My friends Tash and Brandon just had a baby and named him Finn. Tash decorated the nursery so cute. She did the crib skirt in burlap and used this rusty colored velvet with avocado colored yarn accents and chocolate brown as the main color. She used some fabric with dark twigs on light background and orange birds as her pattern. It's really woodsy and warm. When I saw the room I HAD to make this Finn sign for them. It was one of those things that was too perfect to not be done. It gave me fun things to collect on our nature walks too. It was so fun to make and I want one for myself next!
I am the Relief Society Second counselor at church, which means I am in charge of all the mid-week activities that we plan. Which means I get to do another Super Saturday. I have a great committee leader who is teaching all these great crafts about decopage. She is going to show us how to print a photo on fabric and then decopage it to a piece of glass which ends up giving it a super durable finish and it looks like canvas. It's so cool.
I was inspired by Charyce last year to come up with this craft. She painted wooden figures for her family and I fell in love. I thought they would be cool with a stand, and then I thought they might make a cool family home evening chart. If you haven't heard of FHE, it's one night a week reserved for family time, usually Monday. We rotate responsibilities every week. (At least we WILL, I hope, when my kids are older than 3.) Anyway, I had a great time with Kristen painting our families. Hers turned out so cute,
this is her family and the one below is what she made for her family in CA.
and I loved painting Eirik in Luke Skywalker clothes with a light saber and Joren in my favorite little leather jacket. I gave us an extra space for the "spirit child" we hope will join our family someday. Then I thought, hmm.. this would make a great Super Saturday craft. Then I thought we better have a simpler option for people who don't love to paint tiny things.
Then I thought we better have another option for people who already have an FHE chart or they don't use one. So this second example emerged. I had a lot of fun making these. I'll make you one if you want. Let's see, how about $15 for a simply painted family, or $30 for details. (you'll have to send me a photo of your family and I'll try to match you.)
The second craft that I am teaching is called Salvaged or Recycled books. My sister Katie made up this idea and hers is so cool that she has received lots of recognition for her salvaged book.
These notebooks are made from paper used or printed on one side and clean on the other side. The cover and back are made from cereal boxes. The whole thing is free and they are so cool for to-do lists or quick notes or for kids... or whatever you can think of. I made a really quick tutorial here.
1. Fold all your used paper with the used side in. Hole punched paper works just fine too as long as you don't mind the extra "character" in your book.
2. Cut your cereal box to fit the cover and the back. I put the fold of the cereal box 3/4" in from the edge to make the front cover open easily. (I used a Diet Coke box for this, but I recommend using a cereal box since the circle impressions did show through.) 3. Decorate your cover and back. I used a glue stick or spray adhesive to adhere magazine clippings, scrapbook paper, photos, wrapping paper or coloring book pages. You could also paint the cover or whatever you want.
4. I put a layer of gloss medium over the top to make it stiffer, more glued and glossy. 5. Get two pieces of Masonite or other stiff material to put around the book, clamp it all together with the open ends of your folded paper on the bound edge. When you open your book you should see only the folded end of the paper. All of the used part is hidden. Mark where you want to drill the holes for your binding. I put the holes 1/2" in from the ends and then 1 1/2 " apart for the other holes. You can clamp directly on the book if you don't mind the clamp marks that they make.
6. Drill your holes with a small drill bit. It should make a large enough hole for your needle to fit through.
7. Thread your needle and "sew" through your holes all the way up one side (leave a long end where you started) and back down the other creating X's. You can repeat this pattern as many times as you think you need depending on the strength of your string. I used embroidery floss and just went up and down once.
8. Make a tight square not and then start using your new book.
I got a delightful package in the mail today. It was ridiculously random and cheered me up entirely. Who else but my dear Kit would send me:
1. felt in great colors 2. (2) comical hand me down t-shirts one "NASA", and one "Silver Dollar City" 3. the boggle game I left at her house 4. paint 5. (2) AMAZING Star Wars shirts for the boys that are going to make her the HERO aunt tomorrow
6. and best of all, these amazing Owl glasses I have coveted for a long time.
The sad part is that this box symbolizes that she is moving far far far away back to Utah, that far far far away place where so many of my loved ones live. . . . . . . . .m i s s y o u a l r e a d y . . . . (*sigh*)
..and..
My dear Emily had a contest way back.. (I have never responded to a blog contest in time yet) and she always inspires me greatly. Reading her blog is like a big refreshing glass of cold water. So, since she is always my inspiration to go a little deeper, share a little more and be a little more real, I have included a few photos I shot of very "real" things in my life this week.
1. Something you need every single day I think I wash my hands about 200 times a day and each time I do I think how glad i am that I don't have to fetch my own water from the stream or something. If I ever have to really conserve water, I will live a different life. There are so many sticky messes at my house, I don't know how we would survive. One of my great grandpas on my mom's side built an aqueduct that actually has water that runs uphill near Manti Utah. At least that's how the story goes. It's not there anymore. The Indians called him a squirrel because he was so industrious and never gave up. I'm grateful I don't have to build my own aqueduct.
2. Something you once lost, but finally found this is the coolest shrimp called a pistol Shrimp that makes a loud cracking sound on the glass of the aquarium by squirting water with his claws. We thought he had died, but then we discovered he was still alive to our delight.
