Boxed up for a Wedding

Our pal, Lucas, married his bride, Nina, the other weekend. It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony held in a little glen in the woods at the end of a sweet lil hike. It was a hot summer day, but the fun couldn't be stopped by just weather. S'more roasting, dancing, and sparkler exit- without fail.

I used another of my record boxes to wrap up a quick gift for the sweet Halls.

The dish towels feature the designed caricatures of the couple from their invitations. The look was too cute not to duplicate for posterity and everyday use.

The ornament was inspired by a wedding gift we received from a friend of Stan's. It has pretty curled pieces of their invitation in it (and a little bit of baby's breath from my wedding centerpieces). We just loved having a little of our wedding on our Christmas tree this past year.

We're still working on getting moved into OUR NEW HOUSE. (I still can't believe we're homeowners!) And I'm excited to share some before and after shots as the afters start happening. It sure is a process. But a super awesome one, and it's even more so with a partner along for the ride.

Somebunny to Love

My sweet friends got married earlier this summer. They are not mushy gushy people but they do have a pretty saccharine sweet pet name for each other. "Bunny" And somehow it's not out of character to call a bearded, motorbike enthusiast a bunny. It suits them, and I wanted to pay it homage in their embroidery.

It was such an honor to witness their wedding. A creative joining of two hearts and lives. 

Picture of New Growth (and) Last Union of 2012

My dear cousin married her beau the weekend before Christmas. It was a gorgeous ceremony and a family and friend embraced event. There was a fresh layer of snow on the ground. How perfect for a winter wedding with Christmas tree decorations. 

Kate is several years younger than I, but we've grown to be pretty good friends over the years. Both of us are adventurers at heart. While most of my adventures have been confined to the Midwest, Kate upped the ante. She spent several years in Kenya teaching at a school in Nairobi. A year and a half ago we had a sleepover and watched countless "Friends" episodes cuddled under comforters, hair knotted up in buns. We talked about boys that night, about my adventures and misadventures and her lack thereof. We talked about marriage like it was the distant future. And now- she's a Mrs.

For their gift, I stemmed from the Bible verse engraved inside their wedding rings. A beautiful thought. We love because God first loved us. I sketched for a while and decided to make the script of the verse the foliage of a tree. 

My least favorite part of any embroidery project is transferring a design from paper to fabric. I came up with a pretty good solution to this challenge. A milk crate, an old window pane, and a desk lamp made for a functional light box. Quick work at transferring. I'll have to remember to do this again.

The tree needed some little fascinations so I added in some leaves, a bird, and a flower.  I'd seen the couple's names etched on the trunk before, it's no new idea. But it is sweet and quaint.

I'm too cheap to get a thing framed professionally. I bought a frame with a matte that was cut a little small for the design. I learned that cutting mattes on an angle, as they are supposed to be, is really hard. So this matte doesn't have an angle. But it is watercolor painted a robin's egg blue to help make the picture pop. 

It's a new year tomorrow. Certainly, it's been a big and eventful year. I'd love to take a moment to think over the senses again as I did last year. Maybe I'll celebrate my new year at the end of January when life slows down a bit. 

Until then, have a great one! Every day is a blessing. Truly.

Weddings (Take 2): A Crafter/Gamer Union

Weddings aren't quite as common around these parts as babies, but they aren't exactly infrequent. Facebook has been blowing up with engagement announcements this week. The holidays do this, I suppose. People get all mushy and sentimental during this time of year. 

Welp, another friend bit the bullet, tied a knot, strapped on a ball and chain- whatever. Nah, it's a good combo, there's nothing dire about their combination. I am excited for them, really. And in total agreement with the match. Emmy is an old college friend of mine. She took me out for my first sushi dinner. We sang in a band together. I remember one warm late summer night, when we sat in the grass telling our whole life stories. New friendship, like a new romance blossoms so quickly. The best thing about friendship is that it doesn't as often end in heartbreak. Our friendship struck up in college in 2003. It is long, but woven in and out- spread both near and far. She went away to nursing school and then returned, we lived together for a couple months in Minnesota when I first moved there, but mostly we've lived far apart.

