist earlier this week and saw a listing for "boxes of old fabric". A nine month pregnant gal who lives with her grandmother got a need to clear out their carport at the last minute. It was literally piled 8 feet high to the rafters and about 10 feet deep. Grandma had just been throwing boxes and bags out there since the early 70s. Everything from trash to treasures. I did get a heavy box of fabric, mostly lovely green, pink, and yellow taffeta/satins, plus all these little doo-dads.

That highchair is going to be great once I spray paint it and remake the cushions with some special vinyl I bought online. And I certainly have no room for that little rocking horse from the 50s/60s but I knew how cute little Madison would look in it.

I had all three kids for a bit this morning. How lucky am I? Kadence is the world's biggest mimic...we took 'our babies' for a walk and mine fell asleep on the way, so of course; Kadence's did, too.

Madison is seven months old today. We all went out to dinner tonight because tomorrow Caleb turns 7 years old. Incredible. Anyway, miss Madison was awfully happy to be pulled up to the table like a big girl. Baby time is just about over I think.

I've spent most of the past two days washing and ironing that old (mildewy smell) fabric I got. Left this little bolt of organza?/netting out and this is what I came home to from dinner tonight

I swear to God you could lay out a kleenex and they'd make it a nest.

Okay. I think you're about all caught up with our exciting lives now. :-) Til next time....

The new studio--Day One :-)

Hi friends!

I got home Sunday to a completed studio. I just couldn't be happier. I won't bore you with all the "I'm gonna's", but I AM gonna do an awful lot more before I take pics again. :-) I'm not even going to try and count all the trips I'll be making from the big house to the little house, but eventually it will all get done, and maybe I'll even lose a pound or two in the process!

I really like how they configured the deck, and tied it to the patio. I think we're going to hire a landscape designer to doll up the leftover dead patches...that's just not our forte. (the banquet table got booted out...used to be my sewing table but now it's not nearly pretty enough!)

Ta Dah!! Look at how much fabric that green cupboard's gonna hold! This is a not-so-great shot of the sewing area.  I think I'll put UFO's in the aqua and red baskets.

Pretty much the whole back wall (besides the little nook in the middle) is super deep closet. My hope is that I can cram as much of the doo-dad clutter as possible in there, so it won't get so overwhelming out on the floor.

This will be the papercrafting desk. I've saved that upper piece for years in storage, and have had a heckuva time getting rid of the mildew smell. It's the inner guts of John's old rolltop desk. I covered it in cloud fabric. Not sure yet if I'm thrilled with that.

Anyhoo...that's the state of things as of today. I'll be busy for the next little while, as you can imagine, but I'll be back eventually with a big creative bang, that you can be sure of!

xo, jen

Checking in with pics

Hi there- I thought I'd better check in with my parents before they disown me for noncommunication, but sending pics and talking about them is a pain through my email program so I thought it'd be easier to just make a quickie post here. For the most part we've got so much undone and in disarray I often get too overwhelmed to pick a project and end up doing nothing. Although John's bathroom is 98% done.

I still have to make a roman blind for the window.  It's hard to photograph such a tiny space but here's my attempts.

I've always wanted to incorporate glass block into our home, and now we have it. We had the old tub pulled out and this shower enclave built. One weekend I got so stinkin' tired of them being upstairs, traipsing back and forth through our bedroom, that I got in there and grouted the entire three walls and ceiling. Just had to get'rdone, ya know?

I loved the sea green 2inch glass tiles so much, that we paid for six square feet (was a minimum order) at $30 each knowing full well we only needed 2 sq ft to dot here and there throughout the travertine tile. I also love the squares of pebbles we found to use on the floor. A really nice organic element.

I took this pic (basically sitting on the toilet) to show my mom that I still manage to find a place for her first real art purchase; The Solitary Cormorant. She bought it in the late 70's when she was sad and lonely. I think it's peaceful and serene, plus the frame matches the fixtures ;-)

At some point recently I decided I wanted to buy a buffet/sideboard to paint and put in front of the dining room window. I ended up buying a whole set because I loved the lines of the buffet and the price for it, six chairs and a table with leaves was so reasonable I just couldn't pass it up. So I quickly ditched our old set on craigslist and hauled all of this home.

Lord knows when I'll actually get around to painting it and covering the chairs, but for now it makes a nice project table---I don't even have to cover it up when I paint things on it!

Here's a pic of the studio as it stands today (taken from the kitchen window)

They should make a lot of headway toward buttoning it all up this week...fingers crossed. I'm really not in that big of a hurry, believe it or not. So much to sort through and decide on before I just start hauling all my crap out there. I want to do it right the first time, ya know?

