Shameless Self Promotion Part 2

Tomorrow I'll be here from 10:00-6:00 with a dozen or so other awesome Cleveland artists! Come out and support the arts and shop local this season!! 

And while you are out and about check out Banyan Tree's 12th annual Hot Toddy Party! It's a fun day of shopping, eating, and hot toddies! Tomorrow also marks our very first holiday party of the season and I'm excited! Have a very happy Friday friends!

P.S. This is a three part series...

Holiday Cards

Do you send out holiday cards? I've always been a fan of getting mail so we try to do it every year. I think it's nice to send a little cheer to the ones you love. It's much easier to come up with a theme now that we have a cute kiddo to take photos of. In the past we've picked lovely letterpress cards, made glitter reindeer postcards, but now we just snap hundred photos of O until we get the right one! This photo is from last year's photo session. Look at that chubby little babe! It takes both of us to wrangle, distract and photograph him but in the end they seem to be pretty cute postcards. And if you have any editing skills you can add text on your own and create some nice effects to the photo. This year we are doing basically the same thing but with an older O and decided to give Vista Print a go. Tell me, how do you spread holiday cheer?

A Sunday Trip

To end our long holiday weekend we took a Sunday morning trip over to the Cleveland Museum of Art with hopes to check out the Balloon Installation and the fully opened Atrium. Unfortunately, the wait for the exhibit was two hours  so we opted to just walk around and see other things.

We watched other people walk through the balloon filled room. Little Man was pretty impressed with all those purple balloons! We looked at the William H. Johnson painting exhibit, the Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal, and the ancient artifacts. 

Then we decided to enjoy lunch in the Atrium and then let O run around a bit. The Cafe had lots of nice choices and we got a discount since we are members so that was a nice treat! It's so nice to have a free and fun family thing to do that is so close to us!

Holiday Display

On Sunday I spent about two hours in Michael's. I went in with a plan for my table display for the upcoming holiday shows and thought "this will only take 10 minutes!" Famous last words. The short version is that I went in for wooden crates and came out with embroidery hoops...of course I did. It was a team effort in every sense because I needed brainstorming help, inspiration, and muscle. Here's what we all did.

I took the hoops apart and traced around the circle making a larger one. Then cut out the burlap and covered the inner hoop, pulling the fabric tightly around it.

I cut the excess fabric and then my dear husband stepped in to do the nailing. The tough part was avoiding the metal screws in the hoop while also securing it to the base. I bought three round wooden plaques to use as the base for each stand.

This is a photo before the hoop was actually assembled to give you an idea.

When you don't have a workbench, you have to use the coffee table and your foot to hammer things together. I think the team (I had to phone in a friend or two with the brainstorming portion so they aren't all pictured) did a great job and my table will look awesome this Saturday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all get to spend your holiday with people that you love and lots of tasty food! We'll be spending ours with some pretty awesome friends and I'm excited about that! I'm bring a mushroom and leek tart, this photo is a quiche but it's such a pretty photo I wanted to use it! Stay happy and warm! And don't forget to check out the opening of the Made in the 216 Holiday Shoppe on Friday if you are in Cleveland!

Image Source

Holiday Velvet

I know that it's not right to boast, but look at that face! He kills me with his cuteness. Oh and not to mention the very fun new velvet bow ties that I just finished! They are up and active in my shop but I wanted to show you a sneak peak!

Shop Handmade

The holidays are quickly approaching so I thought I'd let you know about the handmade markets where you can find me! This week opens the Made in the 216 Holiday Shoppe that I mentioned last week!

You can also find me along with lots of other great makers at the Cleveland Handmade Market on Saturday, December 1st 10:00-6:00 at the Tower Press.

And my final show this season I am teaming up with one of my best friends at the Last Minute Market in the Screw Factory in Lakewood. Saturday, December 15th from 10:00-6:00. It's always a great show so please come on out and support local arts!

Have a happy Monday! I hope you all have a short work week!

Dear Dad.

Dear Dad. You have had a pretty exciting week. While I'm sure that you aren't feeling exactly top notch just yet, I know that you are feeling amazed and blessed by this incredible gift that you received. One of the most amazing parts in all of this is that when you really needed something, something that felt like an impossible thing to ask for, not one but four...or was it five people stepped forward to offer it to you. That in and of itself tells a story of what kind of man you are. Generous, funny, smart, and loved. Very, very loved. You are surrounded by a community of family, friends, and acquaintances that are hoping for nothing less than a speedy recovery for both you and your donor. You deserve this gift. And the (selfless) giver, well he will be in our hearts and minds forever.

Top Image: Stephen Cutri

Remember That Bracelet?

Sometimes you have jewelry that you just love but never seem to wear. For me it was this brightly colored bracelet. I wore it, but not often. It was a bit bulky on my wrist and made it hard to actually do anything with it on. But I kept it, it was a gift, and I loved the idea of it. So, here's how I made it work for me.

