a baby shower for the BFF

This past weekend my friend Brynn and I hosted a baby shower for my best friend, Ariel and her husband Aaron (who also happens to be my pastor). 

If you know anything about Ariel, you know she loves Ireland, breakfast foods and the color green...

so "a green-Irish-brunch baby shower she shall have!", said we!

the perfecting

Our knowledge of God is perfected by gratitude: we are thankful and rejoice in the experience of the truth that He is love . . . -Thomas Merton


- Sunday afternoon blogging in a snuggie, next to my cute and warm napping husband
- rainy days and slowly changing leaves
- my candy corn stash
- those long teething naps after those long teething cry fests
- a quite fun and quite successfully thrown baby shower for my bff
- a specially crafted duct-tape gift from one of my middle schoolers
- friend dates
- a new-old phone from Rachel, and perfect timing
- unexpected and mid-week family fun days; apples, cider, farm animals, uncle Chris
- Levi, happily clutching and gnawing on his apple
- the highrock ladies small group, their honesty, care and friendship and the new creative arts group, their passion and inspiration
- forgiveness, unconditional love
- cuddly blanket weather
- my boy, and his adventures

days that dreams are made of..

a wee art studio

Last week I stumbled upon yet another great trash pick here in the neighborhood. This perfectly Levi-sized wooden table was on the side of the road, so I brought it home and went to work creating a little work table/art studio for Levi. Everything else (other than the soup cans) I already had lying around, so this was an almost-free project.  

Levi loves his new set-up and I've been pleasantly surprised at how long he will sit at his table coloring (granted, he also enjoys climbing on it! working on that...). I love that it's in the kitchen, the hub of our home, and also where Brian and I tend to work and create. 

1. Small wooden table, found on the side of the road

2. Little wooden stool, bought unfinished a few years ago from A.C. Moore, stained and polyurethaned

3. Andy Warhol soup cans filled with art materials, Target

4. Cookbook stand that we got as a wedding gift (never used for that purpose), now a perfect paper and paint holder

5. "Oh what a beautiful day" embroidery, found in my old church's free "Stop and Swap" room

6. Rwandan animal mobile brought back as a gift for Levi from Auntie Kimmie

7. Really hard to see...but two little Polish painted birds, picked up when Brian and I worked in the very Polish, Hamtramck, Michigan. 

and my cheerful little artist at work!

breakfast, lunch and dinner

(ok, not breakfast)

..because I (along with all of the other art teachers and art lovers in blogland) have been stocking up on cans of Campbell's limited edition "Andy Warhol" tomato soup. I bought one of each color scheme for myself as well as a set for each of my art rooms. My always-good-sport husband and I have cleaned and emptied our first 4 "pop art" cans...only 8 more cans to go! 

Since I'm going to use these as art material containers, I was thinking of painting a coat of mod podge on the paper labels for a little more protection and I also might add a layer of cork to the inside (a la this tutorial) to keep little fingers from getting cut on the sharp inside edge. 

At 79 cents a pop, they're an awfully fun and cheap way to store and display pencils, crayons, brushes, rulers..whatever! And my personal set has already earned a special place in the Sea Kettle, but more on that tomorrow (hopefully).

(I actually had a hard time finding stores that still have these in stock, so if you get as excited as I do for "pop art" soup cans, you'd better get a move on! As far as I know they are only sold at Target.)

a beret for Henri

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted this handsome tiger on the side of the road in someone's trash. their trash!  

Of course, I had pity on the poor little guy and rescued him from his dire fate. He was obviously looking rather neglected so I gave him a sponge bath and went to work crocheting him a stylish black beret. He is now properly outfitted for his new role as the beloved mascot of Mrs. James' art room!

We named him Henri (pronounced ze French way of course!) as homage to French artist, Henri Rousseau, best known for his jungle paintings. 

We all quite like him, especially in his new threads.

(I searched all over the web for a simple baby beret pattern, but couldn't find one that looked just right. I ended up going pattern-less. Basically, I just double crocheted in a circle until it was it was the right size and then decreased stitches for the last couple of rows. Very easy...you know, just in case you too need to crochet a beret for your own wooden tiger statue. hehe)

praise

Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

- crisp days
- calls from Kimmie
- knitting weather
- our playground friends
- lots of gifts to find and make
- feeling in the groove as a teacher, enthusiastic and diligent students
- folk music night with the Bornes, creative arts plans
- pumpkin coffee, almost every day
- an afternoon "reset" nap
- "For the Beauty of the Church" seminar, hanging out with and being inspired by some amazing christian artists
- fleece blankets
- an apple orchard picnic
- Levi and Tim dancing
- finishing an overwhelming weekend to-do list
- real "how are you?"s
- an "eat up" at Mary Grace's, hands held and songs sung
- baby showers, birthday parties, get togethers galore
- seeing lots of old friends
- pastor John's challenge to love extravagantly and Christ example of just that
- grandparents who love to babysit, a couple of lovely autumn dates with  my love