a little red star

I have some big news! And I still can't believe it.

I'm a Fashionista at ScrapInStyleTV! Which means I will be part of the most rocking scrapbook design team on the planet, and have a little red star next to my name. If you haven't checked out SIStv before, it's definitely the go-to place to find lots of inspiration and some really cool, talented people.

I have looked up to so many of the Fashionistas for a long time and never, ever dreamed I'd be part of the team.

So thank you, JJ - a.k.a. 'Big Sis' - for taking a chance on me. It's an honor.

SIStv is one of those places where there is just a real, genuine camaraderie.

As cheeseball as it may sound, I have made so many amazing friends through SIS since I joined in 2007.

Sure, we have a common bond through our love of a hobby.

And we can have in-depth discussions about things like paper manufacturers, stickers and adhesive.

But we also know the names of each others' spouses and kids ... and so much more. We laugh, we joke, we listen ... and laugh some more. No holding back.

As you may remember from a previous post, I was lucky enough get the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of my SISters in June. Like, in real life. Sure, we met on the internet. But when we were finally all together in the same room, you would have sworn that we had grown up together. (Photo jacked from the lovely Mandi.)

We had such a great time that we are already planning another get-together next month at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. So excited for that! Because it's truly a rare thing when you connect with other women from all over the place (and I mean all over the place ... Sandy is from Canada, Danielle is in Mexico) but have so much fun together that everyone makes travel plans to meet, just to see all of those wonderful faces in person again. I kind of love that.

So here's to my SISters. My new and old Fashionista pals. And to new adventures down the road. Much love.

no, I don't sleep

Welcome to nap wars with a two-year-old. Well, nap negotiations maybe. Let me just tell you this: the parents win 87% of the time, but it can be really hard to get this kid to lay down! (This is dedicated to this pretty friend who also has some fun with nap wars. And also this girl, who suggested that our kids had possibly been texting each other to share tactics.)

skate.

We love skate park days. And Bo hasn't had his fill yet this summer.

Our nieces and nephew are in town for a visit from the Chi-town area and they brought their boards, so it was the perfect time to give it a go.



Lotus got her turn, too.









Such good summer times. And I just love watching Bo skate. It's one of my favorite things ever.

Totally unrelated, Dare 144 is up. Where do you hang out?

In summer, the song sings itself.

Millions of peaches, peaches for me. No, really. My sweet dad and step-mom brought us a whole box of Fay Elberta peaches. I can't get enough of how good they smell. That's summer, right there.

Peaches = peach crisp.

And here we have the Vespa boyz. Bo and his friend Jordan got to meet and hang out with Clay Enos. He's a photographer who is doing a cross-country Vespa ride to photograph small-town America.

He even jumped in our sidecar for a bit. Follow Clay's Local Time Vespa Tour here, on his blog, or on Flickr. Very cool stuff, indeed.

Date night around here looks like this. We get lots of smiles and waves when we're out with the sidecar.

Last week, Bo did a leg of RAGBRAI, riding 77 miles from Greenfield to Indianola and then an extra 25 or so, biking from Indianola back to Des Moines. (RAGBRAI is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across Iowa. This is its 37th year, and it's the longest, largest and oldest touring bicycle ride in the world.)

Meanwhile, this little girly and I headed up north for a visit to see my family.

I'm still in awe of all of the wind turbines that have been put up along the highways on my route home. They're going up everywhere; fields of them.

I'm sure they're not a big deal at all to the locals, but I love watching them. Lo and I agree that they make the drive much more fun.

My hometown.

The gravel road and cornfield at my dad's house. There's definitely something kind of special about going home to visit the parents and the house I (mostly) grew up in ... but with my kid. It made me smile as I was laying in my old room in those familiar surroundings with my little girly snuggled close; something I never could have imagined when I lived in that same room during high school.

Waking up to Lo making blueberry muffins with grandma. With real blueberries. And my dad and brother drinking coffee and reading the paper in the kitchen.

Coloring with grandpa. Just like I used to do.

The fam. In front of little brother's corn.

A parade that Lo wasn't quite sure about at first.

Swing time and uncle Chris.

At the park with grandma. On a day that seemed much too cold for July. Reminiscing about the time that my brother hit the little orange bouncy animal in the lower left corner on his snowmobile. Not exactly sure what kind of animal it is, either.

