Guest Photographer(s)

When I was a kid, I won a camera of my very own for my efforts during "Jump Rope for Heart." Remember JRFH? Do they still do that? It was fun.

Anyhoo, I was super excited about my prize. It was my own personal camera with a flash and film and the whole bit. And it was garbage. I remember being soooooo frustrated but I still wouldn't throw that camera away because I wanted so badly for it to work. I loved the idea of taking my own photos. 

So, even though it's mine, and even though it cost major bucks, recently when my little boy children have shown interest in using my new fancy camera to take their own photos, to tell their own stories, I am eager to allow it. 

I love their stories. 

I love how they tell them. 

Here are some Eli highlights:

And Amos':

 Amos LOVES a self-portrait.

Man I love a good story.

Guest Post!

Hooray! Another guest blog post from the lovely and talented Sarah from Baltimore!

Happy Easter, everyone!
Greetings from Charm City (Baltimore, Maryland) where the flowers are blooming and the trees are leafed-out early this year thanks to our unseasonably warm spring. In our neighborhood of Bolton Hill, neighbors meet up in the early afternoon on Easter in Rutter Mill Park for an egg hunt for the children, followed by a festive potluck lunch. Neighbors are asked to bring a dozen plastic eggs filled with candy or gifts and a dish to share. This year, I will be taking my husband's favorite deviled eggs, sliced ham, and these cupcakes (pictured). When shopping to fill our 10 year old's Easter basket at Target, I spotted this store-brand edible Easter grass and imagined it formed into a nest atop cupcakes. The mental image was easier to create than the actual nest was to make. I realized there's probably a world of edible products with which to create a nest (so, consult Google).  You could even use store-bought cotton candy as long as you prepare the nest cupcakes close to the hour they will be served. For the eggs, anything from jelly beans to candy-coated chocolate mini eggs, looks color/size appropriate.  

In the background of this photo you will see my attempt at a home-made egg tree. If you have a playful cat (as we do) this idea might not work for your household. Future large-scale egg trees at my home will be best suited for display out-of-doors. My naked-tree-branch stuck into a pretty vase and hung with hollow decorated eggs proved too great a temptation to Boo the cat, and what you see in this photo are the eggs that remain.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday celebrated with family and friends wherever this Easter finds you-
Sarah Ramirez Cross  

Thanks Sarah for the fun idea! I'm gonna put a pin in it for next year!

There's Still Time...

Tomorrow's Fat Tuesday.

Just in time we have another installment from guest blogger and resident wreath expert, Sarah - my college friend and super crafter!

Mardi Gras is this Tuesday, Feb. 21st. 

This wreath was created on a wood wreath form using cut-up beaded necklaces and favors gathered at parades, and plastic babies (which are hidden within one of the traditional foods of the season, the King Cake). You should probably do a better job than I did cleaning off the loose strands of hot glue after your project is finished.  

I no longer live where school is closed for Fat Tuesday and local krewes throw bashes and parades in the weeks leading up to the biggest day and last hurrah before the start of Lent, as signaled by Ash Wednesday.    

So, if you are like me, and not one of those Divinely Blessed individuals who actually resides within the Mardi Gras region, you can still send up a virtual toast to the holiday, have a fun reason to throw a themed party, and try to create for yourself a little pitiful (I-wish-I-was-at) Mardi Gras. You can festoon your residence with beads, mix up some Hurricanes and Sazeracs or any of the many other cocktails of Big Easy origins, and order a king cake from, say: www.randazzokingcake.com  or  http://paulspastry.com. 

Also, for festive attire and gifts go here: http://www.fleurtygirl.net/ 

And here: www.mardisgraspot.com

Laissez les bon temps rouler, y'all

Thank you so much Sarah! Let those good times roll!

Guest Photographer

This is turning into Lazy Blogger week. First there was Monday's post from Guest Blogger, Sarah - thanks so much! 

And today we have a guest photographer who goes by the singular moniker, Dizzy.

Eli has taken up the camera. I haven't re-touched these photos at all and I think they have a lot to say. 

 

He's off to a great start. He has a keen eye and a curiosity about how things will photograph from different perspectives. He likes to play with scale and composition and I can't wait to see where this might take him. 

