Goodbye 2010!

I was looking back at the New Year's Resolutions I made last January to see how faithful I had been to my goal for 2010, and I was really surprised by all that we were able to accomplish.
Goal: Progress on House (Paint: Den, Bedroom, Studio; Carpet: Studio; Retile: Bathroom)

I had a whole bunch of projects for our house and almost every single thing I mentioned got finished; with the exception of the bathroom. But it such a relief to almost have our home completely updated. And I couldn't have done it without Kelly's help. He played a MAJOR role in getting most things finished and looking right. But our bathroom is about to be tackled we've almost reached our goal in our savings to be able to start working on it. It will be one of our biggest undertakings yet.
Goal: Find inexpensive/modern/mid-century furniture for our home.

Second, I realized that the dream of getting all the furniture I wanted for our house was going to be a little difficult with our funds and my pickiness. And that's okay, we did manage to get my grandmother's couch reupholstered and as soon as I find the perfect fabric I will get her wingback reupholstered as well. I scored so really great pieces of art and bought curtains for most of the rooms.
Goal: Get my sewing machine out of the box that I get for Christmas last year and get crafty.

Third, I guess you can say I halfway met this goal. I got the sewing machine out of the box. I just didn't take the time this year to learn how to use it. So I will carry that resolution over to 2011.
Goal: Create a 2011 calendar.

Fourth, I did start on my 2011 calendar very early in the year in fact. But some unforeseen events, put my interests elsewhere and I was unable to finish it. Oh well, these thing happen and I'm not too sad about it.
Goal: Be health conscious

Fifth, I actually feel really good about this resolution. I did drink way more water this year, I cooked really healthy and for a while this past year I ran and did yoga. So hooray, goal accomplished.
2010 has been really great to us! I was able to be involved with some art related projects in our community. And we are expecting our first child summer 2011. So no doubt 2011 will also be an incredibly memorable year, since I'll be spending the first half pregnant and the second half getting acquainted to motherhood.

Green Needle

My wonderful friend Melanie is the talent behind Green Needle. She is a committed stay-at-home mom who uses her free time to create almost anything using fabric and her sewing machine. She is always thinking of new ways of re-creating things in her home too. I designed a business card for her this summer. It is one of my favorite things I've made so far.

If your curious where you can purchase Green Needle items, she displays purses, headbands, phone cases, scarves and many other fashionable accessories in the Paper Dolls consignment shop in town. You can also find other adorable items, such as, onesies and burp clothes in her Etsy shop.

I asked Mel to fill out a short survey. To find out what she has in store for her business and some of the items she's currently working on.

1. What is your favorite thing about fall?

My favorite thing about fall is the smell! from the smell of the crisp air in the morning to the cinnamon apple candles burning in the living room, and lets not forget the sweet smell of pumpkin cookies baking in my kitchen.

2. How many hours a week do you spend at your sewing machine?

Depending on my families schedule, I spend anywhere from 5 to 10 hours a week on the sewing machine.

3. Are there new things your going to create this fall/winter?

In honor of my family finding out that we are having our first little boy in Feb. some new stuff that I will be working on this fall/winter are some Jon Jon's and cloth diapers. Some other projects are clutch purses, owl back packs, ornaments, and dog toys.

4. What are your favorite things to create when sewing?

My favorite things to create when sewing are appliqués, I love taking different fabrics and sewing them together to make little designs on onsies, purses, wallets, and clothes.

5. Where do you get your inspiration from?

I get my inspiration from friends, family, sites like etsy and different peoples blogs. the best is when you know the person really well and know exactly what to create them just by knowing them and what they are into.

6. Is there an important goal you have for Green Needle before the new year begins?

Before the new year begins I really want to have everything ready for my little man when he comes. when my girls were born I didn't know how to sew yet so this is the first one of my own I can make crib bedding and all that fun stuff for, I am really excited. I also would like to make a bunch of stuff to have lots of inventory ready for different fairs and concessions.