So we rode the cute little blue horse instead.

We visited a real farm.

With pretty flowers.

And two our favorite people, Phyllis and Jim.

A pretty sunset. Reminds me of summer nights when my friend Jane and I would sit on my driveway and sip on cherry slushes from Casey's. (If only I had a picture of that!)

And any good road trip usually ends like this. With songs playing on the radio and more summer memories made. Happy summer to you.

market day

Once again, we had a fantastic Market Day.

I had a little visitor stop by to visit. These two helped out for a bit while I ran to a one-day-only yarn sale. (Priorities!) I was very happy for the help.

Thanks so all who came out to see us. We had a steady crowd all day, despite the heat.

Enjoyed seeing some of the local crafters that I've met over the past year or two.

And loved browsing through all of the art.

And yarn. I buy all my handspun from Mary (MaraJane) and she brought lots of awesome skeins to drool over.

I picked up these two along with the awesome little gocco-printed yarn notebook. I can't wait to start some new projects.

And I picked out a small painting by Bekah Ash.

And traded one of my paintings for 'Mail Girl' above by Cat Rocketship. I've had my eye on this one (it's painted on glass) for a long time. So it's kind of special.

All of the baby shoes are spoken for, but if you'd still like a pair, you can find some here. I will do a few custom orders (but then I may take a break – my fingers are kind of sore!)

I was thrilled to give six paintings new homes during Market Day. (I didn't expect to sell any!)

So that means there are still nine available. You can find the rest here. If you missed out on something you liked, let me know and I can paint another one for you. More to come...

an unveiling of sorts.

Okay, so I've been painting. Yes, painting.

Painting, drawing, painting. More painting. Drawing. Varnishing. And so on.

This is kind of what happens when a graphic designer paints. Graphic paintings. (Don't get me wrong – fine art is my first love and if I could make a living on that alone, I would.)

There is just something within that makes me want to make things that look like this. Outlines. Hard edges, and such. But I do love to paint. It sure is a nice break from the computer.

These paintings are based on a free dingbat font from Chank, a Minneapolis-based type house. A font called Crap*Magnet, by Mr. Walters. It was Bo's idea, actually. I asked Chank for permission before I started, and they told me to go for it.

I'm bringing this group of fifteen paintings with me to Market Day this Saturday, if you're interested in one or want to see them in person. (You can click the image above to see them up close.) After Market Day, I'll be listing any leftovers in my Etsy shop. And if you need more messy paint goodness, check out the latest Dare. All the girls did some crazy paint stuff this week! Another favorite person of mine did a little video of herself painting and it's just so cool to watch – check out Elsie doing her thing here.

Which brings me back to Market Day. If you're heading downtown to the Des Moines farmers' market this weekend, you should definitely stop by and see us.
WHEN: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. the last Saturday of every month from May through September, with additional dates in October and November.
WHERE: The Market Building, 118 S.E. Fourth St.
ADMISSION: Free
INFO: Market Street Media Foundry

I'm bringing the paintings, the birthday t-shirts and knitted baby shoes.

But this time, I have a pretty sweet deal for you.
** For every pair of my baby shoes that you purchase, I will donate a pair to charity. **
Just like TOMS; one for one. On a much, much smaller scale. :)

I will be donating some baby shoes locally to Blank Children's Hospital.

And more baby shoes will go to Craft Hope, which combines a love for crafting + the desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world. (Below are a couple of photos of a recent Craft Hope project that brought handmade dolls to orphans in Nicaragua.)


Pretty amazing, huh. So be sure to come out and visit Market Day this Saturday if you're in the area. If you're not from Des Moines and still want to help, I will list any leftover baby shoes from the craft show in my Etsy shop by Monday. (I will make as many as I can!)

scrap love.

My floor is covered with tiny scraps of paper lately and here's what I've been doing ...

An ode to Bo + Jen. (Next month is our 5th anniversary!) We both love this Weezer song. It reminds me of something I said while we were dating. I told him he'd be really stupid if he broke up with me because we were too perfect for each other. And later he told me that was the moment that he knew he loved me. (ha!)

An ode to ... ummm, what was I saying? What was that? Head in the clouds much? Yup.

