The Zoo and More Card Drops

I wish I had some new pics of a few new bags Hannah has made, but like I said, her camera crapped out on us too and I haven't been over there in a couple of days.  She made a new purse for a friend that is moving to DC, and she made her first diaper bag for her new daycare provider.  Do I really super a lot wish that she had been able to take pictures before she gave them away?  Um... YES.  Especially since they are gone now and it was her first diaper bag!  Oh well, that just means she will have to make more:)

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in the STL and it was finally not as humid or hot as it has been, so my son and I decided it would be a great day to go to the zoo!  We were right; it wasn't too terribly crowded and we got some good pics with my new camera.  We also did a few Card Drops along the way.  The zoo is only about a 30 minute walk from my apartment, so we also decided to just walk through Forest Park on our way home which provided some more great opportunities for picture taking.  Hope you enjoy the pics- we sure enjoyed the day!

a big kitty enjoying some afternoon sun

cool lookin' tortoise

the butterfly house was awesome

we didn't get around to seeing my favorite animal, but we snapped a pic of this sculpture on our way out

the penguins were keepin' cool...

...and so was Quent- what's a day at the zoo without Dippin Dots?

view of the Grand Basin from the top of Art Hill in Forest Park

the beautiful ladies in front of the St. Louis Art Museum

Quentin enjoying a waterfall in Forest Park

and some cards drops...

Hopefully, sometime Friday I will get over to Hannah's house and take some photos of her new creations (because I know she is making more- she's still trying to get caught up!)

So, more pics coming soon- because I can now:)

Check it Out...

Okay, okay, I know I'm a big dork, but I finally got a new camera.  It's no Cannon Rebel, but it will do the job!  Now, since I forgot to buy a memory card, and it will only hold five pics without one, I'm off to get a card...

First Card Drop

So I did my first official "Card Drop" today while running errands.  I first learned about these card drops through a blog I visit daily, called Kind Over Matter.  They are all about spreading kindness throughout the world in a bevy of different ways.  One way they encourage their readers to do so is by having these printable quote cards that you just save to your computer, print, and cut. Then, you leave them in all sorts of places in public for others to see, ponder, take, share, etc.!

I only did three today because I'm sort of shy about anyone seeing me do it and then document it.  I had a bunch of great ideas about where I could leave them but then got nervous!  My son is coming back into town in a couple of days and I've told him about the concept so maybe we'll do a few together.  I have about 15 more cards that I am just keeping in my wallet for when inspiration hits.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll work on a set of my own that I could share with everyone in the blog world!  Hmmm... good project idea:)

We Love Color!

If you follow this blog, you can tell by our handbags and other goods that we love color.  I'm working on putting up some of Hannah's photography and my paintings/drawings/prints.  You will see then, also, how much we love color.  Through one of my fave blogs, Poppytalk I found an entry about a French paint company, Dulux Valentine, that loves color too- maybe even more than us!  Check out this new project going on to make the world an even more colorful place!



How do you make the world more colorful?

Fly Bags

Hannah and I dropped off some new goodies at the boutique here in St. Louis today.  When I got to her house, she was crankin' away and let me just tell you, I did not want to see those pretty bags go.  But alas, we gotta make money, right?  Now she is trying to catch up on personal orders.  Up next?  A masculine messenger bag for a good friend.  Can't wait to see how it turns out!

We were able to get some pics with my camera phone before we left for Cha, so here's what we let go of today:

We're really having so much fun with this- I'm glad that people are going nuts over Hannah's bags!  Now that her studio is all set up, expect to see much more soon...

Update

Hello all those who are still hangin' on and actually reading this blog.  Now, not only is my camera shot, Hannah's is too!  So I thought I'd share some pics that were shot before the cameras decided to be the last straw in a very stressful day.  But before that, just want to share with you all that the Boutique in St. Louis that our goods are at has sold out of all the bags (purses and totes) that we brought them.  Yea!  But also, that means Hannah needed to crank out some more.

Hannah's studio had a change of location (to the basement of her house) and the tables she was using were borrowed and taken back:(  So we have been on a mission for the past week trying to find the right furniture for her sewing station.  Both of our sons endured a hot Saturday last week spent driving around to different garage sales.  It was really funny because Hannah's two year old kept saying "Gamma's house?" every time we pulled into a driveway, but he doesn't even call any of his actual Grandmas, "Gamma"; confusing? yes, hilarious? yes.  And each time we pulled away, he would start to cry and say "I wan go to Gamma's house!"  His older cousin assured him it would be okay and that we would see his actual grandmas soon.

The garage sales turned up nothing, so at the end of this past week, we went to Lowe's and bought two sawhorses and got a 4'x8' sheet of MDF cut down to a 3'x6' piece that we laid on top for a cutting table/surface.  Then we found the perfect sewing table on Craigslist and spent about half an hour in front of the seller's house trying to fit said table into the back of her car.  When we realized that wasn't going to happen, we spent another 20-30 minutes affixing it to the top of her car with one strap and a prayer!  When we finally got back in the car and on the road, Hannah's son looked up, pointed and exclaimed, "There's a table on top of the car!"  Thank god for our kids, because, among a host of other great things, they provide a lot of comic relief in life.

