Hello, Tow Truck

This morning, I was greeted by a student of Hogwart's [not Harry Potter, I was informed...they just go to the same school],

and though he worked very hard performing all kinds of magic spells,

he couldn't fix my car. So, he just watched as the tow truck hauled it away, and I prayed that I wouldn't go into labor today. I really don't want to ride in my husband's truck to the hospital. It has no air conditioning.

Oh, Mondays.

xo

nessa dee

Crafty Friday: Dioramas

Audrie has embarked on a new venture after I gave her a tiny box to do with as she pleased. This sparked an idea, and she's decided to make miniature dioramas to sell. Here's the one that started it all:

It's really supposed to have a red dragon in it instead of a deer, but Audrie's been making short films with this scene, and I'm not sure where the dragon disappeared to. Also, it has a little blue, glassy-looking pond that I failed to capture in the picture.

After making this little scene, Audrie needed some supplies, so I hauled her to Hobby Lobby yesterday, and she loaded up on small plastic animals, and little paper mache' boxes. Here is her second attempt:

With all of the toy buying, though, Finn thought he needed some new toys to play with. I tried my best to explain to Finn that Audrie was investing her own money in these items in the hopes of making some more money in return, and that he didn't need any new toys just to play with, but oh, this cunning little child did not give up without a fight.

"Mom, I want to start making dioramas, too, but I need Army guys to put in them," said the future lawyer.

Who am I to stand in the way of creativity? So, it was back to Hobby Lobby today, and with his money, I let him pick one package of toys, not the three he originally picked, for I know these dioramas of his will never leave his possession, nor will the toys be permanently affixed to the box.

We spent the afternoon gathering leaves and sticks and rocks, and Finn went to work.

Working from the back to the front, he ended up with an outdoor scene complete with trees, rocks, a stream, bridge, and tee pees...

a perfect background for his Army men.

Happy crafting!

xo

nessa dee

IF: Refresh

A day at the beach sounds like an absolutely refreshing idea.

xo

nessa dee

Hello, Monday!

What is the beginning of the week going to look like for us? Maybe it will bring us a new baby. Maybe it will give us some more time to get prepared, [although I never know if anyone's truly prepared for the arrival of a little one]. Maybe this day will bring us a new adventure, or a new project, or a new idea. Whatever the case, we are going to try our best to make the most of this day.

First things first...

:: I am trying to motivate myself to trim out the baby's curtains. Sewing is not my forte, nor is it particularly enjoyable for me, so I've been putting this project off for quite a while. But, I can't wait too much longer, so I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and do it.

:: The cradle is in place, and is a constant reminder of what's to come. This cradle is pretty special.  It was made by Jonathan's grandfather, and so far, all of the grandchildren, and great-grand children have slept in it. Baby Boy will be the second of three great-grandkids to sleep in the cradle this year. You'd think we purposefully spaced out our due dates so that each baby would get a turn in the cradle, but we just got lucky.

:: I've been trying to get the house ready for the onslaught of family that's sure to arrive once the baby's born, and the kids have been helping me quite a bit. They took it upon themselves to create some additional rooms in our house so our guests will each have their own space.

:: I was sitting in the baby's room this morning, and this vignette of colors made me happy...

This makes me want to paint all of my furniture in bright, happy colors.

:: Does anyone want a rug? I bought this rug two months ago after a long search for something textural and soft. And while I love the look, I didn't anticipate the war I'd have to wage against the light fibers on my dark floors. Lesson learned. This is the West Elm 'Pebble' rug very similar to this one minus the jute. It's 8x10' and retailed for $699. I bought it at Pottery Barn Outlet for $300 + tax, and I want to sell it for $175 OBO. 

If you're in the Austin area, don't have dark floors, and are interested, just let me know. We are rolling it up today to keep it stain free, and we are starting another rug search...something a little darker this time.
Farewell, Marshmallow Rug!

:: Did I tell you that I wrote a children's book? Well, I did! I don't consider myself a writer, but this book idea came to me from one of my Illustration Friday entries. I'm trying to polish it up, and make a dummy book to submit to agents and publishers. I'm not sure if anything will come of it, but if I don't give it a try, than absolutely nothing will come of it.

:: I said I would post a belly pic [I don't know why], so here it is...

