{A+Y Design Gallery}

So, I have been wanting to do a post about {A+Y Design Gallery} since I first stepped into the gallery a couple of weeks ago. First, you have to know that back story. You know me, there is ALWAYS a back story.

Adam and Yesenia Duncan are the owners - hence the whole A+Y thing. Isn't that sweet. I just can just picture that carved in a tree in the Colorado woods somewhere. Anyway, Adam was actually one of my neighbors growing up as a kid. It was great fun for me. Adam and his two brothers did all kinds of crazy stuff that was very entertaining. (When you visit his gallery you should ask him to tell you some of the stories. They are hilarious.)

So, we all grew up and moved our separate ways, got married (order may vary by couple), had kids (some of us more than others), and then moved back to our hometown where we all started to attend the same church together. The same church that my husband is now the youth pastor at.

My husband started to get to know Adam's wife through a ministry outreach that he did at the place where she used to work. So, we started to get to know Yesenia, who is this amazing person and it is very clear why Adam made her his bride. So, now we are at present day...

Adam turned out to be this phenomenal artist/designer and craftsman. (I am hoping I am doing him justice here because there really aren't words for the work that he does. You will see in a minute.)  


Anyway, Adam and Yesenia recently opened their new gallery downtown. I was finally able to visit and I have fallen in love!


There are a few things that I absolutely love in this word:


1.) Almost anything vintage
2.) Handmade items
3.) Unique design using various elements - the more unexpected the better

Adam utilizes ALL of these elements (& more) and creates these amazing pieces. No matter what your style, you will find something there and if not, then he will design it for you.

I am not kidding when I say that his designs are world class quality - heirloom quality. You know, the kind your kids will be handing down to their great-grandkids.

Anyway, the reason why I am also so excited about this place is because this is where Jason bought my birthday gift from. I know, right! But you are going to have to wait for the big reveal on that one. I don't have pictures of it yet but don't you worry, it is making itself quite comfortable in my home.

But I will show you some of the photos I took of the gallery and some of my favorite pieces (other than the birthday gift.)

Please note - First, A+Y Design Gallery also features pieces from other artisans in the area, so some of their pieces are featured below. Second, my photos simply do not come close to giving these pieces the justice they deserve, so please bare with me.

{This is an inlay in the floor of the gallery and is just dripping with sweetness. Another thing that I love about this place is the husband/wife team behind it. Adam is the designer but Yesenia completes her husband in an amazing way and obviously provides a great deal of inspiration to him. You can also see her touches throughout the store as well.}

You can learn more about {A+Y Design Gallery} by vising their website or their Facebook page. Please be sure to give them a "like" for me while you are there. :-)

Happy Friday!: Pinterest Round-up Celebration

If you haven't heard of "Pinterest" you need to Google it ASAP. Go ahead. I will wait.....

If I could describe Pinterest to someone I would say that when I think of dying and going to Heaven, I think of Heaven as the living Pinterest. No grassy fields for as far as the eye can see - no, not for me. I think of myself being surrounded with craft ideas, supplies, and tutorials galore! Want to try a new recipe - it's there AND you always have all of the ingredients! No pesky trips to the store for ONE item.

I absolutely love Pinterest. Whoever invented it should win some kind of award. I am serious. It makes a crafter's life so much easier! Think of it this way - you have a giant cork board and every time you find an idea you pin the idea up on that cork board. Pinterest is like the cork board and you can "pin" all of those cool ideas on there never to be lost or destroyed by the hands of a toddler.

Every time I jump on Pinterest it is like a mini-celebration for me and I always walk away inspired. Today I decided to share just a few ideas that I found...and this was just the first 10 minutes. :-) Happy Pinning!

These are some super cute embellished dish towels - one for every day of the week. I love them and the colors too! 

Source: knittybitties.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I generally do not by Koolaide for my own kids. It has something to do with that pesky all-natural (or as close to it as I can get a.k.a. "afford") eating thing but I still thought this was a cute idea. 

Source: acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com via Kori on Pinterest

Just so you don't think it is all fun and games - there are also cute sayings like this that will provide inspiration, motivation, or at the very least make you think a bit. 

Source: southernpiphi.tumblr.com via Jessica on Pinterest

As I know first hand, life is filled with ups and downs. What I also know is that most of the time it is my attitude that makes the difference. When I get to the end of my days here I hope that I  can proudly say that I "wore" this t-shirt more days than not. 

Source: fab.com via Mary on Pinterest

Don't these look delicious! 

Source: family.go.com via Andrea on Pinterest

{Christmas Theme 2011}

I have been wanting to do some posts on our December. I just feel like I was so distracted with everything that I couldn't even get to it....until now...so hang on to your boots. Here we go!

Anyway, I always do a different theme each Christmas. It's a lot of fun for me. Up until Kearyn was born I lived in a house full of boys so they didn't really much care. If I would have done my decorations in camo or something like that they probably would have sat up and taken notice.

I feel like I am a pretty good boys mom. I do the whole camping/hunting/shooting thing. I embrace it. After all, I did marry Jason. It isn't like I didn't know what I was getting into. But you have to draw the line somewhere and my line happens to occur somewhere before the Christmas decorations. So they tolerate me well.

Another aspect of the whole changing of the theme is that it has to be done on the cheap. I cannot justify spending a whole bunch of money each year on new ornaments when I have perfectly good ones already. So, that makes it an even better challenge for me because if you know me at all you know I like to do things frugal. I seriously like the challenge.

