craig's list chic

Things are looking good on the house front, so I've officially started combing craig's list postings and craning my neck out the car window to look for garage sale treasures. Our home isn't much bigger than our apartment, so luckily we'll really only need a few pieces of furniture. Today I hit Craig's list gold, when I stumbled across these babies...Eames-style metal and orange plastic chairs. I'm in love and at $20 for the whole set I'm feeling like a very lucky girl! The lister does say they're scratched and need of a little TLC, but I'm feeling confident I can fix them up pretty easily. The only other things I would love to get, but don't necessarily need, are a danish modern style sideboard (to use as an entertainment center), another work desk for the art room/office, and a vanity table (I always liked the idea of this, though I'm not great with makeup). Otherwise I'll be saving my pennies for plants and paint.

Quinn and Pierre

I altered my sumo cat pattern a bit and created a new little creature, with more of an owl like appearance and a few jingle bells inside for added fun sound effects. Two people have commented he looks very French; could it be the mustache like curl of the lips? Hmmm... He has been dubbed Pierre and his little owner, Quinn, seemed to enjoy him, so I'm happy.

Four more days of school, yes!

mentally redecorating

The school year is winding to a close and my students are driving me a bit batty with their spring fever and shorter than usual attention spans. Unfortunately their behavior spreads to me some days and I feel just as anxious for some well deserved time off.

I did manage to finish 2 small pieces and one larger piece for the end of the year staff and student show. They are mixed media pieces with drawings, digital photos, and fabric sewn together quilt style. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. More ideas are floating around for paintings and sewn pieces, but I also have a mountain of grading waiting for me to get to tomorrow...so we'll see which gets done.

I've also been obsessively dreaming about finding and decorating our first home (the house hunt is still on, but we found a few really promising places today). Here are a few ideas I've come across and would like to recreate. Most images are from various Design Sponge blog posts.

snow day take 2

Another week, another snow day. Today I was surprised to wake up to news of our second snow day in 2 weeks. At 5:20 am it didn't look bad, in fact I went online to double check that school really was called off before jumping right back into bed. A few hours later when I woke up for the second time and looked out the window it became clear why school was canceled, it was snowing like crazy and the wind was blowing extremely hard. I think another 4-5 inches fell today, but at this point it's hard to tell.

I wish I could say I had a really productive day, but I didn't get as much accoplished as I could have. I did a little cleaning, a little graphic design work, thought about school planning off and on, checked all my favorite blogs and websites, sat looking out at the snow falling outside the window with my cat, walked around in the snow outside for a bit and took pictures, did 3o mins of my yoga tape, and took a nap. It sounds decent when you look at in list form, but truly I could have done some personal art or craft today and just didn't, bad I know. Well there's always next week...another snow day, perhaps? :)

things I love: purses, cute babies, and snow days (not in any specific order)

Even before I got my sewing machine I dreamed of making purses. Once I even hand sewed a purse out of scraps of fabric and it had a definite hippie charm to it, but my hand stitching didn't hold up and it fell apart in record time. My latest mini-tote/purse is much more successful, but I'm still learning. I used some beautiful IKEA fabric and modified a Lotta Jansdotter pattern
to construct it. I'm happy with how it looks, but next time I'll create a lining (with pockets) and use a magnetic clasp (instead of the old school one I used) or maybe a zipper.

I've been less crafty and arty since the holidays, so I need to get back on track. I've been doing some graphic design work lately and that has been a fun challenge, so that's been taking over my freetime lately. Maybe I'll post up a few pictures of my finished designs next week.

This morning I got a nice surprise--school was canceled due to overnight snow showers (8"ish I think-the paper says a foot). Lucky me didn't have to shovel off the car (yet) and slip and slide to work, instead I went right back to sleep. :) Later I got up, watched a little online tv and worked on graphic design work for a few hours. This adorable picture from the paper makes me smile. Snow is so pretty when you don't have to go out it too much.



Another beyond cute picture showed up in my email box yesterday. My dad sent me a picture of one my far flung and far removed South African cousins today, Ciara. She is so so CUTE and check out the stylish bathroom!

bad blogger

I could blame it on the time change, work stress, distractions around the house (cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping), or the Sex in the City DVD Josh bought me for my birthday(yes, out of character for me, but so funny I can't help but love it), but honestly the last two weeks have been pretty unproductive art and craft wise for no real reason whatsoever. I resolve to get back on the ball starting Saturday and try to finish up the two paintings that are nearly complete and start working on a few Christmas craft presents. So far the gifts I'm planning to make include two sock creatures and a few sets of glass marble magnets. My friend K made me a set last year and they are fun looking and personal since you can pick and choose images to use that fit the person. I also have lesson planning to do over the next week, so I'll be happy to get one or two things complete.