Sunday, September 28, 2008

Woohoooo!! :)

A huge woohooooo for my friends Kim and Mike who very much deserve the little one (or 'ones') growing in her belly...
Congrats guys!! I'm so excited for you!
~A

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Another fun feature~

I was chosen this week to be featured on The Red Door blog-a blog devoted to showing artists' workspaces. I used the same photos I already used on here to do my studio tour so it's not anything you haven't already seen-but it's a very nice article. :) Thanks Kerry!!!
Here's the link if you want to check it out-

http://www.etsystudios.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ok Sesame Street fans...

What favorite song of Gabe's do you think we sang for an hour while making these? It's enough to drive a person mad when sung over and over-it's also the only way we get him to sit still for his inhaler as well-lol.

Let's see if this works for ya-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bj9aS0x2r4

Using his muscles to mix...

Thought he was being sneaky but I didn't mind today-

Little fingers figuring out where to place the dough-


We had a cookie picnic on the porch after they cooled-turns out he ate too much dough to enjoy them after they were cooked-lol.
In other news-I'm starting to feel a big difference in how I'm feeling today-no longer as crampy or as tired so that's good! Yea!

Progress being made


The paint has dried and the porch railing is (almost) complete. Complete enough to post the picture. Little things here and there to be added to connect the iron handrails along the steps and stuff like that...I think it looks GREAT and it feels soooooo nice to not have the "haunted house" this year at Halloween-LOL.

It's hard to believe that not long ago this is how it looked...

sigh........I love before and after pictures! It really shows how far you've come :)

Friday, September 19, 2008

fun fun funnnnnnnnnn

kidney.stones.suck.
surgery today.
enough said
sigh.........thank god this day is OVER.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

How about a feature?

After being featured on a couple of other blogs I thought it might be fun to feature another etsy seller weekly on mine! Today I'd like to introduce Quiltish by Allisa Jacobs!




What is your etsy name and how did you come up with it?
My Etsy name is allisajacobs though my shop is 'quiltish,' a name born out of my quilting traditions & tendency to add '-ish' to the ends of most words


What is the medium you prefer to work with?
Fabric, fabric, fabric. I am obsessed with fabric. I really enjoy bright cotton prints and am getting into different textures & types.


What other kinds of art have you explored?
Does popsicle stick dollhouse furniture count? That was my gig in 2nd grade. Since then I've explored watercolor, collage, woodworking, embroidery, and crochet.


How long have you been doing what you do/how long on etsy?
I've been sewing for ages. Ever since my first pillowcase in elementary school. I took a hiatus from that after breaking my mom's sewing machine but began designing & creating handbags almost 3 years ago. I only discovered Etsy a few months back and am kicking myself for not joining sooner.



If you have a day job -what do you do?
My day and night job is being a mama to 8 month old baby Jack. Before motherhood I was a special education teacher.


Everyone likes to know about other’s workspaces-tell us about yours.
Well, my workspace was the nursery, but then Jack came. Now, I'm fortunate enough to have a husband who doesn't mind (at least out loud) that I've taken over half of the house. Someday soon I'm hoping to have my own studio in back of our house.


Any certain challenges you’ve encountered with your artwork?Only that I have millions of ideas but am limited to whenever Jack naps.


What’s your favorite part about what you do? I love the fact that my designs will end up in another part of the world, whether it's just across town or across a few oceans. Plus, I am so thankful that it allows me to stay at home with my son, that's got to be the best.

(*aren't these cowboy washclothes adorable?)



Where else can your work be seen besides etsy?
We're just starting to branch out into the world of shops & boutiques. Quiltish can be found at The Fig Tree in Chicago, soon at Milagros in Portland, Oregon...and a few other spots we've got our eyes on. Folks can also keep an eye on the quiltish journey at quiltish.blogspot.com.

You can visit this shop at www.allisajacobs.etsy.com

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Chloe's dream house

OK seriously-how freakin awesome would it be to have one of these suckers in your backyard?! I think even I would be spending time playing out there if we had one of these!!



When I first saw this amazing woman's designs on hgtv a few years back I told Trav we MUST do something like this someday! The colors are so much fun too...



Chloe has picked these 2 off of her website and has let Trav know she wants a combo of these 2. She loves the castle feel w/ the stage so she can put on shows and concerts with the neighbor kids (lol-love it!) but likes the playhouse/tower and mokeybar aspect of the other...It may be a challenge to come up w/ something to her specifications but I think it will be fun nonetheless. I hope to make this next summer's OPAM-ha!!

Here's the website-go check it out-awesome!!
www.barbarabutler.com

Monday, September 15, 2008

New experiences

Ackkk!!! Today was Chloe's first day as a busrider. She got up earlier than her alarm and was sooooo excited-I've never seen her get dressed and ready so quick in the morning-lol. I am scared to death-sigh. Ever since some kid got on the wrong bus and dropped off miles from home last year-I've got myself convinced she'll get confused and get on the wrong bus. I ended up writing her teacher a letter asking her to help her out after school-I just don't want her lost in the shuffle with them assuming she knows where to go and what to do. I need to remember she's in 2cd grade and not preK...she will be ok.**(eek)** lol

In the last post-it's a bookmark. :) The leather strip is about 10 inches long w/ one of my beads dangling off the end of it w/ a cluster of little dagger and droplet beads-kinda fun, huh? I made a bunch of bookmarks last year for the Holiday Hall and as gifts (great teacher gift!!!) I changed up the style this year-I hope they go over well. :)

Sunday, September 14, 2008

What do you think?

Any guesses as to what this is?

In other news-holding my breath for Kim during her 2 week wait......

Saturday, September 13, 2008

A gift for a friend...



I made this for Chloe's buddy Sydney for her 7th birthday. Her mom-my friend Lindsey, had mentioned how upset Sydney was that her first "real" necklace was damaged a couple of weeks ago so I made this hoping it would make up for it and she'd have another "real" necklace to wear. :)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Eye candy


I have 4 things made especially for the Holiday Hall so far. This sweet flower pin is one of them. I had thought about making the bead (it's over an inch wide) into a necklace in some way, shape or form but I'd go back and forth holding it in front of my neck then over on my shirt-and on my shirt won out. The colors are cheerful and make me feel good. I fit doesn't sell I'll keep it for myself. :)

Check back-I'll post pics of other goodies as I finish them up...Have a great day-it's gorgeous out there!!!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Good eats


Our neighbor told us they'd been making homemade pizzas on the grill-it sounded so good we decided we HAD to try it.

YUM! Let me say I am all for convenience food-so making my own from scratch whole wheat pizza crust was interesting...lol. I was shocked the dough rose...

Chloe and Gabe liked "decorating" their own pizzas after the dough had been grilled-and the grill added such a good flavor-You should try it sometime!! :)

Thursday, September 4, 2008

My space.

It looks like we're going to have lots of rain and dreariness over the next few days-leftovers from Hurricane Gustav. Bummer since I was meaning to take a few pictures of things I've been working on- but w/o the sun to help me out the pics will look crappy-sooooo...the next few days I'm going to blog about stuff we've done recently, etc. Today's I think will be showing my workspace since I cleaned and took pictures last week... :)



I just love this room-and even more-I love that Travis finished this space with me in mind. It's in a bump out area that overlooks the front porch and yard. It gets gorgeous morning sun (I wish I could find morning time to work in there!) is right off the living room-so I am always connected to the kids. Gabe's new train track has made it's way to the opposite end of the sunroom down by our desk area-but I'm not showing that end of the room-it's not finished the way I'd like it-yet!



On the left is my lampworking area where you see my torch and kiln. I am running off of natural gas and an oxygen concentrator-(under the desk)

The cabinet on the left holds all of my hazardous liquids,etc that need to be locked up from little fingers-the cabinets on the left hold leftover glass supply and all my glass tools-tweezers, dental picks, didy glasses, marvers,etc... The tall cabinet houses all my bead organizers, sterling stock, some painting supplies and all of my heavier tools like my dapping block and dappers, disk cutter,etc.


On the right is my metals workbench and currently where I put everything together as well (hopefully once a new desk is built at the office end I can move down there to spread out to put everything together!) I've got my soldering iron and torch, pickle pot, all my wire wrapping tools, bead and supply organizer Trav just gave me from the garage and the big paper pile is my idea notebooks and scraps of paper I've doodled on when I wake up in the middle of the night w/ an idea...

All my stamping tools, hammers, files,etc are in the Ikea drawers underneath. On top of it is my tumbler. The kids' easel stands to the right for when they feel like getting creative too.

Hope you enjoyed your tour. Better wrap this up before Gabe hits another button and makes me start this over for the 3rd time-lol...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Time is flying...

My gawwwwd-how can it be September already? Jeez...I can't believe it...

This weekend we had a family dinner for Gabe's 2cd birthday. That was fun and Gabe was so cute trying to figure out why this was all for him?! All he really knows or cares about is that "birthday" means "Caaaaaaaaake" (as he says)


He's so excited about his Thomas the Train set he got and has been busy bringing me the packages still set on the table to open-sesame street dvd,cd,rain boots,little people set,books,singing scooter-he's in hog heaven!


School started last week-like I had said before-I cried like a baby that morning when we dropped her off. You'd have thought it was me starting a new school! All these thoughts swirling around-did we make the right choice? Will the kids be nice to her? Will she miss her old friends,school,teachers...? Will she be challenged? Will she like her teacher? OMG how can I leave her at this school we don't know-I'm just leaving her here! aghhhhhh. So now you can see where the tears came from...

So far she's doing just fine and it sounds like homework will start up full force this week. Between school, soccer and trying to cram in as much outdoor playtime in before cold starts to set in she's pretty much a little whirlwind. Of coarse my kid's probably the only girl w/ a Star Wars backpack...She's obsessed w/ Star Wars (just like her dad-hmmmmm-think he's trying to warp her eh?) Oh well, only one girl asked her why she's got a boy backpack...

Now that she's back in school I've gotta get my butt in gear and get some stuff MADE for the Holiday Hall!! Yesterday I whipped up a cute little bookmark, a start to a necklace (just need a great bead for a pendant...) and a personalized necklace for Chloe's friend who's birthday is this Saturday. I'm already starting to feel pressure from Halloween to get costumes started as well. Chloe and Gabe's costumes are planned-I just need to make them happen-ya know? I know I have time but next thing you know it's gonna be last minute and I'll be panicking-just like every year-lol. Just you watch.