Thompson Family-Life

She & Him and NYC

Quick post, but I wanted to rave about some new music I've been listening to and also ask some traveling advice! :-)

Some of you may have heard of this already, but I wanted to tell you about Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's new collaboration called She & Him, Volume One. It is be-still-my-beating-heart-INCREDIBLE. Just so unique and fresh. I've always had a girl-crush on Zooey, (um, and so has Ethan! lol!) from her movies, so to get to see her in a totally different medium as this is just SO exciting. :-) Her sound is so nostalgic, tinged with folk and country. She has such a timeless voice I think.

So go listen folks!

We have some good friends that have always said how great M. Ward is as well. I need to listen to him some more. He has his own music as well.

ALSO, we have changed our travel plans AGAIN... we went from wanting to do Portland, OR, to going to Mexico, and now we're thinking NYC. We think this is a for sure thing now. I haven't been in YEARS and look forward to going with a new outlook. With new interests. I've already started doing some internet research, but wanted to throw this out there here on my blog as well. If any of you have any advice on cool artsy shops, thrift stores, craft supply stores, craft stores, cool places to eat, hip areas to see... PLEASE PLEASE share with me! :-) Also, any cool photo old school photo booths.. i found a couple already, but still wanted to ask! And anything else of interest that you'd think I'd like! We are going in June (the first week). So unfortunately we'll be missing Renegade. :-(

Thanks! And thanks so much for all of the embroidery love!

Danielle

Embroidered Pillow Case

So I finally finished my grandmother's pillow case! Here is a photo of her with the boys and my sister, Shelly. Campbell is making a face i think only a mother could love. ;-) Lol! Cracks me up! I took the pillow case photos on one of the beds at my mom's house. The quilt on the bed doesn't totally go with the pillow case, but oh well. Lol! Needed a bed for photos. :-)

I went back through my blog posts and tried to answer all of the questions that were asked in the past few posts, and also caught up on my emails. If you asked a question in a comments section, check back there. So hopefully I've answered everyone's questions! :-)

Yarn Wreath Project

Hope everyone had a nice Easter! Seems like forever since i've posted! When I got home on Sunday, I had to work on some of my photos... as I was jonesin' to play after a week with no Photoshop. ;-) I was able to post some on Flickr, and now I'm finally finding some time to post here.

The boys and I had such a fantastic time in Memphis with my family. We got to see so many relatives! And Cooper was beside-himself-happy the whole time. He was SUCH a good boy. You know he's happy when he behaves so well. ;-) He loves his Mimi and Pappy. And he got to hang out with his cousin (my cousin's son) who is not even a year younger than him. These boys couldn't be any more different, but they found a common ground and played well together!

Campbell was of course spoiled rotten the whole time. He slept in Nanny's lap ALOT (that would be MY grandmother who drove all the way from Louisiana to see us!). He was held ALOT. He didn't sleep so well at nights being in a new place, hence Mommy didn't get much sleep. ;-) But it was all good.

It truly was such a successful trip on all accounts. We stayed busy the whole time which I loved. We went to see Horton Hears a Who (LOVED!!!), went to the Pink Palace and saw Deep Sea narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet and also saw the Planetarium there, went to an Easter event at a local park complete with dyed chicks, moonwalks, Easter Bunny and other fun stuff, had a "Craft Night" with all of the women in my family that live there (2 grandmothers, 2 aunts, one cousin, one sister and my mother!). This is the first time we've done this (well, my first time!)... it was my idea, and I'm glad everyone seemed to have a fun time!

My Aunt also taught me how to FINALLY crochet a granny square!! I'm SO EXCITED about that. Been wanting to learn how to do that for years. I already have yarn for a blanket. Gotta get crackin' on it.

We made an Easter craft of course. I found the inspiration from one of my most recent favorite artists, Katie Runnels, who actually went to SCAD. She creates the most AMAZING things and I'm coveting a few of her art pieces! She also makes "assemblages" and "ornamentals" that she sells on Etsy. (I particularly fell in love with this one, this one, and these pomanders are to die for!)  And that is where I found her yarn wreaths that were inspiration for our craft night. I'm also a huge fan of her bell jar arrangements and SO want to do this for myself. Love how she collects all sorts of things and brings them all together so harmoniously in these arrangements. What can i say? I adore EVERYTHING she creates and i think she has an incredibly unique talent!

Wrapping the yarn around my wreath took forever. I actually made mine before I got to Memphis to see how hard it was going to be. After our crafting night, i realized i just used too skinny yarn. They brought chunkier stuff and it wrapped alot faster! I am really happy with how mine came out... it was SO much fun to do and I am totally hooked! I want to make some more for myself at some point in time.

I collected all sorts of vintage millinery items to use on it, and other miscelleous stuff. I just love the pastels.. love Easter colors! The row of five large vintage mint green flowers actually all came attached to one hair comb. All I can say is that foam wreath forms ROCK. You can just pin anything you want to those things. So easy. Didn't use a lick of hot glue (which i loathe!).

