Three birdhouses for Charlie

I live just outside the small town of Palisade, and every year in December they have an Olde Fashioned Christmas festival. They have gingerbread house competitions and other fun stuff, and they always have an outdoor market in the streets downtown. They set up wood burning stoves in the middle of the street and vendors offer free cups of hot chocolate and apple cider, and people are encouraged to dress in period costume from the late 1800s.

I have often considered hawking my wares there. Afterall, what better fit for a celebration of an 1800s Christmas than cards printed on an 1800s printing press, right? But the last three years that we've been here for it, it is has been cold. And miserable. And snowing. So I decided to pass on it this year.

But then Saturday rolled around and the sun was out and it was a glorious day. Figures...

So while the husband was busy entertaining Lachlan, I went down to the market to see if there were any last-minute gifts I couldn't live without. I stopped at the booth run by the local alpaca farmers and bought a few things. And I couldn't resist the raspberry blueberry bread sold by a nearby bakery.

And as I was on my way to buy a wreath from the Boy Scouts, I stopped in my tracks when I saw the most awesome collection of wood birdhouses.

A sign posted on the display said that all the money was going to support a local kid named Charlie who has been selected to travel to Greece and Italy this coming summer as part of the People to People Ambassador program. I overhead the vendor explaining to another woman that he was Charlie's dad, and that he is a "collector" of "stuff" and that he has always built these birdhouses as a hobby. And when people started showing an interest in them, he decided to build some to help raise money for his son's upcoming trip.

I remember my days in 4-H and showing horses as a youth when we were always trying to raise money to go on a trip somewhere. So I'm a real sucker for that kind of thing. Plus these houses were so cool and EXACTLY the kind of rustic and unique birdhouses I've been searching for to add some character to our property.

As I was making my selection, the man came over and told me that it was getting late in the day so everything was 20% off. So I picked out three of the houses and then gave him $20 more than the original price of them. I thought he was going to start crying. I told him I remember being in his kid's position and how hard my parents worked to help me raise money for various things I was involved in. And these days there are so many kids NOT doing good things, that when I come across one who is, well, I want to make sure that I help support them any way I can.

So now Charlie is that much closer to a summer abroad, and I have three of the coolest birdhouses this side of the Mississippi. I'm not sure who got the better deal.

Husband's handwork: The pergola

Last year we started working on our backyard, a project that includes lots of drought-resistant flowers, a small lawn and a large patio.

I did as much work as I could before Lachlan arrived, and then everything pretty much fell by the wayside until this summer. While I've been busy with Lachlan, the husband has been hard at work outside, wrapping up many of our undone projects.

The most significant project he recently finished is the pergola.



The patio area gets very intense sun from about 10 am until 1 pm every day, so I wanted a small shaded area for those rare days when I might want to sit out there with a cup of coffee or to eat lunch while Lachlan plays on the lawn. I had in my mind that I wanted a structure made out of metal that would rust to match the rusty metal roof and pipe fence, and I wanted grapes to grow up the four posts and over the top to provide shade.



With those instructions in mind, the husband set out to create a one-of-a-kind pergola. Each of the four posts is a different length, which helped to create the odd angles of the top of the structure, which adds a lot of visual interest. One thing about the husband is that he doesn't like for things to be symmetrical!



I think the odd angles also work well with the odd angles of the roof of the house, a result of several different additions by previous owners.




We planted the grapes at the end of last year, and they are growing like crazy now that they have something to grow on. The area around the patio is covered in the same rust-colored trail mix used in the other parts of the back yard, and the base of the grapes is surrounded by river rock, which will tie in well to the river rock that we plan to use in the side yard of the house (to the right of the patio in the photo above), which is destined to become a play area for Lachlan once he gets a little older.



We've already enjoyed several dinners on our patio this year, and I think we'll start spending even more time out here now that the area is so pretty!

Quilled jewelry (you meet the nicest people in blogland)

I mentioned yesterday how I've discovered that there are some really wonderful people out there in blogland. Here's another example.

Look at this piece of gorgeousness!



It was a wonderful gift from Ann, who does the most AMAZING things with little strips of paper.

