I love May!

I finished up photos of my latest creation. I can't seem to get the photos quite right but I think they will do for now. This is a little orange bird mounted on a decoupaged circular box. I really like it and hope to do more of these. When I was cutting up the vintage music I was a bit nervous. I really have a hard time doing this to old things. But I love the box and can use the music for more projects now.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5890934

We are on lilac watch now as the flowers are starting to emerge. These are the photos taken over the last two days. Every year I promise to enjoy them as much as possible since I love them so much. This time of year passes so quickly.













I also listed this little nest today. I just love the blue of the eggs.


http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5892206

A beautiful day for a trip to the city

I helped chaperone a school band trip down to the state house today. The ride was a bumpy one through traffic but the city was beautiful. The tree leaves are almost out and everything looks so green now. The children did an awesome job with their music and the state house was awesome.


I brought along my needle felting to continue a project on the bus. The kids were really interested in the process. I was a bit nervous going through security at the state house with my sharp barbed felting needle but it was in with my purse full of so many things (small measuring tape, loose coins, tick remover tool, various pebbles and rocks, a few marbles, earings, and many receipts). That must of looked odd on the scanner!

Rainy day project

I have been thinking about doing a little advertising locally with a few t-shirts for my kids (I know -- shameless) and maybe a canvas bag for myself. On the canvas bag I wanted to have my Etsy shop info on one side and the Etsy logo on the other. I had a package of T-shirt transfer paper and I designed the logos on my computer -- remembering to flip the image so the text came out readable on the transfer.



I put a piece of flat (with out ridges) cardboard inside the canvas bag to keep it flat and protect the other side of the bag. I placed the transfer right side up and face down on the fabric and with the iron on its hottest setting without steam I ironed for close to 3 minutes. You have to be careful to get the edges to because when you peel off the paper once it cools they might not be adhered properly. I iron on the transfers for both sides before I peel off the paper or I will have problems with the transfer coming off while I iron the other side.



Once all my transfers are ironed on I let the bag cool a bit. When it is still warm to the touch I begin to carefully peel off the paper part.



Looks pretty good but I think I over did it on the ironing and it seems to have yellowed a bit.



Here is the t-shirt I did for my daughter.

May Day

After yesterday's craziness running errands, today will seem so much calmer. My husband started a new job yesterday and it seems to be going well. My youngest has no school today again and will have a friend visit for the day. They play so well together and are so intent on their play too. It is really fun to see them playing so nicely -- unlike siblings which seem to have so much conflict.

I just sold this little pair of pottery chickens and they are off to Australia. I would like to think I could travel around the world in a little box. It would be so much easier. As it is, with 3 kids we don't get much travelling done.

I picked up some relatively inexpensive rolls of 1 inch ribbon yesterday for the May Pole. They were more difficult to find than I expected. The ribbons that we had used for years were so frayed and tangled that I finally got rid of them. I am hoping to set it up for the girls today. We started doing this when my oldest was about 4 and have kept it up every year. Those first years we usually invited a group of kids over for a little May Day party. It was so cute.

Monday

My little bluebird and nest of eggs was included in an Etsy Treasury called "Bye Bye Birdie" by shanasays. I love birds and am quite happy that my little bird was included with such a cute grouping of birds.



I finally took a few pictures of my workspace that I "organized" over the weekend. Of course its not really as neat as it should be but most creative people I know dont tend to be very organized -- so I will use that as my excuse.

These are some of the IKEA shelves we purchased a while ago to organize my art and craft stuff. I really like the simple bare wood and how easy to assemble it was. A few more baskets or plastic bins to sort some of the smaller items are needed.
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This is the cool expanding/folding card table of my grandmothers that we recently moved out of storage. It works perfect so I can stash some of the larger boxes underneath. It may not be sturdy enough to work on but as far as organizing my materials I think it will do fine.

Here you can see the two drafting tables. The smaller one is an antique and the other I have had for some time now. I love the cool standing lamp of my grandmother's.

Town Earth Day

Our town is celebrating Earth Day this weekend and will have a bunch of interesting things at the Town Common. I decided not to do a craft table this year which means I am much less stressed but I will miss it. The girls had fun and enjoyed meeting up with their friends. It was perfect weather and very crowded. With all this rainy cold weather everyone is anxious to get out and enjoy the sun.


Last night my friend organized a crafting night at a town owned building that can be rented out for $45 an evening. The building is called the Reading Room and I believe was donated by Winslow Homer's sister for a local girls seminary school in the later 1800's. We had 7 women come and it was such a wonderful time. It has been so long since I enjoyed an evening out away from children and husband. Everyone brought something of their own to work on and the conversations were fun.


After thinking over the dilemma of a decent work area I decided to move everything back up to the new "attic". The walls are finished nice and painted and the ceilings are high. The floor is just plywood with an old rug over it but its fine. I will just have to share half the room with boxes of stuff stored there. I moved the small drafting table and brought up the expandable card table of my grandmother's and placed these against the wall. Boxes of materials and things went under the table. I am also going to move the larger drafting table from my adjacent bedroom into this room as well. I think this arrangement will go a long way towards getting myself more organized. Then when we finally finish the floors in that room downstairs I can move again. Meanwhile our new kitchen dining area won't be cluttered with my stuff. I feel a whole lot better already!

Later in the day I let the chickens and ducks out of their pen to enjoy the green grass. They made a bit of a mess in my gardens though.

Rainy Friday

Another rainy spring day. Every thing outside is greening up so pretty. Soon the trees and lilacs will be blooming. This is my favorite time of year but it passes so quickly.


I spent my morning working on my needle felt projects while my youngest was off at kindergarten. Right now I set up everything on our little used (for eating that is) dining table. The lighting in that room is so nice and I can look out the window and enjoy the backyard. Eventually I will have everything set up in the room that was our original kitchen. We are waiting to save up some money to remove the old flooring in that room. Once that is done I will set up my art work area in there. That part of the house is over 200 years old and the lighting and ceiling height are not very good. But it really is the best place for my art studio in the house.

I finally finished this little orange bird. My youngest daughter and I dyed the wool with orange Kool-aid. It was a fun project for both of us. She of course wants this little bird but will settle for a hat just like hers. I'm not sure how I will manage that though!

This is also my husband's last day home since he starts a new job on Monday. He was laid off in March and it has been longer than anticipated for finding a new job. It will be nice to have the house to myself again though I will miss him. Under different circumstances it would be fun to have him home. But being unemployed is just too stressful on everyone. My car also died during that time and we survived with one car for several weeks. This created additional stress as well.