New Stuff

Hey! So, I'm back, after many months... It seems that's the pattern. But in these months I've made things! Most importantly, this one:

My little peanut-head! Don't worry, it reshaped back to normal in a couple days.

Dollbaby!

...but also artwork. I finished two projects in the past few months, and I even took progress shots of each! So, before Dollbaby was born, I made a wedding gift for some friends; they wanted a thumbprint tree in place of (or maybe in addition to?) a guest book, and asked me if I'd make it, so I did! It was a fun and fairly easy project. The hardest part was making sure it was mostly symmetrical.

Preliminary sketch. Apologies for the crummy picture; I was sketching really lightly...

Inked with a sepia Pigma Micron marker. 

Filled in with watercolor.

After the reception with all the leaves added.

So, the day after that wedding, I had a baby. Then I made her a fancy gown! I was inspired by finding my great-great (or maybe my great-great-great?) grandfather's dedication gown at my grandma's house. I'd always thought I'd like to make an old-fashioned christening/dedication gown for my kids, and this was my chance! So here it is, along with plenty of progress shots and pictures showing the construction. Some notes on the construction: 1. I lined it and flat-felled most seams. The only exposed rough edges are inside the sleeves. 2. All the ribbons are tied, not sewn, so that if Handsomeface and I ever have a boy, we can switch the purple ribbons with blue. 3. I used a doll dress pattern as the basis for the pattern I drafted. If you have questions about how I did anything, comment!

Sketching out ideas.

The pattern and trims.

The skirt, all trimmed and tucked.

Another view of the skirt.

The bodice, mostly finished.

Front View

Bodice

Sleeve

Cuff Detail

Cuff Detail

Cuff Detail

Skirt Trim Completed

Back View

Bodice Back

Bodice Back, open

Inside Front

Inside Front Detail

Inside of Cuff

Inside Back

Inside Back Detail

Dollbaby modeling her gown!

So, that's what I've been busy with! The next projects I'll be working on are drawings, most notably the long-delayed lighthouse drawing for my aunt. Check back in a few months to see how I've progressed! Thanks for reading!

I'm Still Alive!

Hey, readers! It's been nearly six months, but I do still remember I have this blog! Life's been crazy, what with moving, growing a baby, friends getting ready to wed, and whatever else has been going on. My husband and I moved to Michigan, where he finally got a full time job, after months of applying. He's in construction, for anyone that missed the memo, and it's a great fit for him since he's already so good at building things (and he enjoys it too!). We're temporarily staying with family, but it looks like we'll be moving into a new apartment very soon, so with that and the baby's due date coming up, posts here are probably not going to be gaining regularity anytime soon (sorry!) Things are relatively calm right now, though, which has given me time to make stuff! Woohoo! So I thought I'd post about some of those things. Here we go!

Project number one is a wedding gift for some friends of mine, so I'm going to keep it secret for now (I'll probably post pictures after the wedding, since I'll have also done my second stint as wedding florist (well, I made the bouquets, anyway) and my I-don't-know-how-many-th stint as wedding hairstylist. So I'll have more things to post in a couple weeks, maybe.

Project number two is one that has been in the works for going on three years, much to my embarrassment- a drawing commissioned before my wedding, with the proceeds (paid in advance, no less! People, never pay me in advance.) going toward the beautiful circlet I wore. Here's where I am so far, and hopefully it will be done very soon now since I'm on an artsy kick:

Little Point Sable, the prettiest lighthouse in the world.

Not a very good photo, but you get the idea. I think it's going pretty well so far. Now if I can just finish it before I have to move again...

Project number three was not really a planned project at all. My sister-in-law invited me to the new moms' group at her church, and they were doing an art day, pretty much on a whim. The one idea given ahead of time was to think of a word, quote, or scripture that meant a lot and see what it inspired visually. I immediately thought of Psalm 139:13&14, grabbed my stack of ultrasound pictures, and headed out the door with Angie. Here's what ended up happening:

My sweet baby.

This is just what happens when you set free materials in front of me for an hour and a half and say, "Make some art! Have fun!" I don't even know how to explain it. I just hope it doesn't scare people off from making whatever stuff they have fun with... I worry that I intimidate people when I make stuff in the same place other people are making stuff... P.S. it's really hard to express all that without feeling like I'm being a showoff or something, so I guess just enjoy art? Whether it's fine art in a museum, or some silly thing you doodled on a restaurant napkin, enjoy art. If you made it, had fun, and gave it an effort, it's worthwhile. There, I suppose is the heart of the message. And now I'm done waxing philosophical. On with the post!

