Well, if you ever decide to open your home for a home tour to benefit a school or something, just know that craziness may ensue. As with the Smith household, there were a few crazy moments. Walls painted, juniper bushes uprooted, bathroom redone. Then there’s the cleaning. Oh, the cleaning. What a big pain.
But really, I think it was all worth it. The school raised $3000!
This is the tile around our tub now. I wish I had taken a before photo. Oh. My. Gosh. it was soooo bad. The tub surround was lovingly called a tiger eye pattern by Anson. The floor was a mix of ceramic tile in a stucco color along with particle board and ugly brown linoleum in patches; some places in layers 10-20 thick to fill in holes around the edges of the floor. The sink was made of the same tiger eye material and the cabinet was rotting and just disgusting. This is what it looks like now. The cabinet Anson made for the tour is a mock-up in birch. Lovely, but I will wait for the final product before I photograph it.
This piece lived in the bathroom and hung horizontally over the sink. It is original to the home, unlike the other lovely (yuck) pieces that we gutted from that room. The problem is, we would like to have a towel bar over the toilet, which keeping this piece on the wall wouldn’t allow. So I got the idea to make it into this. Anson put in the shelves and I painted it up. I think it looks very nice in India’s room and fits perfectly next to her closet.
Painting this wall in I’s room may have caused some contention in our home. It wasn’t on the list. But I got it done and I think it is perfect.
I thought maybe I would send out a birth announcement for Zed… and maybe I still will. If I do send out a card I probably shouldn’t show it here on the blog until after they are sent. But it has been over a month now and still nothing out in the mail. Just this photograph burning a hole in my project folder.
I made about 16 of the card pictured below to use as thank yous for shower gifts and meals. I then started printing on some old colored note cards that came in a little metal box I picked up at the Goodwill. Some are yellow, some are blue. As I was printing, I kept justifying the time I was spending by thinking they would be his own personal stationary… for an infant?? and a boy?? He probably will never use stationary. I just couldn’t justify printing 100 to send to friends and family as an announcement.
I should make a few more, and actually use the floundering postal system to send out a card and photo of our new little man. But another part of me says “Why bother?” I’ve got the blog, email, and should probably save a tree or two… The cards are made on note cards from the Goodwill. They could even be called vintage note cards.
I think what I’ll do is compromise. I’ll send cards to those I don’t think read my blog. So if you are a stalker, and never comment, you may receive one.
These were printed on a nice, $2.50 per 20×30″ sheet of hot pressed printmaking paper. I think it’s Arches… not Arches 99, which is my favorite. For my books and cards, a smooth paper with just the right amount of texture is perfect. It’s gotta feel good. For a book, the feel is essential.
Whenever I make cards I make them odd sizes. That means I never have an envelope to fit the cards. Typically they will fit in a business envelope but are too short. This is the solution I came up with a few years ago, in Baltimore. First I cut the ends off the envelopes. Next I glue a piece of one of my many handmade papers (from my ever growing collection, thank goodness we live nowhere near a Paper Source) to close off the cut edge. I did this as a solution to a quick, inexpensive 4×6″ print packaging for the prints I had made from the Halloween party I photographed. For those I even pasted on a business card.
This time ’round, I decided that took too long. So rather than cutting the end off, I just stuffed them and folded the excess over and licked them down. No extra paper, no glue; hardly any extra time. It worked like a charm. Why hadn’t I thought of that earlier??
On to the next project I never posted. This was made just a day or two after Earth Day. I’m a bit behind on things lately- go fig. In any case, Zed has worn this onesie several times, but it wasn’t until last week that I actually photographed him in it. Just so you know, this is appropriate everyday in our home. Don’t you know? every day is Earth Day.
One more project.
We were getting ready for our neighbor’s birthday party. While searching the aisles of Michaels I found what I had looked for a year ago when I made a memory game. At that time all I could find were flat circles, but I really wanted blocks. Well, they were staring at me and I couldn’t help but buy them and try to figure something out for our neighbor. I figured a memory game might be too young for her.
Talking with my other neighbor (who received the memory game last year) about finding the blocks she asked if I would make it a multi-sided memory game. Hummm. Good idea. That’s when I thought of making a multi-sided puzzle.
I asked India what her friend likes. She said Barbie. Humm, not making something that looks like a Barbie toy. But Barbie is all about fashion. So I found the iconic fashion photograph by Richard Avedon. You know the one. Taken in the late 50’s early 60’s, the model in a white dress with black gloves surrounded by elephants. So elegant.
We also decided that our neighbor really likes Zed and her new dog. The photo of Zed was easy. I had to sneak over to take a photo of her dog. The last image was of a pink flower. India helped make the box beautiful with all my many paper scraps.
We have been trying to have a quiet time every afternoon. Just before we left for Virginia, Ezra asked if he could play with India during quiet time (often she has been at camp while we nap). I said no, but he was so sad and asked so nicely that I decided it was ok… if they remained quiet.
A little over an hour later I came downstairs and this is what I found. A couple of super heros! being nice and quiet.
India had made a Spiderman mask along with gloves and web-shooters (the paper bags around his wrists).
She called herself “Future Girl” and dressed up in her purple Mexican dress and eye mask.
I am glad they decided to be creative rather than argue or wrestle. Ezra is becoming a good playmate for India as he matures.
We wanted to host India’s party away from home this year. With an infant in the house, we felt this would be easier for everyone. Zach was afraid I would try to make too many things if we had it at home. He knows me too well.
After listing a few places India decided Mini Golf would be the most fun. Instead of making things for the house, India and I made the invites. She drew a picture and I carved it in a block, then we used tempura paint to print them. I haven’t done that before, I have always used Speedball ink. The paint gave more texture to the prints… it was a bit more difficult to get the image readable. I did most of the inking and printing to keep the brush strokes to a minimum.
We didn’t use the back print since someone might not be able to read the info, oh and we changed the time.
India had decided she wanted Crunch Bar ice cream Popsicles for the party. Things couldn’t get much easier! But Zach’s mom convinced us that we needed some sort of cake for the birthday girl. I guess you’ve got to blow out candles at your party, right. So with her help I made some cupcakes. With the leftover batter I made golf balls for the tops with the tiny muffin pan I bought years ago and have NEVER used. It finally came in handy!
It was so windy that day we couldn’t light the candles. I tried for about a second and realized it wasn’t going to happen. Thankfully India was willing to pretend to blow out the candles. Ha! There was singing too, of course. We didn’t have to throw out all the traditions. She was actually sung to twice. Once by her party guests and a second time by all the Lacrosse players at the park that day. The park was filled with them! I have never seen that park so crowded. Some of the teenage girls thought it was so cute that India was having a party there and they decided to sing to her.
Ezra wanted a pink ball, not the white one. HA! I think it was because he knew I covered it with pink sugar.
A few cupcakes were devoured, but most were hardly eaten. They were good, I promise. I even made the butter cream frosting. The kids were ready to get golfing already. No photos of that, though. I had to nurse baby Zed so I passed the camera to Zach and only 2 or 3 images were taken the rest of the day.
The kids all had a blast and I’m glad India was able to have a party this year. Phew.
Eyes open and content to be. Gotta love it.
This is the blanket I knitted for him. I actually knitted it twice. The first go it was super wide and skinny. I would have rolled him up in it and it still wouldn’t have covered his toes. I think I had 180 stitches across and gave up trying to make it square, so bound it off and ended up with a shawl. But I wanted a blanket. That’s what I get for not using a pattern.
I began again, casting on about 80 stitches the second go ’round. I knitted the even rows and purled the odd until about 70 rows. Now it’s the perfect size and oh so soft.
