Thursday, January 29, 2009

I love our house. I love all of it's charm and it's potential.

But that being said... we are officially in do it yourself hell. It didn't start out that way.
It started out as a new kitchen floor, and has turned into a "money pit" like project. Two kitchen walls and a dining room wall have crumbled. I had planned to mosaic our downstairs bathroom and document it here, but have postponed that one. Everyone's sanity is more important, and at this point just getting the house back to where we started is going to be a huge project.
I hesitate to type it here, but I think we can see an end (at least to the floor part) in our not too distant future. And yes, I do know it is an old house and will never be "done".

Matt and I keep asking ourselves, why it's taking so long to get anything done. Then someone yells from upstairs and we find them stuck in a laundry basket, and we are reminded.
I'll hopefully be back with some progress pics soon.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Questions

When I do art/craft shows I get asked a lot of questions about my pieces.
The three most common are....
Q: How do you get the marbles to stay on the bowling balls?
A: I only work on a small part at a time, and usually have a bunch started at the same time.

Q: Don't I realize that marbles are valuable?
A: I do, but I use all kinds of different marbles. I get the majority of mine by digging through the bottom of the bins, so I'm guessing the ones I find aren't the valuable ones.

Q: How do you get your spoons so flat?
A: Matt flattens them for me on big machines at his shop back in Minnesota. When he left for this last trip I sent him with a ton of recently found thrifted spoons. I asked him to take a couple pictures of the process. He decided a video was better so you can see the engineering in action.......



He is coming home later today with a whole pile of flattened spoons for me. I'm hoping to have some new ones finished and listed in my etsy shop soon. Have a nice weekend everyone....

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Last week's class at the DIY lounge was one of the best ones yet. Just check out the student art work.
For those of you who mentioned being interested in the house numbers class, stay tuned. I am in the process of revising the class to make it a one day weekend workshop. I will post the details here when they are finished. Until then you can always contact me directly or check the DIY lounge website for class details.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The boys and I took a road trip to the beach this weekend. We all needed to get out of the house, and the weather was perfect. We are in the middle of one of Matt's extra long trips, which is hard on everyone. I've let things go and try to remind myself how I can't get everything done that I want to while being the only parent home.

However, this morning was one of those mornings that I was so glad to be able to drop everything. I took the boys to school where they had a movie screen set up to watch all of the events. The whole thing was bigger and more full of hope and promise, than anything I have witnessed in my entire life. I know the boys don't fully understand, but I think they will remember.
If you haven't read this before, here is a link to a letter our new president wrote to his daughters. Happy Inauguration Day to everyone!!!!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy 2009

The long break was great, but I'm glad to have the busyness behind us. We survived the snow, and were surprisingly able to make it out of town with only a small delay. Kansas City was relaxing. We all had lots of fun just hanging out with the family.
Today is my first kid-free day in almost a month. I forgot how quiet the house can be! I have a list of new projects that I am anxious to start. One of them is a house project that may rival last January's as a new favorite. I am trying to keep my expectations realistic, as Matt is getting ready for a lot of travel in the next few weeks.
Before I can begin anything I have a giant mess in the studio to take care of. I don't know how I let this happen again. I'm hoping that last year's organizing will have paid off.
Wish me luck!