All's Well On The Creative Front

This weekend, I was given the most wonderful baby shower by four fabulous ladies and the event gave me a chance to actually make something. I created gift baskets with a cupcakes and cherries theme and made several of the things that went in them. I haven't gotten a whole lot of craft time lately so it was refreshing and fun!! Since it's been forever since I posted anything half way inspirational, I thought I'd share. Here are my creations:

I've been wanting to use this Psalm with one of my paintings now for awhile and felt this was the perfect opportunity!

And I've decided I think I could really like embroidery...I just need some practice. Fortunately, these button cherries are EXTREMELY easy.As were these cupcake dishtowels. They're just flour sack dishtowels with buttons, embroidery thread and some scrap fabric I had. I think I'll make one for myself! I'm not sure how well they'll hold up to repeated use and washing...Here's the loot that went into each basket:And here they are all packaged up and ready to go! Cute, no? For all the hard work those ladies put in they deserved so much more! I had a great time...preparing the baskets and at the shower! And we got so much sweet baby stuff that we really needed!

Thanks to Rachel, Mrs. Helen, Jan and Carolyn for all you did!

sweetly, happily, and artfully yours,

randi

A Time of Things Coming Together

Hello Out There!!
The past few weeks have really been a time of things coming together, culminating with this week during which it seems everything will finally be in its place. The begininning of the decline of my blogging here really began in September with the falling of the tree. (You may remember this post.) Then there was the finding out we were having a baby, and Christmas followed by weeks of home repair. From start to finish, those took about five long (and often drafty) months. During the time I was waiting for the house to be restored, I began a full scale cleaning campaign and reorganized every closet and drawer we have including the bathroom cabinets and the gift closet. There is one drawer in the kitchen and my bedside drawers left that I'd like to clean out again...and maybe the cabinet in the spare bathroom. Plus the pantry, fridge and freezer I clean out really well once a month or so. We even extensively cleaned out the garage and added some much needed extra shelving out there. Then, I rearranged the house. My old studio/office was practically scrapped altogether which entailed an incredible amount of cleaning out and hauling off. (I am glad now that I had the foresight to take care of all that before the last trimester of pregnancy! I had a feeling I'd feel that way!) Now there is a tidy work area with a built-in desk and a work table that doubles as a bistro table in my breakfast room. There were changes to the dining room to accomodate some furniture that no longer fits in the repurposed breakfast room and the old office/studio is now a guest room. And, of course, the old guest room/ work out room is now the nursery which is completely outfitted with new furniture, pillows, blankets, books, toys, plenty of storage and shelving and lots of cute little clothes! I even spent quite a bit of time designing murals and painting on the walls: trees, mushrooms, and a sleeping blue owl. The last of our home repairs included replacing the carpet in all three bedrooms and the master bathroom closets which meant stacking ALL of our furniture, etc. in the dining, breakfast and living rooms (where there is wood floor) and then putting it all back...which was no small task. I'm so glad it's over...and the carpet looks so fresh and pretty! Somewhere in there the dishwasher all but died, so we had to replace that and about a month ago the air conditioner went. Happily, we're getting a new one today. We cringe at the money it's going to cost, but here in Texas not having an air conditioner just isn't an option. Yesterday topped out in the upper 80s and today promises to hit 90. Plus we've selected a nice new efficient unit with a programmable thermostat and a great warranty. Hopefully this will be the last thing we have to replace for awhile. In the midst of all of this we were able to take a much needed 12 day trip up to Pennsylvania to visit Josh's family for Easter since we'd planned to go this summer and had to change our plans. We wanted to make sure we were able to see the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents that we could before we were homebound for awhile being parents. We also used the roadtrip as a get away for just the two of us since home and baby expenses put the kibosh on our elaborate vacation plans for this year. We got home last Tuesday and the past week has been spent reacclamating, catching up and continuing to plan for the baby. I've even spent this week getting gifts together for every event we have through August...birthdays, mother's day, father's day, weddings, baby showers...you name it, I'm getting gifts for it. I intend, in the next week or so, to have them all purchased and wrapped complete with a card just in case in the last few weeks I don't feel like shopping or in case the baby's early or I'm confined to bedrest or have a lengthy recovery post-delivery...gift-giving will be unaffected. And I've got a great start- the dining table is covered with wrapped gifts. If all the paper's weren't different, it would look like Christmas! All's well on the baby-front. Daily, I expand...and I'm told at every doctor's appointment that I'm perfectly normal as is the baby- I'm so grateful!! On the creativity front, however, things are slow and I find I miss it. I'm mailing out the last of two commissions today and haven't taken on anymore for the time being, though I might fit in another before the baby comes. Much of my creative efforts have been put toward designing the nursery and creating things to put in it. This week, I'm also painting some smaller items for gifts, which has been fun. Pictures of nursery creations are something I'm hoping to post this afternoon. Starting next week, I am going to sort through the items I have left over from the arts and craft shows I did in the past year and post some of it on ebay. I just don't have the storage space anymore to keep so much in stock. I'll post about that when it happens in case anyone is interested in cupcake items at a discount. So that, in a nutshell, is what's been going on. Just wanted to do a catch-up post. I'll be back later today or tomorrow to post some pictures...something more interesting than just ramblings about the past few months of my life, I promise...on the chance someone still checks here occasionally...and actually stops to read.

sweetly, happily, and artfully yours,

randi