Here's another post that has nothing whatsoever to do with the portrait I'm supposed to be working on. I feel the need to explain myself. I thought I had the paper I needed but after searching did not have any large enough. Josh picked some up for me yesterday, such a sweet guy. On Thursday both of my children actually took naps, at the same time! Amazing. Since I could not start on my painting a made a little applique for my little man :). I found this cute applique by Anna Maria Horner on her blog site. I hadn't figured out what applique to put on the onesie I had bought Jackson and then stumbled upon this one and thought it was too cute to pass up. I added the ribbon and button to make a collar with tags and thought it turned out really cute. Don't look at the stitching too closely though, these little appliques are tough! Now Jackie boy has a cute little tee made by his mommy just like his sister. Finally something for him for a change, why are boys so much harder to sew/craft for?

Talk about fresh!

Alright, obviously I am a liar because here is post #4 of the day! But check out these beautiful veggies. My lovely neighbors have been giving us vegetables from their garden all Summer long. This evening I was playing with the kids in the backyard and was given these. Literally pulled out of the ground and off the vine and placed in my hand, it doesn't get fresher than that! We had a wonderful salad with dinner made from these beauties and an earlier gift of lettuce also from their garden. Love thy neighbor :).

Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Shinzi Katoh

Ok, so this is my last post for a couple of weeks (yet more evidence to back up the title of my previous post). This site was just too cool not to mention. Everything on it is wonderful. Great Illustration style, just darn cute :). 

Queen of Procrastination

I was practicing the art of avoidance on Monday (earlier mentioned portrait I'm supposed to be working on) and whipped up this little beauty, whipped up as in I worked on it all afternoon :). I used another cheapo pattern from Wal-Mart ($2.49 Simplicity pattern) and got great fabric on sale at JoAnn's. The denim was only $2.50 a yard! Anyway I was so excited about my fabric and fun little totes I couldn't help myself. I had told myself it all had to wait until the portrait was complete and I was just going to blog about my beautiful pile of possibilities. Here is tactile proof that I am the queen of procrastination. But now that I've got tote #1 out of my system its time to focus on the task at hand, It did turn out great though I must say :). You may not see a post for a couple of weeks. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll have a beautiful portrait to post...at least I had better.

A Painting A Day

I found this artist, Abby Ryan, on Etsy. I was first intrigued by the commonplace subject matter she chose and then my her craftsmanship. Her Etsy store then led me to her blog. She's been creating an oil painting a day since Sept. 2007, that's some dedication! It really got me thinking that I should be drawing and painting more often. I'm working on a portrait right now and every time I work on a drawing or painting I remember how much I love it, I just don't take the time to do it very often when I really ought to be nurturing that talent that I have which I'll also be able to incorporate into my new love of sewing. I think I'm going to make a goal, or commitment rather to do a small drawing or painting a week. I'll start there and try to rope my husband in as well :).

Jacadi Paris

I ran across an ad in Cookie magazine for a children's clothing company called Jacadi Paris. The photo captured me so I checked out their site. If you enjoy drooling over beautiful clothing and photography check it out. The style of the clothing is refined and classic. Their catalog is beautifully designed. You can flip through it online, I wasn't able to find where you could request one to be mailed. Lovely.

Liv's Cera Tee

I took advantage of $2 t-shirts at Wal-Mart so I could have some fun with them. This little plain white tee was secretly yearning for an embellishment. I decided on a triceratops for my little dino lovin' gal. Josh, with his design genius, drew up a fabulous triceratops icon for me that worked perfectly (thank you dear). With a little fusible web and fun stripey fabric we came up with this cute little applique. Zig-zagging around all those little curves and corners was no easy task but it turned out well anyway. Olivia really likes her "Cera shirt" (her favorite movie right now is The Land Before Time). Now I want to go back to Wal-Mart and find a couple shirts for Jackson. Still haven't decided what his little icons will be yet. Any ideas out there?  

I wish I had money to buy fabric, any fabric I wanted. Heather Bailey's new line Pop Garden is so beautiful, I want it all! Someday I'm going to have an entire closet full of gorgeous fabric and I'll be able to open the door and just gaze. And then I'll have a bunch of fabulous scraps leftover  from all the fabulous creations I've made from all my fabulous fabric to make a fabulous quilt with, or maybe some fabulous doll's clothes.

Josh's Handy Work.

Josh has been into Oragami lately. It was spurred on by a project he's working on for Tenfold. He was flipping through his book and decided to make a pig for Olivia. It looked pretty complicated to me and I was surprised how well this little guy turned out, so I wanted to show it off. Ok, so I wasn't totally surprised because Josh is pretty much amazing at whatever he decides to do. He's like a master of all trades, kind of disgusting really. Though I'm not bitter :). I think its amazing that a few folds of paper can so accurately capture the form and personality of an animal. How did they come up with these?! Whoever did is the true artist.