Color Blocking Fun

So all this talk about finding inspiration around you, and looking at colors has inspired me to think about color blocking.

I am not one that stays on top of fashion and design trends...money is a big factor---there's just all sorts of other stuff to buy for a house and family of five-- but really, trends change with the wind. By the time I'm caught up...they've changed! I'll just hang on to all of my clothes forever so that in 20 years, they'll be back in style (I'm sure Nick is excited at that thought!).

Actually...my winter wardrobe is laughable. Mostly hand-me-downs (love hand-me-downs!), a lot of dressy work clothes that I never wear any more, and sweaters that are too hot to wear when chasing kids around the house.

Anyways...color blocking. Back "in" for about a year now (maybe it's out by now!) It can be weird-looking at times, but it works because of that. I like it because it is simple, with little accessorizing needed...and basically any color combination is allowed.  Thank you, I can wear red and purple now and not be a member of the Red Hat Society.  :-P

Pick two or three bold colors and run.

Look at all of this color love.

To get more of an idea...here...look at this!

So...here's my color-blocked baby!

Too busy to stop and smile for the camera.

My first attempt:

Looking at this outfit now...I like it!

But you gotta know...I attempted many more outfits sans shoes.  :-P

#1 Really like it (besides the goofy facial expression!).  I think I'd actually wear it if I lived some place warm enough to wear shorts...yet cool enough to wear long-sleeves.  Hmmmmm...

#2 Can you tell the pants are a pale yellow?

#3 Love. It. The big blue skirt is part of the bridesmaid dress for our wedding.  My sister left it in her old closet at our parents house and I took it!  Muh ha ha ha!  Cheers to many years of taking your sister's clothing!  ;-)

#4 As dressed by Evander.  He was really getting into this mix and match stuff.  

#1 With a duct tape belt.  What?  You don't have one?

#2 Going to the beach!  :-P  

#3 The coat is actually my spring coat, which is a very bright blue.  But you can't tell, can you...

#4 Ketchup and mustard!

#1 Nothing to say, really.

#2 Love it.  Thinking I really like the neon green.  Too bad these really aren't pants to wear in public...but hey!  They're pants to post on your blog!

#3 I feel like a condiment.

#4 I'm just going to go measure something with my duct tape belt that looks like measuring tape when I put it around my neck.  And since I've lost track of how many pictures I've taken...I'm just going to look at the ceiling again like there's a bug up there.

#1 Something's funny.  It might be my pants.

#2  Does the purple and red work for ya?

#3 Marin wanted to carry some purses, too.

#4  Simplicity at its finest.  

It was tons of fun playing with my wardrobe!

Inspiration...or Lack Thereof

So, I've been sitting on lots of lovely new fabric since Christmas...

Meow.

...and then my mother-in-law sent me even MORE fabric!  Lots of scraps and bigger pieces to have fun with.

I just can't decide what to do with it all!  I'm definitely a happy girl dealing with this conundrum.  (I can definitely hear my friend Lexi saying that word!)  ;-)  I have some project ideas, but I just need to make decisions and get into that *doing* phase. I really need to get inspired by something...I haven't really been inspired to write blog posts, either!  Ha.

Where does your inspiration come from?

Lots of people have discovered and are enjoying Pinterest.  Love it.  However, I find myself overwhelmed with the amount of projects I want to try!  Hmmmmm...how Pinteresting. ;-)

I also love this site: Design Seeds  I'm pretty sure my eyes could just be enamored for hours.

Many times, though, I find it just by looking around my world.  Seeing something crafty somewhere and saying, "I can do that!"  Or, finding special things and going from there...

Like these little birdies I found at a Trash-to-Treasure sale when I worked at Tri-C.  I knew I wanted to paint my living room orange....errr....burnt clay.  Yeah.  Burnt clay.

And these beauties I found at the flagship Yankee Candle store in Massachusetts while I was pregnant with Evander.  I knew I wanted his room to be decorated in colors of deep blue, green and turquoise.  Or is it teal?  Turquoise definitely sounds cooler.  Anyhoo...I've been looking for a way to work these back into the home since his bedroom has since been flooded with pinks and purples!  :-)

Cat's eye inspired my kitchen color...which I think needs to be painted over soon.  :-P

And this pillow from Target just gave me the itch to plaster my bedroom wall with painted peonies.

