Loving over the weekend....

Boy, have I been busy.

After reading Nicola's link list.

my weekend went something like this....

Click*Click*Click*Click*Work*Sleep*Click*Ski*Cook*Click*Click*Click*

I decided to give back and share some fun that I'd found recently as well.

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I am going to be making this this week...Dying to learn.

And these potholders are the BOMB....you never can have too many.

Larissa made me happy by making herself happy...I'd been trying to find a place that sold lavender.

Trying to get back into this.  It's been a while.

And in AWE of girls that can do this.

How cute are these little guys.

Oh yea, and this, and these, and this too.

This gal has a lot of beautiful things going on.

And did you see this wreath...it reminds me of a springy version of this one by Heather, that I loved a while back.

These are going to eat up all of the yarn that I have snubbed...the kind that isn't good enough to knit with after I got spoiled with this.

And did you see what my twin made...honestly, my uterus gave the slightest of twinges at the sight of it.

Feeling SANER by the moment while enjoying the task of questioning other people's sanity...evidenced here,and here.

And finally, I love love love love love her, and them...and especially Them.

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There you have it... a bit of my own personal brand of goodness.

I hope you too find something that strikes your fancy.

Hugs!

Julia

The "What-cha-ma-call-it" Room

Before (during the remodel)

I never know what to call this space.

Usually I refer to it as my guest room. Or  "Laura's room", since she is my only guest.

Other times it is called "My" room.

Then there are times that I call it the sewing room.

But lately, I have read of people calling their own spaces a studio.

And to be honest, I don't know how I feel about that.  It conjurs up images of a missing ear, paint splattering, brush weilding, an honest to God artist.

That is not me.

But, it is my space where I do absolutely anything crafty.. ANYTHING.  It is the only room where I have complete and utter control over the style. 

Flowers galore... you bet-cha

Pinks to beat the bands....bring it on.

Lace and blues and pretty trinkets...yes PLEASE. 

They are all there....And there isn't a thing that my husband can say about it. 

That's the deal.  It's all mine.

In true since-the-rest-of-the-house-got-a-facelift-I-can't-leave-out-my-most-favorite-room fashion, I decided to re-organize (yes, I know that I've done this before)  my "What-cha-ma-call-it" room.

Last week I found a cute bookshelf for $7.00 at the thrift store. I was already in the sanding groove, helping Fran to sand all of the pine for the molding and window frames, so I decided to sand the new bookshelf.

And then I hated it.

So I found the 4 year old can of blue paint that I painted the room in and used it to paint the bookshelf.  I then sanded it again to distress it.

And then I loved it.

The room shined up like a new penny.

Bookshelves purged of three quarters of it's books ( donated to the library ).  I kept only the ones that I had not read yet, or absolutely loved.

Granny chair back in it's rightful place, What little boy wants a flowery chair in their room?

And the fabric...did I tell you that I got more of it?

I did!

So much more, that it all wouldn't even fit on the hutch that used to be it's home.

      

After

And now, the room is primed for creating.  Whatever crafting strikes my fancy.

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So now, after wishing you all a fabulously relaxing and fun weekend.

I ask you, my crafty friends. 

What is it that you call your space?

A special delivery and a doormat.

When we began this remodel, we realized that we were going to be losing a lot of storage in the form of a corner cabinet unit.  We were both on board to get rid of it, but due to the amount of food that the boys inhale, we knew that we would have to find a replacement storage spot for our dry goods.

The broom closet became that space.  The broom and vacuum relocated to the guestroom closet.

Fran removed the door and built some really nice shelves out of the leftover flooring. The other day, I spent an insane amount of money at the grocery store and and we went about filling up our new pantry with food. 

Refilling all of my glass jars with baking supplies, but still I was running low on canisters for all of the food that we bought.

Luckily, the same day my whimsical order from Bright and Blithe arrived.

Perfect timing.

Honestly, they are even more adorable than I had hoped.

 

They now sit on one of the new shelves, hiding honey Teddy Grahams and packs of gummy bears from the boys.


