(260) Shutterfly Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

I chose Shutterfly to create my first photo book. This decision was mainly based on the influence of a Groupon promotional deal I purchased several months back.

The photo book tracks the several years of Greg and I dating up through our honeymoon and has a snap shot of many of the adventures we have shared together.

Here is my project if anyone wants to take a look!

(261) A Little Quilled Object

A little sun for Jason:






















A red snowflake for my Mom:

(262) Ladybugs!

The other project that I need to get underway is a ladybug mobile. I had been searching for patterns to di-cut some (svg files) ladybugs for the invitations and came across this site: Everything Ladybug

It's amazing to me that there is a whole site dedicated to ladybugs. Ah the internetz!!! They had some great svg files though and I am going to happily put this to use. I already used it for the invitations. I am also going to put them to use on the banner. But I digress...

Now I am looking for ideas for the mobile I am designing. I have some super cute polka dot socks in various shades of pink, white, and green. I think for this set I am going to do the cross patterned embroidery wings (like I did for the owls).

Here is the only inspiration I could find, but it is a pretty boring mobile -

(263) ABCs Book for Benny

So this is still a work in progress, but I decided for Christmas I wanted to design a book of ABCs for Benny. I saw a friend had done one for her daughter and it was adorable (thanks for the inspiration Lisa).

I think this way when he starts to talk more he will have a picture book of the familiar items around him and he can keep it when he gets older.

A = Aunt Amber
B = Bath-time or Baby Benny (haven't decided which one yet)
C = Cuddling Cat
D = Dreamy Dad
E = Enormous Elephant?
F = Family Feet (Skye has a super cute picture of their family feet)
G = Grandparents (Grandma + Grandpa)
H = Happy House (picture of their home)
I = Ice, Inset, Iris, Ivy?
J = Jack-o-latern, jacket, jiggly, jello, jet, jellyfish?
K = Keyboard Kitten, Kite, Kayak, Key, Kazoo, Kettle, Koala, Kangaroo?
L = Leaf, Ladybug, Lollipop, Lamb, Log, Lion?
M = Marvelous Mom (picture of Skye + Benny)
N = Nifty Nollkampers
O = Overhead Owls (his baby mobile)
P = Prancing Porter (their dog)
Q = Quality Quilt (Picture of his baby quilt)
R = Rascally Raccoon
S = Sleeping Scale (cute pic of Benny asleep in a scale)
T = Toby the Terrier (the family dog that passed away this year)
U = Unique Uncle (Greg)
V = Veering Vine?
W = Winding Waterfall (I have a great picture of the Walla Walla Falls)
X = X-Ray (might put an ultrasound here, but it could be kind of creepy)
Y = Yellow Yarn?
Z = ZigZag Zebra?

These are totally not set in stone and I am looking for more ideas. I am trying to tailor it to things I think he will want to remember when he grows up so some are geared towards home and family.

(264) Oakland, Oregon Adventure

Since I do not start my job this week, Chris and I decided an adventure was called in order. Last weekend in Eugene a friend had mentioned that they liked to travel to Oakland for antiques. Oakland, Oregon? Well neither Chris nor I had heard of this city, so we decided that would be the destination for our adventure. Along for the adventure I had invited Skye and Sir Benny.

Overall it was a long ride with little reward other than the conversation with Chris, Skye, and Benny (who even chimed in with some noises here and there). I was not even that inspired to take all that many pictures. I noticed I did not even get any Skye and Benny shots. Probably because I was enjoying holding Benny and the buildings were somewhat boring.

The neatest thing (and I would never have even know this with out Chris pointing it out) was seeing a Frink fixture in the restaurant we had lunch. The chandelier, now converted for electric, has a tube around the bottom that at one point held kerosene and mirrors on the inside to reflect light. It was interesting looking to say the least.

(266-265) Baby Shower Planning Invitations

My creativity this week has been baby shower planning for my sweet friend Karly. She has split her friend and family into two showers.

