Did I do that?

This morning I woke up before anyone else and snuck out to my little studio area off my bedroom. I really does feel like sneaking because you have to duck into this very little door to get into the room. This meant I didn't have to wake up the dogs and have them wake up the rest of the house too.

As I sat at my drafting table needle felting a new pair of birds I spied a colorful painted board far under the table and propped up against the wall. It was partially buried by other things propped against it. As I bent down to investigate further what do I see but a sign I painted 2 summers ago and guess what the words on the sign were -- The Hen House. I thought this was particularly odd since I was only thinking yesterday what a great idea it would be to paint a sign with exactly those words (inspired by that flickr group). And I really did have that feeling "DID I DO THAT?" I laughed about this all morning while I worked.



I managed to get out of the house and away from the computer and my projects to do some gardening. With the kids we prepped some of the vegetable garden beds and planted some lettuce, spinach, beets, kale, and snow peas. I wandered about the yard cleaning up random things left over from last year. The lilacs are almost blossoming too!

The Hen House

I really like the name "The Hen House" and may just make a sign for our little hen house with just those words on it. The french word for this would be Le Poulailler and this would be cute too. There is a group on flickr called the Le Poulailler or The Henhouse and I joined this group very soon after first uploading pictures to my flickr account. I love looking at pictures of chickens and even shared a few of my photos with that group. My little hen illustration was just voted picture of the month for April. I'm glad they like it. I named it "Did I do that?". And I know that is how I sometimes feel about many things.


My flickr account
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainsend/

Le Poulailler flickr group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/henhouse/

This little ACEO is still for sale in my shop.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5456496


I finished and mailed out this custom ordered bluebird this morning too.

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.
.
.
.
.


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.