Some things I'm thinking about

As Halloween fast approaches, we've been starting to think more and more about Halloween costumes. I would love it if Jake would let me dress him up like a yard gnome, but he's having none of it. Even at age 4, I can see how some costumes just aren't "cool". (But he would look pretty cute, wouldn't he?)

I marvel that some parents are able to dress their kids up in crazy cute/original costumes. As much as I think this MIGHT be a possibility for us, I'd rather have Jake pick what he wants to be, and it's kind of fun to see what he comes up with. I think he's going to pick something like this:

Jake thought I could whip up the costume tonight. I thought not. It's probably going to take a little more polar fleece than I already have. 

I've also been thinking/wanting/hoping to finally get our dining room finished. In the last year, I've managed to replace the (horrendous) chairs, and get a great lighting fixture, but it needs to be painted. I've been stalling because I want to replace the art that's currently there, and I think the wall color will depend on what we hang on the wall. We've been toying with framing an enlarged photo, and I recently discovered an online source where you can get your photo printed on watercolor paper...might be cool? I'm thinking something like this:

The photo would be toned down a bit (I think) because it would be printed on the watercolor paper, and hopefully look a little more like a painting than just a photo. It's of the Amalfi Coast...a lovely trip we took when we got engaged. Perhaps the interesting destination will make up for the fact that it's really not a superb photo. Do you ever have projects that just stall because you can't decide on one element? I'd love to know I'm not the only one! In the above photo I made the walls greige and thought I'd add a few more pops of color on the other walls.

Oh, guess what? I'm a soccer mom! How cool is that? Doesn't he look handsome in his crazy orange uniform?

If you need a fun Halloween activity...check out this Halloween playset I designed. It's got lots of punch out pieces that you can set up in any of three fold-out scenes...

If you want to get one...click here.

Now that I've finally gotten back to my blog after several months...I hope to keep at it! If you've stuck wtih me for this long haitus...thank you!

Chalkboard Masterpieces

After a recent trip to the Children's Museum of Manhattan, I was inspired to make these outdoor chalkboard murals for Jake. The museum had a fun outdoor play space with a lot of different water-based activities. We had a lot of fun "painting" with water on these pieces of framed slate:

Once the water dries, the image vanishes...magic! I loved all the kooky frames in all the different shapes. I originally wanted to do something like this to hang on the fairly unattractive fence in our backyard. However, when I got to the wood store, I realized that A.) I would probably never finish this WITH frames because I don't have the proper saw and would spend most of my time trying to figure out how to get that done; and B.) bigger would be better...he would have more room to draw and create his own masterpieces.

I've been wanting to try out some projects with the ever-so-popular chalkboard paint, and thought this would be the perfect project. It's super easy. Once you have the wood cut to size (which you can have done at Home Depot), you just prime, paint, hang up, and you're good to draw!

My husband added a cute note...he's been having fun playing with them too!

Pretty in Paper

At the Stationery Show at the Javits Center last week, they cleverly put up a "Paper Runway" connecting the two sides of the show that were separated due to construction. To highlight the relationship between paper and fashion design, exquisite paper dresses were created by such fashion designers as Lela Rose, Susan Woo, and Donald Deal. Visual merchandising and design students at NYC's LIM College participated in the competition sponsored by Kate's Paperie. The winners will be displayed in the windows of Kate's Paperie during Fashion Week.

I was amazed at the intricate detail in these dresses...if you look closely at the construction of some of these dresses, you will notice that the dresses feature a variety of trends that are popular among paper design right now... notably, butterflies:

Lasercut designs:

Gold accents:

And bold flowers:

It's hard to believe these are all made of paper! I'm curious how long it took to construct these fabulous creations! Which is your favorite? (Mine is the short dress with the butterflies...)

Welcome to New York

Here's a sneak peek of another fold-out play set I've been working on. The theme of this, of course, is New York City, and will feature 3 fold out scenes of Manhattan with several paper dolls, and NY city characters (artists, dog walker etc) to assemble and play with on the fold-out scenes.