Emmy and Tom met when she moved to Milwaukee in 2006. When I first met him, honestly, I thought them an unlikely pair. He was a beefy, guy's-guy bartender who spent hours a day on his computer playing games, while Emmy was a social butterfly with an infectious giggle and heart for social justice. But, after seeing them interact, I was quick to recognize that their odd match-up was a sure recipe for love. I look at it now as an example for my own relationship (as we're also somewhat of an odd couple). They both coexist and exist separately. Which sounds obvious - since no "two" actually DO become "one"- but it's not really all that spoken of. I've often made the mistake of letting my personal identity get wrapped up in my relationship. It's good to have examples of people who stand out as individuals within their healthy relationship.

So, all that said, Emmy and Tom needed a gift that would show their individual tastes and also, hopefully, tie them together into one cohesive idea. I was attempting to allude to a skull and crossbones. (Do you see it?)

I think it turned out pretty good. Emmy said her family all commented on it on Sunday brunch at their place after the wedding. I'm super excited they liked it and hope they can find a place for it in their home.

 

One more wedding to go in 2012. My dear cousin, Kate and her beau are getting hitched the weekend before Christmas. They're a traditional type couple with a not so traditional trajectory. I'm still unsure of my game plan. Back to the drawing board.

Weddings & Babies (Take 1)

As I might have mentioned earlier, I have a busy fall full of friendly events. I have only three weddings left during 2012, but the babies are arriving in droves. I have 12 local friends with buns in the oven (and several more on the interwebs!). That means I've got a bundle of cutesy baby things in the works. Keep an eye out for some more projects, soon.

For now, a couple sample shots of the sampler I made for my work buddy, Jake. He and his beloved got hitched in Lima a couple weekends ago. It was a lovely celebration and I'm certain a lovely partnership will follow. We're all a little bitter of his honeymoon tan at work. C'est la vie. The verse is their mantra as a couple and also the reading at their wedding.

I also decorated a cheap baby t-shirt (Only $1.50 at the Christmas Tree Shop!) for a baby-soon-to-be-born. The baby's daddy is the worship leader at my church. He goes by "JK", so that's the joke I make there in the parenthesis. He kinda really is a rockstar.

It's exciting to watch all these brand new families joining and multiplying around me. What a reason to celebrate! And what a perfect excuse to create crafty gifts to mark the occasions.

For the Baltimore Couple

Now that I've received notice that the package arrived safely, I can share some pictures of a recent wedding gift I made. Katy and Martin met at Beloit College in Wisconsin where I earned my degree. We shared a lot of good times during those years and I was disappointed to miss their wedding last October. They are a lovely couple with a jovial, youthful spirit and a heap whole lot of creativity.

The inspiration for their gift was a picture of their halloween costumes from last year. They sported the personas of two major Baltimore faces: "The Utz Girl" of potato chip fame, and "Mr. Boh"from National Bohemian Beer. Both are particularly quirky representatives of Baltimore consumption. So is the couple.

As you can tell by looking at the date of their wedding (OCT 2011!), it took me a long time to get around to getting this project done. Once I started the process, however, it only took a couple evenings to finish the embroidery.

I stretched it so that it would fit in any 8x10 sized frame (that way they could pick a frame that would go with their chic home decor). That freed me up to send the gift via cheap-o snail mail. It was fun to wrap it up in brown paper and to stick several stamps on it, knowing that it would arrive at some unknown date between 3-5 days later. How I love the postal service!

I feel good about the way it turned out and am pleased to hear that Katy and Martin like it too. I think I will file this design for when I get my Etsy store finally up and running. There might be a market for it in the Northeast.

I hadn't been in touch with this couple much at all since graduation from college. These life moments punctuate the time between then and now. A wedding a month or so. Recently, the babies have started to appear. I am startled to find that 6 years have passed since I was a college student. I still sometimes think of myself as a high schooler. Perhaps that's the fault/benefit of working with young people all the time.