I'll be back in two days with a final peek at the *special project* that has been my main priority for the past couple of weeks. I've no choice but to be done by Wed morning, as it requires me packing it all on to a plane. oooohhh! Exciting! Okay, back to work!!

The State of Things around Here

Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I do agree, but I'll narrate anyway. Hmm...where to start. How about what's physically closest to me as I type? All these pictures were taken this morning. This first shot is what you walk in to at the front door.

The reason all the chairs (and other things you don't see) are piled in the living room is because we got lucky and found a 'mud guy' with available time yesterday.

The dining room has avoided getting a remodel for several years because of these old leaks needing repaired. Three of the four corners in the dining room had old patches and leak spots so the whole ceiling needed redone, and of course we had this under the window

For a long time this spot didn't look too bad ...the plaster just kept bubbling up, but finally it could hold no more water and the plaster just fell off. That was when we could no longer deny the repairs that were necessary. SO, that's being taken care of today. YAY! (oh, in case you're wondering if and how we finally stopped all the leaks, after YEARS of trying different things, last month we just had that whole side of the house completely re-sided. Just sealed it all in. Fingers crossed it'll work this time!)

Next we have the top of the stairs

This is a result of the bathroom being completely tiled and remodeled. I didn't take 'before' shots' because it was just too uglied out to show, but here's a glimpse of what it's going to look like

The balcony seen in the next photo leads into our bedroom. It has been like this for almost three weeks. Up until yesterday they'd set up a work platform up there with the wet tile saw, and tromped back and forth through our bedroom to the bathroom all day every day (except for last week when I was out of town and they took a big ol' hall pass and did nothin'!).

I wonder how long til they reinstall the guardrail and take down the scaffolding? (Patient Jen, be patient)

It was very exciting to see a lumber truck roll down the alley this morning

because it meant work would finally be starting on the studio. Yay! Here's the view I shot a few minutes later from the kitchen window

and now, not even an hour later, they're getting the third wall up. Cool!

SO. I think the main point of my sharing is this: my house, both inside and out, is the biggest DUMP you'd ever wanna see in your life, and my work is REALLY gonna start when they all wrap up and get outta here, which at these rates will be SOON. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed thinking about it all, but with only disarray and walls and ceilings needing paint wherever I look; I'm thinking I'll be lucky to post 'after' pictures by Labor Day weekend! Plus there's that very special project I have to finish in the next three weeks. (Jen, you're still rambling). Okay. This is the point; I'm signing off the blog for a while. You other bloggers know what a risk that feels like. Will I lose my blog friends and readers? Fall back into unknown oblivion? Guess it's a chance I have to take because girls; I've got some serious fulltime work to do around here! Simple as that. Even if I had the time to make a post, I won't have anything pretty to share for a while. (well, I'll probably post the results of  the 'special project' when I'm done in about three weeks) So, for now I bid you adieu, I hope you all have a lovely Spring, I will try to stop by and visit your blogs (probably late at night with cocktail in hand) and I hope to see you back here again! Oh, and it goes without saying; no Etsy updates for a while, either. :-)

hugs and kisses,  jen

Hellllooooo!

Whoops, I did it again. Let way too much time go by between posts. So much going on! Let's see, here's a quick recap. On Easter Sunday Melissa and Caleb and Madison and I all officially joined our neighborhood church. Also, Melissa asked the pastor to 'dedicate' the kids.

Actually she asked (beforehand) if they could be baptized, but the pastor said that is more of a personal decision to be made in the future by the kids themselves (I really liked that response!) so she settled for dedicating them.

Later that day Madison got to participate in her first Easter egg hunt (with a little help from her dad)

The following day I took Melissa and the kids 500 miles south to visit my folks. My dad and stepmom hadn't met Madison yet, nor had Melissa's other grandpa. So part of my MIA behavior is due to being out of town all last week.

Unfortunately I told our contractor I'd be gone all week so they took it as a big fat hall pass and did SQUAT on the new studio or the upstairs bathroom remodel. They started tiling the bathroom seems like three weeks ago, and here we are; still not done. In fact, the toilet got pulled out today, so I'm thinking I might need to sleep downstairs tonight! I know it'll all be lovely and wonderful once it's done, but for now I see dirt and disorganization everywhere and it's kinda hard to ignore. I've been bringing pieces home from storage one at a time to get ready for the studio. Here's a piece I'd bought a few months ago at the thrift shop. It was an 80's blue tole-painting decor (not worthy of a before shot) and I simply painted the body,  feet and knobs and covered the drawer fronts with one of my favorite japanese fabrics.

