Owls

We are starting to work on the nursery for our new addition. Since, I can't paint or sand his "new to us" dresser, etc. I have to keep myself occupied in other ways. So I decided to make a mobile. My mom started making me a quilt a long time ago. She picked out every piece of fabric to represent my favorite things about this world. Everything from the ocean, dragon flies, fish, to polka dots representing sand and other fabrics representing the woods, lakes and streams I love so much. She pulled it out again just around the time I found out I was pregnant. I convinced her to finish it for the baby. I loved the gender neutral colors of greens, blues, teals, purples, yellows, and browns. The colors are so brilliant and graphic that they will be perfect for the little one on the way. So that was the original inspiration for the room. Then I found these.

These amazing little owl prints were so perfect. They are unique, spunky, and gender neutral.

So this inspired me to make my owl mobile.

First I gathered some inspirations. These little guys were a great start, but I felt like they looked a little too much like penguins. So I made my own little pattern:

I grabbed some thinner fleece fabric, some felts, and some chenille for his back and wings.

Here are 3 more of his friends who are in the works.

When I finish them up I'll be sure to make the pattern available.

First time Watercolor project

For my second project at Place of Promise I chose to do a watercolor tutorial. This simple technique takes the "drawing" out of painting making it a much less daunting experience for a first time artist. The girls had trouble letting go as they maticulously taped off all the corners, but in the end they created an image they were truly proud of by just using simple clip art photos, artist tape, watercolor paper, and paints.

I was so impressed with their work. They all did a fantastic job.

Incredibly Easy "Screen Printing"

I have been teaching Art classes once a month at Place of Promise. The Place of Promise is a Christian non-profit organization that has a residential program designed to help those who are hurting, lost, and broken to choose and find Life. In many ways I believe working with these women has been more of a blessing to me than it has been to them. So far we have done 2 classes together that they have found challenging, relaxing, and rewarding.

The first week we used this tutorial.

I was able to work along side the girls. They really couldn't picture what I was doing in my little corner of the table so when I finally pulled off the freezer paper. They absolutely loved my creation for our son who is due in October.

I highly recommend giving this fun little project a whirl. I plan to make a few more robot onesies for our little Lucas due in October.

I'm back in Action!

Thanks to Ikea and my talented husband I have an amazing new work space! 

You can see where we started from here.

For the first week. That comfy chair got the most work out. We found that the afternoon light floods into these windows, which quickly became a prime napping local for myself and our two cats.

I still have to hang my inspirations and magnetic boards up and sew the curtains, but that will come in time. Right now I'm doing the most important thing... sewing. I have 6 purses in progress. 5 will be for sale on Etsy and 1 will be given as a free give-a-way! I showed a sneak peak of the fabrics here.

And you can see the look of the bags on this post.

My Etsy account is also getting an overhaul. I'm switching everything to www.makeitsing.etsy.com which will hopefully be more convenient and once everything is up I'll be having a sale. So keep posted.

I love my new work desk and the sewing table is absolutely perfect. I've been photographing birds all winter and spring and have some great reference photos accumulated for some new watercolors. The now blooming flowers are always inspirations, as well! So I can't wait to paint at my new desk, but one thing at a time.

 

 I have great storage and we painted the doors with chalk board paint which has already been great fun for my husband and I, currently they are covered with little ridiculous drawings and inside jokes. Hope you enjoy this peak into my new world!

Where have I been!

I never expected to be gone so long and truly have no excuse. We found out we were pregnant with our first child in January. The shock and excitement of this was indescribable. I then was forced to do something I have never done before: Keep a Secret! The easiest thing to do it was to lay low. I also was battling  a huge drop in energy as well as lack of a studio. So not much got done artistically other than the fun little announcement shown above. So, I am now 14 weeks. We are due October 6th. Also the studio was completed yesterday. I love it so much. I hope to have it all set up and ready to go ASAP. I can't wait to begin sewing and painting again. 

Thanks for your patience with me on my hiatus.

I get to hear the baby's heart beat on Thursday and next month we get to find out the sex!

Here is our little Bun at 11 weeks you can really see her/his little leg!

It's Thursday- Let's make Owl Cupcakes!

Dairy Free Fun Owl Cupcakes

I've been day dreaming about cupcakes for 2 days. So when I saw these little guys I thought it would make the perfect activity for a Thursday night with my husband.
I made Wacky Chocolate Cake cupcakes. This is an old family recipe that I was thrilled to find doesn't have any dairy products in it, as sadly my body does not like anything remotely dairy.

If you haven't tried this recipe before it will become your biggest life savor. If you forgot the eggs and ran out of milk. You can still make the cupcakes for Johnny's preschool class without leaving the house.

Then you will need Oreos which are also DAIRY FREE! We used Double Stuff.

Then you can really use anything for the nose and eyes. We used Skittles and stuck them on with extra frosting.

If you do have dairy allergies in the family Pillsbury frosting will become your new best friend. That's right. No dairy products in their chocolate frosting. mmm..

The eye brows are frosted pieces of the oreo cookie tops.

Bill made some Sleepless Night Owls.

We couldn't bare to eat any of them. So I think we'll both take some to work tomorrow.

Valentine's Day Look Back

For Valentine's Day this year I wanted to look back to the past nearly five years of  my non-stop laughter filled marriage to my husband, Bill.

Hope you enjoy these fun shots of us just being ourselves and loving every minute of it. 

Please note: We are suckers for theme parties.

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An Inspiring Saturday

I had a lovely day with an old family friend on Saturday. I met up with Leslie at her beautiful home around noon. Her studio is filled with so many tactile objects from dried flowers, to jars of lady bugs, mushrooms, and endless other found natural objects. You can tell by her studio that she is an artist who connects to her work through physical touch. She had planned a day filled with textures and colors. We both had to touch everything we saw. After briefly setting up an Etsy account for her we scurried off to Tower Hill to view some indoor gardens. Flowers in February! Nothing could make me happier.

After Tower Hill we headed over to an amazing fabric store in Hudson, MA. I was just going to observe... but they were having a one day sale of 20% off all fabrics including remnants.... soooooo.. What can a girl do.

I am very excited for this fabric. I have quite a bit of it and will definately make a few Phoebe bags from it that will be for sale on Etsy. I still have to find its complementary fabric. I hope to find something stripy.

This is a very sturdy cotton blend. It will make a great rugged Phoebe bag.

This fabric will be a messenger bag for myself using this tutorial. I can't stop touching this fabric. It's so lush and textural.

Below the fabric store was a fun antique store that had boxes of fat quarters priced at 4 for $1. So in the 3 minutes before closing time I found a couple keepers to add to my expanding fabric collection.

What a wonderful day filled with inspiration and good company.

Inbox happiness

Today I opened my inbox to find a picture of my nephew sporting his new cape and holding Super Monkey in his arms. This picture completely made my day. I also found that Super Monkey is posted on Made by Rae's blog under Celebrate the BOY month! She also posted many other fun crafts/ projects for boys.

So be sure to take a look.

Coming Soon!

I adore all these new fresh and bold prints, that I picked up on my last fabric run.

So here is your sneak peak of the fabrics  I chose for my first purses that will be for sale on Etsy. Including 1 that will be part of a free GIVE-A-WAY to a lucky follower. So make sure to keep an eye on my blog. I am getting very excited. I hope you are too!

I thought I would also share with you the Ikea fabric that inspired the look for my new studio. This fabric will soon be my new curtains!

And that Ikea fabric inspired the look for these Ikea drawers. This process is so easy. Just take rubber cement and some scrapbooking paper, cut to size, and glue on. Voila!

I can't wait to put them in their new home.

Painting is done in the studio. All we need to do is trim and lighting.

52 reasons

I completed my own version of "52 Reasons Why I Love You" posted here. It was so much fun to make. After 4 years of marriage I had no trouble coming up with 52 reasons why I love my husband. I actually had a bunch more, but ran out of cards!

I definately had too much fun making these. "You're the Life of the Party" is from our Birthday party Pig Roast 2 years ago. My brother-in-law started playing with tinfoil and making hats representing chess pieces. We were also delivered a giant hoola-hoop as a birthday present. This was supposed to be the "serious" shot. Bill is of course the one on the left. As you can see, we have fun. I just love the final photo "You wear the clothes I buy you." I found this for the invites for our Crazy Christmas Sweater get together this year, and I just couldn't help using it again.

                

 

These ones speak for themselves.

Bill loves to chop wood. He said his dream life would be to come home every day and chop wood while I made dinner. He did exactly that for the first few months we lived at our new house.

The man loves to chop wood, what can I say.

      

He puts up with all my insanity. The man is a saint.

I lose everything, and I get a little crazed some times. My brother used to say I am a SPAZ. Bill is the only one who can calm me down.

He also is extremely considerate and thoughtful. I really am the luckiest girl in the world. Often I come home and he has cleaned the whole house and started dinner. He will greet me with, " You sounded stressed on the phone. So I thought this would help."

All in all I have a really amazing husband and am truly blessed to have him as part of my life.

I hope you enjoyed sharing this fun little project with me.  I posted some more of the reasons here.