Staycation

The kids were on Spring break from last Wednesday until today. Couple that with out of town guests, my very old friend Danielle brought her family to town from New Jersey.  Searching the Internet for cool things to do in Cincinnati and Kentucky resulted in one fabulous week of new-to-us day trips.

For instance, Cincinnati is home to the one of a kind American Sign Museum.  The guided tour was a wealth of information about how businesses marketed themselves with signage from the late 1800's until today. This museum also houses a neon sign manufacturer and included a demonstration of how these signs are made today. 

Day two was the Horse Park in Lexington.  We saw horse shows, took a horse pulled tour of the grounds, and even rode horses on a trail.

 Over the weekend we went to the oldest market in Ohio, Findlay Market in Downtown Cincinnati.  The food and sweets inside were amazing, but starting in April there is even more to see with outside vendors selling crafts and flowers.

On Monday our sweet sweet neighbor, Maureen, took us to a barn that houses her horse, Sunny.  The girls got to brush down Sunny and feed her a few treats.  Before that they were able to have riding lesson on Maggie, the barn owners horse.

 Tuesday was an Ohio River day.  We started in Newport with lunch at a German restaurant, shopping at the Levee and then a stroll over the Purple People Bridge to Cincinnati.  We walked a mile or so to see the Steamboat Memorial and the new parks along the Banks. We wore out the kiddos, but in a good way.

It was such a fabulous week with good weather and great company!

Flickr Find

LOVE the Library of Congress website, it satisfies all my vintage photo needs, though it can be hard to navigate.  Discovered yesterday that a small portion of the collection are located on Flickr:  HERE.


Here are just a few fantastic finds.

Enjoy!!

Soulful Houses in Print

Spring starts off with some sunshine! 

 A couple months ago I was asked to write an article for Somerset Memories on how I make these Soulful Houses. On April 1st the publication will be available.  Today I found my complimentary issue in the mailbox, honestly it is a bit surreal. 

I want to give a shout out to those who encourage and support my art...you know who you are! Admittedly I wouldn't go down this path without a little shoving...lol.

~Angie

Winter's Never Ending Tale

No surprise here, I do not like Winter.  One maybe two snowfalls and I'm ready to pack it in and call for Spring.  Lately Mother Nature has been teasing us with a sixty or seventy degree day , then bam...fifteen degrees a day later.  Not nice.

source

So bear with me a little longer, ideas are slow to none, even my sketch book is feeling unloved.  Right now we are all hibernating and dreaming of Spring.

~Angie

Whittling away at winter

I am a bad blogger, enough said.  Winter in the Midwest has been brutal and living indoors can take it's toll.  The basement is freezing so I have no interest in creating in the studio...which can be bad because then when the desire to make something happens the mess ends up everywhere in the house.  

Spent about two weeks with all my seam binding rolls, vintage bottle tops and adhesives piled up in the living room where every free evening I'd bundle up under a blanket and stitch away making ruffled layers for handmade prize ribbons.  I have no idea what purpose these can have, but I think they are freakin adorable so I just kept making until I didn't want to anymore.  Then the sun came out (feels like a small miracle) and I made an attempt at photographing in natural light.  It went well, all these are now listed in the Etsy & Zibbet shops.

Keep thinking warm thoughts, Spring has to come eventually right?!

Photography Woes

Ugh, there are some time I dread to take pictures.  I have a light box but it just doesn't seem to help.  I've had these ornaments done for over a week, finally took photos tonight, have to scrap most of them.

Grrr.

October Surprises

 Do you like surprises?

This was a semi-surprise... an article I wrote on my paper boat ornaments appear in the November/December issue of Somerset Studios!!  Found out unexpectedly on Friday at the bookstore, so worth the decision to stop by and see if the newest issues were out.  Pretty sure I walked around with a crazy grin on my face the rest of the day.  

I have a glass of wine and the issue waiting for me after the kiddos are in bed, it will be my weekend indulgence.  There are so many wonderful artists in this issue, some of my absolute favorites like Cay Kerr, Debrina Pratt & Robin Dudley-Howes.  I am so honored to be sharing pages with these women.  Lastly I have to shout out to Tina because without your sneaky, generous, & selfless ways I wouldn't have attempted this. 

On a side note I have to share that Bob's grandmother turned 100 years old on Friday. She is still very much in her right mind and though she has become more frail these last few years, she still manages to live in her own apartment with assistance from my sister-in-law.  We celebrated yesterday and got to see some extended family members for the first time in 10 years.

Just for fun Robert wanted to see how many people live to be 100.  We learned that out of the 7+ billion people on the planet there are 316,000+ who are a hundred.  That's 1 in 22,000.  Of those 22,000 only 22 will live to be 110 or a super-centenarian.  Will she be one?  She had an aunt who lived to be 105...I'm thinking her chances are pretty good!

