All of a sudden this past weekend, 5 can nap without me beneath him. Yay hooray! I certainly never minded, but oh my can I get some stuff done now! I COULD have a clean house with washed dishes and such, or I COULD do all of these projects! (which do you think it will be?) Click on the pictures to go to the original tutorial or project idea.

I saw these on Craftgawker via ticketyboo a while back and thought they were fantastic. The shop that was making them doesn't appear to have them any more, but I thought perhaps I could make some of these instead of cards! We have excellent vintage hankie resources here...

My husband is not particularly sentimental, but he does love maps (and I AM sentimental!) The company that does these bespoke map hearts does absolutely gorgeous work, but of course I am thinking about how I can make it myself, changing it to be something that is just ours...

Made by Joel is the coolest blog for kid projects. I LOVE this alphabet game (alphabet not pictured), but I also want to make everything on his site! He and his wife just (just!) had a new baby and I can't wait to see the new things he starts making!

This is a project by the lovely ladies of Prints Charming that I have written about before here from last Christmas. It reminds me that I WANT TO DO EMBROIDERY! I have dabbled a bit, but I'm always drawn to embroidered textiles and it doesn't really have to be some complicated. Perhaps I can share here just what can be embroidered during a nap.

I also have read the embroidery section of my sewing machine's owners manual about 100 times now. It is time to jump in. This etsy seller, aewilder, does beautiful, simple work. I'm not sure if she uses a machine or not, but I would strive for a line quality like this. I also love her custom project ideas. Something to commemorate a birth or other meaningful event- what a perfect opportunity for something lovely and hand made?

I thought this lamp was awfully cute, and the DIY didn't sound TOO impossible, but if I'm going to make it, I will definitely need to complicate it a bit..

I can't just buy thrifted tea cups and use them as is! I think I will have to draw on them with porcelain markers first, like Lotta Jansdotter did with the cup and saucer above.

Lastly, I couldn't possibly just BUY a lampshade I like- I will have to re-cover one I can find! If I ever finish this trifecta, I will be sure to share it here!

My friend Dan is a writer. He is writing my biography in fact. It's not as pompous as it sounds. It will be short, like 1000 words short, and probably a little bizarre.
Last fall, our local art center had a goods and services auction and a brief biography written by Dan was one of the services offered. My husband and I decided we HAD to have it and even though the man we were bidding against had led a long and absolutely fascinating life we outbid him and won!
I think it's going to be great and I'll share the best parts when it's done.
So, Dan was at my house yesterday, interviewing me, or listening to me yammer, and he brought me a new tiny zine he had made. I am in love with it. It's called "Beet Romance" and it's a strange, short, sort of love story, and yes, it features beets.

Yup, that's it right there, enjoying the company of Sophie the French giraffe. It's made from half of a pant leg and most of a shirt sleeve and I would totally make out with it if I could.
You may be wondering if those cute and slightly sassy circle clusters were printed by me, the girl who WILL NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PRINTING, and you would be right! Want to know how I did it? I will show you, step by step, with so many pictures here in my discharge with bleach pen tutorial! You can also find it on my create page.
This pillow will be part of a summer exhibit at the Reflection Gallery at Finlandia University. It's a group show for past recipients of Kuhlman Foundation grants given to fiber students. Yay!

Do not adjust your screen, this is REALLY what our house looks like. Go ahead, sympathize with my minimalist, Bauhaus-loving husband if you must, but do not avert your eyes! This futon has been in bed position since V was born in November, very handy for tired babies and exhausted mamas, but kind of unwieldy for the living room, especially buried under a mountain of baby stuff. This past weekend I realized it's been WEEKS since I needed to take a nap in the middle of the day, so we folded it back into a couch! Hooray!

Check back Friday, when I'll be writing from beautiful Decatur, IL!

A happy Friday to everyone! It has been a bit of a harrowing morning here in my house, unfortunately. Today I'm going to share some of my favorite artists, but first I have to share my embarrassing bad mom moment.

I should preface this story by explaining the situation a little bit. I am afraid of spiders. I can't look at pictures of them because I imagine those pictures crawling on me under the covers at night while I'm trying to sleep. I also seem to attract spiders. Not so much anymore, but spiders used to follow me wherever I went. I'm pretty sure I could find spiders in Antarctica.

I have been working on this fear for over ten years. I've gotten a LOT better. For the most part, spiders that are less than one inch across do not bother me unless they are on my face. However....

The old houses in Hancock, where I live, have what I call "seasonal spiders". We see them in the Spring and in the Fall and rarely in between. These are not normal spiders though. The only spiders I personally have seen that are bigger are the cane spiders in Hawai'i. These buggers are the size of the palm of my hand and they can MOVE. They can probably run faster than me, not that I run all that fast, but I'm like a thousand times their size.

The up side of these particular spiders is that they are so heavy they can't climb. They stay on the first floor and they stay on the ground. Or so I thought.

The little guy and I woke up at around nine and had our nice, happy morning snuggle time and then we got up and went to the bathroom so I could change his diaper. Both of these rooms are on the second floor of our house. We're laughing and playing and then one of these big mama spiders walks right past my feet. The maternal instincts that I was sure would turn me into some fierce warrior to protect my child completely abandoned me and I ran from the room shrieking. Five started crying and I had to go downstairs to put shoes on before I could force myself to go back in and rescue my baby.

The only thing that mitigates my guilt at all is that I knew he was safe up high on the changing table...

As embarrassing as it was to call my husband at work and beg him to come home to kill a spider or let us move to another state before lunch, that is exactly what I did. Big Fred, wonderful man that he is, dutifully came home and hunted for the spider. The bad thing about not being afraid of spiders though is that he doesn't have the adrenaline and paranoia to help him find them. He declared the beast gone and got ready to leave. I convinced him to go with me while I changed the diaper just for a minute. As I timidly re-checked everywhere that Fred had, I discovered that my nightmares had indeed come true and not only did that horrible spider make it to the second floor but he had climbed up the wall behind my husband, leaving no safe zone for me at all. Yes, I abandoned my child once again as I  ran from the room shrieking.

So I'm now sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, baby on my lap, where I can monitor my perimeter constantly and attempt to take my mind off the invasion with some of my favorite artists. Enjoy!

Sanna is a half-Finnish half-English illustrator and printmaker. I think her work is incredible. Her designs are inspired by her childhood summers spent in Finland, rich with nature and folklore. She's done work for album covers, candy wrappers, milk cartons, plus she's developing her own line of products. She also dis several designs for Marimekko a few years ago, they are featured in the pictures below. Click on any of the pics to check out her site.

You may recognize her work from my last post as well. I have a set of her postcards framed in the baby decorations. It was actually what we built all the decor around.

Cilla is a Swedish artist whose works always seems to revolve around textiles. She uses unconventional materials to depict traditional textile patterns like in the glass floor mosaic below and the plastic bead picture below that. She also designed several fabrics for Ikea. Click to see what they currently have of hers. Click either of the top to pictures to go to her blog. She hasn't posted in years, but it has some more great pictures of her work.

I got her book, Knitprovisation, for Christmas in 2008 and it rocked my world. Her stuff is bizarre and not for the faint of heart, but it's also amazing and beautiful and incredibly creative. Click on the picture to see it on Amazon.

Do these two artists get you in the mood for all things Scandinavian? Check out my Scandinavian-themed treasury on etsy! Come back Monday for some new recipes and perhaps a new product update...