The cover is rough, and I just pieced things together to show the illustrator, Amy Saidens, what we had in mind. I think it's really fun. What do you think? Does it make you want to visit New York?

Painting with a twist

I've got projects on my mind lately, and the desire to play with paint...with a twist! While exploring fun paint projects lately, I came across these cool paint supplies from Rustoleum that I never knew existed.

Of course, I've known about chalkboard paint, but did you know that they have glow in the dark paint, dry erase paint, and magnetic paint? How cool is that? I've always believed that at least 25% of creativity is knowing about the right supplies. Another 25% of the equation is actually having the supplies on hand so you can actually get started!

Have you tried any of these paints? If so, I'd love to hear about it, and see what you made!
Have fun creative friends!

The Making of a Fairy Queen

I've been working on a new Fairy Fold-Out Playset which will be similar to this project I worked on last year:

I've commissioned illustrator, Amy Saidens to create the art for the project, and we've been working on pulling together all the illustrations and characters. The project includes three fold-out scenes, and many fairy paper dolls and clothes to dress them up. One of the characters we asked her to create was a Fairy Queen. 

The first fairy she sent looked like this:

Too young I thought...too trendy. I asked Amy to try again, so she changed the fairy's hair to brown.

Hmmm, still not right. Too young, too much like the other fairies in the book. Too trendy. This fairy needs to look older, and more classic. Time to give a visual of what I'm looking for. So, I grabbed a Hollywood glam hair-do off the web, and added it to Amy's illustration in Photoshop. I also curved her figure a bit, and changed the leotard to a form-fitting dress. I suggested adding a little gray/white streaks to the fairy's hair as well.

Then, Amy reminded me that if she did this, the Fairy Queen's glam hair would be covered once the clothes were added, so she came up with this...

Perfect! Now we have a Fairy Queen! One of the trickiest things about creating a paper doll book like this, is ensuring that all the clothes will fit each doll properly, and be able to be attached in such a way that they don't fall off the doll once the user puts them on. (How frustrating is THAT...to have your paper doll's clothes fall off!?!?!). This is easier to check, and alter if necessary when the art is created digitally, but for a few of the projects like this I've worked on, the art has been created by hand w/ watercolors. Not only is the intricacy of the art difficult to reproduce, but if the clothes don't fit exactly right, I end up having to clone them in Photoshop which is absolutely beastly! The Princess project above was one such project, although, in the end, I think the results are really cute! Hopefully some little girl out there will think so too!

Whistling a Happy Tune

In an effort NOT be sucked in by all the coupons flooding my inbox, and to give EXPERIENCES, and SPECIAL THINGS, rather than just stuff, I am proud to say that I have completed my first special Christmas project (for which my husband is very grateful). I decided to make my own children's book using BLURB.com especially for my niece, and my son who are just the best of buddies.

I adapted Laura Joffe Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie into a fun book of the great times Jake and and his beloved cousin Avery have had this year. She is completely dedicated to him, and tireless in meeting his demands, as is the character in the original story.

I would like to say I breezed right through this project, and while having an audience of two took some of the pressure off my usual design job, in truth this took me HOURS! And, hours. And hours. But, I had a great time, and I hope that Jake and Avery will love their special book. Here's a sneak peek:

With regard to all the rest of my Christmas shopping, I confess, I gave in to many of those coupons, but WILL give a special gift to my nieces and nephew of a fun filled day doing something I think they'll love (but I won't say here, because you never know who's reading!

How have you been doing on your Christmas shopping? Are you making things? Do you have time? Do you know of any great coupons you'd like to share?

The Star Factory

Just as Santa has been busy making toys, Jake has been busy making stars for the top of our Christmas tree. You can see the intense concentration, and attention to detail that each star warrants. We now have about 50 stars. Do you need one? We'd be happy to share!