Halloween craftiness

It has been a while since I felt like doing a crafty project for Halloween.  This morning I decided to scour Pinterest with the words 'Halloween' and 'mason jar'.  I had many Classico Mason jars saved and had been planning to turn them into luminaries.

Here's the link: Goofproof DIY

I used muslin, torn into 1 inch wide strips, instead of gauze.  I looked for gauze but I think many young ones may want to be mummies for Halloween because the stores were sold out.

So this is my "pinned it....did it" and they will line my driveway on Halloween night.

Stay warm!
Angie

Sigh

2006

2013

only thing that remains the same....daddy still carries all the apples.

October 1st

I love October, hands down my favorite month of the year.  Today Bob and I are spending the day together for our 19th wedding anniversary.  The weather is a mix of cool mornings and warm afternoons, it is near perfection.  I have been making my way back into the studio after a long hiatus, can't really explain that part ...other than sometimes I burn out.  This past long, hot summer coupled with the job at BC caused me to lay low.  Now that Fall is officially here it is time to dig myself out.

Today I opened a new shop at Zibbet.  There are a lot of changes at Etsy, many sellers frustrated at a lack of being buried under an influx of mass produced items. While I love Etsy and will continue to list there, my lower priced items will now be at my Hopemore shop on Zibbet.

I have listed my latest batch of polymer 'glass' slides just this morning, come take a peek at http://www.zibbet.com/hopemore if you are interested.

Angie

Procession

A new fleet, on it's way.

Summer Perfection

Summer is blowing by.
Kids are growing like weeds.
A perfect 80 degree day with blue skies.
Seems like everyone was out riding, walking, or running.
Including us.

Around here lately

Two months later...

This little man is a month old! Megan is showing off her awesome new mommy photo skills.

.

Summer is in full swing, though the weather doesn't always feel that way.

As I type this my brother and his family are making their next Air Force move from Idaho to Alabama, with a stop over in Kentucky to see family for a while. After inviting them to stay with us, we decided it would be a good time to do some of the basement renovations to make the spot more livable.

Out came most of the textured ceiling, and the 20 year old track lights.  Bob and I braved electricity and added recessed lighting.  Replacing the ceiling will have to wait until next year, there are some funky water lines and HVAC issues to look into.  

Next up, out with the humongous bar!  A small kitchenette will take it's place. 

( the 'before' ^)

As for making art, sadly it has been on the back burner.  That is until mid July, Maria and I are taking an online painting class...whoo hoo!!

My baby sister is having a baby,   4 weeks to go and we are so exited! 

 Hosted the baby shower last weekend at a local Cincinnati restaurant, Bella Luna's.  The Italian  food was delicious and taken care of by the restaurant...all we had to do was decorate, entertain, and dessert.  

 Megan picked a sailboat theme for the (still) unnamed baby boy's nursery.  It was way to easy to use that same theme for the baby shower.  We had guests leave messages for the baby, play maternity mad libs, and guess the birth date.

 We couldn't do this all on our own, Debbie made the desserts...these cookies were a huge hit.  As a bonus I had a lesson in cookie decorating, let me say it is way too much fun.

Lots of useful and practical gifts, even a few surprises.  This little patchwork doggy was made by my grandmother, who is no longer with us.  Each of my siblings and my own kids have one.  

We all had a great time, a little glad all the work is over...but spending time with family is the best.

Spring Break is almost over!!  With a full week off school and work we decided to take a few days and head out of town to the Smoky Mountains.  We avoided the touristy parts like Galtinburg and instead made our way to the western part of North Carolina for some gem mining.

There are many places that you can go that will give you a bucket of 'salted' dirt, meaning they add in gems from other parts of the world. We did a little research for places where you could sluice for native gems like sapphires, rubies and garnets.  We decided on the Cherokee Ruby Mine and the Sheffield Mine.

 We arrived early at Sheffield and got treated to an almost empty house with lots of attention from the owner and a staff member who taught us the proper process to clean our rocks and hunt for gems.

 The cleaner the rocks the easier it is to spot the glass like shine of the gems...though some are still hard to spot.  I'm sure we tossed some good stuff but we did find all of the gems we were looking for.  Maria found an 18 carat ruby, Bob found some very cool garnets growing on quartz, and I spotted a 10 carat pink sapphire.

The second day of our trip it rained all day, so rather than mine we did a little shopping and eating in Dillsboro NC.  We also made our way to Sylva...just because Bob found this really fantastic ice cream parlor on the internet.  Jack, the owner, makes you a fresh vanilla or cinnamon waffle cone when you order.  OMG the warm savory cone with the cold ice cream is to die for.   

Now we are back home, safe and sound, happy to be in our own beds.