No, that isn't a watermelon, and no, the baby hasn't dropped, although complete strangers have been telling me he has for a month now. This pregnancy's been quite amusing. I've had more random strangers comment on, or rub my belly, or tell me that I must be having a boy. The other day as I was walking through a store, some young guy yelled out "Wow! Congratulations on your baby!" with such intensity that I just had to laugh. It's so comical, and I think I'm going to miss it all once he's here.

Happy Monday!

xo

nessa dee

Big Boy

I went in for a sonogram on Friday because I'm still measuring pretty large.I look like I'm hiding a basketball under my shirt. Everywhere I go people tell me I must be due any day now. I get sympathetic smiles from other moms, and I even freaked out a couple of small children. The look on their faces was one of shear terror. It was priceless.  If you don't believe me, here's proof, and keep in mind this was taken a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not due until July 31:

If you're lucky, I might post a belly pic of what I look tomorrow, hopefully without the crazy eyes.

The sonogram revealed a few things
.
The first is that my baby's measuring in the 98th percentile. He's estimated to be 7 lbs. already, and if my due date's not off [which I think it is], I'm going to end up with a newborn the size of a 3 month old. Eek!
Here's a pic of his little foot that keeps kicking my right side and hipbone:

The second is that this baby is really low, which judging by the pain when I walk, I could have told you that much. His head's so low and his position is such that the technician couldn't get his whole face in the 3-D pictures. All we have are pics of his nose and mouth:

I think if I attempted to do a high kick, he might just fall out.

The final thing, and the one that amused the technician quite a bit is that this baby loves to stick out his tongue. The whole time we were in there, Baby Boy kept opening his mouth, puckering up his lips, and sticking that tongue out at us.

After all was said and done, the technician told me that I better feed this boy, because he looks like he's ready to eat. Audrie decided his name should be Lipson, or Lipton because of his preoccupation with his lips, and at this point we might just have to since we can't decide on any other names. I'm hoping I'll have a dream which will tell me what to name this kid, but as my dreams have revolved around fears like my pediatrician not taking our insurance, or trying to climb a narrow, dangerous staircase while holding a newborn and groceries, I doubt any name revelations will come to me.

Any suggestions? The only stipulation [from my kids] is that this baby has to have an 'x' in his middle name like Audrie and Finn.

xo

nessa dee

Crafty Friday: Stained Glass Silhouette Collages

Are you ready for some good ol' down home craftin'? I thought so. This craft, though pretty, probably isn't good for the real littles, or cranky 6 year olds, or impatient people. It can probably be easily modified for the littles, or cranky 6 year olds, or impatient people, but as I was impatient dealing with my cranky 6 year old, I didn't figure out an alternative for the littles.

Here's what you need:  

-paper

-magazines

-scissors

-glue

-a simple silhouette to trace

-patience, lots of patience

The first step in this craft is figuring out what silhouette you'd like to use; The simpler, the better. I picked a whale from an old pattern I created for my artwork. Audrie picked an owl sitting on a moon from a silhouette we found online. Once you find your shape, cut it out and lay it on your paper to be traced, like so: 

Then, trace the picture:

The silhouette will be created by filling in the space around the traced picture.

The next step is to pick one color, and start cutting out pieces from magazines in that color family.  For example, I picked orange, so I cut out every shade of orange I could find.  The idea is to get a variety of shades and textures for your picture. 

Once you get your pieces cut out, go ahead and cut out more. Then, when you're done cutting out more pieces, go ahead and cut out even more. It takes a lot.

Then, when you're finished destroying your magazines, you can start gluing. Cover every bit of exposed paper surrounding your traced shape, leaving the silhouette itself white.

Here's where you'll be thanking the stars that you chose a simple silhouette, or, if you decided to add details like water droplets spraying up from a whale, here's the point where you start cursing.

After several days, with magazine pieces glued to your hands, face, and clothes, having lost all sanity, you'll glue the final few pieces on and then break down and cry out of sheer joy and exhaustion. And you'll end up with a pretty picture.

[I went ahead and added some blue so the whale could have an ocean to swim on.]

Now, Audrie took a slightly different approach to her silhouette which can be more time consuming and require more patience, hence why I didn't attempt this method. She made her picture look more like a stained glass window by leaving white space between each magazine piece, like so:

And here's her finished piece:

She got really fancy and used trees and clouds with her picture. I don't know why she always has to upstage me and do something infinitely cooler. Show-off.

I'm thinking if I ever muster up the patience again [which I probably won't], I want to create a set of these pictures and frame them. I love how they look.

Happy Crafting!

xo

nessa dee

IF: Space

xo

nessa dee