Last week, we showed Jake Rudolf on tv. I wish I'd previewed it as I hadn't seen it in many years. He's never REALLY been scared of something before until old Bumble started roaring on the big screen. Scared as in hysterical, shaking, crying. Eeeesh! We quickly fast forwarded the movie to the end and tried to come up w/ quick explanations about why Bumble was now nice (he had his teeth removed...), and how and when Bumble was going to get his teeth back. (in the next episode? OK, he doesn't know what an "episode" is...try again...) Needless to say, I was up at least 5 times that night with a crying little boy. I'm not completely sure if it was the Bumble that did it, but we did feel quite awful about the incident. Of course, now he has quite a Bumble fascination, and keeps wanting to see the movie. I'm not up for more sleepless nights, so I'm ok w/ waiting until next year to see it again (or perhaps the year after!)

AND, yes, that is an ironing board you see in the background. As unattractive as our dining room is at the moment, I really do (reluctantly) have to admit that it's working for us. The stainless steel table and ugly black chairs chairs are leftovers from my husband's previous (and far less wonderful) life before me. As hideous-looking as they are, that table is sheer genius. I do not care what Jake does on it...sure, paint! Carve pumpkins AND paint? No problem! Bring on the fun! We can just chisel off the goop! Really, as much as I try, it's truly indestructible.

Chalk it up!

I know that chalkboard paint is all the rage these days, and like everyone else, I've been wanting to try it. But...the problem is...I'm not a huge fan of chalk. It's just icky, and dusty, and I really don't want another icky, and dusty thing in my house. So, I was excited to come across this idea for an outdoor chalkboard via ohdeedoh. We have a fairly unattractive fence lining one side of our yard, and I think it would be cool to try something like this...perhaps using Bakery Green Hudson Paint? It could blend w/ the foliage, and be fun to play with. We could draw an outdoor garden on it, guaranteed to bloom until the next rain storm!

Now, if the idea of chalk indoors didn't send my skin crawling, I might try something like this funky wall art. I could blow up a photo of myself and paint it on our bedroom wall to surprise my husband...I wonder what he'd say?

It would be quite different than our current look, wouldn't it?

How do you play with your kids?

I'm not going into my feelings about tv, or how much "tv face" on a child frightens me. BUT, Jake's sudden interest in tv has got me thinking. One of my main concerns about it is that it's passive learning. While watching a "Little Bear" episode the other day, Little Bear made a kite with his father (or grandfather?). So, I decided that we should make our own kites, and he could see how it was done. He had fun "helping," and then we ran around and "flew" them in our backyard. It was very simple and so much fun!

Could you live in a tiny house?

On Sunday nights, after cleaning up, paying bills, making sure there are enough clean clothes to get everyone through the week, and trying to organize life SOMEWHAT, I'm sure the thought has occurred to many of you...could you live in a smaller, simpler space? Houses are a LOT to maintain. Some of it's fun (the decorating), and some of it is just not (replacing flooded basements). And, much of it is very expensive and time consuming.

Ten years ago, Jay Shafer, owner of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company decided to take on such simplicity, and built himself a tiny house. His 89-square-foot house helped him to reinvent his lifestyle and career.

After completing his tiny house, he soon began building other tiny houses...his company sells plans for pre-built tiny homes, or pre-constructed homes. His company and lifestyle shifts the perception of simple living.

His houses ARE simple, but they're also really chic, and he spends less than $100 per year on utilities (wouldn't that be great?). His life is the antithesis of excess, and living with less has given him the freedom to pursue his dreams. Look at a recent video of his experience here.

What if you lived IN less, lived WITH less, and SPENT less. What would you get and do in return? With your time? With your extra money? Who would you spend your time with? Where? And how? How would HAVING less, get you MORE?

Tempted? Get a copy of Jay Shafer's book, Tiny Houses and learn how to build your own!