The start of fall craft season

Why is it that people don't really decorate the house for summer?  I guess we're all too busy doing fun things outdoors to really want to stay inside anyways.

Well now that the temperatures are getting colder and we're spending more time indoors, we're doing a lot more crafting and getting the house ready for fall.  This project I found via Pinterest - the greatest place on the internet, in my opinion :)

After painting coffee filters with watercolors and markers, I cut out little leaf shapes, backed them in double stick tape, and let Phoebe go wild sticking them onto a large kraft paper tree I taped on the window.

Phoebe liked to stick most of hers onto the trunk (I guess that's what you get when you tell a toddler, "put the leaves on the tree"), and I took liberty in finishing the branches.

That extra branch turned out a little bit crazier than I had planned.

Love for the Dead Feminists

I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog yet, but my lovely and wonderful sister Abby is getting married in a couple of weeks.  I'm making a lot of the decorations and will be creating an eight and a half foot dessert table, so my life is pretty much consumed by that right now.  Some of those projects might be sneaking on to the blog here and there :)

Anyway, Abby had her first bridal shower a couple of weeks ago and while her big present will be revealed at another shower later next month, I still wanted to get her something special for this one.

I personally think that letterpress prints make lovely gifts.  It might be TMI, but I actually find them quite sexy, lol.  I stumbled across Amagram Press not too long ago and fell in love with their Dead Feminist Series, which is described as...

A series of collaborative, limited-edition letterpress broadsides created by Chandler O'Leary with Jessica Spring. Each broadside features a quote by a historical feminist, ties in with current political and social issues, and is letterpress printed from hand-drawn lettering and illustrations.

"To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the sun lines of the continents for untold thousands of year ... is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be."

 

 

My sister and her fiance live in Florida and have a deep love of the ocean, so I thought this print fit them perfect.  (You can see it larger here)

The thing about this series is that each print is only in production for a short period of time and when they're gone, they're gone.  However they do offer oversized postcard reproduction prints - and at only $1.75 each, you can afford to put them all over your house!  

But to fancy it up a bit, I matted it on some cardstock, stuck it in a clip frame, and glued some vintage crocheted trim around the edges.  I think the entire project cost me about $7.00.

"One tends to give one's fingers too little credit for their own good sense."

Next on the list is to frame this one that I picked up for myself which I loooooooove.  But it will have to wait until after the wedding.

Chihuly Love

 This past weekend Phoebe and I embarked on a trip to the west side of the state for a couple of days to visit my parents.  While we were there, we took a little side trip up to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids.

Where's Phoebe?

 The Meijer Gardens are truly an amazing place; with sculpture and nature coexisting and complementing each other.  Their current exhibit features the work of world-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, who I became completely enamoured with in college.

 

We were lucky enough to go on one of the most beautiful of fall days.  With the intense blue skies and golden fall leaves intermixed with Chihuly's outdoor installations, I really think I might have been visiting my own personal heaven.

 

  And what kid doesn't love a giant horsie?