Appeal Magazine

Back in the middle of August, I got asked by a fellow local blogger if I'd be interested in illustrating for her column in our local magazine Appeal. I was unsure at first because I had not seen the magazine and I am not too keen on the local magazines I see around town. So I picked up a copy and was pleasantly surprised by the printed quality and the quality of the content. Yes, it's still a Texarkana local magazine, but it is by far the most well executed one in town. You can read it online here.

Robot Dance Party

My friend Sarah contacted me in July asking me to design a birthday party invitation for her son who was turning three. At that point I was pretty excited because my favorite kind of invitations to design are for birthday parties. But then she proceeded to tell me that she wants to throw him a robot dance party and wanted to have "emo-bots" drawn on the invitation. Haha! This was one of the coolest birthday party ideas, I'd ever heard. And I was loving the idea of giving robots some emo flare. I wanted to pull from some of the design elements of classic vintage robots from the 1950's and 60's. So below is how the invitation turned out, along with some pictures she took from the party. I was blown away to find out she had the cake designed from the invitation with the little emo-bot sporting the mustache. She did a great job making the party come to live.

Home Improvements

So, Kelly has become obsessive about re-lining (re as in we have done this before) the kitchen drawers and shelves. He went and bought scrapbook paper from Michael's. He measured, cut and taped the paper in our drawers and spent a little too much money in the process. But it is actually a really good idea since it is nearly impossible to find contact paper with a good design on it. Here's an example of one drawer he completed. The other's are in progress.

After a 10 days, my Kombucha is carbonated and ready to drink. The picture below is what my bottles look like after the second fermentation that lasted 3 days. I added chopped cherries in two bottles, fresh crushed blueberries in another and lime juice and ginger to my fourth bottle. But you don't have to add any fruit at all and it is just as good. It's amazing how this started off as sugar, black and green tea and now it is a fully carbonated healthy drink.

vegan, vegetarian, and cruelty free adventures.

As of recent my husband feels very passionately about only eating meat and dairy from local farmers or from farms with a cruelty free environment. I support his convictions and have semi-vowed to go along on this adventure with him. We both understand where we live it is going to be extremely hard to live by these standards, so we are going to do the best we can. The key to success so far has been the planning and thinking ahead. The biggest challenge so far is to resist cheese, butter and eggs! Luckily we've been able to purchase farm fresh eggs and raw milk cheese from vendors at the farmer's market in Little Rock. But that supply will only last for so long. I personally don't have as strong a conviction about eating dairy. And the vegetarian recipes are way more tastier than the vegan recipes I've tried. Ali told me about Sunshine for Dinner a local farmer who delivers batches of her harvest at a low cost. This might be our way of attaining eggs along with some veggies and herbs.

I'm also going to start making Kombucha Tea. I've been hearing about it from a couple of my friends. It is a fermented tea that brings many health benefits: increased energy, improved immune system, and better digestion. I won't go into the details of making the tea or how it works because it doesn't sounds very appetizing at all! But if you want to read into it go here.

source

School starts this week! It hasn't hit me yet, but I'm sure it will when my alarm is going off 5:30 and my head hitting the pillow 14 hours later. My feet will be sore from standing and I probably will have a cracked voice from not using my teacher volume in 2 months. Pray for me!

august update!

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. I guess July was more jam packed that I thought it was. July was filled with celebrating Kelly's 28th birthday, and our 3rd wedding anniversary. I also taught private art lessons in my home for two weeks, as well as, getting an early start back to school with some inservice and classroom preparation.

For the next three months I won't be taking any mint&honey custom orders. I want to focus on helping my husband finish our updates on our house so we can get everything in place and actually relax and have normal evening at home. So I will be welcoming orders again starting in November, just in time for those custom designed christmas cards.

Here's a recent prayer card I created for a lady that's going to be spending the next year in the Congo teaching. It has a watercolor background with hand drawn designs.