crayon aprons and such

Here's Mirelle sporting my old crayon apron I dug up at my parents' house a few months back. I love idea of making some of these as gifts for all of Mirelle's friends (now turning two). Ha! Very small chance that will happen, but I already found a good design on Skip to My Lou's blog. That one's not so much an apron, but a crayon roll. Super cute. Maybe someday I'll get the material and stay up late one night (or get up early one day, more likely) and crank some of these out. Could also just get this on etsy...


I'm also feeling really inspired by Artful Parent's blog to create a little art space for Mirelle. Oh, and hosting an art group!?! Maybe when I'm not working fulltime. Here are her suggestions for the top 10 art supplies for toddlers. I need to search around on craigslist for a good little art table.


We had a fun, busy weekend! Kept Mirelle up 'til 11 on the 4th. She's been making up for it ever since. The garden is growing, and growing, and I'm adding mileage to my long runs (still aiming for either the full or half marathon in September). We're heading out of town later this week for a few nights of backpacking while Mirelle hangs with my folks. She's going to be happy as a clam with them. And we are way, way, waaaay overdue for a backpacking trip. Do I even remember what to pack? (We went on a mini last summer with Mirelle - 1 mile in. I thought it was great, actually, but I was only carrying in Mirelle on my back ... Ross had everything else...!)

I'm hoping to post one more time this week before we head out. Putting together a little cheat sheet for my fridge of my 'go-to' recipes. (Inspired by angry chicken.) I'll post that if I get it done.

Gosh I love summer.

green girls' night + sangria

Last night I hosted one of my sister's first emagineGreen workshops - we had sangria (really good recipe here), chatted about all things eco, from local CSAs (community supported agriculture), to composting, to our eco addictions (which ranged from Chlorox wipes to paper towels to boiling too much water in our teapots for just one cup of tea). It was a fun evening, and thanks to all my ecoPals for coming!

This weekend I'm aiming to support the little Louisville Farmer's Market again, hopefully hit some garage sales (looking for a little backyard playhouse for Mirelle), do a long run, and chill. We're also heading to a wine tasting/silent auction tomorrow night to support my cousin's nonprofit, revision international.

I also wanted to post a photo of the finished Adirondack dumpster-diving chair, now completely refabed and coated in a orange stain.



And one more crafty-related project. Ross bought this really ugly citronella candle, so I covered it with some iota paper yesterday before the Workshop. That's about as crafty as I have time for these days. Better, no?

Dumpster diving for furniture - a favorite pasttime

So Ross and I are known for pilfering furniture from dumpsters. Heck, pretty much everything in our house (except for the kitchen island and the rocker) are either from a dumpster, garage sale, or family hand-me-down. Even Mirelle's crib is from craigslist (but it's one of the nicest pieces of furniture we own!). Oh, and Ross made my desk. We have tales behind pretty much everything in our house: the requisite futon from college (just got rid of that last month after we inherited a red couch from Lisa, my brother-in-law's girlfriend). We have the old wooden drafting table we bought from a couple in Ithaca, NY - they retrieved it from a barn that had been occupied by birds (you get the picture). Our bed is from our mortgage guy and friend Brian. A table and bookshelf from my sister. A coffee table and couch from two different women in Durango. A wooden filing cabinet from our condo's dumpster in Aspen. My favorite IKEA chair and table from a garage sale in Fort Collins. Mirelle's lamp was mine growing up. And I could go on and on. Let's just put it this way: if our house burned down, we wouldn't have a large insurance claim on our furniture, that's for sure.

So this new piece? Well, that was sitting in our neighbor's trash this winter. We don't know her really well, so, I hopped across the street and dragged it back. It was missing arms and needed a little shoring up.



It lived in the garage rafters until this weekend. Ross created some arms for it and a back support beam, and I got out this awesome orange stain I had bought for my desk. Check out the colors. They are amazing. I want to do something with the olive green next. I think the color I picked is fruit punch. Anyway, it's waiting for its polyurethene coat, but I think it's gonna be a beautiful thing. I'll post again with the final product.

Handmade paper

Back in the pre-child, pre-real-world days (aka college), I actually had time to make paper with scraps of paper, newsprint, junk mail ... whatever I could scrounge up. Once Mirelle is a little older, though, it'd be fun to break out the screen and do it again (it really is a lot of fun.) My sister sent me this link to make paper out of junk mail - looks like a good one. When I do make paper again, I'll post my process.


The paper at top has less texture and was therefore better for drawing/writing. In these papers above (also made many moons ago), I added in some torn leaves, rose petals (probably from an old boyfriend!), and other textural elements. I like the way the rose petals bled a little into the paper. Handmade papers could also add some cool texture to scrapbooking/journal pages.