I think I may have heard something about quilling before I "met" Ann, but I didn't really have any idea of the fun you can have with it. I've really enjoyed getting to know Ann through her blog, All Things Paper, where she features the work of paper artists as well as some of her own creations. She's also very generous with her talents and offers numerous tutorials. I continue to promise her that one day soon I'll sit down with her tutorials and try my hand at quilling. It's going to happen, it's just a matter of finding some free time again (hopefully before Lachlan goes away to college)!



Ann creates the most beautiful and fun cards and jewelry, and she's made some quilled marriage certificates that will knock your socks off! (I want to get re-married so I can have her make one of these for me!)



For now this beautiful work of art is stored safely away with the rest of my necklaces, because I don't even want to think about how quickly Lachlan would destroy it (his hands are tiny, but they can shred stuff pretty quickly!). I'm really looking forward to the day where I can wear it again!

Thanks, Ann, for such a beautiful gift and for all the inspiration you provide on a daily basis! :)

Tim Herbst contemporary metal art

I mentioned a while back that on mother's day we went to the Art and Jazz festival in downtown Grand Junction. They had some amazing artists there, and this guy's work really caught my eye. His name is Tim Herbst and he does the most beautiful things with pieces of metal.

Here are just a few samples of his work. You can see alot more in the gallery on his website. If you're looking for a contemporary piece of art in some gorgeous colors, his stuff might be perfect for you!

This blue sunflower is probably my favorite. I'm trying to figure out where I can fit one in our house...

Embrace

Leap

Angela's pinstriping

Back in December I showed you some business cards I printed for my friend, Gigi, who does pinstriping. Over the weekend she used my studio space for one of her pinstriping jobs, so I was able to get some photos of the process.

The motorcycle is an absolutely stunning copper and black Harley Davidson. Gigi used black and copper paint and copper leafing.







Here's a series of photos that shows the process on one of the bike's saddlebags. What is amazing to me is that she does everything freehand and is somehow able to get each side perfectly symmetrical!

Apple hat

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Ours was pretty quiet. We're just sitting around waiting for Goober to get here.

While I wait, I've been cleaning like a maniac. Can I just say how amazed I am by how much dust and dog hair accumulates on TOP of the blades of the ceiling fans. Yikes.

I've also been accumulating more cute things for Goober. Like this hat. It was sent to me as a thank you by a client for doing her New Year's cards under such a tight deadline and unusual circumstances.



This is quite possibly one of the cutest baby hats I've seen. It is 100% wool but is SO soft and snuggly I can't believe it. It came beautifully packaged with a nice card. It's made by the Etsy shop My Market Stall, and she has lots of wonderful "veggie" hats and felted wool bowls and other cute hats. I think I may have to order the bunny hat. Seriously, how cute is that?!



If you're looking for a high-quality and unique baby gift for someone, I highly recommend this Etsy seller!

Pinstriped Christmas ornaments

The other day I showed you the business cards I printed for my friend's pinstriping business. Last Friday we went to the opening of the latest show at the art gallery where she has some of her work. They were having a silent auction to raise money for some local charities, and Gigi donated several pinstriped items, including 15 Christmas ornaments decorated with her pinstriping.

We bid on 5 or 6 of the ornaments, but we had to leave before the end of the auction when the bidding wars started. We still ended up with two ornaments that are completely awesome.







Aren't they amazing?

Someone else beat our bids on two of our favorite ornaments, so I've put in a request to have Gigi do some more for us. I can't wait to get them!

Every horse has a story

While standing in line at the grocery store the other week, I picked up the latest issue of Cowboys and Indians. After flipping through it in line, I decided to buy it. In the last few days I've thought a lot about a story in the magazine about a little business called Sophie's Horses Handmade.

When Sophie was 7 years old, she started making tiny sculptures out of blocks of beeswax. At the ripe old age of 8, she attended a camp where she learned to ride horses. Anyone who knows young girls knows that an 8-year-old girl who learns to ride is going to find some way to get her own horse, and Sophie was no exception.

Soon Sophie started making tiny wax sculptures of the horses that she knew. Before long, the entire family became involved in a new business centered around Sophie's hand-carved horse charms.



