Taylor Made designs

:: Fun with Pom Poms ::

Last week while on vacation I kept the kids busy with a lot of arts and crafts projects. The week before I went to Michaels and bought a few supplies. Some of the things I bought were a bag of pom poms of variety of sizes, some googily eyes, and some more glitter glue. I swear, playing with these pom poms kept the kids busy for 3-4 hours straight. Then I gave them my camera + tripod and let them take photos of their creations. Pretty cute huh?

William told me a joke yesterday that made me really laugh.

William: Mum, why did the man marry the woman?
Me: because he loved her?
William: ahh, maybe... (I think my response threw him a bit)
Me: ok, so tell me, why did the man marry the woman?
William: because he wanted his honey! {big grin}
Me: that's funny!
William: I know!

:: New Drapes sewn by me :) ::

Tadaaaa...Well, I finally took some photos of the drapes I made for my bedroom - here they are.  Aren't they pretty? Let me tell you, they were extremely easy to make.

Now – when I look at these photos, the art director in me comes out. My bed sheets are not tucked in properly, the drapes aren't even + my couch cushions are not straight + neat... You can tell I didn't "prep/style the room".

What has happened to me? I use to be a total "type A" personality. I think I'm downgraded to a type C now :)

Anyway...I plan to make new pillows out of the same fabric for our bed. Maybe a project for later in the week. The type box {sorry, I am at a loss for the proper name of it} over our mantel holds the shells Neal and I collected while we vacationed at Sanibel Island many years ago. I want to take the shells out and paint the box black. That will be a project in a half as those shells have been super glued in there! Notice I did paint my step stool base black. {it was white} I think it looks so much better.

I really love hanging out in our bedroom. It's pretty spacious. What you do not see in the photos is all the space in front of the coffee table + couch. Right off the bedroom is our bathroom, which use to be a small bedroom. It has a lovely fireplace and it's nice and spacious too.

So there you have it. My new drapes :) I'm now thinking of new drapes for my family room. Just need to find the right fabric!

:: Love your Earth Icons ::

Are these not the best icons?  They are available as buttons :)   

I came across this post over at designboom. They highlight the work of Savio Alphonso. He's a graphic designer and is the winner of the recent designboom competition love your earth.

The middle square below, "Embrace Solar Power" was the winning entry. He designed the entire series as part of his mfa thesis. Which one is your favorite? You can see all of his designs here.

:: Back to School ::

Love that I caught on film the two of them hugging and being sweet to each other. The bottom photo is the norm!

Monday morning it's back to school for the kids. I've enjoyed having the kids home and not having to run all over town driving them here and there and picking them up. I will be happy though to be back into a routine. Anyone else feel this way?

We had a terrific time at the Museum of Science last Friday. Both William, Davis, Neal + myself had so much fun. We have a family membership so we're going to try to visit at least once a month. I took the above photos on the musical stairs at the museum. The kids kept running up and down the stairs, totally loving the music notes they created with each step. Oh such great exercise :)

Both kids feel asleep in the car on the way home. They woke up just as we pulled into New Toyko for dinner. William had been asking to eat there all week. He loves their tempora chicken. 

Well, I'm so tired, can't wait to sit down and read my book. I spent most of Saturday baking and making treats for coffee hour at our church. It was my turn to host with one other member. I decided to make Ina Garten's Sour Cream Coffee Cake. Can I tell you how yummy it was? Well, it really was :) {really, everyone kept raving about it}  I also made some Lime  Sugar heart cookies, chocolate chip cookies + chicken salad sandwiches with pecan + grapes.

Busy week ahead, but, that's the way I like it :)
Have a super week everyone!   

Thank you Erin S!

Remember the contest I held last November? Erin S from Dani be Good won :) Because of my relapse, the holidays, and then getting sick again, I didn't get my package out to her till late December. Well, Erin sent me a package to thank me for sending her stuff. How sweet is that?

The kids were so excited with the package. Davis can't believe that someone made a scarf "just for me mama?". She loves to wear it. And it looks so pretty on her. She also received some hair accessories that she loves to wear. The kids also couldn't wait to make the snowman doortag. They had so much fun putting it together. The books have tons of activities for them to do – tons of stickers! I love the design magazine she sent for me :) Plus Erin sent little Smartie Candies that Neal loves. We can not get them in the States, so it was a real treat to get them. so yummy.

SO a very big thank you to Erin for being so thoughtful and a wonderful friend. I'm really happy that we have gotten to know each other!

Ok, I'll be remiss if I do not ask this before I sign off, but did anyone else watch LOST last night? How good is this show? Kate is not my favorite character... so I didn't love love this episode...but the last 2 minutes? wow. I loved the episode last week with Sayid. So many questions, so little answers. I truly feel.. LOST :)

:: More Gocco Ribbon + Tags ::

Over the weekend I finished up a ribbon order for Jess over at the Aesthetic Onion. She plans to cut the ribbon up and make tags for her adorable pincushions + other handmade products that she sells in her Etsy store.

Jess is a graphic designer, so of course she has a terrific logo. She supplied me with an eps file of her logo and told me how much space she wanted me to allot on each side to create her tags. So very helpful!

I always practice on extra ribbon before I begin the final roll, so I had all these "test" imprints. I decided to cut the good ones up and send them off to her :) A big thanks to Jess for her order! I hope she will be happy with her tags! They should be arriving by the end of the week!

