These Walls

Let me tell you a secret that may just make me sound crazy. Handmade things have a voice. Yes, that’s what I said a voice. Don’t be worried about my postpartum mind, I don’t mean I’m hearing voices per se but rather that handmade objects resonate something that mass production will never be able to simulate. I bought two new pieces of wall bling (aka artwork) for our house for my birthday. They have brightened up my walls but also added a couple new little voices to the singing chorus of handmade goodness in our home.
When we were making the decision to invest in a high quality fine art printer I really struggled with the decision of are these digital prints “handmade” at all? Do they have the ‘touch of the hand’ that makes living with art such a unique and important experience? After giving it a lot of thought we decided to make that investment (which has paid itself back over and over thanks to the Art Star Craft Bazaar).
I’ve had my own prints in my house for over a year now, which is about how long it takes for things to really grow on me. After living with some of my own prints and stationary and now owning some other folks digital prints as well I feel sure that yes, there is personal voice in these prints.

This lovely print on the left is by Jeniffer Judd McGee. She has so many gorgeous prints it was hard to choose just one from her shop.


This one on the left is by Rachel Austen. There are slew of great prints in her shop as well.

Really lame halloween photos

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday. It's only redeeming factor for me is that it gets us closer to Christmas which is my favorite holiday. I am a crafty artist mom and that means that sometimes people expect my kid to have cute clever homemade outfits. But I just don't get that excited about it. I'm sure it will be more fun when they are old enough to help in the making of the costumes. See this bunny outfit I "made" last year. This is just an old shrunken sweater than I cut to make into a bunny outfit. This year I put in even less effort. Beckett was a clown (the clown suit I got at the thrift store for a dollar). Bayliss was a bumble bee. He wore his footed pj's and I made him an antenna and wings.

He wore the antenna for about five seconds and wouldn't wear the wings at all.

I am not a huge fan of sugar for little kids and was really close to buying raisons to hand out to the trick or treaters but Jay intervened and we bought candy. This year, with a two year old and a two month old, Halloween was a kind of annoying day where there was too much sugar and not enough nap.
Stay tuned and I'll let you know how it goes next year.

TWO!

Bayliss is two.
His birthday party was oh so fun. We had a full house. He knew he was the star for the night and that we where all there to celebrate him.
Although it was Bayliss's big day his three year old cousin totally stole the show and made it into permanent Gerth Family Story Telling when she declared to Grandpa Gerth, "Grandpa Gerth even God is older than you."



For Bayliss some of the highlights where:
Being the BIRTHDAY BOY.
Blowing out the "tiny fire".



Presents (yes that is Elmo's head on his feet).



For me the highlights where:
Celebrating that BIRTHDAY BOY.
Remembering that first cake last year and watching him with his first icing this year.
Enjoying having a family birthday party at OUR house.

Happy Birthday little miss Seven

Jayla, my oldest neice, turned seven last week. She sure is an awesome kid. She loves doing art projects when she comes over to my house. I thought I would make her a little portable art studio that she can take with her and pull out and work on anytime. I made one for her and then at the last minute decided to make one for her little sister too. These pictures aren't the greatest. I thought I would take more of them at her birthday party but my camera died. Nonetheless...

Here is Jayla's purse:



I made it out of a felted wool sweater, the sleeve of the sweater is the strap of the purse. I don't know why but that pink color just seems so perfectly Seven to me.



Here is Jinnis's purse:



It is made from the sleeve of an old cotton shirt and lined with an thrifted pink floral bed sheet.

They both got filled with these goodies:



A sketch book, colored pencils, markers, a cool triangle eraser, and a pencil sharpener.


The art supplies where a BIG hit. Jayla said the sketch book is a "real artist's book". and Jinnis looked at me with big three year old eyes and said, "my very own pencil sharpener!".

I love being an Aunt.

Guest Blog: Jay's BPBB Sandwich

Jay’s guest blog:

Mandy takes the time to document the small moments that have a large impact on our daily life. Her take on the world is sublime – ever so much more sublime than mine. The kind of calm, quiet, inspiring small things in life that I pay attention to are much different as you’ll see here in my first guest blog.

I was making one of these sandwiches the other day when Mandy came in to the kitchen, gave me a disgusted look, and walked out. I however, think that these sandwiches are AWESOME. And as such, the world needs to know about them, for I believe myself to be the inventor of this sandwich. There’s no patent pending – so go ahead! Indulge.

I created this sandwich in the spirit of the best of our inventions – out of necessity. When you’re out of jam, jelly, honey, chutney, raisins, applesauce, or pretty much anything that would lubricate a peanut butter sandwich, bring on the:

Butter Peanut Butter Butter Sandwich

It starts with butter:



Then add Peanut Butter:



Now comes the essential move: Add butter on top.



Seriously.

Add butter on top. It helps if the butter is really soft, but some mixing will occur. This is normal. This will help avoid the ‘got milk’ stuck mouth problem of eating just peanut butter. And, look at that luscious marbled texture. Beautiful!

watch out hulk hogan

We took the Boys to their well child check ups last week where we learned Becket is in the 98th percentile for a two month old boy. Which leaves me with two questions:





1. What do the cheeks on those other 2% look like?
2. Do those babies have a neck? I can't seem to find one on Beckett.

Autumn is...(part 4)

Autumn is...
...hand knits.
I love looking down at my kids and seeing them wearing hand made goods. Here they are as we where heading out the door yesterday.

Beckett in a cap made by a friend in Philly, a sweater knit by one of Jay's students in a community art class, and a blanket by Grandma Gerth.

Bayliss
Grandama Gerth cap, Grammy Sue Sweats, mama made scarf and these mittens.