I'm always making embroideries to mark the big moments in other people's lives. I think the next project I take on should be a sampler for myself. What should I make? Perhaps a map project? (Ala The United States of Sinda & Niko) Maybe a treasure map, or a Family Circus style bouncing dotted line map. What do you think? What are the landmarks I should include in my-awesome-life-so-far-journey embroidery?

Modern Craft - It Ain't No OxyMoron

This last weekend marked an important passage of time. On Friday, I attended my final wedding of the 2011 summer season. (Though there are still a couple on the the horizon for the rest of the year.) The couple in question: Brittany and Jeremiah Lewis. They are a fantastic pair- hilarious, kind, attentive friends- both of whom I met through church. They are part of my small group "family", a rag-tag group of 20/30 somethings with little more than age and Jesus in common. (That's enough. We love each other!)

The Lewis's (I always get a little frazzled when making a name that ends in "S" plural.) are a fairly modern couple as far as style goes. They like clean lines and fresh design. Brittany, of course, was a gorgeous bride. In fact, I have never seen someone look so perfect in person. It was like a wedding gown model had stepped out of a magazine. Jeremiah mostly looked stunned. But he also rocked a white pin stripe suit and looked unbelievably good doing it.

I had intended to do a handmade gift for them for quite some time but kept putting off the designing stage. Mostly, I think I was worried that the final product would be too kitschy for their tastes. But I found the perfect modern frame at Target. It has both black and brown on it so it would go with almost any decor, and there's room for different pictures to cycle in and out of it. 

 

I got the place-holder pictures of the couple off of Facebook. Oddly, they are always standing in the same order. I guess they are creatures of photo-staging habit. The same goes for the picture I got from their wedding so I could show you their duds. (Their monogram, however, needed to be in the reverse order. JB is much nicer than the alternative. Not wedding gift appropriate.)

Start Seeing Sea Glass (or) Camp Sue-Dan

My Aunt Susan began crafting more seriously after retiring (quite luckily very early) with her husband, Dan. Dan began making wooden bowls on a lathe in the basement and Sue started collecting craft abilities. She began in the quilting arena with small throws and samplers and has now made blankets and purses and clutches for all her lucky relatives and friends.

I love to craft with her whenever I have a chance. She's always excited to learn a new method or a new hobby, and she enjoys the challenge of learning to do it well. This trip she brought along a book of embroidery techniques and some felt pieces and we spent several hours trying stitches together. (I found out that the stitch I use most frequently is NOT the chain stitch but the split stitch. Who knew? I just make stuff, I don't think about how I'm making it.) Sue gifted me some pretty variegated flosses and a cute vintage-y flower basket needle envelope. I've also got a new stack of pretty vintage reprint quarters ready to be cut and pieced for a little table runner.

Christmas 2009, our family spent at Sue and Dan's place in Cleveland. They had so many crafts and activities on the docket we dubbed their home "Camp Sue-Dan". (Puzzles, bowls, place mats, movies, games, walks, oh my!) One of our favorite activities was sea glass hunting in Lake Erie and then making pendants and earrings from our findings.

Sue brought her sea glass kits with her this visit as well. I made a couple cousin pendants to my -now worn and coppered- green glass pendant from our last jewelry making session. The toffee-colored one turned out very sweet. I love the way the glass looks with light in it. (The image to the right is a bracelet with a sea glass charm that I made for my mother for her birthday in 2010.)

I love when art reuses the discarded. Before hanging about my neck, this sliver of glass had a life as a bottle or a jar. Who's lips did it pass? How long ago? How many rocks did it rub against to become so smooth?

United States of Matrimony

This weekend was the payoff for a couple months of happy anxiety for the wedding of two of my favorite people in the world: Sinda Nichols and Niko Tonks. I wasn't around for the big reveal of their wedding gift, but I think it's probably safe to post about it now. If they've still not opened it- tough cookies. SPOILER ALERT and all that.

The idea of the design was to take the shapes of the (most important) states that they've lived in - both as a couple and throughout their youth- and fit them together like puzzle pieces to create their own unique country. The United States of Sinda and Niko feature: Michigan, Maine, Texas, Rhode Island & Minnesota. Hopefully they won't also include a state of confusion as to where to hang their new art. I'd be happy even if it hung in the bathroom. As, in fact, that is a place where a person's attention is arrested for a considerable amount of time.

