House Project ~ Necklace Holder

December was filled with house projects... cleaning out, organizing and getting rooms to fit our family's needs best. Several years ago my husband routered out the word "love" onto a wooden board and I painted it white. I had the idea to put a photo on the right. Well I never got around to adding a photo and it was put in a closet for a long time. I know, shame on me! Well fast forward to last month...

I have always wanted to hang my necklaces. The top of our dresser was lined with them and there was no space left. I had several pictures saved on my desktop showing creative ways to make a necklace holder. I also had many more ideas floating around in my mind. Well when I was rearranging the corner in our master bedroom I knew I was going to push myself to finally get something made and hung so I would be able to stop moving my jewelry collection in order to dust the top of our dresser. Plus it was looking way too cluttered.

While working in the bedroom I was also rearranging the playroom and going through a few things in the playroom closet when I came across the "love" board once again. I held it a few minutes and bam, I knew exactly how to make it useful for my needs! I was so excited! All I needed was the help of handy hubby again to make my idea a reality. (I'm sure I could have handled the project myself but he's so much quicker and if I did it, I'm sure it wouldn't have looked as nice.)

My new dressing corner with my new, unique necklace holder. I now love this space!

It is a tiny master (we'll call it cozy) but it does have a pretty nice walk in closet for an old house so it fits our needs perfectly. Now there is a girly corner and an awesome jewelry space saver that is like a piece of art in itself. :)

 

Close-up view of love routered out.

I penciled in dots where I wanted nails and hubby put in pretty brass nails.

There is room to layer many more necklaces.

 

I'm a happy girl... I'm sure you couldn't tell. :)

Thanks hubby for all your work! You're the best!

 

If you want a necklace holder like this, I bet hubby would make you one.

You can contact him through Wisp Woods, or by emailing wispwoods@gmail.com

You can also browse through more of his beautiful woodworking on his site.

 

Stepping Out

 

"Put your weak hand in the mighty hand of God,

then step out into the dark with courage.

It will be far better for you than the light,

and safer than a familiar road." ~Marie Louise Haskins

 

Saddened by Copycats

First I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Blogging has been put on the bottom of my priority list lately... just not enough time. Some fun projects have been happening around our house lately, but more on that later. I didn't intend on having this my first post of the new year but I thought it needed to be shared.
Over the last year or so I've read several blogs where artists and designers were telling about their artwork or designs being stolen. At first I was thinking, oh they are so well known, they've sold thousands of products so it was bound to happen. I definitely felt bad for them and knew it was wrong of the person/people to take their idea without permission, recreate it and sell it. NO ONE should copy someone else's work and sell it!!! Well I don't consider myself as a well known artist or designer, but I recently found out that several shops had taken my designs, recreated them and were selling them as their own. First I was in shock, disbelief that not only one or two but several shops were using my designs that I had spent several hours creating. Sure my designs are simple to REcreate. Lots of artwork is easy to recreate, it's the initial idea, coming up with a layout that works, that is eye pleasing, in some of my designs fonts that work well together... the beginning process is not so easy! After I get the general idea I want (after doing many sketch-ups), I fine tune the design by kerning, paying special attention to white space, making the overall "look" as professional as possible. I like to think my 4 years of graphic design in college taught me a few things. I know it did. Problem is very few people see all the initial work put into designs or any kind of artwork. Many see the final piece and say they can make that and go on from there. Now if you are recreating the art/design for yourself to enjoy, I say go for it! It is a great way to save money. Enjoy the process of creating it and hang on to it, it could be a great keepsake. The WRONG thing to do is to take someone else's idea/design/art, recreate it and sell it as your own! This is stealing! What you can do is learn from the artist, get ideas, then add in YOUR OWN ideas to make it into your own artwork. Art/designs should not be recognizable to someone else's work. Remember that the originator put a lot of time and thought into their work and are most likely hoping their effort pays off.

These designs were made by me for my Enduring Arts shop and should not be seen other places. (Unless it is an off-line shop that is selling my work.)

Slightly tweaking the font or changing the color is not a big enough change to make it your own.

There are hundreds of ways to make sayings entirely unique by changing the layout of the words

and making big changes to fonts.

 

With so many pictures online, it seems that it is becoming harder and harder for people to think for themselves... to come up with their own ideas. I'm hoping imagination isn't something of the past.

 

[Thank you to the shops that have kindly removed the look alike designs from their shops.]

Hope

I couldn't help but think about the CT tragedy over the weekend and today when I was helping with preschool. I am sure the thoughts will continue for a long time. I don't know if I can even find the right words to express what I'm feeling. My heart hurts for the children, families and school staff. Hopefully some good can come from the horrific event that occurred. I hope it will shine some light on mental illnesses; the people who are struggling with it cannot just be pushed aside like nothing is wrong, they need love and help! I pray that all those involved with the tragedy are able to find support and peace.

This past weekend was our church's Christmas program. The kids replayed the story of Jesus's birth. When you think of His story it also involved tragedy but thank God the story doesn't end there. There is hope for something so much better.

{my little K sheep on the right}

{photo of Kaelyn by her Grandma Cindy}

Kaelyn was thrilled to have her cousin and grandparents come to her Christmas program. She said the only bad part of the day was when everyone had to go home. :)
Little ones are so precious... family, time, love mean more to them than any "thing" could.

Jesus said,"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

The Snow has Arrived

I was starting to wonder if we were going to have a white Christmas or not since the weather has been so nice lately. Well, early Friday morning I awoke to Kaelyn yelling, "Mom it snowed! It snowed! Look out the window!!!" She was so excited and couldn't wait to get home from school so we could play in it together. :) Then Saturday morning she played in the snow with her neighbor friends. (I lucked out and didn't have to get out that day and be a target for snowballs.)

 

Then Sunday we had a blizzard...

 

You would think it was finally calming down and then another big gust with snow...

So thankful to have a nice warm house, electricity and time with my family. K and I played lots of games this weekend. Junior Monopoly and My First Skip-Bo were a couple of our favorites. :)

 

Hope you had a great weekend and stayed warm!

The Unknown



Be still and let God... sometimes that is all we can and should do.

 

Little did I know how much my own work of art was telling me. I'm not sure I'll ever get over trying to control things in my life. It is so hard to sit back and just let things happen. Sometimes moves have to be made in order for change to occur. I guess I'm not the best at knowing when to make a move and when to be still. Our family had some huge plans in progress but something else recently came up and everything has been thrown up in the air. I realize once again, I am not in control. All we can do is be still and let God show us His way. Our journey continues...

Corolla

I'm not quite sure what happened to November? It was a whirlwind to say the least... a roller coaster of emotions. Hopefully December will be a little more laid back and we can enjoy the Christmas festivities. To get myself thinking of more relaxing things I can at least turn to these photos... second best to actually being there.

Here's Corolla Beach...

We originally headed up to the northern part of Corolla to find the wild horses. Little did we know you had to have 4 wheel drive to get there and hiking wasn't an option. Since I like to watch my pennies we didn't go with the spendy tours to get there so we opted for some beach fun.

Corolla Beach was beautiful but it was a lot more crowded then Coquina Beach (farther south) and it didn't have any of the amenities that Coquina had. Your car was the changing room.

Horses or not, Kaelyn was thrilled to get back on the boogie board...

 

Right across from Corolla Beach we found Currituck Lighthouse.

and we were all for climbing the 214 stairs to see the views from the top.

Once back on the ground level we found a fun little nature path.

Even though we didn't see what we originally planned we had a lot of fun and spent very little. Can't beat that! :)

From the princess...

 

Happy Halloween!!!

 

♥ Kaelyn {age 4}

Quote to Ponder

 

"Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before,

but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God." ~ Ram Dass

Life Lately

Just a few random things from our life lately...

{K loves having visitors!}

{Our pastor told K she could pick a pumpkin from their patch... she was so excited!}

{Fire Safety at preschool... she was one of the few girls who wasn't afraid of the trucks & firefighters.
She tried on some gear and even got to spray water. She had so much fun! Photo taken by her teacher.}

{Hubby ran the Jack 15 ~ 15 mile run from White to Brookings}

{Still having fun at 10+ miles}

{K loves to cheer on her daddy and finish races with him.}

{K got a medal for finishing too! David did a fantastic job and beat most of the relay teams!}

{Pumpkin party at Grandma Cindy's}

{Riding horse with cousin Laney}

Bless Her Always Prayer

 



I remember days of searching everywhere for a good kids Christian gift. There weren't many stores nearby that gave me many options and rarely did something say just the right thing... so down the road it led me to create my own items. Thank goodness etsy has made shopping so much easier! :) Here is my newest prayer that is currently available in my shop. The print comes from my original acrylic painting. I've always liked to give the letters a bit of a vintage/worn look to represent a lasting faith. Here's a cropped shot to show the detail:

 

Due to special requests, boy versions (like this one) of the prayer are also available.