Now at the ripe old age of 14, Sophie has her own online shop where she sells her horse charms, and they're also carried in numerous high-end shops in places like Santa Fe and Sundance. Each horse charm was created based on a horse that Sophie knows, and they are packed in tiny pine boxes with a copy of the horse's story.



What makes the story more amazing is that Sophie's equally talented siblings also help with the business; her 11-year-old sister is learning web design and is "good with numbers" so she's doing the accounting for the little business!



If you're looking for the perfect gift for the horse fanatic in your life, be sure to check out Sophie's shop!

Margaret Meyer and Becky Fowler

Yesterday I discovered the work of Margaret Meyer. She is an amazing artist in Portland who was so, so lucky (in my opinion) to work on designing and fabricating the costumes for the stop animation film Coraline.

I discovered Margaret because she sells some of her art in her Etsy shop, and she asks people to share the stories that they make up based on the characters in her paintings. My brilliant and funny and unbelievably creative friend Becky (the one who loved to quote Pee Wee Herman during knitting class) actually took her up on this offer. Yesterday, her story--Chapter 1 of “Finders Keepers: A Summer Story (that Ends Sadly and Happily in the Fall)”--was posted on Margaret's blog.

The story was inspired by the rabbit and bird in this painting of Margaret's, called "Lost," and it is well worth your time to read the short story that Becky wrote about them. (And I'm not just saying that because Becky is a friend!) I suspect that you, like me, will be left begging Becky to tell the rest of the story and can picture Becky writing the entire book with illustrations by Margaret. I can but hope!

Painting and photo by Margaret Meyer.

Scott Morrison

The post I did on the famous woodworker Sam Maloof piqued my curiosity about fine woodworking. If I could have another life, or just more time in this one, it's a skill I'd like to learn. One of these days I'll drag the husband out to the workshop and make him teach me everything he knows about woodworking. He used to do a lot of it, back before he got interested in welding and before I made him work 24/7 remodelling our house.

But I digress.

While digging around online I discovered the amazing wood creations of Scott Morrison. I almost fell off my chair when I saw his rocker cradle, which is an updated version of a 1700s Windsor Nanny Rocker. This one is made of English walnut. How absolutely clever. I love it.



He also has a walnut cradle that just about took my breath away.



I'm thinking of "accidentally" breaking our bar stools so that I can get some of these lovelies, shown here in Oregon black walnut. Yes, sir. I'll take three of 'em.



And to accompany the dining table that will one day be made from the fir beams from my old Baltimore row house, I'll take 12 of these. In the Oregon black walnut to match the bar stools, of course.

Sam Maloof

The other day the husband came home with the October issue of Fine Woodworking, the cover of which was dedicated to Sam Maloof, who died in May at the age of 93. Maloof was entirely self-taught and is considered one of the world's premier contemporary craftsmen. He was once quoted as saying that he had a desire "to work a piece of wood into an object that contributes something beautiful and useful to everyday life."

I'd say that he accomplished that, and then some.






Photos from Architonic

Sara Remington

I recently discovered the photographer Sara Remington, and I love her photos. Don't these photos make you want to run out and get a farm?

Paula Hayes terrariums

One of these days I'm going to have a life that doesn't involve paint or tile. Until then, I will continue to dream about making terrariums as spectacular as these beauties created by Paula Hayes.

Jessica Hische illustrated letterpress goods

This birth announcement, designed and letterpress printed by Jessica Hische, is stunning. The small pink birds are too cute for words.



And her alphabet print, also designed and letterpress printed in three colors, is a true work of art! I'm in awe of the excellent registration she got with the three colors.

Zeke Leonard bed

I discovered Zeke Leonard over at Design Sponge.

I am infatuated with his work, which uses reclaimed wood objects and things he finds in dumpsters. This bed is one of my favorite pieces, although some of his benches and lighting fixtures are pretty spectacular, too.



The bed is made of reclaimed red oak that had been church pews, and the headboard is an oak branch found in the woods. The legs of the bed and the reading lamp are made from reclaimed oak from hand-hewn square beams that were made more than a century ago. Love it.