Elmo Art Apron

I know that I have been an absentee blogger as of late, and I am sorry about that. We have been out of town and then back in town and now we are headed out again. As we move towards summer we will be spending a lot of time traveling. I will try and blog as much as possible, but I will probably not be around much until fall. I have several projects in the works and hopefully I will be getting many of them done this summer as I do a lot of work while riding in the car. So, I should have a great deal to post about.

My son is turning two in May. For his birthday we have invested in an art easel and finger paints. My son is crazy about Elmo and he is a considered the little red god in our home. Every morning the routine is the same: upon awakening Neil hands out hugs and kisses including a few for his good friend Nappers (see an earlier post on this monkey side-kick), a glass of milk, and then there is this little voice that follows me all over the house asking for “Elmo’s Song”. To honor this important furry deity, I thought I would surprise my beloved child with an Elmo art apron. I spent days looking for fabric to make the apron out of. The only fabric I could find was fleece. I do not want to clean paint out of fleece. So, I came up with this design.

Elmo is an appliqué that I constructed out of cotton fabric scraps.

I assembled the body of the apron out of a heavy canvas material and bright orange bias tape.

...and My Parents Come Through

As I have mentioned before there are 3 of us that live in 855 square feet. We have been living on top of ur mess for years and it has only gotten worse. At this point we cannot afford to sell our home and move into a bigger one, so here we stay. I have spent countless hours downsizing and consolidating, yet there is still a lot of stuff in our home. My husband is a musician and I always laugh because he couldn’t play something small and easily portable like spoons, no he is a drummer. And he does not own just one kit but three, along with keyboards, guitars, and sound gear. We sold our upright piano after our son was born because there was just no longer any room for it. Let’s just say our basement is full. I will only venture to the pit if I have laundry to do.


Several weeks ago I had a fit; well it was really more than just a fit. I had a full-fledged temper tantrum after I could not find my sketchpad. I hate when I have an idea and cannot find anything to sketch on. Clif agreed that it was time to look for a solution. I have so many supplies that One day my mother-in-law recommended that I put everything in the closet of our son’s room. When I told her it was already full she would not believe me and went to look. Let’s just say that she was lucky that she was able to close the door and that she did not obtain a concussion from falling objects. If I had just one hobby the mess might be better, but I have several and I always have more than one project in the works, my kitchen table can contest to that.

We had been searching high and low for a piece of furniture to store some of my supplies in. I needed something that was sturdy, all important as I hate spending money on junk that falls apart within a year. I wanted something astatically pleasing to the eye and it had to fall in to a price range that didn’t throw my husband into sticker shock. Not always an easy task, he is cheaper than I am. After hitting second-hand shops, estate sales and perusing Craig’s List my parents came through. 40 years ago my dad bought this piece of furniture for 30 dollars. It was in bad shape when he brought it home, but my dad, the ever handy-man went to work on it. He refinished it. In the pictures you can see the dark wood, that is the original color and those decorative pieces are untouched. Behind the mirror my father found a 1910 newspaper and so we know that this dresser is at least 100 years old. This old dresser brings back a flood of memories. It was always in my parents’ bedroom and as a little girl I use to stand on the top and look in the mirror (what a vain child).

I have already filled every nook and cranny. In front of the mirror is the print I won from Marie Otero at Lost Aussie. I have gotten the mat and am still waiting to find and appropriate frame. The lily pad lamp was bought at a yard sale for a dollar. I have been looking for a glass shade that will not break the bank. The shade I wanted was $125; I think I will keep looking. The hand-blown hookah has been with me for years. I had my dad cut the bowl off the top. It was to be a small table, but my son cannot keep his hands off of it. So I put it up for safe keeping.

I am very happy that my parents have decided to let me become the caretaker of such a piece and look forward to having many years of memories with it in our home. Now I can get back to work.

A 4th OWOH prize...

Just when I thought it was over, I got another wonderful surprise. Last week I received an email telling me that I had won yet another OWOH giveaway. The original winner had failed to reply, there was an additional drawing and my name was selected. Yippee, well I mean I am sorry that the original winner lost out on her chance to win this bundle of goodies, but I am thrilled to have had my own name drawn. There is obviously some amazing talent over at Etsy Team Columbus. Look at all of this fun stuff.

A big thanks to the artists from ETC.

Another OWOH Prize Arrives by Post

Looky, looky at what I received. Another One World, One Heart giveaway prize in the mail. Boy, my mail carrier must be getting tired of delivery packages to my door.

This came from the very talented Regi at Southern Ooaks.

Regi has just opened an Etsy shop. Go check out her handcrafted goodies. Best wishes to Regi on her new adventure!