happy summer

just a little bit of what i've been up to since i last checked in :)

it's strawberry season here! the daffodils have passed, we're spending time under the pergola in the moonlight and little twinkly lights, working, ripping up rugs and uncovering beautiful wood floors in our living room, more work and then there's ginger the wonder dog always making us smile.

oh, and now you can find me over on instagram @ messybedstudio if you want to follow along. and i've got some more art prints and photographs over at society6

tomorrow is the first day of summer. i hope you have a wonderful, sunshine filled one.

xo

hello 2015!

we've had a busy start to the new year as always - a birthday, a kid going back to school, another birthday, the other kid taking a little trip then going back to school and some etsy orders in between.

finally got a new planner. you can see how much i've been using it.

you know when you get that craving for cheesecake, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and stuffed portobello mushrooms? this is what your kitchen looks like when you try to make them all at once. can you find ginger, the wonder dog, waiting patiently for something, anything to fall to the floor?

and no my counter does not always look this good. or bad depending on your point of view.

and here is our new light that my oldest son made, yes made! following this diy at the gathered home. i freakin' love it! now i just hate the room it's in. time for a trip to the paint store.


hope your'e having a lovely start to your new year.

i have a feeling this is going to be a good one.

getting our christmas on

or at least, starting to...

made a banner from old scraps of painted papers to get us in the christmas spirit.

happy merry everything!

my pinterest fail

so i wanted to make this beautiful hanging chandelier that i saw on pinterest. it calls for a hula hoop and icicle lights as the 2 main ingredients.

i had an 8" embroidery hoop and a brand new regular strand of christmas lights.

this is what happens when you use what i had.

i also used the same strings that i tied to the dining room light, to hang the fortune cookie wisdom calendar from for fun, below.
the calendar pages are light and float in the breeze.
the christmas lights are heavy and sink to the table when you don't make the knots tight enough.

you might ask yourself, why bother to start a project if you don't have the right ingredients. all i can say is i'm an impatient sort of gal.



this is what it looks like if you actually put some effort into it.

dizzy maiden

don't you just love it?

not sure where i'm going to find a hula hoop in december in upstate ny but i'm determined to find one.

thoughts

sometimes our dog ginger, fixes me with a stare and i'm certain she is trying to communicate something to me. something other than - it's time to walk me or feed me i'm starving. if you're a dog person you probably know what i mean.

it looks something like this

photo by andre spieker

the photographer caught this look and the text is what i imagine this dog would say if it could speak human.

do cats have this look?

a plan

browndresswithwhitedots

i like the sound of this. some goals for 2014?

fun with snow

saw this while i was out and about and just had to share it with you.

snow dragons!

xo,
lisa

sun bathed

feels like i haven't seen or felt the sun in too many days.  now it's late at night and the snow is falling quietly, in that way it does, muting all sounds, seeming to stop time.  it is always beautiful as it falls, before real life starts up again and the shovels come out. 

i've been  dreaming of sunshine.  here's some sun bathed spaces and faces to remind me (us?) that spring is coming.

brown dress with white dots

birdcage walk

birdcage walk

flea chic

cute pink stuff

brown dress with white dots

xo,
lisa

a new word

what is the opposite word for procrastination?  that is my word for this year.

i've never been one for resolutions.  i think it has something to do with wanting to be spontaneous but maybe it has more to do with commitment.  

but lately, i see, or can imagine, the benefit of having goals and writing them down.  (check this out for some statistics on goal setting)

i knew that january would be a busy month - finding colleges for both sons and then applications and financial aid forms are the biggies. i just found out that one of the schools has an additional financial aid form - the dreaded css form.  the one where they want to know everything including what kind of toilet paper you use and how many pennies are stuck between the couch cushions. and if you could see the state of my paperwork you'd understand why i'm quaking in my boots.  the result of, you guessed it, procrastination.  

breathe print

some synonyms for procrastination from the thesaurus:

delay

hinder

impede

prolong

stall

dilly-dally

let slide

lazy

i'm not liking the sound of these words.

so, along with remembering to breathe, i am going to banish procrastination from my kingdom.

now i just have to figure out how to do that. :)

anyone have any ideas?  does it start with being organized?  

that might have to be another word for this year.

oh but where to start?

in theory, here's some lovely things that would surely help me get organized. 