2. Something you once lost, but finally found(part 2) I horded coupons, found candy on sale and then stocked up on Halloween candy, just to have my husband eat it all BEFORE Halloween! When I discovered how much was missing I started hiding the candy. It's been a running joke for a couple of weeks where I get favors in return for pieces of candy. Well, this week I really lost the candy. I hid it somewhere where even I could not remember where it was. When I finally found it, there was rejoicing and much gluttony- (to my dismay)
3. A happy place in your house Eirik and I read a book from the library about homes mice live in. Since then, Eirik has been collecting leaves, pine cones and shredded paper for his "winter nest." Luckily it is out of site from the front door. (Not that the rest of our mess is!)
4. Something you ate today how can I have a picture of it if I already ate it?
5. A picture of a picture- huh?
6. A favorite book- I don't read just kidding, I'll add these later...
7. Something "Fall-y" This year I printed and cut out a bunch of vintage Halloween postcards that I framed on cardstock. I think vintage Halloween stuff is so cute. There is nothing scary about it. They are sweet and just a bit spooky. They are just my style. I put them all around my house. And we have had lots of candle light dinners this month (at Eirik and Joren's request.)
8. Your favorite color( yet to come)
9. Something from your childhood Tattered, torn, no cover and worn. I loved these Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I think they did much to shape who I am. "If our country can become great in humility, and can work earnestly to solve its own problems at the same time that it carries its share of world responsibilities, it will be through vision of our children, their integrity and idealism, gained in homes like the home in the "Little House" books." -The Horn Book
10. Something from your to-do list that NEVER gets checked off. Our living space is quite small and my endless projects are quite big. And my kids endless projects are sometimes even bigger. Together we make an endless mess in this small space. Yes, it will probably look like this in some degree if you come visit me. It's only clean after the kids go to bed, but then it's messy again by 8AM.
and here are some categories of my own:
1. something confiscated.. hourly
2. something I made I have been studying leaves a bit. I labeled the latin name of each leaf shape, border, placement and if it is compound or not. I learned a lot. I would love to take a class on botany and landscape design.
3. Halloween at our house my "spooky jars (only one is lit) are just mason jars with masking tape wrapped around black construction paper faces. These were fun to make. I'm not sure why, but I saw a vision of the vase with an eyeball and it had to happen. (coo coo)
4. something surprising when my outdoor plants were growing out of control earlier this summer I snipped off the tips and threw them in these vases to enjoy for a while. To my surprise the cut ends grew roots and now these vases are full of root balls. It's been months and who knows how long they will grow!
I know this has been a terribly random post. I don't' know why I posted it. I'm trying something new.
As it is only 10 weeks away from Christmas, I have plunged into meeting my goal of making my blog into a printed book. I have been blogging for 3 1/2 years and I get week in the knees thinking of how I would feel to loose all the work I have done if someday I turned on the internet and I could not pull up my blog. So, this giant task has come upon me. It would seem easy enough to just slurp my blog into a pre-chosen layout on blurb.com and do a little reworking here and there and then press "print". Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is not that easy. First, in the beginning of my blog I did not include any details at all, so I have been perusing my journal to add all of those all important details. I have also found my camera and photo skills from almost 4 years ago utterly unacceptable and not print-worthy. However, something must be printed, so unworthy as it is, I proceed. Also, as I try to make this permanent printed record I waver so unconfidently about what to include. It's not really a journal, it's not really a scrapbook, but it can be more than a blog because it's more personal.. or is it? Which makes me wish my blog were more personal. It has become a file to record the events and growth of life and I find it lacking the emotional, passionate touch that is present in many of the blogs I admire. I find I tend to say less rather than more when it comes to recording things since even my dear husband, who loves me, finds my journal far too wordy to actually read. So I guess my request I send out to the universe of blogland tonight is that I need a little incentive. Is it worth my effort to record all the details. Do you believe someone will really read my record? And if no one reads it, is it still worth making. I am compelled.. and not exactly sure why.
Many of you have been holding your breath for pictures of our fish tank. (At least you would have been if you had known how cool this was going to be. :)
I know it's hard to believe that all of this amazingness is in one fish tank and it is all in our dining room. I am astounded by its beauty everyday. Paul really has a "wet thumb" so they say. This hobby suits him and we have collected some amazing specimens. If I can get him to add the names of things, I will.
This blog is about the life and times of Paul, Melody and our three little tadpoles Eirik, Joren and Teig. I seem to talk mostly about them, but I try to throw in some other things of interest like my creative home endeavors, religious and political views and updates about the progression of our never ending medical school adventure. I post my artwork on my art blog (link below). Thanks for visiting!
My friends Tash and Brandon just had a baby and named him Finn. Tash decorated the nursery so cute. She did the crib skirt in burlap and used this rusty colored velvet with avocado colored yarn accents and chocolate brown as the main color. She used some fabric with dark twigs on light background and orange birds as her pattern. It's really woodsy and warm. When I saw the room I HAD to make this Finn sign for them. It was one of those things that was too perfect to not be done. It gave me fun things to collect on our nature walks too. It was so fun to make and I want one for myself next!