Here are some photos.

Here are a few pics from the trip. I took SO many pics. Alot of family snapshots. Alot of other stuff too. Will hopefully edit this week. And a very imperfect photo of me and my boys... but I like it that way. ;-) The last 2 diptychs are from my 365.

Also, I know I've had several people ask me questions in the comments area on many of my blog posts. If I haven't answered your question, i'm so sorry. My plan is to go back thru the comments and answer those directly in the comments section, THIS WEEK. So please refer back to any posts where you asked questions. It's easier for me to just answer there. And if you've emailed me, I also plan to get back to you this week.

 

Hodge-Podge

So, I'll be gone for a week starting tomorrow. Going to visit all of my family in Memphis! That means my parents, sister, bro-in-law, many cousins, 2 aunts, 2 grandmothers (one of them is driving up from Louisiana!), an uncle or 2, and probably more that I'm forgetting. It still baffles me that almost all of my family ended up in Memphis. After living for years in different cities, we all ended up in Memphis about 15 years ago. And here I am in Atlanta. ;-)

So i'm very much looking forward to seeing everyone! Ethan is staying back in Atlanta since he has to work. I'm excited that everyone gets to see the boys since we don't see everyone as often as I'd like. They will be mucho spoiled I'm sure. Easter festivities will be going on there as well.

So I wanted to post something before I left since it will be a while before I post again! I'm pretty sure I'm behind on my emails as well, so please as usual.. bare with me! :-) I have the hardest time having the upper hand when it comes to my email... my inbox always has the upper hand with me! ;-)

I hope everyone has a blessed and happy Easter! Here's a hodge-podge of photos, since you can't have a post without photos (as everyone knows ;-) Most of these taken for my 365.

Danielle

 

Hambly Projects, Camelot, S.HOPtalk interview

Allison posted my projects on her blog a couple days ago, and I just wanted to post them here as well and say a little bit about them. They were SO much fun to do. Gave me ANOTHER reason to have fun and be creative. I had been wanting to work on these projects before she sent me her email asking me to contribute, and her products just worked perfectly for what I wanted to do. And I swear to you, I practically want to eat her "grandma's wallpaper" print paper.. it is truly to die for. The colors are what get me! And I just love that they HANDscreenprint their papers. How cool is that?

These cards were something I had been wanting to create for a while, after I purchased the customized "Danielle" stamp. I wanted to make some personalized cards I could use, especially for thank-you cards. (and i have YET to write them for Christmas and Birthday gifts.. bad, bad me. Is there anyone else out there that writes thank-you cards still? It's such a dying thing, i think. I think it's because I can't handwrite very well that I always put them off. The keyboard has ruined my ability to write. And I'm serious about that.

But every time I moan that I haven't written my thank-yous.. Ethan reminds me "Have you gotten any thank-you cards from anyone else for the gifts WE gave?"... hmm, he's got a good point there. ;-) I think I have always done them my whole life, and people start to expect them from me. Lol! Is it more of a Southern thing?)

Anihoo. i digress.

So the woodgrain print papers were so perfect for what I wanted to do. I used vintage and new japanese fabrics that I cut into squares with pinking shears, and then just lightly spray mounted them onto the cards (the cards were blanks that I bought at my local craft store, that I cut down into a square size. I then covered the fronts with the paper.) I bought pre-diecut scalloped circles and then stamped with my stamp. I really love how they came out.

The plastic Easter eggs were a cinch. Just apply the rub-ons and you're done. :-) They are a little tricky (due to the curved nature of the eggs), but as long as you take your time applying them, they come out great. I did mess up a couple though before I got these right. ;-)

The candle I got for my sister as a gift and thought the owl would be so cute overlapping those pink stripes of color in the candle. Got the candle from Target. I had problems getting the rub-ons to stick, so i did a search online about applying rub-ons to glass, and found out that you have to get rid of the dirt/grease first. So I cleaned with Windex and that did the trick.

I also purchased this little wooden tray from Target to go with the candle gift. I think this pink owl looks SO rad on top. This just has such a cool 60's/70's vibe to me. I love the light on dark contrast. I sprayed it with matte varnish to protect the rub-on. It would be great for holding spare change, etc.

This little business card holder I found at Target as well and thought it would be great as a little mini-brag photo book for my mom to keep in her purse (which I mailed to you, Mom... did you get it? :-) I so love this idea that I plan on going back to Target and get as many as they still have in stock! I think I'll do this for the great-grandmothers for Mother's Day.... and for me! Just applied the rub-on to the cover.

This shadow box.... this is something I had been wanting to do for months for my little studio area. I LOVE things.. i love little objects. Sometimes I'll buy little embellishments just because I like the way they LOOK but don't necessarily have a use in mind for them. So one day I was like, how 'bout I just display them all in a shadow box so I can look at them every day, and not miss out on their cuteness by storing them away. I found the shadow boxes at Michaels.. they are Martha Stewart. I love the scallop design.

