Colors and Textures

I'm excited to share a little something with you next week.
 Starting this Monday I'm going to be doing a different color theme every day for a week or so.  Little snippets of my art, photography, slices of our home, nature inspired textures, and some inspirational postcards.
It's just for fun, just as a little creative exercise I unconciously started this summer and decided just today to organize into some blog posts.
Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday :)
xo,
Chrissie

Fun Vase Tutorial

I haven't done a tutorial in so long that I thought I would share this super easy project with you. 

We all have a million of those glass vases underneath our sinks, you know the kind that comes with flowers.  I was about to donate most of ours the other day when I had an idea to paint them.  This would be a great project for kids.  I'm going to paint some to personalize for gifts, as well.

Here's the tutorial.  It's an easy project, and quick.  I made this in less than an hour.

Hope your week is going well.
We're trying to keep cool.  This florida summer is H.O.T!!
xo,
Chrissie

Feature Artist: Sandy Mastroni

This week's featured artist from Sharing Stitches is Sandy Mastroni.  Sandy is an extremely talented artist whose paintings are featured in galleries all over the country such as this one.  Click here to see some of the work they carry of hers.
Sandy is a very humble artist, but I told her I was going to tell you all about her anyway.  :) 
She has illustrated two book covers, both for Antrim House Books.  She's been a working artist for 35 years, selling in gift shops, catalogs, and art shows.  She has a wonderful etsy shop too filled with art dolls, pillows, clocks, prints, original paintings, and illustrations.
Sandy is a very intelligent and fascinating woman.  I am enthralled with her anthropomorphic work...everyone and everything she makes has it's own personality.  She is also multi-talented.  She combines her paintings to make mixed-media pieces.  Her sewn pieces and sculptures are amazing.

Sandy has so much work to look at that you may be at her flickr site all day long!

Check her out here:

Blog:  http://smastroni.blogspot.com/

Etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/sandymastroni

Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandymastroni/

Thanks for indulging me Sandy.  You are an amazing artist!

Some Family Pix

These pictures would be perfect if Carson were in them, but he was away on another trip.

When I was looking through them last night I was filled with such a deep love for my family.  I am so proud of them.  So proud to be Mike's wife, so proud to be these kids Momma.

I know it's corny, but I get carried away so easily with the day to day that sometimes I forget how blessed I am.

I hope you are feeling blessed too...Have a wonderful day.
xo,
Chrissie

Our lovely vacay

We are home from our yearly trip to the beach.
I got up this morning and did my last walk on the beach, taking some photos as I did almost every day.
We are so blessed that we can make this trip every year.

I must go tackle a mountain of laundry and do some grocery shopping.
See you soon:)

Sigh...Some Amazing Linky Love

There is so much amazing art out there.

Found here

Found here

Found here
and a tutorial here

Found here

I love the original embroidery.  So unusual and fascinating.

I am so drawn to the rocks.  I cannot crochet or knit, but I could do my own version of the painted pieces on the bottom.

I love what a little inspiration can do for you.

So go forth...

Be inspired.

Have a wonderful weekend! xo, Chrissie

I took (some of) your advice :)

I ended up going with the pearl lavender background fabric.

It desperately needs to be ironed!

I do like the color...so thanks for your input.

I ended up using my machine to stitch applique them directly to the fabric.  It's about the size of a lap quilt.  I'm thinking of actually hand quilting this one since it's not too big...

These are really fun to make, though very time consuming.  I'm thinking that they would be striking as pillows and so satisfying to finish!

Turning Twenty Again...Finished

Remember last November when I showed you this quilt top that I was making Ashton for Christmas?  I said I was going to send it off to a quilter to quilt if for me, but then I never did.  I finally did it myself.  Just in time for his 6th birthday.  In July.  Ahem.

I used blue painters tape to quilt straight lines.  Well. sort of straight.  They  measure about an inch apart.

The back:

You know when you make a quilt and finally get it on the bed then you want to change everything else in the room.  Of course.  So I'll be working on that.  Some new (or thrifted curtains) are in order.

Ashton and Jax are sharing a room, so we've got a crib in here too.  Soon it will be time for a big boy bed.  Maybe a bunk bed?  Now that would mean another quilt.

It's a vicious cycle...but I love it.

Guess what I learned to do today? (sort of...)

I know I look like a total dork, but man, I had fun!

“Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.”

-Alan Alda

Surrender

I am so enjoying this little exercise of mine.
I've started tagging them Inspirational Postcards, because I'm thinking of making a set of postcards out of them for my somewhere-in-the-new-future-etsyshop-update.
I've gotten a lot of quilting done, but this weekend we are beaching it with the family.  I'll be back soon to show you some new stuff.
Have a great weekend!
xo,
Chrissie

Hope

You Matter

I was inspired by this new-to-me blog. 
I'm cutting out lots of letters, and playing with the placement in unusual places...just something different and fun.  I'm going to post them over the next few days.
Feel free to join me if you'd like.:)
xo,
Chrissie

Boogie Boarding

If I looked up joy in the dictionary of my life, this little's girl face would be there...

It doesn't matter how many waves she catches,

she laughs and giggles every time.

She is so proud to be a surfer girl like Daddy and her brothers.

Joy.

One of many memories I will always treasure.

Update on yellow and gray quilt

If you read my blog you know that I've been collecting yellow and gray fabrics for awhile now, and I've finally cut them up to join Crazy Mom Quilts quilt-along.

Oh, man!  You would think that cutting up squares and sewing them together would be easy.  But no, not for my abstract mind.  I have spent hours carefully cutting each piece, ironing them meticulously, and still, TOTAL imperfection.

You don't have to look real close to see that:
1.  I obviously flubbed up the 1/4" seam and
2.  Most of my squares don't match up.

Oh well.  I'm still having fun and I'm definitely going to finish the quilt up.  What can I say?  Practice makes perfect.  Or in my case, practice makes better:)

Have a great weekend Friends!
xo,
Chrissie

(Oh, and go to the Flickr group to see what others are making in the quilt-along!)