Project number four is probably the one I'm most excited about. I'm making an old-fashioned christening-type baby gown! I have the pattern all drafted and the materials ready. Here's the design:

Many design options. Also, that is my toe in the bottom corner,
holding the sketchbook open.

The bodice will look like the one labeled Da, drawn with the whole dress. The sleeves will look like the sleeve on the left hand side of the drawing, labeled D1. The skirt will look like the one drawn separately up in the top right hand corner, also labeled D1. If you are having trouble taking the picture apart and putting it back together, I don't blame you one bit. When I post pictures of the finished dress, you'll know what it looks like and that's what matters, right? Also, my pattern and all my fancy trims. I'm so excited to work on this more!

So much lace! Whee!

So that's what my creative life is looking like right now! Hope you had fun catching up! Talk to y'all later (hopefully in less than six months this time!)

Eating for Two

Well, it seems that I haven't posted anything since June... and now it's September. Time for an update! So, for anyone who doesn't know... I'm having a baby! Handsomeface and I found out two months ago, and here's how we told the world:

I'm almost through my first trimester already, so I figure I'd better sum up what's been going on.

Like I said above, we found out two months ago, on July 19 to be more specific. I took two home pregnancy tests that morning, since I was unreasonably worried about the possibility of a false positive. I hadn't needed to worry, they both showed the same result: baby! Michael and I didn't wait to tell family and friends; I didn't even know that was something people did until after we started making the calls. I don't regret it; it's been great having so much support since the very beginning!

I'm going to answer some of the main questions people might have down below, in survey form because I've always thought that was fun, so here are some things you might be wondering, and some things that sum up how life's been so far.

~ How far along are you? 13 weeks.
~ When are you due? March 25, 2015.
~ Have you thought about names? Yep! Munchkin for a boy and Goofer Bean for a girl.
~ Will you find out if it's a boy or a girl? Yes, and it won't be a secret. I can't keep secrets when I'm that excited about them!
~ What are you hoping for? Well, I try not to have a preference, but I find myself referring to the baby as "she" a lot. Take that as you will.
~ Are you sleeping okay? Most nights I wake up and have to use the bathroom... At least it's just once a night, for now.
~ Are you having any morning sickness? No, but if I'm hungry, I'll get kind of nauseated.
~ How about weird cravings? Anything Mexican-American. Burritos, quesadillas, chimichangas, tortilla chips with salsa... Pickles, too, dill pickles. Also, I can end up craving almost any food that anyone mentions or that I see a picture of.
~ How are you feeling? Hungry, oh, so hungry. The title of this post comes from the fact that hunger is my biggest pregnancy symptom. I am so hungry so much of the time it feels like I can't keep up. I can eat so much in one sitting and all of it tastes so good. Also, tired, but I'm starting to have some more energetic days again.
~ What's your least favorite thing about pregnancy so far? Being really thirsty all the time, but knowing that proper hydration equals trips to the bathroom every hour.
~ What's your favorite part of pregnancy so far? Knowing there's an itty bitty person inside me, wiggling around and growing like there's no tomorrow!
~ What are looking forward to right now? My next prenatal appointment.
~ Milestones: Wednesday, Sept. 10, first time hearing the heartbeat. 150 bpm. I might write about that sometime, it was magical!

Hopefully, I'll be able to update a little more frequently than once every trimester; I've reduced my hours at work (I was getting burned out working 10 hours a day, and never getting any chores done at home) and I think the full-time job was the main reason I hadn't written in a while. Since the reduction in hours, I've just about caught up on laundry, and maybe (hopefully!) I'll soon have some time and energy to start making things again! I've got a list of projects that I owe people (including myself), and I can't wait to get working on some of them!

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Life Never Stops

It's been a very long time since I posted last... I don't have much to write about, but I figure in case anyone actually reads this, I should try to put out some kind of blurb now and then. For this one, I'll just update on how my life is going, and make a smallish announcement.

Here's the update: We've been in the same apartment for more than six months now, which alternately makes me feel excited (Yay for not moving every 2-3 months!) and distressed (There are still unpacked things piled everywhere and I can't seem to make any progress). School's out for the summer, so I'm nannying again (a very cute, very active three-year-old boy). It takes up most of my time and a lot of my energy, but he cheers when he sees me pull into their driveway and quotes Pete the Cat (a kids' book, for anyone who doesn't know) with me when we go on walks around the neighborhood, so it's good. Michael has been stepping up to take care of all the chores I usually do around the house, and is just in general being very sweet and awesome and taking care of me. We're both hoping that he can find more regular work so that I can cut down on hours and be more of a housewife, since I really am better at housewife-ing than bringing home the bacon... He's working hard on finding and pursuing job options; it just takes time, I guess. Anyway... that's life. Not very interesting to read about, but it's still good.