Oh- we also made a really cute shirt that we patterned off of a sheer, flowy shirt that Hannah got at a local boutique.  We got pictures and everything, but of course, they are lost.  Here are some pics of a night we had a few weeks ago when we went out.  They are also "shout-outs" to a couple of blogs- the clutch shown is one Hannah made after a pattern on a blog called Noodlehead.  And the card with the quote on it is printed off from one of my favorite blogs called Kind Over Matter- it's all about being kinder in this world, which I'm all about!

For some reason, I had our old tags that we ended up not using in my purse that night.  We didn't just want to throw them away, so we wrote our blog site on the back of them and just sort of scattered them around and handed them out to people.  I also left those little quotation cards all around.  I've printed out a bunch and am keeping them in my purse for when I feel the inspiration to leave them somewhere anonymously.

Tomorrow we are dropping off a new shipment of purses and totes (along with some really cute checkbook covers and headbands!)  So if you are local, stop on by Cha, and if you are far away, leave us a message or a comment and we can do a custom order.  Happy Summer and stay cool- it's in the mid 90's all week here!

My Karate Kid

So I haven't been posting lately because I've been having too much fun with my son.  He hates when I'm on the computer and since I have limited time with him, I want to make the most of it.  Right now he is practicing his clarinet, so I thought I'd share with you a quote from the movie we're about to see.  That's right, we haven't seen it yet, just the previews, but we already have a favorite line from it.

pic from the original Karate Kid

We watched all three Karate Kid movies from the 80's Friday night, compliments of Hannah's satellite TV:)  We are going to see the new remake of the original in a few minutes.  We've been using Jackie Chan's line: "Your focus needs more focus!" around the apartment in many situations.  It's become sort of a joke, even, when our attention wanes (I swear, I've gotten more attention deficit since he was born 12 years ago!) 

But on the serious side, Focus is something I want to bring more of into my life- in all aspects of my life.  I'm not counting on this movie to bring any great sense of clarity into my life or anything; I know it's just a fun movie that we are going to see.  But I DO hope to cultivate focus in those areas of my life that need it most.  And it will still probably be used in a joking way between my son and me:)

pic from the new Karate Kid

What areas of your life could use more focus?

p.s. did anyone else have a huge crush on Ralph Macchio?

Inspiration

My digital camera is shot.  I'm working on getting a new one, but until then, I feel like I can't post (I know I can) without pictures!  So, as I'm still relatively new to the blogging world, I decided to check out and start a Flickr account because I know a lot of people use Flickr in various ways with their blogs. 

Let me just say... I am hooked!  It is so great to see photographs from all over the world and looking through just a few pages, I got so inspired.  I decided to share a few of my favorite finds with you until I can get a new camera:

bright, cheery, and colorful- and I just recently finished a project using clothespins!

fantasticly fun!

"silly bands" - have you guys heard of these?  My 12 yr old son is obsessed with these; he even got me to wear some (and I admit it, I'm starting to like them too!)  Colorful fun you can wear on your wrist:)

I love me some peacocks and I also love spirals.  Such a cool pic!

this just makes me want to run away for a month and finally teach myself guitar

um... pretty

there's just something bewitching about this photo- love it

What inspires you?

Piggy Bank Tutorial

Welcome to this super- duper easy tutorial!  I've been talkin' it up for weeks, but really it's something you could do in about 20 minutes...

While at the Dollar Store a few weeks back, I came across this Dale Earnhardt Jr. Piggy Bank.  I'm not a race fan, but my creative mind (which speaks in my mother's voice) said, "I could do something with this!"  So I picked it up for a buck.  Then I looked through my stash of decorative paper, and found a pleasantly simple piece that I thought would make a nice covering for it.

All you need is a little Mod Podge and some embellishments, and you are ready to go!

Materials:
- piggy bank
- decorative paper
- Mod-Podge
- artist brush
- ribbon or other embellishments

1. Measure your bank (if it's round, you can use a cloth tape to measure)

this is so you know the dimensions to cut your decorative paper

2. Measure and cut your choice of decorative paper to fit the dimensions of your bank

3.  Take your artist brush and brush on a layer of Mod Podge right onto the bank

4.  Place your decorative paper onto the bank and smooth out as many wrinkles as you can- most small wrinkles will disappear with the 2nd and 3rd coat of Mod Podge

5. Once the paper is centered onto the bank, brush on a coat of the Mod Podge on top of the paper, coating the entire thing.  I did two coats; you can let it dry before you move onto the next step, I think it makes things easier.  You can let it dry overnight for the best results (this is when those pesky wrinkles will magically disappear!)

Depending on how it looks, you could stop here.  But I thought my piggy bank looked a little too plain, so I decided to add some embellishments (little extras that give your project that extra "oomph")

6. I decided to use white ribbon on both the top and the bottom of the bank- again, I measured, applied Mod Podge, applied the ribbon, and then sealed it with another coat of Mod Podge

7.  I still thought it looked a little plain, so I decided to put a little bow at the top. You can do this any way you like; I just looped my ribbon and cut another piece to wrap it and used -you guessed it- Mod Podge to seal and affix it.

8.  I felt like it needed one more tiny thing, so I added a little metallic heart right in the center of the bow, and voila- it was done!  Easy, right?

So if you are anything like me, you may have a lot of empty containers sitting around waiting for just the right craft project to come along.  This would also be perfect for an old Oats container or Nuts can.  Just take an exacto knife and carefully cut a slit in the top of the plastic lid big enough for coins to pass through.

We would love it if you tried this and left us a comment or posted pics on your site to show us how it turned out!