:: Mid-Winter Gocco Print Swap ::

Here is the final print I created via my Print Gocco for the Mid-WInter Gocco Swap organized by Sarah of cloth.paper.string. I had tons of fun making it. And yes, you will count seven colours in the print: blue sky, orange sun, brown leaves, yellow tree trunk, black type, green base, and red bird. It was a bit of work and of course registration was tough. I really like when things are off a bit. That's the charm. {at least I think so}

I used some Taylor Made design ribbon and some little tags that I silkscreened/Gocco'd awhile ago for my packaging. I think my package really shows how much you can do with the Print Gocco. It's such a great little machine. {see the below post to see the packaging}

I made a little paper portfolio for my print. On the front, to close the portfolio, I created a little tag with a quote on it that represented my print. The quote I used was: "sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it". ~ johann wolfgang von goethe. {again, see below post to see the paper portfolio}

I'll start to take photos of the swap items I have received. Everything so far is really great :)

:: Go Go Gocco Swap ::

Well, I was late with my gocco swap {thankfully, so was most of my group} but my packages have gone out and are set to arrive this week. Having the flu and over seven colours in my print really slowed me down! Thankfully I Gocco'd ribbon and the little square tags a long time ago. I used them for my packaging. Simple and easy :)

So far I have received about three packages and I am so happy I participated in the swap. Such great stuff! You can check out the Mid-WInter Gocco Swap here.

A huge thank you to Sarah, @ cloth paper string for organizing the swap. You rock!

I really enjoyed coming up with a concept and then working from there. I decided to go with a winter tree – inspired by my winter morning walks with the dogs. Plus, I l really love trees :) I found the perfect quote that supported my artwork. Love when that happens :)

Doing this swap and designing this print really got me thinking... I should make a series. The first one is this winter tree, then I will do a spring, summer, and fall tree print. I think they will look great once they are all framed and put together.   

Anyway, I'll show a better photo of my print later this week. I do hope everyone will like my print as much as I loved making it.

:: Just Hanging ::

It's been a rainy President's day so we've been hanging out at home doing a lot of art projects. {which I will post tomorrow}  The kids had a blast making stuff. They are so proud of their artwork that they wanted to take photos of everything. In between our art projects, the kids played with all their stuffed animals. I thought it was extremely cute to see Montana hanging out with all the ugly dolls. It reminds me a bit of the movie ET when he was hidden in the closet with all the stuffed animals.  The bottom photo is a line up of some of the kids favorite  friends :)

Friday we did go to Friendly's and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! The kids ate all their food... granted, it was chicken fingers and french fries, but still, I was happy they ate! I had a chicken wrap and Neal, who's eyes are sometimes bigger than his belly, got this "colossal" burger. It was huge, but he managed to eat it all~

On a totally different note, I just have to ask... has anyone ever seen the show, "john and kate plus eight"? I saw the show for the first time last night. I don't know if I could do what they are doing. I was tired just watching and imagining taking care of 8 kids under five. God bless'em! Kate seems a bit, well, I don't want to judge, because she certainly has her hands full, but does she seem kinda mean to John? I cringed everytime she spoke to him. I know it's stress... but still, I felt for him. If you've seen the show, I'd love to know what you think! I'm just glad we have the two... because John was right when he said, "the world was designed for four." ;)   

:: little inspirations here + there ::

Finally! Today was sunny + bright. We have had some terrible weather lately. So today, when the sun was out, I noticed how the light was hitting certain things in our house. I love the way the light was coming through the window in my dining room – highlighting my favorite rock that William and I found on the beach a few summers ago.

All the flowers in the house just remind me that Spring is a month or so away. I suppose it takes some bad weather to truly appreciate the good weather days :)

Yesterday, Davis received a Valentine coupon for a free ice cream at Friendlys... and ever since then she's been asking "mamma, when can we go to get my ice cream? It's waiting for me!" Well, they had no school today so we're kicking off vacation week with a trip to Friendlys :)

Have a super weekend everyone! 

:: Happy Valentine's Day ::

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! It's such a fun day for the kids. They get so exited to give and receive cards and goodies.

This year we made fortune cookie valentine's for the kids to give out at school. {the idea - courtesy of martha stewart} Inside we placed little valentine's messages and two Hersey Kisses. The kids were really helpful in making them and I think they came out really cute. Unfortunately, William is in an allergy-free room, and his teacher took all the kisses out :( I double checked to make sure Hersey's doesn't manufacturer any peanuts at their plants... but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. Anyway, lucky Davis was able to give all her friends their valentine's with the candy inside :)

I made felt bags to carry the valentine's into school. For each of the teacher's and their assistants we gave them some daffodils and some homemade chocolate lollipops. We also made cuppie cakes and frosted them with hearts. This time I was smart and only frosted 12 of them, and put the rest in the freezer. {everytime I make cuppie cakes we never eat them fast enough and they go bad} 

Well, after a very long sickness, we are finally feeling better at our house. So glad that we won't be sick during the kid's vacation which is all next week. We have a couple of playdates lined up and we are planning on going to the Museum of Science. {Granddad + Aunt Bobbi gave William a family membership for his birthday, how nice huh?}

I have a lot of Gocco stuff to show you from my swap that I participated in. I just need to take photos. Oh, I'll be posting a lot more now that I'm feeling better and I'll be visiting my blogroll. I swear I have 100s of unread posts to read!

Don't forget to give hugs and kisses to your special peeps :) Enjoy!

:: Happy Mardi Gras from the Sick Ward ::

Yesterday, in honor of Mardi Gras, the kids received a KING CAKE from my sister Michelle. {who lives in New Orleans} I wish they were feeling well so they could enjoy the cake... but we've all been sick with the flu. :(  I can't recall when the last time the kids were this sick. The poor things. Both Neal and I have been sick too so needless to say, our house has been no fun.

The kids still insisted I cut the cake up. William wanted to find the baby :) And we did find it, but neither wanted to eat any of the cake at all. Davis of course, wanted to wear the beads :)

Hoping we'll all be feeling a bit better tomorrow! Hope everyone else is staying healthy~