Smile And Wave

Pretty Woven Things

Two weeks ago was spent working on new weavings and experimenting with new patterns. I was so thrilled when Alison of The Alison Show invited me to co-host a Bing sponsored party with Melanie of You Are My Fave in Denver. It was part of her six party tour across the US to invite people to 'Search For Your Awesome' with each party being an opportunity to collaborate with other creative influencers while learning a new skill.

IT. WAS. SO. FUN.

More on that later because the lovely Heather Gray shot the event and will be providing us with some lovely photos from the night. 

Have I mentioned how fun it was?

I've been asked a few times if I'll be sharing a tutorial on weaving or teaching any future classes and my answeres are yes and sort of. I'm working on a short weaving series that I'll feature over on A Beautiful Mess in the near future and I'm hoping to get to teach a local class at our favorite coffee shop, Fifty Fifty, sometime in July. Other than that I've got plans to do another collection that will be available for purchase in a few weeks and to pass along a few to some dear friends. 

Weaving has been such a refreshing hobby and I'm so thankful for the fun it's already allowed me to have with some darling ladies up in Denver and through Instagram. If you haven't already tried it add it to your summer to-do list. 

-Rachel

P.S. Life has been full this summer and I've enjoyed taking a little less time to sit down as often to blog it all. I'm still oversharing on Instagram under @smileandwave if you want to follow along in 'real time'. Ha!

Hammock Chair DIY for ABM

Get the full tutorial here. Need a cloth baby/toddler swing to go with your adult-sized hammock chair? Check out my tutorial here.

-Rachel

Toddler Swing DIY for ABM

There aren't enough cute baby/toddler swings in the world so I made one and shared how you can make one, too. I can't wait for Smith to be big enough to swing in this!

Get the full tutorial over at A Beautiful Mess and enjoy! Dreaming of an adult-sized version? Check out my Hammock Chair tutorial over there, too!

-Rachel

Playing Catch Up: Father's Day Weekend

It's been quiet over here, hasn't it! So, I meant to blog to let everyone know I wasn't going to be blogging for a few days but things really just got that busy and my sweet Smith started deciding not to go to sleep at night when I usually sit down to work and a girl shouldn't stay up too late or she'll lose her mind over a broken glass or library books (yay, reading!) ALL OVER ALL THE FLOORS. Here's what has happened since we last spoke. 

We had a full Father's Day Weekend that started out with me waking up with the early risers in the family and letting Brett catch up on some much needed rest. We were out of coffee so I packed up the younger two and walked to Fifty Fifty Coffee House to take care of that. Ruby always finds her seat at the bar and chats with the gals making coffee and we always leave thankful for the caffeine and the feeling of community that they've built over there. We got home, picked up Sebastian, and trekked back out in search of the fabulous Airstream that houses The Long I Pie.

I'd heard about Shauna from both Tara, who sold her the Airstream, and our friends up at Fifty Fifty and we are always, always down for some pie. It was so fun getting to meet her and make some new friends while we were there! Ruby and Sebastian both enjoyed their pie on the blankets provided by the shop and we all kind of wished Shauna lived in Colorado Springs so we could do this more often! She's moving to Denver this month so follow her under @thelongipie on Instagram to find out where to get yourself some delicious pie!

We brought this guy some pie and made him coffee and even let him read while he enjoyed his treats while we occupied ourselves around the house. Then we went to make some LED light up cards at a local shop so he could have some more down time. Working 60 + hours a week and getting up at 4:30 every morning sometimes means the best gift is the gift of rest! Well, that and an iTunes gift card to download a few albums being released this summer.

You know what this guy did while we were out giving him some down time? Dishes and laundry. Talk about a keeper! This family doesn't work as well when we don't have him around and I'm so thankful for all he does for us both at his job and at home. We've got a good one.

-Rachel

Smith Francis: Thirteen Weeks Old

Smith, I'm starting to see what a happy baby you really are. We're figuring out how to communicate together and even though my attention is now split between three children, I've never felt so in tune with reading your needs and knowing the subtle nuances in your cries that tell me whether you're hungry, tired, or scared. 

You're the best at falling asleep on your own as long as you're in a soft spot and have your pacifier but you can't resist the sheepskin in your Moses basket. It's your cue to let those heavy lids fall. You laughed for me for the first time today and I didn't even do anything funny. I love that you just laughed because you were happy.

Your sister adores you and your brother stops to kiss you every time he passes by and your daddy loves when you tell him all about your day when he gets home. You're such a cooer! It's enough to forgive the river of gold that flowed out of your pants this morning and onto my lap just as I was finishing breakfast. I've never seen such a mess. You win. I used a half a package of wipes (I kid but almost) to clean us both up before handing you over to your daddy in the shower and you went ahead and emptied your bladder all over my shirt. And I wonder why our laundry mountain is always with us.

My favorite thing is your bashful smile and the way you clasp your hands under your chin when I talk to you in my sing song voice. There's nothing like it in this world, Smith. 

-Mama

p.s. Quilt tutorial here. Onesie c/o Hello, Apparel.

