Crafty Friday: Cherry Blossom Trees

I found this craft on Martha Stewart’s site here. It’s super easy, super cute, and makes for some beautiful spring décor. I’ll let Martha explain how to do it.

Here’s what we did differently:

Instead of jars, we used buckets we got from the $1 spot at Target. [I love the $1 spot, by the way.]

We stuck our sticks into floral foam.

We used hot pink and blue tissue paper instead of soft pink.

We covered our foam with dried moss.

We added little birdhouse stakes also from the $1 spot.

Ta da dah!

Happy Crafting!

nessa dee

Chopped

Well, the boy actually came to me this morning and requested I trim his hair. Shocked? Yes I was. When I discovered why, it made sense. Finn just inherited a paintball helmet that happens to look like a helmet from the game Halo.  The problem was that every time Finn put the helmet on, his long bangs were pressed in front of his eyes, obstructing his vision. That’s a big problem when you’re trying to fight a war in the game room. So, the haircut was necessary for survival.

Once we started, though, Finn remembered why he didn’t like haircuts, and being covered with itchy hair, he started to protest. Crying, begging, bargaining ensued as I struggled to chop off those long locks.  It wasn’t pretty. I eventually drug out the clippers, and for about 30 seconds, he was okay with them. Then hair started to fall again, and the pleading continued. We finally agreed that I would chop 3 more times and call it quits. He carefully counted each cut. I held up my end of the bargain and stopped. Finn jumped in the bath, and now everything’s kosher. And the results? Well, given the circumstances, I don’t think it’s too bad.

Before:

After:

I don’t know why the serious face. I guess if you have a more sophisticated haircut, you have to act the part.

He looks like a big boy now. I want to cry.

It will grow back.

And so the cycle begins again.

xo

nessa dee

Capitol 10k

You might recall last year when I posted about running the Capitol 10K with our friends. If not, just click on the link and refresh your memory. The Cap 10K is the largest 10K in the state and fifth largest in the nation. It’s quite a spectacle because a good percent of the participants dress up in some sort of crazy outfits. Last year, we ran as the Indiana Jones Trilogy. This year we decided to run the race as the Flintstones, complete with foot-propelled cars to carry us to the finish line.

Our beloved Dino [Dan the Chicken Man] was unable to join us this year and we missed him.  Betty has a little Bam Bam on the way, so she met us at the finish line.

We ended up arriving a bit late, but with over 22,000 people participating in this race, we still had to inch our way through the congestion at the starting line.

A photographer managed to catch a lovely action shot:

http://galleries.statesman.com/gallery/2011-capitol-10000-032711/#163000

I think I was being goofy and dancing to some band music. I don’t think, or at least I hope I don’t look like that when I run.

I honestly don’t know why more people don’t dress up for this thing because if you stand out, you get cheered on throughout the race, which makes running the 6 miles more bearable even when you haven’t trained a lick [this seems to be a trend]. About halfway through the race one of the racers led the crowd in an impromptu and very garbled version of the Flintstones theme song. One of the bands playing along the route incorporated Yabba Dabba Doo into the end of his song. We even managed to belt out the song in between gasps as we approached the finish line, although we mistimed the performance and finished the song about 50 meters too early. Oh well. During the race, we managed to plan our costumes for next year’s Cap 10K. Even little “Bam Bam” or “Pebbles” will be a part of the madness. This race certainly spoils us. It’s always a good sign when you just finish a 10K and can’t wait to do it again. It just makes it hard to ever want to run a serious race. [Which I hope to do if my rickety joints will ever recover].

On the mile walk back to our car, we were getting a lot of honks and waves, points and stares. But the funniest response to our costumes was the ambulance that approached from behind, lights on and sirens blaring which actually slowed down on its way to the call to gawk and laugh at our get up.

Another perk to such elaborate costumes…the kids now have new toys that will occupy them for some time:

Now for some ice pack therapy.

xo

nessa dee

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

I’m so excited! I was determined to get a garden planted this year, and we got it done. Well, at least part of it. We ran out of room, so I’m trying to figure out where to put our onions, but nonetheless, we have a small garden. Yay!

We started our day by reading The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. The kids loved this book, and poured over the illustrations for quite some time.Then, we read about how plants grow, and we were primed and ready to start our own little adventure in gardening.

Unlike my last venture in gardening, this took quite a bit more effort. We had to clean out our much neglected corner flowerbed that used to house a Sago Palm, which is a horrible plant to have in any place where children play. That thing is evil. Even its remnants stabbed me quite a few times when I was cleaning out the bed. Though the plant has been gone since fall, its roots remained, and getting those suckers out was a chore! But after a few blisters, some back breaking work, and some bent back fingernails, I managed to get most [I hope enough] of them out.

While I was cursing the sago, Audrie spent her time creating our garden markers. She used old rocks that we kept digging out of the bed to make them.

