FiN invitations

I had the pleasure of designing the invitations for The Future is Now exhibition put on by Helicity.  Don't worry if you did not receive one -- it is open to the public, so please come!  It should be tons of fun.  I still have to finish up a couple submissions for it.

I especially had fun illustrating the Brew Pub and the water tower.

Easter Sunday

I know this is way late, but here is the only semi-decent picture of Noah and Olive on Easter.  I like that isn't posed; Noah must have seen a plane in the sky.

Who, Me?

We are extremely honored and flattered and flabbergasted to be included in babble's 50 Best Etsy Baby Shops! We are at #9 with Best Bedding! Wow! I never dreamed that our business would come this far! Can I just take a moment to tell you all how our little business began? Back in the spring of '07 when I was pregnant with Noah we were searching for baby bedding for his crib. We came across some we liked, but they had a hefty price tag. So Nick had the idea that we could make it- as in, sew it. We didn't own a sewing machine and the only experience I had was from 7th grade home economics. Initially I thought there was no way we could do this, but Nick convinced me to buy a sewing machine, we found some fabric we liked (which, by the way, was from a quilted blanket and a bed sheet), and we gave it a go. Now, 4 years later we have a successful etsy shop that has made it to over 700 sales! God is truly gracious to us. This business has been such a blessing. It is what helped us get Nick through school and now serves as a little extra income. We have shipped our items all over the world! I get chills thinking that there are people in Australia, China, New Zealand, Canada, England, and many other countries that are using things that we made with our very own hands. Kinda cool, I think.

Animals, Art, and Amazing Music

The fantastic spring-like weather was a sign that we should take a break from our usual drudgery to spend some quality family time at the zoo.  We spent the morning admiring the diversity of creation.  After eating our sack lunches by the chimpanzees, we played on the playground and finally enjoyed a relaxing train ride.  Luckily, all of this expended enough of the kid's energy that we could work on Etsy orders back home while they napped.

Bookending the day was an art party in a grand antebellum home out in Coosada, AL -- who would have thought? (Thanks again Henson's for bringing us along!)

On display was work from local artists surrounded by a crowd of interesting people.  Luckily, there was also land and other children for Noah to play with while we hung out... he even got a hold of a light saber.  Then there was the music, which was well worth the wait.  Spirits of the Red City, composed of bass, cello, banjo, guitar, accordion, percussion, and fantastic vocal harmonies, were phenomenal.  It was a treat to watch them live.  Their slightly creepy marionette show was just icing on the cake:

A Temporary Move

Today we are moving from our loft apartment to a little rental house in a nearby historic neighborhood.  We hate to leave downtown, but we will be back... soon, I hope.  In fact, this move is the repercussion of our trying to buy a space downtown to turn into a live/work -- Unit A.

It boasted 14' ceilings, fantastic brick walls, and a ton of well-detailed windows to the sidewalk. So sure it would work out, we decided to go ahead and put in our sixty day notice to end our apartment's lease.  I even did some architectural photography of our apartment for the owner to aid them in finding a buyer. Our plans for Unit A were thwarted, however, when the owner decided to increase their asking price by fifty grand.  It was a fun design project, nevertheless, and eventually it could work out.  Here are some drawings of how we would have turned Unit A into a tight 2 bedroom condo with a small retail space to the street (the kids would even have a lofted play space):

After Unit A fell through, we had to find another place to live while we await the right opportunity to arise downtown.  Brooke quickly found a small, cute square house in Cloverdale, still biking distance from work and walking distance from some restaurants and shops.  Better yet, it has lower rent, no lease requirement, and no deposit.  I'm hoping this is part of God's plan for us to find our place in downtown, but I am trying to be patient.  In the meantime, I am really going to miss our casual family walks to 2Cities church, the Riverfront, the Biscuits baseball stadium, and all of the fountains around downtown.

Recent Work: Part 4... cupcakes

I had the pleasure of making baby shower invites for our friend Ashley, who happens to be our go-to gal for fabulous cupcakes.  So referencing pictures from some she made for Olive's birthday party, I illustrated them in the style you would find in children's books from the 60's; that is, line drawings in ink imperfectly filled with harvest gold, rosey pink, minty green, and the like.

Also, I decided this time to take advantage of the back of the card with a busier pattern, also drawn and colored in the same manner.



The Square House

It's official. We're moving to a little house not too far away. The feelings about the move are bittersweet. We have loved living here. It has been a fantastic experience- one that we hope to come back to as soon as possible. We're just waiting for the right building to open up! In the mean time we found a cute house to rent. It has a lot of great things about it, but one of our favorites is what will be Noah's room:

It has these awesome built in bookshelves and the walls are the original wood slats painted white. So dreamy.

Recent Work: Part 3

I've completed a prototype for a new mobile.  I am pretty satisfied with it but still unsure if I want to offer it on the shop or not.  The main issue is the metal wire.  The mobile I currently offer is light enough that floral wire does the trick, but for this one I had to resort to piano wire... which is pretty difficult to bend into a smooth curve.  I finally made a jig out of a washer and random metal fastener I found in my toolbox to keep the loops consistent.

The main objective with this little experiment was to balance objects of equal size in a dynamic and seemingly precarious composition in space.  It would definitely be more successful with more pieces, consequently with more chances for long cantilevers.  Maybe sometime I'll get around to expanding on it.

Olive's First Birthday

Our baby girl turned one a couple of weeks ago! We had a fun, quaint little party for her here at our place. We are so thankful for her sweet little life.

Nick made the invites and party hats, I sewed the bib, and my grandmother knitted Olive's top. The awesome mini strawberry cupcakes were made by a very sweet and talented friend, Ashley.