Just out of reach of little ravenous, sticky fingers.

For the sticky feet though, we needed another solution.  We are going to be building a bench with storage below it for shoes and wooden hooks above the bench for hanging coats, but in the meantime until we are able to get it done, we needed something to protect the floor from the snowy boots.

I had three yards of a really nice tight gray tweed and bit of upholstery fabric that I had used when I re-did my desk.  

So, I sewed up a shoe mat with a felt liner to absorb any wetness.

It is only temporary, but it seems to be working really well at protecting the floors.

We are only a few steps away from finishing the renovations.  We just need to put the siding on the breakfast bar that Fran built today and make the bench and hooks for the entryway.  Overall, this remodel has gone really smoothly and while we would like to get the rest of it done, I can wait.

I am just so happy to be able to be at home and to have a warm space to visit with two of my best friends.

A place of his own....

Eben's room is the room that I always dreamed for him.  A room all to himself except for when he comes to recruit me for snuggles in the middle of the night.

There is a double sided easel with oodles of art supplies given to him by his Poppy.

A little playroom closet off to the side to contain his toys.

A beautiful window staring right into the gardens with a view of Heaven Hill as a backdrop.

A big cozy bed to snuggle in.

A beautiful ceiling, painted for him when he was just a few months old by his father.

And the sweetest illustrations torn from story books.

Each page that I framed and put on his walls when he was a baby.

That all sounds really nice doesn't it?

You wouldn't mind living with me would you?

Hmmm?

Why then, with such a nice room does he continually leave it in a state of disarray.  Several times a week I return it to it's rightful state of order, only to have Eben and Sam make another mess of it.


I think that it has something to do with the Testosterone surging through their veins.

At any rate, I tell you...I was about at wits end.

 
In hopes of helping him to become a tidy little person, I set about my first project from Homemade Home.  (Thanks again Imene!)  The Art and Hooks Rack.

Amanda's instructions for the rack (and the jist behind the whole book in fact) is to use what you have in the house to make it.  I asked Fran, our resident carpenter if he had any supplies that we could use for what I had in mind.  He found me some old hooks, a smooth piece of leftover pine flooring from the renovation,  and a piece of barn board wood left over from a picture frame that he had built for our big vintage deer photo. 


PERFECT!

I still needed the art work though.

I was going to use a few drawings that Eben had made at school, but I don't own any Decoupage glue and I couldn't find it anywhere in town.  I was stumped and just about to staple the drawings onto the wood when Fran suggested drawing the artwork right onto the white pine.

Using some watercolor pencils, Eben and I decided on drawing some mountains on the wood since green is his favorite color.

I outlined the scene and he colored in the lines using every shade of green for the mountains and blues, pinks and purples for the water.

Once the coloring was completed I got out the sponges and let him wet down the drawing as he would on watercolor paper.

We let it dry by the window.

The next day after school Eben helped Fran and I to clean out the toy closet and get things together for donating.  Then we moved Eben's dresser into the closet to free up the wall in his actual bedroom where we planned to put the rack.
    

Fran screwed the hooks to the piece of barn board.

They then screwed both the barn board and the drawing onto the wall.

 And even though it's not exactly what Amanda had in mind, we all liked it very much.  A very fun project.  One that we can remove from the wall when Eben is grown and in a home of his own.  Maybe even to be used by his own little one.

After that we tackled the cleaning of his actual room.  While we were doing that, we talked about how lucky Eben is to have all of the things that he has.  And how that he should take care of the things that he has so that they will last.  We also talked about helping around the house.

In the end Eben seemed to grasp his part in taking responsibility...especially for his own things.

Excited to have a place of his own.

From Suzanne... and some other things.

What a nice day.  I am finally home....for the long haul.  And my house is almost completely done with the remodel.

Yippee.

Skippee.

I had a PILE of mail waiting for me when I got here.  And the only thing that I opened was a large package from Canada.

YEA!!!!!

