Photos from Descanso Gardens

I hung out with my daughter and best friend at Descanso Gardens today. Here are some photos from our day:

{sunflower in the fall/vegetable garden}

{hello fish!}

{pretty flowers - some of the very few still in bloom}

{the little bee that my daughter found and promptly ran away from}

{the stream that we relaxed by}

Butter My Bread

I've become recently intrigued by felt food. It is so cute and since I have a six year old with a fantastic imaginary world, it's also something that can be useful in our home {which is my justification for my obsession}. I've never sewn before so my creations aren't nearly as wonderful and cute as some of the others I've seen, but C has fun with them so that's all that truly matters.

{that's supposed to be butter on that bread}

My Digital Scrapbook

A couple of my favorite digital scrapbook pages that I've made. Maybe next I'll show you a couple pages of my paper scrapbook that I like. I love the digital arts, but there's something about touching paper and feeling the different textures that make scrapbooking fun and worthwhile. So I do a little bit of both paper and digital scrapping. Both of these are digital pages.

Save the Dates

I make customized designs for announcements and invitations that you can print yourself either at any photo store or your own printer at home. This is something that I've been doing for our own family announcements and invitations for years. It's something original and fun and best of all, convenient {not to mention cheaper!}. I enjoy doing it because I found can flex my creative muscle creating these just as much as I do my paper crafts.

Here are some examples from my Save the Date designs, all of which can be found in my Deviant Sheep Designs Etsy shop.

Note: all colors can be changed to match your wedding colors!

{Save the Date with heart calendar}

{funky orange Save the Date}

{Save the Date with butterfly}

My New Mini Photo Studio

Check me out! I'm allowing myself to brag a little bit because - I made myself a mini photo studio. I'm a little bit proud and a lot excited. No more photos of my crafts like this:

{card I made years ago for an anniversary}

{felt chocolate chip cookie made for daughter}

The mini photo studio was made with a cardboard box. I attached fabric to the box with Terrifically Tacky Tape {I love that stuff - it sticks better than anything else I've ever found - and I've tried a lot of tapes; I use it for so many of my crafts}. It was easy to make, but a bit time consuming.



The fabric I used was white felt; I don't know if it's better than other things you can use for a mini photo studio, but I used it because I thought it would be easier to attach to the cardboard box. So far the felt background works just fine.



Now I can rock photos like these:

{photo birth announcement}

{photo save the date announcement - this one is one of my favorites that I've created}

I'm in love with the huge difference in photo quality between when I photographed before and what my mini photo studio does.



Two tips:

• The mini lamp makes a huge difference. I tried taking photos with and without and with the lamp is definitely better.
• I also tried with and without the flash on my camera, and taking the photos with the flash on gives better results also.

The Bookcase Project - Before

This year I've taken on the task of reorganizing our living room. It took me a long time to get the toys in order. I used to try to keep all the toys in C {my daughter}'s room, but they always ended up in a pile in the living room. I looked through so many organizers and now I have a bin and cubby system I'm happy with.

The books, well, it's just a sorry sight. I LOVE books. I have two large bookcases in my room just for me. I have a cubby in the hallway that I use to store books and photo albums and scrapbooks. And I use the hall closet for those that have flooded out of my bookcases. C has the same issue. I have a large bookcase in her room full of books. And we have a small bookcase in the living room for when she wants to read downstairs or when she's doing homework and needs a book. Slowly things have crept onto it and it needs an overhaul.

I have a couple ideas that I'm going to try out. Here it is - the dreaded before picture.



Did you recoil in horror?

Ok, some of those books are mine. C is six and not yet reading heavy books on Art History. A book organization overhaul and then I'm going to paint it. After it gets painted I'm going to attempt some kind of fun design on it. I don't want it too kiddie since I expect she'll use it through the years.

The next time you see this bookcase it won't look nearly as scary.

Walk Along Beside Me Daddy

I'll be the first to admit that I fall in love with the I Love My Daddy or I Love My Gramma child and baby things. When I see them I sigh and then work on my resistance to buying it instantly - though my resistance has proven pretty paltry if my daughter's preschool teachers commenting my daughter has a ton of daddy shirts is any indication {their favorite was the "My Daddy Can Fix Anything" shirt}. And, of course, there are a fair amount of My Mommy Rocks shirts in her collection.

So once I saw this poem I knew that I had to do something with it. It's too aw-inducing not to.

Walk along beside me daddy
and hold my little hand.
I have so many things to learn
that I don't yet understand.

Teach me things to keep me safe
from dangers everyday.
Show me how to do my best
at home, at school, at play.

Every child needs a gentle hand
to guide them as they grow.
So walk along beside me daddy
we have a long way to go.

Here is the original photo I started with:


It's not the greatest photo, but that's okay. I didn't need the background and I definitely didn't want the plastic bag in the final. I extracted both daddy and daughter and created a new background to work with.

I'm happy with the final and I had it printed for daddy to keep at work on his desk. Next on the list is printing a larger version for my daughter's room.

The final design: