wise craft

kid's anime bathroom

The kid's collaborative effort with Peter on their bathroom is done.

They are super happy with it. Its bright and fun, and no longer full of little kid's stuff.

I love it. (Let me say that only the kids use this bathroom, so we decided to have some fun with it.)

I also think that Peter should write a craft book entitled How To Take Little Things, Blow Them Up Big, and Make Cool Stuff Out Of Them. This isn't the first time he's demonstrated this talent.

I am asking you all to comment and tell Peter how wonderful this project turned out, because I am out of things to say and he's still waiting.

checking in

That was an unexpected break. I jumped on a plane at the last minute and took off for Chicago to visit my sister-in-law, Jen, and her family. Oh, what fun we had. Truly. I speak of Jen here on the blog without much explanation, but I am so lucky to have Jen, Peter's sister, as such a great friend. What a bonus I got when I got married.

Here we are, reflected in the bean-

I missed my little family, and I am busy catching up.

It's been a good several days. I love hanging out college kids (or I should say recent college grads), because they make playlists of new music for me and show me youtube videos like this one.

That's good stuff people.

But its always good to be missed by soft kitties-

I treated myself (finally) to the latest Anthology Magazine (among other things, hello C.O. Bigelow store at Water Tower, I love you). It's very very good. Call me old school, but I love a magazine with decent paper quality, lovely photos, pretty fonts, and loads of inspiration.

Back tomorrow! Hope you are all well.

school life comes home

Summer begins here with school paper clean out/clean up, probably like many of you. The annual parade of schoolwork begins to make its way home each day for at least a week, leading up to that last gloriously wonderful last day of school. The kids brought home bags and bags of schoolwork in the earlier school years (in addition to the daily schoolwork that was coming home regularly), but as they get older the volume is decreasing. I am not complaining at all, instead I find myself really savoring each and every piece in those bags that come home. I hold in my hands evidence of how hard they work at school each day, how busy their brains are. My favorite pages are the ones where the kids are clearly attempting to write out and explain all the quick little zips and zaps that are constanly going on in their brains. Like when Ian wrote an honest assessment of the book The Hundred Dresses that was read and worked on by the whole class.

"I thought this book was good, but I really think it is better for a girl."

Fair enough.

I love Ian's rainy day recess "work" to pieces. Usually, when its absolutely pouring down rain and there's no way to go outside, the kids play board games, draw, whatever, in the classroom. This is where Ian's imagination really seems to take off, evidenced by the handwritten book "Ninja Robot Bodyguard" above.

Brilliant.

Emma's daily schoolwork is beginning to delve into things on a much deeper level. Her many drawings and paintings are more quiet, more detailed, and expressive, like the end result of the her lion study painting, above. I am proud of her thought process and her desire to want to know more about the things that interest her. I love that thirst for knowledge, we should never loose it.

Looking at all this makes me realize how important summer down time, true down time, really is. Time to just do nothing and be.

That's what we'll be doing.

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The winner of Meg's book "Growing Up Sew Liberated" has been picked, thank you to all who entered.

Enjoy the day!

xo,

Blair

camp craft for summer fun

Emma and I created Paper Cone People over at Skip To my Lou for Craft Camp. These use materials you probably already have around the house, and we had a lot of fun giggling and making these together. Be sure to check out all the fun craft ideas Cindy has pulled together for Craft Camp. Enjoy!

the father around here

Peter got an idea last week to redo the kid's bathroom over the weekend. I love this man for many many reasons, but the way he makes the impossibly-sounding weird stuff sound so doable is kind of awesome. Like this idea for their bathroom. Even when he should have been relaxing on Father's day, Peter was in the bathroom working away on his idea, Emma working as his assistant. (He did take a break midday for a bike ride with some other dads.)

After a couple of new coats of Dutch Boy's "December Sky", the far wall got his interpretation of wallpaper... pages of a kid's manga book blown up and pasted on with wallpaper paste. Then a couple coats of flat-finish poly over the final wall for extra protection. The kids are in love with it. Emma wants to do it her room next. We'll see. This will be an experiment in durablilty, to see exactly how well this will hold up to her showers.

In the meantime, the search for the perfect shower curtain has begun. Hopefully in the not too distant future, this bathroom will get a new double vanity, floor, etc. But in the meantime, this is fun place to be right now.

I do love that Peter has this secret crafty side.

It makes me feel a little better when I'm downstairs making slipcovers.

 

growing up sew liberated giveaway

I have a treat for you today, a sneek peak at Meg McElwee's newest book-

 

Growing Up Sew Liberated: Making Handmade Clothes and Projects for Your Creative Child is the perfect inspiration for summer sewing. The chapters are divided into areas that cover each part of a child's day, "Greating the Morning", "Breadsharing and Homemaking", "Inside Play", "Outside Play", and "Goodnight, Sleep Tight". I think we've all fallen in love with the teepee on the cover, but in addition, here's some other ones I love-

"Crossover Tees" (there's also an Envelope Neck Tee)-

 

"Dress Up Bucket"-

"Art Satchel" (I'm going to make these for the kids)-

 

Naturalist scavenger hunt bag (Meg also shows you how to make Scavenger Hunt Cards)-

There's tons of fun project, with excellent instructions and Meg's gentle perspective on parenting sprinkled throughout.

*I have 1 copy to give away today, just leave a comment on this post, and I will draw a winner next Wednesday (US only this time please).

Be sure to check out the other blog stops that Growing Up Sew Liberated is making.
6/6         elsiemarley.com
6/7         made-by-rae.com
6/8         artfulparent.typepad.com
6/9         rhythmofthehomeblog.com
6/10       uncommongrace.typepad.com
6/13       simplehomeschool.net
6/14       BurdaStyle.com
6/15       mayamade.blogspot.com
6/16       blairpeter.typepad.com
6/17       jchandmade.typepad.com
6/20       frontierdreams.blogspot.com
6/21       dana-made-it.com

You can read Meg's daily thoughts at her blog, Sew Liberated.

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Comments are closed and winner has been chosen and notifed, thanks everyone!

welcome (to summer)

One offspring is out of school today, and the other is out next Tuesday.

And, into summer living, we shift....

This is always a big shift for me, I have to be truthful. While I am excited for commitment-free days, opportunities to hang out and be together, too much of that and we'll all go nutty.

What about you guys? Do you have a bit of summer dread as well as excitement? Come clean!

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*Door decal by Shanna Murray. It makes me smile every single time I see it.

*I have a new post up on Schoolhouse Craft, a little discussion about blogging. The Schoolhouse Craft weekend in September (23-25) is shaping up to be a not-to-miss event.

*For those of you near to Portland, Sally and Joke are now offering a second date for their extremely popular Packaging 101 class (take a sneek peak at some of what will be made). Their first class sold out quickly, so they decided to offer a second class, which will be at Modern Domestic on July 9th from 2-5pm. Buy your spot in the class here.

More soon! xo, Blair

the repurposed library

I fell absent last week due to some much needed, heavy duty spring cleaning around here. Boy does this house feel clean! I also got some new books to peruse last week, and I kind of went nuts for The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti. This is a truly unique craft book, which is the kind of book that speaks to me creatively these days. I adore this book.

The projects are gorgeous and, with the exception of needing a band saw for a couple of them, very doable (and this book is an excellent excuse to buddy up to someone you know who has a band saw).

Some of my favorite projects-

 

I think I have to make this one next-

 

And your band saw friend can help you with this one-

 

Last Friday afternoon, I was inspired me to make one of the easiest projects, a book burst. I had everything here at home, so I poured a glass of wine and got started.

I have one more to make. Once the book is cut (you need a pen knife to cut your chosen book into 4 equal parts), your children could help fold these, its that easy. It was so relaxing to just sit and fold paper, my brain needed the reprieve.

These are hanging above our bed and I love the textural aspect of something not flat on the wall. I love how to wall color really shows the yellowing of the pages so beautifully. (Ben Moore's "Paperwhite", You can see our full bedroom walls in this post.)

Here is a trailer for the book-

STC Craft Presents: The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti from STC Craft / Melanie Falick Books on Vimeo.

 

new-to-me

*I'm loving the new credenza I found over the weekend. I've been searching for over a year.

(And its not from IKEA!)

*Peter and I watched When We Were Kings the other night, I was surprised how much I like it, but I highly recommend it.

*I am pretty wiped out. Looking forward to lunch and hang out time with Katie tomorrow.

baked potato night and why i love lazy susans

I remember one thing that was served with some frequency when I was a kid. Baked potatoes. I loved them. What's not to love about a vehicle for butter and salt? But I think baked potatoes have fallen out of fashion in my adulthood, a big carb-filled no-no. I know I completely forgot about them. One night Peter and I were mulling over ideas to have a couple of meat-free dinners each week and we were both like "wha... about a baked potato?"

Yes! Of course!

This family loves to have choices to wrap, top, and mix into their dinner.Through trial and error we've managed to come up with several meals that fit into this genre... make your own pizza night, salad night, pasta with sauces and "wid-its" night, etc. And now we have baked potato night. Its a meal that is met with no complaining and whining (imagine) and its so easy.

I love baked potato night just for those two reasons alone.

Here's how we do ours:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Scrub the outside of the potatoes (figure one per person, 1/2 for a little person), then rub their outsides with olive oil, then season the skin with pepper and sea salt. Place them directly on the oven rack for 1 hour.

Grab and glass of wine and the New York Times crossword puzzle while you wait.

I'm just sayin... I mean, you've got an hour.

Save yourself enough time at the end of the cooking time to get your add-ins ready. For us, that would be:

Bacon, chopped

Light sour cream

2 kinds of cheese

fresh chives

and those little crunchy onions you can find in the salad/crouton section of the produce area- Emma and I are kind of nuts for them.

And literally, whatever else we have in the fridge that sounds good... sundried tomatoes, pesto, whatever.

They are incredibly good, especially the skin.

But the secret to the no complaining from my kids is quite possibly all about the lazy susan in the middle of the table.

Maybe its the connection between kids and things that spin? Not sure, but my kids both say "cool!" as soon as they see it in the middle of the table. Ours is a simple wooden from IKEA and I see these secondhand all the time (those poor people didn't want any fun, I guess).

I relish in my random mealtime success. It doesn't happen often. Peter and Emma came home from a 3 day school camping trip on Friday night. Emma plopped down in her chair, declaring "I LOVE BAKED POTATO NIGHT!"

Now maybe that's because she lived on s'mores for 3 days, but I'm calling it a success.