                              coat rack

                              vintage locker baskets

                              vintage frame blackboard

                              1950s trash can

                              fridge magnet

                              vintage map clothespins

so this weekend i will finish up those dreaded financial aid forms, get some orders ready for my shop, help my son paint his room, make sure everything is in for college applications and breathe.

what are you doing this weekend?  something fun?

happy new year

just wanted to wish you all a happy new year!  the house is quiet, some of us are still in bed.  we have not recovered from our late night new years eve fun. which included relatively harmless things like making chocolate pancakes with whipped cream at 1:00 in the morning.  or is it still night if you haven't gone to bed yet?

views from my studio

an early morning mixed media still life

and some new cards in the shop from my bad tattoo card line

have you made any new year's resolutions?  oh there's still time, right?  the new year is young!

xo,
lisa

happy halloween

for years we lived in the country and pretty quickly i learned not to buy any candy or at least none to give out.  we had no sidewalks and even though our road was a little over a mile long there were only a handful of houses.  not exactly trick treating territory.  

now we live in town and i picked up a bit over 20 bucks(!) worth of candy - about 250 pieces.  i figured we'd have a little left over to treat ourselves. um... no.  does anyone else get tons of trick or treaters?  is this just the norm?  or am i now in halloween hell having to make up for all those years of not having my door bell ring every 3 minutes? 

i realize i am sounding like a halloween grinch and i don't mean to.  it was actually a lot of fun.  the little ones are just adorable in their princess and pirate costumes.  one mother came to the door with her 7 month old baby in her arms.  the baby's round cheeks had whiskers painted on them - so sweet.  mom took a few milky way bars.  i figured she deserved them. 

source

can you guess what candy bars these are?  i think i have intimate knowledge of a few of them.  just a few mind you.

i hope it was a happy halloween for you all!

gratitude

today we have been waiting for hurricane sandy to flood roads and turn the lights out (i know i'm totally jinxing this) but here they are at 12:25 at night, still on.  we have been very lucky.  so very lucky.

good night kids. stay safe.

embracing gray

it didn't actually rain all weekend but we did have some amazing gray cloudy skies.  i do love the color gray and so i'm choosing to embrace the gray skies as well as the blue.  is there some deeper meaning here?  hmm...

in honor of gray, i offer the following for your viewing pleasure

KoettPhotographs

CLGdesigns

breadandbuttervtg

gypsya

lauraprill

FM908

Clevotine

driftwoodandfossil

EcoShag

our monday morning surprise: looks like we might have a dose of pink eye in our midst.  some chicken soup might be in order and possibly a trip to the doctor. i'll be heading to the drug store for hand sanitizer and keeping my distance. but in a loving way.

any monday morning surprises for you?  aren't they the best?

apple picking

views from the car on the way to pick apples.  amazing clouds.

i'm just a little in love with the washed out blue sky and red apples in this photo.  

here's some new work.  a little collage using a vintage technicolor motel brochure, some painted and colored papers and the text is a tape transfer of a newspaper headline. does anyone do tape transfers?  how do they work for you?   i love them because they are so immediate but they can be a bit temperamental for me.    

we've gone apple picking ever since my kids were young.  it was always great fun.  apple picking now, with a 24, 19 and 17 year old is a completely different kind of fun and i love it.  i'm glad we went last weekend since it's supposed to rain till tuesday here.  (oh i just might have to go find a youtube video of voices carry, now)   youngest son has a road test coming up so there will be much practicing of parallel parks and 3 point turns.  i've got to finish the fortune cookie wisdom calendar and at least attempt to clean my house.  but aren't rainy fall days perfect for getting cozy on the couch wrapped in a blanket and watching a movie?  especially if popcorn and hot chocolate are involved? 

what are your weekend plans?  whatever you do, enjoy!

a night out

if you like weird, quirky, beautiful movies then go see moonrise kingdom.  we are already planning when we can go see it again.

my guys teased me that it was such an etsy movie and they're right.  it is beautiful to look at and i think that the set designers could have shopped on etsy for all the props.  here's my list of things that could have been in the movie, all found on etsy.

theCandyShoppe                                       
reclaimer
bananastrudel
nine20nine
Flair37
goodmerchants
MumMumsCrafts
MouseTrapVintage
moozlehome
newjerkcity
PoetryofObjects
Etsplace
FrancesMarin
YardSaleYuppie
thevagrantduck
Cricketthe1andonly1

have you seen it?  what do you think?

and happy 4th of july!