It's Been a While

As I mentioned in this post, I've been feeling inspired to do art lately.  Finding the right time to be creative is a different story though.  I'm still trying to figure out my new schedule, with various kids at various schools at various times.  Although I've got more free time in the mornings, I've got less free time in the afternoons, and have all but lost the kids' nap-times due to school pick-ups.  Naptime used to be my best "art time".  So I'm doing some mental readjusting to determine when I'll have creative time.  I'm such a creature of habit that's it's taking me some time to get it all figured out!

Anyway, all that to say that I finally took some time to do a little piece in Avery's journal!

 

 Quite obviously, this is a piece about turning two!

I struggled the whole time working on this spread, trying to decide how to fill the empty spaces.  I did a few different things, then painted back over, not liking the results.  I tried the gray polka-dots as a last attempt, and I love them!  They're whimsical without being too cutesy, because of the neutral color.

Hopefully, you'll be seeing more artwork out of me now, especially after I get situated into a new routine!

Little Schoolgirl

My baby started preschool yesterday!  Just two days a week for 4 hours, but still.  Her birthday falls just two week before the cutoff, so I hesitated even signing her up, but I think she'll really enjoy it.  And her class is made up of almost all girls, so she'll get some great girly time in there to counteract all the boy time at our house!  I'll make a dolly-lover out of her yet, I tell ya!

Noah started Pre-K as well, which means I've got two mornings a week with no kids in the house!  Whatever shall I do with myself?!

I've been saving her vintage dress (thrifted) for just this occasion, because I thought it was such a perfect little "first day of school" outfit.  I'm so glad it fit at the right time!  Add her little ruffled socks and brown suede maryjanes (thrifted as well), and I was just dying over the cuteness!

Linking up with Little Vintage Style and Small Style this week. Hope over and see the other stylish kids!

"New" Coffee Table

Do you remember this photo from a few posts ago?  Now look at the photo below, and see if you can tell what's different....

 That's right!  I painted our table!  It was so glaring white before, so I changed it up a bit in order to blend with the room a little better.  The table was a $15 thrift store find from a couple months ago, but I just loved the lines of it, and knew it would suit our needs really well.

 I painted the bottom section a lavender/pinkish tone,

and the top a warm taupe-y color.

 I then went over the whole thing with sandpaper and an antiquing glaze.

So far it meets the approval of all those who use it on a daily basis!  After all, those little chairs wouldn't be there if we didn't want it to get some use!

I'm still working on the rest of the room- my next task is to find some fabric I like to replace our current drapes.  Once that's done, I'll show you the rest of the room!

Fun Finds for the Future

My sister is borrowing my camera this week, so I can't take any photos of Avery wearing vintage for Little Vintage Style.  And frankly, I'm running out of vintage clothes that fit her right now!  I'm surprised I've had enough to post almost every week!  Coming into cooler weather, she'll have a whole "new" long-sleeved wardrobe though- I can't wait! 

It seems that almost all the vintage I find is size 2T though.  Once she outgrows that size, her vintage wardrobe will greatly diminish, sadly...  Which is why I was so pleased to find these three pieces, all color-coordinated, and all found within about a week of each other! They are all larger, for I'd guess a four or five year old.  It will be a while before they fit, but once they do, oh, so cute!

 This is my favorite, a perfect little schoolgirl dress!  I love the rick rack trim!

 And an adorable sailor dress.  Can't have too many of those!

And how about this coat??  So perfect, right?  It's handmade, and done so nicely.

Complete with the most perfect polka-dot lining.  Sigh... if only it came in my size!

Now, I just hope that she doesn't have opinions about what she wants to wear by the time these fit her!  Or, if she does, that they match my own opinions- ha ha!

Can Chores Actually Be Cute?

I loved Rachel's version of a "chore chart".  However, as much as I've looked at the thrifts around here, I haven't found a time card holder just yet.  So I decided to improvise for the time being.  I started with the piece below, and ended with the piece above.