Art Journaling: How to Get Unstuck

There's nothing more frustrating that having the urge to make something and then sitting down to work and drawing a blank. These days my creative time is precious and I never know if I'll get a solid hour in while the baby naps and my older kids occupy themselves or if it's just five minutes in between nursing and changing out the next load of laundry. It's important for me to make it count and I usually do. I sat down to think about how I've learned to make the most of my time and realized I usually revert back to a few specific habits. Here are a few ways I get myself unstuck when it comes to art journaling:

1. I Simplify My Supplies

When I'm trying to incorporate too many ideas or too many specific products in a page I end up feeling overwhelmed and my pages feel forced. I like to get back to paper, photos, and a pen and then see where it leads. Sometimes restricting your boundaries requires new things of your creativity and suddenly you're headed in a new direction.

2. I Work When I'm Feeling Things

I tend to save art journaling for times in my life when I need it most. In my twenties it was pretty often because there were so many big things happening and I had a lot of figuring out to do on paper. These days I am mostly trying to keep our household running and my only alone time is when it's dark and everyone else is in bed. It's an ideal time in my day to process feelings or work through an idea because I'm sitting down with a day's worth of thoughts to work with. Maybe your best time for feeling all the things is as soon as you wake up? Maybe it's only on rainy days? Go with it.

3. I Flip Through My Inspiration Rolodex

If you don't know what a Rolodex is, google it. When I'm fresh out of ideas or can't focus I like to scroll through my Art Journal Inspiration board on Pinterest. It's helpful because I'm always paying attention to things that I might be able to use later and pinning them so my page is full of great color stories, fonts, design elements, illustrations, hand cut shapes, etc. While I never want to copy anyone's work, I find that saturating my mind with other people's work usually helps me piece together something I want to try out and make my own.

4. I Start Putting Things on My Page

Take the pressure off yourself and just get to work. Pretend like no one will ever see it. Use supplies you have plenty of to get that first page out of the way without using up something really good. Once you're working those ideas will come and you'll build on what you started with and get to a place you're excited about. 

What techniques do you use to get yourself creatively unstuck?

-Rachel

Need a little more direction or want to try out art journaling for the first time? Check out my e-course, 52 Weeks of Art Journaling.

* Make Something Today print c/o Life.Love.Paper

Let's Sew Together!

I'm incredibly proud to share with you the beautiful and inspiring work of my lovely friend, Rubyellen Bratcher. She's recently published Let's Sew Together: Simple Projects the Whole Family Can Make and it's perfect for any moms looking for a few projects to make their child's life more fun this summer!

There are wearables, home decor items, play things, games, recipes, and a few non-sewing gems tucked in between the rest. They're all darling but most of all they inspire creative play and a few may even teach some great habits!

My Ruby poured over the pages and pointed out at least six projects she wanted me to make for her and a few for her brothers. We decided to start with the Full & Fun Skirt project. I let Ruby choose from a few solids in my stash and got her set up to paint on top of a piece of cardboard using fabric friendly paints. 

I left her to it while I finished a project of my own and twenty minutes later she'd done a little abstract painting that she told me was a picture of our alley.

I was totally going to guess that's what it was. 

This really was an easy project for us to work on together and I hope that it gets her excited to see just how creative and capable she is! 

Actually, she is probably very aware of her capabilities from the looks of her temporary tattoo spree. 

She's not afraid of a little color, that's for certain. 

Rubyellen is an incredibly creative homeschoolin' mama to four sweet little beauties with a background in early childhood education. It's evident in the way so many of these projects are geared towards learning. There are fabric fruits and vegetables to reinforce healthful eating habits through play and plush silverware and plates to teach them how to set the table for family meals. The wearables are easy enough to make for beginning sewists and her instructions and sewing vocabulary section are quite helpful if you're just starting out. 

I think this book would be a great resource for any moms that are interested in sharing the gift of sewing with their kids and the perfect way to fill those long summer afternoons with teaching moments disguised as play.

-Rachel

An Affordable Kids Clothes Rack DIY for ABM

Ruby is forever asking me to get her dresses down from the closet and then they end up on the floor with her next wardrobe change-whether they're dirty or not. I decided it was time to make it a little easier on the both of us and give her a chance to become a little more independent.

If you're handy with sand paper and own an electric drill this project is right up your alley. No major bucks spent here and your little one will love their new freedom to change into their next princess dress or pirate costume without having to ask for help. For the full tutorial head over to my post on A Beautiful Mess.

-Rachel

More Family Photos with Heather Gray

I've got the second installment of our family photos with Heather Gray finally ready. There are literally 20 similar photos of me holding Smith that I love equally for the way each one shows a look he makes or how tiny his features were but I've picked out my favorites from the bunch and shall plaster my desktop wallpaper with the rest. 

You can find the first batch of the bigger kids here and stay tuned for the last installment. Smith is three months old tomorrow and looks like a different baby already! He's filled out and is so expressive and alert. I look back on these and it feels like so long ago already! Needless to say, these photos are so precious to us. 

-Rachel

My Aluminum Chair Makeover on A Beautiful Mess

I've dusted off the contributor cobwebs and am sharing my first of three DIY's for A Beautiful Mess. This one was a labor of love over the Memorial Day weekend but I'm so happy with how it turned out. 

Get the full tutorial over there! Also, I mentioned using a vintage aluminum chair and giving it a makeover because the webbing was falling apart but you could easily use a new chair frame as long as you don't mind cutting it up. Also, give yourself a good six to eight hours to finish one. Find a new Netflix series or get a new audio book started and you'll be done in no time.

-Rachel