I gathered up these supplies:

Old bracelet

24 inches of chain

Nylon coated wire

2 crimp beads

Pliers

Once I cut apart the bracelet I attached one end of the nylon wire to the chain, slid the crimp bead over the long end of the nylon wire and the shorter piece that I strung through the chain and crimped it closed. Then I strung the beads in the same pattern as the bracelet was and crimped the other end to the chain. And done!

This was a very quick and easy project that turned something I didn't use into something that I'm excited to wear! It slides easily over my head so I didn't need a clasp. Little Man really likes it to and was wearing it before I got a chance to try it on.

Holiday Shoppe

Can it be?! Thanksgiving is really next week? Well then that means it's time for my first show of the holiday season! If you are in Cleveland please come down to Room Service for the Made in the 216 Holiday Shoppe! Lots and lots of local artists will be selling their wares so come on out to support us!

The Kick off party is on “Black Friday” November 23 from 5:00-9:00! DJ Pleasure Cruise will be spinning tunes, Hot Toddy's, Christmas Ale and Wine will be there too! The shoppe will be open through December 31 so if you can't make it for the party, please come during regular store hours! Woohoo!

A Beautiful Monday

Happy Monday friends! I'll be spending most of my day at the Cleveland Clinic while my father gets a kidney transplant. It's an amazing blessing, a selfless gift and we are truly thankful. I stumbled across this artist, Andrew Holder on Pinterest a while back and wanted to share some of my favorites with you.

         

They are beautiful and capture some of my favorite elements of print. I would gladly fill my house with his work. Hopefully one day we can! Have a great day!

Images: Andrew Holder 

Into Autumn

Hello and happy Friday! Here's hoping for a happy and fun weekend for everyone! Next week is a big week for my family so I may not be around as much. But assuming all goes well we'll come through with a very happy and healthy Dad!

We Don't Believe in Music

Saturday night I had the pleasure of seeing my big brother perform in front a a pretty solid crowd. It's always such a treat to see him in his element, enjoying himself. Remember in 4th grade when you got to pick an instrument to play? Well my brother picked alto sax and has never once put it down. I wish I could see you more, and Oliver sure does too! We miss you already.

Come Together

There comes a time to lay down our differences and come together. I'm hopeful and proud. Today is a day for celebration, work, and commitment. I hope that all of us can find a way to work together, stop identifying our differences and instead identify our similarities. We deserve that. Happy Wednesday everyone.

Juiced

Mr. Oliver has been on a little kick of asking for juice all of the time. I'm not a big fan of it myself so I find it hard to do. So many juices are so full of sugar and just of absolutely no use. But I have found some that are tasty, no sugar added, organic stuff. All of those requirements can equal out to be pretty pricey. So after talking to a friend about the beloved Vitamix, I decided to try to make some of my own! It was fast, easy, and guzzled down. So I feel like a success, at least for now. Here's what I did.

Carrot Orange Juice Juice

2 peeled oranges, halved

5 carrots, halved

2 C Water

Ice

Put all of the ingredients into the mixer and quickly turn up to 10, then switch to high. The tip that I heard was to let the mixer run on high for at least 90 seconds to ensure smoothly blended juice. No one wants to chew their juice. I had to add a little more water in the end because this mixture was tasty, but really frothy. Oliver seemed to really like it. I know this is not a "juicer" juice, but I'm pretty pleased with it. I think that it might be good with a little bit of ginger tossed in too! It's a good way to start off your day feeling healthy and strong! Hope you like it.

Dia De Los Muertos Cleveland

For years we've wanted to attend the Day of the Dead celebration in Cleveland. It's in the Gordon Square Arts District on the near West Side. After a quick and chilly trip to the farmer's market we decided to take a ride on over. I'm so glad that we did!

The altars were beautiful, personal, and I felt honored to see them. Oliver loved the amazing imagery and wasn't nervous at all around all the skeletons, in fact it's one of his new favorite words. I was sorry that we weren't able to stay for the parade. It was hours off from when we could make it so it wasn't in the cards for us this year. But next year we'll plan better for sure. Have you ever gone?

 

We had a really nice weekend despite me being kind of sick and almost completely losing my voice. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery! Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday WSM!

                                


Today is the official 100th birthday of Cleveland's West Side Market! What an exciting day for our city's landmark! I have memories of heading there with my family as a child, seeing all the vendors, feeling very squeamish about the pig heads, and being amazed by the crowds! It always felt like such a foreign place to me. Even now, it's an exciting trip and makes for a fun morning adventure. Today at 2:00 join the crowd and sing Happy Birthday to the Market and grab a piece of cake too! I hope you have a very happy Friday, friends!

Images: WSM100