Recent Work: Part 2

A while back, Brooke put together a wedding shower at our place for a couple friends of ours... so I had fun with the invites. Pretty simple; I mainly played with mixing typically formal typefaces in a playful way that would match this fun yet tasteful couple... and then, of course, I threw in some ring-bling for Mallory.

At one point during their wedding reception, Brooke came to me panicking because she couldn't find Noah. We found him in a room, workin' it in front of the camera with the bride and groom... typical:

Recent Work: Part 1

I have been meaning to post some little projects I've done these last few months. I'm so far behind on that that I now have enough to post it as a short series; so here's part one.

The program: book storage (high-parent's, low-children's), object display, and workspace for Noah. Atop of that was my desire to play around more with metal rods that I had begun working with in my Interior Architecture thesis project.  So I got some off-the-shelf brackets that I painted to match the wall, two depths of poplar and a block of aspen that I finished with linseed oil, and metal rods I bent into two different types of bookends.

Noah has definitely made good use of his desk. It is so sweet to see him sitting at his chair concentrating on his own art.

Family Pictures

A couple of weeks ago we had our first ever professional family pictures taken by the lovely Little Acorn Photography. You can go here to view the pictures. I am so happy with how they turned out. It's going to be difficult deciding which ones to order...I want them all!

I am so happy we decided to have these pictures taken. They did such a great job of documenting us as a family. I will cherish these pictures forever!

By the way, if anyone needs pictures taken you should definitely check them out. They are very reasonable, but more importantly they do a fantastic job!

Stockings Made With Love

This year we decided to make stockings for Noah and Olive. Since this is Olive's first Christmas she didn't yet have a stocking, and Noah, up until now, has had a miniature stocking. So, we thought it would be a special thing for them to have stockings handmade by their mom and dad. Hopefully something they'll cherish as they get older.

Noah's is made with a grey herringbone-type material on the outside and a fun Christmas-y plaid on the inside that folds over the top. We liked the fabric combination because it is masculine and something that will grow with him. Olive's is made with linen for the outside and a fun red and white gingham on the inside. We also did a cute applique on hers with a mustard felt. Nick designed the pattern of leaves and berries for the applique and I stitched the branches with grey thread. Her's too will be one that can grow with her. I'm thinking about hand-stitching their names somewhere on the stockings. I just haven't figured out where yet.

Fun Thrift Store Find

Last Friday I found this chair sitting outside at a local thrift store. It caught my attention right away. I knew we had to get it when I saw the price tag said ten bucks! It's in pretty good shape; the only noticeable wear on it is on the edge of the arms. It had a skirt around the bottom of it that Nick ripped off to expose the pretty wood legs underneath.

Inspiration for an Upcoming Birthday

Our little girl's first birthday is just a couple short months away, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas in between I know we are going to be busy! So, I've begun planning it already. This post is really more for me to put my ideas down on paper...er, the screen, but you know what I mean.

So, here goes. For colors I really like orange, pink, and teal. I found this adorable felt garland on etsy and think I'm going to make one myself.

I also love the pink and orange rock candy and the ribbon tied on the cake plate in this cute display.

I've asked my grandmother if she could knit a replica of this oh so cute cardigan. I think it would be perfect for Olive to wear with a long sleeved onesie and some leggings underneath!

I adore these tissue poms (and I already have some in our house in different colors), but I'm just wondering if they would be too much since we'll already have the garland.

I'm thinking these invitations would be too cute!...or at least something similar that Nick could come up with.

I love the patterns on these pinwheels.
We'll just have to see how it all comes together!

What a Hoot

We made this little guy for a sweet friend's baby shower. And now I want to make the kids each one for Christmas...and then maybe start selling them in the shop. He was so much fun to make and super easy too. And a really good use for scrap fabric.

Hope everyone's having a fun, sugar filled weekend. I'll give you a hint about what the kids are going to be dressed as for our church party tomorrow night...characters from a Grimm's fairytale. I'm kind of excited about it. Now we just have to finish their costumes!

Fun at the Fair

We went to the Alabama National Fair a few nights ago. It was the kids' first time going to a fair, and they had so much fun! We all rode the ferris wheel together and some other rides, watched a horse and a wolf show, walked through the petting zoo, and watched the circus performance-which was great! This fair was the best one I've ever been to. I was very impressed.

Nick and I had fun reminiscing about going to the fair when we were kids, and it's fun that we got to experience it with our own children!

A Sister and a Brother

These are pictures of Olive and Noah both at eight and a half months old. Can you tell they're brother and sister?

New in the Shop

We have recently added fabric scrap bundles to our shop. I saved every bit of scrap fabric for the last two and a half years in hopes that I would find some use for them. I have buckets full and have not done anything with them. So, I thought we could try to sell scrap bundles of coordinating fabric in our shop. It's a nice little bundle- the sizes of fabric are all different, but there's enough in the bundle to do some applique or some nice small scale patchwork quilting, or to even make some home made hair ties...the possibilities are endless. The best part is the bundles are only four dollars, and they come in a cute little cellophane bag all packaged up and ready to ship!

Practice Makes Perfect

I bought myself a little present at the store the other day...a cupcake decorating kit. It came with four different icing tips and eight disposable icing bags. I don't even know if I'm using the correct terminology, but hey, I'm new at this.

I've been starting to think about what I want to do for Olive's first birthday party. I know it's still more than three months away, but I like to start planning early. I had a lot of fun making Noah's birthday cake, so I decided that I want to make cupcakes for Olive's first birthday. And, I want them to be cute! I gave it a trial run for my ladies' Bible study, and this is how they turned out. Remember, this was my very first attempt!

I know I'm going to have to practice some more, but I guess it's a good excuse to make cupcakes!