I had to scrap this photo right away. I took this one a week or two ago when I was playing with Lo outside and letting her run around barefoot in her little sun dress.

And another recent photo. Rainbow pajamas and the crazy SpongeBob hat from Wal-Mart. That she picked out herself and wants to wear everywhere. The girl can accessorize. It's one of those 'sorry kid, it's going in the scrapbook' photos. The ones you want to really want to show the future prom date.

An all-smiles photo from the 4th of July. Perfect with the AC ice cream paper. Sure-fire way to get your two year old to smile? Tickle her.

These Beastie Boys lyrics get used a lot by crafty girls these days. But this page is all about my playlist that I listen to while I'm working on freelance stuff or knitting or messing with paper and glue. These activities always include B-Boys. Scrapping and knitting, rhyming and stealing.

And this is an older page but I was looking through my things and it's still one of my favorites. Not only because my friend Erin is on it (along with the story of our would-be band name) but because I think it's such a great use of periods. And that black and white thought bubble background (American Crafts) is my favorite paper ever. I need to find some more because I want to use it on everything. Pretty much all of the papers you see on this post are American Crafts, by the way. :)

A little card with one of my favorite sayings on it. I say this to Lotus all of the time. I also sing 'My Little Buttercup' a lot. From 'The Three Amigos.' (Please tell me you know what I'm talking about. Otherwise this is just awkward.) Yup Toni, stole that from you.

A little 'hi' card. These buttons look like candy to me.

And it was time for a new mini book. I made this using a cover from one of those AC 6x6" books in the $1.99 bin. (I ripped the page protectors out and used binder rings + grommets.) Every page has song lyrics on it. Most inspirational, all favorites. If you want a closer look, you can see all of the pages better here. I keep a Word doc of lyrics I really like so I may to have to add more pages to this book soon. I think it may be a cool thing to give to Lo someday, since a lot of the words are about being independent and strong and keeping your chin up. Good stuff. :)

need something to do this summer?

Never fear. Because I have a some really great ideas to help you with that 'I'm bored and I don't know what to doooo....' feeling.

Here's my to-do list for the summer...

My first suggestion is an easy one. Do a Dare. I double dog dare you. Every Friday; something new. We've started a Flickr group, making it really easy to participate. Old Dares or new, we want to see what you're doing.

Today, we're doing our first ever Twit-Dare. Tweet-Dare. Whatever. On Twitter. If you're already following us, you've heard about it. If not you can see more here. Mine is above. (Click image to read some of my favorite tweets.) We think you should really take 10 minutes today and scrap a little something you've Twittered about. Or if you don't tweet, how about something you've blogged about? Hey, the words have already been written and all you have to do is find a photo. Super easy. Now get to it.

Now I want to share a few things that my ultra talented and creative friends are doing this summer. Starting off with Vee's ultra-cool ink, paint and layering mini-book workshop.

Kara's Music and Composition Journal: an Art Journaling Adventure 5 Day Class.

Kim's 'Going to a Happening' online travel journal class.

Rachel's 3-D Art Journaling boxed set. (She just listed the last bunch of these kits so now's the time to get one.)

Jamaica's Duly Notepad, which would make a very cute little place to record notes from your summer vacation.

Or check out her Tuesday Tutorial on extremely cool ways to bind little books on Ali's blog. I've been really inspired by her gorgeous photos alone.

*(photos above are from the girls' blogs/websites)

04:05:06 07/08/09

totally.

Yo, and happy 4th of July weekend to you. It's Friday, which means a new Dare is up. It's a throwback. We're re-doing old layouts (like, possibly really embarrassing ones) so come and check it out. (By the way, we have decided that we are bringing the eff back. To the Dares. A kick in the ass, if you will. Just so you know. If you want to stay in the know, add us on Twitter or Facebook. And most importantly, to share the Dares you've done, be sure hook up with us on Flickr.)

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And I'm back from a totally craftastically rad weekend in Tennessee. SIScon 09. I got the chance to hang out with a bunch of my online friends in real life. Girls I've looked up to, girls who are incredibly inspiring, girls who had me laughing for hours. We had slumber parties, we caused trouble, we stayed up really late, and oh yeah, we may have scrapped. I really can't sum it up any better than this.

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See? Scrapbooking is cool. Really. I miss you girls.