Plans

Shelves x 2:

+ window seat:

=

[modern kids design by san francisco architect Feldman Architecture, Inc.]

Or something to that effect.

xo

nessa dee

The Pond

We’re back from a long weekend at my in-laws’ house. We always enjoy our time there with good company, open spaces, and the pond.

My kids would spend all day at this pond if I let them. There’s so much to explore, so much life to observe, and mud to get into.

And the occasional boot lost in the mud is only a small sacrifice compared to the joy the pond brings.

xo

nessa dee

Print Fever

I don’t have a Crafty Friday craft project prepared for today due to the fact that my Crafty Friday participants weren’t feeling so hot this week. Actually, they were feeling very hot, too hot, 102 degrees fever hot. Can you believe all they wanted to do was lay around the house and watch movies, and they didn’t want to do craft projects?? Wouldn’t have been my choice.

In turn, I’m left without a craft for today, but at least my sweeties are feeling much better thanks to all that rest, some Tylenol, and a lot of ice cream. [I followed the old saying:: "Feed a cold, give a fever ice cream.”] So what are you going to get today besides my ramblings? Some new prints!

These three guys are joining the shop today:

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And on another note, I just wanted to wish my dear, sweet mom a happy birthday, today! You’re an inspiration to us all, Mom. I love you very much!

If you don’t know my mom, she’s a school librarian and an author of four, soon-to-be five books. Check out her sites and her books:

http://donnavancleve.com/

http://shelfmouse.blogspot.com/

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I’ll be out of town for a long weekend, and while I strive to blog when I’m gone, I probably won’t.

Until next week,

nessa dee

Fall Furniture Rearranging

I am happy to announce that my fall decorating is complete [kinda, sorta]. After I retrieved my box of fall junk from the garage and started distributing things around the house, I almost threw in the towel. I don’t have my house set up the way I want it just yet and throwing fall foliage on top of everything doesn’t seem to help. But one little text triggered a whole heapin’ spoonful of crazy. And what was that magic text?

“No soccer practice tonight.”

No soccer practice? My evening just opened up? Well, then…I’ll just move a piano.

Yep, I made the decision to move our piano out of our dining room and in to the office, which then led to other ventures such as moving our black display cabinet as seen here into the dining room…

I was almost crazy enough to start painting the dining room that evening. It’s funny how a two extra hours in your schedule can make you think you can accomplish all those projects on your to do list that have been put off for weeks because of time constraints.

So I didn’t paint the dining room. But I did get most of my decor arranged sans a few things that haven’t found their rightful place.

[Flower arrangement by Audrie]

I also had some help from our resident do-it-yourselfer. Here’s our fireplace ala Finn:

Here’s our fireplace, round 2…

with a touch of Finn…

Now, all I have to do is to set the table. Oh, and address the huge mess I made as a result of moving bookshelves and cabinets full of books that will no longer house books, and do the laundry I neglected while decorating, and take care of my sick kids, etc. etc.

I’m awaiting another magic text message.

xo

nessa dee

Happy Fall!

I should be cleaning the mess that is my house, but instead, I’ve decided to make an even bigger mess. Fall decor has finally exploded in my home.

I’ve been meaning to decorate my house since the 1st of September, but as it is, life gets in the way, and I just haven’t found the time. And to tell you the truth, my house still hasn’t recovered from our move. I still have boxes I need to unpack, and rooms to set up, and pictures to hang, but that takes thought and planning; so instead I’m going to strewn garland, pumpkins, and fall foliage around to mask the fact that I haven’t put my house together…after 4 months of living here.

See what’d I tell you. A few stuffed pumpkins to flank a picture that should be on the wall, and no one will even know the difference.

I really don’t need to do much decorating when it comes to fall. My house is already full of warm, autumn colors. It wasn’t planned, it just happened. I bought a rug I liked, I painted a painting with the same colors, throw in matching pillows and curtains, and my house looks perfectly decorated for one season out of the year.