 

It's smallish....not even three feet tall, but should be cute and useful for holding some doos and dads. I have a bigger piece I want to cover in fabric and this was just a practice run at it. I like the result as opposed to paper because it provides more of a texture and a much wider selection of patterns.

I think I'm definitely planning on getting back to scrapbooking when the new space is finished. I find myself buying little Madison outfits based on what cute pages could be scrapped around her wearing them~

See what I mean? First I'll have to get Caleb's books caught up. OH I used to be so good about doing an album per year! Of course, now with three of the little darlin's it's kinda hard to keep up the pace.

Okay. John's home and we're going to watch  the next episode of The Tudor's. Wowee! Never knew history could be so salacious! We're catching up on Season One via dvd so we can hop in on the second season which just started up on Showtime last weekend. I'll close with a picture that hints at what will be my main creative  priority for the next three weeks. It's a very exciting project! that I'll share with you as we get closer to The Date. :-)

I'll be back in a couple days with an Etsy update. Til then!

Somebody had a birthday this weekend...

Me! Yep. It had to happen eventually. I turned 50 on Saturday! A few weeks ago Erica (my oldest) and I were talking about what we should do in honor of the big event. I half-jokingly said, "Hey, we oughta all get tattoos!" As soon as we hung up the phone I went online and came across the chinese symbol for goddess. I really liked it, and even more I liked the idea of me and my daughters having a fun bonding experience. Three of the four girls were able to join me

Amy was gone on a long-planned vacation so she was the only one absent. Here you see Melissa, Kate and Erica signing releases in the tattoo parlor (Melissa looks guilty because she just initialed that "NO", she's not currently breastfeeding )

Here's me getting the template applied

and here's me saying 'owowowowow!' while what felt like a hundred plastic toothpicks kept poking me! 

I guess it doesn't really hurt that bad, but I wouldn't want to do it all the time! Well, it was fun hanging out that way. Quite the time the four of us will remember for a long while to come. It was funny--when we first went in we were all over the map about where we each wanted to have ours applied. One wanted the foot, one the upper inner arm, one the back of the shoulder...yadayadayada. Erica went first and when the other three of us saw it on her mid-upper back we all piped up "I want mine there, too!"

Miss Madison will have to wait a while to get hers. Oh, and what made our multi-generational goddess tats even more meaningful is that March 8 was Int'l Women's Day. Girl Power!

Later that evening John treated us all to much-needed cocktails and a lovely dinner at a very nice restaurant

and I promise this is the LAST photo I'll be posting of myself til I lose AT LEAST the first twenty pounds.

Cheers!

ps: my apologies to you who I've not answered emails or left blog comments for. I was covered up in kids all weekend and I just gotta start the week fresh if you know what I mean!

A quick check in--a few pictures

There must be 50 or 60 of these handpainted bead doll heads in the bag that I got for a quarter at the thrift shop yesterday. I know they're meant for pipe cleaner dolls, but I've no idea IF I'll ever actually DO something with them.

I wanted to brag on this Jenn Murphy licensed design piece I got recently at Bayberry Cove. I am SO impressed with the quality of this! Look at all the detail; mohair rabbit, felty flowers, sitting on a pincushion, and it stands over 10 inches tall! Wowee. All that for $22. And the customer service at this online store was fab, too.  And the selection! Whoa. If you don't already have them in your favorites you should definitely go check them out!

We probably all remember the first etsy artist that we came across that made us say "wow!" For me it was KupKup. She is from Spain and the way she weaves stories of KupKup and his friend Lolo and all their adventures into her one of a kind pieces just charms me no end. For the most part it's simply snipped bits of felt and papers but it just really grabs me. I don't know why it took me almost a year but I finally bought a couple of her pieces recently.

I love them. If you look WAY back in her sold items you'll see many more of her flat paper pieces...I think they're what first got her started. My biggest excitement about the new studio is having all these talented artists' works displayed for me to appreciate and be inspired by every day. I am SO looking forward to that!

It's late and I need to call it a day. I wanted to share this real quick just in case you need a special something for a Valentines' Day card. I was cleaning this mini studio of mine yesterday ( shock!) and I came across this desk calendar sheet and I'll be darned if the day of the week is not correct for this particular year! Cool! Let me know if you end up using it on something and I'll do the same.

Cheers!

