Indie Love Sneak Peek

I wanted to share with you a quick peek at a few of the other talented artists that I am honored to be listed with this month.



Now this is just a teaser.  You need to jump over to Poppytalk Handmade to see more goodies!

Poppytalk Handmade and Little Ol' Me

I am really excited to share my news with you today.  I just found out myself last week and almost freaked the freak out like Victoria Justice!
So, hold on to your seats...

By Becca G is now included in the awesome art market of

Boom! Pow! Pow! (fireworks.)

Now, maybe you aren't familiar with Poppytalk (the blog), let me just tell you...
I've been following it now for a couple years.  They are always finding interesting new artists and cool home-style ideas.  The Sunday reading list is ever inspiring.  Each month they bring together a collection of new, emerging artists in the world of handmade and vintage in their shop called Poppytalk Handmade.  And this month I'm IN THERE!!!

A couple of my new headband designs were finished just in time to get them into the market! 
Please go check out my gallery HERE. 
And find some other cool artists while you're at it! 

It would be great if you could help me get the word out.  Email, facebook, tweet, message, IM,  or chat it to all your friends and acquaintances, strangers even.  We emerging artists really appreciate it! 
Show some Indie Love!

Quote of the Day by Trek

Note before the quote:
We do not have cable, or dish, or whatever at our house.  We do have a TV and a DVD player.



Trek said,
"Frankie's TV changes and you don't even have to put a movie in the thing, just push the buttons on the remote! (he's totally incredulous at this point)  We should get one of those."

Of course, Abs and Joe totally agreed.  It might be the thing they are most looking forward to about Alabama--staying at a place that has a TV that changes when you push the buttons on the remote.

Zip Tie Spiders for the Kiddos

Here are the materials I started with..

old rusty bolt (don't worry my kids are up to date on their tetanus shots)

+

zip ties

+

googley eyes

You could use any small ring.  We were just using what we found around.

Put 8 zip ties onto the ring/bolt.

 It should look like this...

Scooch 4 over to one side and 4 on the other.

Bend in a couple places for legs and feet.

Add googley eyes and there you go--

spiders!

Who knew spiders loved to slide?

They do.

They really do.

I'm not sure at what age you grow out of zip tie spiders, but my 7 year old was not the least bit interested.

Instead, he made a "war tool".

Rusty metal and zip ties.

Yep--the enemy better watch out!

Halloween Wreath Tutorial

Here is what I started with:

plastic lids

+

zip ties

The zip ties I found at a Big Lots that was relocating--got them for half price which means the grand total for this project was a little over $1!!!  Oh yeah!

I cut the middle out of the plastic lids.



Start putting zip ties on the ring.  Pull them tight and slide them close together.

Cover the entire ring.

And, well, that's pretty much it.  Easy peasy.

This is my finished product...

I snagged a spider from the boys room and added a bit of orange berries left over from last year's wreath.

Boo-tiful, don't ya think? (ha. ha. ha.)

Parting Thoughts:

I had 200 ties to start with. 

It made 2 spiders (show you those tomorrow), covered the ring of 1 gallon ice cream container and about 3/4 of the smaller plastic ring.

My 3 year old was totally into putting the zip ties on.  I need to remember this for the dark days of winter.

one bag of zip ties = at least 30 minutes of preschooler entertainment



Canoe Garden

Usually you use water craft like this:

But what do you do when they get old and leaky and unpatchable?

You stick them in the barn and leave them for 10 years or so.

This summer we repurposed a few of those old canoes in our garden. 

This one grew lettuce and peas.

This one grew squash and pumpkin.

It grew.

And grew. 

And grew.

All the pumpkins that showed up in our garden were renegades.  I suppose from the seeds of pumpkins that we composted last year.  So, I have no idea what varieties we have.  But they look really cool.

Anybody know what they are?

I can't wait to decorate with these little guys!

Happy October!

By the way, look for a Halloween craft DIY later this week.

And as usual, there is a kids version and a me version!

We have tickets!

 We had some really sweet visits with our family this summer.

Here is just a real quick peek...

We love California, but, we sure do miss Alabama.  And that is the #1 reason. 

While our parents were out here,

they played ball with the kids and watched them perform all their talents. 

We had cooked and ate meals together. 

And laughed.  

Nothing too spectacular, just sharing life together.

It was wonderful.

So, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when after the last visit Trek starts talking non-stop about going on an airplane to Alabama.  I told him we have to have plane tickets to go.  The first thing he did when he got home from school that day was to make us all tickets. 

Completely by himself, he cut and colored each one of us a ticket.

"Now, can we go to Alabama?" he asked me.

What do you say to that?!

You say "yes" and get some real tickets to go back (thanks moms and dads for helping out :)

But now the problem is explaining to a 2 and 3 year old the concept of time.

Trek told his teacher that he wouldn't be at school next week because he was going to Alabama.

And Dylan is fussing because he can't go on the airplane right NOW.

We had to tell Dylan that the plane just isn't ready yet and Trek has to wait until after Halloween.

And we have this conversation daily.

Suffice it to say, we are all looking forward to our trip back to the heart of Dixie!