Every spring I tell myself I’m going to lighten and brighten things up, but with that rug, I don’t have much room to play. So I just leave it alone and I don’t invite anyone over until the leaves start changing colors. Then it looks intentional.

I’ll invite you all in for a tour once if I get it decorated. Until then, enjoy the changing of the seasons!

xo

nessa dee

The Weekend

Jonathan and a friend decided that we should try our hand at sailing the open seas this weekend, so we packed up our families and rented a boat. We really didn’t sail, though, as much as started a motor. And the open seas, well, it was more of a lake. Nonetheless, we were boat people for a day.

The kids were so excited to be on this super fast boat that topped out at about 35mph. To the girls, we were on a jet boat.

Finn was on a pirate ship for a day. He made sure that we were well prepared for our voyage.

He even tried his hand at “sailing” the ship.

The girls rode the inner tube shrieked ear piercing screams most of the time.

Finn and I gave it a try, but he wasn’t too excited about the whole thing, and we stopped shortly after getting on.

Then the guys competed to see who could “surf” on the tube the longest, but I wasn’t able to snap pictures quick enough before the plunged into the water.

They also tried to throw each other off the tube, but a pontoon boat isn’t geared for speed, so their efforts were fruitless.

We eventually found a nice place to swim for a while…

and then called it a day and headed back to shore before an ominous looking storm hit. I was somewhat expecting to get caught in a raging storm given that our last adventure with this family was our notorious camping trip that ended in us packing up during a torrential downpour. Thankfully, we made it back safe and sound, not stranded on a deserted island like the Swiss Family Robinson. Otherwise, we might have been forced to build an elaborate tree house, like this:

xo

nessa dee

Crafty Friday: Picasso Portraits

This Crafty Friday project was a lot of fun, so much so that I even got in on the action. We started off learning a bit about Picasso and his influence as one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century. We looked at a variety of his paintings and discussed how his style evolved over time. Then, we got to work on our own portraits.

Here’s what you need:

-paper

-scissors

-glue

-found objects [clothespins, newsprint, beans, buttons, yarn, etc.]

-markers

My kids really liked Picasso’s Three Musicians, so we used the painting as inspiration for our own portraits.

Finn was a bit intimidated to tackle a self portrait at first.  He thought he was going to have to paint a portrait like the masters, but once he saw this painting, he regained hope.

The first thing I encouraged my kids to do was to think outside the box. They typically try to follow a conventional way of making a portrait, making every feature proportional and symmetrical. I ended up making my own portrait to show them that their portraits could be as strange as they wanted them to be. See exhibit A:

Looks just like me, don’t you think?

This was the nudge they needed to get creative with their own faces. 

We resulted in some pretty imaginative portraits…

with quite a likeness to their creators…

Happy Crafting!

nessa dee

IF: Proverb

“…for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.”

-Proverbs 8:11

*This is a portrait of my daughter. She loves to read and reads all the time. It’s amazing what knowledge she gains through her reading. While I believe that wisdom far exceeds any earthly wealth in value, if I truly wanted to illustrate the verse, it would be my daughter reading the Bible because the theme throughout the book of Proverbs is that true wisdom cannot be gained apart from God. *

xo

nessa dee

Audrie’s Tree…in progress

The work in Audrie’s room is slow going, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday, we finally started Audrie’s tree mural after scanning hundreds of pictures for the kind of tree she wanted. Each of us drew a tree and decided that something in between my large, stretched out tree and her small, compact tree would work best.

[Audrie’s drawing]

Here is what we have so far…

Audrie had a little squirrel in her tree, but we decided to put him on the ground. She also decided that just one bird silhouette in the tree was enough. We added the second bird off to the side.

The original plan was to keep the mural on just the one wall, but we just might extend it to add a little fawn next to Audrie’s vanity. We’ll keep you posted.

xo

nessa dee