This year I am proud to report that I spent $7. $2 on the supplies to make my new ornaments and $5 on ribbon from the dollar store and I am sure I will reuse that year after year because it was in red. So, it was more like an investment ;-).

Moving on... My inspiration this year was this....

That's right. Book pages! Love them. However, this pose a huge problem in our house.... My oldest son is absolutely in love with books. He reads, reads, reads. Which we love of course. But when mama wants to do a craft out of old book pages it stirs up quite the controversy. I start seeing picket signs and he starts doing sit-ins and chanting things like, "save.the.books....save.the.books...."

For the record, I purchased ONE dictionary at the thrift store for $2 (half off of course) that was printed in the 80's and had a broken spine. It wasn't even vintage. Again... it was a dictionary AND It was from the 80's! We don't even need to talk about the 80's let alone that it was a dictionary. And this book will complete all of my book page needs probably for the rest of my life.

However, despite the above mentioned facts my son was still not happy with me. Then he continues to rat me out to all of the other book lovers he knows and then they just sit around and glare at me. Sheesh.

I also solicited his help to create the ornaments. I thought he would appreciate seeing something beautiful emerge from an old dictionary. Big mistake. He read every page before he would "authorize" me to use it. And yes, there were some that he said I couldn't use! When he got to a list of the signers of the Constitution he refused it and instead filed it away for safe keeping. I tried to explain that he could simply "Google" that information and he said it wasn't the same....

But we made it through all of that and actually got enough ornaments done to decorate the tree. Here are a few of the things we ended up making...

{The whirly-gig looking thing, the star looking thing, and the paper rose were all things I just made up. (All of that child-hood paper folding did serve a purpose after all.) The bird idea I got off of Pinterest and you can take a peek at the tutorial here. I will be doing a tutorial on that paper rose technique because it is just a lot of fun and everyone needs to know how to make a paper rose. Why? - I don't know, it is just cool and you never know when you will need to make one.} 





This is a picture of the things I made to hang in front of the windows as window garland. 

I also like to do my wrapping in a coordinating theme as well. I know, I know, my husband gives me grief all of the time. But it is just a thing with me. I wish I would have taken a picture of our packages too but I did get this one of the gift bag version. 

These were a lot of fun because I just took the plain brown paper bag and the brown paper for the gift wrapping. I "dressed them up" by making an extra bird ornament for them and attached it with fuzzy red yarn. I even made the gift tags from the book paper too. 

Anyway, that was our Christmas theme for 2011! :-) 

Homemade Holiday...Stockings!!!

With the addition of Kearyn girl to our family I am in the market for a new stocking for her. I really haven't found any cute ones that I have wanted to buy. It seems like with the economic crunch stores aren't providing the cute options they once did. So....I have been thinking about making my own. I have several cute ideas floating around in the ol' noggin' but haven't settled on what I am going to do just yet.  I promise that I will share when I get it done. :-)

In the meantime, I wanted to share some cute resources that I have found just in case you are in the same predicament. I do hope that you share your ideas with me and, even better, pictures as I would LOVE to see them!

One of my favorite magazines is All You . I just love the variety of craft ideas, fashion, recipes....and it is all on a budget. Everything that I am into! What more could a girl want? Anyway, I received an email from them and went to their website and low and behold there are STOCKINGS!!!! Here are a few of their cute ideas:

(These are made from tea towels :-)

This one has a variety of different stocking ideas. Everything from ballet slippers to dog paws. :)
http://familyfun.go.com/christmas/christmas-gifts-cards-decorations/christmas-crafts-stockings/


This one has a tutorial on how to make stockings from recycled sweaters. I totally love this idea. :-) I didn't like the shape as much but I think that is an easy fix.

http://www.greenyourdecor.com/6836/how-to-make-ecofriendly-upcycled-sweater-stockings-tutorial/

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy looking at these cute ideas as much as I did!

Happy Crafting!

A Homemade Holiday...Gift Idea 1

Every year I try to find something practical and useful that I can make my kiddos for Christmas. I don't want it to be one of those gifts that the boys politely open and say, "Uh...thanks Mom...." and then I find it stuffed in the bottom of their closet to have never been used. I like them to be practical gifts that they will enjoy. I don't always hit the mark on this but I do try.

Last night I was flipping through some different blogs and found this cute little toddler sleeping bag tutorial. I could definitely see my little ones really enjoying this one.

I don't think I will have time this year to make these but will definitely keep in mind for a next year project. I just wanted to pass this along in case any of you were interested. You can go here for the full tutorial.

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday Jason.....

Yesterday was Jason's birthday. I have to tell you that I had so much fun planning his special day. I love birthdays so much because it is just a great opportunity to show that person how much they mean to you and this was no exception.

We love Jason dearly as he is the most amazing husband and father that we could have ever asked for. God truly blesses us every day with his presence in our lives and our home. I was just telling Cale the other day as we were having one of our "heart to hearts" that if he grew up to be just like his dad he would be just fine in life. :-)

Jason does an incredible job of modeling to our boys what a Godly man, loving husband, and engaged father is suppose to look like. He is just amazing and there are no words to describe how much we love him.

With that being said I wanted to create a special birthday present for Jason. Something that would combine the things that he loved and most importantly something that couldn't be purchased in a store. So, I put this together in a frame for him that will soon find its home in his office. (If you happen to stop by there you can take a look.)

This is Jason's favorite scripture by the way. If you are one of his youth group kids you already know that! :-)