A. R. T.

Creation. Expression. Imagination. Beauty. Experimentation. Simplicity.

A. R. T.

I have a young friend, Seth Jones, who is a gifted artist--that's him above. He has just opened up a shop on Etsy: Attic Inspired. My advice? Get 'em while you can! He's offering prints and originals of his latest works. I've had the opportunity to see some of the originals and they are fabulous! Now I just have to decide which one(s) I want for myself. Oh, and one of the artists who has inspired him, Kelly Rae Roberts, included him on her blog this past week (click on her name...this new template of mine doesn't show links unless you hover).
Enjoy!

Sewing 101

My Elena-bug isn't as "in" to sewing-ish crafts as I'd like...or so I thought. But on Saturday she spied this cool horse fabric at Hancocks and suddenly learning to make a pillow jumped up high on her to-do list!

She chose to make a circle pillow for her first project (ugh!), but we figured it out. She ironed, helped draw the circle (I used the good-ol' "tie a string around a chalk pencil" trick), and then did all the cutting, pinning, sewing, trimming, clipping, turning and stuffing with only minimal help from me! We were all impressed!

Cutting out the fabric.

Whoa! That's too fast...slow and easy girl!

All finished!

Weekend Top 10

10. New shampoo: Pantene Beautiful Lengths Ooooh, soft and silky!
9. Painting our sugar cube pyramids (I'll post about those when they're done!)
8. Weekend #2 w/a more-than-semi-clutter-free house!
7. Sewing baby blankies for my soon-to-be-born niece, Mia.
6. 6 inches of freshly fallen snow on the ground.
5. Chasing baby who is walking all over with his push-walker...then finding him 1/2 way up the stairs, giggling!
4. My Amazon order has shipped!
3. Yummy fruit dip I'm making for the Super Bowl...brown sugar, vanilla, cream cheese.
2. Catching up with all my friends' blogs (not only was I not blogging, but wasn't reading blogs either!)
1. Friends coming over for the Super Bowl!

New Year, New Start

Okay, so since this is re-start week for me in blogland...here are pictures of me and my family, plus a few of my sister's gang. Mainly posted so I can remember where we all were at this point in time!

First up, oh, that's my DH, Eric looking goofy in some funky frames at a Christmas party!

Eric having fun with Zane.

My niece, Stella...looking quite innocent in this picture!

Sweet Naomi, my first niece with a heart about as big as the ocean.

And Miss Ava, Naomi & Stella's sister, with my BFF & sis, Jodi.

Here's my crew...Kai (4), Zane (10 mos.) and Elena (6).

Kai and his buddy Ian.

Zane learning how to read.

Three Amigos.

That's my girl!

My honey and I at our Christmas party...the real owner of the funky frames in the background.

Wool Longies

It's snowing. Again. So I decided to get a little crafty today and made our bouncing baby boy some wool longies! For those of you not "in" to the cloth diapering thing...wool is the most awesome fabric for making breathable, yet absorbent covers. But commercial or even WAHM-made wool covers can break the bank!

So I've taken the plunge into recycling wool sweaters...but as that I'm a, you guessed it, WOMAN...my wool sweaters all seem to have some version of PINK or embroidered FLOWERS on them. Poor baby boy. At least I'm not planning on taking him out in these for now...just good jammie bottoms or play pants. Smile.

This is with the long waistband turned down.

Big ol' bubble butt...he has a prefold AND a Thirsties cover on under this as it hasn't been prepped to wear yet.

Check out the rolled cuffs...so he can wear them as his legs get longer!

Zane is quite the cute baby model, don't you think?

If you want to make some for yourself there are a gazillion tutorials online...I'm not into reinventing the wheel of late, so go to google and have fun! I did run into some questions and here's what I decided to do:

Q: Do you felt your recycled wool first?
A: Depends, but if you like it soft and stretchy, you're better off leaving it unfelted, or just felt it a little in the washer, not dryer. I chose to leave all the wool unfelted. Either way, you still must lanolize by hand.

Q: What kind of thread?
A: 100% polyester (any cotton will wick)

Q: Do you have to finish your edges by zig-zagging or serging?
A: Nope, just double straight stitch. I even just single stitched since this is an experiment.

I'm Baaack....I think!

Yay for my dear sister, Jodien, who has inspired me to start blogging again. Not for anyone else really, just for a little creative outlet for myself. Being that I already have all this set up, I guess this is where it will happen...instead of some journal that I actually write in. With a pen. A what?

And then I FINALLY found a beach-themed template that I really, really like! What do you think? Yahoo!

So here goes nothin'...come along if you like!

Discovery Fall Party Planning

Hi Mamas! This is where I'll post the sign-ups for the party. I'll update this post as emails come in. Thanks, Resa

Date for finalizing details is Tuesday, Nov. 17. Currently the quantities needed for items is at 16 (15 students + 1 sibling).

Party Helpers (please note if you'll have other siblings along to participate so we can plan the correct #'s for snacks etc.)
1. Resa Eastwood (+1 sibling)
2.
3.
4.

Healthy Snack-(napkin/lap worthy--like dried fruit/popcorn etc.)
1. Melissa Jones

Sweet Treat-(not messy & individual servings if possible)
1. Kristy Boblet

Drinks-(like juice boxes or Capri Suns etc.)
1. Robyn Brumble

Party Napkins
1. Kellie McQueen

Party Plates (small)
1. Sarah Eason

Fall themed Craft (Something SIMPLE so they can do it on their own in about 10 minutes. I will put the two mamas in touch to work out details and supplies etc.)
1.
2.

Games (I can come up w/a couple, but please sign up if you have some proven fun ones or want to help plan!)
1. Resa Eastwood
2.