Photo Roundup For The First Week Of June

Busy, busy beginning of summer here getting the yard work done, summer craft shows, artwork, and of course playing with the girls. So here's this weeks photo roundup, all these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

One of our goals for Handmade Family this year was to do a show a month, in May we ended up doing three.  It was a hectic month for Mrs Handmade and me. Memorial day was Gypsy Caravan, an annual craftshow and flea market benefiting the Saint Louis Symphony. We were expecting heat and thunderstorms, but got a pretty mild, windy day. It was really pretty nice. This is our booth neighbor Melissa of Villa Design through the window formed by our displays. 

This book shelf, built inside of a door frame is awesome. One of the really awesome things I saw in the vendors stalls around the show. If only I was a little richer...and earlier. At 7:30 it had already sold.

 

This is my first "successful" attempt to braid Abby's hair. It's not the prettiest braid in the world, but if ponytails are any indication, it'll get better. 

We're always making things around here, and imaginative role-playing is a pretty big game with the kids. Really, we do a lot of back to basics stuff around here. Which isn't to say that we never watch TV or play computer games, there's plenty of that too, but we like to shoot for a balance.  Abby found this box the other day and wanted me to cut a robot face out of it. She was walking around saying "I am a robot...I talk like a robot..." for quite awhile. The other side has just one big square cut out of it, so she can be a talking TV head.  Ha-ha-ha!

So I'm sitting on the couch reading, and Abby decides to climb up on my shoulders and start wrigling around and dancing. The more I think about it, the more it seems like a good metaphor for our lives with children. I know I'll miss these days when they're gone.

 

The leeks I planted in our garden last summer bloomed this week.  They are huge and beautiful, Amy smelled them and was surprised to find that they smell like onions.  Ha-ha-ha! I said it made sense to me. This is one of the really cool things about having a garden. Even if (for what ever reason) not everything you plant gets eaten, there's nothing like seeing where things come from and where they go. Nature's pretty darn amazing.

 

The beginning stages of a Cthulhu peg-person. I've been having a lot of fun working on these guys a little bit at a time, lately.

 

A sketch I did for my friend Rob over at SpaceMonkeyX. He's a freelance writer, and all around pretty awesome guy.  You should go check him out!

Well, that's it for this week! Until next time then, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Happy Handmade Holidays!

The thing about being a family that believes strongly in handmade gifts and that also is a handmade business, is that we suffer a little bit from what we call the "cobblers children syndrome". What we mean by that is that the things we make for ourselves and our kids are always the last things we make. This year, it meant a very hectic week before Christmas finishing up projects and late, late nights those last two days.

On the plus side, we were able to watch The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers, as well as the first three Harry Potter movies that week too. Ha-ha-ha!

Maybe some of you remember the little house that Mr Handmade made for Abby last year. Well, He's been planning on adding little wooden houses to his product line for about a year now, and has spent his time planning on how best to do that. There were a lot of kinks to work out before it was a feasible idea. Finally, he made a new prototype for Abby's gift this year, and it came out GREAT! We're so excited about them, and have several in the works. They'll be ready for the beginning of show season in March! YAY!
Here's some progress pictures from beginning to end.
And the front of the final house. Mrs. Handmade requested a couple of hero's too, that we could give as gifts to the girl's cousin, so Captain America and the Hulk are visiting here.

At the beginning of December, Mrs Handmade had asked Abby what she was going to ask Santa for, for Christmas. After looking around the room for a moment, accompanied by the "ummmm"s of a three-year-old, her eyes settled on the picture on her pajamas...a monkey with a banana. A monkey with a Banana is what she decided she was going to tell Santa she wanted for Christmas. She remembered to tell him, and told everyone else the same thing all through the month. Somehow, in spite of that, we both forgot all about it. Fortunately, Abby said something about it as we were buckling her in the car at Nana's house... on the 23rd. We were leaving for Grammies in the morning, so Mrs Handmade had one night to make a miracle monkey munching a banana.

Luckily, she's Just. That. Fierce. Mr Handmade remembered the felt banana that she'd made a few months ago, and found it, Mrs Handmade did an awesome job stitching the monkey together, and Mr Handmade added the peeled banana button to his lapel. Finished.

Abby was very excited.

We hope the holidays were fantastic for you and your families too! Until next time, take care and be good!