It was my book package from the sweet Suzanne, my other partner for the Creative Book Exchange.

She did not disappoint!  I loved them all.

It is neat to look through books from another country.  It's so funny to think of Canada that way, but really, even though I can cross it's border from where I live in about 2 hours,  it is in fact ANOTHER COUNTRY.

Passport and all.

I just loved reading through the books that she included.

"Colour", "Flavour", and "Neighbour"

to my

"color","flavor", and "neighbor"

The Material World is like 3 books in one.  A TON of wonderful projects and ideas brimming in each page.  The colors are so vibrant and the ideas are so practical, I fell in love on the spot.

 Then there was a wonderful old book on Watercoloring.  I was excited to go through it and was so happy with the great instructions that each page held.  I am definitely going to be putting it to some good use for my next painting project.

 The magazine that she included was my favorite though.  I absolutely LOVE reading home magazines.  Country Living, Martha Stewart, Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens.   I get sticky fingers in the waiting room of the any doctors office.  Slipping one into my purse before leaving.  I know, I'm BAD.  Any way,  this Canadian Home and Country just jumped up to the top of that list.  Such goodness.  Such great home idea. 

So, thank you Suzanne.  Thank you for thinking of what I would like and thank you for being my partner.  I can't wait to put them all to good use.

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In other news of the day....

I mailed out a little something to Erin of Bluebirdbaby this morning.  Erin is one of those girls that I just love to visit.  Her pictures, her taste in her home decor, her thoughts,  all of it draws me back to her site.  It all makes me smile.

Gush.

Anyway, she has a weakness for vintage pyrex-ish sort of dishes and chickens. I just happened upon a few tea cups the other day at the Thrift store which fit the bill for both of theses weaknesses.  I was going to keep them for myself, but then I thought of Erin having a tea party with her little girl....and well, you know.


I had to get her address.

So now they are on their way to Maine to a new home after a brief stay at mine.  Along with a few other goodies that I couldn't resist passing along.

AND.

Have you seen Gina's newest site..Solstice Letters.  I tell you....that girl is Wonderful Ideas in human form.  I love the idea behind the site. I love the honesty.  I love the community.  I love it all.

After my last post regarding the issues of keeping it real, I plan on joining her for SURE.  I need a place to let my hair down. 

Thank you Gina.  Your timing is perfect.

There, that completes my thoughts for the day.  

Now, if you will excuse me,  I am off to unload bags and bags of groceries to fill my Mother Hubbards cupboards.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.  I'll be back on Wednesday with a new project that I just finished.

Glimpses...

Last week I read a post at Nicola's blog that sang pretty loudly to me.  A post questioning fitting-in in our little community that we have growing here.

HERE is the post.

And my response to Nicola was....

I totally hear you! All that we can do is be ourselves and OWN it. Put it out there and be honest. There is so much to be said for that. Inspiration is everywhere, we all learn so much from each other. That is why we all gravitate to one another.

I relate to a lot of the girls in this community on many levels, the love that I have for my family, the joy I get from crafting, the hopes I have for improvement of myself and this world, the , but my boy goes to Public school Kindergarten, He watches TV, I work full time as a nurse, and yes we occasionally stop at McDonalds for lunch. But those are only parts of the puzzle. The whole picture is what makes for authenticity.

And that is what I look for and strive for.

You fit in here Nicola. You do. 

( I should take my own advice!)

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I was talking to Laura about it last night and I asked her what she thought of my space here.  If she thought that it was a pretty accurate depiction of who I am and what my life is like. 

If she didn't know me and we had just met, would she be able to pick my weblog as a match for me as a person.

To which she responded...

" Well, it is definitely you, but it is a little bit rose-colored glasses version of you and your life."

THAT got me thinking.

And I realized that she was right.

So we talked about it.  We talked about what I want for this space.  What I want to share and how personal I want to get.  We talked about the pros and cons of divulging to much.  Being TOO honest.