 

A pocket for each of the boys (Avery's still too little to really do chores), then a pocket on the bottom marked "Done".  I took photos of various chores for which they're responsible, then laminated them on cards to fit in the pockets.

Noah's here to demonstrate how it works:

See if there are any chore cards in your pocket.  If so, pull them out.

Take your cards and go do your chores, preferably with no whining or crying or complaining.  (This one's MUCH easier said than done!)

 When you've finished, put the cards in the "Done" pocket, and then go play!

If the system works well, I'll probably try to expand and find something with more pockets, but for now it will work.  And it will be easy to repurpose it to go somewhere else (like my studio), just by changing the labels.  After all, it's too cute not to be used somewhere!

Interrupted...

Well, this morning's photoshoot for "Little Vintage Style" didn't go quite as planned. Lately, I've been trying to find some different backdrops for photos, since when we're in our own backyard, Avery tends to just want to go play on the swingset, and won't pose well for me. So I've taken to driving around to the backs of buildings, looking for a simple backdrop where we won't bother anyone. Today, however, I guess we were bothering someone, as a security guard came out and told us we had to leave! How embarassing!! So, needless to say, I didn't get as many cute shots as I would have liked, but these are fun anyway!

Noah was my little helper again. Now that Riley has started school, I've just got these two during the days, until preschool starts in a couple weeks.

 

Vintage sailor dress is thrifted, leggings and shoes are also thrifted

Remember that white table I showed you in these photos?  I've spent the last few days painting and antiquing it, so I'll show photos of that soon!

So Proud of This Boy...

Itching...

With summer close to being over (or I guess I should say "with school close to starting..."), I'm itching to get back to art-making.  I've done almost no artwork over the last few months.  The kids all being home just makes things so busy, so even when I've got a break from them, I usually just want to veg out and catch up on my DVR backup vs. get into the studio to create.

Once school starts back, both boys will be occupied five mornings a week, and Avery will be occupied two mornings a week, which will leave me a lot more down-time.  Hopefully I'll feel more relaxed and in the mood to create when the opportunity presents itself.

One thing I'm inspired to do is try out some new colors.  All my paintings tend to have the same color palette, even though I actively try to branch out.  I've been pinning lots of inspiring color combinations on my Pinterest.  Oh, there are so many masters of color out there!  Some really beautiful color groupings that I've found...  I hope that after some work, my paintings will be on somebody else's pinboard for their color palette!

Until then, I've got some dollhouse playing to do!

Look Who's Two!

 Yes, Miss Avery turned two today!  She is a bundle of personality- curious, dramatic, funny, adorable, lovable, and I'm so glad she's mine!!

I always do a photoshoot of the kids on their birthdays.  Please indulge me as I show off my beautiful girl!

We had two different "photoshoots" today, thus the outfit change!

Playing on the new playground Daddy just finished building!

And although I got lots of nice, smiling photos, I also got my share of those like the one above.  I thought this one was particularly funny, since she's standing by the sign that says, "I'm 2".  Believe me, this child is already well into the Terrible Twos, with tantrums galore!

 

However, she also gave me some wonderful little jumping photos next to her sign.  (Try as I might, I could not get her to hold the sign, so propping it next to her had to suffice!)

All in all though, some sweet photos of my sweet, sweet girl!

(pink dress is from TJMaxx, gray tutu from BabyGap, lavender tank from Walmart, and gray flower from Michael's dollar section)

 And, as promised, here is the topsy-turvy doll I made for Avery's birthday.  This is the sleeping side...

...and this is the awake side.

She turned out really cute, and the pattern wasn't too difficult to follow, unlike other vintage patterns I've used.

So far, Avery unfortunately hasn't shown much interest in her, but I can't say I expected otherwise.  She just isn't a "babydoll" girl yet.  Hopefully, she'll grow into it, and if not, I'm happy to keep the doll all to myself- ha ha!!

Hope everyone's having a good summer's end.  I can't believe school starts next week- Riley's headed off to kindergarten, and I'm secretly freaking out- how did my baby get to be so big???