Andy-Proofing

Our fridge is now sporting this stylish new buckle. Andy keeps getting into the fridge for juice. We never had this problem with Kate.

It just needs tidying up a little

Becky Higgins posted a challenge to take a picture of how your desk looks right now. So I did. And then I started cleaning it up a bit.

So, why was there a Playmobil tree stump next to my keyboard?

I really couldn't say.

Fridge Magnets

Our letter "O" is missing.

Sunday Afternoon

Doug does leatherwork; Andy's been lining up Play-Doh cans.

Bathroom by Kate

Here's a fun idea--kids' drawings turned into vinyl!

Kate drew this shark back in July (from the Ed Emberly animal book, though his version is rather more elongated). I thought it was just wonderful and got the idea of having it made into a vinyl wall sticker for the bathroom.

I converted it to vectors using Adobe Illustrator's live trace feature (which does not require any actual knowledge of vectors and really only minimal knowledge of Illustrator). I emailed the file to Scribble It, along with my flourish, and got it cut in navy blue vinyl.

I did have a little trouble with bits not wanting to un-stick from the backing and stay on the wall, but I found it helped to pull the paper back at a really sharp angle.

I was really pleased with how it turned out, so I thought the shark should have some company.

When Kate drew the shark, she also drew this whale. At first I wasn't sure if I could use it, since she also drew a snake playing in the spray. (Kate's snakes often have legs. I'm not sure why.)

I was successful in removing the snake.

Later I got her to draw these other fish for me. This took some patience, as she's not always in a mood to take requests. (I ended up not using the one on the side.)

I converted them to vectors and flipped the one fish so it was facing the other direction.

Scribble It is quick! I emailed the files and had them on the wall within a week.

The whale is over the towel rack on the opposite wall. (These were the best pictures I could get, with cramped quarters and bathroom lighting.)

It's so fun to go into the bathroom and see Kate's fish on the wall. They're so cute and expressive. (It's the eyebrows--don't you think?)

Update: we've been featured on One Pretty Thing. How cool is that?

photos from home

Robot Kate ("Clang! Clang!")



Andy checks out his sister's rubber dragon.



An ordinary day on the railroad.

Framing Eddie

This is what I got Doug for his birthday--a frame for his brass rubbing of Edward the Black Prince. He did this rubbing back before we got married, at a traveling exhibit in Provo, and he's been carting it around with him for years.

Eddie went to Newfoundland with us, and resided in the living room in a poorly-fitting frame (with no glass) that he would periodically fall out of. We'd walk by and discover Eddie leaning out of his frame, bowed down and trying to touch his toes. We'd straighten him up and say, "We really have to get a proper frame one of these days."

When I started designing, I told Doug that I would get Eddie framed for him. It took a while. We did take Eddie over to Artco once, to look into framing there. That seemed prohibitively expensive. (We like Eddie, but I don't know that we like him that much.) Then Rebecca told us about a local guy who does framing out of his house, so we went to see him. We decided to go with this thin black frame, which I think sets it off nicely. You can't see it in the picture, but it has some nice detailing around the edges. So we brought Eddie back home and stuck him on the wall.

I imagine Eddie is pleased, after all these years, to be properly framed and hung.

Wall Words

We still don't have everything unpacked and put away, but our kitchen window is now sporting this extra accent. I got these vinyl wall words from Emily Kate Designs (Edit: looks like she's not doing vinyl anymore). It was very quick and not expensive, and easy to apply, and fun! It's a Korean proverb that I loosely translate as "Before we climb the mountain, let's eat first." I've kind of adopted it as my food motto. When my blood sugar gets low I get cranky (and sometimes downright irrational and hostile) so in order to keep on top of things I really have to plan and start cooking before I get hungry. It's taken a long time to learn (and still doesn't always work out right). This was a particular problem when I was serving as a missionary in Korea, and things were often busy and pretty stressful, but by learning to plan ahead I was able to keep meltdowns to a minimum. And of course, it helped that I like Korean food, too!

The woven straw scoops are from Korea, too. I'm not exactly sure what they're for. In my last area I was serving in Sunchon and a lady came to the door selling them. My companion, Sister Kim Su Gyoung, bought them for me. She said they had something to do with the date, and I think she even said they should be hung up in the kitchen. (I'll have to find someone who actually knows, to tell me more about them.) I've been carrying these scoops around with me for almost 14 years, and I figured it was time to finally do something with them.

Despite all my artistic interests I've rarely done much in the way of decorating. Whether it seemed like too much work, or I wanted to but just never got around to it, or the places we were renting just seemed too small and utilitarian, I can't say. But it's been kind of fun dressing up our kitchen window. Now when I'm in there cooking I can enjoy our pretty white curtains and my Korean motto, and remember to eat before I go climbing any mountains.