Ummm, I'm sitting here staring at my computer screen, wondering what to say... Nice flowers though, huh? Bought them Monday. Where to start from again? Well, I'm definitely finished with the hearts. And you're probably glad. I think I am too. I've had hearts coming out of my ears. :-O I need to count, but I'll bet I made and sold over seventy hearts the last few weeks.
We've had more snow, rain, and gray the last week than I can just about handle. I think there's a date every year about February 17th, when when my winter-cozy-nice-good-attitude turns into creeping-claustrophobic-winter-cabin-fever-bad-attitude. Yep, it's definitely February 17th here today... A bright yellow kitchen seems to be the best defense I've found so far for slightly seasonally sad me. So that's where I am again today, with Jess home from school with a tummy ache.
BTW-- I've just filled two crockpots with recipe ingrds. from The Taste of Home crockpot magazine. They have the best recipes. I head over to their website quite often lately.. Today, I made Mexican pork and pinto beans. And another recipe-- flavorful beef, corny name, but hopefully it lives up to its corny name tonight.
I've noticed that even Jesse and Sophey (who are usually still so good at living in the now) are ready for a weather change too. Their artwork is very telling lately. Sophey and her swirly flowers, bugs, green triangle grass, and aqua blue sky art...
And Jess, who usually likes to draw buildings, cars, and fighting elven creatures, drew this beach scene recently. Don't you love the beach towel, umbrella, and red crab? And I think his Van Gogh sky totally rocks the beach scene.
They created their new masterpieces with my one Christmas gift from Mike this year: Copic Markers. About two days after Christmas, the kids were jealously eyeballing all my gorgeous, brand new markers. I almost said they weren't allowed to use them. (These markers are ridiculously expensive). I then proceeded to get a case of the mom-guilts from the puppy-dog eyeball children, and changed my mind. I decided with some firm rules, they could use the markers. ( We're not big rule-making parents here, so when I made rules about using the markers, I think it got their attention. They've been good little rule followers so far).
*********************
The new marker rules are:
(1) Moms' Copic Markers can only be used with exclusive Mom permission. (Buttering up Mom or sincere flattery is always a good game plan).
(2) Markers may ONLY ever be used at the kitchen table.
(3) Following marker use, a cap-clicking inspection supervised by above mentioned Mom will be required.
(4) Optional, but still a good idea. More flattery about how nice I am to let them use my markers. :)********************
And that's alot of rules for me, but hey, two-hundred dollars worth of markers?! (I know). We needed rules.
The last full set of markers (Berol Prismacolors) I owned, Mike bought for me right after we were engaged, and I was still in college. I was poor. And I needed good markers for my art and interior design classes. Since we were engaged, and everything would now be ours, I marked every marker (64) with the initials M.K. I thought that was so romantic at the time. I was twenty-two. You get it, right? I hope the Copics last as long as the Berols did and the marriage has. I loved taking those markers to classes. They fit upright in this black spinning caddy thing. And they made me feel like Frank Lloyd Wright. Would I have believed they would get lots more use for kids arts and crafts projects and school poster-making back then than for rendering floor plans? Nah. It took a few more years for me to figure out the real world of interior design was a world I just didn't want to work in. It wasn't my cup of tea.
Anyway, that's way more than I was planning on saying about art markers... Since my kids don't seem to be intimidated by expensive markers and/or their rules, maybe their Mom needs to find time to get some Copic coolness. I've only doodled a teeny bit so far. I need to hang out with the loose Van Gogh people around here more. I want to art journal.
Moving on...............
I did manage to design a new pattern for a child's purse last weekend. And I finished one(!) About a million miles away from designing floor plans, huh? But this is where my heart is. It just took a few kids and twenty+ years to get here from there.
I found the fabric last week, and instantly thought little girl purses! I made the outside from a small piece of lattice-patterned felted wool, and lined the inside with the purple flannel fabric. My design assistant, Sophey told me how long to make the shoulder strap. (So glad I've got talented help around here. :-D)
The green, crocheted buttons were cut from an old cotton sweater.
The flower is felted wool too. And since I started the post with purple flowers, I think I'll end it with purple flowers. Thanks for hanging in there, this was a long one... guess I needed to ramble today.
So definitely not Frank Lloyd here. And I'm really so definitely okay about that now. xoKelly
edit-- oops, I thought I hit post, apparently I didn't yesterday!
