February Photo Recap

A few highlights from the past month...

{Rainbow drawing by Kaelyn, age 4, for her rainbow birthday party}

{Happy Fifth Birthday!}

Allergy friendly vanilla cake with buttercream frosting ~ tasted like marshmallow cake. K loved it even though she's normally a chocolate cake kind of girl. One of her friends also had some allergies so soy ingredients were omitted too. We used coconut oil as a replacement for the palm oil shortening. There were no egg, wheat, dairy, peanut, nut, or soy products used. Recipe and other allergy friendly birthday cakes can be found HERE. Just be aware it takes a long time to make. :)

 

{Pumpkin pancakes for Valentines day breakfast.}

{K's valentine bear box for school}

{Kaelyn designed a bicycle mug for her daddy's valentines gift. This is his bike.}

{my bike and her bike}

A fun family outing...

{Super easy Banana Oatmeal Cookies}

{Creatively pulling a sled!}

{homemade veggie/fruit drink} 

Tips on getting a kiddo to drink them... call them super power drinks! Have them help put the ingredients in the blender and push the buttons. Add just enough fruit so it has a sweet taste that disguises the veggies. :) I've been taking a couple health classes lately online and have been learning so much about food, sugars and organic living. I'm hopeful I can feel "normal" again!

Yummy Treats that are Healthy too!

Finding out Kaelyn's allergies last summer and recently finding out I have some food intolerances has made cooking a lot more interesting. Most of you probably know I am not a kitchen person so feeding a kiddo that can't have egg, wheat, dairy, peanuts or any kind of nut products... well it put me in a bit of a shock on what to feed her at first. No quick meals like mac and cheese, chicken nuggets or your usual peanut butter and jelly on regular bread. Luckily a neighbor gave me some helpful tips last year since her son has several allergies too. After doing more research the last few months it has become much easier to feed Kaelyn and really it has made cooking a bit more exciting for me. Crazy right?! I now look at recipes and think, how can a make this work? How can I make it as healthy as possible for her and me? It's more like a game I have to figure out and if Kaelyn likes what turns out, I win. :) We have done lots of veggie and fruit smoothies but sometimes you just need a real treat. Well how can you do it a healthy way? Thanks to pinterest, I found some fun ideas. If you already follow my boards I'm sure you've seen these but now you'll know they are worth trying. :)
Below the photos I put the ingredients I used. You can click on the link to take you to the photo and it has the site listed in the corner which will take you to the actual recipe.

Breakfast shake - oats, cocoa powder, coconut milk, cinnamon, frozen bananas, sunflower butter (sunflower butter is similar to peanut butter but Kaelyn friendly)

 

Banana Oatmeal Cookies ~ bananas, quick oats, bit of cocoa and cinnamon,

vanilla, dairy free mini choc. chips  and a little sunflower butter

Just made these. I did try some with just the bananas, oats, cinnamon, and a few

choc. chips and they were good too. I didn't think K would like them much since they

weren't too sweet tasting, but she loved them! Hooray!

 

Easiest Ice Cream ~ Frozen bananas, cocoa, splash of coconut milk and sunflower butter

I loved it!

 

Here are a few pins I thought looked delicious and want to try next:

Vegetable Curry

 

Quinoa Cookies

 

Oatmeal Casserole ~ will have to do some variations on this one.

 

Have you found some delicious recipes on pinterest?

If so please share in the comments. I would love to check them out.

Trying New Things {horse on wood}

Working on wood isn't new for me, but allowing the wood grain to show through is. I'm having fun experimenting with this one. The way I finish the horse is going to be completely unexpected... I'm not even quite sure how it will end, but it will encourage some thought from the viewer to make sense of it. Few will probably understand it, but to me it will make perfect sense.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination,

because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise,

gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

~Joseph Addison

Five!

I can't believe my baby is already five. Sure some days she seems well beyond her age... like when she talks about her boyfriend who she is going to marry. ;) Her daddy won't let that happen any time soon. But really it doesn't seem that long ago I was holding her in my arms in complete awe.

Best day of my life.

She has taught me so much.

Crazy how someone so small can teach you more than you could ever imagine. :)

 

Last Friday was her birthday.

She got a morning surprise with five baby roses from her grandpa Bob. Seriously, how sweet is that!?

After celebrating her b-day at school she came home to more surprises from her mom and dad and her grandma Shari who had made her another adorable hat.

 

Then Saturday was a little rainbow celebration with friends...

 Thank you to all those who called her, sent cards and packages. You made her day! :)

 

We are so blessed to have you in our lives Kaelyn Jade.

Happy fifth!

Another Painting on Wood ~ In Progress

Chugga-chugga choo-choo! This train project has honestly pushed me more than any other. At first the 4 foot by 4 foot size was a bit overwhelming plus the constant blending of colors... but I'm finally seeing it come together, and that is a good feeling. The clock is ticking... not much time left to get it completed and on its way to its home. Then next on the agenda is to celebrate two special birthdays. :)

Flashback

With freezing temps (windchill -35 to -40) here in SD I thought it would be fun to look at some warm weather photos. Here are a few I meant to get on the blog in 2012 but never got around to...

Enjoying the playhouse, and look my awesome play kitchen I had when I was little! :)

North Carolina sand dunes. Headed to the dune mountain on the far right.

David and K made it to the top.

I made it up too. :)

Awesome views and a great place for everyone to be a kid again.

We could have played in the sand all day... or week for that matter.

Gardens in Virginia ~ BEAUTIFUL!

Kaelyn actually posed for 2 minutes for me this year so I could get some

good Christmas photos for family! Hee, hee. She normally hates standing still for a picture.

I'll take anything I can get. :)

2012 definitely had its not so great moments but we made the best with what came our way and it turned out to be a pretty great year. We are very thankful for God's many blessings.

House Project ~ Bookcase Built-ins

Yay! We finally have bookcase built-ins! I have always wanted some in our home... they add such a welcoming, cozy feeling to a space, and my husband is pretty much a bookaholic. :) I was lucky that he left me a couple shelves to fill and Kaelyn got half of a shelf... but he did make her her own bookcase for her room quite awhile ago so it's okay. (You can see a glimpse of it in the nursery tour HERE. Her room has changed quite a bit and her bookcase definitely has a lot more books now.)

 

I really wanted our many stacks of books all over to be better organized. Well when David got the urge to build some bookcases over Christmas break I said it had to go from floor to ceiling... because really that is the best use of space. So glad he went with my idea!

 

So here is the only picture I could find that showed a glimpse of the old bookcase we had in the room before. It worked great but didn't hold near the amount of books we needed it to.

And here is the in progress photo showing what hubby designed and built for the space...

Several people wondered if we'd be able to fill much of it. Ha, ha. They had no idea!

 

Anyways, then it was my job to caulk and paint. Hubby was so excited to get his books on the shelves that he actually helped paint. It was almost killing him to wait a few days for the paint to cure before putting anything on the shelves. :)

Not much space left in this bookcase so maybe we'll have to make another one for our living room someday, right hun? :)

Painting & Planning

After a good little birthday break of visiting with friends and spending some time with family this weekend it is back to work on a couple commission projects and planning a soon to be five year olds birthday. She is soooo excited! :)

Hope you all had a great weekend and will have a good week as well!

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.]