I guess I've got inspiration for wall color down...although, five to six years later, I am ready to go with some lighter colors.  Nick says, "You just painted the kitchen two years ago."  No...it was five years ago, honey.  Yikes.  Time flies.

Now for sewing projects...

Things That Make My Life Easier: Jug for Christmas Lights

This might be a little late for some of you who are speedy to take your Christmas tree down...but this rocked my world this year!!!

You might be saying, ummmmmmm...it's just a plastic jug...

But lookie what he can do!  (In the voice of Yukon Cornelius)

Woahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  

These lights were given to me this year (we needed more after most of our lights when out *after* we got it all decorated, go fig) and this is how they came.  I believe it is a kitty litter container with simple cuts on the sides. 

Decorating the tree with this jug was so hassle free---no tangles, no stretching the cord.  And the best part was, the boys could easily help.  I just handed the jug to them behind the tree and they grabbed the handle no problem and continued on. 

If you do this, don't forget to start with the female end of the plug before you wrap the lights around the jug...like this:

I might make "Things that Make My Life Easier" a thing on here...or maybe not.  Hmmmmm...I've already given props to jam that was at the end of a post all about jelly:  An Ode to Peanut Butter & Jelly.  Jam makes my life easier.  :-)

New Tradition: Heirloom Tablecloth

This is the third year we've had Christmas Eve dinner at our abode.  I say dinner...yes, we eat...but nothing fancy---just homemade pizza and salad!  We've been doing homemade pizza as a family on Christmas Eve for a really long time.  Can't remember how long...but we always had it at my Grandma's house and ate by candlelight out on her patio (indoor patio...it *is* December!).

This year, we started a new tradition!  I got the idea from a magazine...you can read that article here: Heirloom Tablecloth

Everyone signs the tablecloth...and then I will embroider the handwriting onto it to keep forever.  The plan is to break out the sheet...errrr...tablecloth every time we have guests over.  I will use a different color thread for each gathering that we have in order to keep track of which guests were present on which dates.

I just took a giant sheet and covered my table (and actually put a smaller tablecloth on top out of fear of getting the white sheet entirely destroyed and dirty).  We each signed our names with Crayola Washable Markers--no other kind...they completely wash out of clothing (and tablecloths) with no effort.  Once everyone signed, I went to work with the hand stitching.  I worried that my hand stitching was so poor that it would all come out in the wash, but it didn't!  :-)

So for 2011, we will always remember...

We had pizza for Christmas Eve dinner.  Although, I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of pizza to come on future Christmas Eves...

I'm debating whether I should sign it each time.  Of course I'm here!  I cooked!

Marin was here and could only offer sweet scribbles...

Emory could write his name forwards...and backwards...

Annnnnnnnd...we had toilet troubles this holiday season, as evidenced by Evander's drawing of a plunger and overflowing water.  :-P

Of course, we actually had guests who signed the tablecloth, too...I just always feel a little weird posting their photos, photos of their full names, etc. without them knowing it!  :-P

Christmas Roundup

Here's what we've been up to:

We made felt ornaments with these gorgeous sequins that belonged to my Grandma O...

I'm trying to figure out what's on Emory's lips?

We decorated our tree...

And decorated other things, too...

The boys wanted a tree in their room this year!

I got to attend Emory's Christmas party at school...

...And I received this sweet ornament from my boy.  He gave me a GIANT kiss when he handed me the gift bag.  :-)

I got to attend Evander's Christmas party at school, too!  That's me improvising, reading the kids a story as the mom who was going to do a craft with the kids didn't show up.  :-/

...And I received this to go on the fridge.  How stinking cute is this picture?

The boys were in a performance at church for AWANA...Evander had a speaking part!  We obviously missed the "wear red" memo.

...and Emory really like ringing his bells.  :-)

Look at these completely adorable snowmen our neighbor made the kids!  Chocolate bar inside.  :-)

The boys and I got to work on this tree together to help decorate the hallway at Evander's school.