Everything inside are just random things I've been collecting. The wooden dolls were painted by Erica Daley, which I think are so incredibly charming I could just die. (ok, not really. But i know you've had that feeling, girls. ;-)

I used Hambly's new ornate frames that just came out.. so these were overlay mock-ups. They will actually be rub-ons you can purchase though. These were the perfect things to show off the wooden spool dolls.

I wanted to mention two people that really inspired me while I was making this shadowbox. Their arrangements and colors just blow me away. They are both so talented!

Zee at Pixie Blossoms. She is insanely talented and has such and eye for color and design. I especially loved her arrangements like this one.

Lushbella: This one is my favorite!

This frame was a totally last minute project. I realized I hadn't used any of the new Hambly papers in any of my designs, and when I found these "grandma's wallpaper" prints in the package Allison sent, I realized these would be PERFECT for what I have been thinking of doing for this frame. It is a really big frame I got at IKEA that I wanted to display my Claudine Hellmuth Poppits family portrait sketch in, but wasn't sure how I would mat it since it was square and the frame was oval. I was either going to cover a mat with patterned paper that had an oval cut-out (which could be a real pain), or just float the artwork on a patterned background. The Hambly papers were the exact sort of patterns I was looking for and the right colors. I just layered 3 sheets in the background. So easy.

****************************************

And here are some recent cutie pics of Campbell, aka Camelot, Cam-a-lama ding-dong, Camtronic, CammyCamster or whatever silly name we're calling him at the moment. And one of both boys together.

**************************************

Suzanne at S.HOPtalk, a really fun and inspiring design blog, recently asked me if I would do an interview for her site... I was of course excited to do so! You can read it here. Hopefully i wasn't too much of a goob. She has a great eye for design picks... thanks Suzanne! 

Puppets & Hambly

First I wanted to say how it TOTALLY made my day reading your comments about the embroidery (or rather, Crewel as my mother-in-law pointed out to me, she's the craft queen!)... I love that it brought back so many beloved memories for so many of you! WOW! How cool is that? I feel nostalgic looking at them, and i didn't even have them to look at growing up. I don't remember those specific patterns. So i can only imagine how you'd feel seeing something again after so many years. Something you looked at every day. I remember having those things in our home that I would look at every single day. Random items on the wall. Or even furniture. Definitely brings back memories.

*******************************************

My gallery is up at the Hambly Screenprints blog if you want to take a look! I'll be posting more about the pieces I created and embellished in my next post.

***********************************************

I took Cooper to the Center for Puppetry Arts a couple weeks ago after he was allergy tested. He's been tested probably 2 times before, but this time he's finally old enough to be on allergy shots. He was off the charts allergic (which we already knew), poor kid. He was such a trooper though. If anyone out there has been tested before, you know how miserable an experience it is. And he handled it SO well. They basically prick your skin (his back) with tiny needles that in turn release a liquid that contains basically anything he could possibly be allergic to. He was probably tested for over 35 things, and he came back positive on everything but one little mold. Poor thing, he gets it honest from his Mom and Dad. And i fear and predict that Campbell will be just as allergic one day. :(

So after they prick your back a million times, then you start to react. And he got huge itchy red welps on almost everything. And it itches SO BAD. But he didn't scratch ONCE. What a kid. I remember when i did it for the first time as an adult, i wanted to weep it was so miserable!

So afterwards i treated him to a Puppetry Arts visit. We had so much fun. The puppet show was great (albeit crowded with school children. Eek!) We were up in the nose bleed section but could still see well. Then we walked around and looked at the exhibits and of course hit the puppet gift shop. He scored some little finger puppets and I bought a dinosaur shadow puppet kit that I want to make with him soon.

Here are some pics from our visit. Totally brought back memories to see their Jim Henson exhibit. Who used to watch the Muppet show back in the day?! LOVE.IT. :-) All together now... "PIGS..... IN.... SPAAAAAACE!!!"

;-)

They have a really cool interactive exhibit as well where you can manipulate puppets with different gears, and make shadow puppets with your hands, etc. The first one, if you can make it out, they have this HUGE praying mantis puppet that you can manipulate with these gears.. and there's glass around it, but the glass is treated so that you can see the puppet, but then it goes dark sort of and you can see yourself as a reflected image. It's hard to explain. Anyway, it's cool. You should be able to see my reflection, cooper's reflection and the praying mantis puppet.

And as you can see, by the end of the day Cooper was utterly POOPED. He somehow fell half-way out of his seat while we were driving home. He was so out of it. Lol.. or either i was doing some crazy driving and didn't realize it. ;-)

And speaking of puppets, I've seen some cool ones on etsy.

This place I remember seeing at Renegade Chicago. Owly Shadow Puppets

Wool and Water

And this is the puppet theater we went to in Salzburg, Austria in 2002. One of the many reaccurring things we saw on our Europe backpacking trip was puppets. Lots in Prague too. And this puppet theater was INCREDIBLE. I can't even put into words how amazing these puppet shows are. It's a total artform unto it's own. We saw the Magic Flute.

Puppets rock. ;-)