The first shower I decided to go with a lady bug theme, as she has decided this very theme for her nursery! Here are the invitations:

For this shower I would like to do would be a banner and I have a cute idea for the take aways, but don't want to spoil it until the actual shower.

I did end up reusing an idea I liked from Jen's shower where each person brings photos and advice/wishes to put together on a scrapbook page. Then all the pages are put together at the end of the shower for the mom to be. I thought this would work well since Karly's family will be attending the first shower.

I also looked up and found some cute ideas for lady bug foods. I am not going to attempt making the cake for this shower, but did ordered one through my favorite cake shop in town - JaCiva.

(269-267) Quilling

While at the craft store this week picking up supplies to create baby shower invites, I came across a beginners kit for quilling. The patterns looked interesting and I am a sucker when it comes to trying new things, so I picked up the set.

Quilling, also known as paper filligree, is a form or art that uses paper (in strips) as its main medium. The artist uses a quill to coil the paper around and then shapes the paper in different forms. This has been around for many thousands of years and was quiet popular during the Victorian era.

Saturday when playing passenger on the drive to Eugene I did my first quilled creations. My first attempt was a dragon fly and followed it with a duck:











I love how quickly you can see results with this form or art. It is fairly easy and opens the mind for a ton of creative options on what to apply the filigree work to. On the down side that the gluing is a bit messy (but nothing permanent as the glue can be easily cleaned). Paper is inexpensive and the strips could be created on your own if you were really ambitious. Most of all, the technique is surprisingly relaxing.

Sunday on our drive back up to have dinner with the Glennons, I made a snowflake ornament for Barb:















Now I am waiting on a book I ordered on Amazon "The Art of Paper Quilling" to by Claire Sun-ok Choi to arrive so I can read more about different techniques.

(273-270) Sock Monkeys Ready to Play

Here are the sock monkeys for Jen and Tom. We decided they look more like robot sock monkeys...they kind of took on a life of there own during the project. Greg was very proud that he was able to sew one of them himself too!

Monkey #1 " Smiles" & #2 "Hot Lips"

Monkey #3 "Surprise" & #4 "Happy"

Final Mobile :

Hand made card and final wrapped present:

To top off the gift I hand made a card with some quiet scrap book bird paper and a couple -cut pieces. With a special note for the mom and dad to be. It just so happened that the green ribbon worked perfectly for wrapping the gift together.

I'm Back!!!

My plans got a bit disrupted by life. Though there are many things that are creative about a wedding, I took a break from my precarioussoul blog until the wedding project was complete (as I know not everyone is fond of hearing all the gory details of a wedding). Now I am happy to report today is our one month anniversary.

After almost a six month hiatus I am trying to get back on track with my goal - documenting things that make me feel creative for a year. A sub-part of this goal was to try to complete 356 creative projects.

My year is ending in December and I feel pretty good about the reflection on things that made me feel creative through out the year. However, looking at it in the aspect of the 365 projects, I think will be nearing one third of my goal by December. Not too shabby!

Perhaps I was ambitious as I originally hoped to document daily, rather it is each week that I am finding something that captures my mind creatively. But my vow is to keep on track with my original goal and keep creating until I complete 365 projects. This will take much more time to create, but I am a goal setter and this will help me to create and in blogging I am hoping to inspire more people to do the same.

On that note I am off to bed to dream of some new inspiring creative adventures.

(276-275) Sock Monkey ProtoType and Sock Monkey #1

Today I prototyped a sock monkey to find a way to work the design with one sock. The prototype was looking a bit more like a cat sock animal, so I tweaked the design and also decreased the size so it would be right for a mobile (used toddlers 22-24 month socks). Here is the first monkey:


Greg volunteered to sew the twin monkey.

Tonight I cut the socks for set #2 and tomorrow the plan is to sew round #2. Later this week I will get around to figuring out how I will embroider the mouths. Just in time because the baby shower is November 13th.