Anyway, this brings me to the announcement. Here it is: I will not be taking on any new projects until January 1, 2016. I have quite a list of things I either owe people or want to do for myself, and if I keep adding more I'll keep feeling like I'm never making progress... so that's that. Rest assured, if you've already commissioned me to make something for you, it's on my high-priority list. If not... I'm sorry. If I get a lot of projects done before 2015's out, I'll get started on some new ones, but I don't know what life's going to throw at me between now and then. So that's how things are going. Thanks for reading!

Weddings are Fun!

So, part of the reason I made this blog was to advertise that I have skills of an artist and hopefully find people that would like to pay to make stuff for them, so that's kind of what this post is about. Hopefully it doesn't end up sounding like I'm bragging all over the place.... anyway, last month, I was in the wedding of a very dear friend, and she just started posting her wedding photos. That inspired me to do a wedding post! I've had the honor of helping out and making things for a good bunch of weddings, so I thought I'd share what I've done (with the permission of the brides, of course!).
The first wedding I helped with was that of my big brother Ben and his lovely bride, Angie. Her favorite type of flower is the daisy, and when I (somewhat shyly, I'm sure) asked if I could make myself a daisy wreath to wear, she really liked the idea and asked if I could teach the other bridesmaids to make them too, so I did. It was exciting; one of the moments that helped me bond with my new big sister.

Here we all are in our daisy wreaths!

When I have the photographers name, I will put it here.

That was before I went off to college. A few years later, during my junior year, several of my good friends got married. All of them wanted to save money (yay for smart friends!), so I was able to help with a bunch of different things for their weddings. The first one was a medieval/fantasy themed wedding for a dear friend (another Angie!). My biggest job was gathering dozens of stones from a river with the help of my longtime best friend, Alyssa, and writing bits of the knights' code on them for reception centerpieces or some such. I calligraphied(?) the whole code on a nice big rock as a wedding gift, but don't have pictures of any of that expedition... It was a lot of fun, though, and I was so honored to help!

The next wedding was for college friends, Ashlea and Kaleb. My main appointed task was to be the bridal hairdresser. How cool to be trusted with a friend's hair on such a big day! I also helped with some decorations and whatnot, including lining the flowergirls' baskets with satin, something the likes of which I'd never tried before. It was a fun little project, and was one less stress for the bride, which is always the goal for a bridesmaid. I also retouched the photos, which were taken by another accomplished friend, Jael Bewick.

Wedding Hair!

The bride had a lot of pretty hairpins she asked me to use.

Sparkles and braids!

One of the flowergirl baskets.

Don't they look lovely? And Jael took terrific photos.

The last wedding I was in that summer was for another pair of college friends, Becca and Nathan, and was my second stint as bridal hairdresser. I don't have as many photos of her hair, but here's what I do have.

The bride and her mother (and me, incidentally).

Photo by Ashlea Marshall

Don't they look lovely too?

Not sure who to credit for this photo yet, but when I know, his/her name will be right here!

Then, the next year, I got engaged! I was also in another friend's wedding; third hairdressing gig. Sadly, only one photo exists of this shindig, but here it is!

Look, it's me hairstyling! I was pretty proud of those super long ringlets.
Photo by Oran Weaver

I diy-ed a lot of my own wedding stuff too; check out this, this, this, and this. Also, check this out to see some jewelry I made for my cousin Joanna's wedding, which was just a few months before mine. All those are links to previous posts of mine, which is why I didn't go into a ton of detail about those projects. The only thing I made for my wedding that I haven't posted is my flowergirl's dress, which I made. I loved it and so did my flowergirl. These photos are by my big brother, Benjamin Hardy.

Here she is!

And here's a close up of the bodice. I wish I could remember who
decorated the basket for me... Maybe my mom or dad
will let me know when they read this (wink wink)!

So, to conclude, here are some photos of the most recent wedding. My roommate through most of college (and consequently best friend), Andrea, and her shiny new husband, Josh, let me help out. I got a new duty as wedding florist, and then, on a whim, became her hairstylist too (she had pinned a really cool hairstyle on her Pinterest wedding ideas board, and I couldn't resist asking if I could do it. She let me!) Bouquet photos are by me. The actual wedding photos are by Rebekah Dreisbach.

I'm not that good at taking pictures... but here are the bouquets!

And this is the "hat made out of a tree" that I made for the bride to wear.

The hair.

Another view of the hair.

So that's how I like to help out at weddings. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Days 4-14

As usual, it's been a while since I've posted; I think once or twice a month is all I can manage at this point in my life, what with settling in to the newest place(and remembering that I really am settling in this time! Yay!). Still I've been pretty productive! I'm almost halfway done with the 30 day drawing challenge, so today I'll be posting the rest of the drawings I've done. There are a lot of them, so let's get started!