And the pizza crusts are getting ready for their toppings for Christmas Eve dinner!  No one tell my dad that there's whole wheat flour in them.  :-P

And this will be served tonight, too.  Yummmmmmmmm...

The Stockings Were Hung...

This year, I had a lot of fun quilting stockings for my family.  I wanted to try out several different quilt patterns for the first time, and the stockings were the perfect size for doing so.

I really wanted to make this to hang the stockings on: Hang those stockings!  But, alas, time has run out and command strip hooks will have to do.  Maybe next year.

There's one for Big Brother...

Little Brother/Big Brother...

Little Sister...

And even one for Mommy and Daddy...

Self-portrait of apron #6 :-P

I'm totally impressed that they are cuffed and lined as well.  I just happened to have some red lining fabric from my junior year's prom dress from high school.  :-P  I always knew I wanted to make stockings with it!  ;-)

Evander just wanted his whole stocking with the dinosaur fabric.

 

Emory's was a disappearing nine-block pattern.

Marin's was a pinwheel pattern...and I had to applique a shoe to it since she is obsessed with shoes.  :-)

Hourglass pattern...

And chevron.  Thinking I want to make a chevron quilt some day...

Magazine Trees

I first saw these at our Aunt's house last week.  They looked fabulous and she showed me how to make them.  She got the idea from Martha Stewart...so somewhere out there, there is a Martha Stewart instructional five times longer than it needs to be.  :-)

The dancing doggie!  Marin always liked seeing this cover at Bumpa  & Barbie's.

Start with an old magazine.  I really liked working with the Reader's Digest size.  :-)  A bone folder helps with some magazines...not needed for RD as the pages are so thin.

Suddenly, the dancing doggie dropped her drink!

Fold the top right corner down to the bottom left.

Oh, no!  A tornado!

Fold the hypotenuse of the triangle to the binding of the magazine. 

You wouldn't have all of these folds in your photo if you didn't get ahead of yourself. 

Tuck the flap in.  The bone folder comes in hand on this step, as it is nice to fold the flap up first to get a solid crease, and then tuck it in.  Wam, bam, boom!

Do this to all of the pages.

It is best (easier) to do the magazine like an assembly line, and do all the pages with folding step one...then do all the pages with folding step two, etc.  

Excitable Emory

We glittered ours!  Having actual glitter spray would have been more efficient...but we only had clear coat spray and shaker glitter.  Then we added jewels with the hot glue gun.  :-)

And here are your rocket ships...I mean, trees!  They're rocket ships if you are a six-year-old boy.  

So What, I Peeked!?!!

Of course I peeked into my present from Evander!  It's just what I do.  :-P

Evander was soooooo excited for school on Thursday because it was the day his class was allowed to shop in the Santa Secret Shop.  :-)  Multiple times during the bedtime process, he would ask, "My money's in my bag, right???"  It was so fun to watch him leave Thursday morning (usually, kind of sad to see him go), but he would put on the tease of, "I can't tell you what I'm getting you."  :-)

Once he ran off the school bus and came inside at the end of the day, he dumped his bag and all of the goodies with it.  He gave me my present and told me to open it now!  I really tried to explain to him that I wanted to wait so that Mommy had something to open on Christmas Day.  We settled on opening the gifts from him on Christmas Eve.

I knew right away what it was...small, square box.  I tried to drop hints all week:  "Mommy doesn't have pierced ears," "Mommy doesn't really wear jewelry," "Boy, I sure do wish I had a calculator that worked!" ;-)  I just thought, I didn't want to get stuck with a piece of chincy jewelry that I would feel obligated to wear a lot.  Evander didn't get the hints.

But, last night, when I opened the box, the ring just became sweeter, and I fell in love with it.  Granted, he may have been convinced by the mom helper to pick a ring...or convinced by his buddy, Brycen, who bought his mom a ring...but, *this* is what my son lovingly picked for me and this is what he is so eagerly anticipating giving me.  I love it.

I can't wait to hug him on Christmas Eve and thank him for it.  I can't wait to wear it with happiness that he is my son and as a reminder of our love for each other when he is at school.  Almost like an engagement ring, huh?