New blog friends, new wallpaper packs, new thrifting happiness

Hi there!! Before I forget; yesterday I found not one but TWO fabulously smart and crafty and talented new bloggers that you may not have heard of yet but I'm sure you would have soon enough even if I wasn't telling you right here and now.  Kathi's blog is i think we're all bozos on this bus (see; how could you NOT love her already?) and Cheryl's is Periwinkle Vintage.  Like I said, I happened to find the both of them yesterday but have already added them to my blog reader because I don't want to miss a single thing. Check 'em out!

Mary at Oh Merci posted some lovely (as always!) thrifted finds a few days ago and asked, "Have you found something your are so very happy with?" Which reminded me I found these two Homer Laughlin Georgian Eggshell pieces for 99 cents recently.

Yes, that's right; less than a dollar each. Here's the deal with the local thrift shops: they are all SO different from one another in their pricing. For instance; I'll routinely go in to the Cancer Society thrift shop (with the nicer clothes, nicer items all around) and find something that is currently selling at the local dollar store yet they will have the used/donated item marked at 2,3 or sometimes 4 dollars. Depends on who was doing the marking that day. My favorite store isn't considered as worthy of a cause...they mostly give a hand to homeless guys with their profits, and appear to have a few of these guys working in the store as well. When I was searching with great hope for a sugar bowl to go with these I asked a guy who was bringing stuff out if maybe he'd seen one and he said, "No, I personally priced those and they were the only pieces like that." I said, "Well, ya did real good!" I know, I'm shameless! Anyway, when I looked on ebay I found that this pattern also comes with a pink band so I'll probably be on the hunt for this pattern the rest of my life in either pink OR blue. I don't care which. I just really do love it.

Another fairly recent purchase I've been meaning to share is this child's desk and chair.

It was at the monthly indoor flea market in an antique dealers booth. Her original price tag was $125 and it was billed as a "French antique".

I can't tell for the life of me if it's really old or really French, but I thought it was very sweet and she had it marked down to $50 so I snagged it before I thought too much more about it.

Maybe I just wanted the paper inside? (I keep meaning to take that to Kinko's and make some large paper copies.) Anyway, now I have TWO child's desks and chairs "for the studio", neither of which I would let the little ankle biters sit at with markers or paints. :-)

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE NEW MOVIE: CLOVERFIELD.

Don't waste your money! It was an hour and a half of a guy holding a home video camera (a la The Blair Witch Project) while a big horrible (Think thirty stories tall) monster of alien appearance pounded through New York City killing everything and everyone in it's wake, including our hero at the end. Then the screen just blacked out and I said aloud to the rest of the dead silent audience, "Well THAT was depressing as hell!" The jittery camera work made me pretty queasy to boot. WHAT was I thinking:?! A good reminder to read a review or two BEFORE going to the theatre. We took Caleb because he LOVES scary movies and it was actually PG-13. Early in to it he whispered to me "Ya 'member when I was a baby and all those bad guys came and killed those airplanes?" Yeah. I was holding back tears thinking of how beat to crap New York city has already been. For cryin' out loud! Not my idea of entertainment.

Our sweet little Kadence has moved back to Redding with her mama so as of today my life is once again my own. We miss her so much already, but I DO need to 'get a life' and they DO need to work out their own family issues so it's all good. Here are she and Caleb eating homemade waffles yesterday morning while I sucked down a medifast shake. It's no fair, I tell ya! I hate my old metabolism. :-{

Well, I think I've told you just about everything I know so don't hold it against me if I don't come back for a few days! I'll close with a pic of my last LAST (I mean it this time!) offering of vintage wallpapers I've put together for the etsy shop. I couldn't help it...I still had so much left and people kept buying the packs. This is listed at $14 INCLUDING U.S. SHIPPING. Can't hardly beat that!

December 24

Merry Christmas Eve! I can not promise I will be back here tomorrow, so I'll wish you now a most joyous day..hopefully filled with loved ones and gifts you had hoped for. :-) Anyone would think that this chairful of sweet and gorgeous love would be enough to make anyone happy.

And it certainly does me. BUT. It's not an altogether bad thing when you get a bow on top, so here's my fun bow for Christmas 2007

COOL! Mom...Dad...did I EVER get a cool new bike for Christmas? I'm thinking not. SO. It just goes to show it's never too late! I love this bike. I'll admit I picked it out (including the special order color) so it wasn't a surprise but it sure is appreciated!! Thanks John! (kiss kiss!) Kadence is pretty happy with her pink princess helmet and seat too. :-) YAY! I just went googling it for a link to show you some of the cool things about it and came across this vid via the trek website (celebs love Limes too, was the link that got me here)

Well, I hope you enjoyed the virtual advent calendar here this month. I think it'll be easier to get an actual one MADE next year! :-) Enjoy the day.
much love to you and yours, jen