When all was said and done, we had a garden fit for a king [at least in our eyes], complete with strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, banana peppers, and soon-to-be onions. We also have some seeds that we are going to experiment with, and if it works, we’ll have green beans, bell peppers and basil as well.

It pales in comparison to the giant gardens I helped tend as a kid, but for us, it’s perfect. And if all goes well, I hope to expand it into our unutilized side yard.

xo

nessa dee

Poor Little Quesadilla

Maybe if I had this quesadilla’s fate, I’d be sad, too.

I should have tried to sell this on Ebay, but it was apparently too tasty to save.

xo

nessa dee

Squishy Belly

I love this picture. I love the perspective. I love the juxtaposition of people and animals. And just look at that puppy’s belly. Don’t you just want to squeeze him? I do. Again.

We survived SXSW. I survived the week without my kids. We got very little sleep. I’m going to take 8 naps today. And I really want a squishy belly [besides mine] around the house…be it puppy or baby.

I’m off for round 1 of nap taking.

xo

nessa dee

Liar, liar, pants on fire

Remember on Tuesday when I told you to look for new prints in the shop later that day? If you looked, I apologize. Sometimes I lie. I like to think that I have it together and can do a million things in a day, but in reality, if I get one thing crossed off my list, that’s saying something.

I’m finally listing the new prints as I’m typing this up. Hopefully by the time I’m finished here, they will all be in the shop. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

So there you have it.

In other, mommy news, I miss my kids terribly. They’ve been at their grandparent’s for the week. I spend almost every bit of every day with them, so you would think that a little break would be nice, but I’ve been moping around the house all week, not knowing what to do with myself.

Just look at those sweet faces. [sniff, sniff]

I sure am glad Finn tells me he’s going to live with me forever.

xo

nessa dee

Don’t Pinch Me!

Happy St. Patty’s Day! To stave off a good pinching, my blog is wearing green today, but not just any green. This green is coming from my hometown’s Wild Hog Cook-Off which is where we disappeared to for the weekend. It’s always a dusty affair. It’s hot. It’s noisy. It hosts the world’s shortest parade. But there’s always good food, good friends, and a carnival.

[carnival rides sans kids pics taken by Jonathan]

Well, that’s enough green…I hope. Can you tell that I’ve been having fun with photo editing lately? I’m using the free program Picnik. If you don’t have it yet, you should get it. It has some super awesome photo effects like Cinemascope and 1970’s and Cross Process which is what I used to give these carnival photos a vintage feel. I’m sure I’ll look back at my pictures one day and say” What was I thinking?” but for now, I’m having fun. The only downfall to this program is the hours wasted sitting in front of the computer giving one photo forty different looks.

So, I’m sorry for all of the funky photo editing lately. I’m sure there will be a lot more to come.  I apologize for that, too.

xo

nessa dee

Etsy @ SXSW

In pictures…what few I have:

I’d say the weekend was pretty successful. I was only there on Sunday evening, but from what I saw, Etsy Austin got a lot of exposure. I got to meet some of the Etsy staff who were all super nice, and I met a lot of other interesting folks along the way. On top of that, CNN.com featured an article on Etsy and Etsy Austin, and my paintings were amongst the items featured in the picture! Click on the picture to see the full article.

[photo by Anna Gonzalez]

Well, I’ll be back soon with more pics of what we did the over the weekend, plus what we’ll be doing the rest of this week.

xo

nessa dee

Etsy Front Page

I made my very first Etsy treasury last Thursday of items made by talented members of Etsy Austin. I found out that the page I created made it to the front page of Etsy on Saturday!

This is a screenshot of the treasury I created on the front page of Etsy:

See my name right there:

Just thought I’d share.

In other news, I will have some new prints hitting the shop later today, so keep your eyes peeled.

xo

nessa dee

Yummy goodness

Audrie spotted a magazine with homemade ice cream sandwiches on the cover of a magazine while in the checkout line at the grocery store. She then had permission to dash to the frozen section and grab a couple of flavors of ice cream before we finished checking out. We went home and created yummy goodness.

I love last minute ideas.

xo

nessa dee

BTW: Don’t forget to come check Etsy Austin out at the Etsy SXSW event. Click on the link for details:

Etsy @ SXSW

Do you like music? Are you in the market for some fresh, handmade gear? Do you have an itch to craft? Have you ever thought about having your picture taken with an 8ft tall hairless cat named Babsy?  Then the Etsy at SXSW event is for you. Just click on the picture for more details of what will be a smashing good time this weekend:

I’ll be out there myself Sunday afternoon crafting it up and giving out free swag, so drop on by and say hi!

xo

nessa dee

Signs of Spring

The outdoors have exploded with color over the last week. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I’m loving every minute of it.

All of these gorgeous colors are surrounding our house at the moment; and combined with the chirping of the birds, these signs of spring are enough to make even grumpiest of grumpy pants happy.

xo

nessa dee