Day 4: My favorite place~Michael's arms

Day 5: My best Friend~Handsome McHandsomeface

Day 6: My favorite book character~Beth March
(Little Women~Louisa May Alcott)

Day 7: My favorite word
I cheated a little on this one...

Day 8: My favorite animated character~Rapunzel
(Tangled~Disney)

Day 9: My favorite TV show~Dr. Who
I cheated a little on this one too, adding the logo and making it all obvious.

Day 10: My favorite candy~Hershey's
Cookies and Cream

Day 11: A turning point in my life
Ask in the comments if you want to know the story!

Day12: My most recent accomplishment~Three moves in less than six months

I was having trouble with day 13 (drawing a comic), so Michael drew this for my inspiration.
The text reads, "I'm Awesome" "Hi" "I'm Awesome"

Day 13: A comic~Verna Limousine
It was my Mom's idea to do a soap opera comic; you know, the type where someone's
always upset but you never know the backstory?

Day 14: My favorite fairytale~Beauty and the Beast

That's all for now!

2013

So, I'm going to deviate from my normal, artsy-type posts and do a Christmas newsletter type thing, in case people are interested in knowing what I've been up to all year... So here goes! I'll go month by month, and put in lots of pictures.

So, in January, I started my first full year as a married woman, and I also became an aunt! I have the cutest little nephew. He's super smiley, and I love him a ton. On a sillier note, I also managed to lose a game of checkers to my husband without taking even one of his pieces. That has given us a lot of good laughs all year long.

Handsomeface and Cuteface
(a.k.a. Husband and Nephew)

In February, I discovered that my husband is a sleep-talker, another thing that's given us lots of laughs.
A few quotes of his, while he slept :
"Just... stick with it... everybody... keep going!"
"You don't know about deserts at all, do you?"
"It's all right... I'm okay... Let's time warp!"

In March, Husband and I built a snow dragon together. It was epic. Also, for the first time ever, I went on a run just because I wanted to. It was a big leap for a completely non-athletic art nerd like me!

Me and the snow dragon.

Michael and the snow dragon!

In April, I got to rub a baby alligator's tummy, and my lighthouse painting made it into an art show! A very exciting month, to be sure.

In May, Michael and I moved from our first apartment into our second, which was much bigger, with a really great yard. I had a birthday party, and made rainbow Jell-o. Lots of people came, even though it was on Memorial day weekend! It was super cool.

The backyard at apartment #2.

In June, I got a summer job, went to a family reunion, and saw lots of wildlife, including the Tiniest Treefrog.

The Tiniest Treefrog!

In July, I started the 30-day drawing challenge, which I still haven't finished. Oops. Also, I quit that summer job I started in June. It was weird, and sad, and unexpected, but good in some ways too. It was the first time I'd quit a job for any reason besides the beginning or end of a school year, so it made a big impact on me... so strange.

 




In August, my little sister got engaged! I'm so happy for her! Shortly after that thrilling event, I went on vacation with my family, but without Michael. It was a lot of fun, but hard to be without my Handsomeface for a week. I started back at my usual job as an elementary school assistant.

My dearest sisterling

and her fiancé, who also

happens to be a Michael.

Me at the Silver Lake sand dunes in MI.

In September, we moved again, since the people we'd been renting from decided to sell their house. Apt. #3 since we got married. Lots of cleaning and not much else happened during this month of the year.

In October, Michael and I celebrated our 1st anniversary. In honor of the event, Michael got me a kitten! His name is Batman, and he's adorable. On a sadder note, my car died. Things in the engine melted. It was no fun.

Batman is super fierce.

Well... not always, I guess.

He helped my warm my hands up
after our car died. Wasn't that
nice of him?

In November, we moved again to escape bad neighbors. We moved in above some friends from our church, who helped us a ton throughout the moving process and made us feel very welcome in their lives.

Apartment #4! Our landlord let us paint a chalkboard on the wall. It's rad.

In December, I made some money sketching portraits at a school/community event. It was so much fun! I started out feeling very self-conscious, like I was doing an awful job, but everybody who saw me drawing thought it was super cool, so that helped me feel better. Coworkers showed lots of generosity and goodwill toward me and Michael as Christmas came up, we had more and more good times with our downstairs neighbors, and our families also dumped buckets of love on us all year. We had a very merry Christmas, and that's about where we are now! To the friends and family reading this, Michael and I love you, and God bless!

A bountiful Christmas for Handsomeface and me.
Thanks be to God for such a blessed year!