Now, I will tell you this.  Everything that I write here is the truth.  I have never made anything up, or have I ever elaborated on something personal that I have written.  When I chose to share something deep or heartfelt, I am chosing to put it out there because I need to.  Because I feel that it gives a bit more insight into who I am.   This is not a diary though.... that job belongs to my head.

It is only glimpses...glimpses into my life as a wife, a mama, a twin, a daughter, a nurse, and a crafter.  And that is why I named my blog "Glimpses into the life of an Adirondack Mama".   Because that is what it is. 

There are things that I chose to keep private, as I am sure you do as well.  Things that we all go through, and we know it.  It's called life, and sometimes it gets in the way.

It is not at all cut and dry though.....There are AMAZINGLY wonderful days; the ones I never want to end.  And then there are the HORRENDOUSLY difficult days....the ones that I wish I could just fast forward through and start fresh on the next one.   Most of us though, are careful not to divulge too much of either side of it to extremes; for fear of sounding like the unattainable SuperMom.....or worse; a bitchy, ungrateful, nagging Mom.

We've all had days of being both.  Haven't we?

I would never want to be looked at as something that I am not for the sheer reason of omission....But seriously, I bitch ENOUGH in my real life....I really don't want to come here and waste my time typing about it.  Let alone, bore you all with the trials and tribulations of my life.  I'm sure that you have enough of your own.  I find commiseration to be only so helpful before that it just becomes downright depressing, yet I'm not one for bragging either.  It is a slippery slope of honesty. 

Knowing how much to take out or leave in gets tricky when you are writing on the web...

I have set out to create my happy place here in this space.  It is NOT a place where I want to talk about the 3 times last week I cooked nuggies and fries for my kid and counted the ketchup as the vegetable, or how I like to drink Diet Mt. Dew, or how many hours I let my boy watch TV, or how many arguments that I have had with my husband.  It is a place to inspire myself (and maybe you, if I'm so lucky).  Where I strive to be the best version of me that I can be.  A place that I can visit again and again when I need a reminder of all of the wonderful things that I have surrounding me when things get a little nutty. 

And it is a place where I have met some really terrific friends (yes, you!)

In a time when the entire world is so fucked up (Oh yea, another thing....I swear....A LOT), I really need some happiness right about now. 

Would that be OK with you guys? 

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At the end of the day I write here for me.

But I share it with you. 

We all fit in our own little space here.

It is glimpses into the life. 

It is pieces of the puzzle. 

And I thank you all for joining me and sharing what you do with me, as well.

For Suzanne...

Due to the uneven number of partners in the Creative Books Exchange, I was paired with two girlies.  Imene, who I 've already told you of swapping with, and Suzanne.  Suzanne lives in Cananda, so our packages had a longer transit than here in the US, but never the less, we exchanged.

When I saw Suzanne's list of interests, I knew that I had a stack of books with her name written all over them.

The first was one that I got at the little used bookstore Books and Baskets.  It is called Fabulous Felt by Sophie Bester.  In it are a bunch of fun projects for working with felt.  Suzanne also voiced an interest in felting, and I remembered that I had clipped some pages out of a few Martha Stewart Magazines with instructions for felting and making woolen gifts out of sweaters.

For Suzanne, I included the actual clippings that I had, but if you are interested in felting Martha has the instructions for many felting crafts on her site .

The second book is called Simple Style by Lindsay Porter. And all that I can say about this book is if you ever see it in a shop, you should definitely pick it up for a flipping through.

 There are some really lovely projects in it. Tons of repurposing and making alterations to things that you already have. 

The instructions are very clear and the pictures are beautiful.

The bed was my favorite project.

And lastly was a vintage embroidery book.  Suzanne had voiced an interest in vintage AND embroidery, so I killed two birds with this stone.

Although I've never really done Embroidery before, I do see the appeal.

Just look at these flowers.  I can't believe that a needle and thread and a VERY patient hand helped to create them.

WILD!

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I am just so happy that these books have found a lovely new home in the crafty, creative, sweet hands of Suzanne.  Now, I can't wait until my package arrives.