Compliments of...the Even Lazier Blogger. And Dizzy.

Guest What? It's Something New!

Without even noticing, I became a stalker. I have begun to stalk my friends as potential guest bloggers. Anyone who posts something cool on facebook is immediately inundated with comments from me about guest blogging on Happily Home Sewn. 

Here is an example of such an exchange that JUST happened...helping me realize that I might have crossed over into annoying:

Friend X (soon to be HHS guest blogger hopefully) mentions that she's trying to start a blog to share recipes and health stuff.


Jessa (that's me) pipes in: sweet! Happily Home Sewn needs a guest blogger for such a topic. Wanna guest blog sometime???

Jessa (instantly realizing her annoying-ness) comments: See how I just made that all about me? Sorry about that. That is going to be an awesome blog and I can't wait to read it and get inspired.

Friend X graciously courtesy LOLs. 

That was the actual exchange.  Sad. 

BUT!

A similar exchange occurred a few days ago and happily resulted in our first Guest Blog by one of my crafty or otherwise fabulous friends! 

So, without further ado...check out these Post-Christmas-Dead-of-Baltimore-Winter crafty musings (and a warning about goats) from my friend Sarah:  

Since Christmas is over and Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras are more than a month away, and I needed to find something artistically inspiring about the start of real WINTER in Baltimore to inform my aesthetic.  Even more, with the big Christmas wreath gone, some very ugly cracks in the wall paint of our vestibule were once again exposed (this is honestly what inspired one of my first wreath-making endeavors about a year ago--laziness--I'd painted the vestibule no more than 5 (Okay, maybe it was more) years ago and I didn't want to do it again anytime soon.

While walking the dogs last week in our city neighborhood, I came across a tree whose trunk was surrounded by perfectly-formed acorns. Most had lost their caps, although the caps were also scattered on the ground (and you can make stuff with those as well). I picked up as many of the acorns as I could find, some I had to sort of dig out of the ground.  Surprisingly (or maybe not for Baltimore) nobody asked me what in the world I was doing as I sat there on the sidewalk with my Tupperware container full of acorns. I took them home and washed them well with soap and water and let them dry for a few days on paper towels in a bowl. I didn't have enough acorns to make a whole wreath (I cased the sidewalk trees of the neighborhood to no avail) so I decided to go with a "shades of brown/squirrel-food" themed wreath and bought a big bag of mixed in-shell nuts at the grocery store. I used a flat light wood-colored wreath form from Michael's craft store and hot-glued my nuts and acorns to the form.

When Googling "acorns" and " acorn crafts" I came across the factoid that only types of Oak trees produce acorns. Oak leaves and acorns are poisonous to horses, goats, sheep, and some other animals, so leave your goat behind when you go gathering acorns. I was reminded by the photos on Google of how pretty the shapes of oak leaves are, so instead of a bow to accent the wreath, I decided to draw some oak leaf shapes on cream and brown felt and cut those out and hot-glue them to the wreath. I bought adhesive-back felt for the interior leaf of the design. That is just about the greatest thing; sticky-backed-felt.

A nut/acorn wreath could be a crafty way to memorialize a favorite tree.  Gathering pecans is a memorable activity in the American South and a wreath made with the pecans from a special tree or location seems like a swell idea. My next Dead of Winter craft projects include: a Mardi Gras wreath made from hot-glued Mardi Gras beads and plastic King Cake babies, and 3 small bare winter tree black ink/brown watercolor drawings framed in three differently-shaped small white frames (say, an oval and a rectangle and a circle or square). The latter will cover those wall cracks nicely and match the colors in the nearby Acorn/Nut Wreath.

Sarah Ramirez Cross
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaryBellesBirthday

Thanks so much Sarah! I'm heading out now to get me some sticky-backed-felt (never heard of it before! Thanks for tip!) and to gather some acorns. I'll leave our goat at home. 

Make sure to visit Sarah's etsy shop. I've known her since college where she was my R.A. freshman year. She's crafty and clever and was willing to turn a blind eye to the harmless silliness 18 year old girls. Best R.A. ever (except for perhaps, my husband, who bent more than a few rules sophomore year when I became his girlfriend. no comment).