The wedding was beautiful, the couple was wonderful and gracious, as always. At one point in the ceremony the officiant said "The couple recognizes that this does not make them BETTER than anyone else." As a frequent bridesmaid and wedding attender as well as a single lady, I appreciated this sentiment. What a weekend! I spent time with old friends and spurred some new ones as well. I nearly danced all the moisture out of my body and I'm still tired from how little I slept. I also want to relive the whole shebang, right here and now.

Being among people with artistic and loving minds this weekend made me long for the city life I used to lead. Summers in the twin cities were magical: full of concerts and picnics and bike rides to the beach. A few days surrounded by my old city friends (all of whom are now relocated to new cities across the country) has left my own internal compass spinning for a new location. It is inching up on a year that I've been outside Dayton, Ohio. My plan in moving here was to be closer to family. That has been a successful venture. I've seen my sister and the kids so much more, I've gotten to chill with my 5 (I'm so blessed!) grandparents and I've become closer to the cousins on my mother's side. Not to mention I've spent 10 months re-learning my parents and the great people they are.

Still, the places in which I've lived make up a big part of my self: Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota (in various orders and numbers). I miss them all. I wish I could puzzle piece them all together literally, creating a nation in which the people I love can be within at least 6 hours of me. Of course, in order to do that I'd need to add a few more states. And Montana, Texas and Alaska sure add a lot of driving time to my trans-united-states-of-sarah trips. All else aside, I'm just wondering which direction the compass rose will snap to next.

The Beginning of MY "Wedding Season" - 2010

All at once, it seemed, in the summer of 2010, my friends from college and the life beyond began to get hitched. I had experienced a similar rush directly out of college of Kentucky friends from childhood. That, however, I could explain as a regional fluke. But my liberal college friends? I was certain they wouldn't beat me to the "altar". (as if it were a race!)

Both brides of the summer of 2010 were old roommates of mine. For Alison, I made a quilted table runner featuring paper umbrellas like the one that we had hanging in the dining room of our 5th street apartment. We spent many nights having family-style dinners in that room, candles lit, bottle of wine between us. I hope the runner makes appearances during such - and more romantically inclined- dinners throughout her marriage.
Sam and Jon's summer feast wasn't a wedding per se, but I couldn't miss the chance to embroider these dish towels with leaping lambs. I imagine these towels will clean up some of the tastiest messes in the world.

Inspired, in part by my mother's habit of crocheting a blanket as wedding gift, I began my own tradition. I started embroidering and sewing gifts for my friends and family. Call it cost-saving, call it off the registry. I call it personalized. I hope that the things I make end up being around for years, and not in a drawer but covered in stains from overuse.

Wherein Art Fulfills Me

Forget everything else. Forget the time that's lapsed. Forget any promises I made to you or to myself. The only expectation I ever plan to hold myself to is to not give up. Today, that is shown by a half-thought, half-paragraph intro to a post about nothing much at all. Nothing much but something I can be proud of. And that's really something.
I am still a lady mostly unemployed, unfortunately. But my time fills itself well. I am busy with friends, with family, with church, but most intentionally with projects. I do love projects. As someone who has had several short trysts with unemployment before I have learned some decent coping tactics. I haven't found a cure for the restlessness or the frustration. BUT, I have found a way to secure some relief: MAKE THINGS.

After my community college course was over (Oh, by the way, I got an A.) and I had completed my video, I felt great need to have a new assignment to set my sights on finishing. Lucky for me, I've got a new set of deadlines to meet during the spring/summer season of - have you guessed yet?- WEDDINGS!

March belonged to my college pals Liz and Andrew. They are one of the all time greatest couples ever. I couldn't just get them something off of their registry. A soap dish wouldn't cut it as a representation of my love of their union. These complementary, customized aprons and "famous food couples" cotton dish towels did the trick. And dying the fabric, designing the images, researching fonts, and embroidering kept me busy and feeling productive for the better part of a week.

Take that unemployment.
Stay tuned for April's installment- coming soon!